The Norman Conquest

The conquest of England by the Normans began in 1066 with the battle at Hastings, where the English fought against the Normans. The conquest was completed in 1071.

The Normans, it will be remembered, were the Vikings or the same same ‘Northmen/Norsemen’ men from the North. Some 150 years before the conquest of England they came to a part of France, opposite England, the part which we now call Normandy. There they adopted the French language of their new home in France. They became French.

The Normans had invaded Britain three centuries earlier. They had assimilated not only the French language of the country, the northern part of which they had made their homo, but together with the Romanized Celtic tongue of the Gauls, a Celtic tribe, assimilated their culture, their advanced civilization, so that the Duke of Normandy headed an already complex feudal state. The church, fully under the influence of Rome, exercised its cultural influence to the benefit of Norman civilization, and church architecture had reached an advanced stage there, so very soon the country was filled with church edifices and abbeys in the ponderous roundshaped and wide-arched Romanesque style. The army that was to carry William’s ambitious plans of conquest into effect was superior to the Saxon “fyrd”.

When Edward the King of England died early in 1066 getting posthumously the title of “The Confessor”, the Saxon “Assembly of Wise Men”, the Witenagemot, declared Harold King. William, the Duke of Normandy, cousin to Edward the Confessor, declared himself heir to the throne of England. To make assurance doubly sure he got the Pope of Rome on his side and started preparations for an overwhelming campaign that was to sweep the Saxon rulers off the British throne for ever, placing one foreigner after another in that exacted position.

The two armies met at Senlac Hill near Hastings on October 14, 1066. In fact, the one battle of Hastings proved in the long run to sufficient for the conquest of the whole country. By 1066 the whole of England was properly subdued and even the king of Scotland acknowledged William as his lord.

To keep the Anglo-Saxon in subjection, William started building castles and strongholds, which served both symbolic and practical purposes (like the Tower of London meant to his own fortified residence and many others in all important centres). Twenty years after the Conquest William I organized a registration of all the holders of arable land, all the taxes paid. The census was nicknamed “Doomsday Book” (“Doomsday” is the supposed Day of the Final Judgement when the souls of the dead are expected to be tried). From this document one can see that the process of village community, or township, developing into the feudal manor. The population of England, according to the data of the “Doomsday” census takers, amounted to the imposing figure of about two million.

After William’s death in 1087 the crown passed to his son William the Second (1087-1100). The Norman conquerors that constituted the top of the ruling class of England had an imperative need of strong state machinery to defend their privileges. This circumstance accounts for a very important peculiarity of the English feudal state, its early centralization and the relative durability of royal power.

Historians say that England had a development that was unique in European history. From the start, the power of the state was greater than the power of the feudal nobility. The sheriffs, the representatives of the central government in each county, remained stronger than any baron in his territory. The basic production unit of the fully developed feudal society in England was the manor, which started taking shape before the Norman conquest but did not attain ultimate completion until the 13^th – 14^th cc.

What did the Norman Conquest do to England? It gave England French kings and nobles. The Normans also brought with them the French language. After the Norman Conquest there were three languages in England. There was Latin, the language of Church and the language in which all learned men wrote and spoke, the kings wrote their laws in Latin for some time after the Conquest. Then there was French, the language which the kings and nobles spoke and which many people wrote. Finally, there was the English language which remained the language of the masses. Some men knew all these languages, many knew two, but most of the people knew only one. There were some people who understood the French language though they could not speak it. Rich people who owned land – the landowners, often knew French and Latin. But poor people, the peasants, did not understand French and Latin. They understood only English.

In time, however, came the general use of the English language. About 1350 English became the language of law.

But the English language when it came into general use was not quite the same as it used to be before the Conquest. The grammar remained, but many words came into English from the French language.