Anglo Saxons Unit 3 Flashcards
What were the roles of a tenant in chief?
Military
- Defend their fief and put down opposition
- Lead their own band of knights
Social
- Provided knights for the king, so at the centre of land distribution
Political
- Often on the royal council
Changes to landholding with the Feudal system
Landholding was simplified
- The king now owned all the land
- In AS England, land went to heirs
- In Norman England, you had to pay and prove loyalty to the king
- The payment was called a relief
- The King could decide how much the payment is - Helped him reward followers and threaten difficult landholders with low or high relief
Homage, Labour service and Forfeiture
Homage
- Homage is a ceremony that took place whenever a tennant in chief was granted land
- He swore loyalty to the king
Labour service
- Working the kings land in return for the use of the land, mostly agricultral
Forfeiture
- If the landholder didnt fulfil the duties to their land, it would be given up and went back to the king to redistribute
The Church - Government connections
Bishops and abbots were well educated, so were advisers
Bishops helped develop laws and legally advised the king
Church clerks issued the kings writs
The senior members (archbshops) actd on the kings behalf in negotiations and as regent
After the revolts, william replaced the AS with the normans eg Stigand with Lanfranc as Archbishop
Stigand vs Lanfranc
- LF replaced S after the rebellions, as William trusted a Norman more
Lanfranc did religious reform and reorganised the church
Lanfranc rebuilt churches, and reinforced Norman rule
Stigand and Lanfranc - Government
- Witan members
- Advisers
- Kings administration
Stigand and Lanfranc - Legal
Oversaw shire courts and hundred courts
Differences in beliefs
- Stigand was appointed by earl Godwin, while Lanfranc thought that he should have been selected by someone chosen by god
- Lanfranc convinced William to make the Archbishop of Canterbury the head of the church = more power
- Lanfranc thought that being bishop for more than one area was money grabbing, and the church should stand above that
Lanfranc’s Reform of the Church - He invented the church courts here
Priests were separated from everyday life, with celibacy and no marriage allowed
Clergy should be tried in church courts , not hundred courts
- Church courts invented
Isolated AS cathedrals were rebuilt in more prominent areas such as market towns so the bishop had more control
Monastic values were promoted, with monasteries making a comeback
Spiritual life, prayer etc
Lanfranc brought a book of norman legal matter s with him to inspire laws in england and change others
General Normanisation of the Church - rebuilding, bishops, AS removal
Leaders and cathedrals were replaced with Normans and Norman style architecture
- Within 50 years, the Normans had rebuilt almost every church structure in the Norman style
The church held lots of land, so removing AS stopped too much power going to possible rebellions
Normanised church gave William more power
He oversaw church councils and gave his approval to descisions
Bishops were appointed by the king when one dies
While the church has no bishop william recieved money
William controlled pope communication, and stopped the church leaders from listening to the pope rather than him
Continuity with Norman Rule
Village life is much the same, agriculturally dominated
However
- Economic demands for peasants increased, the Normans wanted more money out of them
The royal household remained, but with normans instead
There was nothing like the geld tax in Normandy, and william used it heavily to extract wealth from the AS and give it to Normans and Normandy
Change with Norman Rule
Castle building
Towns were demolished to make room
Trade
All Scandinavian trade was cut off, and the harrying removed all economy in the north
Trade with Normandy increased and big English cities grew
Tenants in chief replace earls
- Much more under the kings control
- Had to provide services and had less land
Thegns replaced by knights
- Who depended on the TIC’s, who in turn
depended on william
- Most knights were poor
Changes to Government - Centralised power
In AS england
Edward relied on earl support to exile Earl Godwin, and couldn’t stop him from returning
Edward had to get the earls to agree to exile Tostig, because they wouldn’t lead an army to fight him
William needed to gain control back over the population
- William owned all the land, and used homage, forfeits and relief to maintain control
- Feudal system = everyone who uses land is under the king, and depends on him
- Geld tax goes to king = more money
- Knight service - TIC’s troops, but they were loyal to the king, rather than, previously, the earl in AS times
- The domesday book - A guide to how much the TIC’s and the undertenants were worth so william could get optimal wealth from them
Reduced role of Earls
Earldoms were smaller
- Some earldoms were phased out eg Wessex or Mercia
Marcher earldom powers given after the invasion were reduced
Earls were TIC’s and had the same duties to the land
This loss of power led to the revolt of the earls and unrest
No one had too much power
Regents
William used his most trusted advisers as regents while he was in normandy
- Lanfranc was regent in 1075 and countered the revolt of the Earls
- William and Lanfranc were in
constant contact , with Lanfranc
assuring william everything was
under control
William tended to return to england when trouble was brewing, leaving his wife Matilda as regent
- William used Matilda because the previous actions of FitzOsbern and Odo had made him lose trust in them
Sheriffs
He was the kings representative, and collected the geld tax, and managed the kings own estates
He was the earls representative, and oversaw military obligations in shrires and made sure justice was delivered
Sherrifs remained the same in AS and norman times
But william replaced them with loyal normans, because some AS sherrifs joined rebellions
Before, the sheriff was less important than his earl, but norman sherrifs answered to the king only
The justice delivered focused more on crimes against normans
The sheriff still oversaw military obligation, but now it ran with knight service, which the sheriff was not responsible for = less power/influence
Sheriffs were very unpopular
They were entitled to a share of tax collected, so would make more money if they squeezed the locals
They paid a set sum to the king to collect revenue, once they went over that sum they could keep the money - so they took more money from the people
Sherrifs did al lot of land grabs from AS, but they had so mucg power the AS couldnt do anything about it
Forrest Laws
Forest was parts of land reserved by william for hunting
Forest laws protected animals thay william liked to hunt, and prohibited any use of the vegetation and damage to the land
Resource gathering and hunting dogs were banned
Building on and clearing land was controlled, making life difficult for people who lived in forest land
Shows norman power
The forest was a disguised land grab across england
‘Forest’ means outside in Latin, these areas were outside norman society and above law
The forest laws had very harsh punishments
The Domesday Book - aka Great and Little Domesday - 1086
Financial
William could see that some TIC’s were not paying full taxes, so william used the book to reverse the special privileges they had and levied two really heavy geld taxes
Legal
The surveys were made as fairly as possible, with key people in each hundred getting a say on who owned what
The book could therefore settle land disputes
Military
William could see how many soldiers a TIC should be able to provide , giving him an
at a glance estimate for the military strength of england
This was used to prepare for a possible danish invasion in 1085
