2.

The Norman Kingdom of England

1066  William of Normandy conquered the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of England

The Normans were the descendants of Vikings, but by the 11th century they were fully
French in identity.

> in 1066, Edward the Confessor died in January, no children left

> there were multiple people trying to claim the throne

> Harold II Godwinson – Anglo-Saxon – the king’s council Witan/Witenagemot – Harold was
1 of their choices > he had conflict because of the throne with William, Duke of Normandy
(said, he was promised the throne)

 English – Normans  October 14th, 1066  Battle of Hastings (in Sussex)

 William was crowned king of England  William I / William the Conqueror

> rebellions against William; English resistance (mostly the highlands); Danish and Scottish
invasions  in the end William crushed all the resistance in England

 during his reign – governmental institutions (writs, royal control over coinage, national
taxation...) remained – high degree of centralization

 kingdom into shires; title of earl was given to people

 William thought of himself as conqueror and ultimate owner of all the land in the
kingdom  the greatest redistribution of land and power in English history happened – the
richest single landowner was the king

 English ruling class was replaced by Norman, Breton and French nobility

 Domesday Book – a written description/inventory of all the productive land in the

kingdom (named about 13 400 places) – most all-inclusive and precise document by any
medieval government (it was ordered by William)

 the Scandinavian connection to England was severed; but England and France were tied
more closely together

> English elite – mostly French in descent, in culture and were engaged in French politics

> English kings – French barons and landowners on France

 the wool trade expanded a lot after the conquest (mostly to Flanders; and the continent)
> Flemish payment helped maintain a high-quality currency in England

> it was the most important export until the 18th century
The Norman Kings of England

> the oldest son of William the conqueror (Robert) was given the Duchy of Normandy

 William was succeeded on the English throne by his 2nd son William II Rufus – had a lot of
disagreements with the church; churchmen wrote the histories so he gained a bad
reputation; but was successful as a military and political leader

> he forced the Scottish king to submission; he also took possession of Normandy

 after William II Rufus his younger brother seized the throne  Henry I

> he was challenged by Robert, but Henry defeated him in the Battle of Tinchebrai in 1106 –
reunited the kingdom and the duchy

> Henry founded institutions of centralized justice and finance –e.g. exchequer - handled
royal accounts

> he was trying to expand his rule in France; retained good relations with the Scottish kings

> his only son has died, so the succession was disputed between his only daughter Matilda
and his nephew Stephen of Blois

Feudal England under the Normans

 the Norman kings divided the lands of great feudal lords into smaller parcels

 they imposed a tight feudal structure – all lords swore allegiance to the kings; and all land
was held feudally – in return for services

 aristocracy was small, most income went to the kind and the church

 most powerful landowners in England were also landowners in Normandy; and the king
owned land throughout his whole realm

 new military technology – castles (100s put up by Normans) and mounted knights

Castles became military strongholds for nobility – supposed to hold only the lord, his family
and his troops

> contained wooden towers located on mottes – artificial hills built with labor; surrounded
by wooden palisade (the stone castle was a later innovation)

 White Tower in London – built by William the Conqueror - one of the few early Norman
stone castles  building nucleus for the Tower of London
 Horsemanship was inevitable for aristocrats (‘requirement’); aristocratic class of the new
England = knights

 new class system:

a. The free
b. The unfree – not considered slaves, had some rights and weren’t bought/sold as
chattels

 the nobility of Norman England wasn’t protected by a unique set rights  they were
more leading freeman than of distinguished higher status

 slaves sometimes moved upwards (free) and Anglo-Saxon peasants could moved
downwards (unfree) – owed produce and labour dues to the lord of the manor

 Latin displaced Anglo-Saxon as the language of the government; but most of the
aristocracy spoke French; lower classes still spoke English, but a lot of mixing happened
there as well

 the civil wars ignited by the succession dispute between Stephen and Matilda took a huge
toll on the English

 the king of Scots, David I, fought on the side of Matilda and her son, the future Henry II

 Richard FitzGilbert de Clare (later known as Strongbow) allied with Dermot

Macmurrough (exiled Irish ruler) and carved a principality for himself in Ireland

 was followed by King Henry II  his army won the submission of most Irish rulers

The Church in Feudal England

 higher levels of the church (archbishops, bishops and abbots) – almost entirely
Normanized

 new ideas and books from the Continent revived the church intellectually

 Anselm (greatest intellectual since Bede) - philosopher, statesman and saint

> conflict with William Rufus and Henry I over investiture – the right of secular rulers to
invest bishops with the ring and the staff, the symbols of Episcopal power

 there were some disputes among pre- and postconquest churches

the church was also feudalized – military obligations (bishops and abbots had to provide
troops for the king; they also served as military commanders on occasion)
 people loosely affiliated with the church – clergy – had legal privileges that limited the
king’s power over them  the Beckett affair – greatest conflict between church and state in
medieval England

> Thomas Beckett – chancellor and friend of Henry II, who appointed him archbishop of
Canterbury (1162)

> Henry wanted to transfer jurisdiction of criminal clergy to secular courts, because in his
opinion church courts were often biased

> Becket refused > long struggle > ended with the murder of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral
in 1170 – murdered by knights (Henry never gave a formal order to do such a thing)

> Henry did his penance for the murder – was flogged by monks at Canterbury in 1174

The Towns of Feudal England

 Norman England – revival of urban life in the 11th and 12th centuries  most of the largest
towns were built on old Roman sites – their walls made them natural sites for
reurbanization

 Medieval English towns were small by modern standards; the largest city was London
(population around 18 000 in 1100) > mostly French and English people

 introduction of 1st Jewish population in England since the Romans > they were French

> settled in London, later founded small communities

> useful to the king as moneylenders (was forbidden for Christians to lend by the church)

> targets of Christian anti-Semitism

 towns – part of the feudal system; in the hands of the feudal lord or the territory/the king

 towns’ rights: right to hold markets; to have its own courts; to sell land freely

 were associated with personal freedom – unfree peasant could become free after living in
a town for a year and a day (‘town air makes free’)

 the king was the most important lord of town in England (most of the large towns +
almost half of all the towns were directly under him)

 no self-governing independence of towns; only in London was there some independence

after 1141 – commune in the city recognized – a group of leading citizens who took on the
responsibility for town governance  London had an elected mayor for the 1st time