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.

Right, let's get started.

In these lessons, we will focus on a specific historical environment in Norman England, and by the end of this lesson, you'll be able to recall and apply key themes from the historical context of Norman England.

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

Inheritance is receiving property or other items from a parent or other after their death.

Patronage is the support that an overlord provided to their vassal in return for homage.

Romanesque is an architectural style inspired by the buildings of ancient Rome.

Investiture is the ability to choose and appoint bishops and abbots.

And finally, vernacular is the language spoken by ordinary people in a region or country.

Today's lesson is split into three parts.

We'll first look at the initial Norman conquest and their control of England, before moving into what life was like under the Normans, and finally looking at the Norman Church and monasticism.

Okay, let's begin today's lesson with the Normans: conquest and control.

So, conquest and control is about both the process of conquering England, and how the Normans then went about getting control over it, and then keeping that control in the face of English resistance.

This is split into three main things, the causes of the Norman conquest, military aspects, and establishing and maintaining control.

As we go through this diagram, think for yourself about what you already know about these topics.

Okay, let's start with the causes of the Norman conquest.

This includes the claims made by Harold, William and others, and William's claim to be the legitimate heir of Edward the Confessor continues to be a theme throughout the whole of his reign.

Okay, let's now look at military aspects, and we'll work through the mind map in a clockwise direction here.

So if we start at the top with military aspects with the Battle of the Stamford Bridge, this was Harold's victory against the Viking invasion, which came at a high cost.

Of course, military aspects would include the Battle of Hastings itself, where it delves deeper into Anglo-Saxon tactics and Norman tactics in the Battle of Hastings, and the military innovations of cavalry Norman knights and castles.

Both knights and motte-and-bailey castles were new to England, which made a big difference to Norman's capability to impose control on rebellious areas.

Okay, finally, let's look at establishing and maintaining control, and we'll work through these aspects in an anti-clockwise direction.

So establishing and maintaining control includes the Anglo-Saxon Revolt of 1067 to 1075, starting with revolts led by a thane called Eadric the Wild in the Welsh Marches, and ending with the Revolt of the Earls.

And this involved rebellions by William's own Norman earls.

The way that William controlled and put down these rebellions includes the Harrying of the North, and this took place in the winter of 1069 to 1070.

This is when William ordered such a savage repression of lands in Yorkshire and parts of the Midlands that they were still classed as waste in 1086 when the Domesday survey was carried out.

While harrying was not the only way that William responded to resistance, it was certainly the most brutal.

And finally, we'll also look at William I's leadership in government in this theme, and how William II, William Rufus became king of England after his father's death in 1087, with some Norman barons rebelling against William II in 1088 in support of his brother, the new Duke of Normandy, Robert Curthose.

Interestingly though, by this time, the English rallied behind their new king, rather than taking the opportunity to resist Norman control.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Which two of the following are military aspects of Norman England? A, Anglo-Saxon Norman tactics, B, cavalry and castles, C, the death of Edward the Confessor, D, the inheritance of William II.

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

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was A, Anglo-Saxon and Norman tactics, and B, cavalry and castles.

Okay, let's have another check.

What aspect of Norman conquest and control is missing from this diagram? Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew the missing aspect was the causes of the Norman conquest.

Okay, let's continue and let's delve a little deeper on those key themes for conquest and control.

So firstly, the Normans had a military culture, and this was slightly distinctive from the Anglo-Saxon military culture, as Normans had developed the use of castles and knights.

Furthermore, a key theme of William's conquest of England was his response to resistance, which combined destruction, harrying and violence, et cetera, but he would also use diplomacy and work with Anglo-Saxon government officials.

And defence, of course, castles dominated the landscape, and that domination included other architectural buildings, such as churches and cathedrals, all built in the new Romanesque style.

William's leadership was also a key factor in battles, together with knights, a military innovation which was distinctive to Norman military culture.

And William wanted to be seen as the legitimate king of England, and he ensured that the population knew he had legitimacy to be the genuine king of England.

Religion was central to the Norman conquest and control, and the Normans carried out much reform of the English Church.

And finally, William II's inheritance involved challenges from other Normans, and the conquest of England was finally complete at that point.

Okay, I want you to now discuss this question with a partner.

How might a motte-and-bailey castle help Normans to control an area? So pause the video, have a quick discussion, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back.

So you could have discussed that troops could live in a castle ready to go out and put down any trouble in the area, and if there was any threats, Normans could then shelter behind the strong defences of the motte-and-bailey castle.

And finally, there was also a psychological element to these castles and local people would see the castle and be intimidated by it.

Okay, let's move on to task A.

What I want you to do here is study the photo of Old Sarum in Wiltshire.

What does it tell you about conquest and control in Norman England? If you have a look at the photo on the right, this is an aerial photo of Old Sarum in Wiltshire.

And if you look towards the top of the photo, you can see I've highlighted the footings of the Iron Age fort that used to be there.

And in the centre of the photo, we can see the Norman motte-and-bailey castle.

We can clearly see the earthworks of William's castle in the centre of this old Iron Age fort.

And towards the bottom right of the image, we can see the foundations of a Norman cathedral.

So what does this tell us about conquest and control in Norman England? And to give you a clue, I want you to think about the placement of these buildings.

Both have been built inside the perimeter of the old Iron Age fort, and the Norman Cathedral, a religious building, has been placed right next to the Norman motte-and-bailey castle.

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

Okay.

Welcome back.

So your answer might include the following.

There is plenty of flat land outside of the Iron Age fort where the Normans could have built a new cathedral, but instead they built it inside the fort and next to a motte-and-bailey castle.

This suggests that the Normans had defence as their main priority, so conquest had not been fully achieved.

Furthermore, having the castle and the cathedral together side by side would have made a strong unit of control, as both would've dominated the landscape.

Okay, excellent.

Let's move on to the second part of the lesson, life under the Normans.

Okay, so let's delve a little deeper into life under the Normans.

So there are two main topics to this theme, both of which cover a lot of ground, feudalism and government, and the economic and social changes.

So first, we'll start with feudalism and government, and starting with the landholding and lordship at the top, we'll work anti-clockwise towards patronage.

So a big part of this theme is how the Normans changed who held land in England, a huge transfer of land from Anglo-Saxons to Normans, and the development of the feudal system, which put William firmly in control of land and landholding.

The feudal system tightens up the relationship between overlords and their vassals, and brought in stronger ties of patronage.

This was the support that an overlord provided to their vassal in return for homage.

It also placed stricter control over inheritance, not to mention the requirements that William's tenants-in-chief, the men who held land directly from him, should provide knights or military service as part of their feudal obligations to their overlord, the king.

That made a big difference to the military power of a Norman king.

Okay, so now let's look at Anglo-Saxon and Norman government systems, and work our way anti-clockwise towards Domesday Book.

While historians have argued about when the feudal system was introduced and how big a change it brought to Norman England, there is much more agreement that the Normans made relatively few changes to the Anglo-Saxon government systems, or to the justice and the legal system.

This was mainly because these systems worked very well for the Normans, enabling them to extract wealth from England through the tax system, govern the country from the centre, using the effective Anglo-Saxon administration of shires and hundreds, and simply change who was making the judgments in Anglo-Saxon courts and enforcing Anglo-Saxon laws from Anglo-Saxons to Normans.

It was the efficient Anglo-Saxon administration that meant the Domesday Book could be compiled so quickly, giving William a detailed guide to who held what's land and what taxes, and military service they could be providing.

Okay, let's now move on to economic and social changes and their consequences.

In this section, we'll go through Anglo-Saxon and Norman life, and look at the ways people lived in towns and villages, and how these ways of life changed, if they did, from Anglo-Saxon England to Norman England.

Let's start with towns.

Towns did see important changes under the Normans, and it is from towns and the Domesday Book that we can often see the economic changes that happened in Norman England.

If we have a look at buildings, there are interesting links between castle building and town prosperity, for example, which helps us to understand the different functions that castles could have, as well as the military role for which they were generally first constructed.

Towns were where trade was taxed in Norman England, and we can see more evidence of economic changes in the authorization of more markets and fairs in towns, furthermore, the development of guilds and the trade in wool and salt.

William also promised to preserve the traditional rights of townspeople.

So there is an overlap here between economic changes and the Norman government.

In terms of social change, Normans disapproved of the use of enslaved people in Anglo-Saxon society and reduced the numbers of enslaved people.

However, the feudal system also saw a reduction in the number of free peasants, as more peasants became tied strictly to the manor for which they lived, a condition called serfdom that was very like slavery in many respects.

Okay, true or false? The topic of life under the Normans includes church and religious life.

Is that true or false? Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew that was false.

But why is that false? I want you to justify your answer.

Is it false because, A, the topic is focused on economic change from Anglo-Saxon to Norman England, or B, the topic is focused on government and the feudal system as well as economic and social change? Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was B, the topic is focused on government and the feudal system, as well as economic and social change.

Okay, let's have another check.

What key source of information on feudalism and government in Norman England is missing from the diagram? Pause the video, have a think and come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Well done if you knew the missing aspect was the Domesday Book.

Okay, let's delve a little deeper into the key themes for feudalism and government.

So firstly, land was transferred from Anglo-Saxons to Norman Control, and the Domesday Book showed this transfer going from thousands of Anglo-Saxon thanes to a few hundred Norman lords.

William's feudal systems strictly enforced roles and responsibilities.

And the relationship between an overlord and their vassals was based on homage and patronage.

Anglo-Saxon government and laws worked very efficiently, and the Normans generally did not change much.

And finally, Domesday Book records the normalisation of large land holding, and gives evidence of economic and social change.

Okay, now let's delve a little deeper into the key themes for economic and social changes.

Towns were promoted by the Normans, however, villages and work probably saw limited changes.

Areas that experienced harrying took a long time to recover economically, but the security provided by Norman control helped economic growth in England.

The Normans rebuilt English Churches and cathedrals, often in Romanesque style.

This was used in church buildings across Normandy.

Together with castles, buildings saw a big change.

Forest law was a big change for many rural areas and was resented, as it reserved these areas as William's personal hunting grounds and restricted ordinary people from hunting there and was enforced with severe punishments.

William II promised to end it but did not.

Okay, true or false? The Romanesque style of architecture was one of the changes introduced to England by the Normans.

Is that true or false? Pause the video, have a think and come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew that was true.

But why is that true? I want you to justify your answer.

Is it true because, A, the Normans had used this style for churches and cathedrals across Normandy, or B, the Normans were inspired by the Romanesque features of Westminster Abbey? Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was A, the Normans had used this style for churches and cathedrals across Normandy.

Okay, let's move on to task B.

I want you to study this map of Norman England.

What does it suggest about changes to life in England after the Norman conquest? Pause the video, have a go at the task and come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

So your answer could include: the map shows castles built across the whole of Norman England.

This suggests that many people, especially in towns, would live every day under the shadow of a Norman Castle.

This was especially true in the Marcher earldoms. This might have been intimidating, or people might have valued the security the castle gave them.

Large areas of the countryside did not have castles.

In these areas, life might have been quite similar to before the Norman conquest.

Okay, let's move on to the second part of task B.

Study this photo of a Norman Cathedral, which is built in the Romanesque style.

I want you to describe two or three of the features you can see.

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

Okay.

Welcome back.

So your answer could include, we can see the thick columns with the zigzag patterns.

Can also see round arches in the photo with patterns.

It's a very high ceiling with crisscross arches.

And it's made of stone rather than wood, and plain stone work, light coloured stone.

And finally, perhaps you noticed that there's very big windows letting in a lot of light.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to the final part of today's lesson, the Norman Church and monasticism.

This theme has two topics, the Norman Church and monasticism, and there are many overlaps between these two topics.

Okay, let's start with the church.

One big overlap between the church and monasticism is Archbishop Lanfranc and his reforms, since these apply to the Church and to monasteries.

So we'll start by looking at the four top points of this mind map, and then work in an anticlockwise direction.

Historians debate how far behind the Anglo-Saxon Church really was compared to Normandy, but the Normans made a big deal about the need for reform of the English Church.

The main areas of criticism were to do with corruption amongst churchmen.

This involved selling positions within the church, for example, the lack of any real separation between religious life and secular, or non-religious, everyday ordinary life, and the unofficial nature of some traditional Celtic and Anglo-Saxon saints.

Lanfranc's reforms added more religion and religious discipline to the lives of churchmen, such as priests, monks, separating their lives from ordinary ways of living.

A good example is Lanfranc's efforts to stop priests marrying.

He thought that priests would be able to focus much more on the spiritual life if they refrain from any sexual relationships.

Okay, let's move on to another aspect, church organisation and church courts.

Cases involving wrongdoing by people from the church should not, Lanfranc argued, be judged by the same courts that dealt with ordinary people and their crimes.

Also, we saw a massive programme of church and cathedral building under Lanfranc, and this represented a huge aspect of change in Norman England, and one that is often a big part of our historic environment studies.

Okay, let's now look at church-state relations and William II.

The relationship between church and state was a good one when it was William and Lanfranc who were managing it.

But after William's death, this was an area of growing tension and conflict in Norman England.

The investiture controversy was about who had the power to choose and appoint bishops and abbots, the monarch or the Pope.

This controversy was a power struggle between the Pope and monarchs.

If the Pope was the overlord of kings, then that meant bishops and abbots would answer not to their monarch, but to the Pope in Rome.

Not an attractive proposition to a Norman King.

Okay, now let's look at monasticism.

Monasticism is about monks and monasteries and the way of life followed by monks.

Monasticism is often very relevant to our historic environment studies too.

Let's start at a top of the mind map and work in a clockwise direction.

So starting with the huge programme of church and cathedral rebuilding, the Normans invested heavily in building new abbeys and monasteries, and these buildings were designed to reflect the new ideas about how monks should live and worship that were a big part of Lanfranc's reforms. The Normans were big fans of monastic orders, such as the Benedictines and the Cluniacs, who followed strict rules and very carefully controlled ways of life to maximise their spirituality.

Okay, let's now look at learning and education.

Reforms of monasteries also changed education, which had previously been provided by monks and new church schools began to be established with the main purpose of educating future clergymen.

These are the people working for the church and administrators.

And finally, let's look at the use of Latin and vernacular language.

The reforms also did much to change the use of the vernacular language spoken by Anglo-Saxons, Old English, which was replaced by Latin as the language used in church services and in official records.

Okay, true or false? The topic of the Norman Church and monasticism includes religious reforms. Is that true or false? Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Well done if you knew that was true.

But why is that true? I want you to justify your answer.

Is it true because, A, the topic considers reforms of monasticism but not reforms of the English Church? Or B, the topic considers both reforms of monasticism and of the English Church? Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew it was B, the topic considers both reforms of monasticism and of the English Church.

The name of which key individual is missing from this diagram? Pause the video, have a think, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back, and well done if you knew that key individual that was missing was Archbishop Lanfranc.

Okay, so let's look at the key themes of the Norman Church.

So the Norman's viewed the Anglo-Saxon Church as backward, corrupt, not following religious laws, and was generally seen in decline.

After 1070, Lanfranc led a reform of the English Church, which included an anti-corruption drive, stricter controls over church life, church courts for any churchmen accused of crimes, instead of them going to the hundred courts, and the integration of bishops and archbishops into the feudal system.

Lanfranc also began a huge programme of church building, building lots of cathedrals across the country.

And William and Lanfranc kept tight control over the English Church and did not allow the Papacy, the Pope to increase influence.

Okay, let's have a look at the key themes for monasticism.

So monasteries had been in decline in Anglo-Saxon England.

Lanfranc's reforms were heavily influenced by monastic orders, such as the Cluniacs.

Reforms introduced more discipline into monastic life, increasing the separation of monk's lives from ordinary life.

And also some of the leading Norman landholders funded the building of new abbeys and monasteries, and brought over orders of monks from France.

Monastic reform reduced the role of monasteries in education, and monks worshipped in Latin, not the vernacular English.

Okay, let's have a check.

I want you to discuss this question with our partner.

Why did Lanfranc think the English Church needed to be reformed? Pause the video, have a quick discussion and then come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

So your discussion might have included, Lanfranc thought that the English Church was backward or not up to date.

He thought that the English Church was corrupt, its leaders were not following religious laws.

And finally, he thought the English Church was in decline, not as important as it should be.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to task C.

I want you to read Aisha's brief description of Lanfranc's reform of the English Church, and then I want you to add two more points to improve her description.

So Aisha's brief description states, "The main feature of Lanfranc's reform was a huge programme of church building and rebuilding." So pause the video, add two more points to improve her description, and then come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

So your points could have included the following, "Lanfranc also considered the Anglo-Saxon Church to be corrupt, so he began an anti-corruption drive with stricter rules for church life.

He introduced church courts so that any churchmen accused of crimes were not tried in the ordinary hundred courts." Okay, great.

Let's summarise today's lesson.

So the historical context of Norman England includes conquest and control, life under the Normans, and the Norman Church and monasticism.

Recalling key themes from these three topic areas is important for making links between Norman England historic environments and the historical context of Norman England.

Well done on a brilliant lesson, and thank you for joining me as we establish the historical context of Norman England.

I really hope this has given you a breadth of knowledge which can underpin a specific historical environment.

See you in the next lesson.