NORMAN BRITAIN

The Norman conquest brought profound political, social and cultural changes. He first
annihilated the English ruling class, as many Anglo-Saxon nobles had died in battle or had
been exiled, losing their lands. The Anglo-Saxon aristocracy was replaced by William’s
followers who built castles to maintain their power. then the members of the clergy were
replaced by French and Italian clerics and went to build new churches and cathedrals. The
Normans introduced the feudal system which was based on a chain of loyalty agreements in
which all the land belonged to the king who divided the land to the barons, the latter dividing
the land to the knights in exchange for military service. the peasants, bound to the master
and obliged to remain in the land where they were born, did the agricultural work. William
mobilized the greatest force England had ever seen, and in the year one thousand eighty-
five he sent his men all over England to carry out an investigation because he wanted to
know what the land was like and who lived there, the results were recorded in the Domesday
book, So called because the English felt that it was like having their souls weighed on the
day of judgment, where the different types of land in the country were listed, their use the
number of people working there and the animals. Moreover, this document allowed the king
to calculate how much to raise taxes

MEDIEVAL SOCIETY
In the Middle Ages the society was divided into three orders or states: the nobles, the clergy
and the peasants .
The nobles, those who fought, were at the top of the social order, they were aristocratic lords
and ladies who lived in the manors, the upper nobles had vassals ie lower nobles who had
sworn their loyalty. in exchange for protection these vassals promised to fight for against the
lord as knights. Then there was the clergy, those who prayed, who were below the nobles
but in many ways overlapped because the members of the clergy often came from noble
families so we can say that the nobility and the clergy were almost alongside what did not
happen with the peasants, those who worked, who were at the bottom, and were more
numerous, about ninety-five % of the population. The peasants provided a portion of the
harvest to the lord so as to obtain a place to live and the means to cultivate the land, also
they could be subject to a series of taxes and for example they could marry only with the
approval of their lord. In the late Middle Ages the three orders began to disintegrate and later
when the Black Death killed more than a third of the population, there began to be a real
upward mobility towards the third order, in fact the mercantile urban life became vital

HENRY II
On the death of the last Norman king Stephen succeeded the first Plantagenet king Henry II
who reduced the power of the barons with the help of professional soldiers. Henry wanted to
establish a legal system in England, in fact he sent traveling judges to hold courts in the
larger cities of each county in the country, the law they administered became known as
Common Law, as it was used everywhere. But this was in contrast to other parts of Europe
where legal practice was based on the civil law of the Roman Empire and the canon law of
the church, then English lawyers create a completely different legal system, based on
custom, comparisons, cases and decisions. Then Henry II also instituted a system to resolve
disputes on earth using a jury of 12 free men appointed to arbitrate. Furthermore, Henry II
also wanted to reduce the power of the church because he thought that the easiest way to
control the church would be to appoint Thomas Beckett head of the church in England, but
when he was made Archbishop of Canterbury he became an opponent of the king, then a
conflict occurred that lasted a long time and ended with the murder of Beckett by four
horsemen in Canterbury Cathedral. The murder shocked the whole of Europe.

RICHARD I
On the death of Henry II, his son Richard I, known as "Richard the Lion’s Heart", for his
charm and bravery, spent less than a year in England as he departed for the Holy Land to
participate in the Third Crusade, meanwhile his brother John tried to usurp the throne but
when Richard died without heirs the English and Norman barons chose John as king

———————>

JONH LACKLAND
Jonh known as Lackland lost Normandy and almost all of his other possessions in France to
the French king. Due to the ongoing discussion of taxes, the barons lost their income and so
refused to pay for the school and conspired to rebel against the king. Civil war broke out,
where rebels called "God’s army" occupied London, in the meantime John agreed to meet
them and sealed the Magna Carta in 1215, with this document agreed that no tax could be
demanded without the consent of the great council and that no free man could be put in
prison or lose his possessions if he had not been judged by his peers according to the law

———————>

HENRY III
On the death of John the nine-year-old son, Henry III became king, until he came of age
England was ruled by a group of barons. in military and diplomatic affairs proved arrogant
but cowardly, ambitious but impractical. a structure of control over the king’s policies was
established and also accepted a reform plan that was often considered the first constitution
of England, in which the government was placed under the control of the king and a council
of 15 barons, and the parliaments had to take place between the king and the council three
times a year

——————->

EDWARD I
Edward I was Henry’s eldest son, understood the value of parliaments as a way to gain
support and established them as a permanent institution. the first representative parliament
is the model parliament there is a meeting of its council which included representatives of
the barons of the knights but also of the counties, cities and the minor clergy
WARS AND SOCIAL REVOLTS
The Hundread years’ war It broke out because Edward I had conquered Wales and tried to
conquer Scotland but was thwarted by William Wallace. The Plantagenets continued to fight
in France to recover their lands, but Edward III claimed the crown of France because his
mother was the sister of the French king. but there was also a commercial reason for the
war, because the French were threatening Flanders which was the main market for English
wool.
The war was interrupted by the Black Death that spread throughout Europe and killed more
than a third of the British population, some villages were completely depopulated and
abandoned. Because of labor shortages, jobs may require higher wages, which led to a price
increase. This resulted in the end of feudalism and the old relationships and ties of loyalty
were completely transformed in fact the peasants could even bargain with their lords for their
freedom so as to move to the cities.
In the last years of Edward III’s reign there was the rise of a religious reform movement
called Lollardy, which criticized corruption in monastic orders and the policy of feudal
monasteries to lend money at interest. He emphasized the inner aspects of religion and
believed that the church should help people live a life of evangelical poverty and imitate
Jesus Christ.
On The death of Edward III The crown passed At the age of 10 to Richard II, during the
early years of his reign and England was ruled by his uncle John of Gaunt, Richard became
unpopular when he introduced the Poll tax, that is a tax imposed on every adult regardless
of income, this thing leads to riots all over the country leading to the revolt of the peasants ie
the first popular rebellion in English history, Where What Tyler gathered a crowd of people
and marched on London to demand that the duties of the peasants towards their landowners
be abolished, the king agreed to listen to their demands but did nothing and had the leaders
of the revolt killed.
At the end of the Hundred Years' War in 1453 fighting continued between the Lancastrian
and York families, these civil wars later became known as the Rose Wars because of the
symbols of the contending houses, that is a white rose of York and the red rose of
Lancaster. The wars ended when Richard III was defeated.

THE BLACK DEATH

The black death, so called because the body became dark in color after death, originated in
Central Asia and China, and spread rapidly to Europe. was carried by fleas that lived on rats
that infested merchant ships. spread rapidly because of the poor hygienic conditions of the
cities that were often abandoned to go to the countryside. The plague could be bubonic and
pulmonary, and people died within days. For almost everyone the plague was a sign of the
wrath of God, who wanted to punish the population for their sins.
THE MEDIEVAL BALLAD
Medieval ballads represented the collective culture of the people who sang and listened to
them, were transmitted orally and transcribed between the 13th and 14th centuries. They are
arranged in stanzas of four verses usually in rhyme ABCB or ABAB, we find the repetition of
words and the use of refrains, that is, the repetition of one or more verses that help the
singer memorize the text, and are characterized by a mixture of dialogue and narration. The
ballads tell short dramatic stories about ordinary people but also supernatural (fairy witches)
presented through a series of rapid flashes. They have no morals, they use simple language,
and they deal with various themes like ballads of love or tragedy

LORD RANDAL
Lord Randal is a popular Scottish ballad in the form of questions answered between mother
and son. The main theme is his death, caused by his true love. will leave material things to
his family and his true love will leave hell and flames, for he had caused his death. The
language is simple with 40 lines and many alliterations

THE MEDIEVAL NARRATIVE POEM

The medieval narrative poem is a poem that tells a story in verse and contains the narrative
elements that is the setting in time and place, description of the characters, and the use of a
first-person narrator, had the dual purpose of Entertaining and instructing. The poems
provide information about the lifestyles, psychology, and experiences of individual
characters. The narrative expressed the moral views of the time.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER
Geoffrey Chaucer was born around 1343 in London, where his father worked as a wine
merchant. His wealthy family allowed him to receive a good education. He grew up in close
contact with the royal family and was often able to travel to France and Italy, where he
became interested in Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. In 1374 he became Customs
Controller in the Port of London and was also a Member of Parliament in Kent.
In 1386 he was fired from all his offices and began working on "The Canterbury Tales".
In 1389 the king appointed him Clerk of the King’s Works at
Westminster. He died a few years later.
The works of Geoffrey Chaucer can be divided into three periods:
• The French period = style and French romantic subjects;
• The Italian period = greater maturity;
• The English period = more realism.
Chaucer is now known as the father of English literature because he described the English
society of his time using the dialect of his native London; the language he chose to use
became the basis of modern English. Also, Chaucer coined about 2000 words and phrases
that are still used today.
THE CANTERBURY TALES
The story is based on thirty pilgrims, including Chaucer, as a narrator, who want to visit
Tommas Beckett’s shrine in Canterbury Cathedral. The story begins in April when they meet
at the Tabard Inn in Southwaek. Each pilgrim tells two stories on the way to Canterbury and
two on the way back. The best story wins an award that consists of a free meal at the
Tabard Inn. All the pilgrims agree and begin the journey, dies during the journey and the
stories are not complete.
The construction is like a matryoshka because it is a story that contains other stories, each
story is introduced by a short prologue that anticipates the main theme. stories are very
realistic elements and always end with a strong moralistic tone. It is a narrative poem written
in rhyming couplets, the author used the iambic pentameter, that is, that each line is
composed of 5 feet of two syllables that follow the unstressed/accented scheme. Chaucer
wanted to give a portrait of his contemporary English life so he used the pilgrimage as a tool
to bring together people from different walks of life, in fact we note the knights, the clergy,
the middle class but did not describe the high aristocracy since they would not travel with
ordinary people or peasants. The most distinctive feature of the work is realism as the
characters move and react to what happens around them, contrasting with the traditional
portrait of the medieval character that was static. also uses exaggeration, caricature and
satire, when he wants to expose the vices, defects and corruption of certain parts of society.
The main theme is that of the journey because it is set in spring the pilgrimage is linked to
rebirth but it is also a spiritual journey to the saint so the journey of pilgrims becomes an
allegory of the course of human life. The characters are both male and female in fact women
take a new importance within the merchant and merchant class, some were also
independent, as his wife who has always had a job with his salary

THE WHIFE OH BATH

She is a wealthy woman, enterprising and experienced embroiderer, with clothes that touch
on extravagance, including scarlet stockings (which was very expensive, as the dye was
made from a particular red beetle that is found only in some regions of the world) and shoes
in soft, radiant and new leather, all to flaunt how rich it had become. According to the
description, she possessed many of the physical canons of a sensual woman for the time:
she had a space between her front teeth, wide hips, she had an impertinent face, male
beauty given her size, red cheeks

THE TUDORS
The Tudors ruled England for nearly 120 years, during that time England:
1 - began to establish its naval supremacy and acquired the first colonies of a future empire.
2 - Broke away from the Catholic church 3 - Prevented a Spanish invasion
4 - Laid the foundations of a modern society based on a prosperous mercantile middle class.

HENRY VII
Henry VII was the first Tudor monarch.
He earned Spanish support with the marriage of his heir, Arthur and princess Catherine of
Aragon. Under Henry VII, the monarchy became stronger and England progressed
becoming a modern state. Henry VII was like a businessman, encouraging trade and the
emergence of a middle class. He increased and reinforced England’s trading position by
spending more on shipbuilding . This laid the foundations of English naval power.

HENRY VIII
Henry VIII was Henry VII ‘ s second son.
He was called “Golden Prince” thanks to his good looks and education.
He was admired for his intellect and wrote a Latin treatise defending the sacraments, this
earned him the title “Defender of the Faith” from the pope.
He married his older brother’s widow Catherine of Aragon by special dispensation.
Their marriage lasted 24 years but in that time, Catherine had only one surviving child ,
named Mary. Henry believed that a male heir was fundamental to keep the country united
and strong so he asked for an annulment of his marriage so that he could remarry. At the
time, his mistress named Anne Boleyn was pregnant.
The pope refused to declare his first marriage invalid so Henry broke with Rome and
became “Supreme head on Earth of the Church of England” that is the “Act of supremacy”.
He decided to dissolve the monasteries and the services that monasteries had provided like
schools and hospitals for the poor, disappeared. Irealand remained Catholic and led to many
problems between the countries. Henry married Anne Boleyn and she gave birth to a
daughter, Elizabeth. Anne left the king free to remarry. He had four more wives and one of
whom, Jane Seymour, gave him a male heir, Edward.

EDWARD VI
Edward VI was just 9 years old when he became king and he never reigned alone;
Two uncles , the Duke of Somerset and the Duke of Northumberland acted in his place until
his death at 15 years.
During his reign the Protestant faith was reinforced and the book of common prayer was first
printed.

MARY I
Mary I was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon and the cruel
treatment of her mother during the divorce influenced a lot of her life.
She was Catholic and she wanted to restore papal obedience.
She was named “ bloody mary” for the persecutions; more than 300 protestant were burnt.
Her end was tragic, she was deserted by her husband, without an heir.

ELIZABETH I
Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Bolyeyn. She became queen of a
divided nation, the majority of which was anti-Catholic and Anti-Spanish .
She had a strong personality, she had received an excellent education and she spoke Latin,
Italian, French with ease. She possesses extraordinary political skills and unlike Mary she
showed religious tolerance allowing the freedom to worship.
She never married because she said that the queen was married to her people and the
country accepted this idea and began to call her “Virgin Queen”.
To demonstrate her power she wore clothing adorned with jewels. She encouraged the
growth of culture, literature, drama,music and poetry. She encouraged English sea captains,
like Francis Drake in their piracy against Spanish ships carrying precious metal, tobacco and
slaves. The Spanish decided to invade England but their ships were slower and heavier than
english ships that were lower in the water , faster and armed with long-range guns. Bad
storms also helped the English defeat the Spanish Armada. Elizabeth lays the foundations of
England’s overseas colonies.
When Elizabeth I died , the dynasty of Tudor finished.

JAMES I
On the death of Elizabeth I the throne was offered to the son of Mary Queen of Scotland,
James VI who became the first Stuart in England. He ascended the throne at only two years
old and the country was ruled by regents until he came of age. James was a Protestant and
believed that as a monarch he was God’s representative on earth. was determined to rule
and summon parliament only to ask for money but members refused to raise taxes unless
the money was used for war

THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

The Renaissance, literally “Rebirth”, was a cultural and artistic movement that began in Italy
in the late 14th century. Man was regarded as a “microcosm”, and his capacity for self-
improvement and self-analysis became the focus of the study. Humanism was the major
intellectual movement of the Renaissance. Humanists believed that the study and imitation
of the classical cultures of ancient Greece and Rome would bring about a cultural rebirth.
The focus of the study was the study of the Man and his capacity. The English Renaissance
covered the historical period from 1509, the year Henry VIII ascended the throne, to 1660,
the year that marked the beginning of the Restoration. It was a period of great innovation
and accomplishment as well as one of questioning old assumptions in poetry and drama.
Its main feature was its strong protestant basis, influenced by the Reformation during the
reign of Henry VIII.
The English literature of this period lacked the pagan serenity of the Italian Renaissance and
was less linked to visual arts; it investigated human passion.

THE CHAIN OF BEING

The Elizabethan view of the world was based on a conception of order known as the “Great
Chain of Being”;
The Chain stretched from god to inanimate objects, and every part of creation was a link in
the chain.
At the bottom was : Inanimate class like the elements,liquids and metal.
Vegetative class.
Animal class.
Man class and above man there were the angels.
Man had the unique function of linking together all creation.
The universe was governed by divine will. Nature was God’s instrument and social hierarchy
was a product of nature. They believed that a “body politic” should be subject to a single
head. The monarch became the symbol of stability and unity.
The Elizabethans were obsessed with the fear of chaos, meant the cosmic anarchy before
creation. A key development was the new model of the solar system proposed by Nicolaus
Copernicus an astronomer, the copernican system was heliocentric, meaning that the Sun
was at the centre with the planets orbiting around it.

THE SONNET
The Renaissance is considered the golden age of poetry because of the flourishing of love
songs and sonnets.
The sonnet was invented by Jacopo da Lentini in the 13th century and it was later
experimented with and refined by Dante and Petrarch.
It was introduced into England by Sir Thomas Wyatt.
Petrarch’s collection of poems the Canzoniere became the model of all European
Renaissance poets and contains all the features of Elizabethan sonnet sequences : love
sought, love satisfied and, the desire of a lady cannot return poet’s love because she is
married or other obscure reason.
The italian sonnet is composed of 14 lines and is divided into 2 sections : an octave and a
sestet, the octave presents a problem or a situation while the sestet solves the problem /
personal reflections. Themes: love, beauty, faith
The english sonnet it also composed of 14 lines but is divided in 4 sections :
Three quatrains and a final couplet. The poet can use the quatrains to present a theme and
can confirm or deny it in the couplet. A conceit is an elaborate poetic image that generally
surprises the reader. The main themes were : love, beauty, faith and art.
The psychology of love is one of the most important paradoxes : the lady is beautiful but
cruel, desirable but chaste.
In many sonnets love for a woman turns into love for God. Love must remain pure and
idealized.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
William was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23rd April 1564.
His father was a tradesman. William was the eldest son of eight children and attended the
local grammar school where he studied classical authors and rhetoric. He married Anne
Hathaway when he was only eighteen and she was twentysix, they had three children. In
1584 Shakespeare left Stratford and went to London and he was accepted into one of the
acting companies, he soon distinguished himself as an excellent writer. In 1593 London
theaters were closed because of the plague and Shalkespeare needed the support of a
private the Patron.
He found it in a young nobleman,the Earl of Southampton and to whom he dedicated his
poems. When theaters opened,Shakespeare became the shareholder and the main
playwrights of the most successful company of actors in London : “The Lord Chamberlain’s
Men. In 1599 his company built the Globe.
Shakespeare wrote dierent kinds.
The latter part of this life was spent in Stratford where he died when he was fifty-two years
old.

THE FIRST FOLIO

Is an edition of thirty-six of his plays in one volume named First Folio.
The plays were organized into comedies,tragedies and histories.

HIS LANGUAGE
Shakespeare invented over 1700 words changing nouns into verbs or verbs into adjectives
creating original phrases.
A lot of phrases that we still use today like : heart of gold.

BACKGROUND
Shakespeare’s sonnets were written in the 1590s but were published in 1609.
They were dedicated to W.H., whose identity remains a mystery.

ARE THEY AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ?

We don’t know if the poems are expressing Shakespear’s personal feelings.
He seems to play with the reader by frustrating any attempt to map the precise relationship
between the poet and the 2 figures the sonnets are addressed to : The Fair Youth and the
Dark Lady.

REWRITING POETIC HISTORY

The 154 sonnets are both traditional and experimental.
He modified the structure of the sonnet, he created new metaphors that responded to the
changing political and economic climate of his times.
We can find an exploration of gender and sexuality that challenges the conventions.

THE LOVERS
The Fair Youth : Sonnets Devoted to a young man , they explore a variety of themes like
beauty and its decay.
Competition with a rival poet.
The absence of the lover.
The destructive power of the time.
The permanence of poetry.
In some sonnets the poet tries to convince the young man to marry and preserve his virtues
through children.
The Dark Lady : Sonnets that focus on a woman who is irresistibly attractive.

SHAKESPEARE VS PETRARCH
Shakespeare changed :
-The rhyme scheme
-The layout of the sonnet -What his poems said
The love poems are addressed to a young man instead of a woman.
Those devoted to a woman are negative and unconventional.
The sonnets are unique in their analysis of emotions and behavior : Shakespear’s
experience as a dramatist has made him more aware of the complexity and rage of human
emotions.

SHALL I COMPARE THEE

The poet begins by praising his dear young friend , and slowly builds the image of the friend
as a perfect being. The young friend is first compared to the summer , but at the end of the
third quatrain he is summer , then transforms the friend into the ideal of beauty itself , meter
through which true beauty should be measured.

MY MISTRESS’EYES
The poet reverses in fact all the qualities conventionally attributed to the beloved woman (the
pure and angelic beauty, the golden hair like the Sun, the pink complexion, the sweetness of
the voice, the resemblance to a deity) that, completely disconnected from reality, sound like
empty poetic formalisms