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THE LATEST PROGRAMME |
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The Norman Way presented by David Aaronovitch
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RULING
There's nothing new about the concept of a "regime-change" - the people of 11th century England were very familiar with it.
And in our second programme of THE NORMAN WAY, we find out exactly what changes did occur after England was subjected to the regime-change brought about by the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Although the Battle of Hastings had been bloody and brutal - the new ruler clearly believed the country would be better off with him in charge. When Duke William of Normandy was crowned King of England - on Christmas Day 1066 - he vowed to rule the country "like all the best kings before him".
Well, did he? What changes did the Norman conquerors bring in? ...which aspects of Anglo-Saxon rule did they leave untouched?
...and what was it really like living under the Norman Yoke? Find out as David Aaronovitch continues his exploration of the history of the Norman conquest...
The Battle of Hastings was the last time England was invaded successfully and conquered by a foreign army. It brought greater unity and strength to a country which was already wealthy and strong in governmental systems but which was dynastically and territorially insecure. With what we know now about the power and wealth of the late Saxon state, the defeat at Hastings is a surprise - in fact, William the Conqueror invaded England with less than 10,000 troops. The Normans were able to turn the country upside down, partly due to their own undoubted military skills, but with also a great deal of luck on their side.
The earliest built Norman Castles were of the motte and bailey type, consisting of an earthen mound, surmounted by a wooden tower and surrounded by an enclosure defended by a ditch and a palisade. Such a castle could be built in a matter of days and hundreds of them were erected in the Welsh borderland in the late 11th/early 12th century. As earthen mounds became consolidated, stone buildings could be erected on them - but most castles did not develop beyond the motte and bailey stage and now merely survive as earthworks.
The first stone castle in Wales was that built by the Earl of Hereford at Chepstow in 1070, where the great tower is based on William the Conqueror's tower at Falaise in Normandy, and is recorded as the earliest stone fortification in Britain. The Earl, Fitz Osbern, built the rectangular Hall-keep, surrounded by a stone walled bailey which contained wooden garrison and ancillary buildings.
William of Normandy was crowned King of England on Christmas Day 1066, some two months after the Battle of Hastings, and it would take him another four years to subdue the rest of England, completing the Norman Conquest. The years after the Battle of Hastings and the death of Harold were full of turmoil - collusion, treachery and rebellion were rife - and that was just the English! Threats from enemies, both foreign and domestic, to William's hard-won kingdom would never leave him, yet he was able to complete his Domesday Book, Britain's earliest, and still valid, public record.
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Further Reading:
"Domesday Book: A Complete Translation" (Penguin)
"Gesta Regum Anglorum" - by William of Malmesbury (Oxford Medieval Texts)
"Ecclesiastical History" - by Orderic Vitalis, edited by Marjorie Chibnall (Oxford Medieval Texts)
"Historia Anglorum" - by Henry of Huntingdon, edited by Diana Greenway (Oxford Medieval Texts)
"Gesta Guillelmi" - by William of Poitiers, edited by Marjorie Chibnall and R.H.C. Davis (Oxford Medieval Texts)
"The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles" - translated & collated by Anne Savage(Papermac)
"William the Conqueror" - by David Bates (Tempus)
"The Battle of Hastings, 1066" - by M.K. Lawson (Tempus)
"Conquest and Colonisation: the Normans in Britain 1066-1100" - by Brian Golding (Palgrave Macmillan)
"The English and the Normans" - by Hugh M Thomas (OUP)
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Listen To Programme II
