Broadview Brit Lit Anthology

12 Broadview Anthology of British Literature Review Copy I recalled how the law was first composed in the of such literary figures as the homilist and grammarian Hebrew language, and thereafter, when the Greeks Ælfric, the archbishop Wulfstan, and the scholar learned it, they translated it all into their own Byrhtferth of Ramsey; during these years a number of language, and all other books as well. And so too the deluxe decorated manuscripts were produced, and Romans, after they had mastered them, translated important works such as the Rule of St. Benedict and them all through myriad interpreters into their own the Gospels were translated into English. It is a tribute language.… Therefore it seemed better to me … to the strength of Alfred’s reforms that much of the that we too should turn certain books which are the administrative, military, and church structures he had most necessary for all men to know into a language put into place survived the conquest of England by a that we can all understand. Danish king—as, indeed, they would in part survive the conquest fifty years later by the Normans. That these Alfred’s educational program was designed primarily to conquests did not cause more destruction than they did help him govern, but one of its legacies is the relatively must also be attributed in part to the fact that these large quantity of literary, historical, legal, spiritual, and invading cultures were far from alien to English culture. political writing in English (about 30,000 lines of poetry In the centuries between the early Viking invasions and and about ten times as much prose) that has survived, the reign of Cnut, Christianity had reached Scandinavia; almost all of it in manuscripts from the tenth and whereas the early Vikings had raided and destroyed eleventh centuries. Under Alfred the Anglo-Saxon monasteries, Cnut was a Christian who continued to Chronicle was probably begun; to this year-by-year support the monasteries much as Alfred and his historical record we owe a great deal of our knowledge descendants had done. Similarly, while the Vikings had of the period. conquered Normandy in the early tenth century, by the The authority of even the most capable and time the Normans invaded Britain in 1066, the Viking ambitious rulers in the early Middle Ages was seldom culture of Normandy had largely been assimilated to able to survive long after their deaths. More often than that of Christian France. not family feuding would undo much of what had been accomplished, as happened when fighting among Charlemagne’s three sons led to the tripartite division of England after the Norman Conquest the Carolingian empire. Alfred had rather better luck with his descendants, who were able to consolidate his The Normans and Feudalism accomplishments and even extend them somewhat; his descendant Edgar (r. 959–75) commanded the The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 was the allegiance of all of the most important English lords, next in the long series of invasions and migrations— had ties to the most important families on the Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Vikings— continent, and had in his control all senior church that have shaped English culture. That it has held a appointments. Under the weaker leadership of the next special place as a focal point in English history is no generation, however, in particular Æthelred II (r. doubt partly due to its timing, almost exactly at the 978–1016), and in the face of a renewed series of Viking point where many scholars see larger forces creating a attacks (dramatically depicted in the poetic Battle of dividing line between the early and the later Middle Maldon, written some time after the actual battle in Ages. French language and culture never threatened to 991), the allegiance of the great lords and landholders to extinguish the existing A nglo-Saxon culture and English the king loosened, and the shameful decline of the language, although they did exert enormous and lasting English nobility described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle influence on them. The contrast with the Anglo-Saxon culminated in the Danish King Cnut (r. 1016–35) migrations is striking: these effectively and permanently taking the English throne. imposed an English culture on Britain, while conquest The end of the tenth century was by no means by the Normans never permanently imposed French entirely a period of decline, however; it was also a time The Medieval Period 13 Review Copy From the Bayeux Tapestry (late eleventh century). This object is actually an embroidered banner, around 20 inches high and 230 feet long, rather than a woven tapestry. It was probably created by English embroiderers, who were particularly skilled in this kind of work. This section of the tapestry shows the Norman ships landing at Pevensy, Su ssex, 28 September; several ships have already landed on the beach, and horses are being unloaded from another ship that has just arrived. The text of the tapestry at this point (translated from the Latin) reads as follows: Here the horses are getting out of the ships. And here the soldiers [hurry to Hastings to seize supplies]. culture on England. But the Norman invasion helped to Parker MS: “In this year King Edward died and Earl change Britain in fundamental ways—most obviously in Harold succeeded to the kingdom, and held it forty language, but also in social and economic structure. weeks and one day; and in this year William came and For all its far-reaching consequences, the invasion conquered England. And in this year Christ Church was itself was a relatively modest affair. When Harold was built and a comet appeared on 18 April.” By contrast, a crowned as king following the death of King Edward, scribe writing a generation or more later in Peter- the succession was disputed by William, Duke of borough presents a much fuller account of how Harold Normandy, who settled the matter militarily; with a was forced to fight a Norse invader in the north of the force probably numbering no more than 8,000, he country before meeting William at Hastings, and crossed the Channel and soon defeated and killed conveys more of the immediate effects of William’s Harold in a day-long battle just outside Hastings. His conquest. Yet even here one has the sense that the death victory brought England under the rule of a French- of a local abbot is regarded as being of almost as much speaking king with substantial territorial claims in importance as the Norman invasion: France, a situation that would persist for roughly the next three hundred years. Despite this obvious shift, and And King Harold was informed [of the victory of a despite the triumphant narrative of the Bayeux Tapestry Norse king near the town of York], and he came (probably made within a generation of the battle for a with a very great force of English men and met him Norman patron), the effects of the Conquest, at Stamford Bridge, and killed him and Earl Tostig particularly as it was viewed at close range rather than and valiantly overcame all the invaders. Meanwhile Count William landed at Hastings on Michaelmas years later, apparently did not always loom so large. In Day, and Harold came from the north and fought this connection it is interesting to compare the five with him before all of the army had come and there different accounts in different manuscripts of the Anglo- he fell and his two brothers Gyrth and Leofwine; Saxon Chronicle that have come down to us. At one and William conquered this country, and came to extreme is the remarkably brief account of a scribe Westminster, and Archbishop Aldred consecrated writing at Winchester in the manuscript known as the him king, and people paid taxes to him, and gave 14 Broadview Anthology of British Literature Review Copy him hostages and afterwards bought their land. And homage and fealty to his lord, and a kiss between the Leofric, Abbot of Peterborough, was at that cam- two then sealing their mutual obligation. paign and fell ill there, and came home and died The institution of this new system was marked in a soon after, on the Eve of All Saints. God have mercy unique way by William through the compilation of the on his soul. In his day there was every happiness and Domesday Book (so-called in reference to the “Day of every good at Peterborough, and he was beloved by Judgment” at the end of the world), an extraordinary everyone, so that the King gave to Saint Peter and survey on a county-by-county basis of all the lands held him the Abbacy of Burton and that of Coventry by the king and by his vassals, recording all the which Earl Leofric, who was his uncle, had built, obligations of the landholders. Without the sort of and that of Crowland and that of Thorne. And he commitment to record-keeping and enforcement that did much for the benefit of the monastery of Peterborough with gold and silver and vestments the Domesday Book represented (a commitment made and land, more indeed than any before or after him. possible, it must be said, by the underlying social order inherited from the Anglo-Saxons), the Normans might Significant here is the mention of people paying taxes to not have succeeded to such a great degree in imposing William and “buying” their lands. William exacted a new network of obligation on the conquered people. tribute from the conquered both in the immediate It must be noted, however, that the Domesday Book aftermath of his invasion and on an ongoing basis, was seldom used to settle disputes or clarify owner- keeping as much as a fifth of English lands for himself ship—the two functions for which, one might suppose, and dividing much of the rest among members of his such a comprehensive census would be undertaken—in family and the barons who had supported him, who in the first century of its existence.

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