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E. A. Freeman and His History of the Norman Conquest

Judith A. Green

in Making History: Edward Augustus Freeman and Victorian Cultural Politics

E. A. Freeman’s History of the Norman Conquest was the work which he hoped would cement his academic standing and, at the time it was begun, finally secure a chair at Oxford. The work was initially ... More

E. A. Freeman’s History of the Norman Conquest was the work which he hoped would cement his academic standing and, at the time it was begun, finally secure a chair at Oxford. The work was initially conceived as a single volume which grew to five and an index volume. It exhibits both Freeman’s strengths and weaknesses: on the one hand his knowledge of the printed sources and topography of the sites discussed and, on the other, his stress on the Teutonic descent of the English, his over-readiness to see the present in the past, his narrow focus on political and constitutional history, and his overblown language. This essay explores the work in the context in which it was written, and its place in the historiography of the Norman Conquest.Less

Conclusions: The Fall of the House of Leofwine, 1066–1071

Stephen Baxter

in The Earls of Mercia: Lordship and Power in Late Anglo-Saxon England

This chapter describes the events which led to the fall of the house of Leofwine. It also concludes the book's treatment of the power of earls by showing how Eadwine and Morcar were deprived of it ... More

This chapter describes the events which led to the fall of the house of Leofwine. It also concludes the book's treatment of the power of earls by showing how Eadwine and Morcar were deprived of it between 1066 and 1071. They lacked influence at the Conqueror's court; their political alliances were smashed; they gradually lost their ability to exercise meaningful power in the shires and towns which lay within their earldoms; they were forced to cede territory and property to the Conqueror's followers; their family's network of religious patronage fell apart; and they proved unable to provide good lordship to their men. In short, all of the power structures which had supported the house of Leofwine between 994 and 1066 buckled and collapsed during the first five years of the Conqueror's reign, and this explains why the house itself eventually fell.Less

From Tractarian to Democrat: The Intellectual Formation of E. A. Freeman

James Kirby

in Making History: Edward Augustus Freeman and Victorian Cultural Politics

One of the most striking features of E. A. Freeman’s life and thought is the contrast between the young Tractarian student of architecture and the mature liberal, even radical, historian. This essay ... More

One of the most striking features of E. A. Freeman’s life and thought is the contrast between the young Tractarian student of architecture and the mature liberal, even radical, historian. This essay explains that the transition from the one to the other was not a process of sudden conversion or rupture, but rather a natural development. To understand the crucial years c.1846–50, when Freeman’s thought was most in ferment, a number of his early, hitherto unidentified, publications have been tracked down, including his earliest published study of the Norman Conquest. From these sources, among others, it has been possible to reconstruct how his early medievalism and anti-Erastianism evolved into a general commitment to liberty, democracy, and republicanism, without repudiating the High Anglicanism of his youth. Though apparently idiosyncratic, this intellectual development was shared to some extent by a number of prominent Victorian liberals, not least Gladstone himself.Less

Confluence: English Council, Feudal Counsel, 1066–1189

J. R. Maddicott

in The Origins of the English Parliament, 924-1327

This chapter traces the evolution of assemblies from the Norman Conquest to the death of Henry II. It shows that the Norman kings took over the Anglo‐Saxon institution of the witan, but transformed ... More

This chapter traces the evolution of assemblies from the Norman Conquest to the death of Henry II. It shows that the Norman kings took over the Anglo‐Saxon institution of the witan, but transformed it in two ways: by making attendance depend on tenure (those present were the leading tenants of the crown), and by demanding counsel as a feudal right, to which the lord‐king was entitled. It analyses the king's reasons for wanting counsel—it spread responsibility for major decisions and promoted political harmony—and the magnates' reasons for attending councils to give it. Though notions of restraints on the crown were very much in the air, promoted by the coronation charters which some kings granted at the start of their reigns, there was as yet no sense that councils were able to impose those restraints. But at the end of the period the introduction of national taxation was beginning to give rise to the need for magnate consent for taxes. This was to be one of the roots of parliament.Less

The King, the Barons, and the Shire

Sarah Rees Jones

in York: The Making of a City 1068-1350

This chapter examines the relationship between the city and royal government. Prior to the Norman Conquest the kings of England never visited York and did not maintain a royal household there. The ... More

This chapter examines the relationship between the city and royal government. Prior to the Norman Conquest the kings of England never visited York and did not maintain a royal household there. The first three Norman kings attempted to rebuild the city as a royal capital in the north and the impact of Norman colonization has been underestimated by previous historians. The chapter shows that many features of the later medieval city were the result of re-planning under the Normans, who built a royal palace, endowed new monasteries and hospitals and turned the surrounding countryside into royal forest. This royal presence was not to last. The chapter traces its disintegration and the replacement of royal institutions of personal government by both national and civic systems of bureaucratic administration. The chapter also traces the resettlement of French knights in York as part of a process of Norman colonization through which northern barons controlled the county city. It then analyses changes in the patterns of aristocratic residence in the city through the next two hundred years, culminating in a new influx of royal administrators as York temporarily became a capital base for the Edward I and Edward II in their wars against Scotland between 1298 and 1336.Less

“If We Be Conquered”: Legal Nationalism and the France of Shakespeare's English Histories

Bradin Cormack

in A Power to Do Justice: Jurisdiction, English Literature, and the Rise of Common Law

This chapter addresses the question of English legal nationalism by analyzing England's relation to France in terms of competing accounts of law French, the much-ridiculed professional language of ... More

This chapter addresses the question of English legal nationalism by analyzing England's relation to France in terms of competing accounts of law French, the much-ridiculed professional language of the common law. It argues that legal Normanism can best be understood as the historical and structural internalization of France in English institutional life and, indeed, in the English language. Legal humanists and common lawyers worked to overpower the potentially embarrassing implications of law French for English national law by relating the common law to an exemplary classical past and by remaking the Norman Conquest itself as its own reiteration and reversal in the Anglo-French wars of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The chapter argues that William Shakespeare's English histories draw powerfully on their own metadramatic resources to represent France as a continuous historical presence within England, a shadow jurisdiction to the centralizing royal authority they represent in the person of Hal/Henry V. As these plays argue it, national sovereignty, like the power of the stage itself, emerges as the hypothetical projection of jurisdiction in and through its alternatives.Less

Anglo-Saxon England

Loyn Henry

in A Century of British Medieval Studies

This chapter examines British research on the history of Anglo-Saxon England. There are about two hundred significant books and a thousand or so significant articles wholly or partly devoted to the ... More

This chapter examines British research on the history of Anglo-Saxon England. There are about two hundred significant books and a thousand or so significant articles wholly or partly devoted to the history of England between c. 450 and 1066 written by British scholars. One of the most pioneering works was Anglo-Saxon England by F.M. Stenton which covers the period from 500 to 1087. Other notable British publications during the twentieth century include The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Norman Conquest by Thomas Hodgkin and England before the Norman Conquest by Sir Charles Oman.Less

Historical Outline and the Geography of ‘Anarchy’

Oliver H. Creighton, Duncan W. Wright, Michael Fradley, and Steven Trick

in Anarchy: War and Status in 12th-Century Landscapes of Conflict

This chapter covers two areas: it provides a sketch of English society and landscape in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, and presents a year-by-year chronology of Stephen’s reign. At ... More

This chapter covers two areas: it provides a sketch of English society and landscape in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, and presents a year-by-year chronology of Stephen’s reign. At the point of Stephen’s accession to the throne in 1135, the longer-term impacts of the Norman Conquest on English society and landscape were still being played out. Ethnicity and identity in the period were fluid, and so mid-twelfth-century England was a developing Anglo-Norman state rather that a subjugated dominion. While ‘the Anarchy’ of Stephens reign is frequently styled as a civil war, the conflict was unusually complex and protracted, and involved more than two opposing sides. The period saw persistent asymmetric warfare on the borderlands of Wales, a succession of incursions from Scotland and Angevin invasions from across the English Channel, while a struggle for control of Normandy dominated the wider strategic landscape. The most characteristic feature of conflict during the period was an unprecedented series of internal rebellions, led by disloyal, disenfranchised or marginalised magnates and underlain by regional grievances.Less

Chronicle F and Canterbury Post-1066

Pauline Stafford

in After Alfred: Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and Chroniclers, 900-1150

This chapter considers the range of work on Anglo-Saxon vernacular chronicles at Canterbury after the Norman Conquest, including additions to Chronicles A and B, and the making of the bilingual Latin ... More

This chapter considers the range of work on Anglo-Saxon vernacular chronicles at Canterbury after the Norman Conquest, including additions to Chronicles A and B, and the making of the bilingual Latin and Old English Chronicle F. The scribe of Chronicle F and his monastic house, Christ Church, connected to Canterbury’s archbishops, emerge as major players. The range, which included contact with Chronicle D, the use of Chronicle /E, and the making of a brief Chronicle I, suggests a conscious engagement with the tradition of vernacular chronicle writing and an awareness of what united it. The voice of F is more overtly monastic, with Christ Church history incorporated into the story. The bilingual F, including new Latin annals, some on Norman history, in both F and /E, addressed a new mixed audience and the new situation the Conquest had created. Additions on popes and their relations with archbishops address wider European changes.Less

The Chronique des ducs de Normandie

Charity Urbanski

in Writing History for the King: Henry II and the Politics of Vernacular Historiography

This chapter examines Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronique des ducs de Normandie and why it was commissioned by Henry II. It first compares Chronique des ducs de Normandie with Wace's Roman de Rou ... More

This chapter examines Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronique des ducs de Normandie and why it was commissioned by Henry II. It first compares Chronique des ducs de Normandie with Wace's Roman de Rou before discussing Benoît's self-conscious presentation of the history of the Norman dukes based on the belief that that God has orchestrated the ascent of the Norman dynasty. In particular, Benoît attributed the dukes' continued prosperity, especially that of Henry II, and the Norman Conquest as the products of God's plan. Benoît also devoted almost 3,000 lines to William the Conqueror, including his pacification of England. This chapter also considers Benoît's account of Henry I's accession to the English throne and his marriage to Edith-Matilda, the daughter of King Malcolm and Queen Margaret of Scotland.Less

French conquest and lordship 1066–1215

D. M. Palliser

in Medieval York: 600-1540

York was devastated when the conquering Normans suppressed northern revolts, but it recovered quickly to become one of the largest and richest towns after London, a rank it retained until the ... More

York was devastated when the conquering Normans suppressed northern revolts, but it recovered quickly to become one of the largest and richest towns after London, a rank it retained until the sixteenth century. An account of the first century and a half after the Conquest emphasizes its complex society and economy, augmented by a new Jewish community, the largest north of the Trent (and despite a terrible pogrom in 1190). The townscape was transformed by new and more durable buildings, including a rebuilt cathedral (Minster) on a huge scale, two castles, monasteries, new churches, a circuit of defensive walls, and stone houses for the richer churchmen and merchants.Less

Historical Writing and Political Thought

in Political Communication and Political Culture in England, 1558-1688

This chapter concentrates on historical theory, in particular the perceived role of history as a preparation for government service by the political elite. Historical writing was centered on the ... More

This chapter concentrates on historical theory, in particular the perceived role of history as a preparation for government service by the political elite. Historical writing was centered on the actions of rulers and generals and the changes in political life shaped by war and peace. Historians should be veracious and unprejudiced, though few were thought to conform to the norm. The nature of the Norman Conquest was important to the political discussion. The histories of the Church of England and Rome played significantly in determining English political thinking. It is noted that Old and New Testament accounts were frequently employed to strengthen desired political beliefs and to controvert undesirable ones. Generally, the past played a vital role in the way the English thought about politics, political events, and the state.Less

Chronicle D: Crossing Conquest

Pauline Stafford

in After Alfred: Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and Chroniclers, 900-1150

This chapter focuses on the manuscript and last stages of Chronicle D, the relationship of work on D to 1066 and the problem of where and for whom this chronicle’s last stages were written. It covers ... More

This chapter focuses on the manuscript and last stages of Chronicle D, the relationship of work on D to 1066 and the problem of where and for whom this chronicle’s last stages were written. It covers the complex palaeography and layout of Chronicle D, and the difficulties caused by its loss of several folios and their later replacement. The chapter argues that the core of D is pre-1066, in large part probably produced in the 1040s, but that much copying and some rewriting occurred post-1066. Key English survivors are central to Chronicle D—descendants of the pre-1066 dynasty, Edgar the ætheling and his sister Margaret, who married the Scottish king; Ealdred, last Anglo-Saxon archbishop of York; bishops of Durham in retirement at Peterborough; and Earl Waltheof. No single home is suggested for Chronicle D’s last stages whose writing may reflect the diaspora of these pre-1066 survivors.Less

Prologue: Writing a Life of William the Conqueror

David Bates

in William the Conqueror

This introductory chapter details the background context behind the making of this book, from the author's motivations and influences to the approaches taken in writing the storied history of William ... More

This introductory chapter details the background context behind the making of this book, from the author's motivations and influences to the approaches taken in writing the storied history of William the Conqueror. As well, the chapter dwells on the issues surrounding such a biography of William the Conqueror—William's life has always been, and will forever remain, a morally difficult subject. It brought about massive changes, but it did so at the expense of thousands of lives and was the cause of much misery. The chapter also sets out the framework for contextualising William's life within the Norman Conquest and the broader history of Europe.Less