NORMAN ENGLAND

William brought with him the political and economic practices of Normandy, e.i. feudalism,
which is an economic, social and political system based on the holding of land granted in
return for military service. Feudalism is originally a decentralized system since the landholders
possessed great power at the expense of the power of the king. However, William imposed a
more centralized system by increasing the strength of the monarchy and by participating with
drive and energy in the work of government. As Duke of Normandy, William was far more
powerful than his lord, the King of France, and had defied him with impunity. Therefore, in
structuring political feudalism in England, William made sure that no vassal could treat him as
he had treated his liege lord. On the other hand, he wisely decided to preserve Anglo-Saxon
law and institutions, as we will soon see.

As far as central government is concerned, William was assisted by an assembly called the
Great Council. It consisted of the King’s tenants-in-chief, e.i. barons who received land directly
from the King. Therefore, the Great Council was a feudal body, but it did not differ much in
appearance from the Anglo-Saxon witan. Its principal function was to act as a court of feudal
law. Apart from this, the functions of the Great Council were vague. Like the witan, it was no
great check upon the King’s power. Rather, it was a means of sounding out baronial opinion,
for even the strong Norman Kings would have been foolish to have ignored entirely the wishes
of their vassals.

The Great Council was only in occasional session and the daily work of government was
carried out by the King with the assistance of members of his household and of those barons
who happened to be in attendance. In these early days, the duties of the officers of the
household were a mixture of official business and care for the domestic life of the King. These
officers, together with the barons who were with William a good deal, formed the King’s Small
Council.

We must picture William constantly on the move, his court an armed camp, travelling from
place to place, suppressing revolts, receiving oaths of loyalty, deciding disputes, hunting in the
forests, governing as he went. There was yet no idea of a fixed capital city where government
resided.

As far as local government was concerned, William retained several Anglo-Saxon institutions
such as the courts of the shire, which continued to meet and to enforce Anglo-Saxon law. The
shire courts were strengthened as a result of the conquest and became the means by which
Norman Kings controlled local government and impose their will upon all parts of the country.
Besides, William made great use of the sheriff, giving him great posers. On the other hand, the
hundred courts were depressed by the Conquest, since most of them were taken over by the
lords when they received the land where they resided.
THE MANORIAL SYSTEM
In Anglo Saxon times the village had been the unit of agriculture and the lowest unit of local
government. The Normans introduced the manor, which sometimes coincided with the
borders of the village, but not always as it was an artificial division imposed on England.

The manor may be defined as an estate under a single lord which was farmed and
administered as an agricultural entity. The property was thought of consisting of two parts.
The first was the lord’s demesne (pronunciation /di’mein/), that is his portion of the arable
land, consisting either of strips scattered among the strips of the peasants or of a solid block
of strips near the castle or manor house. In the economy of the manor, the cultivation of the
lord’s demesne was paramount. The second part of the manor comprised the arable strips of
the peasants, who held their land by servile tenure. This means that they were bound to the
soil and could be fetched back by force if they ran away. They owed the lord two or three
days’ labour each week upon the demesne, a portion of what they produced on their own
strips, and attendance at the manor court among other duties. These peasants (also known as
serfs or villeins) were personally free, since they could not be sold or bought as a piece of
property like as slave, but were economically unfree, as they could not leave the manor
without the lord’s permission and depended on the lord for subsistence.

SOCIAL CLASES
As a consequence of the Norman Conquest, the Anglo-Saxon nobility disappeared, and a
foreign French-speaking nobility took its place. Many an Anglo-Saxon freeman, his lands
confiscated without compensation and given to a Norman, was compelled to become a
labourer bound to the soil formerly his. Anglo-Saxon slaves did not fit into feudal society and
they sere classed as the lowest rank of unfree serfs.

the nobility: members of the royal family.

the baronial class.
members of the high clergy: archbishops
bishops and
Freemen (about 10% of abbots.
the population)
Normans the knights: warriors trained to fight on horseback.

the members of the lower clergy: monks and priests.

Freemen farmers.

Unfree people (about 90%
of the population)
Anglo-Saxons
Peasants (also called villeins or serfs) who had some
right to the land.
Cotters, who had no rights and used to live in the
forests within the manor.
DOMESDAY BOOK
There is no clearer proof of William’s power than the great survey of England he carried
through in 1086. In that year, he sent out officials to travel all over England. They were
instructed to visit every shire so as to carry out an elaborate census of the ownership and
wealth of the kingdom. This mass of information was compiled by the King’s clerks in the
various volumes of what is known as Domesday Book, Domesday meaning the Day of
Judgement. (Nowadays, the word is spelt with double “o”). Historians have wondered what
prompted William to launch and carry it through. One theory is that Domesday Book was to
form the basis for increased taxation. But it is possible that William may merely have wished
to know in detail the extent and value of his great conquest.

Adapted from A History of England by D. H. Willson

EXTRACT FROM DOMESDAY BOOK (1086)

Brooke (a village) in Norfolk

‘Brooke was held by Earl Gyrth in the time of King Edward, and
King William gave it to the abbey of St Edmund. There were
then 33 villeins, now 38. Then as now 3 slaves. Now 3 ploughs
on the demesne and 6 ploughs belonging to the men.
Woodland for 30 pigs, 9 acres of meadow. Now 5 horses, 14
beasts, 40 pigs, 65 sheep and20 goats.’

From Skills in History, Book 1 Changes, by Shuter and Child.