CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION OF

ENGLISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES:
Elizabeth Woodward-Smith

THE NORMAN CONQUEST

 1066 was a remarkable year !

England had:
3 kings
2 battles
1 comet

a) Edward the Confessor

Halley’s Comet
b) Harold Godwinson
c) William Duke of Normandy

Battle of Stamford Bridge

25th September 1066
Battle of Hastings
14th October 1066
 •Edward the Confessor: died 5th Jan. 1066.
•Before dying, he (apparently) named his
brother-in-law, Earl Harold Godwinson, as
next king.
•Harold was crowned king 2 days later. But ...
•Harold’s brother Tostig (exiled) & King Harold
Hardrada (the Ruthless) of Norway planned an
invasion to take the throne. And...

•Duke William of Normandy (the Bastard)

claimed Edward had promised him the throne,
and that even Harold Godwinson had sworn
to help him. So ...

•The throne of England depended

on the outcome of the foreseeable
battles ... The cultural future of
England was in the balance ...
•Harold Godwinson waits on the south coast for the
Normans to attack.
•Meanwhile, Tostig & Harold Hardrada land in the north,
defeat the English, & make camp at Stamford Bridge,
feeling safe...

•Harold Godwinson marches

from the south, attacks the
Norwegian forces, kills both
leaders, & the invaders flee. Only
24 out of 240 original Norwegian
ships escape...
•News of William’s landing
on the south coast reaches
Harold.
•He marches south (400
km), gathering more
soldiers on the way.
•Harold fights the Normans at Hastings on 14th
October 1066.
•The battle lasts all day. The Saxons have the
advantage on top of a hill. They make a defensive
wall of shields.
•Towards evening, the Normans pretend to retreat.
The Saxons run down the hill and are cut down by
the Normans.
•Harold dies,and the Normans are victorious.
 Christmas Day 1066, William I is
crowned King of England.

•A harsh, cruel, determined ruler.

•He seized lands from Saxon
nobles, gave them to his own
supporters.
•He built impressive castles.
•He imposed harsh taxes.
•He punished rebellious regions
(north): “the Harrying of the
North”. 1069-70 killed farm
animals, burnt crops, houses,
food, tools ...
•Sick & dying refugees filled the
roads of the north.
AFTER THE BATTLE OF
HASTINGS
William still had to
conquer England, he
marched from Hastings
towards London. He took
hostages to ensure that
the surrender of villages
on the way was kept.

William gave his Norman barons lands confiscated from the

Saxons. In exchange, the barons had to be loyal to William
and provide knights to fight for him when he needed them.

(William made sure that the barons could not easily rise
against him by giving them pieces of land in different parts
of the country.)
•In their turn the barons granted land to their followers.
•The knights promised to be loyal to the barons, to fight
for them when needed and to raise money.
•The peasants had to work the land for the knights at
certain times of the year, and pay the knights in produce
(knights' families supplied with food).
•Peasants were not allowed to leave their own villages.
Every person owed his or her living to the people who had
allowed them their land and was paid in service, money or
goods.
 ARCHITECTURE

•Ordinary people lived in wooden

buildings, but the barons wanted
more permanent buildings than
the timber castles put up soon
after the battle.
•Dominant style of 11th &
•Castles, churches, cathedrals, 12th/C. W. Europe;
abbeys and monasteries were
•associated especially with
built in stone. expansion of monasticism &
large stone churches.
•Some of the stone was brought
across from Caen in Normandy. •Characteristics: massive
masonry, round-headed
The Normans brought their own
arches and vaulting inspired
style of building and decorating: by ancient Roman
ROMANESQUE = NORMAN. precedent, & stylized
ornament.
 ADMINISTRATION
DOMESDAY BOOK: 1086
“... So thoroughly did he have the enquiry carried out that not
even one ox or one cow or one pig escaped notice.” (ASC)

... the abbot of the same

place holds 13 and a half
hides. There is land for 11
ploughs. To the demesne
belongs 9 hides and 1
virgate, and there are 4
ploughs. The villeins have 6
ploughs, and there could be 1
plough more. There are 9
villeins each on 1 virgate, and
1 cottar on 5 acres, and 41
cottars who pay 40 shillings a
year for their gardens...
 SOCIOLINGUISTIC CONSEQUENCES

•For the next 300 years, French and Latin were the
dominant languages (royal court, law, administration,
poetry, music).

•English was for common people; but descendants of

Normans gradually became bilingual (mothers / nurses).

•Middle English incorporated French loan words, &

eliminated many Old English words.

•The words for most domestic animals are English (ox,

cow, calf, sheep, swine, deer), but the meats are French
(beef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, venison). Why?
•Nobility: titles derived from both French & English.
French: prince, duke, peer, marquis, viscount,
baron.
English: king, queen, lord, lady, earl.

Administrative divisions:
 from French: county, city, village, justice, palace,
mansion, residence.
 from English: town, home, house, hall
French English
close shut
reply answer
odour smell
chamber room
The Germanic form of plurals (house, housen;
shoe, shoen) was eventually displaced by the
French method of making plurals: adding an
's' (house, houses; shoe, shoes).

Only a few words have retained their

Germanic plurals: men, oxen, feet, teeth,
children.

Boys’ names: Traditional Saxon names

ETHELBERT, EGBERT, HAROLD, EDGAR... were
no longer given to those born into circles
hoping to progress socially:
ROBERT, WILLIAM, RICHARD, ROGER,
GEOFFREY, GILBERT...
THE NORMAN CONQUEST IN POPULAR
IMAGINATION

January 2004: the war in

Iraq.
Media coverage,
(im)partiality, propaganda
...
“... 1066 and all that is worth reading because it is very
funny, highly satirical and gives you an insight on how the
English see their own history.”
(University of Koblenz, Germany, English Studies
Department, recommended reading.)
WILLIAM I DIED IN 1087 (BURIED IN CAEN,
NORMANDY).
a) Duchy of Normandy to eldest son, Robert
b) England to second son, William Rufus
•Rivalry between (a) and (b)
•1096 Robert joined the First Crusade and pawned
Normandy to William Rufus
•1100, while Robert was travelling homeward, William
Rufus was killed in a hunting “accident”
•His younger brother Henry, who was - coincidentally -
hunting nearby, quickly had himself proclaimed King.
•HENRY I thought his only legitimate son would succeed him.
•But this son, William, died in 1120 in the wreck of the White
Ship.
•Henry named his daughter Matilda as his heir - an unpopular
choice.
•When Henry died, his daughter Matilda was
passed over in favour of her cousin Stephen
de Blois.
•Civil war followed (19 years):

•At last an agreement: Matilda’s son, Henry

“Plantagenet” would be the next king (Henry
II).
THE PLANTAGENET
KINGS

Henry II, crowned

in 1154, ruled:
•England
•most of Wales
•part of Ireland
•& half of France
Normandy
Brittany
Maine
Anjou
Aquitaine
Gascony
•Henry II’s chancellor, and great
friend, was Thomas Becket, a
worldly and ambitious man.

•In 1162, hoping to bring the Church

under his control, Henry appointed
Becket Archbishop of Canterbury (the
monks of Canterbury were
“persuaded” to vote for him).

•Becket suddenly became a man of

high Christian principles. Clashes with
Henry (supremacy of canon law over
civil law) forced Becket to leave the
country in 1164 (exile for 7 years).
•Thomas decided to return to Canterbury in November
1170.
•Henry II had one of his “tantrums” around Christmas day
and said: "What miserable drones and traitors have I
nourished and promoted in my household, who let their
lord be treated with such contempt by a low born priest".
“Will no one rid me of this turbulent
(troublesome/meddlesome) priest?”.
•Four nobles took him literally, and made their way to
Canterbury to confront Becket.

Becket was in the cathedral, celebrating

mass. They tried to drag him outside, he
resisted, they lost their patience.
They brutally attacked him and left him to
die on the steps to the crypt.
Soon after the death of Becket,
Pope Alexander canonised him
and the murdered priest was
elevated to sainthood.

St. Thomas Becket's shrine at

Canterbury now became the
most important place in the
country for pilgrims to visit.

Henry humbled himself to do

public penance at the tomb of
his enemy.
 Richard Burton (Thomas Becket)
Peter O'Toole (Henry II)
1935
1964
Henry's four sons - Henry the Younger,
Richard, Geoffrey and John - mistrusted
each other; resented his policy of dividing
land among them. They rebelled against
him, along with their mother, Eleanor of
Aquitaine.
•He was succeeded by second son,
Richard I (the Lion-Heart / Coeur de Lion).
•During his 10 year reign, Richard spent
little time in England (away on Third
Crusade).
•He was succeeded by his younger brother
John (Lackland) who had acted as king in
his absences in the Middle East.
 King John
•Heavy taxation, disputes with the Church (John was
excommunicated by the Pope in 1209) & unsuccessful
attempts to recover his French possessions made him
unpopular.

•Many of his barons rebelled, & in June 1215 they forced

King John to agree to a treaty accepting their reforms:

THE MAGNA CARTA

 “John, by the grace of God, King of
England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of
Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of
Anjou, to the archbishop, bishops, abbots,
earls, barons, justiciaries, foresters, sheriffs,
stewards, servants, and to all his bailiffs and
liege subjects, greetings …”

With Magna Carta, King John placed himself and

England's future sovereigns and magistrates within the
rule of law.
“No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned,...or in any other
way destroyed...except by the lawful judgment of his
peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to
none will we deny or delay, right or justice.”
Most of its 63 clauses deal with specific, and often long-
standing, grievances rather than with general principles of
law.
About two-thirds of the clauses of Magna Carta of 1215
are concerned with the misuse of their powers by royal
officials and by the king himself.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/museum/item.asp?item_id=3
•Magna Carta is often thought of as the corner-stone of
liberty and the chief defence against arbitrary and unjust rule in
England.
•In fact it contains few sweeping statements of principle, but is a
series of concessions wrung from the unwilling King John by his
rebellious barons in 1215.
•However, Magna Carta established for the first time a very
significant constitutional principle: that the power of the king
could be limited by a written grant.

Runnymede