La conquista normanna e il Domesday Book, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica La conquista normanna e il Domesday Book e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND THE DOMESDAY The battle of Hastings
 The Battle of Hastings was a fight between anglo-saxons and normans, set in 1066. Norman king William had gathered 8,000 soldiers between archers, infantry and warriors, while the anglo-saxons were fighting mainly on foot, and protecting themselves using their shields as a shell. The normans declared victory after the Anglo-Saxon king Harold was hit in the eye by a Norman arrow and was forced to call retreat in the woods. The consequences of the invasion The battle brought many deep transformations in English society. Many anglo-saxons were exiled or dispossessed of their lands, and the members of the English clergy were replaced by Italians or French churchmen. Only two groups of English people remained (townspeople and lower-level churchmen ) .
 French barons obtained more and more power thanks to the establishment of the feudal system: they offered military services to the king in exchange for a piece of land in which they could live peacefully. William was quickly becoming stronger and made a record of all his possessions, called Domesday Book, in which he also kept track of the property taxes his tenants needed to pay to keep their lands. This book enlisted all of the lands and their use, but also who lived in them and how they worked. From the point of view of the language, English was replaced with French in the elite and government, while Latin was the intellectual and ecclesiastical language, and English remained the language in daily speech. ANARCHY AND HENRY PLANTAGENET Anarchy
 1087: William I the conqueror died→ -Robert, his eldest son, became Duke of Normandy; -William II, the middle son, succeeded him on the throne of England; -Henry I, the youngest, remained without land. 
 1100: William II died→Henry I became king of England and duke of Normandy, because he had defeated his brother Robert. The son who had to succeed him, died during a shipwreck, so he wanted his daughter Matilda to substitute him, but his nephew Stephen claimed the throne and in 1135 crowned himself. For most of his reign Matilda fought against him with all her forces, this period of civil war was called Anarchy). When, in 1153, Stephen’s son died, her father signed a treaty recognising Matilda's son, Henry II, as his heir. Henry II
 1154: Henry II became king and quickly gained the reputation of the most powerful monarch in Europe, one of the most important reasons is that his kingdom connected the Scottish border to the south of France.
 He was known as a chivalric hero and his main concern was to re-establish the order in England. So, in 1160, Henry introduced a new set of professional lawyers who administered laws that were used everywhere, based on comparison with past experiences.
 1162: Henry appointed Thomas Becket as archbishop of Canterbury. He wanted the Church to be independent from the State, but in 1164 Henry wrote the "Constitutions of Clarendon", which established the king was supreme in civil matters and that everyone, even the clergy, was subject to the crown. 1170: Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights sent by the king, after opposing to this new law, this made him a martyr and a saint, and for this reason many pilgrims still visit his shrine in Canterbury.
 1189: Henry II died and his son Richard succeeded him, known as Richard the Lion-heart. FROM MAGNA CARTA TO THE PEASANTS’ REVOLT King John and Magna Carta
 The reign of Richard I didn’t last for too long, in fact, he died in 1199 during the Third Crusade, and was succeeded by his brother John, called: -Lackland= has no land; -Softsword= unsuccessful in war. He soon became highly loathed among his people because of his violent abuse of power: he imposed higher taxes in order to defend his French possessions, and threatened widows with a re-marriage if they didn’t pay their taxes. The knights, barons, clergy and townspeople organised a rebellion and got specific liberties by asking the king to sign Magna Carta, in 1215. Henry III and Simon de Montfort
 1216: John was succeeded by his 9-year-old son, Henry III, during his reign The Palace of Westminster and a new Westminster Abbey were built.
 1258: Henry’s brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort; led a group of barons to demand the king to summon a Great Council of lords to help him with important matters, but Henry declined and civil war broke out. In the final battle of Evesham, in 1265, Simon was killed. Edward I and Model Parliament
 Henry III was succeeded by his son Edward I, who summoned in 1295 a council of barons, knights, clergy and townspeople. This was known as the model of the England’s first Parliament. Edward III and the Order of the Garter
 1327: Edward III, the 14-year-old son of Edward II and Queen Isabella, was crowned king. He claimed the French throne because of his family relationship with the king (he was his nephew), and signed the beginning of The Hundred Years’ War, which lasted until 1453. 
 Edward III introduced a new set of values, called "chivalry", that a perfect knight had to respect: bravery, loyalty, honesty, and glory (inspired by the legend of king Arthur and his round table, where 24 knights were chosen, with high ideals of honour and service.)
 The Hundred Year’s War was interrupted in 1348 by the plague, that killed more than one third of the English population.
 When Edward III died the crown passed to his 10-year-old grandson, Richard II. The Peasants’ Revolt
 In the first years of Richard’s reign, England was actually ruled by his uncle, John of Gaunt, who, in 1381, imposed the so-called "poll tax" on every adult, without considering their income. A serie of riots broke out and soon turned into the Peasants’ Revolt, organised by a craftsman called Wat Tyler, who gathered a huge crowd of people and marched to London to ask the king to abolished the peasants’ duties to their landlords.