2.5. Life under the Normans

The lord of a manor held all the manor's land as the king's tenant-in-chief. The lord kept some land as his demesne. He let other land go to freeholders, who could leave his manor if they wished. The rest was farmed by villains, who were bound to stay on the manor and had to give the lord part of their produce. They also had to work on the demesne.

Some land around the manor was common land for keeping cattle, poultry, and sheep. People gathered fuel from the woodland and grew hay on the meadowland.

The law. There was no single source of justice. The king's council was the supreme court, and the king was the fount of justice. However, normally only great lords were tried by him. Freemen were usually tried by their fellow freemen in regional or local courts, called shire or hundred courts.

Under Anglo-Saxon law, a person could be cleared by the oaths of a group of men who believed the person to be innocent. But a person who was a known criminal or who had been caught in the act might have to undergo trial by ordeal. In the 1200's, trial by jury began replacing trial by ordeal.

Henry I extended royal control over criminal cases and appointed royal officials in shire courts. Henry II sent judges throughout the country to hold royal courts.

In 1215, the barons rebelled against King John's taxation. Under the leadership of Archbishop Stephen Langton, they forced him, at Runnymede, in present-day Surrey, to promise to observe their rights. They also forced him to accept Magna Carta, a charter that brought benefits to the common people as well as the barons. In Henry III's reign, Simon de Montfort led the barons in a rebellion against the king. This rebellion, called the Barons' War, ended with de Montfort's defeat at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. De Montfort had been the first person to summon ordinary citizens to discuss affairs of state with the barons and bishops. This idea led to the growth of Parliament.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lecture 3 Britain in the second millennium

3.1. The Medieval period (1337-1485)

Years of conflict. The strong system of government that the Anglo-Norman kingdom had was the most powerful political force in the British Isles. Not surprisingly therefore, the authority of the English monarch gradually extended to other parts of these islands in the next 200 years.

Wales was the first to be conquered by England. Before they were conquered by the English in the thirteenth century different Welsh tribes were continually fighting one another. In 1282 Prince Llewellyn was killed in battle and King of England Edward I started a successful campaign to conquer Wales. Eventually the country was subdued, but the English never felt safe there because of Welsh opposition. This explains why the English built so many castles here.

At the same time Edward I of England made his eldest son, his heir, bear the title Prince of Wales in 1301 (at which time the custom of naming the monarch’s eldest son the ‘Prince of Wales’ began).

Though Wales was conquered by England, the Welsh continued to struggle for their independence. But the situation was seriously changed when in 1485 the English throne passed to Henry VII of the Welsh House of Tudor. In 1536 and 1542, Henry VIII brought Wales under the English parliament through special Acts of Union. Since the 16th century, Wales has been governed from London. In today's Government, there is a special department and minister for Welsh affairs.

Scotland managed to be independent for quite a long time, though the English tried hard to conquer it. In the 14th century, Robert Bruce led the struggle against the English, but he was defeated by the English king Edward I. Bruce managed to organize a new army and defeated the English. However, some years later Edward II, the new English king, decided to attack Robert Bruce in Scotland. He managed to cross the border but in the battle of Bannockburn (1314), the English were very seriously defeated, and Scotland continued to be independent for the next three centuries.

Life in the period. The cultural story of this period is different. Two hundred and fifty years after the Norman Conquest, it was a Germanic language (Middle English) and not the Norman (French) language that was spoken by all classes of society in England.

Despite English rule, northern and central Wales was never settled in great numbers by Saxons or Normans. As a result, the (Celtic) Welsh language and culture remained strong. The Anglo-Norman lords of eastern Ireland remained loyal to the English king but mostly adopted the Gaelic language and customs.

The political independence of Scotland did not prevent a gradual switch to the English language and customs in the lowland (southern) part of the country.

It was in this period that Parliament began its gradual evolution into the democratic body, which it is today. The word ‘parliament’ which comes from the French word ‘parler’ (to speak), was first used in England in the thirteenth century to describe an assembly of nobles called together by the king. In 1295, the Model Parliament set the pattern for the future by including elected representatives from urban and rural areas.

In the mid-1300's, the feudal way of life began to decline. This decline was speeded by the Black Death, a plague that spread from China across Europe. It killed many people in Britain in 1348 and 1349. So many people died that the manorial system was totally disrupted.

The barons became less important owing to changes in the military system. Expanding trade brought the development of towns and of a wealthy middle class. Fresh, challenging ideas spread from Italy to Britain and other parts of Europe. The new ideas coincided with the growth of education and the invention of printing.

The decline of feudalism. The years from 1337 to 1485 were marked by long periods of war, which brought about important military changes. Campaigns became longer, and kings needed soldiers to fight longer than the period of feudal obligation. Kings preferred to take money—instead of military service—from tenants. With the money, they hired professional soldiers.

The effects of the Black Death hastened changes on the manor that had already started. As early as the 1100's, some manor owners had found it convenient to accept money as rent from their tenants instead of service. With the money, the lord could hire labourers. The system whereby a villain had rent changed from services to money payment was called commutation.

During the 1300's, lords of the manor who relied upon hired labourers found that the shortage of labourers after the Black Death caused a demand for higher wages. However, rents paid by manorial tenants were fixed by custom and therefore remained unchanged.

In 1351, Parliament passed a Statute of Labourers, which banned increased wages for agricultural workers. A preacher named John Ball whipped up discontent over the law. In 1381, Wat Tyler, a blacksmith, led an uprising in southern England. Nevertheless, commutation continued and eventually replaced feudal service.

The Hundred Years' War between England and France also contributed to the decline of feudalism in England. This war was actually a series of wars that lasted from 1337 to 1453.

The wars began well for King Edward III, with two major English successes. The French recovered during the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV. Henry V resumed the attack on France in the early 1400s. When the war ended in 1453, England had lost all its French possessions except Calais.

The English noblemen returned to England with their soldiers, many of whom became unemployed. These soldiers knew no craft but fighting.

Two years after the end of the Hundred Years' War, the private armies began to fight a series of civil campaigns called the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485). Two groups of nobles, Lancastrians and Yorkists, fought for control of the throne. For badges, the Lancastrians wore red roses, and the Yorkists wore white roses. The wars resulted from the conflicting claims of two royal houses. The House of Lancaster was descended from Henry IV, and the rival House of York was descended from another son of Edward III, Edmund, Duke of York.

Henry VI, a Lancastrian king, was a weak-minded man incapable of governing. In 1461, the Yorkists, led by the powerful Earl of Warwick, deposed Henry VI and made Edward of York king as Edward IV. Edward survived attempts to dethrone him, and except for a few months in 1470 and 1471, he remained king until his death in 1483. Edward's son, a boy of 13, became king in 1483 as Edward V. But he was never allowed to reign and later died mysteriously, probably having been murdered. Edward IV’s brother then became king as Richard III, but he soon lost popular support. In 1485, Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian claimant, landed in Wales with an army. He defeated and killed Richard in a battle at Bosworth Field in Leicestershire, and became king as Henry VII.