s
1066-1485
IN OCTOBER 1066, THE DUKE OF
NORMANDY DEFEATED AND
KILLED KING HAROLD OF
ENGLAND, THE LAST OF THE
ANGLO SAXON KINGS.
THIS WAS CALLED THE NORMAN
CONQUEST.
WHO WAS WILLIAM THE
CONQUEROR?
The illegitimate son of the previous duke of
Normandy
Cousin of the English king called Edward the
Confessor
Wanted to rule the Anglo-Saxons, not eliminate
them
Instead of a French speaking England and America, the
culture became a combination of Norman and Anglo-
Saxon.
WILLIAM THE GREAT
ADMINISTRATIVE
He took inventory of all property in England.
By means of the Doomsday Book, the people could be
taxed.
His Anglo-Norman culture brought England into
mainstream European civilization and introduced the
French language to this country.
DOOMSDAY BOOK
• A massive survey of the feudal system.
• Managed by seven to eight panels of
commissioners.
• Included manors, serfs, huts, mills, fishponds, and
streams.
• Established a social hierarchy recognized for
centuries.
WHAT IS FEUDALISM?
• A caste system of hierarchy with God at the top
• Since being a king was considered a “divine right,”
William the Conqueror was at the top of the pyramid.
• The king could appoint certain barons as his “vassals”
and give them land in exchange for military allegiance
and money.
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM
AND CHIVALRY
Feudalism brought form and honor to the Middle
Ages.
The institution of knighthood created a code of
conduct or chivalry.
A knights obligation was to his lord, his king, and
the Christian faith.
HOWEVER
,
A knight’s code also covered how to
treat a lady, how to help others, and
how to resist the urge to run away if
captured.
CHIVALRY MEANT ADHERING
TO ONE’S OATH.
• Never attacked an unarmed opponent.
• Adoring a lady (not necessarily one’s wife) was
seen as achieving self-improvement.
• Acting in the name of a woman was called
“courtly love.”
• Brought about an idealistic attitude toward
women but did little to improve their social
position
• The greatest example of this type of romance is
the Authurian legends.
Read from Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight on page 159 and the song
“Holding Out for a Hero” page 166 in
your literature book.
WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE
AGES
Women had no political rights.
She was subservient to all men.
Her father or husband’s social standing determined the
respect she commanded.
A peasant woman’s life involved childbearing,
housework, and hard fieldwork.
AS THE POPULATION GREW…..
Cities and towns grew up outside of the feudal castle walls.
People began to make their living outside the feudal
system creating a merchant or “middle” class.
Thus, a “people’s art” was created. These stories,
like Chaucer’s work and many ballads, show a shift
from the feudal system.
SEVERAL EVENTS CHANGED THE
COURSE OF ENGLAND’S HISTORY
AND LITERATURE.
1. The
Crusades
1095-1270
A series of wars raged by European Christians against the
Muslims. The prize would be the Holy Land. The contacts
with the Middle East, which exposed the English to
mathematics, crafts, and architecture that they had never seen
before. Chaucer gives examples of this in the Canterbury
Tales.
2. The Murder of
Archbishop under the pope and prime
minister under King Henry
King Henry thought that Becket sided
with the pope too many times, and
Henry’s men kill Becket.
Public outrage of his death was a
setback for the king, but gave the church
more control.
One positive effect was that the Church
became a center of learning and culture.
Written by nobles to protect themselves from
King John and the Church.
It became the basis for English constitutional law, in
which such rights as trial by jury and legislative taxation
were established.
No freemen shall be taken or
imprisoned or outlawed or exiled or in
any way destroyed, nor will we go upon
him nor send upon him, except by the
lawful judgment of his peers or by the
law of the land.
4.
From 1337-1453 the English were at war with
France. The English lost the war, but by its end,
the yeoman (small land owners) who had formed
the nucleus of the English army had replaced the
knights in armor. Their yard long arrows could fly
over castle walls and penetrate armor.
With the
emergence of the
yeoman class, a
modern, democratic
England was born.
The Black Death,
or bubonic
plague,
delivered
another blow the
feudalism in
England.
The disease reduced the
population by a third--causing a
labor crisis and giving the lower
classes more leverage. Serfs
became free men.
THE MIDDLE AGES WERE
ENDING...
And the Renaissance was about
to begin.
