Aida Gardner Fernández

Lengua y Cultura de los países de habla inglesa 1 2023 (Grupo B)

Conquest and feudal rule

The history of the United Kingdom is a very interesting one; it is long and full of
essential events for the human history as we know it. It really is fascinating to see how
England has formed itself through time, being in relation with Scotland, Wales, and
Ireland. When we study the history of England we study invasions, wars, unique
historical figures, conquers, the creation of a great empire and so many other historical
episodes. However, I personally find the early Middle Ages a moment in time that is
very appealing. It is very curious to me to see how people like us used to live, and how,
even though they have lived hundreds of years before us, they are not so different. I
really wonder how we have been able to make it through history and live in the world as
it is today.
The early Middle Ages covers the period from year 1066 to 1215. During this era
essential events in history took place, such as the Norman conquest, the beginning of
parliament, the growth of towns as centres of wealth and so on. Although the whole era
is interesting and essential to understand the present time, I am going to focus on the
Conquest and feudal rule.
This period starts with the Norman Conquest. At this point, England was fighting
against two invasions: the Viking and the Norman. Although England managed to
defeat the Vikings, they were not able to do the same with the Normans. The later
succeeded in the conquer and brought to an end the Anglo-Saxon England. (McDowall,
1989)
The conquest was carried out by William, duke of Normandy, who invaded England
with an army of 5.000 knights and accomplished the final performance of a conflict that
had begun years earlier, during the reign of Edward the Confessor. (Britannica, T., 2021
).
At William’s coronation, which took place at Westminster Abbey on the Christmas day
in 1066, they had to face a setback. During the ceremony, the people who shouted “God
Save the King” confused the Norman guards, making them think there was an attack
going on. Because of this misunderstanding, the guards set fire to the houses that were
nearby, leading to a chaotic situation. (McDowall, 1989)
The conquest kept going for another 5 years, dealing with Anglo-Saxon rebellions every
year until 1070. The Norman army showed no mercy; they burnt and destroyed places
and also built forts to protect themselves. This army lasted for about twenty years. The
north was especially hard to control. (McDowall, 1989)
Only those who accepted William in the first moment, were able to keep their lands.
Everyone else lost everything while Norman nobles were given the Saxon lands. Each
English rebellion left a land to give away, arriving at the result of over 4.000 Saxon
landlords being replaced by 200 Norman ones (McDowall, 1989)
In England each land that was captured was divided so the captains could get some parts
of it as a reward. Due to this reason, captains had small pieces of land all over the
country, making it difficult for the nobles to gather his men to rebel. The distribution in
this feudalist system was as follows: ½ to Norman nobles, ¼ to the Church, 1/5 to
William himself. (McDowall, 1989)
As for the administration of the land, William kept the Saxon system of sheriffs. This
way of administration resulted in the one powerful family that England was, not like the
rest of Europe; divided in many powerful nobles. Also, this gave William and the kings
after him the feeling of England as a personal property. (McDowall, 1989)
As said before, William followed a feudal system, which was present even before his
arrival. This feudal system relied on the “holding of land”, meaning that every land was
property of the king but was held by “vassals”, who were given in return services and
goods. The two basic principles were “every man had a lord, and every lord had a land”.
(McDowall, 1989)
The main nobles had to serve him in war for up to 40 days and give him part of the
land’s production. Those who were of greater nobility gave these parts of the land to
lesser nobles, knights, and other freemen. Freemen could pay by doing military service
or by paying rent. The lands were worked by men called “serfs” who were almost
slaves, not being able to leave the estate. (Feudalism in England under William the
Conqueror, 2019)
This system implied that the king was “in touch” with every man of the country, each of
whom had to promise his lord loyalty and service, through “homage”. In the same way,
lords had to give them land and protection. (McDowall, 1989)
The transfer of the land depended on the age of the son once the noble died; if he was
still a child, the king would take the land until the child grew up. If there were no more
relatives of the noble, the land was taken by the king, making wealth out of it until he
gave it to another noble. However, the nobles did not fight for lands when then king did
not give them away. (Feudalism in England under William the Conqueror, 2019)
An interesting/important fact is that between the year 1066 and the mid-fourteenth
century there were only 30 years of peace.
In order to know who the owner of each piece of land in England was, and how much it
was worth it, William sent a group of men all over England asking for this information.
This type of economic survey was the only one made in Europe at the time. This record
receives the name of “Domesday Book”. (McDowall, 1989)
When it comes to kingship, the idea of nationalism was unknown in the early Middle
Ages.
William ruled two regions: Normandy as a duke, and England, as a king with all the
power to himself. After his death in 1087, we can analyse the different kings of the
period between 1066 and 1216 by this division: The Normans and the Angevins.
The Normans ruled from 1066 to 1154. As we have seen, William I had been the duke
of Normandy and the king of England. His son William II ruled England and Normandy
for some years until he died in 1100, leading to a fight between his brothers Robert and
Henry I. Finally, it was Henry who was crowned, but he died with no heir. Because of
this, the next king was Henry’s I nephew: Stephen, who died one year later. (McDowall,
1989)
With the death of Stephen, starts the kingship of the Angevins, which lasted from 1154
to 1216. Henri II became the first king in England who was not questioned. He also
ruled more land than the kings before him. After him, his son Richard I became king.
He is best known under the name of Richard Coeur de Lion. He was one of the most
popular kings in England, he was brave and a good soldier, also the example of a perfect
feudal king. He was killed in 1199 in France, leaving the throne for his brother John.
Unlike Richard, John was very unpopular because of several reasons. The main reason
is that he was greedy; he made fines paid by people go to him, he increased taxes to
merchants in town and so on. After his attempts on invading Normandy, John was
forced to sign a new agreement. (McDowall, 1989)
The name of this document was “Magna Carta” and it guaranteed English political
liberties. By signing it, John promised all freemen protection and right to a fair and legal
trial. Although less than a quarter of the population were free men, this agreement
marked the proximity of feudalism collapse. It is important to bear in mind that the aim
of the Magna Carta on its creation was only to ensure that John did not go beyond his
limits, they did not intend to give freedom to the people. (McDowall, 1989)
Magna Carta has had great influence in history. Through Magna Carta “every
generation can see its own protection” (Stenton, 1929)
Besides from the Magna Carta, there were other clues of how the feudalism was starting
to disappear. Among them we can talk about a mandatory payment from the king to the
soldiers when they fight for him and also, vassals paying money to their lords instead of
services. (McDowall, 1989)
However, it took another 300 years before it disappeared completely.
My personal opinion as a conclusion is that the beginning of the Middle Ages has been
decisive. The Magna Carta can be referred to as one of the most important agreements
in history, it really marked the decline of the feudalism, changing life as it was.
It is also interesting to compare the past with the present, being always sensible. We
have seen that in feudalism a person’s whole life depended on his/her position in the
social hierarchy, which was passed down to the next generation. This system was
created in order to be protected from enemies, just like we expect our government to
protect us nowadays. The way this protection was and is carried out, is not much
different. In both cases there has been an army formed by people who expect a call from
the lord or person in higher position to fight and protect the rest of the people. Although
it is not the same, we also are familiar with a social class system, in which the people
“above” have much more than the people from the bottom.
Our society has obviously changed in a million ways, we must be fair with history and
understand how it has developed and why. But sometimes if we look back in time, we
can realize how important things are not so different from how they used to be, and see
that history helps us to understand everything.

REFERENCES
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2021, April 29). Norman Conquest summary.
Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/summary/Norman-Conquest
https://educheer.com/essays/feudalism-in-today-s-society/
Feudalism in England Under William the Conqeuror. (2019, Feb 15).Retrieved
November 19, 2022 , from https://studydriver.com/feudalism-in-england-under-
william-the-conqeuror/
Mary Stenton, D. Magna Carta for Encyclopædia Britannica (1929)
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Magna-Carta.
McDowall, David. An illustrated History of Britain (1989). Longman.