[colorado tanker]

Medieval England was prosperous by the standards of the time. After 1066 there was no serious threat of invasion; thus England avoided the wars that devastated other European regions.

More than that, England was an important center of the sheep industry. Wool was the key textile in cool and wet northern Europe. The importance of English wool is symbolized by the Woolsack on which the officer presiding over the House of Lords sits. Eventually this lead to the establishment of a prosperous domestic textile industry rather than exporting most of the wool to the Continent.

[Little Bill]

My Family was in the Staple and lived on Kings Land, Paid A Quit Rent in Money. Some can be verified but they probably treated their underlings badly.

[decimon]

Medieval England was prosperous by the standards of the time.

Standards I doubt any of us would wish to experience. I hear the internet was really slow back then.

[SunkenCiv]

Just quibbling (I think you and I love to do that about Jolly Old'), England was at war continually from 1066 through 1945; it was as you noted mostly over the border or away from its shores (the Norman dynasty established the first hold on Ireland, for example), but internal turmoil was considerable due to the might-makes-right model the "royalty" and "nobility" followed, including both the baronial uprising against King John which led to the Magna Carta, and Wat Tyler's rebellion. The culmination could have been the Wars of the Roses, but that was followed by the uprisings and intrigues against Henry VIII, the back and forth suppression of leaders (and followers) of various religions, the English Civil War, and not ending until the so-called Glorious Revolution when William and Mary chased James II right out of the isles. :')

• Skeletons Of Bloodiest Day (Towton - 1461AD) [2006]
• Towton, the bloodbath that changed the course of English history [2008]
• Battle of Towton, the birth of modern warfare and the killing of 1% of the population [just now]