Vikings.

• Came from Norway & Denmark

• Firstly only raided, burnt churches & monasteries along the east and north coasts of Britain

• Rioted & looted the British isles in the 8^th -11^th centuries

• Heeded land

• Invasions helped unite the Saxon kingdoms

• Danegeld (a tax Saxons paid to Vikings)

842 – Vikings raided London.

King Alfred built walled settlements to keep the Danes out (called burghs => borough)

King Alfred the Great:

• king of Wessex

• 878– Decisive battle of Edington, Danes were allowed to stay in England (Danelaw)

Achievements of Alfred:

• Successfully resisted the Danes

• Promoted learning & literacy

• May have been responsible for the creation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

• Created an efficient army, but a fleet on Danish pattern

• Assembled new code of laws

• Attempted to translate Bible into the language of Anglo-Saxon

Pre-Norman period.

950 – England seemed to have recovered from the Viking invasion. But soon the Danes started raiding westwards.

The Saxon king Ethelred decided to pay the Vikings to stay away – Danegeld (tax).

Ethelred died – Cnut (Danish Viking) ruled much of England. Before his death, he chose one of Ethelred’s sons, Edward, to be king.

Edward the Confessor

• Church building

• Westminster abbey started

Normans = grandchildren of Vikings who settled in northern France and became Christians.

? Who should be king after Edward the Confessor?

! Witan chose Harold Godwinson to be next king. His right to the throne was challenged by Duke William of Normandy.

Harold defeated the Danes, but at the same time William landed in England.

Harold should have waited, but he didn’t, and in the battle of Hastings he lost to William the Conqueror.

1066 – William crowned at Westminster Abbey. A new period began.

Norman invasion.Battle of Hastings.

The Norman Conquest removed the native ruling class, replacing it with French-speaking monarchy and aristocracy.

The Conquest linked England with continental Europe, lessened Scandinavian influence. There was a rebellion against the Norman rule up to 1070.

Feudal society.

• William gave land to his nobles in exchange for their service

• Of all farmland of England, ha gave ½ to the Norman nobles,1/4 to the Church, and 1/5 lest to himself.

• He kept the Saxon system of sheriffs to balance the local nobles

• As a result – England had 1 powerful family instead of many powerful nobles.

Feudalism– lands held in return for service to a lord.

Basis – holding of land for economic purposes.

All lands owned by the king were held by vassals.

1086– theDomesday book. William wanted to know who owned which piece of land, made a country-wide survey. The process reminded people of the Day of Judgment, the Domesday.

William Rufus, Robert and Henry I.

1087 – William died, gave power to Robert as Duke of Normandy, and gave England to William Rufus.

1100 – William Rufus died, had no sons.

Robert was on his way home from the Holy land, when the youngest brother, Henry, rde to Winchester and took charge of King’s treasury. Rode to Westminster, crowned king 3 days later.

The nobles chose Henry over Robert because he was in London.

1106–Henry invaded Normandy.

Henry had no sons, so he married his daughter Matilda to Geoffrey Plantagenet.

Plantagenets: Henry II, Richard I, King John.

The Plantagenets were a French family who assumed control of the English throne in 1133.

Matilda’s cousin Stephen was chosen by the nobles to be the king of England.

In 1154, after defeating King Stephen of England in battle, the Plantagenets forced Stephen to name Henry, Matilda’s son, as heir by signing the Treaty of Wallingford.

1154-Henry was crowned Henry II of England in 1154, beginning the Plantagenet reign over the country.

Henry II (1154-1189)

• Constitutional progress

• Strengthened royal control over church

• territorial expansion

Richard I(1189-1199)

• went on a Crusade to fight the Muslims

• brought French culture to Britain

King John (1199-1216)

• 1204 – lost Normandy to the French

• 1215 –was forced to sign Magna Charta

• Increased the amount of money nobles had to pay for inheriting land

• 1209–quarreled with Pope who should be the Archbishop of Canterbury, then accepted his choice in 1214.

Magna Charta and the decline of feudalism.

• Magna Charta – a new agreement, important symbol of political freedom.(The king promised all freemen protection from his officers, and the right to a fair and legal trial)

• King John of England signed it in on the 15 of June 1215.

• Hundreds of years later MC was used by Parliament to protect itself from the powerful king.

• (F – the use of land in return for service. F.society was based on links between lord & vassal).MC marks the decline of feudalism.

Thomas a Becket.

• The son of Gilbert Beket and Gilbert's wife Matilda

• Also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London, and later Thomas à Becket; 21 December 1118 – 29 December 1170.

• Was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170 (election was confirmed on 23 May 1162)

• Theobald Bec( Archbishop of Canterbury) recommended TB to King Henry II for the vacant post of Lord Chancellor to which Becket was appointed in January 1155.

• Henry hoped that TB will help him to bring church more under his control. TB refused and later ran away to France. But in 1170 he returned to resist the king. Henry decided to found knights that will murder TB. TB was murdered in the holiest place of the Canterbury cathedral. Became a Saint of the Church.

The beginnings of parliament.

• 1216 king John died. Henry 3 was only y9 years and was tied by Magna Carta for 16 years. Only at the age of 25 he was able to rule himself.

• Henry spent his time in wars and did’t care about his nobles. They were upset.

• 1258 an election of a council of nobles – some kind of the beginning of parliament.

• 1265 Henry defeated Simon de Montfort(the leader of the nobles who decided to become a ruler himself)

• 1272 Henry died. His son Edward 1 took the throne. He brought the first real parliament.

• Edward created a “representative institution”(the House of Commons nowadays) it contained a mixture of “gentry”(knights, freemen, merchants).

• 1275 two representatives from each town or borough were sent to the king. The parliament began.

War with Scotland and France.

• 1295 Edward 1’s attempt to take over Scotland.

• 1314 English setback at Bannockburn. Edward 2 had been lucky to escape.

• 1328 England gave a claim to overlordship over Scotland. The alliance (Scotland + France vs. England).

• England’s trouble with France resulted from the French king’s growing authority and his wish to control England.

• The French king began to interfere with England’s trade.

• 1324 France seized part of Gascony. An alliance England + Burgundy vs. France.

• England went to war because it couldn’t afford the destruction of trade with Flanders.

• 1337 Edward 3 declared war on France. Hundred years war began.

• 1346 the battle at Crecy.

• 1346 Scots were defeated and their king was taken to prison.

• 1356 the battle at Poitiers (French king was taken prisoner and bought his freedom for 500.000 pounds).

• 1360 the battle at Bretigny.

• 1453 the ending of war with the English crown losing all its possessions in France except for Calais.

The code of chivalry.

Edward III and his son the Black Prince were admired in England for their courage on the battlefield and for their manners => became symbols of the “code of chivalry”, the way in which knight should behave. During the reign of Edward interest grew in the legendary King Arthur.

According to the code of chivalry? The knight fought for his good name, served God and the king, and defended any lady (ideas expressed in the legend of Round Table)

Ed. introduced the idea of chivalry into his court. Legend about a lady who dropped her garter ("Countess of Salisbury”) => king’s saying “Let him be ashamed who sees wrong in it” => the motto. 1348 – the foundation of the Order of the Garter. The amount of members – 24 (the same number Arthur had chosen). The meeting was once a year on St George’s Day at Winsdor Castle (King Arthur’s Round Table was supposed to have been).

Useful way of persuading men to fight by creating the idea war was a noble and glorious thing.

P.S.The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St. George as England's patron saint.

The Black Death (BD)

The Black Death erupted in the Gobi Desert in the late 1320s

1348 – 1349 – the Black Death

More than one third of population of Britain died.

Fewer than one person in ten who caught the plague managed to survive.

1300 – 4 million people. By the end of the century it was probably hardly half.

Symptoms include high fevers and aching limbs and vomiting of blood. Most characteristic is a swelling of the lymph nodes. These glands can be found in the neck, armpits and groin. The swelling protrudes and is easily visible; its blackish coloring gives the disease its name: the Black Death.

Economic changes after BD: