The Norman Conquest: The Introduction of the Feudal System in England, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica The Norman Conquest: The Introduction of the Feudal System in England e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THE NORMAN CONQUEST After the death of Edward, called the Confessor for his religiousness, ​Harold, Earl of Wessex​, reaffirmed his right to the throne of England, but ​William, Duke of Normandy claimed the English throne affirming that Edward had named him as a successor. So, in ​1066 William gathered a large army, crossed the English Channel and landed in Pevensey on 28​th​ September​. The meeting of the two armies at ​Hastings on 14​th October 1066 is one of the most famous moments in British history. William used archers and mounted warriors, whereas Harold’s men were mostly foot soldiers, who relied on their shield wall to protect them from enemy assaults. William attacked Harold and defeated him​. The narrative of Hastings was recorded in a ​tapestry​, hanging in Bayeux, France, which is one of the most vivid representations of war in medieval history. William was later crowned king as William I at Westminster Abbey, in London on Christmas Day, 1066. He had conquered the south east, but it took five more years to subjugate the rest of England. The importance of the Norman conquest is enormous, since the feudal system was introduced in England. The ​Normans introduced​ the ​hierarchical feudal system​ into Britain. Tis was a pyramidal system in which the power and property structure was said to consist of three estates: the nobility (the warrior class and later the richer merchants); the clergy, who through their administration of Roman law were able to consolidate and expand their already substantial land ownership; and the mass of commoners (the peasantry) who were without property. The ​Barons held their lands from the king, who owned all the lands, and were obliged to follow the king in battle with a fixed number of knights; the ​knights ​held lands from the Barons, and were to follow them for forty days a year, or for longer periods if necessary. The feudal relation passed from father to son. Below the knights came the ​peasants​. Even the peasants fell into two categories, the ​villains or freemen who had land of their own which they could pass on to subsequent generations, and the ​serfs, who had no land of their own and were almost slaves. The feudal system ​was structured around the principle of the ​concession of lands in return for services​ and was based on an essentially static agrarian economy. In the medieval hierarchy of power even the king owed loyalty or “allegiance” to the Pope, but William in order to rule in full independence controlled the nomination of Bishops and Abbots of England; all this sowed the seeds of the long struggle between the Church and the king in the Plantagenet and Tudor periods. The coming of the Normans brought a lot of changes in every field. Their civilization influenced the Anglo-Saxon way of living by introducing a more urban social life based on a new code of chivalric conduct. Norman builders built splendid Gothic churches; religion was latinized; celibacy of the priests was made compulsory. The language was also modified, since it was necessary to come to a compromise between the Normans who spoke French and the conquered Saxons, who spoke Old English. By the second half of the 14​th century, the ​official language​, both for people, Court and Parliament, was English, or rather ​Middle English. In ​1086​ William decided to make an economy survey of the land of his country. He therefore sent his men throughout the country to find out the value of each piece of land, its owners, the number of families living there, the animals they had, the exact production. In this way he hoped to know how much money he could collect in terms of taxes (known as “gelds”). The results of this ​survey were written down in a register called ​Domesday Book ​(“Domesday” is the day of the Last Judgement, and the implication is that “everyone will be counted”: there was no way to escape the king’s control). Today the Domesday Book is a precious historical document which gives us information on the social structure of England during the Norman conquest. On ​William’s death in 1087​, his son, ​William II​, ascended the throne. He is known as ​William Rufus​ owing to his ruddy complexion. He was a good soldier, but he was ​a tyrant and imposed his authority by levying ​unjust taxes and checking the influence of the Church. His brother, Henry I​, succeeded him ​in 1100​. During his reign he signed the “​Charter of Liberties​” in which he promised to stop levying unjust taxes. The ​reign of Stephen (1135-1154), ​Henry I’s nephew​, was a period of ​anarchy and civil war​, as the throne was claimed by Mathilda, Henry I’s daughter​. On ​Stephen’s death in 1154​, Mathilda’s son, ​Henry II​, became king, and ​the Norman dynasty came to an end. THE PLANTAGENETS Henry II ​of Anjou​, son of Mathilda and Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou, was ​the first Plantagenet king. The ​nickname Plantagenet had been given to his father, who used to wear a ​sprig of the broom-plant (planta genista) in his hat. Henry II restored order and improved military service and the administration of justice through reforms. His first task was to reduce the power of the Barons, which he did with the help of professional soldiers. Knights could now pay the king a sum of money instead of giving service and with this money the king was able to hire mercenaries. Henry II sent travelling judges round the land to hold courts in the largest towns in each county. The law they administered become known as ​Common Law​, because it was used everywhere. In other parts of Europe legal practice was based on the Civil Law of the Roman Empire, and the Canon Law of the Church. English Lawyers created an entirely different system of law based on custom, comparisons, previous cases and previous decisions. This mixture of experience and custom is the basis of law in England even today. The king also wanted to reduce the power of the Church. Henry thought that the easiest way of controlling the Church would be to make Thomas Becket his Chancellor and friend, head of it. Unfortunately, once made Archbishop of Canterbury, ​Becket became an opponent of the king and a defender of the interests of his Church. Becket ​refused to comply with the ​Constitutions of Clarendon ​(1164) according to which the king claimed authority in choosing the bishops​. These Constitutions ruled that clergymen who had committed crimes should be first tried by a civil court as well as ecclesiastical courts. The conflict lasted for a long time until ​Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights on December 29, 1170. He ​was made a martyr and ​saint by the Roman Catholic Church, and pilgrims from all over England and Europe visited his shrine in Canterbury Cathedral; the Constitutions of Clarendon were abrogated and the king’s Court lost important rights for more than three centuries. The king also introduced ​Trial by Jury​.