William, Duke of

Normandy
• King Harold of
England (Last of
the Anglo-Saxon
King)
• Edward the
Confessor
(English King)
DOMESDAY BOOK.

 It is an inventory of nearly
every piece of property in
England- land, cattle, buildings.
 The title suggests a comparison
between William’s judgment of
his subjects’ financial worth
and God’s final judgment of
their moral worth.

“... there was not one hide of land in England that he did not
know who owned it, and what it was worth...”
from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
 FEUDALISM
More than simply a social system.
Feudalism was also a caste system, a
property system, and a military system.
• “The bond between lord and
vassal was affirmed or
reaffirmed by the ceremony of
homage. The vassal knelt,
placed his clasped hands
within those of his master,
declared, “Lord, I become your
man,” and took an oath of
fealty. The lord raised him to
his feet and bestowed on him
a ceremonial kiss. The vassal
was thenceforth bound by his
oath “to love what his lord
loved and loathe what he
loathed, and never by word or
deed do aught that should
grieve him.”

-Morris Bishop
The primary duty of
males above the serf
class was military
service to their lords.
• Knighthood was
grounded in the feudal
idea of loyalty, and it
entailed a complex
system of social codes.

“ The bond between lord and vassal was

affirmed or reaffirmed by the ceremony
of homage. The vassal knelt, placed his
clasped hands within those of his master,
declared, “Lord I become your man,” and
took an oath of fealty.The lord raised him
to his feet and bestowed on him a
ceremonial kiss. Thee vassal was
thenceforth bound by his oath “to love
what his lord loved and loathe what he
loathed, and never by word or deed do
aught that should grieve him.”
-Morris Bishop
 “ A woman is a worthy wight:
She serveth a man both daye and nyght;
Thereto she putteth all her might,
And yet she hathe but care and woe.”
----- Anonymous (fifteenth century)

Women in the Middle Ages had

no political rights. A woman’s
social standing depended
completely on her husband’s or
father’s status.
CHIVALRY AND
COURTLY LOVE:
IDEAL BUT UNREAL

• Chivalry was a set

of ideals and
social codes
governing the
behaviour knights
and
gentlewomen.
• The idea that revering and
acting in the name od a
lady would make a knight
braver and better was
central to one aspect of
chivalry, courtly love.
The knight's love for the lady inspires him to do great deeds, in order to be worthy
of her love or to win her favor.
The lady is typically older, married, and of higher social status than the knight because she was
modeled on the wife of the feudal lord, who might naturally become the focus of the young,
unmarried knights' desire.
• The "symptoms" of
love were described as
as if it were a sickness.
• The "lovesick" knight’s
typical symptoms:
sighing, turning pale,
turning red, fever,
inability to sleep, eat
or drink.
• The literary model of courtly
love may have been invented
to provide young men with a
model for appropriate
behavior.
• It taught them to sublimate
their desires and to channel
their energy into socially
useful behavior (love service
rather than wandering around
the countryside, stealing or
raping women.
• Chivalry led to an idealized
attitude toward women
and gave rise to a new
from of literature,
ROMANCE.
 THE NEW CITY CLASSES: OUT FROM UNDER THE OVERLORDS

Gradually population centers shifted to the cities, where people lived and worked outside the feudal system.
• Crusades- a series of
wars waged by
European Christians
against the Muslims,
with Jerusalem and
the Holy Land as prize.
 In December 1170, Henry II raged, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”
The Martyrdom of Thomas a’ Becket: Murder in the
On 29 December 1170, they arrived at Canterbury. According to accounts
left by the monk Gervase of Canterbury and eyewitness Edward Grim,
they placed their weapons under a tree outside the cathedral and hid
their mail armour under cloaks before entering to challenge Becket. The
knights informed Becket he was to go to Winchester to give an account of
his actions, but Becket refused. It was not until Becket refused their
demands to submit to the king's will that they retrieved their weapons
and rushed back inside for the killing.[16] Becket, meanwhile, proceeded to
the main hall for vespers. The other monks tried to bolt themselves in for
safety, but Becket said to them, "It is not right to make a fortress out of
the house of prayer!," ordering them to reopen the doors.
The four knights, wielding drawn swords, ran into the room saying "Where is
Thomas Becket, traitor to the King and country?!". The knights found Becket in a
spot near a door to the monastic cloister, the stairs into the crypt, and the stairs
leading up into the quire of the cathedral, where the monks were chanting vespers.
[1] Upon seeing them, Becket said, "I am no traitor and I am ready to die." One

knight grabbed him and tried to pull him outside, but Becket grabbed onto a pillar
and bowed his head to make peace with God.[citation needed ]

Sculpture and altar marking the spot of Thomas Becket's martyrdom, Canterbury Cathedral. The
sculpture by Giles Blomfeld represents the knights' four swords (two metal swords with reddened
tips and their two shadows).
Several contemporary accounts of what happened next exist; of particular note is
that of Grim, who was wounded in the attack. This is part of his account:
 ...the impious knight... suddenly set upon him and [shaved] off the summit of his
crown which the sacred chrism consecrated to God... Then, with another blow
received on the head, he remained firm. But with the third the stricken martyr bent
his knees and elbows, offering himself as a living sacrifice, saying in a low voice, "For
the name of Jesus and the protection of the church I am ready to embrace death."
But the third knight inflicted a grave wound on the fallen one; with this blow... his
crown, which was large, separated from his head so that the blood turned white
from the brain yet no less did the brain turn red from the blood; it purpled the
appearance of the church... The fifth – not a knight but a cleric who had entered
with the knights... placed his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr
and (it is horrible to say) scattered the brains with the blood across the floor,
exclaiming to the rest, 'We can leave this place, knights, he will not get up again.'[17
•  Four years later, in an act of
penance, the king donned a sack-
cloth walking barefoot through the
streets of Canterbury while eighty
monks flogged him with branches.
Henry capped his atonement by
spending the night in the martyr's
crypt. St. Thomas continued as a
popular cultist figure for the
remainder of the Middle Ages.
 Public outrage at the political
assassination of Thomas a Becket
created a backlash against the
English monarchy and weakened
the king in his power struggle with
Rome.

• Monk-Lives a life without regard.

• Summoner and Paroner-
blackmamil people with threats
of eternal damnationm
• Friar- choses women and
money.
• It fostered culture of unity- a
system of belief and symbol
that transcended the national
cultures of Europe.
---- (positive effect)----
The Magna Carta: Power to (some
of) the people.
• In 1215, English barons forced King John to
sign the Magna Carta as an effort to curb the
Church’s power. The document later become
the basis for English constitutional law.

No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned or

outlawed, or exiled , or in any way harmed, nor
will we go upon him nor will we send upon him,
except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the
law of the land.

To none will we sell, to none deny or delay, right or

justice.
-Magna Carta, Clauses 39 & 40
• The Hundred Years’ War
• It was based on dubious claims
to the throne of France by two
English kings- Edward III
(reigned 1327-1377) and Henry
V (1413-1422)
• Green-clad
yeoman take
the place of
knights in
shining armor
in battle.
• They have
formed the
nucleus of
the English
armies in the
Philippines.
• The English lost the Hundred
Years’ War with France, but by
the war’s end the yeoman
(small landowners) who had
formed the nucleus of the
English armies had replaced
the knights in armor. With this
emergence of the yeoman
class, modern , democratic
England was born.
 The Black Death
The character of the pestilence was
appalling. The disease itself, with its
frightful symptoms, the swift onset, the
blotches, the hardening of the glands
under the armpit or in the groin, these
swellings with no poultice could resolve,
these tumors which, when lanced, gave
no relief, the horde of virulent
carbuncles which followed the dread
harbingers of death, the delirium, the
insanity which attended its triumph, the
blank spaces which opened on all sides
in human society, stunned and for a
time destroyed the life and faith of the
world.
-Winston Churchill
• The Black Death caused a labor
shortage, leading to the serfs’
freedom and to the end of
feudalism.
• By the time King Henry VII’s 1486
marriage reconciled the warring
Houses of York and Lancaster, the
middle Ages were ending in
England, Henry, a strong king began
the Tudor line, that would lead to
Elizabeth 1.
• The Norman Conquest of England
creates a powerful Anglo-Norman
entity and brought England into the
mainstream of European civilization.
• The feudal system centralized
military, political and economic
power in the Crown.
• The Roman Church transcended
national boundaries and fostered
cultural unity among Europeans.
• The rise of towns and cities freed
people to pursue their own
commercial and artistic interests.
• The Magna Carta weakened the
political power of the Church and
laid the groundwork for later
English constitutional law.
• Exposure to Eastern civilization as
a result of the Crusades
broadened European's
intellectual horizons.
 The Gift of Story
The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories
come to you, care f or them. And learn to give them away where they
are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay
alive. That is why we put these stories in each others’ memory. This is
how people care for themselves. One day you will be good storytellers.
Never forget these obligations.
--- Barry Lopez