THE EARLY NORMAN INFLUENCE ON ENGLAND (1)
When you look at the past you must learn to deviate from your modern point of view, and try to imagine the course of history as it has always been, not according to your view distorted by the time you live in. So, even if you believe that the changes that occurred in eleventh and twelfth century England were sudden, actually you must imagine that such changes had plenty of time to develop and give way for people to accept and adapt to them. In this specific case the merger between the English and the French was a natural process, and soon, even those ethnic distinctions that were specified in some documents of the time - ‘to all his faithful people, both French and English, in Hertfordshire’ you can read in Round’s ‘Feudal England’ (1895) - disappeared.
This period represented in fact a crucial moment in English history, marked by King Harold’s defeat by William the Conqueror - William I -, and the beginning of French domination.
The conquest of England was swift: the establishment of new people on English soil took very few years. Many members of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy had died at Hastings, and those who had survived the crash organized a riot, losing power by being killed or deprived of their wealth. A new Norman aristocracy prevailed on the English one, importing all its customs and looking for a way to gain the defeated people’s favour. William I took advantage of the pre-existing Anglo-Saxon administrative system starting from which he brought many changes. It is important to remember the close relationship between the English Church and the continental European one and the introduction of the Norman language as court language, which was to have a great impact on the development of English literature.
Let us start from analyzing the political condition of England in the year of its defeat. In January 1066 King Edward the Confessor died childless, leaving the question of succession open. The crown, on the day after king Edward’s death, was taken by an influential representative of the English nobility, Harold, son of Godwin, Earl of West Saxon and King Edward’s greatest adviser. William, Duke of Normandy and second cousin of King Edward, had long wished to become King of England, especially because rumor had it that Edward had assured him the crown of England. In the past Harold had promised to recognize the
- legitimate - claim to the throne of William, but when he found himself betrayed William decided to take over the kingdom by force.
William the Great, as he was known before becoming ‘the Conqueror’, was a very clever man. He had came to power at the age of six from a particularly hostile environment. In this sense the French nobles’ attempts to overthrow him are worthy of mention, though they were all won by his regents’ care.
However William was not the only pretender to the Anglo-Saxon throne at the time of King Edward’s death, and although this might seem an alarming fact, he knew how to play it in his own favor. Taking advantage of a clash between Harold and the king of Norway, William landed in England ready to fight. The preventive troops Harold had recruited against William had been sent home because of the hard winter weather, so when other Anglo-Saxon allies refused to fight alongside the English king, Harold was forced to fight only with the troops he had with him. Stationing on a hill near Hastings, he waited for the arrival of the enemy troops until the battle began at about nine o’clock in the morning. Harold’s privileged location assured him quite a few advantages, but William - smarter than him - was able to bypass enemy pitfalls feigning a withdrawal and attracting the English into open field. A terrible accident resulted in the Anglo-Saxon king’s death: Harold was pierced in the eye by an arrow. It took little time for the confusion to spread among the
English troops, and in the evening they were all scattered around the surrounding areas and overcome.
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William had won the battle but had not yet gained royal power. It took almost another year before he could attain the English crown, because of the strong resistance of England.Eventually on December 25, 1066 William the Conqueror became King of England.
In spite of this the recognition of William’s power was not complete before a few more years, and at first only the southern part of the country accepted it, so that after returning from a trip to Normandy, the new king had to face several revolts which had swept across the rest of the kingdom. Thus, the need for a substantial change in the organization and administration of the country was born and the majority of the English nobility having been killed - according to the chronicles of the time - the new Norman aristocracy could take the opportunity to seize power. In 1072 only one earl out of twelve was English.
At the same time, the Norman minority being large - even among the lower classes -, in general they felt the need to continue to use their native tongue, French, that remained the official language for more than two hundred years thanks to combined marriages and a dense network of social relations among members of both the peoples. Continuing to use their mother tongue was therefore a natural need, contrary to what is often said the French were not hostile to the English idiom. English was spoken, because it represented the
native language for more than half of the population, but it never enjoyed the same level of respectability of French. A large number of people, including the ruling classes’ representatives, seems to have known French. Henry II himself is credited to haveunderstood English - as well as many other European languages - despite using principally Latin and French.
In view of what has been said it seems thus superfluous to stress the rapid change which interested English literature too. Unfortunately we do not know much about William the Conqueror’s literary court, but there are many clues which witness the great literary activityin his successors’ courts, especially since there were not many other forms of entertainment at the time. An example of this period masterpieces can be offered by
Wace’s ‘Roman de Brut’, a work in verse by an Anglo-Norman author. This work, presented to Eleanor
of Aquitaine (1155), dealt with the history of England and King Arthur’s glorious deeds, following that mythical cycle that has been handed down - though modified - to now. Other allegorical works, romances, stories about heroes’ or saints’ lives, appeared in this period as well, justifying the great influence that French culture had on England, encouraged by the patronage of the court itself.Going beyond the cultural aspect, it is then essential to underline the importance of the close bond and interest that was born regarding continental issues from this time onwards, for the king of England being also Duke of Normandy, until Henry II took control over both England and two-thirds of France. A fact which needs to be specified is that, in opposition to people’s opinion, trips to the continent were not rulers’ exclusive domain: there were also many English nobles who travelled and often got married to foreign women.
Also the government system, as for the rest, underwent considerable changes. To name afew: the administration was entirely run by Normans; the so-called ‘forest laws’ were
introduced, whose aim was to protect much of English flora and fauna converting rural areas into ‘royal forests’; a unique survey was made: a census of all landowners compiled in 1086 and whose results were collected in the well-known ‘Domesday Book’.
Yet the integration between the French and the English does not seem to have been
difficult, and the following century events were to tie them strictly together.
Several members of the French nobility favored the construction of monasteries in order to speed up the integration process, while cities offered possibilities of interaction between French and English groups. In ‘Dialogus de Scaccario’ (1177) - about a century after the battle of Hastings - it is written that: ‘Now that the English and Normans have been dwelling together, marrying and giving in marriage, the two nations have become so mixed that it is scarcely possible today, speaking of free men, to tell who is English, who of
Norman race.’
Therefore it is not difficult to understand why this time has been so important for the English historical development. It represented a turning point which was to determine the course of future events, such as: the importance of adopting a new language which was to be the basis for a radically changed English language; a consistent approach to the continental affairs; the comparison between two cultures and mentalities up to then so removed from each other.
In summary it seems essential to emphasize this historical moment more than others, since it would otherwise be impossible - or at least extremely difficult - to try to explain and justify the following eras without a proper understanding of the effects the Norman Conquest had on eleventh century England.
(1) Reference to ‘The Norman Conquest and the Subjection of English, 1066-1200’, a chapter from ‘A History of the English Language’ by Albert C. Baugh & Thomas Cable
Nicola Simonetti, III L.C.
