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The early middle ages
The Norman Conquest
Since William was crowned king , there were many rebellions against the Normans. A small Norman army marched from village to village and destroyed the ones it couldn’t control . The Normans took away the Saxon lords ’ land . Only a few Saxons who supported William could keep their land.
Feudalism
William gave parts of his conquered land to his captains around the country to avoid rebellions and uprisings. He also kept some land to himself to make sure his was much stronger than his nobles. Of all the farmland half went to his nobles, quarter to church and fifth he kept to himself.
William organised the English kingdom according to feudal system. The main purpose of using that system was economic . King gave the land to “vassals” in return of army services and goods . When a noble dies, his son took over the estate . When there was no family, the land went back to king who could give it to another noble or just keep it for a few years .
In 1086 he wanted to know exactly who was using his land and how much it produced so he could organise and plan economy and taxes . People called the book with all that information ‘the Domesday book’. And it still exists.
Kingship: a family business
After William’s death in 1087, the land went to his elder son Robert who gave England to his son William II– Rufus when he went to the holy land to fight the Muslims . When William Rufus died, he had no son to take the crown . At the time of William’s death, his father was on his way back from the holy land. Their younger brother Henry acted quickly and took the crown for himself. That made Robert very angry and tried to invade England. In 1106 Henry invaded Normandy and captured Robert. The two countries were now reunited under one king. Henry hoped to give the throne to his son, who unfortunately drowned. He hoped for another son, but got a daughter Matilda instead. Matilda married to a great French noble to make the family stronger. When Henry died, there were to heirs. One was Henry’s nephew Stephen who was in England and Matilda who was in France . Stephen acted quickly and claimed the throne to himself. Matilda invaded England a few years later . That led to a terrible civil war. Neither side could win so Matilda agreed to let Stephen be king, but her son Henry would be next. Stephen died the following year and the both countries were united under one king again . Henry II managed to put together a big empire but he fought a lot with his sons and wife . He was followed by his son Richard the Lionheart. When he died, the French king took some parts of Richards French land to himself. Richard was followed by his brother John who was already very unpopular for being greedy. In1204 he became even more unpopular because the French king invaded Normandy and the English nobles lost their land there. He was a failure as a king. He had taken the nobles money but couldn’t protect their lands. In 1215 the nobles made him sign a new agreement Magna Carta .
Magna Carta and the decline of feudalism.
The new agreement was an important symbol of political freedom . Hundreds of years later it was used by Parliament to protect themselves against the powerful king. It didn’t give the freedom to most of the people living in England. It’s only aim was to make sure that John and the kings after him wouldn’t go beyond his rights as a feudal lord again. The nobles established a committee for that. Another sign of the chaning feudalism was the army. Kings started to pay for soldiers .
The Power of the Kings of England.
Church and state
William had created Norman bishops and given them land for homage. As a result it wasn’t sure whether the bishops should obey the king or the church and that led to trouble. Both the kings and popes wanted more power and authority . First big quarrel was between William Rufus and Anselm . Finally they agreed on that only church has the power to make bishops. The crisis came when Henry II’s friend Thomas Becket was made the Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry hoped that he will help him bring the church more under his control but Thomas didn’t agree to it. He was murdered by Henry’s knights on altar steps in the cathedral . All Christian Europe was shocked and Becket became the saint of Church.
The Beginnings of Parliament
King John has signed the Magna Carta unwillingly and it was pretty clear he wasn’t going to keep to the agreement. His Son Henry III was only 16 when John died and during the first 16 year of being king he was under the control of the nobles and tied to Magna Carta. When he became 25, he spent his time with his foreign friends and became involved in expensive wars supporting Sicily. That upset the nobles. 1258 the nobles took over the government and elected a council which was called the Parliament. 1265 Henry was able to take back his full royal authority. After his death his son Edward I took the throne. He brought together the first real parliament – the House of Commons. In 1275 he commanded each shire and town to send two representatives to his parliament.
Dealing with the Celts
William I had allowed his lords to win lands by conquering. By the beginning of 12th century most of Wales was held by them. The only Welsh who were free of English rule lived around Snowdon. They were led by Llewelyn who tried to become free of the English. Edward was determined to defeat him and bring the whole Wales under his control. In 1282 Llewelyn was captured and killed . In 1284 Edward united west of Wales with England. He made his son Edward II the Prince Of Wales. Edward also tried to bring Ireland and Scotland under his control. It was difficult to get control of Scotland and eventually he died fighting against them. The fight against Scotland only made the Scots despise England and English power even more.