The Battle of Hastings
William ruled the dukedom of Normandy. William's army was formed of about 8,000
warriors. He had a cavalry of 3,000 men. Harold's soldiers fought on foot. The two
armies faced each other near Hastings on 14h October 1066. The turning point of
the battle came when Harold was hit in the eye by an arrow and then killed by four
Norman knights. The Anglo-Saxons escaped to the woods and the Normans
declared victory. William was later crowned William I (1066-87) in Westminster
Abbey, in London, on Christmas Day, 1066.
The consequences of the invasion
1066 is perhaps the most famous date in English history because there were
political, social and cultural transformations.
The feudal system was established: the new French barons obtained their land by
becoming the king's tenants. They sublet their lands to lesser tenants in return for
their services.
Noblemen decrease because many Anglo-Saxon noblemen died in battle, were
exiled or dispossessed of their lands. Two groups of Englishmen with power
remained: the townspeople and the churchmen of lower levels.
The Normans replaced English with French: Latin remained the main language in
legal, administrative ecclesiastical and intellectual contexts, while English survived in
everyday speech.
William the Conqueror claimed to be the lord of the land. His power was
demonstrated by the Domesday Book which gave the king detailed information on
the country. The Domesday Book listed the different types of land-and their use, the
number of productive people and their status and animals.
Henry II the Plantagenet
When William I the Conqueror died in 1087 there was a period of civile war, called
the Anarchy. The last Norman king was Henry II Plantagenet. He was the most
powerful monarch in Europe.
Military reform
During Henry Il's reign, the feudal duty of military service was replaced with a tax
known as scutage: In this way knights could choose to remain on their land and the
kinpay professional soldiers.
Legal reforms
In the 1160Henry introduced traveling royal judges. The law they administered
become know as common law because It was use in everywhere. English lawyers
created a different system of law based on custom and comparisons of previous
decisions.
Henry II and the poyer of the Church
In 1162 Henry appointed one of his favorites Thomas Becket (1118-70), to be
Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1164 Henry written the Constitutions of Clarendon to
limita the Power of the Church. Becket refused to accept the Constitutions of
Clarendon. Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral: he became a martyr and
a Saint.
King John and Magna Carta
King John collected higher taxes, The barons, the Church and the general
population were exposed to his violent abuse of power. The barons, knights, clergy
and townspeople organized a rebellion and asked the king to sign Magna Carta, a
charter demanding specific liberties. The king signed it at Runnymede in 1215
Henry III and Simon de Montfort
When John died in 1216, his 9-year-old son was crowned as Henry III. In 1258 the
barons, led by the king's brother-in-law Simon de Montfort, demanded that Henry
summon the Great Council of lords and bishops to help decide all important matters.
In 1261 the king renounced the agreement and civil war broke out. In 1265 Simon
was killed.
Edward I and Model Parliament
Henry III was succeeded by his son Edward I who respected the teams of Magna
Carta and summoned a council made up of barons, clergy, knights and
representatives of the towns, This was known as the Model Parliarment.
Edward III and the Order of the Garter
Edward first was succeeded by his own Edward II hand and by Edward II. Edward III
claimed the crown (reclama la corona) of France because his mother was the
French king's sister. This was the beginning of the Hundred Years' War that was
interrupted in 1348 by a terrible plague.
King Edward III introduced the idea of chivalry,a name given to a set of values
(loyalty, honesty and glory) which the perfect knight had to respect. Edward founded
the Order of the Garter; it was formed of a group of 24 knights, the same number
the legendary Arthur had chosen.
The peasant revolt
The peasant revolt began when John Gaunt in 1381 imposed the poll tax on every
adult. A workman (un artigiano) named Wat Tyler gathered a huge crowd of people
(riuní una grande massa di persone) and marched on London to ask the king to
abolish the duties of peasants to their landlords. The mayor (il sindaco)of London
killed Tyler and the king executed the leaders of the revolt.
John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe was the most important religious reformer before Luther. He was a
supporter of a poor church end of the poorest precepts of the Christian Faith.
His ideas were more radical, including attacks on papal authority. Wycliffe was an
early advocate for translation of the Bible into the common language.Translating
parts of Scripture was not new but the combination of an English Bible and heresy
was explosive.
Wycliffites would encourage ordinary people to lead a more active and autonomous
religious life.
Wycliffe's followers were insultingly nicknamed Lollards; many of them were killed
during the final repression of the peasants' revolt.
Wyclitfe's writings were repeatedly condemned by the pope.
In May 1382 was condemned by the archbishop of Canterbury but he wasn't
imprisoned because he was sufficiently protected by his patrons to be allowed to
retire peacefully and die in his home.
His idea has notable diffusion in central Europe.
