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1. Britain under the Normans

The document outlines the history of Britain under Norman rule from 1066 to 1154, highlighting key events such as the battles of Stamford and Hastings, the establishment of the Domesday Book, and the influence of the Church. It discusses the societal structure of the Middle Ages, the impact of the Black Death, and the rise of the Crusades. Additionally, it touches on the revival of learning, the role of monasteries, and the cultural significance of pilgrimage and saints during this period.

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11 views21 pages

1. Britain under the Normans

The document outlines the history of Britain under Norman rule from 1066 to 1154, highlighting key events such as the battles of Stamford and Hastings, the establishment of the Domesday Book, and the influence of the Church. It discusses the societal structure of the Middle Ages, the impact of the Black Death, and the rise of the Crusades. Additionally, it touches on the revival of learning, the role of monasteries, and the cultural significance of pilgrimage and saints during this period.

Uploaded by

adityanarayanbal66
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Britain under the Normans

Lecture for UG 1st year, CBCS, Ravenshaw University


Urmishree Bedama a
Normans – 1066 to 1154
• Twin Invasions - Ba les of Stamford & Has ngs
• William the Conqueror (1066-87)
• Archbishop of Canterbury dies; breakdown in state-
church rela ons

Norman expansion
In Scotland (invited by kings)
In Wales (led by aristocracy)
Norman rule

• The Domesday Book (The Great


Survey)
• Castle & Church (Architectural
marvels)

The Age of Faith: The Story of Civiliza on by Will Durant


The Holy Land
1095 – Pope Urban II (Roman
Catholic Church)
1099 – Jerusalem captured

The CRUSADES
(late 11th-late 13th c.)
The course of religion in GB

• Beowulf & Historia ecclesias ca gen s Anglorum


• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
• 597 AD–The mission of Augus ne
• Chris anity and Kingship
• Educa on – monas c & cathedral schools
• Bede's Ecclesias cal History of the English People
• Church texts – Biblical commentaries, homilies,
chronology of world history, trea ses on grammar,
maths, science, and theology & Historia
BLACK
DEATH
Plaque in Weymouth
(sea town in southern England)
• Lollards – John Ball - ‘When Adam
delved and Eve span, who was then
the gentleman?’
• Poll tax
• Essex and Kent in revolt
• Archbishop of Canterbury beheaded
• Richard meets Wat Tyler (Kent)
PEASANTS’ REVOLT (the ‘English Rising’)
(1381)
The Hundred Years War
The Wars of the Roses
SOCIETY IN MIDDLE AGES
The three estates
1. COMBAT - Knight, squire, soldier.
2. CHURCH - Prioress, nun, priests,
monk, friar.
3. LABOUR - Merchant, lawyer,
carpenter, weaver, dyer, tapestry
weaver, cook, sailor, doctor,
ploughman, miller, reeve.
•The History of the
Kings of Britain –
Geoffrey of
Monmouth (1136)

•Canterbury Tales

•The Bible

GEOFFERY CHAUCER
THE AGE OF FAITH
• Religion plays profound role
• The human body and the cosmos
• Church dominant cultural force;
Majes c cathedrals
• Monasteries & Monks
The Medieval Mind
•9th to 15th c. – ignorance and supers on, ‘dead
hand of religion’; sense of wonder
•Medieval world - wild men; sense of mystery,
sigh ngs of strange cultures
•Bible – animals, humans, spirits – angels, demons,
sigh ngs defied these categories; Strange world out
there
•Desire to understand – within the walls of the
monasteries
•Manuscript culture
Mappaemundi and Bes aries:
Relics of the medieval mind
• Bes aries - natural world created for human
beings
• MM - three con nents, Asia, Europe, Africa
(and An podes); medieval encyclopedia; Far-
off land - Mermaids, unicorns, dog-headed
humans
New worlds and systems of learning
(Revival of learning)

• Growth of towns, wars, new horizons, new forms of government,


educated men
• 12th cent. Background in biblical scholarship not enough; Oxford –
secular knowledge, pursuit of knowledge not being a monk, purpose
not God but to live life;
• 1214 – Modern university one of the legacies of the medieval ages
• Inquiry – monas c learning threatened
• European incursions into the Muslim world – magnificent libraries, Gk
texts, Aristotle discovered
• Mathema cs, geometry, astronomy – Toledo in Spain, flood of
informa on, Daniel of Morley
Discovery of Aristotle and
Eastern science and math
• Gk philosophers – 4c. BC – Aristotle; no reference to
god! Natural laws governing universe – ‘heresy’!
• Church – no reading in public; excommunica on
• Thomas Aquinas – Italy; Paris – intellectual centre-
discovers Aristotle; reconciles reason and revela on
Summa Theologica (faith vs. reason and logic)
• Contact with the Arab world – excellence in science;
Islamic engineering,
• Francis Bacon - Observa on, analysis, measurement
A world beyond Europe
• Beyond Europe?
• 1270 – Marco Polo leaves for China – The
Travels; stunning civilisa ons; wild
dangerous landscapes, struggles of
survival that beggared belief, Caliphate –
unimaginable wealth; I havent told half of
what I actually saw
• 1492 - Columbus
The medieval monk
• War violence confusion hunger; monasteries - order,
community, no worries about food
• Parishes – monks for prayer services, not much contact
with the outside world
• Not all darkness; most monks from rich and powerful
families – younger sons poten al knights
Monks and educa on
• Reading, wri ng, simple arithme c, cathedral
schools, no monks - University of Paris
• Nuns – nuns had more freedom to travel, for
charity, nursing (Anchorites / Anchoresses)
• 1095-1291 – Warrior monks – red cross – knights of
the temple, Templars; monks guarded people with
prayers, knights with swords
Pilgrims and saints
• Mappa mundi - East at the top; Jerusalem at the centre
• 11th c. - Canonisa on – popular claims and bishopric
• Pilgrimage – popular prac ce; Pilgrim badges – crossed keys –
Roman Basilica; Palmers (Chaucer) – professional pilgrims;
Symbolic clothing – dress (Margery Kempe), staff, special
headgear; Collected relics from reliquaries
• Cult of saints – idolatry – Reforma on; dismantling of
churches and reliquaries

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