Essay #2: England

A Show of StrengthThe Emerging Monarchies of Medieval England

The early Norman monarchs of England, beginning with William the Conqueror, did not only fight battles to consolidate their power.  William built fortresses to incite fear and respect for the Normans in the English, and also required that all lords and vassals swear allegiance to him above all others.  Henry II added to the power that William had begun to acquire by limiting the judiciary and legal powers of his individual vassals, and by clearly delineating where the church’s jurisdiction ended and secular law began, as well as making himself the ultimate court of appeals in both secular and ecclesiastical courts.

Having put down the rebellion of Earl Algar’s sons, Edwin and Morcar, by building fortresses—or castles—that the English could not resist (Ordericus Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy), William continued building such fortresses.  This instilled a fear in the Anglo-Saxon lords, and they were quick to submit to Norman rule, “delivering the keys of the city to the king, and offering him hostages” (Ordericus Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy).  William established his base of power as King of England without sending armies against the rebels; instead, he made the rebels fear his power.

Placing castles on hills all around England (Major Royal Castles Built During the Reign of William the Conqueror, 1066-1087), with high stone walls and even higher inner keeps to hold garrisons of his own soldiers (Richmond Castle and Harlech Castle), William made himself difficult to ignore.  Furthermore, the English did not have the resources to build and garrison their own castles, much less to destroy those built by the Norman invaders (Ordericus Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy).  Some castles were placed on the southern coast of England, and on the border between England and Wales; however, most were scattered throughout England itself, primarily either in or near prominent British towns of the day (Major Royal Castles Built During the Reign of William the Conqueror, 1066-1087), such as Gloucester, Canterbury, London and Nottingham.  People in those cities would have seen the castles in the distance, and feared William the Conqueror.

William did not build all of the castles that are attributed to the early monarchs in England.  Construction of such structures took decades, and while William did have twenty years to rule, he did not live long enough to complete all of the stone structures.  He did start to build many fortifications with wood; however, and a lot of those were eventually expanded into stone castles during the reigns of subsequent rulers (Wisner, Discovering the Western Past 126).  Monarchy was just beginning in England, and castles symbolized the military might of the invader kings who built them.  In addition, once the English had surrendered to William, they acquired the protection of the castles—or at least of the men stationed inside them.  This helped to protect England against invaders, building up its strength as a medieval state.

The early kings of England did not just rely on the fear and awe of buildings to gain power; they also made laws which both subtly and overtly changed the feudal system of government that had been present in England for centuries.  Nearly twenty years after Edgar’s and Morcar’s first rebellion, William called all of his councilors together at Salisbury, and also called all lords and vassals from all his demesnes.  All “people occupying land who were of any account all over England” were required to leave the lands over which they were lords, and report to William, where they swore fealty to him above all other lords (from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).  In requiring them to leave their lands, William made them swear fealty in a place where they had no power as lords themselves.  It could also be said that, in leaving their lands and swearing fealty to William, they gave their lands to him as well; he had become the supreme lord over all England, since all the land in England was run by lords who had temporarily quit their lands to become his vassals.  From that point forward, each lord only held their land at the monarch’s pleasure.

Henry II, a descendant of William’s, further established the monarchy’s power over all of England.  In the Assize of Clarendon, Henry took away individual vassals’ power over justice in their fiefdoms, employing twelve men in the hundreds of each county as spies to tell the king’s judges or sheriffs the names of any person who had been accused of--or who had harbored anyone accused of--crimes in their hundred or county (Assize of Clarendon).  With such spies among them, the people of England would have found it difficult to get away from the king’s justice, no matter whether that justice was good or oppressive in their eyes.

Also at Clarendon, Henry made an agreement with the English clergy of the church, limiting the church’s powers.  There had been disputes over whether certain cases were of secular or clerical jurisdiction, and the Constitution of Clarendon was meant to clarify which cases were meant to be tried in secular courts, and which were to be tried in ecclesiastical courts.  No matter who had jurisdiction, however, all who were summoned to the king’s justice—whether part of the clergy or a layman—was ultimately subject to the king’s justice (Constitution of Clarendon).  The Constitution of Clarendon also established the king as the ultimate court of appeals for both church and secular cases.  This gave the Henry II, and kings after him, power to overturn the judgments of both secular and ecclesiastical judges should he have chosen to do so.

Overall, England became a strong medieval state first, by instilling fear of the Norman conquerors’ power in the people.  Although they did not yet have that power, the people believed they did due to the castles which the early monarchs built throughout England.  Once soldiers of the conquerors had been stationed in the castles, the invaders had acquired enough power to destroy the English if the English were to rebel.  These castles—especially the ones along England’s coasts and borders—also served to protect the English from future invasions, since their submission to William I’s rule gave them his protection, and the protection of the men he stationed in the castles, as well.

Both William I and Henry II also made laws limiting the power of both the church and the feudal lords, taking that power for themselves and multiplying it in concealing legal documents.  The lords and clergy of the day agreed to William’s and Henry’s proclamations, thereby giving them the power they sought, whether they realized that those laws and proclaimations gave the king ultimate power over them or not.  Because of William and his descendants’ efforts to create a strong medieval state, England exists still, more than one millennium later, with a very similar form of government, slightly changed to include democracy.

Teacher Comments and Grade: There are many comments within the text that I am not going to type up.  The final comment given was, "Darcy--Be careful when making overriding statements which seem to be evident w/out supporting them from sources."  I again got 24/30, or 4/5.