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The "New Forest" is an English medieval deer hunting area created in 1079 by William the Conqueror - his "Nova Foresta". It is still largely in the possession of the Crown.
It is a nationally important environment of woodland pasture, heaths, bogs and the remains of 17th, 18th & 19th century coppices and timber plantations;
grazed by the ponies, cattle and pigs of the local "Commoners" - one of the "Rights" extracted from the Crown by the locals centuries ago, and guarded vigorously to this day;
the vestiges of the ancient Forest Law courts that controlled the local population and their animals (to ensure they did not interfere with the deer and its food) still administer the Forest.
The New Forest in Hampshire, England was originally commandeered in 1079 as a deer hunting area by the king, William the Conqueror. As Duke William of Normandy (known as "William the Bastard"), he had successfully invaded England in 1066.
The New Forest is a beautiful area, but it is not "natural" in the sense of untouched by man.
The Forest has been moulded by the fads of monarchs since William, and the changing priorities of the Crown over the last 900 years: deer; timber for naval shipbuilding; commercial timber production; recreation.
"Forest" in a medieval sense was a legally defined area - subject to special laws - where the "beasts of the chase" (deer & wild pig) and their food were protected for the pleasure of the monarch. It was not necessarily a wooded area in the modern meaning - nearly half the New Forest is open heath, grassland and bog.
The laws enacted to preserve the deer for the royal pleasure were the Forest Laws. The odious penalties of Forest Law for interference with the king's deer and its food ("browse") became less severe over the centuries, but remnants of the legal structure that policed the area for the Crown are still present in the New Forest as the Verderers' Court.
The dominance of the preservation of the deer over the agricultural and fuel requirements of the sparse local population led to some concessions by the Crown. These concessions - which include the right to turn out stock into the open Forest, the gathering of fuel-wood, the digging of clay - are now enshrined as the "Rights of Common".
These Rights attach to certain plots of domestic and agricultural land both within the boundaries of the Forest, and close by.
The ponies, cattle and pigs turned out into the open forest are owned by the "Commoners", and are there by the Rights whose foundations extend back 900 years to William's time.
The Commoner has also shaped the Forest. The open forest is dominated by the activities of his stock, and by the deer. These herbivores have been called the "architects of the Forest". The flora is defined by what they will, or will not eat.
Above their heads is the hand of man - the Inclosures (fenced woodland) - either still enclosed to keep stock out to prevent damage to timber, or mature plantations "thrown open" for the Commoners' animals to enter.
At its greatest extent in the 12th & 13th centuries, 3% of the acreage of England was used for the keeping of deer in Forests; the legal boundaries of Forest Law extended beyond this physical Forest and up to one third of England was subject to Forest Law.