3. England in the Middle Ages

• Royal power

William I began the rule of a dynasty of Norman kings (1066-1154) and entailed the replacement of the Anglo-Saxon nobility with Normans, Bretons and Flemings, many of whom retained lands in northern France. Instead of the Saxon Witan, William established the Curia Regis (1066) which existed until the end of the 13^th century. It had the functions of government and king’s court in the early medieval times. Although William let the English keep their own courts and laws, the judges were Norman.

Another change introduced by William was the abolition of the earldoms of Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, which had been established by King Canute. Now the country was divided into counties which were ruled by sheriffs appointed by the king.

Between 1066 and 1144 England and Normandy were united under one king-duke. The result was the formation of a single cross-Channel political community. Since Normandy was a principality ruled by a duke who recognised the king of France as his overlord, this also meant that from now on English politics became part of French politics. The two countries shared not only a ruling dynasty, but also a single Anglo-Norman aristocracy. It lasted until 1204.

After his death in 1087, William I was succeeded by his sons and nephew (William II, Henry I, Stephen) and finally by his granddaughter’s husband Henry II of the House of Anjou also known as the Plantagenet. Royal power was strengthened and the Anglo-Norman kings acquired new territories both on the British Isles and on the Continent.

As duke of Normandy, duke of Aquitaine (by his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine), and count of Anjou Henry II had inherited lordship over the respective and neighbouring territories. In England, he managed to strengthen royal power and win back the northern English territories which had been occupied by Scotland. Henry II was king of an empire stretching from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees, probably the most powerful ruler in Europe, who was richer than the emperor of the king of France. (He was the lord of Paris, Blois, Normandy, Flanders, Brittany, Burgundy, Champagne, Anjou, Aquitaine, Gascony and Toulouse on the Continent and of England and part of Ireland across the Channel.) The source of his wealth was in England, his wife’s homeland, but the heart of the empire lay in Anjou, the land of his fathers. Out the thirty-five years of his reign, Henry II spent twenty-one on the Continent. In England, he confiscated or ruined the castles built without royal authority and curbed the power of the nobles. He introduced trial by jury and established Anglo-Saxon common law as the law of England.

• Church and State

During the reign of Henry II (1154-1189) there happened an event which had a powerful effect on the history of English Church and social life in the country.

In order to strengthen monarchy, Henry II made his friend Thomas Becket first Chancellor and then Archbishop of Canterbury. Becket, a merchant’s son, was known to be a sinner and an ardent supporter of the king. But when Becket became Archbishop of Canterbury he got completely reformed. Within a few years he became one of the most respected priests in England. The greatest problem was that now he was trying to prove to Henry that royal power was inferior to God’s power and Papal power, and that was quite the opposite to what Henry had expected him to do. The former friends turned into bitter enemies, and finally Becket had to flee to France. He visited Rome where he got the Pope’s blessing and several years later returned to England to continue strengthening the position of the Church. He landed in an unexpected place and avoided Henry’s men, who had been sent to kill him. Shortly afterwards, in 1171, Thomas Becket was killed in Canterbury Cathedral by the four barons sent by the king. The murder in the Cathedral shook the country. Henry had to admit that it was a political murder, an assassination. But Henry II had achieved his aim and royal power was strengthened. In two years’ time Becket’s tomb became a centre of pilgrimage, and in 1173 Thomas Becket was canonised.

One of the masterpieces of English literature, “The Canterbury Tales” written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14^th century, is based on the stories told by a group of pilgrims travelling to the tomb of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Two outstanding figures in world literature of the 20^th century, Jean Anouilh of France and T.S. Eliot of Britain, a Nobel Prize winner, wrote respectively “Thomas Becket” and “Murder in the Cathedral”. The central idea of each piece is the antagonism between friendship and duty, friendship and treachery for the sake of the state.

Henry II’s son Richard known as Richard the Lion Heart was one of England’s most popular kings, although he spent only six months of his reign in England. He was brave, cruel and generous, and inspired loyalty. With other Christian leaders Richard I headed the Third Crusade against Muslim rule in the Holy Land and secured Christian access to the holy places. Richard was a superb military leader and a fine troubadour-style lyric poet, but his wars on the Continent cost England a lot of money and weakened the crown which, during his absence, was usurped by his wicked brother John.