Part II The Anglo-Norman Period (1066—1350)

I historical background The Norman Conquest

William I byname  William the Conqueror  or  William the Bastard  or  William of Normandy , French  Guillaume le Conquérant  or  Guillaume le Bâtard  or  Guillaume de Normandie duke of Normandy (as William II) from 1035 and king of England from 1066, one of the greatest soldiers and rulers of the Middle Ages. He made himself the mightiest noble in France and then changed the course of England's history by his conquest of that country.

William the Conqueror relied on a cavalry in the Battle of Hastings in 1066, as depicted in a detail from the Bayeux Tapestry (circa 1073–83). Some 200 horses are embroidered into this work of art.

Harold (right) swearing fealty to William, duke of Normandy, detail from the Bayeux Tapestry, 11th century; in the Musée de la Tapisserie, Bayeux, France.

English axman in combat with a Norman knight at the Battle of Hastings, detail from the Bayeux Tapestry; in the Musée de la Tapisserie, Bayeux, France.

The consequence of the Conquest The extent and desirability of the changes brought about by the conquest have long been disputed by historians. Certainly, in political terms, William's victory destroyed England's links with Scandinavia, bringing the country instead into close contact with the Continent, especially France. Inside England the most radical change was the introduction of land tenure and military service. While tenure of land in return for services had existed in England before the conquest, William revolutionized the upper ranks of English society by dividing the country among about 180 Norman tenants-in-chief and innumerable mesne (intermediate) tenants, all holding their fiefs by knight service. The result, the almost total replacement of the English aristocracy with a Norman one, was paralleled by similar changes of personnel among the upper clergy and administrative officers.

The consequence of the Conquest Anglo-Saxon England had developed a highly organized central and local government and an effective judicial system . All these were retained and utilized by William, whose coronation oath showed his intention of continuing in the English royal tradition. The old administrative divisions were not superseded by the new fiefs, nor did feudal justice normally usurp the customary jurisdiction of shire and hundred courts. In them and in the king's court, the common law of England continued to be administered. Innovations included the new but restricted body of “forest law” and the introduction in criminal cases of the Norman trial by combat alongside the old Saxon ordeals. Increasing use was made of the inquest procedure—the sworn testimony of neighbours, both for administrative purposes and in judicial cases. A major change was William's removal of ecclesiastical cases from the secular courts, which allowed the subsequent introduction into England of the then rapidly growing canon law.

The consequence of the Conquest William also transformed the structure and character of the church in England. He replaced all the Anglo-Saxon bishops, except Wulfstan of Dorchester, with Norman bishops. Most notably, he secured the deposition of Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury—who held his see irregularly and had probably been excommunicated by Pope Leo IX—and appointed in his place Lanfranc of Bec, a respected scholar and one of William's close advisers. Seeking to impose a more orderly structure on the English episcopacy, the king supported Lanfranc's claims for the primacy of Canterbury in the English church. William also presided over a number of church councils, which were held far more frequently than under his predecessors, and introduced legislation against simony (the selling of clerical offices) and clerical marriage.

The consequence of the Conquest A supporter of monastic reform while duke of Normandy, William introduced the latest reforming trends to England by replacing Anglo-Saxon abbots with Norman ones and by importing numerous monks. Although he founded only a small number of monasteries, including Battle Abbey (in honour of his victory at Hastings), William's other measures contributed to the quickening of monastic life in England.

Probably the most regrettable effect of the conquest was the total eclipse of the English vernacular as the language of literature, law, and administration. Superseded in official documents and other records by Latin and then increasingly in all areas by Anglo-Norman, written English hardly reappeared until the 13th century.

The White Tower, the first structure built at the Tower of London, begun by William the Conqueror

The Medieval English Literature Medieval Romance The popular ballad Geoffrey of Monmouth with his The History of the Kings of Britain Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Ballad 1. its simple language. In the verse form and the colloquial expressions. 2. Either in couplets or in quatrains, which are known as the ballad stanza, rhyming abcb, with the first and third lines carrying 4 accented syllables and the second and fourth carrying 3. P.59