\paperw5085 \margr0\margl0\ATXph16380 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs22 One hundred years after the Norman conquest of 1066, the economy of Britain was undergoing rapid expansion. Between
1100 and 1300 the population is believed to have increased from about two million to about five million in England alone. This growth went hand in hand with an enormous increase in farming that involved the destruction of forests, fens and marshlands.
Astounding as it may seem, more land was farmed in England during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries than at any other time of its history, except during the World Wars of the twentieth century.
