Lecture II
1. Conquest and feudal rule.
2. Feudalism.
3. Kingship: a family business.
4. Magna Carta.
5. The decline of feudalism.
6. The beginning of Parliament.
7. Government and society.

Conquest and feudal rule.
It had immediate social, political and cultural implications. The new tough foreign aristocracy captured power and lands.
By 1100 there were 500 Norman castles in the English countryside. There was an Anglo-Saxon rebellion every year until 1060.
By 1086 20 years after the arrival of the Normans only 2 of the greater Lords and only 2 bishops were Saxons.
William the Conqueror gave the Saxons’ lands to his Norman barons. His army included Norman and other French land seekers. They were a blow against the church as well. Saxon bishops were either deposed or replaced by Normans. During the 18-20th centuries an apparatus of government of exceptional effectiveness was established.
England was also drawn into close links with the other side of the Channel. But there was a language gap between the local (Anglo-Saxon) population and the new landowners of both the church and the Norman aristocracy.
Latin was a language of monasteries (the church).
Norman French was now the language of law and aristocracy. Inflected English spoken differently in various regions of England remained the language of the people.

Feudalism.
William was careful in the way he gave land to his Nobles of all the farmland of England he gave half to them a quarter to the church and kept a fifth to himself. He kept the Saxon system of sheriffs and used them as a balance to local nobles. As a result England was different from the rest of Europe because it had one powerful family instead of a large number of powerful nobles.
William and Kings after him thought of England as their personal propriety. He organized his English Kingdom according to the feudal system which had already begun to develop in England before his arrival.
The word “feudalism” came from the French “feu” which Norman used to refer to land held in return of duty or service. The basis of feudal society was a holding of land and its main purpose was economic. The central idea was that all land was owned by the King but it was held by vassals in return for services or goods. The nobles also had to give him part of the produce of the land. The greater nobles gave part of their lands to lesser nobles called Knights and other freemen. Some freeman paid for the land by doing military service while others paid rent.
The noble kept serfs to work on his own land. They were not free to leave the estate and were often little better than slaves.
There were two basic principles to feudalism:
1) Every man had a Lord;
2) Every Lord had land.
If the King did not give the barons land they would not fight for him.
Between 1066 and the mid 14th century there were only 30 years of complete peace. Feudal duties were extremely important. The brightest evidence of the situation in the country was the “Doomesday book” (1086) – a survey of England land and people. According to it Norman society still rested on “lordship, secular and spiritual and the King wise or foolish was the Lord of Lords, with only Lord in Heaven and the saints above him.”
By 1086 he wanted to know exactly who owned, which piece of land and how much it was worth. He needed this information so that he could plan his economy; find out how much he could ask in tax. William therefore sent people all through England and they asked all kind of set questions at each settlement. This survey was the only of this kind in Europe. Not surprisingly it was most unpopular with the people because they felt they could not escape from its finding. It so reminded them of the day of payment of the Day of Judgment or Doom on the walls of Churches that they called it “Doomesday book” and the name stuck.

Kingship: a family business.
William controlled two large areas: Normandy given by his father and England which he had won in war. Both were personal possession. To William the important difference between Normandy and England was that as Duke of Normandy he had to recognize the King of France as his Lord whereas in England he was King with no Lord above him.
When William died in 1087 he left the Duchy to his elder son Robert. He gave England to his second son William known as Rufous (red).
In 1100 Henry the younger brother was crowned King of England. In 1106 he invaded Normandy and captured Robert. So Normandy and England were reunited under one ruler.
Henry became Henry I (1100-1135). His most important aim was to pass on both countries to his successor. But in 1120 his only son was drowned in sea.
15 years later he finally accepted that his daughter Matilda would follow him. She got married to Geoffrey Plantagenet heir to Anjou a large and important area South-west of Normandy. Matilda invaded England some year later. Her fight with Stephen (Henry the first nephew) led to a terrible civil war. Neither side could win.
Then her son Henry II (1154-1189) was ruler of far more land than any previous King. His Empire stretched from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees. Other important name he was friendly with Thomas Becket, who was appointed the archbishop of Canterbury. He misjudged this man who considered his first loyalty to be the church and not the King. Becket was murdered than canonized.
So the King of the house Plantagenet was the first to have a conflict with a church and he physically destroyed the opposition.
Henry II was followed by his rebellious son Richard I the Lion Heart (1189-1199) who was the most popular King of England. Although he spend most of his time taking part in crusades in Palestine. Richard was followed by his brother John Lackland who was unpopular by his greediness. The list of his misdemeanours (wrong doings) was endless. But he did one good thing or was forced to do it.
!!! In 1215 the barons made him to sign the Magna Carta which limited the prerogative of the crown and extended the powers of barons. Has since become the foundation stone of an Englishmen liberty.

4 и 5. Magna Carta and the Decline of Feudalism
The Great Charta was an important symbol of political freedom. The king promised all "freemen" protection from his officers, and the right to a fair and legal trial. In fact MC gave no freedom to the majority of people in England. The nobles who wrote it and forced King John to sign it had no such thing in mind. They wanted to make sure John did not go beyond his rights as feudal lord.
MC marks a clear stage in the collapse of English feudalism. Every king recognized MC until the 16th century. King John was forced to pay soldiers to fight for him. (They were called "paid...

...the universal language of freedom and justice. It was the beginning of limiting the prerogatives of the Crown.
It's important to point out that by limiting the King's power, MC restricted arbitrary actions of barons towards knights and proclaimed the power of law over the free people of the country.
Vassals were gradually beginning to turn into tenants because many lords preferred their vassals to pay them in money rather than in services. Feudalism was beginning to weaken. But it took another 3 hundred years before it disappeared completely.


6. The Beginning of Parliament
King John had signed MC unwillingly, and it quickly became clear that he was not going to keep to the agreement. The nobles rebelled and soon pushed John out of the southeast. But civil war was avoided because John died suddenly in 1216.
John's son, Henry III, was only 9 years old. During the first 16 years as king he was under the control of powerful nobles, and tied by MC.
Henry was finally able to rule for himself at the age of 25. It was understandable that he wanted to be completely independent of the people who had controlled his life for so long. Henry's heavy spending and his foreign advisers upset the nobles. Once again they acted as a class, under the leadership of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester. In 1258 they took over the government and elected a council of nobles. De Montfort called it a Parliament, or parlement, a French word meaning a "discussion meeting". It took control over the treasury and forced Henry to get rid of his foreign advisers^
The country was divided into supporters and enemies of the King and a Civil war broke out. Barons were supported by townsmen and students of Oxford and church bells. In 1264 Earl Simon took the King prisoner; in 1265- Parliament was summoned with "commons" represented in it-2 knights from a shire and 2 merchants from a town. These were the 2 broad classes of people who produced and controlled England's wealth.
Prince Edward, Henry's son and heir, (later in 1272 to succeed Henry as Edward I) rescued Henry. Some nobles remained loyal to Henry III and he managed to defeat Simon de Montfort and killed him in a battle and secured his Crown and his rule.
Edward I was the first to create a "representative institution" which could provide the money he needed. This institution became the House of Commons. During the reign of Edward I (1272-1307) there were not only lords, bishops and great abbots present in the Parliament, but there were also "commons". This demonstrated the growing wealth and importance of townsmen and knights of the shire not only in the local communities but also in the whole country.
Economics and politics were very closely connected, and the King's main goal was to raise money from the population through taxes.

7. Government and Society
Social relations in the country were undergoing changes in the 13th century. Enforced labour services by villeins were giving way to wage labour, and villeins commuted their labour -dues by paying money to the lord instead.
Then the pattern changed: the lords again required labour services. But a lot of villeins were freed, and some of the freed were able, energetic or lucky enough to buy land and prosper as Yeomen.
The 13th century was a period of substantial economic activity. Wheat was shipped overseas, but the country's wealth was coming from the exports of wool. Later on, when the wool began to be made into cloth in England, rather than exported as raw material, it stimulated the growth of industry.
The royal administration began to grow quickly. The officials in Westminster had to watch the economy of the country carefully. Over half of Edward's money came from taxes, but only 1/3 came from his land and only 1/10 from his feudal vassals.
England was to a large degree an agricultural society. However, throughout the Middle Ages England needed things from abroad, such as salt and spices. Inside England there was a good deal of trade between different regions.