Summary Of Norman Conquest, Feudalism & Magna Carta

NORMAN CONQUEST

William was crowned king at Westminster Abbey, meanwhile, out of the church, people was shouting “God Save The King”, this fact scaried the Norman guards, so in their fear they set fire to the nearby houses. There was an Anglo-Saxon rebellion against the Normans every year since 1066 until 1070. There were places that Normans were unable to control so they killed people, burnt and destroyed places, between Durham and York not a single house was left standing. Few Saxons Lords kept their lands and those who did accepted William inmediately. William gave Saxon lands to his Norman nobles..

FEUDALISM

Every new conquered land, William gave parts of it as a reward to his captains, however he kept enough land for himelf to show to his nobles that he was stronger than they. As a result, England had one powerful family instead of a large number of powerful nobles.

William decided to organise his kingdom according to the Feudal Sistem. Feudalism has it origins “Feu”, a French word used by Normans to refer to land held in return for duty or service to a lord.

The basis of feudal society was the holding of the land, and it main urpose was economic. The main idea was that all land has the King as its owner but held by others, the “vassals”, in return for services and goods, but they had to promise to the king that they will serve him in far for up to forty days and they also gave the King part of the land’s produce.

The greater nobles gave part of their land to lesser nobles, knights and other “freemen”., some of those paid for the land doing military service while others paid rent. (Serfs)

Feudalism basic principles were that “every man had a Lord, and every Lord had a land”, somehow the King was connected to the lowest man in the country through this “chain”.

The Homage was a promise of loyalty and service made by a man to his lord, according to his level, on the other hand, each Lord had to give them land and protect them, so each Lord had responsabilities to his vassals.

(* When a noble died, his son took over his estate with a previous permission of the king and make a special payment. If the son was a child, the king kept the land until the boy was old enough. If all the noble’s family died, the land went back to the king and give it to another deserving noble, but often the King kept it for some years using its wealth. If the king denied to give the nobles land they wouldn’t fight for him.*)

By 1086, William realized that he had no more land to give so he wanted to know exactly who owned which piece of land and how much was worth to plan his economy and how much he could ask in tax.

(He sent a team of men to make a complete economic survey asking questions like: how much land was there? Who owned it? How much was it worth? How many families, ploughs and sheep were there? And questions like them)

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