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A Prosperous Realm: "There Stretch Before You The

The 200 years following the Norman conquest of England in 1066 saw political turmoil but also stability and growth for the kingdom. The Norman aristocracy seized lands and established a feudal system, displacing the existing Anglo-Saxon landowners. Life was organized around manors in the countryside, where the majority of people lived as peasants working the lands of their lords. The ruling class was made up of Normans and French who lived luxuriously off revenues from their large estates.

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101 views1 page

A Prosperous Realm: "There Stretch Before You The

The 200 years following the Norman conquest of England in 1066 saw political turmoil but also stability and growth for the kingdom. The Norman aristocracy seized lands and established a feudal system, displacing the existing Anglo-Saxon landowners. Life was organized around manors in the countryside, where the majority of people lived as peasants working the lands of their lords. The ruling class was made up of Normans and French who lived luxuriously off revenues from their large estates.

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Carloses Vine
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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1066–1485

A Prosperous Realm
Working in the fields
The Luttrell Psalter (c.1320) shows a farmer
broadcasting seed from a basket held on a strap
round his neck, while his dog chases off the birds.
The narrow field strips were sown in the spring.

The 200 years following the Norman conquest were troubled times politically, but a time
of stability for the kingdom. The population grew, new land was taken into cultivation,
B EF O R E
trade increased, and urban life flourished.

T
The old aristocratic Saxon and Anglo- he ruling class, the king, his boar, and birds could be caught in When they were not obeying the
Danish families were swept away after the family, the leaders of the Church, The Forest for sport and to supply king’s summons to attend him, they
Norman invasion, and their lands taken bishops and abbots, and the great aristocratic tables with meat. Indeed, were constantly on the move between
over by William the Conqueror, his family, landowners, were all Norman or hunting and hawking were important their estates.
and his Norman and French followers. French. After the conquest (see features of aristocratic society, teaching
pp.68–69), the largest estates went to skills that would be useful in war. Life in the countryside
FEUDAL LIFE William’s family and to his companions The great families were part of an The majority of people lived in the
The Normans were organized for war. They in battle. William’s half-brother Odo, international society and had as much countryside, which was divided into
introduced a new type of landholding, feudalism, the Bishop of Bayeux, was given the contact with their kin in Normandy, thousands of landholdings called
designed to keep them in a state of battle bishopric of Winchester and lands in France, or Flanders, as with the manors. A manor usually included a
readiness. King William I took all the land into his Kent. Families such as the FitzOsberns tenants to whom they granted land. village and its surroundings, although
own hands and granted large estates to his and the de Warennes were granted
main supporters in return for specified military
service ❮❮ 72–73. These “great men”, the
tenants-in-chief of the King, granted land to their
landholdings across several counties.
French was their language. From their
estates they had access to the best food,
“ There stretch before you the
own supporters who undertook to give military
service as knights, the battle-winning armored
and acquired the best horses, armor,
and the finest clothes and jewelry from most fertile fields, flourishing
cavalry of the 11th and 12th centuries. the revenues they collected.
The men and women who worked the land for
their lords, either as free peasants or as unfree Kings and aristocrats
meadows, broad swathes of
tenants, made up the greater part of the The Norman kings established “The
population. The rhythm of their lives remained
relatively unchanged, subject to the seasons.
Forest”, large areas of land reserved
for royal hunts, and subject to special
arable land…”
laws designed to preserve these DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND BY GOSCELIN OF ST. BERTIN, .1100
habitats. Game such as deer, wild

88

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