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William the Conqueror

Effects of the Conquest, Part 2

The Norman Conquest brought profound changes in landholding and in politics. Prior to the invasion, there were freeholders in England--nobles who held title to their own lands. William brought that to an end. The formula was audio gifnullus terre sans seigneur, a lovely phrase that combines Latin with French. It means: no land without a lord.

When he granted lands to his Norman lords, it was granted in exchange for service. When he confirmed Saxon lords in their holdings, he brought them under the same obligations. And he imposed heavy demands on his vassals, requiring of them the service of many more knights than he was able to require in Normandy, where tradition placed limits on the rights of the duke.

To illustrate: in England, eleven lords owed sixty or more knights each; twenty-seven lords owed twenty-five or more; six bishoprics and three abbeys owed forty or more. In Normandy, in contrast, only a handful of lords owed even more than ten knights. This, too, survived for a long time. This is why, even though England was a much less populous country than France, the English king was able to field armies of comparable size. He simply had direct command of more knights.

William instituted a great expansion of the royal forest, at the expense of the nobility. He introduced the King's Council, the curia regis, which gave advice to the king and sat in judgment on nobles accused of serious crimes.

William also brought with him the Norman church, with its Romanesque church architecture and its reforming spirit. The old English church was still centered on the monastery. The new church drew its strength from the cathedrals in the towns. And he continued his Norman practice of appointing bishops as he saw fit, granting sees as rewards to selected families.

Harder to define, but no less important, the Conquest oriented England away from Scandinavia and towards France. Because of the strong Danish influence, England had had much to do with Denmark and Norway and rather little to do with France. Now, England's fate was bound up with that of France, and the consequences of this would reverberate for centuries.

Through all these changes, local government remained untouched: the shires and their reeves, the shire court, the Danegeld, the national militia. There was a gradual loss of freedom for the peasants, but also an end to slavery (which was still practiced in Saxon England). Saxon tradition therefore survived at the local level and among the peasantry, further perpetuating the rift between conquerors and conquered.