7. Medieval Britain (12-14c.). Formation of the nation. Norman invasion.

The Norman Conquest led to a sea-change in the history of the English state. William ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey of the entire population and their lands and property for tax purposes. The English Middle Ages were characterised by civil war, international war, occasional insurrection, and widespread political intrigue amongst the aristocratic and monarchic elite. England was more than self-sufficient in cereals, dairy products, beef and mutton. The nation's international economy was based on the wool trade, in which the produce of the sheepwalks of northern England was exported to the textile cities of Flanders, where it was worked into cloth. Medieval foreign policy was as much shaped by relations with the Flemish textile industry as it was by dynastic adventures in western France. An English textile industry was established in the fifteenth century, providing the basis for rapid English capital accumulation. Henry I succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100. During the confused and contested reign of Stephen, there was a major swing in the balance of power towards the feudal barons, as civil war and lawlessness broke out. In trying to appease Scottish and Welsh raiders, he handed over large tracts of land. His conflicts with his cousin The Empress Matilda led to a civil war from 1139-1153 known as the Anarchy. Upon Henry’s death, the Norman and English barons ignored Matilda’s claim to the throne, and thus through a series of decisions, Stephen, Henry’s favourite nephew, was welcomed by many in England and Normandy as their new ruler. In the autumn of 1139, Matilda invaded England with her illegitimate half-brother Robert of Gloucester. Her husband, Geoffroy V of Anjou, conquered Normandy but did not cross the channel to help his wife, satisfied with Normandy and Anjou. Stephen was captured, and his government fell. Matilda was proclaimed queen but was soon at odds with her subjects and was expelled from London. The period of insurrection and civil war that followed continued until 1148, when Matilda returned to France. Stephen effectively reigned unopposed until his death in 1154, although his hold on the throne was still uneasy. As soon as he regained power, he began the process of demolishing the adulterine castles, which were hated by the peasants due to their being employed as forced labor to build and maintain them. The Normans were Viking and Slav settlers in France who had become the ruling elite, displacing the Gallic and Celtic tribes of France from power. A long series of disputes between the Normans and the English resulted in the invasion of England. The defeat of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 at the hands of William of Normandy, later styled William I of England and the subsequent Norman takeover of Saxon, Celtic and Viking England led to a major turning-point in the history of the small, isolated, island state. The tapestry kept at Bayeux in France records the invasion. A small section is shown riglif. The Normans kept written records and recorded all aspects of life in England. In 1086 William ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey of the entire population and their lands and property for tax purposes. This remains the most comprehensive survey of a country in medieval Europe. The Normans also built in stone: in the 11th and 12th centuries, many hundreds of small churches were built across England and most not only still stand, but remain in use. The Norman church left is in the village of Stoneleigh, near Coventry and is very typical of a church and churchyard in England. The English Middle Ages were to be characterised by civil war, international war, occasional insurrection, and widespread political intrigue amongst the aristocratic and monarchic elite. At the same time, a ruling elite was being formed in England that began in the 13th century to move England away from a feudal system ruled by an autocratic monarch to the beginnings of democracy. Simon de Montfort was instrumental in forming the first English Parliament in 1265, as commemorated on the British stamps above, showing the original parliamentary seal and the first House of Parliament next to Westminster Abbey in London.