Scarica Norman England e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Letteratura Inglese Norman England William the Conqueror 1066-1087 William duke of Normandy conquered England at the battle of Hastings in 1066. With the Normans, French arrived in England and together with Latin was the language of the Church and government. William became King William the 1st known as William the Conqueror and he reigned till 1087. In these years the feudal system was introduced in England. Society was organised as a pyramid with the king at the top, then the barons, who received land from the king and they had to work it, defend it and in case of need the barons had to follow the king in battle with their knights, who received land from the barons in exchange for it followed the barons to war or on military expeditions. At the lowest level of society were the peasants, who worked the land and were bound to their feudal lord. Norman England after William 1087 William was succeeded by his son William the 2nd, who was succeeded by his younger brother Henry the 1st, who was succeeded by his nephew Stephen. Henry the 2nd 1154 Steven died and the throne passed to Henry Plantagenet, the son of Henry the 1st’s daughter and Geoffrey Plantagenet. This king was called Henry the 2nd of Anjou. The murder of Thomas Becket 1170 During the reign of Henry the 2nd, there was a clash between the crown and the Church in England because the king promulgated laws according to each clergyman had to be tried, first by the king’s court and then by the bishop’s court. But the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Beckett, did not accept this and spent 6 years in France in self-imposed exile. When he returned to England, 4 of the king’s knights murdered him in Canterbury Cathedral. He was made a saint and martyr by the Roman Church. Letteratura Inglese Henry the 2nd’s sons 1189 Henry the 2nd was succeeded by his son Richard the 1st, known as Richard the Lionheart. During the 10 years of his reign, he first joined the first crusade then went to France to defend his possession against the French king Philip the 2nd ad he was killed there. King John signs the Magna Charta 1215 Richard the Lionheart was succeeded by John the 1st, called John Lackland because he lost Normandy and most of his French territories. He imposed heavy taxation so the barons rebelled and in 1215 they forced the king to sign the Magna Charta or the Greater Charter of Liberty. This was an important document, which could be the foundation of all the future rights and the freedom of English people and it declared that the king himself was subject to the law of the land. The Hundred Years’ War 1337-1453 The Hundred Years’ War with France began in 1337 when the English king Edward the 3rd claimed the vacant throne of France. Under the reign of the English king Henry the 6th France obtained important victories thanks to Joanne of Arch, so the English were driven out of France and lost all their French territories except for Calais. The Black Death 1348 This war did not go on continuously, in fact there were several intervals and one of them was the Black Death, in 1348, which caused the death of about one-third of the population. The War of Roses 1455-1485 The Middle Ages closed in England with a long and devastating civil war, which lasted from 1455 to 1485. It was fought between 2 branches of the Plantagenet Royal Family: the house of York and the house of Lancaster. It was called the War of Roses because the white rose was the symbol of the house of York, instead, the red rose
