The Early Middle Ages

The Norman Conquest
William I.
Battle of Hastings
Domesday Book

England under the Norman and Plantagenet Kings
Economic Prosperity and Baronial Revolt
Reforms and English Parliament
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14th century
The Lancastrian and Yorkist Kings
The War of Roses
The Norman Conquest
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About 1064, the powerful English noble, Harold, earl of Wessex, was shipwrecked
on the Norman coast and taken prisoner by William. He secured his release by
swearing to support William’s claim to the English throne. When King Edward
died, however, the royal council elected Harold king.
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William secured the sanction of Pope Alexander II for a Norman invasion of
England. The duke and his army landed at Pevensey on September 28, 1066. On
October 14, the Normans defeated the English forces at the celebrated Battle of
Hastings, in which Harold was slain. William then proceeded to London, crushing
the resistance he encountered on the way. On Christmas Day he was crowned king
of England in Westminster Abbey.
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The English did not accept foreign rule without a struggle. William met the
opposition, which was particularly violent in the north and west, with strong
measures; he was responsible for the devastation of great areas of the country,
particularly in Yorkshire, where Danish forces had arrived to aid the Saxon rebels.
By 1070 the Norman conquest of England was complete.
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William invaded Scotland in 1072 and forced the Scottish king Malcolm III
MacDuncan to pay him homage. During the succeeding years the Conqueror put
down series of uprisings in Normandy led by his eldest son Robert, who later
became Robert II, duke of Normandy.
•Normans, Viking invaders from
Scandinavia who began to settle in
Normandy in northern France before
the middle of the 9th century AD.
The Normans then went on to
conquer England, southern Italy, and
Sicily.
.
•During the Middle Ages, the
Belgian heavy draft horse was
known as the Flanders Great
Horse and the Great War Horse.
William the Conqueror, who
invaded England in 1066, led
his army mounted on a Belgian
heavy draft horse. William and
his horse each wore about 440
kg of armour.
.
Born in Falaise, France, William was the illegitimate son of Robert
I, duke of Normandy, and Arletta, a tanner’s daughter, and is
therefore sometimes called William the Bastard. Upon the death of
his father, the Norman nobles, honouring their promise to Robert,
accepted William as his successor.
•Rebellion against the young duke broke out almost immediately,
however, and his position did not become secure until 1047 when,
with the aid of Henry I, king of France, he won a decisive victory
over a rebel force near Caen.
During a visit in 1051 to his childless cousin, Edward the
Confessor, king of England, William is said to have obtained
Edward’s agreement that he should succeed to the English throne.
In 1053, defying a papal ban, William married Matilda of Flanders,
daughter of Baldwin V, count of Flanders and a descendant of King
Alfred the Great, thereby strengthening his claim to the crown of
England.
•Henry I, fearing the strong bond between Normandy (Normandie)
and Flanders resulting from the marriage, attempted in 1054 and
again in 1058 to crush the powerful duke, but on both occasions
William defeated the French king’s forces.
William I
The Conqueror
(1027-1087), first
Norman king of
England (10661087).

The year 1066 was a turning point in English history. William I, the Conqueror, and
his sons gave England vigorous new leadership. Norman feudalism became the
basis for redistributing the land among the conquerors, giving England a new
French aristocracy and a new social and political structure. England turned away
from Scandinavia toward France, an orientation that was to last for 400 years.

William was a hard ruler, punishing England, especially the north, when it disputed
his authority. His power and efficiency can be seen in the Domesday Survey, a
census for tax purposes, and in the Salisbury Oath of allegiance, which he
demanded of all tenants. He appointed Lanfranc, an Italian clergyman, as
archbishop of Canterbury. He also promoted church reform, especially by the
creation of separate church courts, but retained royal control.

When William died in 1087, he gave England to his second son, William II (Rufus),
and Normandy to his eldest son, Robert. Henry, his third son, in due time got
both—England in 1100, when William II died in a hunting accident, and Normandy
in 1106 by conquest. Henry I used his feudal court and household to organize the
government. The exchequer (the royal treasury) was established at this time.

Henry wanted his daughter, Matilda, to succeed him, but in 1135 his nephew,
Stephen of Blois, seized the throne. The years from 1135 to 1154 were marked by
civil war and strife. The royal government Henry had built fell apart, and the feudal
barons asserted their independence. The church, playing one side against the other,
extended its authority.

Battle of Hastings, was fought on October 14, 1066, between a national army led by Harold II,
Saxon king of England, and an invasion force led by William, Duke of Normandy, afterward
William I (the Conqueror). Harold’s brother, Tostig, earl of Northumbria, supported William’s
claim, and at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on September 25 in Yorkshire, was slain by
Harold. The English army of about 7000 soldiers then marched from Yorkshire and occupied a
height (later called Senlac Hill) on the Hastings-London highway about 10.5 km northwest of
Hastings. The royal force was composed exclusively of infantry, armed with spears, swords,
and battle-axes. Meanwhile, William’s seaborne forces, which included infantry armed with
crossbows and contingents of heavily armed cavalry, landed on the English coast near
Hastings on September 28, 1066.

The initial Norman attack, launched in the morning of October 14, failed.The English axmen
turned back a Norman cavalry charge and several units of the English army broke ranks,
contrary to Harold's orders, and followed the retreating Normans. Other Norman troops
quickly surrounded and annihilated these units. Taking advantage of the lack of discipline
among the English soldiers, William ordered a retreat. Severely weakened by these reverses
and demoralized by the mortal wounding of Harold by an arrow, the English were forced to
abandon their strategic position on the crest of Senlac Hill. Only small remnants of the
defending army survived the subsequent onslaughts of the Norman cavalry. William's victory
at Hastings paved the way for Norman subjugation of all England.

Domesday Book, sometimes called just Domesday, written record of a statistical
survey of England ordered by William the Conqueror. The survey, made in 1086,
was an attempt to register the landed wealth of the country in a systematic fashion,
to determine the revenues due to the king. The previous system of taxation was of
ancient origin and had become obsolete. By listing all feudal estates, both lay and
ecclesiastical, the Domesday Book enabled William to strengthen his authority by
exacting oaths of allegiance from all tenants on the land, as well as from the nobles
and churchmen on whose land the tenants lived. The survey was executed by groups
of officers called legati, who visited each county and conducted a public inquiry.
The set of questions that these officers asked of the town and county representatives
constituted the Inquisitio Eliensis; the answers supplied the information from which
the Domesday Book was compiled. Domesday is a corruption of Doomsday (the day
of the final judgment); the work was so named because its judgments in terms of
levies and assessments were irrevocable.

England Under the Norman and
Plantagenet Kings.
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1.Henry II
Matilda's son, Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, succeeded, as
Henry II, in 1154. Henry II and his sons, Richard and John, expanded
royal authority. Henry ended the anarchy of Stephen's reign, banishing
mercenaries and destroying private castles. He strengthened the
government created by Henry I. Most important, he developed the
common law, administered by royal courts and applicable to all of
England.
Henry attempted to reduce the jurisdiction of church courts, especially
over clergy accused of crimes, but was opposed by Saint Thomas à
Becket, his former chancellor, whom he had made archbishop of
Canterbury. His anger at Becket's inflexibility led ultimately to
Becket's martyrdom in 1170.
Henry's empire included more than half of France and lordship over
Ireland and Scotland. His skill at governing, however, did not include
the ability to placate his sons, who rebelled against him several times,
backed by the kings of France and by their mother, Eleanor of
born 1133, Le Mans, Main,
died July 6, 1189, near Tours
By name Henry Of Anjou, Henry Plantagenet, Henry Fitzempress, or Henry
Curtmantle (Short Mantle)
duke of Normandy (from 1150), count of Anjou (from 1151), duke of Aquitaine
(from 1152), and king of England (from 1154), who greatly expanded his AngloFrench domains and strengthened the royal administration in England. His
quarrels with Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, and with members of
his family (his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and such sons as Richard the LionHeart (1157-1199) and John Lackland) ultimately brought about his defeat.
This map shows the extent of
the English and French
possessions of king Henry II.
Significant amounts of
modern France were under
the control of (or at least
claimed by) Henry.
France itself was very limited
in size. Disputes over land led
to frequent warfare,
something Pope Gregory VIII
hoped to stop by calling the
Third Crusade.
These disputes also kept
Richard the Lionheart and
Philip Augustus of France
from uniting completely
when they went on the
Crusade.
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2.Richard and John
Richard I, the Lion-Hearted, was in England only briefly. He was busy
fighting in the Crusades and later for the land lost in France during his
absence, especially while he was a captive in Germany. Even during
Richard's absence, however, the government built by Henry II
continued to function, collecting taxes to support his wars and to pay
his ransom.
John lost Normandy in 1204, and in 1213, after a long fight with Pope
Innocent III over the naming of Stephen Langton as archbishop of
Canterbury, John capitulated and acknowledged England to be a papal
fief. All this caused a quarrel with his barons over his general
leadership and their refusal to follow him into war in Normandy. The
barons, led by Langton, forced John in 1215 to accept the Magna
Carta, or Great Charter, by which he admitted his errors and promised
to respect English law and feudal custom. He died the next year, still
at war with the barons. Although the loss of Normandy seemed a
disgrace at the time, it left England free to develop its unique
institutions without outside interference.
Think no more of it, John; you are only a child who has had evil
counsellors.
Richard I (1157 - 1199)
Said at his reconciliation, at Lisieux in May 1194, with his brother
John, who had attempted to overthrow him while he was held
prisoner in Germany (1193-1194).
the Magna Carta

3.Economic Prosperity and Baronial Revolt

When John died in 1216, the barons accepted his nine-yearold son as King Henry III. They assumed control of the
government and confirmed the Magna Carta in 1225, as did
Henry when he came of age two years later. Thus began the
tradition of royal confirmation of the Magna Carta and the
idea that it was the fundamental statement of English law
and of limited government.
England prospered in the 12th and 13th centuries. Land
under cultivation increased; sheep raising and the sale of
wool became extremely important. London and other towns
became vital centres of trade and wealth, and by royal
charters they acquired the right to local self-government.
The universities of Oxford and Cambridge were established.
The population probably doubled from about 1.5 million to
more than 3 million.

Oxford University
Henry III
Cambridge University
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The monasteries, especially those of the Cistercians, led
the rural expansion and became wealthy in the process.
More than a dozen cathedrals were built, as well as scores
of abbeys and parish churches, all attesting to the wealth of
England and of its church. In the 1220s the friars,
Franciscans and Dominicans, arrived in England,
improving the quality of preaching and becoming the
leading scholars in the universities.
Henry III was not an able king, however. He quarrelled
with the barons, who thought that they, rather than his
favourites, should have the major offices. In 1258 the
Provisions of Oxford attempted to give control of the
government to a committee of barons. Civil war broke out
in 1264, and the baronial leader Simon de Montfort came
briefly to power. Montfort, however, was killed in the
Battle of Evesham in 1265, and power returned to Henry
and his able son, Edward.

4.Reforms and the English Parliament

Edward I restored royal control and made several reforms:
He limited the barons' right to hold their own courts of law;
he gave English common law and most important, he used
and developed Parliament, which was essentially the king's
feudal council with a new name and an enlarged
membership.

The Model Parliament of 1295, following Montfort's
pattern of 1265, consisted of great barons, bishops, abbots,
and representatives of counties and towns. In 1297, to get
money for his wars, Edward accepted the Confirmation of
Charters, agreeing that taxes must be agreed by the
Parliament. In the following century, Parliament divided
into two houses, Lords and Commons, and made good its
claim to control taxation and to participate in the making of
statutes.
Sir WilliamWallace: “It’s all
for nothing if you don’t have
freedom.”
Edward I, called
Longshanks, king of
England (1272-1307), of
the house of Plantagenet
THE WELSH /
ENGLISH
LONGBOW



Edward conquered northwest Wales, ending the rule
of its native princes. He built stone castles, adopted
the Welsh longbow as an English weapon, and
named his oldest son the Prince of Wales.
He intervened in Scottish affairs, even claiming the
Scottish throne. Having fought the Scots often but
with little effect, Edward died in 1307 without
having subdued the northern kingdom.
On Edward´s grave was written:“Edward, the
Hammer of the Scots“ He intended to hammer them
into the ground, but in fact he had hammered them
into a nation.

His son, Edward II, gave up the campaign. In
1314, at the Battle of Bannockburn, King Robert
Bruce made good Scotland's claim to
independence. One cost of the war was the longlasting hostility of Scotland, backed by its
alliance with France.

Edward II was a weak king, partly influenced by
favourites and partly dominated by the
ordinances of 1311 that gave the barons the
ruling power. Although he freed himself of
baronial rule in 1322, he was forced to abdicate
in 1327.
Edward II (1284 - 1327)
Robert I, the Bruce (12741329)
is surely the greatest of
all the great Scottish
heroes
The 14th century

His son, Edward III, got on well with the
barons by keeping them busy in France, where
England continued to hold extensive territory.

In 1337 he initiated the Hundred Years' War to
prove his claim to the French throne.

The English had some initial success at Crécy
(1346) and Poitiers (1356), where they used the
English longbow with deadly effect against the
French. By 1396, however, England had lost all
its previous gains. The expense of the war
repeatedly forced Edward to go to Parliament
for taxes, enabling it to bargain for concessions
and to establish its rights and privileges.
Battle of Crécy between the English and French in the Hundred Years' War.
From a 15th-century illuminated manuscript of Jean Froissart's Chronicles


Edward was born on 13 November 1312, possibly at
Windsor, the son of Edward II and Isabella of France.
Edward himself became king in 1327 after his father was
deposed by his mother and her lover, Roger Mortimer. A
year later Edward married Philippa of Hainault - they were
to have 13 children. Isabella and Roger ruled in Edward's
name until 1330, when he executed Mortimer and banished
his mother.
Edward's primary focus was now war with France. Ongoing
territorial disputes were intensified in 1340 when Edward
assumed the title of king of France, starting a war that
would last intermittently for over a century. In July 1346,
Edward landed in Normandy, accompanied by his son
Edward, the Black Prince. His decisive victory at Crécy in
August scattered the French army. Edward then captured
Calais, establishing it as a base for future campaigns. In
1348, he created the Order of the Garter.

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
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War restarted in 1355. The following year, the Black Prince won a
significant victory at Poitiers, capturing the French king, John II.
The resulting Treaty of Bretigny in 1360 marked the end of the
first phase of the Hundred Years War and the high point of English
influence in France. Edward renounced his claim to the French
crown in return for the whole of Aquitaine.
In 1369, the French declared war again. Edward left the fighting
to his sons. They enjoyed little success and the English lost much
of the territory they had gained in 1360.
After the death of his queen, Philippa, in 1369, Edward fell under
the influence of Alice Perrers, his mistress, who was regarded as
corrupt and grasping. Against a backdrop of military failure in
France and outbreaks of the plague, the 'Good Parliament' of 1376
was summoned. Perrers and other members of the court were
severely criticised and heavy taxation attacked. New councillors
were imposed on the king. The death of the Black Prince,
Edward's heir, interrupted the crisis and the king's younger son,
John of Gaunt, who had ruled the country during Edward's
frequent absence in France, later reversed the Good Parliament's
reforming efforts.
Edward died on 21 June 1377, leaving his young grandson Richard
Hundred Years' War 1337-1453
Edward the Black Prince (1330 - 1376)
Although Edward never became king - he died before his father,
Edward III - he is remembered as a great medieval military hero, with
notable victories against the French in the Hundred Years War.

During his lifetime he
was known as Edward
of Woodstock; the title
of Black Prince
developed after his
death and may refer to
black armour that he
wore.

The Black Death struck England in 1349,
reducing the population by as much as a third.
The Peasants' Revolt

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
The Peasants' Revolt in 1381 reflected
the continuing unrest
Tyler's Rebellion
There were outbreaks of violence
among the peasantry throughout
England. In London, Tyler, Ball and
Straw targeted the two people most
responsible for the poll tax:
Archbishop Sudbury, the chancellor;
and Sir Robert Hailes, the treasurer.
These two they found hiding in the
Tower of London and that is where
they were beheaded. But the rebels,
still in the grip of the myth of the
"divine right" of kings, believed
Richard a natural ally of the poor.
It was a time of economic and social
change—manorial service was being
commuted to cash payments, and
serfdom was on the way to its end in
the following century.

The move of the popes from Rome to Avignon in France
(1309-1376) and the Great Schism (1378-1417), in which
rival popes opposed one another, caused a loss of English
respect for the papacy. John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor,
criticized corruption in the church and had ideas similar to
those of the later Protestant reformers. In 1382 he was
removed by an ecclesiastical court to the country parish at
Lutterworth, and his ideas were declared heretical. His
followers, the Lollards, were persecuted but not stamped out

Richard II, the grandson of Edward III, began his reign
when he was ten years old, with rival factions fighting for
control of his government. As an adult he governed
moderately until 1397, when he became involved in a
struggle with the leading nobles. In 1399 his cousin, Henry
Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, forced him to abdicate and
became king in his place as Henry IV.
Richard II
January 6, 1367 – February 14, 1400) was King of England from 1377
until he was deposed in 1399
Richard II watches Wat Tyler's death
and addresses the peasants in the
background
The Lancastrian and Yorkist Kings

Since 1216 the royal succession had always gone to the king's eldest
son. By this rule, Henry IV, the son of John of Gaunt, Edward III's
fourth son, had no claim to the throne. The rightful heir was Edmund,
earl of March, who was descended from Edward's third son. Because
of the irregularity, Henry and his Lancastrian successors were not
secure in their claim to the throne. This weakness was manifest in his
concessions to Parliament and to the church as well as in his wars
with powerful and rebellious families in Wales and the north.

Henry V, who succeeded his father, had one ambition: to duplicate
Edward III's military exploits in France. He won a brilliant victory at
Agincourt in 1415 and had his success confirmed in the Treaty of
Troyes (1420). He married the daughter of the mad French king,
Charles VI, assumed control of the French government, although not
the entire country, and could expect a son of this marriage to inherit
both kingdoms.
Henry IV (of England) (1367-1413)
During his reign Henry IV
persecuted the religious sect
known as the Lollards.
Henry V of England
(16 September 1387 – 31 August 1422)
He was the most influential
ruler in western Europe at the
time of his death in Vincennes,
France, August 31, 1422


In 1422 both Henry and Charles VI died, bringing
the nine-month-old Henry VI to the throne of both
countries. For a time, Henry's able uncles, John of
Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, and Humphrey of
Gloucester held things together, the former in
France, the latter in England.
In 1429, however, Joan of Arc appeared, inspiring
French resistance to English rule. Although Joan
was captured and burned as a heretic in 1431, the
English position in France became increasingly
unstable.
Henry VI (of England) (1421-1471)
He had suffered attacks of insanity
all his life and was often completely
incapacitated. Henry, who founded
Eton College and King's College,
University of Cambridge, was
venerated by many as a saint
because of his piety
Joan of Arc, (c. 1412 – May 30, 1431)
was a 15th century national heroine of
France. She was tried and executed for
heresy when she was only 19 years old.
The judgment was broken by the Pope
and she was declared innocent and a
martyr 24 years later. She was beatified
in 1909 and canonized as a saint in
1920.
The Wars of the Roses

Henry VI was not capable of ruling; during his reign,
control of the kingdom passed from one noble faction
to another. The war in France only emphasized
Henry's inability at home. The loss of Normandy in
1450 and the corruption of the government, the loss
of everything in France, except Calais, in 1453, was a
prelude to the dynastic conflict called the Wars of the
Roses (1455-1485).

The wars were fought between two branches of the
royal family, the Lancastrians, who in the person of
Henry VI possessed the throne but lacked the ability
to rule, and the Yorkists, led by Richard, Duke of
York, who had a valid claim to the throne and greater
ability. The issue was complicated in 1453, when the
king's wife, Margaret of Anjou, gave birth to a son,
destroying Richard's status as heir apparent.
Lancashire rose
Yorkshire rose

The turning point in the wars came in 1460. That year Richard was
killed in battle, and his cause was taken up by his son, Edward.
Assisted by Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, he defeated the
Lancastrians in 1461, took Henry captive, and so overawed Parliament
that it acclaimed him king as Edward IV.

Henry, however, escaped, and Edward's subsequent marriage (1464)
to Elizabeth Woodville and his alliance with Burgundy alienated
Warwick, who then joined forces with Margaret of Anjou to depose
Edward and restore Henry to the throne (1470).

Edward returned the following year, supported by his brother-in-law,
Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and decisively defeated the
Lancastrians. Thereafter, he was secure on the throne and restored
some degree of sound government. When Edward died in 1483, the
throne went to his 12-year-old son, Edward V, but it was usurped three
months later by the boy's uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who
became king as Richard III. Two years later, Henry Tudor, asserting a
weak Lancastrian claim, defeated Richard at Bosworth and became
Henry VII.
Richard III (1452-1485), king of England (1483-1485)
Although Richard, the last king of the
house of York, did usurp the throne, little
doubt exists that his unscrupulousness
has been overemphasized by his enemies
and by Tudor historians seeking to
strengthen the Lancastrian position. His
immorality is strongly exaggerated in
Shakespeare's play Richard III.
King Richard's Field
Richard made a last attempt to win victory by directly attacking Henry with is
personal guard, and almost succeeded, having cut down Henry's standard bearer.
Richard's gamble failed, and he was struck down. The battle ended because his
followers had no other definite leader. Richard was the last king of England to die
on the battlefield. His death effectively ended the Wars of the Roses, and Henry
VII started a new dynasty, the Tudors.