Scarica The Norman Conquest in England e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! The Norman Conquest 1 The Norman Conquest The last Anglo Saxon king was Edward the Confessor. He died with no sons so the problem was that barons had to fill a vacuum power. They decided to elect a new king, Harold that didn’t have any royal pedigree. They decided to give Harold the throne who was probably the brother in law of Edward (no blood link). William, duke of Normandy, was Edward’s cousin so William claimed the right to succeed the English throne but Anglo Saxons didn’t want. He claimed the English throne and crossed the channel with his warriors. the battle of Hastings In the spring of 1066 William gathered his barons to claim the English crown. His soldiers fought thanks to the building of a shell impossible to penetrate. The two armies faced each other near Hastings on 14 October 1066. The most powerful weapon that the Normans had were longbows, a type of tall bow allowing the archer a fairly long draw. The turning point of the battle was when Harold was hit by an arrow. 🔖 The narrative of Hastings was recorded in a tapestry, in Bayeux. The Anglo Saxon army escaped and the Normans invaded London. William was eventually crowned in Westminster Abbey in London, on Christmas Day 1066. Everything changes in Britain: the society from this moment on, will be organised differently. consequences of the invasion When William invaded the country he had to face rebellions through the country. The Norman Conquest 2 The first thing the Norman’s did was the building of castles to demonstrate the power (the most famous was the London Tower). He built also lots of churches because they were catholics. Because William had to control a territory he didn’t know, he ordered a survey that led to the collection of data and to the imposition of taxes (gelds). All these informations were enlisted in the Domesday Book (1086). The book was called in this way because it was felt it was like having souls weighed up on Judgement Day. Thank to this survey he imposed taxes. This was a way to control population. There was an introduction of the feudal system, which implied a different society form the Anglo Saxons'. In the Feudal system there is a pyramidal hierarchy. At the top there is the king, the lord of the lords. After him aristocracy, noblemen, barons and pheasants. The king was considered the lords of the lords because the bond was connected with the ceremony of homage, in which the lord guaranteed protection and a piece of land to nobles and in return obtained military service and loyalty. Knights were inferior than the barons. The title and the land went to the firstborn while the others became either knights or bishops. Bishops received a chair so they could maintain their lifestyle. Peasants cultivated the soil and were divided into free men that had rights and serfs that had no rights (similar to slaves, a sort of property of the lord) Women could decide to marry someone noble or they entered religious life as prioresses. transition from Old English to Middle English
