The Bernwood Forest Story
Part One - The Normans reorganise Royal Hunting Forests into areas under Forest Law
In 1066 Duke William of Normandy sailed to England with
his army to fight the Anglo Saxon King of England, Harold,
at the Battle of Hastings.
William won and became King William of England.
He was later called William the Conqueror.
King William loved hunting, one of the first things that he did was to re-organise the
Anglo-Saxon hunting forests, including Bernwood.
King Williams’s Royal Hunting Forests were not areas covered with trees – they were
areas of land where special laws, known as Forest Law, had to be obeyed by
everyone. The right to hunt venison was restricted to the king.
New Royal Forests were also established – by 1200 there were over 20 Royal
Hunting Forests in England.
A monk writing in a yearbook called the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle said this about the introduction of
Forest Law
He made great protection for the game
And imposed laws for the same
So that who so slew hart or hind
Should be made blind.
He preserved the harts and boars
And loved stags as much
As if he were their father.
Moreover, for the hares he did decree
That they should go free.
Powerful men complained of it
and poor men lamented it,
But so fierce was he that he
cared not for the rancour of them all
Part Two - The King uses Royal Forests for hunting and makes money from them by imposing
Forest Law
The medieval kings of England enjoyed all sorts of
hunting.
It was seen as a good way to learn horse riding skills
and how to lead and organise soldiers in battles.
Hunting was also a popular medieval pastime for rich
and powerful people such as lords and knights (the
nobility), but even they could not hunt in the Royal
Forests without the king’s permission.
The Royal Forests soon became even more than
places to hunt.
Kings were very powerful but they were not always very rich, the
Royal Forests became a very good source of income.
The king could make money by selling the timber from trees,
charging people to graze their animals or travel through the
forest, and fining people who broke Forest Law.
The King could also use the forest as a source of gifts or for
rewards. He could allow his favourite friends to hunt there or
give them special presents of timber or deer from his forests.
Why do you think the king gave presents to his friends?
Forests were used as a source of food for the king and his court
as they travelled around the country. The nobility could only eat venison if they were given it as a gift
or if they had their own deer parks. Peasants weren’t allowed to eat venison at all.
Part 3 - Royal Forests include Villages and Farmland. They are areas where the Venison is
protected.
A Royal Forest could include farmland, buildings, monasteries, fields, and
villages as well as areas of woodland. The King didn’t own all of the land in the
forest but Forest Law applied to it.
Forest law protected the red deer, fallow deer, roe deer and wild boar (the
venison), and the trees and vegetation that the venison lived in or ate (the vert).
In a Royal Forest anyone who killed or even disturbed the
venison was breaking Forest Law, this was called
“trespassing against the venison”.
If you cut down trees or branches, allowed your farm animals
graze in the forest or fenced off your fields to stop the deer
eating your crops without the king’s permission you were
“trespassing against the vert”.
to
This made it very difficult for the people who lived there.
Breaking Forest Law was a serious crime.
Why was life different for people living in the Forest?
What do you think the punishment for killing a deer
would have been?
Why do you think this made life hard for ordinary people
living in the forest?
Part 4 - Offences against Forest Law are tried at Forest Courts. Punishments are harsh.
In the medieval period Forest Law was disliked, especially by those who
lived in Royal Forests.
Forest inhabitants were also angry about the way
Royal Forests were used to raise money for the
king’s own purse.
Forest officials were appointed to look after the Royal Forests and collect
the king’s taxes. These officials were often unfair and would try to take too
much money from the inhabitants of the forest in taxes or arrest people on
false charges.
People caught breaking Forest Law were taken to the forest courts for trial. If
found guilty they could be fined, imprisoned or even worse –
In King William’s time men who hunted or killed the king’s deer without
permission were executed or blinded.
Even the noblemen who owned land in the Royal Forests disliked
Forest Law because they had to obey it too. They couldn’t even cut
down a tree on their own land without the king’s permission. What
would they have needed to cut down trees for?
The King Was Forced To Reduce The Size Of Royal Forests.
The kings regularly increased the amount of Royal Forest land in
England, annoying more and more people. Eventually King Henry
III (1216 - 1272) had to give in to pressure from the nobility and he
began to reduce the size of the Royal Forests by disafforesting
areas.
Part 5 - Bernwood Forest at its largest covered 50 parishes. It was disafforested in 1632.
Bernwood Forest was used for hunting by AngloSaxon kings.
The old name for Bernwood was Barne Woode and
King Edward the Confessor built a royal hunting lodge
at Brill.
Legend says that King Edward gave land in Barne
Woode and the position of Forester in Fee to a man
called Nigel as a reward for killing a wild boar that
was ruining the King's hunt. The land and the house
built there was called 'Boar-stall’ in memory of this. A
hunting horn was used as a symbol of the job.
The FitzNigel family were the Foresters in Fee of
Bernwood for much of the medieval period.
Bernwood Forest was it at its largest during King Henry II’s
reign (1154 – 89 A.D). It stretched from Buckingham to
Thame, covering 50 modern parishes in Buckinghamshire
and Oxfordshire.
Many medieval kings, including William the Conqueror and
King John, stayed at the Royal Hunting Lodge at Brill and
went hunting in Bernwood Forest.
From 1217 Bernwood Forest was slowly reduced in size.
Finally in 1632 Forest Law was ended in Bernwood Forest
and it was disafforested.
Start exploring the medieval Forest, answering the King’s questions and investigating who has been
killing the king’s deer by clicking on the Bernwood Forest Map.
Why don’t you begin by visiting Boarstall and talking to Sir John FitzNigel, the present Forester in
Fee?
www.buckscc.gov.uk/medieval_life/bernwood/word%20docs/The_Bernwood_Forest_Story_text_version.doc