Hello, welcome to history here at Oak National Academy.

My name's Mr. Newton, and I will be your teacher for today guiding you through the entire lesson.

All right, let's get started.

Over the next few lessons we'll be thinking about our big inquiry question.

How did Norman government impact England? This is the question we'll use to investigate the nature of Norman England.

After the Normans had successfully conquered England, it still remained uncertain how the defeated Anglo-Saxons and their Norman conquerors would coexist in the same nation or state.

What would be the nature of an Anglo-Norman State? How would William rule England? What would he change? What would he keep the same? By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to explain the extent of change and continuity in Norman England.

Before we begin, there are a few keywords we need to understand.

Elite refers to the richest, most powerful, best educated, or best trained group in a society.

Continuity is the fact of something continuing for a long period of time without being changed or stopped.

Government is the group of people who officially control or rule a country.

So today's lesson is split into three parts, and we're gonna look at the change in continuity within Norman England society, economy, and government.

All right, let's begin the lesson with Norman England Society.

So changing continuity is a key focus of history, and the Norman conquest of England highlights how despite William's brutal military occupation, the underlying culture of a country is far harder to change.

The biggest change following the Norman Conquest of England was a complete change in the ruling elites.

Have a look at the diagram on the left.

It's a diagram which represents the Anglo-Saxon society.

And we can see the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, the kings, the earls, and the thegns are at the top of society ruling over England, the peasants and the slaves.

And we can see that the Norman conquests meant that the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy was completely replaced by the Normans.

So what this meant was it was a huge change in that England society was completely divided.

The Anglo-Saxon population would've viewed the top levels of society as completely foreign to them.

The new Norman elites spoke French, wore fancy clothes, ate particular foods, had clean shaven and cropped hairstyles, and adopted a stricter religious lifestyle.

On the other hand, ordinary Anglo-Saxons honoured local Anglo-Saxon and Celtic saints, lived a peasant farmer lifestyle, ate whatever food was available them, and according to Norman's anyway, drank too much alcohol.

Another change was that English society was also less mobile after 1066, meaning there was less movement between social levels.

Traditionally, Anglo-Saxon landholders had more rights and freedoms. They could gain more land and climb higher up the hierarchy.

However, the Normans introduced a fixed social hierarchy, meaning that one's level in society was largely dependent on the family you were born into, and you and your descendants remained at this level.

The Normans had introduced stricter landholding rules, plus Anglo-Saxon landholders often had their land stolen or forfeited.

The illustration on the left imagines an Anglo-Saxon landholder having their land stolen or forfeited.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

How did a change in the ruling elite affect England's society? A, the ruling elite changed what crops peasants grew.

B, the ruling elites continued to worship Anglo-Saxon saints.

C, the ruling elites spoke French, not English.

Pause the video, have a think and come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew that the ruling elite spoke French, not English, and of course, this would've made a huge impact on English society if the ruling elites spoke a different language from the rest of the country.

Okay, let's continue.

Another loss of social freedom would've been endured by the peasant population.

There was a decline in the number of free peasants, and many were forced into labour, building new towns, castles and churches.

Have a look at the image on the left.

It's an illustration of a Norman castle, and if you have a look at the bottom left-hand corner, we can see a peasant in front of the Norman Castle being forced to work.

However, not all change necessarily means negative change and a positive change occurred at the bottom of English society.

Around 10% of the Anglo-Saxon population had been enslaved people.

And if we have a look at the mediaeval painting on the left, this is a painting of agricultural work taking place.

Now, most enslaved Anglo-Saxons would've worked in farming, and we can see these peasants here are harvesting the crops.

However, the Normans thought the practise of slavery was barbaric, and by 1086, slavery had declined by approximately 25%.

So this represents a positive change that Norman had introduced.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

An example of continuity in Norman England was, A, the expansion of the Norman elite, B, the reduction in the number of enslaved people, C, the majority of the population were peasants.

Pause the video, select the correct continuity, and then come right back.

Okay, well back and well done if you knew that it was C, the majority of the population were peasants.

Okay, let's move on to Task A.

What I want you to do here is complete the table below by describing these two changes.

Then evaluate the extent of change by thinking about the size of impact, its significance, how long it lasted, who it affected, and you can see that some boxes have already been done for you.

So the first column is the factor, and the first factor we have there is England's aristocracy.

So the next column, you need to describe the change that took place with regards to England's aristocracy.

And you can see I've done that box for you already.

I've described the change being that the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy was replaced by Normans.

So in the third column, I want you to think about the extent of change that took place.

So I want you to think about the size of the impact it had on the country having a new aristocracy.

How significant could that have been? Perhaps how long it lasted for, or who would that have affected? Those are the types of questions you want to think about when evaluating the extent of change.

If we look at the next factor, which was slavery, you can see I've not described the change that took place, so I want you to just describe the change that took place.

And you can see the next box, I thought about the extent of change that took place, again, running those questions through my mind.

And I've described the extent of change as being important, but limited because slavery had reduced from around 10% of the population to around 7.

5%.

So although the positive change had taken place under the Normans, it was quite a limited change.

Okay, pause the video, complete the table, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

Now, your answers might be slightly different from what I have here, but compare your answer with what I have here.

So for the first factor, we looked at England's aristocracy, the fact that the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy was replaced by Normans.

So now we needed to think about the extent of change that's taken place.

Was this a big change? Was it a small change? Was this a long lasting change, a short-lived change, et cetera? So you could have wrote that it represented a significant change.

The entire ruling elites had changed, they were foreign to England, spoke French, and society was now divided.

And if we look at the next factor, which was slavery, all you needed to do here was identify the change that took place.

And so you perhaps wrote something like, by 1086, slavery had declined by approximately 25%.

And we could measure this change as important, but a limited change as slavery had reduced from around 10% of the population to around 7.

5% of the population.

Okay, excellent, let's move on to the second part of the lesson, Norman England's economy.

Anglo-Saxon England was a wealthy nation before the Norman conquest, however, the initial period after the invasion saw a dip in the economy, meaning the economy declined for a limited amount of time.

So traditionally, Anglo-Saxon farmers produced goods which were sold at the town markets, and this produced an organised agricultural economy, which connected the towns and the countryside.

After 1066 however, the Norman economy placed greater importance on towns, many trading more with Northern France.

The links between the towns and countryside became weaker.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

How did the Norman conquest affect the economy of England? A, it became entirely dependent on Normandy.

B, it led to a permanent decline.

C, it saw a brief dip, but then recovered.

Pause the video, have a think and come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew it was C, it saw a brief dip, but then the economy recovered.

Okay, let's continue.

A part of the Anglo-Saxon economy had been devastated by extensive harrying and plundering.

This was especially the case in the north.

As you'll remember, this was where William had conducted the Harrying of the North, which you can see in the illustration on the left.

Large areas were recorded as waste, meaning the land was not productive, no one lived or farmed there, and no tax could be collected.

Furthermore, some tenants were slow to pay taxes to their new Norman overlords.

Therefore, William needed to raise taxes to fund his army and castle building projects.

All of these factors impacted the economy, however, there is evidence of economic growth returning.

The Norman's large building projects injected more money into the economy.

New towns and churches were built across the kingdom.

You will also remember from the map on the left, the Norman's vast castle building project across England.

Furthermore, improvements in standards boosted the economy.

Strict regulations were introduced to ensure the quality of goods, for example, beer breweries were punished for making bad beer.

Also, craftsmen and tradesmen began to organise into guilds, which checked on the pricing and standard of goods.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What evidence is there of economic growth returning to England after the Norman conquest? A, the construction of towns, castles, and churches.

B, the decline of the agricultural sector.

C, the migration of skilled workers to France.

Pause the video, have a think and come right back.

Welcome back, and well done If you need was A, the construction of towns, castles, and churches may have injected life and growth into the economy.

Okay, let's move on to Task B.

Working with your partner, discuss the extent of change to England's economy under Norman rule.

So to get you to think about the extent of change and what that means, I want you to think about these points.

Was it a big change, a large impact, or a limited change with more continuity? Was it significant or not that important? How long did it last for? Who did it affect? Lots of people or not that many? So have a discussion about the extensive change to England's economy and think about those questions when having your discussions.

Pause the video, have a discussion, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you had some really fruitful conversations there, discussing many points that may have shown the extent of change in the economy.

You may have discussed the follow.

So there was a short period after 1066 which saw a dip in the economy, however, England continued to be a wealthy nation as it had been under the Anglo-Saxons.

Under the Norman economy, the links between the towns and countrysides became weaker, this may have affected people in the countryside, and some areas of England's economy were recorded as waste, meaning the land was not productive, no one lived or farmed there, and no tax could be collected.

And this may have mainly affected Yorkshire due to the extensive harrying there.

Okay, that's excellent, let's now move on to the third part of the lesson, Norman England's government.

After 1066, the Normans only needed to make moderate changes to the English government.

It could be described as an Anglo-Norman state.

Anglo-Saxon government systems were sophisticated, perhaps more developed than that of Normandys, and the Normans kept much more of the Anglo-Saxon government systems than they changed.

Firstly, William had shown he was willing to work with some of the existing Anglo-Saxon governments when he kept many Anglo-Saxons in leadership positions, for example, Earls, Edwin and Morca and Stigand as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Secondly, William was willing to build on the existing Anglo-Saxon governmental institutions, for example, Anglo-Saxon local government was very effective.

Have a look at the diagram on the left.

As you'll remember, the Anglo-Saxons had developed government administration units such as the shires, hundreds, tithings and hides.

William kept the shires and hundreds administrative system and maintained their local courts.

Anglo-Saxons sheriffs or shire reeves continued to be important in Norman England too.

Sheriffs were the king's representatives who oversaw law and order in the shire, collected taxes, enforced the laws and ensured the shire met its military obligations, however, there were changes made under Norman rule.

William replaced almost all Anglo-Saxon sheriffs with Normans.

Furthermore, with the powerful Anglo-Saxon earls gone, Norman sheriffs had a greater role in local government.

Some of the new sheriffs took advantage by extracting taxes, keeping some for themselves and stealing land.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

Which statement best reflects the Norman's approach to Anglo-Saxon government systems? A, they discarded all Anglo-Saxon government systems. B, they kept many Anglo-Saxon government institutions.

C, they reverted to Viking Danish systems of government.

Pause the video, have a think and come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was B, they kept many Anglo-Saxon government systems. And this is why we've been using this phrase, "The Anglo Norman State", to describe the Anglo-Saxon state being merged with the Norman State.

Okay, let's continue.

There were other Norman changes to the government of England.

William spent three-quarters of his reign outside of England, defending Normandy and fighting in Europe, therefore, William appointed his closest allies as regents.

They ruled England in William's absence.

William's half brother, Odo, the bishop of Bayeux, shown in the image on the left, continued this role alone after William's close friend, William Fitz Osborne, died.

Later, Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury became regent.

Another noticeable change to the English government was that William centralised royal power.

William was reluctant to share power beyond his closest royal advisors, not least because he had faced many Anglo-Saxon rebellions.

If you have a look at the map in the centre of the slide, this map shows the state of England in 1086.

Next to the pie charts, we can see a list of Williams tenants-in-chief.

These were the Norman Lords who were entrusted with large areas of land.

However, Norman Lord's power was limited when compared to the pre-1066 Anglo-Saxon earls.

In Anglo-Saxon England, Edward the Confessor had granted earls vast lands and powers.

If you have a look at the map on the left, which is from 1065, we can see Edward has given his earls, including the Godwinson earls vast earldoms. This was because Edward depended on the earls to help him govern the country.

After 1066, William appointed 10 Norman lords to help him govern England.

Together, these lords held 25% of the land in England, however, no Norman lord commanded as much land and wealth as that of a pre-1066 earl.

Looking at the 1086 map in the centre again, we can see that William has broken up the large Anglo-Saxon earldoms into smaller, less powerful Norman Lordships, which he has distributed to his tenants-in-chief.

This gave William ultimate power, and Norman Lords needed to show loyalty or they risked losing their land.

So William had centralised his royal power and made the Norman Lords depend on him, as opposed to William being overly dependent on the Lords.

William's government also made more use of sheriffs than before, which meant that earls did less governing than in Anglo-Saxon England.

This was sometimes a cause of tension between earls and sheriffs.

Another change introduced by William were the royal forests, which were reserves where the king would indulge in his passion for hunting.

The word or the concept of the forest was actually introduced to England by William.

A forest was land set aside for hunting.

Nowadays, we think of forests as wooded areas, but Norman forests were large areas of land reserved solely for the king's use.

They didn't have to be covered in trees, though many were.

William enjoyed hunting, so he set a lot of land aside, kind of like a personal royal play area.

Williams royal forests covered one-third of the land in England and became much resented by the population.

If you have a look at the map on the left, it shows Williams forest lands around the year 1200.

We can see these forests covered vast areas of lands.

So I want you to quickly think about this question.

Why do you think Williams Forest became resented by the population? Pause the video and have a quick think.

So, one of the reasons why forests became so resented by the population was because lands sets aside as forests couldn't be used for farming.

Villages were destroyed and families were made homeless.

To keep his hunting grounds teaming with animals, William enforced forest laws, which strictly prohibited unauthorised hunting or damage to hunting habitats.

In the forests, ordinary people were not allowed to hunt as a pastime or even if they needed food or chop wood to use for fuel.

Other forest restrictions included no carrying axes and anyone that broke these laws risk being punished, having their eyes gouged out, or even death.

Even dogs were banned from forests unless they had their claws removed, making them unable to hunt animals.

If you have a look at the illustration, we can see a sheriff on the right overseeing the removal of a dog's claws in the bottom left of the illustration.

The dog's owner is using a chisel to remove the claws, and we can see people watching on who are not at all happy about being forced to obey the forest laws.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

Why was the introduction of Norman forest laws unpopular? Select two correct answers.

A, they allowed unrestricted hunting for all classes.

B, they cleared villages to make way for the forests.

C, they increased taxes on the peasant population.

D, they restricted hunting for the general population.

Pause video, select your two correct answers, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was B, they cleared villages to make way for the forests, and D, they restricted hunting for the general population, both making Norman forest laws very unpopular.

Okay, let's move on to the final task, Task C, and I've given you a statement here.

There was more continuity than change in the government of Norman England.

And what I want you to do is explain why this statement is correct.

So obviously when we read statements like this, we can make arguments for and against this statement, but I want you to concentrate your efforts on explaining why this statement is correct.

So we're looking for lots of details, lots of evidence and knowledge to support the statement that there was more continuity than change in the government of Norman England.

Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you've got an amazing detailed paragraph in front of you offering plenty of evidence and knowledge to support the statements.

So your explanations might be slightly different from mine, but compare your answer with what I have here.

After 1066, the Normans did not significantly change English government.

Although William centralised royal power and placed Normans in most positions of leadership, he continued using much of Anglo-Saxon government because it was more developed than Normandy's government.

For example, William kept the local government of the shires and hundreds and maintained their local courts.

He also kept sheriffs whose role was only slightly modified.

Therefore, it can be argued that most people did not experience significant change in England as most of their interactions were with local governments, which had continued largely the same as pre-1066.

And what I want you to notice in that paragraph was that when thinking about the extent of change, the criteria I've used to judge the extent of change or continuity in this example was who it's affected.

Who did this change or continuity impact, or did it not impact them at all, and thus, people didn't experience change and things continued as normal? So since most people's interactions were with local governments rather than the king himself, most people would never see the king himself, only seeing his image on coins or seals.

Therefore, for most people, there was more continuity than change in the government of Norman England.

Okay, great, let's summarise today's lesson.

A significant change to England was a complete change in the ruling elite.

The Anglo-Saxon population would've viewed the top levels of society as foreign.

However, a positive change was that by 1086, slavery had declined by approximately 25%.

There was a small period after 1066 which saw a dip in the economy.

However, Norman England continued to be a wealthy nation as it had been under the Anglo-Saxons.

Although Williams centralised royal power and placed Normans in most positions of leadership, he continued using much of Anglo-Saxon government because it was more developed than Normandy's government.

Well done on a brilliant lesson.

Thank you for joining me for our study into the nature of Norman England.

I hope you now have a good overview of some of the major changes and continuities of the Anglo-Norman Society, economy, and government.

I will see you next time when we continue our inquiry.

See you in the next lesson.