History of England H.W. Dulcken P.H.D. (
Ward Lock & Co )
The Norman conquerors were of the same race as the Vikings who had seized the west coast and the Danes who had ruled all England ; but in their French home they had acquired, with the language and religion, all the knowledge and refinement of the country where they settled; and their conquest of England was as the introduction of a higher civilization. In many respects the conquest was an evil. A whole race was reduced to the condition of serfs, overawed by numerous castles, and insulted by the curfew; and huge tracts of land were depopulated to make way for forests, severe game laws being enacted. But in most respects it was a gain.
The polished Norman language became that of the court and legal tribunals, and Norman manners superseded the sensuality
of the Anglo-Saxon. " The polite luxury of the Norman presented a striking contrast to the coarse voracity
of his Saxon and Danish neighbours. He loved to display his magnificence, not in huge piles of food and hogsheads
of strong drink, but in large and stately edifices, rich armour, gallant horses, choice falcons, well-ordered tournaments,
banquets delicate rather than abundant, and wines remarkable rather for their exquisite flavour than for their
intoxicating power." At the time of the Norman Conquest the Anglo-Saxons were a rude race, and so inferior
to their conquerors that they naturally fell into a state Of vassalage, and " Englishman " was an appellation
of contempt. But in little more than a century and a half the conquering and the conquered race had amalgamated
and formed the " English " people . The Anglo-Saxon language, with an admixture of Norman-French words,
became the language of the whole nation, and gradually passed into the English of the present day. The Norman craftsmen
covered the land with fine churches and castles. And while Norman refinement spread, the " tournaments "
or jousts prevented the martial spirit from decaying.
The Norman Conquest of England put an end to the Scandinavian invasions, and relieved the country from this constant
peril. It doubled the forces of England by adding Normandy to the English Crown. It gave her a new position in
European affairs: henceforward Security from there was scarcely a single important affair or negotiation on the
Continent in which she did not take part And her commerce now rapidly developed. Internally, in her religious,
civil, and political constitution, England reaped other advantages from .the Conquest, though they were not perceived
till a much later epoch. Religion had declined under the Anglo-Saxons, and morality and learning had disappeared
from the mass of the clergy. The Normans, more recent converts than the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, had a livelier,
if not a purer, faith; and the Anglo-Norman clergy for some time after the Conquest showed their superiority to
the Anglo-Saxon in learning and discipline. This progress must be attributed to the close connection maintained
with Rome, which, in the face of the Feudal System, was almost the only source of science and civilization in Europe.
The body of ecclesiastics, in great part renewed after the Conquest, as organized and disciplined by Lanfranc,
who did for the Anglo-Norman Church what had been done four centuries before him for the Anglo-Saxon Church Rellgtous
by the primate Theodorus, 668-697: faith manifested itself by a great zeal for religious foundations, and the country
was soon covered with noble edifices. In the civil and political organization of England the immediate advantage
from the Conquest was the establishment of a superior police, which was rendered comparatively easy by the graduated
nature of the military aristocracy and its close dependence on the Crown. The Conqueror forbade the sale of children
of both sexes, which had become very common.
The
Feudal System in its completeness
was introduced into England by William the Conqueror. Its existence in germ among the Anglo-Saxons has already
been referred to above.. All land that was not what was termed allodial,- that is, the absolute property of the
holder,- was held from a superior on condition of the holder performing military or other service when required.
The land thus held was called a Fief,-Latin, beneficium,-and its holder a Vassal, and the superior the Feudal Lord
or Suzerain. Each baron was the vassal of the king, and lesser proprietors were vassals of the barons, who were
thus at once vassals of the king or another prince, and suzerains of their own vassals, and so on in the whole
scale of society.
The Feudal System, as introduced into England, differed from that on the Continent. In the latter the vassal swore fealty only to his immediate superior : whereas William the Conqueror claimed all the land of England as the property of the Crown; and in the great assembly at Salisbury in 1086, after the completion of Domesday Book, he compelled the whole of the barons, lesser as well as greater, to take the oath of fealty to him ; and thus all the land of the kingdom was held directly, or by sub-infeudation,-i.e., another superior intervening,-from the king. There was no allodial land in England. There were two other parts of the system which were peculiar to England and Normandy: these were Wardships and Livery of Seisin. By Wardship the suzerain took charge of the holder, if a minor, and received the profits of the estates; if the ward was a female, and refused to marry as the suzerain directed, a fine was imposed by him on the estate; this rule was afterwards extended to male wards, and, though it gave rise to great abuses, was not abolished till 1660, under Charles II. Livery of Seisin was the release from Wardship. All the Anglo Saxons were brought under the Feudal System, and the Thanes now became Franklins, or simple freeholders. The serfs, called Villains, or Villeins, were divided, as before, into two classes: those attached to certain lands,-villeins regardant,-and those that might be sold as slaves and removed - villeins in gross. The Normans, who held most of the manors from the Crown, were called Tenants-in-Chief,-or in capite,-and they were obliged to give knight-service; that is, to appear with a certain number of armed men, according to the extent of their holdings, and to keep the field for forty days, when called by the king; and on these occasions certain grants of money, called Aids, might be demanded from them by the Crown. When the special service differed from knight-service it was called Socage, and the tenant a Socman. A century later, 1159, a tax called Scutage, or Escuage, was levied in lieu of knight-service. When portions of an estate were held on condition of performing certain menial, services, the land was said to be held by Villeinage Tenure, from which our copyhold tenure is derived.
There were 1,400 tenants-in-chief and nearly 8,000 mesne-or intermediate-superiors; and the whole of the country was divided into 60,000 fiefs. By the Conqueror's policy, individual nobles in England rarely acquired sufficient authority to defy the Crown, as they did. frequently on the Continent. Every vassal was bound to attend his superior in war, and to pay Aids also, to provide money for his ransom if he was a prisoner, for the dowry of his eldest daughter, and for the knighting of his eldest son. All who lived within the royal demesnes, and all royal towns, were liable to an arbitrary and obnoxious tax called Tallage. Other sources of revenue of the suzerain were the Reliefs or Heriots, charges paid by the new holder on succeeding to a fief; Premier Seisin, or one year's profit on a fief if the heir to a Tenure-in-Chief had attained his majority; and Purveyance, the right of taking provisions and necessaries at merely nominal prices. William also imposed the Dane-gelt to raise revenue; it was collected for the last time in 1174. When any vassal died without heirs, his property became an Escheat, and reverted to the superior by Alienation as it was termed; and the non-fulfillment of the conditions on which the vassal held his lands, entailed their forfeiture by the superior.
The ceremony of giving possession of the lands to the vassal was called the Investiture, when the vassal did. Homage, appearing bare-headed and unarmed in the presence of his suzerain, to swear that he would be true to him and defend him against all his enemies.
The Witenagemot became transformed under the Feudal System into the Common
Council of the Realm, - ' Commune Concilium Regni ',-or Great Council,-' Magnum Concilium,'- which was composed
of the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, greater barons,- or tenants-in-chief - and the lesser barons, - or
chief vassals of the greater barons. The principal men in the kingdom thus sat in this body, which was afterwards
called the Parliament. It was summoned at Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, and on special occasions, to give
its consent to the imposition of taxes and the enactment of laws.
A judicial officer, called Chief Justiciary, was created by the Conqueror to preside in the king's absence, over
the select council, the King's Chamber,- the ' Curia Regis,' or 'Aula Regis,'-which administered justice, and in
which all the great officers of State sat This court subsequently was subdivided into the Court of Exchequer, under
Henry I., Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of King's Bench, under Richard I. The Court of Exchequer presided
over all matters connected with the revenue, and received its name from the cloth which covered the table, and
which was marked like a chess-board, that the king's receipts might be scored by counters on it. The Court of Common
Pleas decided all civil causes between private persons; appeals were carried from it to the Court of King's Bench,
which also took cognisance of all matters affecting the king and the realm.
The earls, all of whom were greater barons,- baron being then the general designation of any nobleman,- had each a Baronial Court of his own, in which he dispensed justice among his vassals. Some check on these courts was kept by the old Anglo-Saxon Courts of Sessions, Judges of Assize, the County and the Hundred, which still sat under the presidency of the sheriff, whom all freeholders were bound to assist From both the baronial and the old courts an appeal might be taken to the King's Chamber; and to expedite the hearing of appeals itinerant judges, -' Justices in Eyre,' - were instituted in 1118, and regularly appointed after 1176.
To gratify the Pope, from whom William I. had derived so much aid, the ecclesiastical and civil jurisdictions were
separated, and the Ecclesiastical Courts were established. Trial by Compurgation was not abolished till the reign
of Henry II., and Trial by Ordeal continued to exist till forbidden by the Fourth Lateran Council, early in the
reign of Henry II., when the Judicial Combat took its place.
To secure obedience in the country which he had won by the sword, William the Conqueror was compelled to avail
himself of a power practically unlimited; and most of the modifications which he introduced into the laws of Edward
the Confessor were in the direction of an indefinite increase of the royal prerogative. The curfew, while serving
as a protection against fire, was a political necessity to guard against conspiracies among the conquered race.
It was from the open hostility of the Anglo-Saxons and the numerous assassinations of the Normans that the law
already mentioned, the ' Presentment of Englishry,' was found necessary: for unless a murdered man could be proved
to be an Anglo-Saxon, or Englishman, a fine was imposed on the hundred or township within which the crime was committed.
These fines later came to be regarded as merely a source of revenue, when all distinction between the two races
had disappeared: and the Presentment of Englishry was accordingly abolished. William the Conqueror's power pressed
as heavily on the Normans as on the Saxons; and in this he was imitated by his successors.
The conquered people showed itself more submissive and faithful to the new dynasty than did the Norman barons.
It is characteristic of despotism that the good which it effects is inseparable from great evils; and it was inevitable
that the power of the Anglo-Norman kings, without counterpoise, and oppressive to all, should speedily become intolerable.
From this two facts of great importance resulted. The first was, the rapid fusion of the conquering and the conquered
peoples; the second was, after this fusion was accomplished, the union of all classes, aristocrats and burghers,
large and small proprietors, against their common oppressor - a union which was singularly favourable to the revival
of the national liberties and their preservation and development .
