Language Culture and Civilization

Third Semester

Second Year

Module Teacher: Prof. Mohammed NAOUA

Lectures of Language Culture and Civilization

British Culture and Civilization

Third Semester

2022/2023

The Foundation Stones

The Island· Britain's Prehistory

The Island

Lecture 1

The Neolithic Britons

However complicated the modern industrial state may be, land and climate affect life
in every country. They affect social and economic life, population, and even politics.
Britain is no exception. It has a milder climate than much of the European mainland
because it lies in the way of the Gulf Stream, which brings warm water and winds
from the Gulf of Mexico. Within Britain, there are differences of climate between
north and sout, east and west. The north is on average 5°C cooler than the south.
Annual rainfall in the east is on average about 600 mm, while in many parts of the
west it is more than double that. The countryside is varied also. The north and west
are mountainous or hilly. Much of the south and east is fairly flat, or low-lying. This
means that the south and east on the whole have better agricultural conditions, and it
is possible to harvest crops in early August, two months earlier than in the north. So,
it is not surprising that southeast Britain has always been the most populated part of
the island. For this reason it has always had the most political power. Britain is an
island, and Britain' s history has been closely connected with the sea. Until modern
times, it was as easy to travel across water as it was across land, where roads were
frequently unusable. At moments of great danger, Britain has been saved from danger
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by its surrounding seas. Britain's history and its strong national sense have been
shaped by the sea.

Britain's prehistory

Britain has not always been an island. It became one only after the end of the last ice
age. The temperature rose and the ice cap melted, flooding the lower-lying land that
is now under the North Sea and the English Channel. The Ice Age was not just one
long equally cold period. There were warmer times when the ice cap retreated and
colder periods when the ice cap reached as far south as the River Thames. Our first
evidence of human life is a few stone tools, dating from one of the warmer periods,
about 250, 000 BC . These simple objects show that there were two different kinds of
inhabitant. The earlier group made their tools from flakes of flint, similar in kind to
stone tools found across the north European plain as far as Russia. The other group
made tools from a central core of flint, probably the earliest method of human tool
making, which spread from Africa to Europe. Hand axes made in this way have been
found widely, as far north as Yorkshire and as far west as Wales. However, the ice
advanced again and Britain became hardly habit able until another milder period,
probably around 50 ,000 BC. During this time a new type of human being seems to
have arrived, who was the ancestor of the modern British. These people looked
similar to the modern British, but were probably smaller and had a lifespan of only
about thirty years. Around 10,000 BC, as the Ice Age drew to a close Britain was
peopled by small groups of hunter, gatherers, and fishers. Few had settled homes, and
they seemed to have followed herds of deer, which provided them with food and
clothing. By about 0555 BC Britain had finally become an island,and had also
become heavily forested . For the wanderer-hunter culture this was a disaster, for [he
cold-loving deer and other animals on which they lived largely died out.

The Neolithic Britons

About 3000 BC Neolithic (or New Stone Age) people crossed the narrow sea from
Europe in small round boats of bent wood covered with animal skins. Each could
carry one or two persons. These people kept animals and grew corn crops, and knew
how to make pottery. They probably came from either the Iberian (Spanish) peninsula
or even the North African coast. They were small, dark, and long-headed people, and
may be the forefathers of dark-haired inhabitants of Wales and Cornwall today. They
settled in the western parts of Britain and Ireland, from Cornwall at the southwest end
of Britain all the way to the far north. These were the first of several waves of
invaders before the first arrival of the Romans in 55 BC. It used to be thought that
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these waves of invaders marked fresh stages in British development. However,
although they must have brought new ideas and methods, it is now thought that the
changing pattern of Britain's prehistory was the result of local economic and social
forces.

The great "public works" of this time, which needed a huge organisation of labour,
tell us a little of how prehistoric Britain was developing. The earlier of these works
were great "barrows", or burial mounds, made of earth or stone. Most of these
barrows are found on the chalk uplands of south Britain. Today these uplands have
poor soil and few trees, but they were not like that then. They were airy woodlands
that could easily be cleared for farming, and as a result were the most easily habitable
part of the countryside. Eventually and over a very long period, these areas became
over armed, while by 1400 BC the climate became drier, and as a result this land
could no longer support many people. It is difficult today to imagine these areas,
particularly the up lands of Wiltshire and Dorset, as heavily peopled areas. Yet the
monuments remain. After 3000 BC, the chalk land people started building great
circles of earth banks and ditches. Inside, they built wooden buildings and stone
circles. These "henges", as they are called, were centres of religious, political, and
economic power. By far the most spectacular, both then and now, was Stonehenge,
which was built in separate stages over a period of more than a thousand years. The
precise purposes of Stonehenge remain a mystery, but during the second phase of
building, after about 2400 BC, huge blue stones were brought to the site from south
Wales. This could only have been achieved because the political authority of the area
surrounding Stonehenge was recognised over a very large area, indeed probably over
the whole of the British Isles. The movement of these bluestones was an extremely
important event, the story of which was passed on from generation to generation.
Three thousand years later, these unwritten memories were recorded in Geoffrey of
Monrnourh's History of Britain, written in 1136.

Stonehenge was almost certainly a sort of capital to which the chiefs of other groups
came from all over Britain. Certainly, earth or Stonehenge were built in many parts of
Britain, as far as the Orkney Islands north of Scotland, and as far south as Cornwall.
They seem to have been copies of the great Stonehenge in the south. In Ireland, the
centre of prehistoric civilization grew around the River Boyne and at Tara in Ulster.
The importance of these places in folk memory far outlasted the builders of the
monuments.

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The Beaker People

After 2400 BC, new groups of people arrived in southeast Britain from Europe.
They were round-headed and strongly built, taller than Neolithic Britons. It is not
known whether they invaded by armed force, or whether they were invited by
Neolithic Britons because of their military or metal working skills. Their influence
was soon felt and, as a result, they became leaders of British society. Their arrival is
marked by the first individual graves, furnished with pottery beakers, from which
these people get their name: the "Beaker" people.

Why did people now decide to be buried separately and give up the old
communal burial barrows? It is difficult to be certain, but it is thought that the old
barrows were built partly to please the gods of the soil, in the hope that this would
stop the chalk upland soil getting poorer. The Beaker people brought with them from
Europe a new cereal, barley, which could grow almost anywhere. Perhaps they felt it
was no longer necessary to please the gods of the chalk upland soil.

The Beaker people probably spoke an Indo-European language. They seem to

have brought a single culture to the whole of Britain. They also brought skills to
make bronze tools and these began to replace stone ones. But they accepted many of
the old ways. Stonehenge remained the most important centre until 1300 BC. The
Beaker people's richest graves were there, and they added a new circle of thirty stone
columns, this time connected by stone lintels, or cross-pieces. British society
continued to be centred on a number of henges across the countryside.

From this time, too, power seems to have shifted to the Thames valley and
southeast Britain. Except for short periods, political and economic power has
remained in the southeast ever since. Hill-forts replaced henges as the centres of local
power, and most of these were found in the southeast, suggesting that the land
successfully supported more people here than elsewhere.

There was another reason for the shift of power eastwards. A number of better-
designed bronze swords have been found in the Thames valley, suggesting that the
local people had more advanced metal working skills. Many of these swords have
been found in riverbeds, almost certainly thrown in for religious reasons. This custom
may be the origin of the story of the legendary King Arrhur's sword, which was given
to him from out of the water and which was thrown back into the water when he died.

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 Lecture 2

The Celts

Around 700 BC, another group of people began to arrive. Many of them were
tall, and had fair or red hair and blue eyes. These were the Celts, who probably came
from central Europe or further east, from southern Russia, and had moved slowly
westwards in earlier centuries. The Celts were technically advanced. They knew
how to work with iron, and could make better weapons than the people who used
bronze. It is possible that they drove many of the older inhabitants westwards into
Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Celts began to control all the lowland areas of
Britain, and were joined by new arrivals from the European mainland.

They continued to arrive in one wave after another over the next seven
hundred years. The Celts are important in British history because they were the
ancestors of many of the people in Highland Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Cornwall
today. The Iberian people of Wales and Cornwall took on the new Celtic culture.
Celtic languages, which have been continuously used in some areas since that
time, "it still spoken. The British today is often described as Anglo-Saxon. It would
be better to call them Anglo-Celt.

Our knowledge of the Celts is slight. As with previous groups of settlers, we

do not even know for certain whether the Celts invaded Britain or came
peacefully as a result of the lively trade with Europe from about 750 BC onwards, At
first most of Celtic Britain seems to have developed in a generally similar way. But
from about 500 BC trade contact with Europe declined, and regional differences
between northwest and southeast Britain increased. The Celts were organised into
different tribes, and tribal chiefs were chosen from each family or tribe, sometimes
as the result of fighting matches between individuals, and sometimes by election.

The last Celtic arrivals from Europe were the Belgic tribes. It was natural for
them to settle in the southeast of Britain, probably pushing other Celtic tribes
northwards as they did so. At any rate, when Julius Caesar briefly visited Britain in
55 BC he saw that the Belgic tribes were different from the older inhabitants. "The
interior is inhabited", he wrote, "by peoples who consider themselves indigenous,
the coast by people who have crossed from Belgium. Nearly all of these still keep the
names of the [European] tribes from which they came."

The Celtic tribes continued the same kind of agriculture as the Bronze Age
people before them. But their use of iron technology and their introduction of more
advanced sloughing methods made it possible for them to farm heavier soils.

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However, they continued to use, and build, hill forts. The increase of these,
particularly in the southeast, suggests that the Celts were highly successful farmers,
growing enough food for a much larger population. Within living memory, certain
annual fairs were associated with hill -forts. For example, there was an annual
September fair on the site of a Dorset hill-fort, which was used by the write r Thomas
Hardy in his novel Far from the Madding Crowd, published in 1874.

The Celts traded across tribal borders and trade was probably important for
political and social contact between the tribes. Trade with Ireland went through the
island of Anglesey. The two main trade outlets eastwards to Europe were the
settlements along the Thames River in the south and on the Firth of Forth in the
north. It is no accident that the present-day capitals of England and Scotland stand on
or near these two ancient trade centres. Much trade, both inside and beyond
Britain , was conducted by river and sea. For money, the Celts used iron bars, until
they began to copy the Roman coins they saw used in Gaul (France).

The Celtic tribes were ruled over by a warrior class, of which the priests, or
Druids, seem to have been particularly important members. These Druids could not
read or write, but they memorised all the religious teachings, the tribal laws, history,
medicine and other knowledge necessary in Celtic society. The Druids from different
tribes all over Britain probably met once a year. They had no temples, but they met in
sacred groves of trees, on certain hills, by rivers or by river sources. We know little of
their kind of worship except that at times it included human sacrifice.

During the Celtic period women may have had more independence than they
had again for hundreds of years. When the Romans invaded Britain two of the largest
tribes were ruled by women who fought from their chariots. The most powerful Celt
to stand up to the Romans was a woman, Boadicea. She had become queen of her
tribe when her husband had died. She was tall, with long red hair, and had a
frightening appearance. In AD 61, she led her tribe against the Romans. She nearly
drove them from Britain, and she destroyed London, the Roman capital, before she
was defeated and killed. Roman writers commented on the courage and strength of
women in battle, and leave an impression of a measure of equality between the sexes
among the richer Celts.

Lecture 3
6
 The Romans

The name "Britain" comes from the word "Pretani ", the Greco-Rornan word
for the inhabitant s of Brita in. The Romans mispronounced the word and called the
island "Britannia". The Romans had invaded because the Celts of Britain were
working with the Celts of Gaul against them. The British Celts were giving them
food, and allowing them to hide in Britain. There was another reason . The Celts used
cattle to pull their ploughs and this meant that richer, heavier land could be farmed.
Under the Celts Britain had become an important food producer because of its
mild climate . It now exported corn and animals, as well as hunting dogs and slaves ,
to the European mainland. The Romans could make use of British food for their own
army fighting the Gauls. The Romans brought the skills of reading and writing to
Britain.

The written word was important for spreading ideas and also for establishing
power. As early as AD 80, as one Roman at the time noted, the governor Agricola
"trained the sons of chiefs in the liberal arts. The result was that the people who used
to reject Latin began to use it in speech and writing. Further the wearing of our
national dress came to be valued and the toga [the Roman cloak] came into fashion."
While the Celtic peasantry remained illiterate and only Celtics peaking, a number of
town dwellers spoke Latin and Greek with ease, and the richer landowners in the
country almost certainly used Latin. But Latin completely disappeared both in its
spoken and written forms when the Anglo-Saxons invaded

Britain in the fifth century AD

Britain was probably more literate under the Romans than it was to be again
until the fifteenth century. Julius Caesar first came to Britain in 55 BC, but it was not
until almost a century later, in AD 43, that a Roman army actually occupied Britain.
The Romans were determined to conquer the whole island. They had little
difficulty, apart from Boadicea's revolt, because they had a better trained army and
because the Celtic tribes fought among themselves. The Romans considered the Celts
as warmad, "high spirited and quick for battle", a description some would still give
the Scots, Irish and Welsh today. The Romans established a Romano-British culture
across the southern half of Britain, from the River Humber to the River Severn. This
part of Britain was inside the empire beyond were the upland areas, under Roman
control but not developed. These areas were watched from the towns of York,
Chester and Caerleon in the western pen insula of Britain that later became known as

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Wales. Each of these towns was held by a Roman legion of about 7,000 men . The
total Roman army in Britain was about 40, 000 men .

The Romans could not conquer "Caledonia", as they called Scotland, although
they spent over a century trying to do so. At last they built a strong wall along the
northern border, named after the Emperor Hadrian who planned it. At the time,
Hadrian's wall was simply intended to keep out raiders from the north. But it also
marked the border between the two later countries, England and Scotland.
Eventually, th e border was established a few miles further north. Efforts to change it
in later centuries did not succeed, mainly because on either side of the border an
invading army found its supply line overstretched. A natural point of balance had
been found. Roman control of Britain came to an end as the empire began to collapse.
The first signs were the attacks by Celts of Caledonia in AD 367. The Roman legions
found it more and more difficult to stop the raiders from crossing Hadrian 's wall. The
same was happening on the European mainland as Germanic groups, Saxons and
Franks, began to raid the coast of Gaul, In A D 409 Rome pulled its last soldiers out
of Britain and the Romano-British , the Romanised Celts, were left to fight alone
against the Scots, the Irish and Saxon raider s from Germany. The following year
Rome itself fell to raiders. When Britain called to Rome for help against the raiders
from Saxon Germany in the mid-fifth century, no answer came .

Roman life

The most obvious characteristic of Roman Britain was its towns, which were
the basis of Roman administration and civilisation. Many grew out of Celtic
settlements, military camps or market centres. Broadly, there were three different
kinds of town in Roman Britain, two of which were towns established by Roman
charter. These were the coloniae, towns peopled by Roman settlers, and the
municipal, large cities in which the whole population was given Roman citizenship.
The third kind, the civitas, included the old Celtic tribal capitals, through which the
Roman s administered the Celtic population in the countryside. At first, these towns
had no walls. Then, probably from the end of the second century to the end of the
third century AD, almost every town was given walls. At first, many of these were no
more than earthworks, but by AD 300 all towns had thick stone walls.

The Romans left about twenty large towns of about 5, 000 inhabitants, and
almost one hundred smaller ones. Man y of these towns were at first army camps, and
the Latin word for camp, castra, has remained part of many town names to this day
(with the ending chester, caster or cesrer) : Gloucester, Leicester, Doncaster,
Winchester, Chester, Lancaster and many others besides. These towns were built
with stone as well as wood , and had planned streets, markets and shops. Some
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buildings had central heating. They were connected by roads which were so well built
that they survived when later roads broke up. These roads continued to be used long
after the Romans left , and became the main roads of modern Brita in. Six of the se
Roman roads met in London, a capita l city of about 20,000 people. London was
twice the size of Paris, and possibly the most important trading cent re of northern
Europe, because southeast Britain produced so much corn for export.

Outside the towns, the biggest change during the Roman occupation was
the growth of large farms, called "villas". These belonged far the richer Britons
who were, like the towns people, more Roman than Celt in their manners. Each
villa had many workers. The villas were usually close to towns so that the crops
could be sold easily. There was a growing difference between the rich and those
who did the actual work on the land . These and most people. still lived in the same
kind of round huts and villages which the Celts had been living in four hundred years
earlier. when the Romans arrived.

In some ways, life in Roman Britain seems very civilised. but it was also
hard for all except the richest. The bodies buried in a Roman graveyard at York show
that life expectancy was low. Half the entire population died between the ages of
twenty and forty while 15 percent died before reaching the age of twenty. It is very
difficult to be sure, how many people were living in Britain when the Romans left.
Probably it was as many as five million, partly because of the peace and the increased
economic life, which the Romans had brought to the count ry. The new wave of
invaders changed all that.

Lecture 4
9
 The Saxon invasion

The invaders

The wealth of Britain by the fourth century, the result of its mild climate and
centuries of peace, was a temptation to the greedy. At first, the Germanic tribes only
raided Britain, but after AD 430 they began to settle. The newcomers were warlike
and illiterate. We owe our knowledge of this period mainly to an English monk
named Bede, who lived three hundred years later. His story of events in his
Ecclesiastical History of the English People has been proved generally correct by
archaeological evidence.

Bede tells us that the invaders came from three powerful Germanic tribes, the
Saxons, Angles and Jutes. The Jutes settled mainly in Kent and along the south coast,
and were soon considered no different from the Angles and Saxons. The Angles
settled in the east, and also in the north Midlands, while the Saxons settled between
the Jutes and the Angles in a band of land from the Thames Estuary westwards. The
Anglo-Saxon migrations gave the larger part of Britain its new name, England , "the
land of the Angles".

The British Celts fought the raiders and settlers from Germany as well as they
could. However , during the next hundred years they were slowly pushed westwards
until by 570 they were forced west of Gloucester. Finally most were driven into the
mountains in the far west, which the Saxons called "Weallas", or "Wales", meaning
"the land of the foreigners". Some Celts were driven into Cornwall, where they later
accepted the rule of Saxon lords. In the north, other Celts were driven into the
lowlands of the country, which became known as Scotland. Some Celts stayed
behind, and many became slaves of the Saxons. Hardly anything is left of Celtic
language or culture in England, except for the names of some rivers, Thames,
Mersey, Severn and Avon , and two large cities, London and Leeds.

The strength of Anglo-Saxon culture is obvious even today. Days of the week
were named after Germanic gods: Tig (Tuesday), Wodin (Wednesday), Thor
(Thursday), Frei (Friday). New place-names appeared on th e map. The first of these
show that the earliest Saxon villages, like the Celtic ones, were family villages. The
ending ing meant folk or family, thus "Reading" is the place of the family of Rada,
"Hastings" of the family of Hasta. Ham means farm, ton means settlement.
Birmingham, Nottingham or Southampton , for example, are Saxon place-names.
Because the Anglo-Saxon kings often established settlements , Kingston is a frequent
place-name.

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 The Anglo-Saxons established a number of kingdoms, some of which still exist
in county or regional names to this day: Essex (East Saxons), Sussex (South Saxons),
Wessex (West Saxons), Middlesex (probably a kingdom of Middle Saxons), East
Anglia (East Angles). By the middle of the seventh century the three largest
kingdoms, those of Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, were the most powerful.

It was not until a century later that one of these kings, King Offa of Mercia
(757-96 , claimed "kingship of the English". He had good reason to do so. He was
powerful enough to employ thousands of men to build a huge dyke, or earth wall, the
length of the Welsh border to keep out the troublesome Celts. But although he was
the most powerful king of his time, he did not control all of England.

The power of Mercia did not survive after Offa's death. At that time, a king's
power depended on the person al loyalty of his followers. After his death, the next
king had to work hard to rebuild these personal feelings of loyalty. Most people still
believed, as the Celts had done, that a man's first duty was to his own family.
However, things were changing. The Saxon kings began to replace loyalty to family
with loyalty to lord and king.

Government and society

The Saxons created institutions which made the English state strong for the
next 500 years. One of these institutions was the King's Council, called the Witan.
The Witan probably grew out of inform al groups of senior warriors and churchmen
to whom kings like Offa had turned for advice or support on difficult matters. By the
tenth century the Witan was a formal body, issuing laws and charters. It was not at all
democratic, and the king could decide to ignore the Witan's advice. But he knew that
it might be dangerous to do so. For the Witan's authority was based on its right to
choose kings, and to agree the use of the king's laws. Without its support the king's
own authority was in danger. The Witan established a system which remained an
important part of the king's method of government. Even today, the king or queen has
a Privy Council, a group of advisers on the affairs of state.

The Saxons divided the land into new administrative areas, based on shires.
or counties. These shires, established by the end of the tenth century, remained
almost exactly the same for a thousand years. "Shire" is the Saxon word, "county" the
Norman one, but both are still used . (In 1974 the counties were reorganised, but
the new system is very like the old one. ) Over each shire was appointed a shire
reeve, the king's local administrator. In time his name became shortened to "sheriff".

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 Anglo-Saxon technology changed the shape of English agriculture . The Celts
had kept small, square fields, which were well suited to the light plough they used,
drawn either by an animal or two people. This plough could turn corners easily. The
Anglo-Saxons introduced a far heavier plough which was better able to plough in
long straight lines across the field . It was particularly useful for cultivating heavier
soils. But it required six or eight oxen to pull it, and it was difficult to turn. This
heavier plough led to changes in land ownership and organisation. In order to make
the best use of village land . It was divided into two or three very large fields. These
were then divided again into long thin strips. Each family had a number of strips in
each of these fields. amounting probably to a family "holding" of twenty or so acres.
Ploughing these long thin strips was easier because it avoided the problem of
turning . Few individual families could afford to keep a team of oxen, and these had
to be shared on a co-operative basis.

One of these fields would be used for planting spring crops, and another for
autumn crops. The third area would be left to rest for a year, and with the other
areas after harvest, would be used as common land for animals to feed on. This
AngloSaxon pattern, which became more and more common was the basis of
English agriculture for a thousand years until the eighteenth century. It needs only a
moment's thought to recognise that the fair division of land and of teams of oxen and
the sensible management of village land shared out between families meant that
villagers had to work more closely together than they had ever done before.

The Saxons settled previously unfarmed areas. They cut down many forested
areas in valleys to farm the richer lowland soil and they began to drain the wet land.
As a result, almost all the villages which appear on eighteenth-century maps already
existed by the eleventh century.

In each district was a "man or" or large house. This was a simple building
where local villagers came to pay taxes, where justice was administered and where
men met together to join the Anglo-Saxon army the fyrd. The lord of the manor had
to organise all this and make sure village land was properly shared. It was the
beginning of the manorial system which reached its fullest development under the
Normans.

At first the lords, or aldermen were simply local officials. But by the beginning
of the eleventh century they were warlords and were often called by a new Danish
name, earl. Both words, alderman and earl remain with us today: aldermen are
elected officers in local government and earls are high ranking nobles. It was the
beginning of a class system, made up of king, lords, soldiers, and workers on the

12
land. One other important class developed during the Saxon period, the men of
learning. These came from the Christian Church.

Lecture 5

Christianity: the Partnership of Church and State

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 We cannot know how or when Christianity first reached Britain but it was
certainly well before Christianity was accepted by the Roman Emperor Constantine
in the early fourth century AD. In the last hundred years of Roman government
Christianity became firmly established across Britain, both in Roman- controlled
areas and beyond. However, the Anglo-Saxons belonged to an older Germanic
religion and they drove the Celts into the west and north. In the Celtic areas,
Christianity continued to spread. bringing paganism to an end . The map of W ales
shows a number of place-names beginning or ending with llan. meaning the site of a
small Celtic monastery around which a village or tow n grew. In 597, Pope Gregory
the Great sent a monk Augustine to re-establish Christianity in England. He went to
Canterbury, the capital of the king of Kent. He did so because the king's wife came
from Europe and was already Christian . Augustine became the first Archbishop of
Canterbury in 601. He was very successful. Several ruling families in England
accepted Christianity. But Augustine and his group of monk s made little progress
with the ordinary people. This was partly because Augustine was interested in
establishing Christian authority, and that meant bringing rulers to t e new faith.

It was the Celtic Church, which brought Christianity to the ordinary people of
Britain. The Celtic bishops went out from their monasteries of Wales, Ireland, and
Scotland, walking from village to village, teaching Christianity. In spite of the
differences between Anglo-Saxons and Celts, these bishops seem to have been
readily accepted in Anglo-Saxon areas. The bishops from the Roman Church lived at
the courts of the kings, which they made centres of Church power across England.
The two Christian Churches, Celtic and Roman, could hardly have been more
different in character. One was most interested in the hearts of ordinary people, the
other was interested in authority and organisation. The competition between the
Celtic and Roman Churches reached a crisis because they disagreed over the date of
Easter. In 663 at then Synod (meeting) of Whitby the king of Northumbria decided to
support the Roman Church. The Celtic Church retreated as Rome extended its
authority over all Christians , even in Celtic parts of the island.

England had become Christian very quickly. By 660 only Sussex and the Isle
of Wight had not accepted the new faith. Twenty years later, English teachers
returned to the lands from which the Anglo-Saxon s had come, bringing Christianity
to much of Germany.

Saxon kings helped the Church to grow, but the Church also increased the
power of kings. Bishops gave kings their support, which made it harder for royal
power to be questioned . Kings had "God's approval ". The value of Church approval
14
was all the greater because of the uncertainty of the royal succession. An eldest son
did not automatically become king, as kings were chosen from among the members
of the royal family, and any member who had enough soldiers might try for the
throne. In addition, at a time when one king might try to conquer a neighbouring
kingdom , he would probably have a son to whom he would wish to pass this
enlarged kingdom when he died. And so when King Offa arranged for his son to be
crowned as his successor, he made sure that this was done at a Christian ceremony
led by a bishop . It was good political propaganda, because it suggested that kings
were chosen not only by people but also by God.

There were other ways in which the Church increased the power of the English
State. It established monasteries, or minsters, for example Westminster, which
were places of learning and education. These monasteries trained the men who
could read and write, so that they had the necessary skills for the growth of royal and
Church authority. The king who made most use of the Church was Alfred, the great
king who ruled Wessex from 871- 899. He used the Literate men of the Church to
help establish a system of law, to educate the people and to write down important
matters. He started the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the most important source,
together with Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, for understanding
the period.

During the next hundred years, laws were made on a large number of
matters. By the eleventh century, royal authority probably went wider and deeper in
England than in any other European country. This process gave power into the hands
of those who could read and write, and in this way class divisions were increased.
The power of landlords, who had been given land by the king, was increased because
their names were written down. Peasants, who could neither read nor write, could
lose their traditional rights to their land, because their rights were not registered.
The Anglo-Saxon kings also preferred the Roman Church to the Celtic Church for
economic reasons. Villages and towns grew around the monasteries and increased
local trade. Many bishops and monks in England were from the Frankish lands
(France and Germany) and elsewhere. They were invited by English rulers who
wished to benefit from closer Church and economic contact with Europe. Most
of these bishops and monks seem to have come from churches or monasteries
along Europe's vital trade routes. In this way, close contact with man y
parts of Europe was encouraged. In addition, they all used Latin, the written language
of Rome, and this encouraged English trade with the continent. Increased literacy
itself helped trade. Anglo-Saxon England became well known in Europe for its
exports of woollen goods, cheese, hunting dogs, pottery and metal goods. It imported
wine, fish , pepper, jewellery and wheel-made pottery.
15
 Lecture 6: The Vikings
Towards the end of the eighth century new raiders were tempted by Britain's
wealth. These were the Vikings, a word, which probably means either "pirates" or
16
"the people of the sea inlets", and they came from Norway and Denmark. Like the
AngloSaxons they only raided at first. They burnt churches and monasteries along the
east, north and west coasts of Britain and Ireland. London was itself raided in 842. In
865, the Vikings invaded Britain once it was clear that the quarrelling Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms could not keep them out. This time they came to conquer and to settle. The
Vikings quickly accepted Christianity and did not disturb the local population. By 8
75 only King Alfred in the west of Wessex held out against the Vikings, who had
already taken most of England. After some serious defeats Alfred won a decisive
battle in 878, and eight years later he captured London . He was strong enough to
make a treaty with the Vikings.

Viking rule was recognised in the east and north of England. It was called the
Danes law, the land where the law of th e Danes ruled. In the rest of th e
country Alfred was recognised as king. During his struggle against the Danes, he had
built walled settlements to keep them out. These were called burghs. They became
prosperous market towns, and the word, now usually spelt borough. is one of the
commonest endings to place names, as well as the name of the un it of municipal or
town administration today.

Viking rule was recognised in the east and north of England. It was called the
Danes law, the land where the law of the Danes ruled. In the rest of the country
Alfred was recognised as king. During his struggle against the Danes, he had built
walled settlements to keep them out. These were called burghs. They became
prosperous market towns, and the word, now usually spelt borough. is one of the
commonest endings to place names, as well as the name of the un it of municipal or
town administration today.

Who should be king?

By 950 England seemed rich and peaceful again after the troubles of the
Viking invasion, But soon afterwards the Danish Vikings started raiding
westwards. The Saxon king, Ethelred, decided to ray the Vikings to stay away. To
find the money he set a tax on all his people, called Danegeld, or " Danish money". It
was the beginning of a regular tax system of the people, which would provide the
money for armies. The ordinary villagers most heavily felt the effects of this tax,
because they had to provide enough money for their village and lord to pay Danegeld.

When Erhelred died Cnut (or Canure), the leader of the Danish Vikings,
controlled much of England. He became king for th e simple reason
that the royal council, the Witan, and everyone else, feared disorder. Rule by a
Danish king was far better than rule by no one at all. C nut died in 1035, and his son
17
died shortly after, in 1040. The Witan chose Edward, one of Saxon Erhelred's sons,
to the king .

Edward, known as "the Confessor" was more interested in the Church than in
kingship. Church building had been going on for over a century, and
he encouraged it. By the time Edward died there was a church in almost every
village. The pattern of the English village, with its manor house and
church, dates from this time. Edward started a new church fit for a king at
Westminster, just outside the city of London. In fact, Westminster Abbey was
a Norman, not a Saxon building, because he had spent almost all his life in
Normandy, and his mother was a daughter of the duke of Normandy. As their name
suggests, the Normans were people from the north, they were the children and
grandchildren of Vikings who had captured and settled in Northern France, They had
soon become French in their language and Christian in their religion, but they
were still well known for their fighting skills

Edward only lived until 1066, when he died without an obvious heir. The
question of who should follow him as king was one of the most
important in English history. Edward had brought many Normans to his English
court from France. These Normans were not liked by the more powerful Saxon
nohles, particularly by the most powerful family of Wessex, the Godwinsons. It was
a Godwinson , Harold, whom the Witan chose to be the next king of England.
Harold had already shown his bravery and ability. He had no royal
blood, but he seemed a goo d choice for the throne of England.

Harold's right to the English throne was challenged by Duke William of

Normandy. William had two claims to the English throne. His first claim was
that King Edward had promised it to him. The second claim was that Harold,
who had visited William in 1064 or 1065, had promised William that he, Harold,
would not try to take the throne for himself. Harold did not deny this second claim,
but said that he had been forced to make the promise and that because it was made
unwillingly he was not tied by it.

Harold was faced by two dangers, one in the south and one in the north. The Danish
Vikings had not given up their claim to the English throne. In 1066, Harold had to
march north into Yorkshire to defeat the Danes. No sooner had he defeated them
than he learnt that William had landed in England with an army. His men were
tired but they had no time to rest. They marched south as fast as possible.

Harold decided not to wait for the whole Saxon army the Fyrd to gather because
William's army was small. He thought he could beat them with the
18
men who had done so well against the Danes. However, the Norman soldiers
were better armed, better organised, and were mounted on horses. If he
had waited, Harold might have won. But he was defeated and killed in battle near
Hastings.

William marched to London, which quickly gave in when he began to burn villages
outside the city. He was crowned king of England in Edward's new
church of Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066. A new period had begun.

Lecture 7: The Celtic kingdoms

Wales Ireland Scotland

19
 England has always played the most powerful part in the history of the British
Isles. However, the other three countries, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, have a
different history. Until recently, few historians looked at British history except from
an English point of view. But the stories of Wales Ireland and Scotland are also
important, because their people still feel different from the Anglo-Saxon English. The
experience of the Welsh, Irish and Scots helps to explain the feeling they have today.

Wales

By the eight h century most of the Celts had been driven into the Welsh
peninsula. They were kept out of England by Offa's Dyke, the huge earth wall built in
AD 779. These Celts, called Welsh by the Anglo-Saxons, called themselves cymry,
"fellow countrymen."Because Wales is a mountainous country, the cymry could only
live in the crowded valleys. The rest of the land was rocky and too poor for anything
except keeping animals. For this reason, the population remained small. It only grew
to over half a million in the eighteenth century. Life was hard and so was the
21
behaviour of the people. Slavery was common, as it had been all through Celtic
Britain. Society was based on family groupings, each of which owned one or more
village or farm settlement. One by one in each group a strong leader made himself
king. These men must have been tribal chiefs to begin with, who later managed to
become overlords over neighbouring family groups. Each of these kings tried to
conquer the others, and the idea of a high, or senior, king developed.

The early kings travelled around their kingdoms to remind the people of their
control. They travelled with their hungry followers and soldiers. The ordinary people
ran away into the hills and woods when the king's men approached their village. Life
was dangerous, treacherous, and bloody. In ‫ة‬3501 the king of Glamorgan died of old
age. It was an unusual event, because between 949 and 1066 no less than thirty-five
Welsh rulers died violently, usually killed by a cymry, a fellow countryman.

In 1039, Gruffyddap (son of) Llewelyn was the first Welsh high king strong
enough to rule over all Wales. He was also the last, and in order to remain in control
he spent almost the whole of his reign fighting his enemies. Like many other Welsh
rulers, Gruffvdd was killed by a cymry while defending Wales against the Saxons.
Welsh kings after him were able to rule only after they had pro missed loyalty to
Edward the Confessor, king of England. The story of an independent and united
Wales was over almost as soon as it had begun.

Ireland
21
 Ireland was never invaded by either the Romans or the Anglo-Saxons. It was a
land of monasteries and had a flourishing Celtic culture. As in Wales, people were
known by the family grouping they belonged to. Outside their tribe they had no
protect ion and no name of their own. They had only the name of their tribe. The
kings in this tribal society were chosen by election. The idea was that the strongest
man should lead. In fact the system led to continuous challenges.

Five kingdoms grew up in Ireland: Ulster in the north, Munster in the

southwest, Leister in the southeast, Connaught in the west, with Tara as the seat of
the high kings of Ireland. Christianity came to Ireland in about A D 430. The
beginning of Ireland's history dates from that time, because for the first time there
were people who could write down events. The message of Christianity was spread in
Ireland by a British slave, Parrick, who became the "patron saint" of Ireland.
Christianity brought writing, which weakened the position of the Druids, who
depended on memory and the spoken word. Christian monasteries grew up,
frequently along the coast.

This period is often called Ireland's "golden age". Invaders were unknown and
culture flowered. But it is also true that the five kingdoms were often at
war, each trying to gain advantage over the other, often with great cruelty. This
22
"golden age" suddenly ended with the arrival of Viking raiders, who stole all that the
monasteries had. Very little was left except the stone memorials that the Vikings
could not carry away.

The Vikings, who traded with Constantinople (now Istanbul), Italy, and with
central Russia, brought fresh economic and political action into Irish life. Viking
raids forced the Irish to unite. In 8 59 Ireland chose its first high king, but it was not
an effective solution because of the quarrels that took place each time a new high
king was chosen. Viking trade led to the first towns and ports. For
the Celts, who had always lived in small settlements, these were revolutionary.
Dublin, Ireland's future capital, was founded by the Vikings.

As an effective method of rule, the high kingship of Ireland lasted only twelve
years, from 1002 to 1014, while Ireland was ruled by Brian Boru. He is still
looked back on as Ireland's greatest ruler. He tried to create one single Ireland, and
encouraged the growth of organization- in the Church, in administration, and in
learning. Brian Boru died in battle against the Vikings. One of the five Irish kings,
the king of Leister, fought on the Vikings' side. Just over a century later, another king
of Leister invited the Normans of England to help him against his high king. This
gave the Normans the excuse they wanted to enlarge their kingdom.

23
 Scotland

As a result of its geography, Scotland has two different societies. In the centre
of Scotland mountains stretch to the far north and across to the west, beyond which
lie many islands. To the east and to the south the lowland hill s are gentler, and much
of the countryside is like England, rich , welcoming and easy to farm. North of the
"Highland Line", as the division between highland and lowland is called, people
stayed tied to their own family groups. South and east of this line society was more
easily influenced by the changes taking place in England.

Scotland was populated by four separate groups of people. The main group, the
Piers, lived mostly in the north and northeast. They spoke Celtic as well as another,
probably older, language completely unconnected with any known language today,
and they seem to have been the earliest inhabitants of the land. The Piers were

24
different from the Celts because they inherited their rights, their names, and
property from their mothers, not from their fathers.

The non-Picrish inhabitants were mainly Scots. The Scots were Celtic settlers
who had started to move into the western Highlands from Ireland in the fourth
century. In 843, the Pictish and Scottish kingdoms were united under a Scottish king,
who could also probably claim the Pictish throne through his mother, in this way
obeying both Scottish and Pictish rules of kingship.

The third group were the Britons, who inhabited the Lowlands, and had been
part of the Romano-British world. (The name of their kingdom , Strathclyde, was
used again in the county reorganisation of 1974.) They had probably given up their
old tribal way of life by the sixth century. Finally, there were Angles from
Northumbria who had pushed northwards into the Scottish Lowlands.

Unity between Piers, Scots, and Britons was achieved for several reasons. They
all shared a common Celtic culture, language and background. Their economy mainly
depended on keeping animals. These animals were owned by the tribe as a whole,
and for this reason land was also held by tribes, nor by individual people. The
common economic system increased their feeling of belonging to the same kind of
society and the feeling of difference from the agricultural Lowlands. The sense of
common culture may have been increased by marriage alliances between tribes. This
idea of common land holding remained strong until the tribes of Scotland, called
"clans", collapsed in the eighteenth century.

The spread of Celtic Christianity also helped to unite the people. The first
Christian mission to Scotland had come to southwest Scotland in about
AD 400. Later, in 563, Columba, known as the "Dove of the Church", came from
Ireland. Through his work both Highland Scots and Picts were brought to
Christianity. He even, so it is said, defeated a monster in Loch Ness, the first
mention of this famous creature. By the time of the Synod of Whitby in 663, the
Piers, Scots and Britons had all been brought closer together by Christianity.

The Angles were very different from the Celts. They had arrived in Britain in
family groups, but they soon began to accept authority from people outside their own
family. This was partly due to their way of life. Although they kept some animals,
they spent more time growing crops. This meant that land was held by individual
people, each man working in his own field . Land was distributed for farming by the
local lord. This system encouraged the Angles of Scotland to develop a non –tribal
system of control, as the people of England further south were doing. This increased
their feeling of difference from the Celtic tribal Highlanders further north.
25
Finally, as in Ireland and in Wales, foreign invaders increased the speed of political
change. Vikings attacked the coastal areas of Scotland, and they settled on many of
the islands, Shetland, the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man southwest of
Scotland. In order to resist them, Piers and Scots fought together against the enemy
raiders and settlers. When they could not push them out of
the islands and coastal areas, they had to deal with them politically. At first the
Vikings, or "Norsemen", still served the king of Norway. But communications with
Norway were difficult. S lowly the earls of Orkney and other areas found it easier
to accept the king of Scots as their overlord, rather than the more distant king of
Norway.

However, as the Welsh had also discovered , the English were a greater danger
than the Vikings. In 934, the Scots were seriously defeated by a Wessex army
pushing northwards. The Scots decided to seek the friendship of the English, because
of the likely losses from war. England was obviously stronger than Scotland but
luckily, for the Scots, both the north of England and Scotland were difficult to control
from London. The Scots hoped that if they were reason ably peaceful the Sassenachs,
as they called the Saxons (and still call the English), would leave them alone.

Scotland remained a difficult country to rule even from its capital, Edinburgh.
Anyone looking at a map of Scotland can immediately see that control of the
Highlands and islands was a great problem. Travel was often impossible in winter,
and slow and difficult in summer. It was easy for a clan chief or nob le to throw off
the rule of the king.

Lecture 8: The Norman Conquest

Feudalism · Kingship: a family business·

26
 William the Conqueror's coronation did not go as planned. When the
people shouted "God Save the King", the nervous Norman guards at
Westminster Abbey thought they were going to attack William. In their fear,
they set fire to nearby houses and the coronation ceremony ended in
disorder. Although William was now crowned king. His conquest had only just
begun and the fighting lasted for another five years. There was an Anglo-Saxon
rebellion against the Normans every year until 1070. The small Norman army
marched from village to village, destroying places it could not control and
building forts to guard others. It was a true army of occupation for at least
twenty years. The north was particularly hard to control. and the Norman army
had no mercy. When the Saxons fought back, the Normans burnt, destroyed and
killed. Between Durham and York not a single house was left standing and it
took a century for the north to recover.
Few Saxon lords kept their lands and those who did were the very small
number who had accepted William immediately. All the others lost everything.
By 1086, twenty years after the arrival of the Normans, only two of the greater
landlords and only two bishops were Saxon, William gave the Saxon lands to
his Norman nobles, After each English rebellion there was more land to give
away. His army included Norman and other French land seekers. Over 4.000
Saxon landlords were replaced by 200 Norman ones.

Feudalism

William was careful in the way he gave land to his nobles. The king of
France was less powerful than many of the great landlords of whom William
was the outstanding example. In England, as each new area of land was
captured. William gave parts of it as a reward to his captains. This meant that
they held separate small pieces of land in different parts of the country so that
no noble could easily or quickly gather his fighting men to rebel. William only
gave some of his nobles' larger estates along the troublesome borders with
Wales and Scotland. At the same time, he kept enough land for himself to make
sure he was much stronger than his nobles were. Of all the farmland of
England, he gave half to the Norman nobles, a quarter to the Church, and kept a
fifth himself. He kept the Saxon system of Sheriffs, and used these as a balance
to local nob les. As a result, England was different from the rest of Europe
because it had one powerful family, instead of a large number of powerful
27
nobles. William and the kings after him thought of England as their personal
property.

William organized his English kingdom according to the feudal system,

which had already begun to develop in England before his arrival. The word
"feudalism" comes from the French word feu, which the Normans used to refer
to land held in return for duty or service to a lord. The basis of feudal society
was the holding of land, and its main purpose was economic. The central idea
was that all land was owned by the king but it was held by others. Called
"vassals", in return for services and goods. The king gave large estates to his
main nobles in return for a promise to serve him in war for up to forty days. The
nobles also had to give him part of the produce of the land. The greater nobles
gave part of their lands to lesser nobles, knights and other "freemen". Some
freemen paid for the land by doing military service while others paid rent. The
noble kept "serfs" to work on his own land. These were not free to leave the
estate, and were often little better than slaves.
There were two basic principles to feudalism: every man had a lord and
every lord had land, The king was connected through this "chain" of people to
the lowest man in the country. At each level, a man had to promise loyalty and
service to his lord. This promise was usually made with the lord sitting on his
chair and his vassal kneeling before him, his hands placed between those of his
lord. This was called "homage", and has remained part of the coronation
ceremony of British kings and queens until now. On the other hand, each lord
had responsibilities to h is vassals. He had to give them land and protection.

When a noble died, his son usually rook over his estate. But first, he had
to receive permission from the king and make a special payment. If he was still
a child the king would often take the produce of the estate until the boy was old
enough to look after the estate himself. In this way, the king could benefit from
the death of a noble. If all the nob le's family died the land went back to the
king, who would be expected to give it to another deserving noble. But the king
often kept the land for some years, using its wealth before giving it to another
noble

28
 If the king did not give the nobles land, they would not fight for him.
Between 1066 and the mid fourteenth century, there were only thirty years of
complete peace. So, feudal duties were extremely important. The king had to
make sure he had enough satisfied nobles who would be willing to fight for
him.
William gave our land all over England to his nobles. By 1086, he wanted
to know exactly who owned which piece of land and how much it was
worth. He needed this information so that he could plan his economy find out
how much was produced and how much he could ask in tax. He therefore
sent a team of people all through England to make a complete economic survey.
His men asked all kinds of questions at each settlement: How much land was
there? Who owned it? How much was it worth? Ho w many families, ploughs
and sheep were there? And so on. This survey was the only one of its kind in
Europe. Not surprisingly, it was most unpopular with the people, because they
felt they could not escape from its findings. It so reminded them of the
paintings of the Day of Judgement, or "doom" on the walls of their churches
that they called it the "Doomsday" Book. The name stuck. The Doomsday Book
still exists, and gives us an extraordinary amount of information about England
at this time.

29
 Lecture Kingship 9: a family business

To understand the ide a of kingship and lordship in the early Middle Ages it is
important to realise that at this time there was little or no idea of nationalism. William
controlled two large areas: Normandy, which he had been given by his father, and
England, which he had won in war. Bot h were personal possession s, and it did not
matter to the rulers that the ordinary people of one p lace were English while those of
another were French. To William the important difference between Normandy and
England was that as duke of Normandy he had to recognise the king of France as his
lord, whereas in England he was king with no lord above him.

When William died, in 1087, he left the Duchy of Normandy to his cider son,
Robert. He gave England to his second son, William, known as Rufus" (Latin for red)
because of his red hair and red face. When Robert went to fight the Muslims in the
Holy Land, he left William II (Rufus) in charge of Normandy. After all, the
management of Normandy and England was a family business. William Rufus died in
a hunting accident in 1100, shot dead by an arrow. He had not married, and therefore
had no son to take the crown. At the time of William's death, Robert was on his way
home to Normandy from the Holy Land. Their younger brother Henry knew that if he
wanted the English crown he would have to act very quickly. He had been with
William at the time of the accident. He rod e to Winchester and took charge of the
king's treasury. He the n rode to Westminster where he was crowned king three days
later. Robert was very angry and prepared to invade. But it took him a year to
organise an army.

The Norman nobles in England had to choose between Henry and Robert. This
was not easy because most of them held land in Normandy. In the end, they chose
Henry beause he was in London, with the crown already on his head. Robert's
invasion was a failure and he accepted payment to return to Normandy. But Henry
wanted more. He knew that many of his nobles would willingly follow him to
Normandy so that they could win back their Nor man lands. In 11 06 Henry invaded
Normandy and captured Robert. Normandy and England were reunited under one
ruler. Henry I's most important aim was to pass on both Normandy and England to
his successor. He spent the rest of his life fighting to keep Normandy from other
French nobles who tried to take it. But in 1120 Henry's only son was drowned at sea.

At the time, both the possible heirs to Henry were on their own estates. Matilda
was with her husband in Anjou and Henry's nephew. Stephen of Blois, was in
Boulogne, only a day's journey by sea from England. As Henry had done before him,
31
Stephen raced to England to claim the crown. Also as before, the nobles in England
had to choose between Stephen, who was in England, and Matilda who had
quarrelled with her father and who was still in France. Most chose Stephen, who
seems to have been good at fighting but little else. He was described at the time as "of
outstanding skill in arms, but in other things almost an idiot, except that he was more
inclined towards evil." Only a few nob les supported Matilda's claim.

Matilda invaded England four years later. Her fight with Stephen led to a
terrible civil war in which villages were destroyed and many people were killed.
Neither side could win, and finally in 1153 Matilda and Stephen agreed that Stephen
could keep the throne but only if Matilda's son, Henry, could succeed him.
Fortunately for England, Stephen died the following year, and the family possessions
of England and the lands in France were united under a king accepted by everyone. It
took years for England to recover from the civil war.This kind of disorder and
destruction was common in Europe, but it was shocking in England because people
were used to the rule of law and order.

Henry 1I was the first unquestioned ruler of the English throne for a hundred
years. He destroyed the castles which many nob les had built without royal
permission during Stephen's reign, and made sure that they lived in manor houses
that were undefended. The manor again became the centre of local life and
administration.

Henry 1I was ruler of far more land than any previous king . As lord of Anjou
he added his father's lands to the family empire. After his marriage to Eleanor of
Aquitaine he also ruled the lands south of Anjou. Henry ll 's empire stretched from
the Scottish border to the Pyrenees.

England provided most of Henry' s wealth , but the heart of his empire lay in
Anjou. And although Henry recognised the king of France as the overlord of all
his French lands, he actually controlled a greater area than the king of France. Many
of Henry's nobles held land on both sides of the English channel.

However, Henry quarrelled with his beautiful and powerful wife, and his sons,
Richard and John, took Eleanor's side. It may seem surprising that Richard
and John fought against their own father. But in fact they were doing their duty to the
king of France, their feudal overlord, in payment for the lands they held from him. In
1189 Henry died a broken man, disappointed and defeated by his sons and by the
French king.

31
 Henry was followed by his rebellious son, Richard. Richard I has always been
one of England's most popular kings, although he spent hardly any time in England.
He was brave, and a good soldier, but his nickname Coeur de Lion, "lionheart",
shows that his culture, like that of the kings before him, was French. Richard was
everyone's idea of the perfect feudal king. He went to the Holy Land to make war on
the Muslims and he fought with skill, courage and honour.

On his way back from the Holy Land, Richard was captured by the duke of
Austria, with whom he had quarrelled in Jerusalem. The duke demanded money
before he would let him go, and it took two years for England to pay. Shortly after, in
1199, Richard was killed in France. He had spent no more than four or five years in
the country of which he was king. When he died the French king took over parts of
Richard's French lands to rule himself.

Richard had no son, and he was followed by his brother, John. John had
already made himself unpopular with the three most important groups of people, the
nobles, the merchants and the Church.

John was unpopular mainly because he was greedy. The feudal lords in
England had always run their own law courts and profited from the fines paid by
those brought to court. But John took many cases out of their courts and tried them in
the king's courts, taking the money for himself.

It was normal for a feudal lord to make a payment to the king when his
daughter was married, but John asked for more than was the custom. In the same
way, when a noble died, his son had to pay money before he could inherit his father's
land. In order to enlarge his own income, John increased the amount they had to pay.
In other cases when a noble died without a son, it was norm al for the land to be
passed on to another nob le family. John kept the land for a long time, to benefit from
its wealth. He did the same with the bishoprics. As for the merchants and towns, he
taxed them at a higher level than ever before.

In 1204, King John became even more unpopular with his nob les. The French
king invaded Normandy and the English nobles lost their lands there. John had failed
to carry out his duty to the m as duke of Normandy. He had taken their money but he
had not protected the Ireland.

In 1209 John quarrelled with the pope over who should be Archbishop of
Canterbury. John was in a weak position in England and the pope knew it. The pope
called on the king of France to invade England, and closed every church in the
32
country. At a time when most people believed that without the Church they would go
to hell, this was a very serious matter. In 1214, John gave in, and accepted the pope's
choice of archbishop.

In 12 15 John hoped to recapture Normandy. He called on his lords to fight for

him, but they no longer trusted him. They marched to London , where they were
joined by angry merchants. Outside London at Runnymede, a few miles up the river.
John was forced to sign a new agreement

The Magna Carta and the Decline of Feudalism

This new agreement was known as "Magna Carta", the Great Charter, and
was an important symbol of political freedom. The king promised all "freemen"
protection from his officers, and the right to a fair and legal trial. At the time, perhaps
less than one quarter of the English were "freemen". Most were not free, and were
serfs or little better. Hundreds of years later, Magna Carta was used by Parliament to
protect itself from a powerful king. In fact, Magna Carta gave no real freedom to the
majority of people in England . The nobles who wrote it and forced King John to sign
it had no such thing in mind. They had one main aim: to make sure John did not go
beyond his rights as feudal lord.

Magna Carta marks a clear stage in the collapse of English feudalism. Feudal
society was based on links between lord and vassal. At Runnvmede, the nobles were
not acting as vassals but as a class. They established a committee of twenty-four
lords to make sure John kept his promises. That was not a "feudal" thing to do. In
addition, the nobles were acting in cooperation with the merchant class of towns.

The nobles did not allow John's successors to forget this charter and its
promises. Every king recognized Magna Carta, until the Middle Ages ended in
disorder and a new kind of monarchy came into being in the sixteenth century.

There were other small signs that feudalism was changing. When the king went
to war, he had the right to forty days' fighting service from each of his
lords. But forty days were not long enough for fighting a war in France. The nobles
refused to fight for longer, so the king was forced to pay soldiers to fight for him .
(They were called "paid fighters" "solidarius ", a Latin word from which the word
"soldier" comes). At the same time, many lords preferred their vassals to pay them in
money rather than in services. Vassals were gradually beginning to change into
tenants . Feudalism, the use of land in return for service was beginning to
weaken. But it took another three hundred years before it disappeared completely.
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