Medieval Kent
Following the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta meaning undefeated and claiming that they had frightened the Normans away, as they merely used Kent to reach London. Once London was reached, the Normans ignored most of East Kent, due to the peasants attacking them at every turn. As a result, Kent became a semi-autonomous County Palatine under William's half-brother Odo of Bayeux, with the special powers otherwise reserved for counties bordering Wales and Scotland. A decade after the Norman conquest, Penenden Heath near Maidstone was the scene of a successful trial of Odo of Bayeux. The trial, ordered by William I at the behest of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury challenged the Earl's purported landholdings in the county, an event which represented an important attempt by Saxon landowners to reassert their pre-Norman rights and privileges.
Gavelkind was one of the most interesting examples of customary law in England. After the Norman Conquest, gavelkind was superseded by the feudal law of primogeniture, except in South East England. In essence, the law meant that on death, a man's property was equally divided amongst his surviving sons, which led to land being divided into ever smaller parcels. Therefore, the wasteful strip system of farming in open fields was never established in Kent. Gavelkind was finally abolished by the Law of Property Act in 1925.
During the medieval period, Kent produced several rebellions including the Peasants' Revolt led by Wat Tyler and later, Jack Cade's rebellion of 1450. Thomas Wyatt led an army into London from Kent in 1553, against Mary I. Canterbury became a great pilgrimage site following the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, who was eventually canonised in 1246. Canterbury's religious role also gave rise to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a key development in the rise of the written English language and ostensibly set in the countryside of Kent. Rochester had its own martyr, William of Perth, and in 1256 Lawrence, Bishop of Rochester travelled to Rome to obtain William's canonisation.
As well as numerous fortified manor houses, Kent has a number of traditional militarily significant castles, including those at Allington, Chilham, Dover, Hever, Leeds, Rochester and Walmer, built to protect the coast, the River Medway or routes into London.
Kent also played a significant role in the English Civil War around 1648.
Read more about this topic: History Of Kent
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