User:John O'London/sandbox

In 1998 Paul Harris argued for a "down to earth" explanation of the green children in the context of 12th-century history. He identifies them as the children of Flemish immigrants, who arrived in eastern England during the early 12th century and were later persecuted after Henry II became king in 1154. He considers that the children's homeland of "St Martin's Land" was the village of Fornham St Martin, just north of Bury St Edmunds, and suggests that their parents were Flemish clothworkers settled there. Furthermore, in 1173 Fornham was the site of the Battle of Fornham, during the civil war between King Henry and his son "the Young King Henry". Rebel forces led by Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester and including a large number of Flemish mercenaries had landed in Suffolk, but were defeated by royal forces on the banks of the River Lark. The Flemish mercenaries were slaughtered, and Harris suggests that there might have been violence against peaceful Flemish settlers in the area. The children may have fled and ultimately wandered to Woolpit. Disoriented, bewildered, speaking no English and dressed in unfamiliar Flemish clothes, the children would have presented a very strange spectacle to the Woolpit villagers. Harris believed that the children's colour could be explained by green sickness, the result of a dietary deficiency. In a follow-up article John Clark drew attention to some problems with Harris’s use of the historical evidence, and remained unconvinced by the identification of the children as Flemings or their colour as due to green sickness. However, Brian Haughton considers Harris's explanation to be plausible and the one most widely accepted, although not without its difficulties. For instance, he suggests it is unlikely that an educated local man like Richard de Calne would not have recognised the language spoken by the children as being Flemish.