Коротка історія Англії, Детальна інформація

The Kingdom of England in the 10th – 11th Centuries

In the 10th century the united Anglo-Saxon feudal monarchy was consolidated . a much larger territory including the Danelaw was now under the power of the Kings of England. From the end of the 10th century the Danes began to devastate the country again. And for some time in 11th century England came under the power of the Danish Kings. Under both Anglo-Saxon and Danish kings feudal society continued to develop in England. More and more peasants lost their land and freedom and the class of feudal lords grew in number. Here we shall read about:

the further consolidation of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy in the 10th century;

new attacks of Danes;

some peculiarities of feudal development in England.

Further Consolidation of Anglo-Saxon Monarchy in the 10th Century

In the second half of the 10th century under the rule of Alfred’s descendants the Anglo-Saxon monarchy was further consolidated. The Anglo-Saxon won several victories over the Danes, took away the Danelaw and ruled over the whole of England. The Danes were not driven out of the country but they were made subjects of Wessex. They submitted to the power of the Anglo-Saxon Kings and never tried to make the Danelaw into a separate Kingdom. These descendants of the Danish conquerors gave up piracy and in the course of time became peaceful peasants and trades. They were now not very much different from the Anglo-Saxons among whom they lived because they were also of Germanic origin. They were far fewer in number and they soon became Christians like their neighbours, adopted their language and assimilated gradually with them.

The Danes influenced the development of the country greatly. They were good sailors and traders and they favoured the growth of towns and the development of trade in England. They were skilful shipbuilders and many grave-goods found in their ship burials show their great craftsmanship. The Danes used a large iron axe to clean the forests and to plough the large stretches of virgin land. Feudal relations began to develop among them only in the 9th century and on the territory of the former Danelaw these free peasants remained free up to the Middle Ages.

Many Scandinavian words came into the English language at that time and are even used today. Such adjectives as happy, low, loose, ugly, weak, verbs – to take, to die, to call, nouns – sister, husband, sky, etc. The Danes gave their own names to many of the towns they built. In the region were they used to live many town – names end in “by” or “toft” for these were words meaning Danish settlements, for example: Derby, Grimsby, Lowestoft and others. The whole country formed a united Kingdom. The nearly conquered Danelaw was divided into shires, like the Anglo-Saxons part of the Kingdom. Each of these shires had for its centre one of the market towns which the Danes had established and that is the reason why to this day the midland countries unlike those of Southern England, are really all named after their country towns. For example Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and others.

The general moots didn’t assemble in the united kingdom and the King ruled the country with the help of the Witenagemot, a council of most powerful landlords. The power of Church increased greatly during this period and the archbishop ans bishop began to plan an important role in the government.

New Attacks of Danes

At the end of the 10th century the Danish invasions were resumed. The Anglo-Saxon kings were unable to organize any affective resistance and they tried to buy off the Danes. The Anglo-Saxon Kings gave them money to leave them in peace. The result was that they came again in greater numbers the following year to demand more. In order to make this payment to Danes in 991 the government imposed a heavy tax call Danegeld or Dane money. And every time the Danes came back they received more and the government, in its turn , increased the tax of Danegeld collected from the population. At the beginning of the 11th century England was conquered by the Danes once more. The Danish King Canute (1017 – 1035) became King of Denmark, Norway and England. He made England the centre of his power. But he was often away from England in his Kingdom of Denmark and so he divided the country into four parts called earldoms. They were Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia. An earl was appointed by the King to rule over each great earldom. The earls ruled over great territories and gradually they became very powerful.

To secure his positions in the conquered country Canute continued to collect the Danegeld tax, and used the money to support a bodyguard of professional fighters and a large fleet to the Dane money which had been originally collected for the struggle against the Danes became now a tax paid for the benefit of the Danish King. The King’s well disciplined bodyguard of several thousand horsemen was in fact, a standing army, it was always ready to suppress a rebellion in any part of the country. Besides, Canute tried to win the support of the big Anglo-Saxon feudal lords. He promised to rule according to the old Anglo-Saxon laws. As before the Anglo-Saxon lords had the right to administer justice in the neighbourhood. The other old laws which gave them great power over the common people were also preserved. Canute sent back most of his Danish followers to their own country. He usually chose Anglo-Saxon nobles for the high posts of earls and other royal officials, Canute himself became a Christian and he sent monks from Canterbury to convert his subjects in Scandinavia to Christian too. He was the protector of the monasteries and learning that developed there. The clergy grew more powerful in the region. Supported by the Anglo-Saxon feudal lords Canute ruled in England till he died. After the death of Canute his Kingdom split up and soon afterwards an Anglo-Saxon King came to the throne (1042) and the line of Danish Kings came to an end.

Further Development of he Feudal Relations in the 10th – 11th Centuries

The Danish invasions during the 9th and 10th centuries hastened the process of the development of feudal relations in England. The peasantry which made up the bulk of the population suffered very much from the raids of the Danes. The peasants were robbed and murdered and their drops destroyed. The peasants hot sow their land and harvest their crops at the proper time as every year they had to give up farming to serve in the levy or to build forts, bridges and roads. It was the peasants who paid the heavy Danegeld which kept increasing.

The wars and heavy taxes collected by the government impoverished many peasants. In the 10th-11th centuries the peasants lived in individual families parents and their children and such a small family had not more than one fourth of former hide. But many impoverished peasants had much smaller plots of arable land. After a Danish raid thousands of peasants were ruled and most of them had to give their arable land away in payments for debts. They could never again become as independent as they had been before.

During the wars with the Danes many peasants lost their land and became the landlord’s men and bound themselves to work for him in return for protection.

In the 10th-11th centuries the nobility was seizing the peasants’ band by forceon a large scale. A considerable part of the peasants’ lands fell into the hands of the big landlords and many peasants lost their freedom.

The class of the feudal landlords grew in number too. Large feudal estates grew at the expense of the peasants who were deprived of their land either by force, or in payment for debts or for protection. The landlord class grew also as a result of the formation of the new army of military nobles, who were granted landed estates in return for their military service. The church, the importance of which increased greatly in this period, became a great landlord too. Anglo-Saxon Kings supported the big landlord. In 930 a law was passed that said: “Each man must have a lord”. Anglo-Saxon Kings granted the noble special charters which gave them the right of private ownership of the land they had seized from the free peasants. The big land lords gradually became very powerful and quite independent in their own armed forces and their domains. They had their own armed forces and their own courts on their estates. The rich, powerful earls became so independent that quite often they didn’t obey the King of England himself.

The Peculiarities of the Development of Feudalism in England in the Early Middle Ages

During the Early Middle Ages (the 5th- 11th centuries) feudal relations were developing in England like in all were developing in England like in all the other countries of the Western Europe. A serf class was gradually appearing. Most of the peasants of the slaves and of the peasants of the slaves and of the peasants who had once been free peasant were gradually losing their land and freedom and were becoming serfs. The country was ruled by both lay and clerical feudal lords who were very rich and powerful.

The development of feudalism was a slowest process in England. During the three centuries after the Anglo-Saxon conquest (7th – 9th centuries) the bulk of the population in Britain consisted of free peasants while among the Franks who had settled on the continent the majority of the peasants had already became serfs by the beginning of the 9th century. It can be accounted for, first of all, by the fact that the Romans had a stronger influence on the continent than the Britain. The Romans didn’t bring about many changes in the life of the Northern tribes and it was only among the Celts of the South that the tribal nobility became richer than the other members of the tribe.

The Danish raids sped up the improve rishment of the Anglo-Saxon peasants. In the 10th-11th centuries the Anglo-Saxon free communities weakened and many peasants were turned into serfs. However not all the peasants of England became serfs in this period.

The Norman Conquest of England

As you already know four different peoples invaded England. First came the Celts in the 6th century B.C., then the Romans in the 1st century A.D.: they were followed by the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century; after them came the Danes at the end of the 8th century;

In the 11th century England was invaded by the Normans. This was the fifth and the last invasion in England.

The Normans

In the 9th century while the Danes were plundering England another branch of Northmen who were related to the Danes were doing the same along the Northern coasts of France. They came tobe called The Normans. They settled down in the conquered part of England known as the Danelaw. The Normans settled down on land conquered from the French King – a territory which is still called Normandy after the naormans.

Many changes came about in the life of the Normans and the Danes after the 9th century. By the 11th century the Danes had finally settled down as subjects of the English King. AS time went on they gradually mixed with the Anglo-Saxon among whom they lived. They retained their Germanic language and many of their customs were very much alike those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Normans who had settled down in France were now quite different from their Germanic forefathers. They lived among the French people, who were different people, with different manners, customs and language. They had learned to speak the French. They adopted their manners and customs and their way of life. The establishment of the feudal system in France had been completed by the 11th century and the Norman barons had come into possession of large tracts of land and a great number of serfs.

The Normans lived under the rule of their own duke. By the 11th century the dukes of Normandy had become very powerful. Though they acknowledged the King of France as their overlord, they were actually as strong as the King himself, whose domain was smaller than the Duchy’s of Normandy. Like other French dukes and counts they made themselves practically independent. They coined their own money, made their own laws, held their own court, built their own castles. They could wage wars against other dukes and even against the King himself. As the well-armed and well-trained cavalry, the Norman knights were the best in Europe.