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Lecture 3
 The Medieval Britain (Early Middle Ages): The Norman Conquest. Feudal England
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The Middle Ages (1066-1485) encompass one of the most turbulent periods in English History.
Starting with the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest – when William the Conqueror
effectively took all of the lands from the Saxon English and gave them to French nobles. The
English Middle Ages then saw the building of the great English castles, including the Tower of
London, which helped the Normans to retain their hold on England. The start of the Crusades and
the knights of the Middle Ages, including the founding of the Knights Templar. The Domesday
Book and the Magna Carta. The Kings and Queens of the Middle Ages including Richard the
Lionheart and great Plantagenet Kings from Henry II (1154-1189) to Edward III (1327-1377). The
Hundred Years’ War between England and France. The Medieval Knights and Queens of the
Royal Houses of Lancaster and York and the Wars of the Roses. The Middle Ages Feudal System
and the terrible Black Death which really did plague the period of the Middle Ages.
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The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 is described through the images of the Bayeux
Tapestry – a large piece of heavy woven cloth made in Bayeux (France) in 11th -12th century which
told the story of the Norman Conquest in pictures (see picture 5).
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Picture 5 (the Bayeux Tapestry)
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The story behind the invasion. The last but one Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Confessor did not
have an heir. Thus, a four-way conflict developed over who would become the next King of
England. The English Witan, the traditional council of nobles, chose Harold Godwinson as the new
king. The other claimants included: King Harold’s half-brother, Tostig Godwinson, Harald
Hardrada, the King of Norway, and William, Duke of Normandy, a region is northwest France.
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Both Tostig and Harald Hardrada invaded England to unseat King Harold, but both attacks failed.
The third invasion, by William of Normandy, proved successful: Harold Godwinson and his army
were defeated by the army of William, Duke of Normandy in the battle of Hastings (1066). William
them marcher to London, which quickly gave in when he began to burn villages outside the city. He
was crowned king of England in the Westminster Abbey on Christmas Fay, 1066.
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The Norman Conquest was significant for several reasons. William was the new King of England,
but he was also still the Duke of Normandy in France, which put him and his successors in the
awkward position of ruling one country, while still serving as a vassal of another country’s ruler,
in this case, the King of France. This dilemma set up England and France for hundreds of years
worth of warfare as the ruling families of each kingdom battled for control of both countries.
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Also, The Conquest created an ongoing link between the island of Great Britain (which includes
England, Scotland, and Wales) with the European Continent through the connection of England and
French Normandy. This connection can be seen in the development of English culture, language,
history, and economics.
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Life under the Normans. William the Conqueror became a savage and formidable ruler, by modern
standards an exceedingly cruel one, but his methods produced the desired results and extinguished
the fires of opposition. William gave lands to Norman nobles. The Saxons became an underclass
whose language was the despised argot of the stable. French became the language of the new
aristocracy.
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William organized his English kingdom according to the feudal system. The land was owned by the
king but it was held by others, called “vassals”, in return for a promise to serve him in war for
up to forty days, and part of the produce of the land. On the other hand, each lord had
responsibilities to his vassals. He had to give them land and protection. The people at the bottom of
the society were called “serfs” and were in effect no more than slaves.
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In order to know exactly who owned each piece of land and exactly how much taxes he could get, in
1086 William sent his men into every shire to conduct the first ever survey of its kind in Europe.
Not surprisingly, it was most unpopular with people and they called in the Domesday Book. The last
great change the Norman Conquest brought to England was the reform of the Church in which the
Church obtained its own courts.
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The reign of William II Rufus – William the Conqueror’s son – was very different from his
father’s. He was a greedy man and was always in need of money to finance his extravagant
lifestyle. His stringent demands and the new payments he introduced caused several rebellions.
Besides, he shocked people by his treatment of the Church and his refusal to appoint a new
Archbishop of Canterbury in order to collect the money of the archbishopric. He was further
disliked for his rigid enforcement of the cruel forest laws. Ironically, Rufus met his end whilst
hunting in the New Forest in August 1100.
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William’s brother Henry seized the treasury at Winchester and persuaded local nobles to
proclaim him king. Henry made his government more professional. Thanks to him the early twelfth
century saw the appearance of the first national law courts, the rapid expansion of legal training and
the growth of a new professional class of lawyers. His only son William died in 1120. So, Henry had
to proclaim his daughter Matilda an heir. Yet neither Normans nor Anglo-Saxons wanted to be ruled
by a woman, so on Henry’s death in 1135 his nephew Stephen of Blois was proclaimed king
before Matilda could arrive to England from Anjou.
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King Stephen was good-natured and courteous, but he was also lacking in resolution, did not enforce
law and order and anarchy was the inevitable result. The lords recognized these weaknesses and
built unlicensed castles from which they terrorized the people and against them Stephen could do
nothing. Matilda did eventually invade England in 1139. There followed a long period during which
the country was torn apart by civil war. Finally in 1153 it was agreed that Stephen could keep his
throne only if Matilda’s son Henry could succeed him. King Stephen died in 1154 and was
succeeded by Henry II, the first of the great Plantagenet dynasty.
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