The House of Normandy
As soon as it became clear that the king’s initial desire to work with the old Anglo-Saxon aristocracy had failed, he set out to create a new йlite that would be loyal to him and ensure his position as king of England. That was secured by two things: castles, and knights to man them. The most famous of all the castles was the Tower of London. William I organized the government of England on the system that had been successful in Normandy – the feudal system based on the ownership of land. He granted lands confiscated from the defeated aristocracy to 170 of his followers who became thereby his tenants-in-chief. The grants of land were usually scattered through several shires. Collectively each group of lands was called an honour and each honour consisted of several smaller units called manors, divided among the 5,000 knights who had fought at Hastings. A knight had to swear loyalty to his lord. Each tenant-in-chief had 2 groups of knights: one consisting of those who were permanently part of his household and a second one including those who came in return for land. The lords themselves had to swear loyalty to the king and to supply knights for his service. The common people belonged to the knight on whose manor they lived. They had to serve as farm-workers but not as soldiers. There was also a small class of freemen, who didn’t have to work on the knight’s farm. William was a strong king and the system worked. The trouble was that under a weaker ruler the system could break down, leading to private castles and armies.
The White Tower in the Tower of London
The same revolution was applied to the Anglo-Saxon church. In Normandy William controlled all the appointments of bishops and abbots, filling them with his own friends and relations. Bishops and abbots from before 1066 either died or were deposed. They were replaced by Normans, and had to render the king rent in the form of armed knights. Together the tenants-in-chief, bishops and abbots made up the new ruling class, for the higher clergy, being educated, were essential for the running of the government. In these changes William was aided by a new archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc. Both believed that priests should be celibate. More significant for the future was the creation of special courts to deal with church cases only.
All the lords had the right to attend the king’s council and it was his duty to ask their advice. William held council meetings nearly every day, wherever he happened to be. Three times a year he held a ceremonial council for Christian feasts and wore his crown: in Winchester for Easter, in London for Whitsun and in Gloucester for Christmas. Then every lord had to attend.
Winchester castle was still the seat of Government. Here William set up his government office, which controlled the collection of taxes and kept account of all expenses. From this office men were sent out in 1086 to make a detailed record of all the wealth of England, for William, fearing invasion from Denmark, wanted to extract the maximum in taxation. The result was the Domesday Book, which gives us a complete description of the country. The book occupies 400 double-sided pages and paints a picture of a country where virtually the entire population was engaged in agriculture with little or no industry or commerce, and few towns.
As for domestic architecture, there were manor houses and castles. In early Norman England the hall, together with a few out-buildings about a courtyard constituted the entire accommodation of the manor house. The first castles had a mound or motte [6] (in modern England remains of more than 3,000 Norman mounds can be found) with a single defensive four-storey tower and a bailey, that is a fortified outer wall initially made of wood and later of stone. The most famous of the early Norman towers is the White Tower of London begun in 1078. Slightly later came circular shell-keeps like that at Windsor Castle. In the mid-12th century this style changed under the influence of the Crusades. A fine example of the new style is Conisborough Castle built about 1180 (used as a setting for the film based on Ivanhoe by W.Scott). The tower or the keep was retained as a lordly residence. [14] This was surrounded with a stone curtain wall with solid half-round towers along its length. Rings of concentric defenses were to be the future of the castle form. [13] By the second half of the 12th century the castle had already become primarily a domestic residence, but with built-in precautions for protection against social unrest.
For the invaders the conquest of England was a remarkable achievement, and enduring at that. For the native population it was a cruel and humiliating defeat which swept their civilization away. The new aristocracy saw its first loyalty not to the land they had conquered but to Normandy. For four centuries to come English kings were also to be continental rulers, and the wealth of England was expended in wars aimed at acquiring, defending and sustaining a mainland empire.
The state which William I created called for strong kings. Fortunately he was succeeded by two of his sons who were just such men, but disaster was to strike later when his grandson seized the throne. The crown passed first to the king’s second son, William Rufus, next to his fourth son Henry I, and finally to his grandson, Stephen. Stephen was a weak king, so the result was anarchy. Some of the barons went over to Matilda, the daughter of Henry I, others were loyal to Stephen. Worse, the barons began to fight private wars with each other.
Medieval England
Before his death in 1154 Stephen adopted Henry, Matilda’s son, as his heir. Henry’s father was Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, Matilda’s second husband, and his wife was Eleanor from Aquitaine. So, when he came to the thrown as Henry II (1154–1189) he held an enormous empire including England, Normandy, Brittany, Anjou and Aquitaine, and called the Angevin Empire. Henry II was the first of 13 Plantagenet kings who were to rule England for 300 years. He was universally respected as a just and wise king. He was the first literate king after the Conquest, being able both to read and write. Henry set out to restore the power of the crown and in so doing laid the foundations of a system of government that was to last for centuries. These developments came about partly because the king, having always to be on the move, needed to leave officers he could trust behind him. So successful was he in the case of England that he was able to absent himself for several years at a time, and yet order and justice were maintained. Castles illegally constructed by the barons were demolished and replaced by manor-houses. A knight’s feudal service of 40 days was of little use to Henry, who needed regular soldiers to guard his French possessions. He encouraged his lords to pay a special tax instead of sending him their knights. This allowed him to hire professional soldiers, while the knights remained at home and improved their manors.
Henry II is best remembered for his reform of the courts and the system of law. He sent out his own judges to make regular tours of the country, and any freeman could take a case to them if he didn’t trust the local courts. Most important