THE NORMAN CONQUEST

It is an important landmark in English history for a number of reasons. It tied England more closely with Continental Europe and away from Scandinavian influence, created one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe, created the most sophisticated governmental system in Europe, changed the English language and culture, and set the stage for a long future of English-French conflict. It remains the last successful contested military invasion of England.

Normandy is a region in northwest France which at the time had experienced extensive Viking settlement. About 150 years before the Norman Conquest, in the year 911, French Carolingian ruler Charles the Simple had allowed a group of Vikings, under their leader Rollo, to settle in northern France with the idea that they would provide protection along the coast against future Viking invaders. This proved successful and the Vikings in the region became known as the Northmen from which Normandy is derived. The Normans quickly adapted to the indigenous culture.

When the Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor died in 1066 with no child, and thus no heir to the throne, it created a power vacuum into which three competing interests laid claim to King of England.The first was Harald III of Norway who had blood ties to the Anglo-Saxon family. The second was William the Bastard, the Duke of Normandy, because of his blood ties to Aethelred.

King Harald of Norway invaded northern England in September 1066 which left Harold of England little time to gather an army. Harold's forces marched north from London and surprised the Vikings at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on September 25th. It was an Anglo-Saxon victory, King Harald was killed and the Norwegians were driven out; it was the last Viking invasion of England. The victory however came at a great cost: the Anglo-Saxon army was left in a battered and weakened state. Meanwhile William had assembled an invasion fleet of around 600 ships and an army of 7000 men. This was far greater than the reserves of men in Normandy alone: William recruited soldiers from all of Northern France, the low countries, and Germany. Many of his army were second- and third-born sons who had little or no inheritance under the laws of primogeniture. William promised that if they brought their own horse, armour, and weapons to join him, they would be rewarded with lands and titles in the new realm.

At this daunting task, William showed his best side: that of a supremely able administrator, a skill which was to help bring England under his heel once he was crowned. The choice of landing was a direct provocation to Harold Godwinson as this area of Sussex was Harold's own personal domain. William began immediately to lay waste to the land. It may have prompted Harold to respond immediately and in haste rather than to pause and await reinforcements in London.

They fought at the Battle of Hastings on October 14. It was a close Norman victory but in the final hours Harold was killed and the Saxon army fled. With no living contender for the throne of England to oppose William, this was the defining moment of what is now known as the Norman Conquest. he was acclaimed King of England around the end of October and crowned on December 25, 1066 in Westminster Abbey.

Although the south of England submitted quickly to Norman rule, resistance continued, especially in the North, for six more years until 1072 when William moved north, subduing rebellions by the Anglo-Saxons and installing Norman lords along the way. However, particularly in Yorkshire, he made agreements with local Saxon Lords to keep control of their land (under Norman-named Lords who would "hold" the lands only from a distance) in exchange for avoidance of battle and loss of any controlling share.

The conquest of Wales took place piecemeal and finished only in 1282, during the reign of King Edward I. Edward also subdued Scotland but did not truly conquer it as it retained a separate monarchy until 1603 and remained an independent kingdom until 1707.

Once England had been conquered the Normans faced a number of challenges in maintaining control. The Anglo-Norman speaking Normans were in very small numbers compared to the native English population. The Anglo-Saxon lords were accustomed to being fully independent from centralised government, contrary to the Normans who had a centralised system, which the Anglo-Saxons resented. Revolts had sprung up almost at once from the time of William's coronation. Any of the remaining Anglo-Saxon lords who refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of William's accession to the throne or who rose in revolt were summarily stripped of titles and lands, which were then re-distributed to Norman favourites of William. If an Anglo-Saxon lord died without issue the Normans would always choose a successor from Normandy. In this way the Normans displaced the native aristocracy and took control of the top ranks of power.

Keeping the Norman lords together and loyal as a group was just as important, as any friction could easily give the English-speaking natives a chance to divide and conquer their minority Anglo-French speaking lords. One way William accomplished this was by giving out land in a piece-meal fashion. A Norman lord typically had property spread out all over England and Normandy, and not in a single geographic block. Thus, if the lord tried to break away from the King, he could only defend a small number of his holdings at any one time. This proved a very effective deterrent from rebellion and kept the Norman nobility loyal to the King.

The changes that took place because of the Norman conquest were significant for both English and European development. One of the most obvious changes was the introduction of the Latin-based Anglo-Norman language as the language of the ruling classes in England, displacing the Germanic-based Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Norman retained the status of a prestige language for nearly 300 years and has had a significant influence on modern English. It is through this, the first of several major influxes of Latin or Romance languages, that the predominant spoken tongue of England began to lose much of its Germanic and Norse vocabulary, although it retained Germanic sentence structure in many cases. French borrowings are superstratum and dominate in all important branches of communal activity, e.g.: justiciary (court, prison, tax, money); titular terms (count, viscount, marquis); coulinary terms (boil, broil, fry, roast); trades (carpenter, draper, mason, painter) etc. Norman conquest gave start to groups of etymological doublets (hearty – cordial; happiness –felicity; depth – profundity; holiness – sanctity).

Another direct consequence of the invasion was the near total loss of Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, and Anglo-Saxon control over the Church in England. As William subdued rebels, he confiscated their lands and gave them to his Norman supporters. By the time of the Domesday book, only two English landowners of any note survived the purges.No other medieval European conquest had such disastrous consequences for the defeated ruling class. Even before the Normans arrived, the Anglo-Saxons had one of the most sophisticated governmental systems in Western Europe for the time. All of England had been divided into administrative units called shires of roughly uniform size and shape and were run by an official known as a "shire reeve" or "sheriff". The shires tended to be somewhat autonomous and lacked co-ordinated control. Anglo-Saxons made heavy use of written documentation which was unusual for kings in Western Europe at the time and made for more efficient governance than word of mouth.

The Anglo-Saxons also established permanent physical locations of government. Most medieval governments were always on the move, holding court wherever the weather and food or other matters were best at the moment. This practice, however, limited the potential size and sophistication of a government body to whatever could be packed on a horse and cart, including the treasury and library. The Anglo-Saxons established a permanent treasury at Winchester, from which a permanent government bureaucracy and document archive had begun to grow.

This sophisticated medieval form of government was handed over to the Normans and grew even stronger. The Normans centralised the autonomous shire system. The Domesday Book exemplifies the practical codification which enabled Norman assimilation of conquered territories through central control of a census. It was the first kingdom-wide census taken in Europe since the time of the Romans, and enabled better taxation of the Norman's new realm.

Systems of accounting grew in sophistication. A government accounting office called the exchequer was established by Henry I; from 1150 onward this was located in Westminster. The Normans introduced into England the system of land tenure, based upon military service. A passionate hunter, William I also introduced severe laws against poaching: a man could be hanged for a rabbit; to quote one of his contemporaries. “he preserved the harts and boars, and loved the stags as much As if he were their father...”

After William’s death, both his elder sons – Duke Robert and William Rufus – were dissatisfied with the division of inheritance; there followed 13 years of fratricidal strife and successive baronial revolts. The feckless Robert eventually departed on the first Crusade, leaving Normandy pawned to Rufus for 10.000 marks. Soon after that William Rufus was shot through the head while hunting in the New Forest – leaving a memory of shameless exactions and infamous morals. Prince Henry – the younger brother – made straight for the royal treasury and gained possession of it. He set the precedent, proclaiming a charter upon his succession. After consolidating his force, he crossed the Channel. In September 1106 the most important battle was fought since Hastings – Tenchebrai – in which Saxons and Normans fought side by side.

King Henry proved to be an able monarch who further centralised governmental system; sheriffs were brought under increasingly strict control – through them he bound together monarchy and the ols system of justice. Unfortunately for England, his son was drowned in a ship wreck, and he was left with Maud (Matilda) as the only heir. Against Maud’s claim for succession stood the claim os Stephen, Henry’s nephew. The danger of disputed succession raised its ugly head. Henry made barons swear to stand by Maud and married her to the Count of Anjou, thus expanding his territories in France to the size of a realm.

In 1135 Henry expired. Stephen claimed the crown, but found a serious adversary in the third possible pretender – Robert of Gloucester, who loyally supported his half-sister Maud. In 1139 Maud returned from France to claim her rights. In 1141 a great rebellion broke against Stephen’s rule; he himself was taken prisoner at the battle of Lincoln. There followed 6 years of civil war, anarchy and a particularly ferocious orgy of destruction.

In 1147 the leadership of Maud’s party devolved to her son Henry, who brought into the country the emblem of Anjou house Planta Genestra (the broom flower), thus starting a name for a new dynasty – Plantagenet. In 1153 a treaty was concluded in Winchester whereby Stephen made Henry his adopted son and appointed heir.

Settling things in England, he strengthened his position on the continent by marrying Eleonor of Aquitaine, former Queen of France, who divorced Louis VII on the pretext that the marriage had never been consummated. Eleonor was one of the biggest landowners on Europe: thus ½ of France passed into Henry II’ hands.

Henry II gave England that effective element of external control which is so important for the growth of national unity. He first brought England, Scotland, and Ireland into a certain common relationship; he developed and made permanent assizes (выездные сессии суда) in the form they survive today. By consolidating royal power he upset the delicate balance of Church and State, which was to topple within Reformation in England. This is clearly traced through the conflict of Henry and his great subject and former friend, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. The bone of contention was that the government of the Church ought to be in the hands of the clergy, under the supervision of Rome. An archbishop was a great landowner: he could put forces on the field, he could excommunicate (отлучить от церкви) his enemies. His leading role in the ceremony of coronation made monarchs still more dependent upon church. Henry resented it and preferred Archbishop of York for the ceremony of crowning his son (to secure peaceful accession). Thomas Becket, resenful of this, excommunicated the clergy that took part in the ceremony. The strife continued for 6 years and ended in tragedy: some knights ‘misinterpreted’ the King’s wish that Becket be silenced and cut him down with swords in the Cathedral; the King subjected himself to public penances but in general got away with it.

The main achievement attributed to Henry II was working out the Common Law. He used the elastic concept of King’s Peace to draw all criminal cases into his court. He introduced a new procedure – trial by jury. Until this time both civil and criminal cases had been decided through an oath, ordeal(божий суд) or duel. Ordeal testing was to carry a red-hhot iron, or be plunged into a pool of water. The essential difference of jury courts from our time was that the jurymen were witnesses as well as judges; in fact they were jury de circumstantibus – jury of bystanders.

The instrument he turned to in building the Common Law was the royal Council (further divided into the King’s Bench and the Common Pleas). The litigant, eager for royal justice could remove his case to King’s court from his lord’s court. Henry II worked out a number of set writs, each fitted to a certain type of case. Methods of determining legal disputes boiled down to the dictum ‘No law, no crime’ – a man can be accused of an evil or criminal offence which is clearly defined or known to the law. Witnesses must testify in public and take an oath. They are examined and cross-examined by litigants themselves or their representatives. This made English laws discinctly different from the continental ones, built upon the foundation of Roman law. Under Roman law a trial was often an inquisition; the suspect could be interrogated in private; he had to answer all questions put to him; the witnesses against him could testify in secret and in his absence. Inns of Law developed during Henry’s reign; they produced annual reports or ‘Year Books’, thus creating a system of precedent (an earlier or similar case).

Henry’s sons, however, lacked his talent and sound judgement; moreover, they rebelled repeatedly against him, instigated by their mother – Eleanor of Aquitaine. Henry’s successor did very little for his country but created a lasting popular legend, engrained into the cultural tapestry of England. His name was Cour de Lion – Richard the Lionheart.

As well as being an educated man, able to compose poetry in French and Provenc`al, he was also very attractive; blond, blue-eyed, his height estimated at six feet four inches (1.93 m) tall. He gloried in military activity. From an early age he appeared to have significant political and military abilities, became noted for his chivalry and courage.

Richard had several major reasons for discontent with his father. First was Henry's refusal to allow Richard any real power or funds despite pleas by Richard for more of both. Though placated by glittering titles such as Count of Poitou, Richard wanted more and Henry seemed unwilling to entrust any of his sons with resources that could be used against him, with very good reason. Second, and more personal, was that Henry had made Princess Alys, the daughter of the French king and Richard's betrothed, his mistress. This made a marriage between Richard and Alys technically impossible at least in the eyes of the church, but Henry, not wishing to cause a diplomatic incident, did not confess to his misdeed. As for Richard, he was discouraged from renouncing Alys because she was the sister of King Philip II of France, a close ally.

Richard has been criticised for doing little for England, wasting the kingdom's resources to support his journeys away on Crusade in the Holy Land. Indeed, he spent only six months of his ten year reign in England, claiming it was "cold and always raining." During the period when he was raising funds for his Crusade, Richard was heard to declare, "If I could have found a buyer I would have sold London itself."

Richard did not concern himself with the future of England. He wanted to engage in an adventure that would cause the troubadours to immortalise his name, as well as guarantee him a place in heaven. He started to raise a new English crusader army, though most of his warriors were Normans, and supplied it with weapons. He spent most of his father's treasury, raised taxes, and even agreed to free King William I of Scotland from his oath of subservience to Richard in exchange for 10,000 marks.For the case of ‘Christ’s Sepulcre’ (гроб Господень) he nearly put his kingdom for sale. To raise even more money he sold official positions, rights, and lands to those interested in them. Even those already appointed were forced to pay exorbitant sums to retain their posts.

In 1190 he started his wars in Palestin and Syria; in 1193 he set out for home, sought to make way through Germany in disguise, but was captured. The Holy Roman Emperor demanded for Richard a ransom of 150.000 marks, twice the annual revenue of England. At the same time, John, Richard's brother, and King Philip offered 80,000 marks for the Emperor to hold Richard prisoner. The emperor turned down the offer. The money to rescue the King was transferred to Germany by the emperor's ambassadors, but "at the king's peril" (had it been lost along the way, Richard would have been held responsible), and finally, on February 4, 1194 Richard was released. King Philip of France sent a message to John: "Look to yourself; the devil is loose." Prince John had indeed every cause for worry: during his brother’s absence he tried to seize the crown; met Richard with open rebellion, was defeated and fled to France.. He was to succeed Richard, however, since the latter left no heir.

In the long run Richard's legacy comprised several parts. First, he captured Cyprus, which proved immensely valuable in keeping the Frankish kingdoms in the Holy Land viable for another century. Secondly, his absence from the English political landscape meant that the highly efficient government created by his father was allowed to entrench itself, though King John would later abuse it to the breaking point. As Sir Winston Churchill pointed out, this was the embryo beginning of the English Civil Service and "proved that the King, to whom all allegiance had been rendered, was no longer the sole guarantee for law and order." The last part of Richard's legacy was romantic and literary. No matter the facts of his reign, he left an strong imprint on the imagination extending to the present, in large part because of his military exploits.

Over the years the figures of Robin Hood and Richard I have become closely linked. The typical usage of the link is that the major political goal of Robin's war is to restore Richard to the throne after Prince John usurped it. Another fictional aspect to Richard's life is the legend of his minstrel, Blondel, who, after Richard's capture, traveled Europe, going from castle to castle and loudly singing a song known only to the two of them. Eventually, the story goes, he came to the place where Richard was being held, and heard the song answered with the appropriate refrain, thus revealing where the king was incarcerated.

Due to his bravery, savagery, and fame in the Arabic world, Richard became a bit of a boogeyman in the Middle East for centuries after his death. Mothers would occasionally threaten unruly children with the admonition "King Richard will get you" well into the late 19th century.

King John started his reign by refusing to do homage (принести вассальную клятву) to the King of France as Duke of Normandy. This gave Philip the legal right to invade and annex Normandy in 1204. This was for the good of England as well as France – it rid the island of a costly distraction and rid the country of the ruling class of foreign origin; this comforting thought didn’t occur to John’s contemporaries and didn’t add to his popularity, however.

The dispute between John and the monastery of Canterbury strained his relations with Church. The king started seizing lands of the Church. The Pope reacted by laying all England under the interdict. For 6 years the bells were silent, the doors of churches closed. There were no weddings, the dead were buried in unconsecrated ground. King John answered by more attacks upon the church property. The Pope excommunicated him in 1209, absolving his subjects from their allegiance. This was serious, because by systematic abuse of the feudal prerogatives John drove the nobility to nearly open resistence.

John gave in and made a show of repentance, doing homage to the Pope as his feudal lord. There was the baronage to appease as well. The war with the French king continued, it was costly and much of a failure. All this led to the ‘Articles of the barons’, on which Magna Carta was based. This crucial for Briish history document (still to be admired in the British Museum) reminds in form a legal contract and contains 61 clauses, all dealing with details of feudal administration. Throughout the document it is implied that there is a law which is above King and which even he must not break.. Magna Carta (Великая хартия) signified the beginning of transition to constitutional monarchy and might be treated as a demarkation line between Ealier and Later Middle Ages in Britain.

Norman Conquest feed-back tasks. Note: the questions are meant to provide kind of a rough plan for your examination answer; you are welcome to rearrange them in a more suitable way.

1. Explain: What is ‘Domesday book’?

What is Normandy?

What is a ‘crusade’?

Why is the dynasty called ‘Plantagenet’?

2. In which way are the names of Edward the Confessor, King Harold of Norway, Henry I, Stephen and Matilda (Maud), Thomas Becket, King John important for the period?

3. Write out 3 dates you consider most important. What happened?

4. Prove by the text that William I was an able administrator and a talented politician.

5. Comment upon Norman influence upon the English language. Name other consequences of the Norman invasion.

6. How do you understand the popular saying ‘No law, no crime’? Comment upon Henry II’ legal reforms.

7. What do you know of Richard the Lionheart? How far is the actual man from popular legend? What surprised you most?

8. Comment upon the circumstances of creating Magna Charta; why is this document crucial for British history?

9. Find English equivalents for: местная культура, доспехи, претендент на престол, покорить страну по частям, сдерживающий фактор, чистка (политическая), сокровищница, казначейство, браконьерство, братоубийственная резня, яблоко раздора, отлучать от церкви, божий суд, сторона (в судебном процессе), союзник, крестоносцы, годовой доход страны, принести вассальную клятву, вассальная зависимость.

Не нашли, что искали? Воспользуйтесь поиском: