Hello and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merrett and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

So let's get started.

In today's lesson looking at the Norman England historical environment, we'll be looking at the historical context themes to Pevensey.

And by the end of the lesson, we'll be able to recall and apply key themes from the historical context of Norman England.

In order to do that, we need to do some key terms. And our key terms for today are inheritance, patronage, Romanesque, investiture and vernacular.

Inheritance means 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 vernacular means the language spoken by ordinary people in a region or a country.

Today's lesson will consist of three separate learning cycles, and our first learning cycle is looking at how the Normans conquered and then controlled England.

So let's get started.

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.

And this is split into three main themes, and that is the causes of the Norman conquest, the military aspects, and establishing and maintaining control.

And as we go through this diagram, what I'd like you to do is just think to yourself about what you already know about these topics.

So if we 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, which continues to be a theme throughout the whole of his reign.

If we look at military aspects now, see there's quite a few there, we'll work through the mind map of these in a clockwise direction.

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

And 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 the Norman's capability to impose control on rebellious areas.

And finally, we'll look at establishing and maintaining control.

And we'll work for this one in an anti-clockwise direction now.

So establishing and maintaining control includes the Anglo-Saxon Revolt of 1067 to 1075.

And starting with the revolts led by a Thane called Eadric the Wild in the Welsh Marches and ending with the Revolt of the Earls.

And this also 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.

And this is when William ordered such a savage repression of lands in Yorkshire and parts of the Midlands that they were still classed as wasteland in 1086, almost 20 years later 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.

Finally, we'll also look at William I's leadership and government in this theme and how William II or William Rufus, as he's more commonly known became king of England after his father's death in 1087.

With some Norman Barron's rebelling against William II in 1088 in support of his brother, his older brother, the new Duke of Normandy, Robert Curthose.

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

Okay let's have a quick check for understanding now.

So which two of the following are military aspects of Norman England, the Anglo-Saxon and Norman Tactics, cavalry and castles, the death of Edward the Confessor, or the inheritance of William II? So choose two of those options now.

Okay if you chose A and B, then very well done, those are the correct answers.

And another quick check for understanding.

What I'd like to do now is can you think about what aspect of Norman conquest and control is missing from this diagram? Okay if you knew that it was the causes of the Norman conquest, then very well done, that is indeed the missing aspect of this mind map.

Okay let's move on then.

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

So firstly, the Norman's 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 Williams 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 also defence, of course, castles dominated the landscape.

That domination also included other architectural buildings such as churches and cathedrals, which are 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 also wanted to be seen as a 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 another quick check for understanding now, it's a discussion based question.

So I'd like to consider how might a motte-and-bailey castle help Normans to control an area? So consider that question.

Pause the video whilst you do that.

I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay welcome back.

Hopefully you've done okay with that task.

So let's think of what you could have said.

So you might have said that troops could live in a castle, they'd be ready to go out and put down any trouble in the area.

If there's any threats, Normans could shelter behind the strong defences of the motte-and-bailey castle.

And local people would see the castle and be intimidated by it.

And if you've got any other answers than what I've got on the screen there in front of you, then that's really, really well done, very well done.

Okay so let's move on then to our first task for today.

So I'd like you to study the photo of Old Sarum in Wiltshire, which is on the screen there in front of you.

And I'd like to consider, what does it tell you about conquest and control in Norman England? So if you look towards the top of the photo, you can see that I've highlighted the footings of the Iron Age forts that used to be there.

In the centre of the photo there we can see the Norman motte-and-bailey castle, certainly the mottes.

The keep has obviously fallen down by this point, but you can see exactly where it would've been.

And we can also see there towards the bottom the foundations of a Norman cathedral there as well.

So what does this tell us about conquest and control in Norman England? Pause the video whilst you consider that task.

And I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay welcome back.

I hope you've done okay with that task.

So let's think about what you could have said then.

So you might have said there's plenty of flat land outside of the Iron Age forts where the Normans could have built a new cathedral, but instead they built it inside the forts and next to a motte-and-bailey castle.

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

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

So hopefully your answer is somewhat similar to mine.

If you picked up anything different then that's absolutely fantastic.

Perhaps you thought about the fact that the Normans have actually utilised the natural or manmade defences the local environment of that old Iron Age Hill fort as well so, there's a few things you could have said there and hopefully you picked out one or two of them.

All right let's move on then to our second learning cycle for today, which is looking at life under the Normans.

So let's delve a little deeper into life under the Normans.

So there are two main topics in this theme, and both of which cover a lot of grounds.

There's feudalism and governments and the economic and social changes and their consequences.

So first we'll start with feudalism and government.

And starting with landholding and lordship at the top, we'll work anti-clockwise down towards patronage there.

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 bought in stronger ties of patronage.

And 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 Williams 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.

And that made a big, big difference to the military power of a Norman king.

Okay so if we look at Anglo-Saxon government systems and we work our way anti-clockwise towards the Domesday Book now.

So 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 Norman's made relatively few changes to the Anglo-Saxon government systems or to the justice and the legal system.

And this is mainly because these systems actually worked very well for the Normans.

It enabled them to extract wealth from England through the tax system.

To go in the country from the centre, using the effective Anglo-Saxon administration of shires and hundreds.

And simply changed 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 land and what taxes and military service they could be providing.

So if we move on now to the economic and social changes and their consequences.

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

And we'll start with towns.

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

If you have a look at buildings, there are interesting links between castle building and town prosperity, for example.

Which help 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 fares 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 changes, Normans disapproved of the use of enslaved people in Anglo-Saxon society and reduced the number 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 manner in which they lived.

Which was a condition called serfdom that was very much like slavery in many respects.

Okay let's have a quick check for understanding again now.

So it's a true or false statements.

The topic of "Life under the Normans", includes the church and religious life.

Is that true or is that false? Make your choice now.

Okay if you chose false, then congratulations, it is indeed false.

But let's justify the answer now, why is it a false statement? Is it false because the topic is focused on economic change from Anglo-Saxon to Norman England? Or is it false because the topic is focused on government and the feudal system, as well as economic and social change? So choose your justification now.

Okay if you chose B, then congratulations, that is indeed the correct answer.

All right so another quick check for understanding again now.

I'd like to think, what key source of information on feudalism and government in Norman England is missing from this diagram? Okay if you chose Domesday Book then congratulations, that is indeed the correct answer.

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

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 just a few hundred Norman Lords.

Williams 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 didn't change very much.

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

So if you dive a little deeper now into key themes for economic and social changes, we can see that towns were promoted by the Normans.

However, villages and work probably saw limited change.

Areas that experienced harrying, for instance, up in the north, took a long time to recover economically.

But the security provided by Norman control helped economic growth in England as a whole.

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

And this was used in church buildings across Normandy as well.

And together with castles, buildings saw a big change.

And finally, 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 actually promised to end this, but he did not.

All right let's another quick check for understanding now.

So it's true or false statements.

The Romanesque style of architecture was one of the changes introduced to England by the Normans.

Is that true or is that false? Okay if you chose true, then congratulations, that is indeed the true statements.

But let's justify that now, why is that a true statement? Is it true because the Normans had used this style for churches and cathedrals across Normandy? Or is it true because the Normans were inspired by the Romanesque features of Westminster Abbey? So choose your justification now.

Okay if you chose A then very well done, that is the correct answer.

All right let's go for our next task for today.

So I'd like you to study the map of Norman England that's on the screen in front of you now.

And I'd like to consider what does it suggest about changes to life in England after the Norman conquest? So pause a video whilst you have a go at this task and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay welcome back.

Hopefully you've done okay with that task.

So let's think what you could have said.

So you might have said that 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 is 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 conquests.

So hopefully your answer is similar in its structure to mine.

If you've got a slightly different answer, if you've got a slightly different take on that map, that's absolutely fine, as long as you can justify it with the evidence, that's absolutely fine.

Let's go for another task now.

I'd like you to study the photo of a Norman Cathedral in the screen in front of you there, which has been built in a Romanesque style.

It's an inside of Durham Cathedral.

And what I'd like you to do is just to describe two or three of the features that you can see.

So pause the video whilst you have a go at this and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay welcome back.

Hopefully you've done okay with that task.

So let's think about what you could have said then.

So you could have pointed out that there were thick columns with zigzag patterns, so in those drum pillars.

There were round arches with decorative patterns.

There are very high ceilings with crisscross arches.

It's been made of stone rather than woods.

It's got plain stonework, there's quite a light coloured stone.

And that there are big windows there letting in a lot of lights.

And if you picked up different features then myself, then that's absolutely fine, but hopefully you've got at least some of them that are on the screen there in front of you as well.

Okay let's move on then to our third and final learning cycle for today, which is looking at the Norman church and monasticism.

So this theme has two topics, the Norman Church and monasticism.

And there are many, many overlaps between these two topics.

So 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 the monasteries.

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

So historians debates how far behind the Anglo Saxon church really was compared to Normandy.

But the Normans made a big deal about the need for reform to the English church.

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

This involved selling positions within the church, a system known as simony.

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, amongst 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 refrained from any sexual relationships.

So let's move on then to another aspect, which is 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.

Was it the monarch or was it the Pope? And this controversy essentially was a power struggle between the Pope and the 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, which was not an attractive proposition to a Norman king.

All right so we look at monasticism now.

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

And monasticism is often very relevant to our historic environment studies too.

So if we start at the top of the mind map and we'll work in a clockwise direction from there.

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 and that is a big part of Lanfranc's reforms. The Norm's 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.

So we look now 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.

And these are the people working for the church and administrators.

Finally, if you 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, the old English, which was replaced by Latin as the language used in church services and in official records.

All right let's check for understanding again now.

So it's a true or false statements.

The topic of the Norman church and monasticism includes religious reforms. Is that true or is that false? Make your choice now.

Okay welcome back.

If you chose true, then congratulations, very well done.

But let's justify that statement now, why is it a true statement? Is it true because the topic considers reforms of monasticism but not reforms of the English church? Or is it true because the topic considers both reforms of monasticism and of the English church? So choose your justification now.

Okay if you chose B, then very well done, that is the correct answer.

And another check for understanding.

I'd like you to think about, what is the name of which key individual who is missing from this diagram? So pause if you want to think about that and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay if you chose Archbishop Lanfranc, then very well done, that is indeed the name of the person we're talking about.

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

So the Norman's viewed the Anglo-Saxon Church as backwards, corrupt and not following religious laws.

Generally it was seen as being as 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, or the Pope, to increase its influence.

Okay let's look at the key themes for monasticism now.

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

And also some of the leading Norman landholders funded the building of new abbeys and monasteries, and also 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 it's another quick check for understanding now.

So it's a discussion based question.

I'd like you to consider, why did Lanfranc think the English church needed to be reformed? So think about that question there.

Pause the video whilst you do that and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay welcome back.

Hopefully you've done okay with that task.

Let's think of what you could have said then.

So you might have said that he thought the English church was backward, that it was not up to date.

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

And he also thought the English church was in decline, that it was not as important as it should be.

If you've got some different ideas then myself, then that's absolutely fantastic.

But hopefully you got at least some of those on the screen there as well.

Okay right, let's move on then to our next task for today.

So I'd like you to read Aisha's brief description of Lanfranc's reforms of the English church.

And Aisha says the main feature of Lanfranc's reform was a huge programme of church building and rebuilding.

And what I'd like you to do is to add two more points to improve her description.

So pause the video whilst you complete that task and I'll see you again in just a moment.

Okay welcome back.

Hopefully you've done okay with that task.

So let's think about what you could have said then.

So you might have said that 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 a crimes were not tried in the ordinary hundred courts.

If you've got different ideas then myself, that's absolutely fine.

There's quite a bit that you could talk about there as well.

Okay let's summarise today's lesson now then.

So the historical context of Norman England includes conquest and control, life under the Norman's 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 historic context of Norman England.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

Hopefully you've enjoyed yourself.

Hopefully you learned something.

And hopefully I'll see you again next time.

Bye-Bye.