Central Middle Ages (11th-12th Century) PDF

The Central Middle Ages (C11-C13) used for official purposes, and was also the medium of a flourishing literature. The Church was organized in bishoprics and parishes; by thi...

The Central Middle Ages (C11-C13) used for official purposes, and was also the medium of a flourishing literature. The Church was organized in bishoprics and parishes; by this Some general western European trends in the eleventh and twelfth time most villages had a church. It was coming under the influence of the centuries reform movement emanating from Rome. Agriculture became more productive; the population grew; lords increased their power over peasants; greater wealth allowed large building projects. The Church was reorganized in the second half of the eleventh “The Norman yoke”? century, in a process sometimes called the “Gregorian reform” (after It is clear that Norman rule must have been experienced by many Pope Gregory VII). The power of the Pope in Rome increased. Clergy English people as a brutal military occupation. William imposed his were required to be celibate. Cathedrals were moved into urban authority in the north of England by a campaign of massacre and centres. The church’s freedom from secular authorities (for example in destruction in 1069-70. Throughout the kingdom, the native English the appointment of bishops) was asserted. The involvement of the aristocracy was almost entirely replaced by William’s French-speaking Church in ordinary people’s lives increased, for example through followers, who established their authority by force, building castles Church control of marriage. New monastic orders were founded, for (perhaps around 1,000 in total) in the French manner all over the country example the Cistercians. Some of these changes were starting to be (sometimes demolishing districts of English towns in the process). noticed in the British Isles before 1066; they became much more Similarly the native English holders of senior positions in the Church were apparent after. replaced by Normans and other incomers. Knights—heavily armed mounted warriors—were emerging as a class of great military and social importance. The old warrior ethos was Lordship: the feudal system being civilized by the new cultural model of chivalry, which established Under Norman rule, the land of England was distributed according to a a religious and moral code for the knights to aspire to—and later, in system of lordship and patronage that is sometimes called “feudalism”. A the twelfth century, by the literary phenomenon of “courtly love”. lord granted a fief (land) to a vassal in exchange for service: thus the king “Frankish” social and cultural patterns were spreading from a core granted land to his barons, and the barons to knights—the knights then in northern France and western Germany to peripheral areas of received labour from the peasants in exchange for protection. This was western (or Latin) Christendom (the Celtic countries, Scandinavia, perhaps not such a radical change from the pre-1066 situation as Poland and the Baltic, Hungary and Transylvania) and, through the historians used to think it was. However the circumstances of conquest, in Crusades (starting in 1095) to the Holy Land. which a new foreign ruling class took control of the country within a short period of time probably meant that bonds of lordship and patronage What had the Normans conquered? between lord and vassal were particularly tight in Norman England. England in 1066 was a united kingdom, occupying approximately its present-day territory. Its capital city was Winchester, the former Domesday Book capital of Wessex. The old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had become In 1085, William ordered a survey of all his and his tenants’ property earldoms, each governed by an eorl, appointed by the king. Below the in England. The result was the Domesday Book, completed in 1086 and earls, there was a privileged class of thegns, who held land from the still preserved in two massive volumes, giving a detailed account of the king in exchange for military service, and below them a large and country, shire by shire, village by village. Most of the 13,418 places diverse class of ceorls (peasants). The whole kingdom was divided into named in the survey still exist. shires, corresponding closely to the present-day English counties, in each of which a shire-reeve (sheriff) was responsible for administrative Norman architecture matters. The administration of justice in shire courts and hundred All the cathedrals and most of the monasteries in England were courts (the hundred was a subdivision of the shire, in which all free rebuild during the half-century after the Conquest, so that nowadays only men were expected to help to keep order) was increasingly becoming a few parish churches from Anglo-Saxon times can still be seen. The new uniform under the direction of the king’s representatives, but local church buildings were on a grander scale than those they replaced, and traditions were still strong. The English language (Old English) was were in the Romanesque style—an architecture of massive walls and piers J. Brown – British Civilization (pillars), small windows, and round arches and vaults. The Norman literatures in this period. Norman expansion into Wales, Scotland, and version of Romanesque tends to be austere, with little ornament, as later Ireland, brought with it both French and English. Orkney, Shetland, seen, for example in Durham Cathedral (begun 1093). the Hebrides and the Isle of Man were still Norwegian territory, and Most of the early castles were built of timber, and the most that mainly Norse-speaking. survives of them is the motte and bailey (mound and enclosure) earthwork on which they were built. Among early stone castles, the White Tower, William’s own castle in London, is the most famous. Monasteries New orders of monks became established throughout the British Isles in the twelfth century, notably the Cistercians, who often built their abbeys on marginal land and so expanded the frontiers of agriculture in areas like the north of England and the south of Scotland. Their largest abbey was at Rievaulx in Yorkshire. Language After 1066, French replaced English as the language of the ruling class in England, and Latin and French replaced English as the main literary languages. English continued, of course, to be spoken by the majority of people, and writing in English never completely stopped, but it did not fully recover its status until the fourteenth century, by which time it had become a very different language—Middle English—, heavily influenced by French. Notice how much modern English vocabulary is of Norman or later medieval French origin, in areas like: - law and administration: crown, parliament, minister, chancellor, reign, royal, city, court, castle, gaol, prison … - clothing: apron, bonnet, collar, jacket, jewel, ornament… - family: aunt, cousin, nephew, niece, uncle … - food: bacon, beef, mutton, pork, sausage, sugar, tripe, veal, dinner, feast, lemon, raisin … (note the different words for live animals and meat) - home: chamber, blanket, curtain, cushion, chair, wardrobe… - military: army, battle, castle, guard, navy, soldier… - social status and behaviour: noble, common, duke, gentle, peasant, villain, courtesy, chivalry… (but note that king, queen, earl, lord, lady, and knight are of Old English origin.) Outside England, Celtic languages predominated: Gaelic in Ireland and Scotland (with a common literary language, even if spoken forms were diverging), Welsh in Wales. Both Wales and Ireland had rich J. Brown – British Civilization The Normans beyond England 1. Wales. Norman lords with lands on the Welsh border (the “marcher lords”) expanded into southern parts of Wales, bringing with them also English settlers. Meanwhile the north, especially Gwynedd remained under the control of native Welsh kings (whom the Normans regarded as “princes”). 2. Scotland. The Church reforms were introduced to Scotland under Malcolm III Canmore (= “big head”) and his Anglo-Hungarian queen, Saint Margaret. During the reigns of their sons, especially David I (1124-53), who had spent time at the Norman court in England, Norman families from England were invited to take grants of land in Scotland. They brought with them English followers, who began the spread of the English language in Lowland Scotland Henry II and the Angevin empire William I (the Conqueror) died in 1087 and was succeeded on the throne by two of his sons, William II (1087-1100) and Henry I (1100- 1135). The throne of England was then contested by Henry’s daughter, Matilda, and Stephen of Blois, another grandchild of the Conqueror, and Norman England collapsed into civil war. Stephen finally won, but agreed that the son of Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou, Henry Plantagenet, would be his successor. Henry II (1154-89) thus came to the throne on Stephen’s death. As well as being King of England, his own inheritance and his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine made him lord of a large part of France (as a vassal of the French king), and he claimed overlordship throughout the British Isles. He spent most of his reign in his French territories. In 1157-8, the Welsh “princes” submitted to him, and in 1174, King William the Lion of Scotland (who had been captured while invading England) acknowledged his feudal superiority. Henry II took action to restore law and order in England after the civil wars. He increased royal control of justice, sending judges on tours of the country to administer the same “common law” everywhere. To discourage fighting among the knights, he banned tournaments in England, but after a rebellion by his sons in 1173 he re- established the duty of all free men to bear arms in the king’s service. In 1170 a long dispute over authority in the Church—particularly the jurisdiction of royal and Church courts—between Henry II and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, ended in the murder of Becket in his Cathedral by four knights acting on behalf of the king. Becket was canonized as a saint in 1173 and Henry did public penance at his tomb. J. Brown – British Civilization English involvement in Ireland Towns In 1169, a Norman lord from Wales, Richard de Clare As in other parts of Western Europe, towns grew in size and (“Strongbow”) intervened in support of the deposed king of Leinster (in importance in the thirteenth century. Boroughs (or burghs in Scotland) eastern Ireland), Diarmait Mac Murchadha. Norman knights began to were given control over their own affairs by charters issued by the king or seize land in Ireland as they had done in Wales. Henry II then came to by local lords. They were administered by mayors or baillifs in England, Ireland himself with an army in 1171 to keep control of his Norman provosts in Scotland, elected by the free burgesses and sometimes subjects, and claimed to be “lord of Ireland”, thus beginning the long assisted by elected councillors. story of English conquest in Ireland. The Anglo-Normans seem to have The early thirteenth century saw the appearance of new orders of regarded the Irish as primitive barbarians and not good Christians. monks, known as “friars”, especially the Franciscans and Dominicans. In contrast to the rural monasteries of the earlier orders, the friars Henry II’s sons established their houses in towns. Richard I (1189-99) “Coeur de Lion / the Lion-Heart” went on Crusade in 1190-92 and was then captive in Austria for two years. He Universities died in battle trying to recover territory lost in France. The school of Oxford had emerged as a university, teaching theology John (1199-1216) “Sans Terre / Lackland” lost Normandy to the and law as well as the liberal arts, by the 1190s, and the University of king of France in 1204 and almost all his other French territories soon Cambridge began when some scholars moved there in 1209 after afterwards. In 1215 he faced a revolt of the barons in England, and problems with the townspeople in Oxford. was forced to sign Magna Carta, a document imposing restraints on the king’s power and obliging him to respect the law. Gothic art and architecture In the mid-twelfth century, a new style emerged in the region of Paris. King Arthur—a British hero becomes an Anglo-Norman myth This style, which we nowadays call Gothic architecture, was characterized In the 1130s, Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote a Latin History of the by the use of pointed arches and ribbed vaults. The style was introduced Kings of Britain, in which he told a fictional history of Britain from its to England when part of Canterbury Cathedral was rebuilt after a fire in foundation by Brutus the Trojan. An important part of the book dealt the 1170s. Other important buildings in the Early English Gothic style are with stories of King Arthur and the magician Merlin, partly derived from the cathedrals of Lincoln and Salisbury. In the mid-thirteenth century Welsh traditions but probably mostly invented by Geoffrey. This part of windows became larger (and were divided by stone tracery, forming the History was expanded in versions in French (by Wace) and English decorative patterns) and flying buttresses were used to bear the weight (by Layamon). Through these and the French Arthurian romances of of the roof without the need for massive walls. The resulting lighter and Chrétien de Troyes, stories of Arthur and his knights became popular more ornamented Decorated style can be seen at Westminster Abbey among the social elite all over Western Europe, offering a literary way (1240s-1270s), and York Minster (1290s). of exploring the behaviour codes and values of chivalry. For the Anglo- In painting and sculpture, the Gothic style is characterized by greater Normans, such stories also provided a glorious British (but not Anglo- naturalism compared with Romanesque (e.g. the carved leaves at Saxon) past that they could identify with. Southwell Minster), and often treats the sacred figures in a more human On the other hand, stories of Arthur’s future return were less and intimate way. attractive to the Anglo-Normans when they became an inspiration for Welsh resistance to England. This may be why the monks of England: King, barons and Parliament Glastonbury Abbey looked for Arthur’s grave in 1191 (and said they John’s son, Henry III (1216-72) promoted a high image of kingship. He had found it, thus proving that he was dead). looked back to Edward the Confessor as a model of a wise, peaceful king, As well as the stories of Arthur, Welsh and Breton traditions also and rebuilt Edward’s abbey at Westminster as a magnificent royal church reached a wider audience in the twelfth century through the Lays of in Gothic style. He established Westminster, to the west of London, as his Marie de France (who wrote in Anglo-Norman French), and through the capital. various versions of the story of Tristan and Iseult. During his reign, Parliament came into being: an assembly, including representative knights from each shire, together with bishops and barons, which the king summoned in order to get their agreement to taxes. J. Brown – British Civilization  Henry faced rebellion by barons, led by Simon de Montfort, younger sons Camber (in Wales) and Albanact (in Scotland). The Scots demanding restrictions on his powers. Civil war broke out in 1264; responded with an alternative story, tracing their origin to the Greek Henry was captured, but escaped and defeated the rebels. Meanwhile, Gathelus and the Egyptian princess Scota. De Montfort summoned burgesses as well as knights to the Parliament of 1265. In the final settlement, the king accepted many of the barons’ demands concerning the administration of justice. Henry’s son, Edward I (1272-1307), re-established royal authority in England, but also regularly summoned Parliament, including representatives of the commons (knights and burgesses), in order to issue laws and hear petitions, as well as to raise taxes. Scotland and Norway Alexander III (1249-86) of Scotland gained the Isle of Man and the Hebrides from Norway in 1266. Angus Mor Mac Donald (founder of the Macdonald clan), the most powerful chief in the Hebrides, accepted Alexander as his overlord, but his family kept much of their independence for the next two centuries as “Lords of the Isles”. The sudden death of Alexander in 1286, followed by his only direct heir, his young granddaughter Princess Margaret of Norway in 1290, left Scotland without a clear succession to the throne. English conquests in Wales and Scotland During the troubles of Henry III’s reign in England, Llewelyn of Gwynnedd had increased his power and had been recognized as “Prince of Wales”. Edward I invaded Wales twice; the second time, in 1282, he defeated and killed Llewelyn. By the Statute of Wales, Edward brought Wales completely under English rule, and imposed English law and the English system of administration. New towns were founded, with English settlers, and a series of massive castles, including Harlech, Caernarfon and Beaumaris, were built in order to establish English rule. The most sacred relic in Wales, a fragment of the True Cross, was taken to Westminster Abbey. In Scotland, Edward became involved as an arbitrator in the succession dispute, and continued to interfere in Scottish affairs even once a new king (John Balliol) had been chosen. When Edward demanded that the Scottish nobility should support his campaigns in France, they made an alliance with France against him in 1296 and attacked England. He invaded Scotland, defeated the Scots, took the Stone of Destiny (on which Scottish kings were inaugurated) to Westminster Abbey, and established an English government in Scotland. Edward justified his conquests by invoking Geoffrey of Monmouth’s story of Brutus, the legendary founder of Britain, who had given England to his eldest son Locrine, and given him overlordship over the J. Brown – British Civilization The Jews The presence of Jews in England is first documented after 1066. They tended to specialize in lending money for interest, an activity that was forbidden to Christians. Till the late twelfth century, they seem to have had relative good relations with the non-Jewish population, but a number of massacres of Jews took place in 1189-90. In the thirteenth century, they suffered a series of persecuting measures, including having to wear a badge and being expelled from certain boroughs. Finally in 1290, Edward I expelled them from England altogether. The World Map The Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral gives a fascinating picture of the world as seen from England around 1300. It is not a map that would help travellers to find their way to their destinations, but a representation of what it is most important to know about the world. At the top of the map, Christ appears as Judge at the Last Judgement, showing that the whole world is ultimately under His rule. The world itself is represented as a circle divided into the three continents of Europe, Africa, and Asia by the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the Red Sea. The centre point is Jerusalem, where Christ was crucified. The Garden of Eden is shown in the far East (at the top of the map). Other details in the map come from ancient Greek and Latin literature, the Bible, and the Bestiary (the book of beasts, which attributes moral and religious significance to the behaviour of animals). J. Brown – British Civilization