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19 - Normans in Europe by Arthur Henry Johnson · Normans in Europe

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Speaker 1: Section nineteen of the Normans in Europe by Arthur Henry Johnson.
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Speaker 1: This librovox recording is in the public domain. Read by Pamelinagami,
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Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen William's English Policy ten seventy two, ten eighty seven,
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Speaker 1: Part two. Such were the institutions of the people over
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Speaker 1: whom William had been elected King. William, it must be remembered,
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Speaker 1: did not claim his title to the throne by conquest.
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Speaker 1: The attitude assumed by him was that of the lawful
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Speaker 1: claimant to the throne, who, finding himself unjustly ousted by
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Speaker 1: the perjured usurper, Herald, had appealed to the judgment of
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Speaker 1: God on the battle field of Hastings, and there asserted
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Speaker 1: the rightfulness of his cause. It was under this pretext
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Speaker 1: that he gained the moral support of Europe and the
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Speaker 1: blessing of the Pope. And after the battle he had
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Speaker 1: referred the matter to the Weetan, who had freely elected
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Speaker 1: him as king. On this election primarily he based his right.
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Speaker 1: He styled himself the successor of Edward the Confessor, and
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Speaker 1: the name of Harold was omitted as that of a usurper.
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Speaker 1: He had therefore neither the opportunity nor the inclination entirely
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Speaker 1: to overthrow the nationality of the country or to destroy
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Speaker 1: its time honored institutions, but in theory became as truly
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Speaker 1: a national king as Canute. It was in this spirit
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Speaker 1: that he devoted himself to the task which lay before him,
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Speaker 1: of adapting the institutions of his newly won country to
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Speaker 1: those which he brought from Normandy and to the altered
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Speaker 1: circumstances of the times. And it is in this work
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Speaker 1: that the political genius of William and his truly Norman
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Speaker 1: powers of adaptation were forcibly illustrated. From the preceding sketch,
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Speaker 1: the weakness and strength of the Anglo Saxon institutions will
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Speaker 1: be understood. Their strength lay clearly in their local and
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Speaker 1: social aspect, in the development of the lower grades of
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Speaker 1: constitutional life, in the healthy local self government found in
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Speaker 1: the organization of the shire, the hundred, the township, and
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Speaker 1: the borough, in the popular character of their justice, and
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Speaker 1: in their self dependence, their quiet and peace loving character.
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Speaker 1: In all this they were strong. But in the higher
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Speaker 1: ranges of constitutional life they failed. The connection between the
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Speaker 1: local self governing communities and the central government was feeble.
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Speaker 1: The administrative machinery by which the King might maintain the
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Speaker 1: superintendence and carry on The central government was inadequate and
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Speaker 1: ill arranged. The relation between the local courts of justice
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Speaker 1: and that of the King, who held a general superintendence
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Speaker 1: over them, and to whom lay the ultimate appeal, was
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Speaker 1: ill defined. This William clearly saw law, and he acted accordingly.
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Speaker 1: The local courts were preserved intact, and the English language
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Speaker 1: was allowed there. The number of manorial courts was increased
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Speaker 1: by royal grant, but no other change was made. No
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Speaker 1: difference was made in the local administration of justice, except
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Speaker 1: that the trial by combat was added to the congregation
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Speaker 1: and ordeal for the use of normans. The privileges of
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Speaker 1: towns were left untouched, and those of London confirmed by
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Speaker 1: royal charter. The system of mutual responsibility was extended in
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Speaker 1: the system of frank pledge, by which the police arrangements
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Speaker 1: were carried out by sections of ten men mutually responsible
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Speaker 1: for each other. The malicious system was continued and the
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Speaker 1: tri note denkesitas maintained. So far. William acted as an
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Speaker 1: English king and perpetuated national institutions. But in the relations
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Speaker 1: between the central government and the king, many modifications were introduced.
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Speaker 1: The Utangamote was continued, indeed, but turned into a feudal court,
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Speaker 1: the Commune Conchilium of the Norman kings, in which the
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Speaker 1: members sat as feudal lords. A sort of committee of this,
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Speaker 1: the Couria Regis, was established, which, besides its character as
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Speaker 1: a council of the liberation and legislation, formed the court
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Speaker 1: of ultimate appeal in some cases a court of first instance,
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Speaker 1: and kept the local courts in order of this court.
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Speaker 1: The presiding officer was the Justiciary, an officer of purely
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Speaker 1: foreign origin. For the full development of his powers we
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Speaker 1: must wait till the reign of Henry the First. But
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Speaker 1: under William he was generally the regent of the kingdom
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Speaker 1: and the king's absence, and probably soon began to assume
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Speaker 1: his later position of supreme judicial and financial officer of
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Speaker 1: the realm. The government of the Shires was entrusted to earls,
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Speaker 1: the successors of the old Aldermen, but William avoided the
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Speaker 1: fault of Canute. He did not carve out England into
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Speaker 1: great earldoms. He confined his earldoms to one shire, and
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Speaker 1: was careful, with a few exceptions to be mentioned hereafter
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Speaker 1: to keep the earl's in due subordination to himself, and
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Speaker 1: to render them more entirely an official class. The sheriffs, too,
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Speaker 1: were made more dependent on the king and became his
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Speaker 1: representatives in all fiscal matters, thus binding the local courts
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Speaker 1: and local organization to the central government and preventing undue
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Speaker 1: independence from arising. These reforms did not indeed arrive at
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Speaker 1: their perfect form till the reign of Henry the First
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Speaker 1: and Henry the Second. Nor had William, a man of war,
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Speaker 1: troubled as he was by continual disturbances, time fully to
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Speaker 1: complete his schemes. But he introduced the germ of the
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Speaker 1: future Anglo Norman government, and by preserving what was strongest
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Speaker 1: in the Anglo set Saxon system and strengthening what was
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Speaker 1: weak by new elements by his stern will he welded
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Speaker 1: the two into a compact whole with all the elements
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Speaker 1: of stability. And to this day these two elements lie
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Speaker 1: side by side, each betraying their origin and attesting the
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Speaker 1: political wisdom of William. The local organization emanating from the
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Speaker 1: English people, the administrative and financial system centered round the
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Speaker 1: Norman king, to the lowest classes Indeed, the Norman conquest
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Speaker 1: was a boon. The Normans, unaccustomed to actual slavery, confused
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Speaker 1: the lower classes in the common class of villains or
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Speaker 1: serve The latter probably represented the Anglo Saxon thralls and
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Speaker 1: the landless churls, and seemed to have held the position
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Speaker 1: of landless laborers. The former were chiefly formed of those
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Speaker 1: churls who, before the conquest had failed to rise to
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Speaker 1: the rank of thanes and had fallen into a semi
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Speaker 1: servile class. The position of the villain seems to have
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Speaker 1: been far better now than it became later. If they
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Speaker 1: might not leave the land without the lord's consent, they
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Speaker 1: were at least safe in the possession of their homes.
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Speaker 1: They had to till the soil of his domain, but
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Speaker 1: had a remedy against the violence of their master. The
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Speaker 1: seravus and villain alike might be manumitted by the church,
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Speaker 1: and at a later date, if they could escape to
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Speaker 1: a town and live there as members of a guild
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Speaker 1: for a year and a day, they were held to
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Speaker 1: have earned their freedom. But to the higher and middle
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Speaker 1: classes it was different. Although the Anglo Saxons were still
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Speaker 1: allowed to enjoy their time honorn institutions and customs, and
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Speaker 1: the policy of William was conciliatory. Their condition was not
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Speaker 1: a happy one. Their laws and language indeed were not
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Speaker 1: swept away by any formal legislative enactments, but in the
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Speaker 1: hands of Norman officers, the spirit of legal administration was changed.
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Speaker 1: The English ceased to be the court language, and the
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Speaker 1: country was, as we shall see, gradually feudalized. The chronicles
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Speaker 1: do not complain of suppressed nationality, but are full of
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Speaker 1: the legal and fiscal oppression. The king was so stark
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Speaker 1: and took of his subjects many marks of gold and
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Speaker 1: more of silver. William, after the first submission of England,
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Speaker 1: affected and probably intended to rule mildly and mercifully. But
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Speaker 1: the constant rebellions which subsequently broke out brought on the
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Speaker 1: sternness and indifference to suffering which stained his character. The
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Speaker 1: whole country between Tease and Humber was reduced to a
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Speaker 1: perfect waste, and for nine years was entirely untilled. The
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Speaker 1: depopulation which went on as clearly seen from the records
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Speaker 1: of the Domesday Book. Thus, Oxford in the Confessor's time
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Speaker 1: had seven hundred twenty one houses in William's only two
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Speaker 1: hundred forty five. York under the former contained sixteen hundred
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Speaker 1: and seven, under the latter only nine hundred and sixty seven.
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Speaker 1: The confiscations, at first confined to those who had actually
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Speaker 1: fought at hastings, rapidly increased, and at the end of
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Speaker 1: the reign there were no Anglo Saxon earls, only one
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Speaker 1: Anglo Saxon bishop and a few Abbots and great landowners remaining.
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Speaker 1: The people saw their wealth and offices transferred to Norman
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Speaker 1: barons and groaned under their cruelty on oppression. Their country
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Speaker 1: became only a part, and that not the most important
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Speaker 1: part of a Norman kingdom, and their interests were continually
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Speaker 1: sacrificed to those of Normandy. Her king was more often
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Speaker 1: abroad than in England, while in his absence the Normans
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Speaker 1: ground down the people in every way. They suffered much,
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Speaker 1: Yet it was the happiest thing for England in the end.
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Speaker 1: When we remember the want of combined action and political
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Speaker 1: unity which marked the preceding history of England, when we
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Speaker 1: remember the power of the two great families of left
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Speaker 1: Fork and Seawood, and the independence of Northumbria, and the
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Speaker 1: jealousy with which Edwin and more Carr looked upon the
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Speaker 1: ascendancy of Harold, we must allow that had he succeeded
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Speaker 1: quietly and transmitted his crown to his successors, he would
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Speaker 1: have enjoyed only a partial supremacy over a large part
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Speaker 1: of the country. His position was not unlike that of
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Speaker 1: Hugh Cape, first King of France, and probably as in France,
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Speaker 1: the Earls would long have maintained their independence. Continental feudalism too.
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Speaker 1: All the elements of which we have seen existed in
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Speaker 1: England would probably have arisen with its anarchy, isolation, and
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Speaker 1: class privileges, and the condition of England might soon have
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Speaker 1: resembled that of France. Far better for her was it
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Speaker 1: that she should be conquered and reduced to submission and unity,
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Speaker 1: even by the cruel hands of Norman kings. Far better
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Speaker 1: was it that she should suffer a temporary overthrow of
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Speaker 1: her national being. For thus she gained what was wanting
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Speaker 1: in her own political condition. The growth of feudalism was checked,
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Speaker 1: and after a century or so of compression and pruning, which,
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Speaker 1: though severe, was necessary for future growth, all that was
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Speaker 1: valuable in the Anglo Saxon institutions reasserted itself and became
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Speaker 1: the primary basis of our later constitution. We should remember
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Speaker 1: too that by the conquest, England was brought into far
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Speaker 1: closer contact with the continent, and this too at an
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Speaker 1: important epoch. This was clearly for the good of England.
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Speaker 1: The Anglo Saxon, as as well illustrated by the character
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Speaker 1: of his historical literature, had no European sympathies, hardly any
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Speaker 1: English imperial ones. His interest his sympathies were entirely local.
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Speaker 1: He had no sense of a common brotherhood of men,
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Speaker 1: a commonwealth of nations. He set little value on things
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Speaker 1: removed from his own personal observation, and his ideas were
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Speaker 1: thus essentially narrow and confined. By the Norman conquest, all
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Speaker 1: this was changed. England, becoming as she did part of
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Speaker 1: an Anglo Norman kingdom, was forced to embrace wider sympathies,
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Speaker 1: began to feel herself really a member of Europe, and
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Speaker 1: thus lost that narrowness and exclusiveness which so clearly marks
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Speaker 1: her earlier history. Lastly, the Anglo Saxon character, institutions and
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Speaker 1: social life seemed to have required some new infusion of blood,
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Speaker 1: and this the Normans gave the Anglo Saxon character seems
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Speaker 1: to have had all the characteristics of stability, but not
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Speaker 1: of advance, of solidity but not of sprightliness. It required
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Speaker 1: the Norman element, deeply influenced as it was by the
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Speaker 1: French character, to give the nest necessary life and vigor.
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Speaker 1: And without the Normans, as it has been well said,
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Speaker 1: England would have been mechanical, not artistic, brave not chivalrous,
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Speaker 1: the home of learning not of thought. In no long
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Speaker 1: time the two peoples began to amalgamate, and a healthy,
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Speaker 1: strong and vigorous people was the result uniting the strength
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Speaker 1: of the Norman and Anglo Saxon characters, which soon began
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Speaker 1: to multiply more rapidly than other European nations, and which
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Speaker 1: now has spread to every part of the inhabited globe.
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Speaker 1: In spite then, of the temporary misery which England must
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Speaker 1: have undergone, Although we naturally lament over the fall of Harold,
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Speaker 1: the King of the Anglo Saxons, as a national loss,
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Speaker 1: and over Hastings as a national defeat, we can but
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Speaker 1: acknowledge that the Norman conquest was a necessary and beneficial
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Speaker 1: experience in our history, from which, as far as we
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Speaker 1: can see, the greatest benefits have flowed. The advantages which
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Speaker 1: England gained by the Norman conquest will further appear from
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Speaker 1: a review of the policy of William toward the Norman nobles.
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Speaker 1: The Norman nobles had been induced to aid William in
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Speaker 1: his invasion by promises of wealth and power, and these
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Speaker 1: promises had now to be fulfilled. They had no reason
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Speaker 1: to complain. The confiscated estates of the conquered were largely
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Speaker 1: conferred upon them, and their manners were granted to them
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Speaker 1: with exemption from the jurisdiction of the Hundred Court. They
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Speaker 1: practically monopolized all the important offices of state. They also
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Speaker 1: enjoyed the position of counselors of the king. So far
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Speaker 1: William satisfied their claims. But they had been accustomed to
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Speaker 1: a feudal form of government, with its anarchy and independence,
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Speaker 1: and many of them longed, no doubt to have become
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Speaker 1: great feudal lords in England. Thus William was brought face
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Speaker 1: to face with the question how far should he introduce
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Speaker 1: continental feudalism into England. In examining his policy in this respect,
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Speaker 1: it will be well to consider feudalism again under its
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Speaker 1: twofold divisions one a system of land tenure, two a
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Speaker 1: system of government. To the feudal system of land tenure,
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Speaker 1: William had been long accustomed, and to it there was
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Speaker 1: no objection. Consequently, all the lands which were confiscated from
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Speaker 1: the Anglo Saxons were granted out to his Normans on
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Speaker 1: feudal terms and became feudal manners, and the folkland was
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Speaker 1: turned absolutely into crown property. The Anglo Saxon landowners still
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Speaker 1: held their lands by their old tenure, but owing to
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Speaker 1: the repeated revolts, few of these remained at the end
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Speaker 1: of William's reign, and those few, following the now almost
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Speaker 1: universal custom, either made terms with the King himself or
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Speaker 1: with some neighboring lord, and consented to hold their lands
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Speaker 1: as feudal vassals. Thus, by a gradual process, the feudal
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Speaker 1: tenure of land became universal in England and was worked
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Speaker 1: up into a system by the Norman lawyers. But with
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Speaker 1: the government of the country the case was different. William
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Speaker 1: had seen the evil results of the continental system, the anarchy,
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Speaker 1: the isolation, the weakening of the royal authority which it produced,
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Speaker 1: and was determined to prevent this in England. Accordingly, In
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Speaker 1: his grants to his Norman nobles, he refused to carve
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Speaker 1: out principalities for his followers. He gave them manners scattered
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Speaker 1: over England, and while allowing them the right of jurisdiction
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Speaker 1: in their manners, he strictly limited their powers in most
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Speaker 1: cases by the appeal to the hundred court, in all
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Speaker 1: by direct appeal to himself, and kept them in due
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Speaker 1: subordination by his royal processes or circuits. The earls were
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Speaker 1: only set over single shires, and the growth of independence
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Speaker 1: thereby checked. The great lords were allowed no independence and
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Speaker 1: rights of coinage, nor of making laws, all these matters
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Speaker 1: being reserved to the King himself. Exceptions, indeed were made.
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Speaker 1: The four counties Palatine Chester under Hugh Loupis, Shrewsbury under
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Speaker 1: Roger Montgomery, Durham and Kent were erected in which the
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Speaker 1: governors enjoyed rights very similar to those of the feudal
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Speaker 1: barons abroad. Of these, the Earldom of Chester was the
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Speaker 1: most important, and may be taken as a type of
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Speaker 1: the rest, though it enjoyed greater rights than any other.
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Speaker 1: The Earl of Chester was lord of all the land
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Speaker 1: in the shire, except that in the hands of the Bishop.
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Speaker 1: He had a council of the barons and the Palatinate,
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Speaker 1: his own judicial courts, his own staff of judges, constables,
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Speaker 1: Stewart and other officers. Offenses were said to be done
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Speaker 1: against his peace and not that of the King, and
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Speaker 1: all acts were in his name. In fact, he was
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Speaker 1: feudal sovereign of Cheshire, as the King of England was
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Speaker 1: in Normandy. So entirely did the Palatine jurisdiction stand apart
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Speaker 1: from the rest of England, that those of Chester and Durham,
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Speaker 1: the only two which survived the conqueror's reign, were not
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Speaker 1: represented in the National Parliament till the reigns of Henry
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Speaker 1: the Eighth and Charles the Second, respectively, while that of
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Speaker 1: Durham retained its independent courts until eighteen thirty six. These
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Speaker 1: counties palatine were so granted because they formed the outposts
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Speaker 1: against danger from without, Shrewsbury and Chester against the Welsh,
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Speaker 1: Durham against the Scots, and Kent against invasion from the continent.
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Speaker 1: Here great centralization and authority were required against surprise. But
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Speaker 1: even here the political foresight of the conqueror did not
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Speaker 1: forsake him. Two of these Durham and Kent were granted
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Speaker 1: to ecclesiastics, whereby they were prevented from becoming hereditary, and
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Speaker 1: that of Kent was not revived after the fall of
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Speaker 1: Odo of Bayeux. Lastly, in ten eighty six, taking advantage
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Speaker 1: of a threatened invasion from Norway, William made every landowner
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Speaker 1: in England take an oath of homage to him immediately,
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Speaker 1: instead of demanding it only of his tenants in chief,
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Speaker 1: who in their turn might exact it from their own tenants.
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Speaker 1: By this act he destroyed the essence of feudal government,
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Speaker 1: which consisted in the gradation of ranks, one beneath the other,
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Speaker 1: the lowest holding of that immediately above and responsible to
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Speaker 1: that alone, the tenants in chief, or those who held
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Speaker 1: of the king himself being alone responsible to him. Thus,
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Speaker 1: while elsewhere a vassal was bound to follow his immediate
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Speaker 1: lord even when rebelling against the king, and could not
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Speaker 1: be punished for so doing, in England every one who
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Speaker 1: took arms against the king was held guilty of treason.
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Speaker 1: In this policy, William was largely aided by the insular
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Speaker 1: position of England and by the comparatively small extent of
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Speaker 1: the kingdom. By the former, the factious nobles were prevented
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Speaker 1: from speedily gaining assistance against their king as they did abroad.
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Speaker 1: By the latter, centralization of government was rendered easy, and
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Speaker 1: the centrifugal tendencies of the times checked. Thus, in the
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Speaker 1: government of England the balance of power lay clearly on
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Speaker 1: the side of the king, while in France this was
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Speaker 1: destroyed in favor of the baronage. But the French view
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Speaker 1: is taken by the Norman barons. And after William had
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Speaker 1: crushed out the local resistance of the Saxons, he had
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Speaker 1: to meet with the rebellions of his feudal vassals in
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Speaker 1: Normandy and England. The results of the policy of William
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Speaker 1: were among the most important facts of early English history.
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Speaker 1: And we may fairly say that it is to William
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Speaker 1: in no little degree that we are indebted for our
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Speaker 1: later constitutional government. Not that he in any way anticipated
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Speaker 1: or could have anticipated it, nor that had he done so,
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Speaker 1: he would have welcomed the prospect. But he was in
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Speaker 1: this matter what most men are, after all, the servants
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Speaker 1: of a master. They cannot resist. It would seem that
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Speaker 1: every nation, in the course of its development must pass
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Speaker 1: through a stage, a period of absolutism more or less declared.
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Speaker 1: Such a schooling is necessary to break down the independence
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Speaker 1: and privileges of the nobility, to fuse races and classes together,
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Speaker 1: and to give them common interests and common sympathies for
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Speaker 1: which they in turn may struggle against the sovereign's will.
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Speaker 1: This schooling England underwent under the stern rule of her
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Speaker 1: Anglo Norman kings, while France sacrificed as she was, to
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Speaker 1: the anarchy of feudalism, put off her schooling till late
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Speaker 1: when it became doubly oppressive, in fact, a tyranny. Again,
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Speaker 1: society must first develop a strong, healthy legal system before
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Speaker 1: she can advance to anything like real and practical freedom.
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Speaker 1: Without such a system to rally round, liberty becomes anarchy.
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Speaker 1: Equality a contradiction in terms, since equality before the law
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Speaker 1: is the only one that can exist, and without law,
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Speaker 1: equality is sacrificed to the might of the strongest. This,
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Speaker 1: again the strong rule of the Anglo Norman kings gave
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Speaker 1: to England, whereas in France it did not grow up
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Speaker 1: till late then, only to add still further links to
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Speaker 1: the chain of absolute and irresponsible despotism. End of Section
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Speaker 1: nineteen