What is culture?

Culture is the evolving way of life a o group of persons, consisting of a shared set of
practices, associated with a shared set of products, based upon a shared set of perspectives on the
world, and set within specific social contexts. The evolving way of life reflects the dynamic nature
of culture and stresses that the persons of the culture are in the process of actively creating and
changing practices, products, perspectives, and communities.

Practices: they comprise the full range of actions and interactions that members of the
culture carry out, individually or with others. These practices are both verbal and non-verbal and
include interpretations of time, space, and the context of communication in social situations.

Products: they are all artifacts produced or adopted by the members of the culture.
Products range from tangible to more elaborate yet still perceptible constructions such as written
and spoken language, music, or institutions.

Perspectives: they represent the perceptions, beliefs, values and attitudes that underlie
the products, and that guide persons and communities in the practices of the culture. These
perspectives can be explicit, but more often they are implicit.

Communities: they include the specific social contexts, circumstances, and groups in which
members carry out cultural practices. These contexts range from broad communities such as
national culture, gender, and religion, to more narrowly defined groupings (a local political party, a
sport team, or family)

Persons: They constitute the individual members who embody the culture and its
communities in unique ways. All persons take on a particular cultural identity that both links them
to and separates them from other members of the culture.

Culture as iceberg:

Explicit culture represents the tip of the iceberg: practices, products, communities,
persons, and some perspectives.

Implicit culture represents all that lies beneath the surface of the sea, out of sight: most of
the perspectives.

United Kingdom:
 Economy: The UK is the major industrial and trading country of Western Europe (WE).
Farming is very efficient there. Natural resources: tin, lead, iron, coal, copper and gold.

Government: Parliamentary democracy. Voters elect representatives. House of Lords (the

party which has the large number of members in this house chooses the Prime Minister, that is,
the government leader), House of Commons.

Constitutional monarchy: a king or queen represents the country at public

events and is the official head of state.

Culture: English is the most spoken language. Welsh and Scottish in some areas. Most
people are Protestant Christians.

A Brief History of Great Britain:

The history of GB is conditioned by its geographic setting. GB, which includes England,
Scotland, and Wales is the world’s ninth-largest island. Britain is the largest island of the British
Isles, an archipelago- that is a group of islands.

Despite Britain’s position in the Northern Latitudes of Europe, the presence of the warm
waters of the Golf Stream makes the archipelago much warmer than the corresponding areas in
North America or Scandinavia. The climate is very wet, and rainfall is pretty distributed and
frequent, which means that there are excellent areas for farming. It is a seismically stable area
with rarely damaging earthquakes.

The availability of iron and coal is one of the reasons why Britain was the home of
Industrial Revolution.

Britain is marked by pronounced regional differences. The most basic division is that
between highland areas and lowland areas. There is a much higher proportion of highland in
Scotland than in England, and the difference between inhabitants plays a central role in Scottish
history and culture.

Great Britain has usually been the archipelago’s dominant political and cultural power. The
other big island is Ireland. Today Ireland is divided into the Republic of Ireland and Northern
Ireland, which along with GB makes up the United Kingdom of GB.

For much of its history, England has dominated GB and the British Isles. England is mostly a
lowland country with more fertile soil and a more temperate climate than its rivals. The most
prominent mountain range in England is the Pennines.

Wales is a term applied by the English, meaning “strangers”. Its poverty and mountainous
terrain made it impossible to establish a centralized government. In the 16 th century, Wales was
legally united with England, forming the Kingdom of England and Wales. Religiously, it developed
in the direction of sectarian Protestantism rather than the church of England.

Scotland was a separate country through the Middle Ages until the 18 th century when it
became a part of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Scotland and England had a tense relationship and
they went to wars several times. In 2014, a referendum on the independence of Scotland was
held.
 Great Britain has been used as an identity that transcends that of English, Welsh, and
Scottish, uniting all the peoples of the Island in a common loyalty.

The United Kingdom is a political term. It was meant to emphasize unity. After most of
Ireland became the Irish Republic, the remaining realm became known as the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The UK was a member state of the European Union from 1973 until 2020.

Prehistoric Britain: The early Britons.

The story of prehistoric Britain began when the first humans arrived in Britain. It ended
when the Romans conquered the Ancient Britons and Britain became part of the Roman Empire
(43 A.D.). The earliest humans were hunters-gatherers. They survived by hunting animals and
finding food to eat. Then, very gradually people learned new skills. First, they learned to herd
animals and grow crops. Later, they discovered the secrets of making bronze and iron. Prehistoric
people couldn’t read or write, but they were astonishing builders. The prehistoric period is divided
into three ages. They are known as the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.

Stone Age: It lasted for over 2 million years. It’s often divided into three different periods:
Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic (2.5 million years ago to 2500 B.C.). Britain changed a lot
through this time. During the early stages, huge ice sheets covered most of the country. Paleolithic
people moved from place to place hunting animals. But by the end of the Stone Age, people had
settled in villages to farm the land.

Bronze Age: In the Bronze Age, Ancient Britons learned to work with copper, tin, lead, and
bronze (2500 B.C. to 800 B.C.). Bronze Age people lived in small communities led by a warrior
chief. They gathered together for religious ceremonies and built circular tombs for important men
and women.

Iron Age: People learned to make iron around 800 B.C. They used it to make tools and
weapons (800 B.C. to 43 A.D.). During the Iron Age, farming flourished and the British population
grew very fast. But it was a very violent time. Tribes fought against each other, and many people
lived in hillforts to protect themselves. The Iron Age ended in Britain when the Romans arrived.

The Celts and the Iron Age:

The Celts came to Britain over the course of the centuries between about 700 and 100 B.C.
Many of them were tall, and had red hair and blue eyes. They came probably from central Europe,
and had moved slowly westwards in earlier centuries.

They knew how to work with iron, and could make better weapons than the people who
used bronze. The Celts began to control all the lowland areas of Britain. Celtic languages are still
spoken today (Gaelic, Cornish, Welsh, Breton, and Irish).

The basic unit of Celtic life was the clan. The clans were bound together into tribes, and
tribal chiefs were chosen from each family or tribe, sometimes as the result of fighting matches
between individuals, and sometimes by election. Each tribe had its own customs, gods, and social
structure. The Celts were pagans and polytheists, worshipping a variety of local goddesses and
gods, especially gods related to nature. They sacrificed animals and sometimes humans.

An important feature of Iron Age British religion was druidism. The druids were the most
valued people in Celtic society. They were a class of men who seem to have had certain
exemptions from taxation and military service. They couldn’t read nor write, but they had to
memorize all the important religious teachings, the tribal laws, history, medicine, and other
knowledge necessary in Celtic society.

Women were equal to men, meaning that they could own properties, choose their
husbands, and be leaders. There were strong class divisions among the Britons, with a warrior
aristocracy ruling over a peasantry that made up the majority of the population. Early Britain had a
warlike culture. They made use of hill-forts built on top of a hill to dominate surrounding
territories.

One custom for which British warriors became well-known was painting themselves blue,
using a substance known as woad. This was done with the purpose of scaring other tribes.

The Romans:

The Romans came from Rome (Italy). They were experts in taxation, architecture, and
farming. They used the Latin language to preserve the history, the law, and for tax collection. The
Romans invaded Britain because they wanted to increase the power with the mineral and
agricultural wealth. Britain became subject to the attention of the greatest of all Roman generals,
Julius Caesar, who had conquered Gaul in 58 B.C. The Celts of Britain were working with the Celts
of Gaul against them, so under Julius Caesar command, they invaded Britain in 55 and 54 B.C.

Caesar first expedition was not very successful. However, the knowledge gained in the
expedition was applied to another, larger expedition. Due to the superiority of the Roman Army,
he defeated the Britons. However, rather than adding Britain as a new Roman Province, he was
forced to leave within a couple of months to face problems in Gaul. Then, in 43 A.D., a Roman
army actually expanded in present-day England and Wales transforming the Celtic society under
the command of the Emperor Claudius.

One of the major changes brought by the Romans was the extirpation of the Druids,
because they practiced human sacrifice and offered a nucleus for possible Celtic resistance. The
Romans introduced many new Gods, such as Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Minerva; however, they
had no desire to eliminate the worship of British gods. British Christianity dates from around 200
A.D. The church in Britain grew very slowly. There is a little record of persecution because the
British church was too small and weak for the Roman governor to bother with. British Christianity
was originally strongest in the cities. It began to attract landowners after Emperor Constantine the
Great made it official religion of the Roman Empire in the early fourth century.

Roman civilization occupied a very different role in the lowlands than in the highlands. The
productive lowlands saw the Romanization of the British Elite. Many British leaders received
Roman citizenship, took Roman names, and adopted aspects of the Roman upper class lifestyle
such as Roman names and the Latin Language. Most people, however, remained Celtic. The
Roman presence in the highlands was largely restricted to military outposts.
 The brutality of Roman rule led to the largest revolt in the history of Britannia: Boudicca’s
rebellion in 60 A.D. The rebellion at first seemed successful. Boudicca’s forces attacked and burned
the Roman provincial capital. However, they were not able to face a full Roman army. Roman
troops killed 80.000 Britons in the Battle of Watling street, and Boudicca committed suicide rather
than become a prisoner of Rome. The name “Britain” comes from the word “Pretani” (inhabitants
of Britain). The Romans mispronounced the word and called the island “Britain”. Constant attacks
of the tribes in Scotland forced the Romans to build walls along the northern border. Hadrian’s
and Antonine’s walls were built. The rebellion resulted in the transfer of Roman provincial
administration to London. Before Colchester was the capital. The incorporation of Britain as a
frontier province of the Roman Empire was mostly successful. The Romans introduced much of the
infrastructure of civilization to the island. The Roman Empire was based on considerable local
autonomy and self-government of its cities. Cities were the centers of diffusion of Roman culture
to the British elite.

Towns were the basis of Roman administration and Civilization. Many grew out of previous
Celtic settlements, but also from Roman military camps or market centers. Towns had forums,
shops, public baths, theatres, and amphitheaters. The most important town in Britain was London.
In Britain all roads led to London. There were three different sort of towns:

 Coloniae: Roman settlers and discharged veterans.

 Municipiae: peopled by native population that had Roman citizenship.
 Civitates: old Celtic tribal communities.

Villas: farms with luxurious houses. They had mosaic floors, their own bath-houses, and
central heating.

The Romans built thousands of miles of roadways. They were needed for the army, for
trade and tax collection.

There was an increasing problem with land and sea raids from the Picts of the North and
sea raids from the Irish. Across the North Sea a new threat emerged of a Germanic people: The
Saxons. Towards the end of the third century, there was a brief period when Britain was the
headquarters of an independent Empire.

In the late third and early fourth century, the Roman government divided Britain into five
provinces to create smaller troop concentrations. This was followed by a period of invasions. The
Irish, Picts, and Saxons started coordinating their operations. 410 is considered the effective end of
Roman rule in Britain.

The Anglo-Saxons (410-1066):

After the Roman armies had gone, the Britons were attacked by German warlike tribes:
The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. At first the Germanic tribes only raided Britain, but after 430 A.D.
they began to settle. At first they came as mercenaries to help the Britons, but the Anglo-Saxons
turned against them and began to invade the rest of the island. The Britons defeated by Germanic
invaders were driven away into Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, and Brittany (France). Celtic, Roman, and
Christian culture were displaced from England. The Anglo-Saxons were in control of Britain by the
6th century, the land was renamed “England”, and the people “English”. English history begins in
802.

The Anglo-Saxons established a series of Kingdoms with the seven principal among them
(Essex, Wessex, Sussex, East Anglia, Kent, Northumbria, and Mercia) being collectively termed the
Heptarchy. Anglo-Saxon kingship had its roots in North European Germanic custom. The king was
predominantly a war-leader. Northumbria was the strongest in the 7 th century, and Mercia in the
8th century. In the 10th century the royal family of Wessex united the whole of Saxon England
under one ruler. The Saxons created institutions which made the English state strong for the next
500 years. The Witan, the king’s council, was one of them. It was a group of senior warriors and
churchmen to whom kings turned for advice.

The Saxons divided the land into new administrative areas based on shires. Over each
shire was appointed a shire reeve, the king’s local administrator. In each district was a “manor” or
large house where local villagers came to pay taxes, where justice was administrated, and where
men met to join the Anglo-Saxon army. The lord of the manor had to organize all this and make
sure the land was properly shared. It was the beginning of the manorial system. It was also the
beginning of the class system:

Hierarchy:

 King
 Thanes (warriors)
 Reeves
 Churls (farmers)
 Thralls (slaves)

It is clear from Germanic law and legend that wives retained possession of their own
property and could count on their brothers for protection against abuse. Anglo-Saxons were
illiterate. Literacy arrived with the reintroduction of Christianity to England: a form of Latin script
was used with a few letters derived from the Runic Alphabet.

The Anglo-Saxons were pagans. These tribes had strong belief in the afterlife. Corpses
were buried with all the belongings people were thought to need after death. They were
Christianized by Roman and Irish missionaries. Anglo-Saxon gods had given English names for the
days of the week. For example, Frige (the Anglo-Saxon love goddess): Friday.

Offa of Mercia was the most powerful king of his days, being the first one to style himself
simply as “king of the English”. He extinguished the royal dynasties of Kent and Sussex and seems
to have ruled there directly. In Mercia he installed his own son Ecgfrith on the throne. Only
Northumbria resisted his overlordship, and here a period of dynastic instability ensured that it
didn’t pose him any real threat.

In 795, he corresponded with Charlemagne over a commercial dispute and he clearly

viewed himself as the equal of the Frankish ruler, as he asked for a Frankish princess as a bride for
Ecgfrith. Offa also commanded sufficient resources to build a huge defensive work- Offa’s Dyke-
between western Mercia and the surviving British Kingdoms in Wales.
 In 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent a monk, Augustine, to reestablish Christianity in
England. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. The Celtic church brought
Christianity to ordinary people of Britain. The competition between the Celtic and the Roman
churches reached a crisis because they disagreed over the date of Easter. In 663, the King of
Northumbria decided to support the Roman church. Saxon kings helped the church to grow, and
the church increased the power of the kings. Kings were said to have “God’s approval”. This
suggested that kings were chosen not only by people, but also by God. The church established
monasteries which were places of learning and education.

The Vikings:

They were people from the north (Denmark and Norway) who began to arrive in the island
at the end of the 8th century. The word “Vikings” means “pirates” or “sea riders”. They were
pagans. The Viking Age lasted from 2 to 3 centuries. The term Viking denotes a profession rather
than an ethnic group.

They raided the territory and came in search of loot and slaves, both for personal
exploitation and for sale in the active Mediterranean slave markets, but they realized that the
territory was good for them to stay. Their homes were located in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark
(Scandinavian Peninsula). They burned churches and monasteries. The Vikings were divided into:

 Danes: the main group, the ones who invaded England.

 Swedes
 Norwegians: the ones who invaded England and Scotland.

The Viking had similarities to the Anglo-Saxons: Their pagan religion, their warlike culture,
and linguistics. They spoke Old Norse. The tradition of fishing in the North Sea and North Atlantic
led to the development of long “dragon ships” and seafaring skills. The Vikings were highly mobile.
They could pull their warships onto beaches without the need for a proper harbor, and even sail
them up rivers to raid far inland.

The Scandinavian impact on Britain took place in three phases. At the end of the 8 th
century it began with smash-and-grab Viking raids by single ships or small groups of ships. Then,
beginning the mid-ninth century, the Scandinavian formed larger groups for bigger projects. They
developed permanent bases, began to winter over in England, and sometimes even formed small
kingdoms. The last phase was the invasion by military forces of Scandinavian kings.

Impacts of the Vikings in the British Isles:

 They raided the monastery of Lindisfarne in 793

 In 851 groups arrived in ships in London for bigger projects
 In 865 arrived to conquer and settle

Christianity was accepted by the Vikings and didn’t disturb the local population. Viking
laws were communicated orally. The English recovery from the Viking invasions was led by king
Alfred of Wessex. He fought a guerrilla and eventually managed to expel the Scandinavians from
Wessex. His unification of much of Southern and Western England was facilitated both by his
leadership of the struggle against the Vikings and by the fact that the Scandinavians disrupted the
relatively stable multi-kingdom structure of Early Anglo-Saxon England. Alfred’s achievements
have made him the only monarch in English history given the title of the Great. He reorganized the
army of Wessex to keep it in the field longer and set up a system of defended cities known as
“boroughs” which were fortified places. Viking rule was recognized in the East and North of
England. It was called the Danelaw, the land where the law of the Danes ruled. In the rest of the
country Alfred was recognized as king. By 950, the Saxon king Ethelred decided to pay the Vikings
to stay away. To find the money he set a tax on all his people called the Danegeld or “Danish
money”.

Alfred efforts to attract scholars from Britain and the European Continent to his own court,
and his own scholarship and translations of the Christian writings into Anglo-Saxon language were
attempts to revive the Christian culture.

The best-known words that often come from Old Norse are those which, like place names,
begin with –sk, such as “sky” and “skin”. Other words from Old Norse had to do with law and legal
proceedings, such as “husting”, “wrong”, and the word “law” itself. Other Old Norse-derived
words include: Anger, ugly, knife, husband, egg, etcetera.

The Vikings and Bluetooth

Bluetooth technology (used to communicate wirelessly) is named after Harald Bluetooth, a

th
10 century king who united and ruled Denmark and Norway. Legend has it that Harald’s fondness
for blueberries stained his teeth blue. The Bluetooth logo consists of the Nordic runes for Harald’s
initials.

The Norman Conquest:

In 1066, King Edward the Confessor died without an heir to continue the line of succession.
Some claimants appeared saying that they had the right to be in the crown: Harold Godwinson
(Anglo-Saxon king), William (king of Normandy), and Harald Hardrada (King of Norway). Harold
was chosen by the witan as the next ruler of England. William, however, claimed that Edward had
recognized him as the successor and that Harold had accepted this claim. William, who got the
approval of the Emperor and the Pope, started to prepare his invasion to England. Harold
prepared his army to wait for William. Harald sailed to England with 300 ships and was joined by
rebels. In the Battle of Stanford Bridge, Harold won a decisive victory on September 27 th.

In the Battle of Hastings, William defeated Harold, who died in October, and this meant
the beginning of the conquest. William moved north crushing and eliminating opponents. On
December the 24th William was crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey. After years of
warfare, Anglo-Saxon resistance was finally eradicated in 1075.

Impacts of the Norman Conquest

Political:

 The Anglo-Saxon ruling elite was replaced by a Norman one

 It severed the ties with the Scandinavian Peninsula
 The ruling apparatus was made much more centralized with power and wealth
being held in fewer hands
  The English kings became also French subjects
 The continental Feudal system was installed
 Kingship became a family business

Social:

 The rulers were French: they spoke French; their customs were French
 Anglo-Saxon widows married Normans
 The system of feudalism developed as William gave out lands in return for military
service
 Slavery was eliminated by 1130

Economic:

 New distribution of lands

 Feudal system installed
 New commercial ties with the continent
 The Domesday Book. By 1086 William wanted to know exactly who owned which
piece of land, and how much it was worth. He needed this information so that he
could plan his economy, find out how much was produced and how much he could
ask in tax. He sent a team all through England to make a survey called “Domesday
book”.

Architectural:

 William built garrisoned forts and castles across England as tools to control the
geographical area
 From Cornwall to Northumbria the Normans would build over 65 major castles
and another 500 lesser ones in the decades after Hastings
 The Normans introduced a military architecture to the British Isles: the motte and
bailey castle

Linguistic:

 Norman French became the language of the governing classes

 French and Latin were used in government, the Church, the Law, and Literature
 English monks continued writing the Angle-Saxon Chronicle in English until 1154
 In the four centuries that followed the conquest, over ten thousand French words
entered the English language
 First, the words related to power: politics and law
 Soon, the language reflected the influence of the Normans in all aspects of life

The European Middle Ages (450-1500):

The Middle Ages, or medieval period, lasted from about 450 to 1500. This period was one
of hardship and suffering. However, it was also a period of renewal. Europeans built a new
civilization. It blended Greco-Roman and Germanic traditions within the framework of the
Christian church.
 The culture of the Germanic tribes who migrated across Europe differed greatly from that
of the Romans. They had no cities and no written laws. Instead, they lived in small communities
governed by unwritten customs. They were ruled by elected kings, whose chief role was to lead
them in war. The Germanic tribes divided W.E. into small kingdoms. The Church survived the fall of
the Roman Empire. It gave order and security. The strongest and most successful one was that of
the Franks. They conquered the province of Gaul. The King of the Franks, Clovis, converted to
Christianity so he won the support of the Roman Catholic Church.

Islam:

Islam emerged in Arabia in 632. In 200 years, the Muslims had built a great empire and
created a new civilization. Muslims overran Christian Kingdoms in North Africa and Spain and
headed into France (land of the Franks). Although they represented a menace to Christians,
medieval Europeans learnt a lot from them.

Charles Martel:

By 700, Charles Martel had become the most powerful person in the Frankish Kingdom. He
extended the Franks’ reign to the north, south, and east. He defeated the Muslims raiders from
Spain at the Battle of Tours in 732.

Charlemagne:

Charles the Great inherited the Frankish Kingdom in 771. He built an Empire reaching
across France, Germany, and part of Italy. He loved battle and was a successful conqueror who
reunited much of the old Roman Empire in Europe. Charles the Great helped the Pope Leo III to
fight against the rebellious Romans. The Pope proclaimed him “emperor” of the Holy Roman
Empire.

Charlemagne made determined efforts to revive the Latin learning throughout his empire.
Charlemagne himself could read but not write. He saw the need for officials who could keep
complete and accurate records and write clear reports. Education had declined so much that even
the educated clergy were often sadly ignorant.

After Charlemagne died, his empire soon fell apart. His heirs battled for power for nearly
30 years. Charlemagne’s grandsons drew up the Treaty of Verdun, which split the Empire into
three regions. However, he left a strong legacy: the expansion of the Christian civilization.

Feudalism and the Manor Economy:

In the face of invasions by Vikings, Muslims, and

Magyars, kings and emperors were too weak to maintain law
and order. People needed to defend their homes and lands. In
response to that, a new system called Feudalism evolved.
Feudalism was an organized system of rule in which powerful
lords divided their large landholdings among lesser lords. In
exchange for land these lords pledged service and loyalty to the
greater lord. The relationship between lords and vassals was
established by tradition. A vassal who had pledged loyalty to
more than one lord could have problems if his overlord quarreled with each other. To solve this
problem, a vassal usually had a liege to whom he owed loyalty first.

The knights and Chivalry:

Feudal lords battled constantly for power and for feudal nobles warfare was a way of life.
Many nobles trained from boyhood for a future occupation as a knight. Noble women played an
active role in this warrior society. The lady became “lord of the manor” while her husband or
father was off fighting. She supervised vassals, managed the household and performed the
necessary agricultural or medical tasks.

In the later Middle Ages, knights adopted a code of conduct called chivalry, which required
knights to be brave, loyal and true to their word.

The castles:

Fortified homes were built during the Middle Ages to protect the powerful lords.

The Crusades: (1095- 1270)

Pope Urban II in Rome asked Christian knights to help him fight the Turks. The Pope hoped
to increase his power in Europe, and he hoped that the crusades would set Christian knights to
fighting Muslims instead of one another. After a long, bloody campaign, Christian knights captured
Jerusalem in 1099. The crusaders divided the land into four small states. On the third crusade, the
Europeans tried but failed to retake Jerusalem. After negotiations, Saladin reopened the holy city
to Christian pilgrims. The crusades failed in their chief goal- to conquer the Holy Land. However,
they had a positive effect. They increased the level of trade. Returning crusaders introduced fabric,
spices, and perfumes from the Middle East to a larger market. The crusades helped to increase the
power of feudal monarchs. Rulers won new rights to levy taxes to support the crusades. It also
encouraged the growth of a money economy. To finance a journey to the Holy Land, nobles
needed money. They allowed peasants to pay rents in money. Several Christian kingdoms tried to
drive Muslims away from Spain. This campaign became known as the “Reconquista”. In 1492, the
Reconquista was completed.

The Age of faith:

The Church ruled every aspect of human life. Medieval Christians believed that all people
were sinners doomed to eternal suffering. The only way to avoid the tortures of hell was to
participate in the sacraments. The church had its own body of laws, known as Cannon Law.
Anyone who refused to obey Church laws faced a range of penalties. The most severe was
excommunication and could not receive the sacraments. The Church presented women in two
extreme roles: as “mother of God” and as “daughter of Eve”

Middle Ages in England (1087-1485):

Kingship: A Family Business

When William died, he left the duchy of Normandy to his elder son, Robert. He gave
England to his second son, Rufus. When Robert went to fight the Muslims in the Holy Land, he left
Rufus in charge of Normandy. Rufus died shot by an arrow. He had not married, and therefore had
no son to take the crown. At the time of William’s death, Robert was on his way home to
Normandy. Their younger brother, Henry, rode to Westminster, where he was crowned there
three days later. Robert was prepared to invade.

The Norman nobles in England had to choose between Henry and Robert. In the end they
choose Henry. Robert’s invasion was a failure, and he accepted payment to return to Normandy.
But Henry wanted more. In 1106, he invaded Normandy and captured Robert. Norman and
England were reunited under one ruler. Henry’s most important aim was to pass both Normandy
and England to his successor. Henry’s only son was drowned at sea, so the family accepted that his
daughter, Matilda, would follow him. However, Henry argued publicly with Matilda’s husband, and
died soon after. Many barons supported Henry’s nephew: Stephen. Stephen and Matilda started a
civil war that lasted for 19 years. A compromise was reached between the two parties. Stephen
was to have the throne for his life after which it would pass on to Matilda’s son: Henry II.

Henry II was the first unquestioned ruler of the English throne for a hundred years. The
manor again became the center of local life and administration. Henry’s friend and chief
administrator was a cleric by the name of Thomas a Becket. When the see of Canterbury fell
empty in 1162 Henry convinced Becket to become the new Archbishop. Henry assumed that his
friend would be sympathetic to the royal cause in the escalating battle between church and state,
but he was not. After a long enmity, Thomas a Becket was murdered by 4 king’s knights on
December 29th 1170.

Henry was followed by his son, Richard “Lion heart” because of his reputation as a great
military leader and warrior. Richard I was killed in France. Richard had no son, and he was followed
by his brother John I, who had already made himself unpopular with the nobles, merchants, and
the church. He was very unpopular because he was greedy.

In 1215, John hoped to recapture Normandy. He called on his lords to fight for him, but
they no longer trusted him. Outside London, at Runnymede, John was forced to sign a new
agreement, known as “Magna Carta” in 1215. He died the following year.

Magna Carta and the Decline of Feudalism:

Magna Carta was a written document designed to place limits upon the absolute power of
the king and make him subject to the law. It means “Great Charter”. King John “Lack land” granted
the Charter of liberties, subsequently known as Magna Carta, at Runnymede on 15 th June, 1215.
The most famous of its 63 clauses said that no free man could be imprisoned, outlawed or exiled
except by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land, and that justice could not be sold,
delayed or denied. It also contained clauses relating to the treatment heirs and widows and to the
payment of debts. It confirmed the liberties of the Church and of all cities and towns and it sought
to regulate the conduct of all local officials and ensure that they knew and observed the law.

King John was forced to agree to Magna Carta, but he immediately attempted to have it
annulled by the Pope, who issued a papal bull saying that it was “as unjust and unlawful as it is
base and shameful”. A period of civil war followed, which ended with the sudden death of King
John from dysentery in 1216. After his death, Magna Carta was reissued with changes in 1216,
1217, and 1225. After the 1217 reissue, it became known as Magna Carta, or Great Charter. John
never signed Magna Carta, he reluctantly stamped his seal to the remarkable document.
 The beginnings of the Parliament:

Henry III was only 9 years old. He was under the control of powerful nobles tied to Magna
Carta. Simon de Montfort called the council of nobles a “parliament” and this forced Henry to get
rid of his foreign advisers. The nobles where supported by the towns, which wished to be free of
Henry’s heavy taxes. When Henry died, his son Edward I took the throne without question.

Edward I created a real “parliament”. He commanded each shire and each town to send 2
representatives to parliament. These “commoners” became the representatives of their
communities. The House of Commons grew in importance along time.

The Growth of Towns:

At the end of the Anglo-Saxon period there were only a few towns, but by 1250 most of
England’s towns were already established. The king gave “charters of freedoms” to many towns,
freeing the inhabitants from feudal duties to the local lord. It was the beginnings of a middle class
and a capitalist economy.

Within the towns and cities, society and the economy were controlled by “guilds”
(meaning “to pay” because members paid towards the cost of brotherhoods). These were
brotherhoods of different kinds of merchants. During the 14 th century, as larger towns continued
to grow, “craft” guilds came into being. Each of them tried to protect its own trade interests.

Education:

Schools of learning were established in many towns and cities. All these schools taught
Latin because most books were written in this language, it was the educated language of almost all
Europe., and it was useful in the spread of ideas and learning. In England, two schools of higher
learning were established at the end of the 12 th century: Oxford and Cambridge.

The Black Death (1348)

The Black Death was a plague that first hit England in 1348, a year after its arrival to
Europe, and spread rapidly throughout the British archipelago. The disease was named after the
black pustules it raised on the bodies of its victims. Its main symptoms were fever, diarrhea and
vomiting, extreme weakness, and blackening and death of tissue in people’s extremities, most
commonly their fingers, toes, and nose. Fatalities may have reached as high as 2 million dead.

In 1347, a Genoese ship from Caffa came ashore at Messina, Sicily. The crew of the ship
carried with them the disease. It is thought that the disease originated in the Far East, and was
spread along major trade routes to Caffa, where Genoa had an established trading post. The ships
were forced to seek safe harbor elsewhere, and the disease was able to spread quickly.

By the end of the 1350, the Black Death had subsided, but it never really died out in
England. There were further outbreaks throughout the first half of the 15 th century. It was not until
the late 17th century that England became largely free of serious plague epidemics. The disease
was caused by a bacterium (Yersinia pestis), which was carried in the blood of wild rats and the
fleas that lived off the rats. Normally, there is no contact between these fleas and human beings,
but when their host rats die, these fleas are forced to seek alternatives, including humans.
 Theories about the cause of the disease where numerous, ranging from God to planetary
alignment. Not surprisingly that the horrors of the Black Death signaled the Apocalypse. Others
believed that the disease was a plot by the Jews to poison all of the Christian world.

Consequences

 Whole villages disappeared, some others were abandoned

 Land was no longer allowed to rest one year in three, which meat it was over-
used, resulting in years of famine
 With the population so low, there were not enough farmers to work the land
 Peasants benefited through increased employment options and higher wages
 A decline in church power and influence, since many survivors of the plague were
disillusioned by the church’s inability to explain the outbreak
 Emergence of the Lollards

The Hundred Years’ War (1337-1473)

Edward’s hostility to both Scotland and France led to an alliance between the two
countries that would become a prominent feature of Western European politics for centuries.
Edward responded to his enemies’ alliance by working with his leadership of the Flemish cities.
The French monarchy was aggressively asserting its sovereignty over English possessions in
southwestern France.

The immediate cause of the Hundred Years’ war was the rival French and English claims to
the French throne when the direct line of the French ruling family, the Capetians, failed. The last
French king of the direct line of the Capetians died in 1328. The Salic law, which declared invalid all
claims from the female line, was rediscovered by French jurists with the intention of keeping the
English out. Edward had a claim that derived from his mother.

The Hundred Years’ war lasted from 1337 to 1453, although the conflict was not constant
and there were long periods of inactivity. The fighting devastated France and drained England.
Unlike the previous wars, the Hundred Years’ war was not a struggle between two French
magnates, one of whom happened to be king of England, but between two nations.

The French brought their alliance with Scotland into play, carrying the war into northern
England. Scottish activity was limited to raiding; when the Scots tried to invade in force in 1346,
they were defeated and their king, David II, taken prisoner. This took Scotland out of the war.

The first decades of the war saw English victories, but France’s size prohibited its complete
absorption as English territory. In 1429, a 17-year-old peasant woman, Joan de Arc, appeared in
the court of Charles VII, saying that God had sent her to save France. She led the French to several
victories and planted the seeds for future triumphs. Joan paid for success with her life. She was
captured by allies of the English and turned over to her enemies for trial. She was convicted and
burned at the stake. Given the French monarchy’s greater resources and prestige, the English
lacked resources to conquer France.

Questionnaire on the Peasants’ Revolt

1) What was the situation of the peasants like in England in the 14 th century?
 Before the plague, English life for the peasant class remained fairly unchanged from what
it had been for hundreds of years. A peasant was under an economic obligation to pay tax, which
came in the form of 10% of the value of the land that he farmed. At a time when peasants were
struggling to get by, this tax was unpopular.
2) What happened at Cressing Temple?
During the Peasants’ Revolt, Cressing was stormed by the rebels. It was targeted in 1381,
when on Monday 10 June a large group of rebels attacked Cressing and carried away armor,
vestments, gold and silver, and burned books.
3) Why did people consider the “Poll Tax” to be unfair?
The peasants felt it was unfair that they should pay the same as the rich. They also did not
feel that the tax was offering any benefit.
4) What is the connection of the Peasants’ rebellion with the Lollards?
Lollards first faced serious persecution after the Peasant’s Revolt. While Wycliffe and other
Lollards opposed the revolt, one of the peasants’ leaders, John Ball, preached Lollardy. The nobility
then found Lollardy to be a threat not only to the Church, but to the English society in general.
5) How did the Black Death change the situation of the peasants?
Peasant diet improved greatly after the Black Death as more land was devoted to raising
livestock and meat became more common. The more favorable situation for peasants was a
disaster for the landowners, who were forced to pay higher wages as the labor poll shrank. In 1352
Parliament enacted the Statute of Laborers in an attempt to control wages. It prohibited any
employer from offering higher wages that the ones prevalent in 1347, before the plague arrived in
Britain. The Statute also forbade peasants from breaking a contract and inflicted harsh penalties
on those who dared to leave their land.
6) What do Richard II do when the rebels camped near London? What happened
after they met?
When a contingent of Kentish rebels advanced on London, they were met at Blackheath by
representatives of the royal government, who unsuccessfully attempted to persuade them to
return home. The following day, Richard met the rebels at Mile End and acceded to most of their
demands, including the abolition of serfdom.
7) What were the peasants’ demands shouted by Walt Tyler at the King? How did
Richard II react?
Their demands were less harsh laws, money for the poor, freedom, and equality. The
rebels sought a reduction in taxation, an end to the system of unfree labor known as serfdom, and
the removal of the King’s senior officials and law courts. Richard mobilized 4000 soldiers to restore
the order. Most of the rebel leaders were tracked down and executed; by November, at least 1500
rebels had been killed.
8) Was the revolt a failure? Justify your answer
No, it was not. On the surface, the peasants were crashed, their demands denied, and
many executed. However, the land owners had been scared, and in the longer-term several things
were achieved. Parliament gave up trying to control the wages landowners paid their peasants.
The hated poll tax was never raised again.
John Wycliffe and the Lollards:
John Wycliffe was an Oxford professor. In the 14 th century, England produced its own
heresy: The Lollard movement founded by John Wycliffe. John was troubled by the papacy’s
corruption and politicization. He located ultimate religious authority in the Bible rather than in the
institutional church. Biblicism led Wycliffe to question other aspects of the traditional doctrine,
such as transubstantiation and the Pope’s supremacy. The spread of his ideas led most English
leaders to see him as a threat to the social and religious order, particularly after the Peasant’s
revolt of 1381 which had some Wycliffe involvement. Lollardy was driven into the lower, but not
the lowest, classes.

The War of the Roses (1455-85)

The War of the Roses in England is named after the white rose (York) and the red rose
(Lancaster) emblems of the rival houses of Lancaster and York, which were contending for the
throne of England. The real force driving the conflict was not dynastic rivalry but the emergence of
powerful nobles known as magnates, whose wealth enabled them to build personal armies.

England had lost a war and was ruled by a mentally ill king (Henry VI) who was bad at
choosing advisers. The nobles began to ask questions about who should be ruling the country. The
nobility was divided into those who remained loyal to Henry VI, the “Lancastrians”, and those who
supported the duke of York, the “Yorkist”.

Edward IV captured and imprisoned Henry in the Tower of London, but nine years later a
Lancastrian army rescued Henry and chased Edward out of the country. However, he returned.
Henry VI died in the Tower, almost certainly murdered. Henry Tudor defeated Edward. He was
crowned king immediately. The war had finally ended.