Hello, welcome to history here at Oak National Academy.

My name's Mr. Newton, and I'll be your teacher for today, guiding you through the entire lesson, breaking down any tricky concepts we might encounter along the way.

Right.

Let's get started.

Over the next few lessons, we will be thinking about our big inquiry question.

How did Norman government impact England? This is the question we will 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 who 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? Change in continuity is a key skill in history, and the Norman Conquest highlights how despite something as brutal as a military occupation, the underlying direction of a country is far harder to change.

By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to explain how the feudal system helped William control his kingdom.

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

Feudal refers to a hierarchical social system where people receive land to live and work on from those higher than them, and in return have to work and fight for them.

Paying homage was to publicly submit and swear an oath of fealty, loyalty, to someone above you in the feudal system.

And overlord in the feudal system was someone who granted land in return for service.

A vassal in the feudal system was someone who provided a service, for example, labour, to an overlord in return for land.

And finally, a fief was a parcel of land given by an overlord to a vassal in return for their service to their overlord.

So today's lesson is split into three parts.

In the first part, we'll look at what was the feudal system, and this is where we'll simplify what this feudal system is or feudalism is.

Then we'll move on to the feudal hierarchy before ending the lesson on how the feudal system helped William to control England.

So let's begin the lesson with what was the feudal system? So William's conquest of England earned him the nickname William the Conqueror.

After the conquest, the Normans transformed the English government and society.

Historians call this process of change, normalisation.

One of the biggest changes took place in the system of landholding.

As King, William claimed the ownership of all the land of England.

He then granted it out under strict conditions to his tenants.

Because they held the land from him, they are known as landholders.

The feudal system, also known as feudalism, is the term that historians have given to this stricter system of landholding.

The feudal system enabled William to keep control over his people and maintain royal authority.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What system did William develop to manage land holding in Norman England? A, the feudal system, B, the homage system, C, the overlord system, D, the vassal system.

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

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew that was the feudal system.

Okay, let's continue.

William created a fixed social hierarchy, whereas Anglo-Saxon society was a relatively open system for his time.

This meant that Anglo-Saxons had previously been used to a relative amount of social mobility, movement up or down between the different layers of the social structure.

An Anglo-Saxon king granted out land, which came with the conditions of taxation and military service.

However, Anglo-Saxon landholders had more rights and freedoms. Some had the right to pass their land down the generations and were more able to buy and sell land.

Having an open system meant that Anglo-Saxons could gain more land and climb higher up the hierarchy.

They had social mobility.

Have a look at the diagram on the left.

We can see the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy with the king at the top and the slaves at the bottom.

The ladder represents social mobility, and we can imagine a hardworking and lucky peasant could gain more land and climb higher up the hierarchy gaining the status of a thegn.

Other examples of the relatively open hierarchy of an Anglo-Saxon society were that some enslaved people could become free, thegns could become Earls, and an earl even became king.

So that describes the Anglo-Saxon system of landholding.

But William introduced what became known as the feudal system of landholding.

And the feudal system was a relatively fixed hierarchy of landholding.

One's level in society was largely dependent on which family you were born into and you and your descendants remained at this level.

So the feudal system changed the relationship between the king and his people.

Put simply in Anglo-Saxon England, you could own land, whereas in Norman England, you merely held land for the king.

Therefore, landholders in Norman England were insecure.

They knew that William could take away their land at any moment.

This gave William great control over England.

The central units of the feudal system was a fief.

This was a parcel of land given by an overlord to a vassal in return for their service to their overlord.

If you have a look at the illustration on the left, it shows a vassal paying homage to William, his overlord in return for a fief.

So let's have a brief look at the operation of the feudal system, which we'll then go into a bit more detail in the second part of the lesson.

So the basics were that the feudal system operated by overlords assigning lands to their vassals below them in return for their service to their overlord.

So have a look at the simplified diagram of the feudal system on the left.

So firstly, we can see that William, the king, is at the top of the feudal system.

He owned all the land and he was the ultimate overlord, the lord paramount.

So he assigned land to his immediate vassals, his tenants-in-chief below him, and this was on the condition that they remained loyal and provided the king with knights.

So we can see from the green and red arrows there that the central deal or contract, if you like, at the heart of feudalism, is the overlord granting land to the vassal below them.

The king granting land to the tenants-in-chief.

And in return, the tenants-in-chief has to provide a service to the overlord, to the king.

And now we can move down to the next level in the feudal system.

And a similar give and take deal could be done between the tenants-in-chief and the knights.

The knights were granted land by their overlords, the tenants-in-chief, and in return for their military service.

So we can see that the tenants-in-chief act as a middle lord in between the king and his knights.

The tenants-in-chief would hold a large area of land with multiple manners, and this meant that they had a heavy military obligation to the king.

So the tenants-in-chief could use their land to recruit and maintain the loyalty of the knights, which would help the tenants-in-chief to provide the military service to the king.

And we can continue further down the feudal system because the knights now have their land and they now act as an overlord of their own smaller area and could grant land to the vassals in their manner, who were peasants.

This enabled peasants to farm the land and grow food.

And in return, peasants worked and gave their military service to their overlord, the knights.

And so now if we zoom out, we can see that the feudal system operated by all the vassals within the feudal system, giving their service to the overlord above them.

So we can see that the feudal system gave William, the ultimate overlord, lord paramount, an entire army he could call upon to garrison his castles, put down revolts and fight wars.

And all this is possible through the importance of land, the fief, which ties everyone into a contract of loyalty.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

How did the feudal system change the social structure compared to the Anglo-Saxon period? Pick two.

A, it allowed for more social mobility.

B, it made land owning less secure.

C, it was a fixed hierarchy with limited mobility.

D, it removed the need for military service.

Pause the video, pick the two correct answers and come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was B, it made land owning less secure, and C, it was a fixed hierarchy with limited mobility.

What is the term for a parcel of land given to a vassal in return for service to their overlord, A, demesne B, feudal, C fief, D Vassal.

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

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew fief was the parcel of land given to a vassal in return for service to their overlord.

Okay, let's move on to task A.

The only change that the feudal system brought to England was that it was a stricter system of landholding.

What I want you to do is working with your partner, discuss points you would use to disagree with this statement.

So the statement is putting forward one point of view.

I want you now to discuss with your partner or jot some ideas down on a piece of paper, which disagree with this statement.

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

Okay, welcome back.

There's many things that you could have discussed or written down on your piece of paper, but compare your answer with what I have here.

So I've got two points here which disagree with the statement.

So Anglo-Saxon society was more open than Norman society.

But in Norman England, the relationship between vassals and overlords meant that people tended not to be able to move up in the social hierarchy.

And the second point, Anglo-Saxon landholders had more rights and freedoms, for example, buying and selling land.

While landholders in Norman England were insecure, they knew that William could take away their land.

So we can see there then that the feudal system was more than just a stricter system of landholding.

Okay, so now we've got a basic understanding of what the feudal system was, and we briefly looked at how that operated.

Let's dig a bit deeper into the feudal hierarchy.

So as we've said, the feudal system was a fixed hierarchical social structure.

Those higher up had more land, wealth and power, such as the king, tenants-in-chief and the knights.

Those lower down, however, were poorer and had little power or freedom such as the peasants and the slaves.

And the central relationship in the feudal system was between overlords and vassals.

So the king was at the top of feudal society and owned all of the land.

As overlord, he handed out fiefs to his loyal vassals and took land away from those who were not loyal.

Tenants-in-chief were the leading Earls, barrons and high ranking church officials such as archbishops, bishops and abbotts.

And if you have a look on the left, this is a 19th century illustration of Bishop Odo, who was one of William's tenants-in-chief.

So tenants-in-chiefs received fiefs directly from the king, and then they would divide their land up into smaller fiefs and share them out with their loyal knights.

So because the knights then received land, they would provide their knight service to the tenants-in-chief, helping them to control the land.

They would guard and fight for their overlord.

They also helped their law to uphold law and order.

Knights did not farm the land themselves, but granted land out to peasants in return for their labour.

Around 90% of the population were peasants or villages.

They were at the bottom of feudal society.

They farmed land to support their family, and they also farmed and worked for their ord, labour service.

Peasants also paid 10 pence per year to rent their land.

And if a peasant farmer failed to keep their overlord happy, they could lose their land.

This meant that most peasant farmers were tied to the land.

They needed permission if they wanted to leave the village.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What I want you to do here is match the titles in the feudal hierarchy to their roles.

And you can see I've given you four titles in the left hand column, which I want you to match to the correct roles in the right hand column.

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

Okay, welcome back.

Let's check those answers.

So the king owned all the land in England.

Tenants-in-chief were the vassals who received very large fiefs direct from the king.

And the knights were required to fight for their overlord in return for their fief.

And peasants provided labour service for their overlord.

Okay, let's have another check.

Fill in the blanks.

So complete these two sentences with the correct words.

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

Okay, welcome back.

Let's see how those sentences should have read.

Tenants-in-chief would divide up the land granted them by the king into smaller fiefs and share them out with their loyal knights.

In return, the knights would help them control the land and provide knight service.

Okay, let's move on to task B.

What I want you to do here is describe two aspects of the feudal system.

So identify two aspects of the feudal system, and then add a sentence of additional supporting information to further describe the aspect.

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

Okay, welcome back.

There's many ways you could have answered this question and different aspects you could have chosen, but compare your answer with what I've got here.

One aspect of the feudal system was that there were tenants-in-chiefs.

And now let's read the sentence where I provided a bit more extra information to further describe the aspect.

Tenants-in-chief would divide their land up into smaller fiefs and share them out with their loyal knights.

Another aspect was that peasants were at the bottom of the feudal system.

Peasants had to provide labour service to their overlord in return for land.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to the final part of the lesson.

How did the feudal system help William control England? So those that wish to hold land had to pay homage.

This was the act of submitting to an overlord.

As part of the ceremony, vassals swot oaths of allegiance to their overlord.

Kneeling up their overlords feet, a vassal put their hands between the overlords hands and said, "I become your man." If you have a look at the image on the left, it's from a mediaeval manuscript and it shows the act of homage.

And if you look closely, you can see the way the overlord is holding the vassal's hands between his hands.

It looks almost like a joint prayer.

And this certainly signified that paying homage was a public promise and made before God.

Breaking such a promise would be considered a great betrayal that God would punish.

Other features of the feudal system demonstrate the power that William held.

When a tenant's in chief died, to get his inheritance, his heir had to pay the king money, known as relief.

If the heir was underage, the king took guardianship of the heir and his land, enjoying the profits of the estate for the duration.

If the heir was female, the king decided who she could marry.

The king could sell the guardianship or marriage to men he wished to promote.

When the church held land, if an abbot or bishop died, the king seized the land until he appointed a new abbot or bishop, the king could then delay his appointments to enjoy the land revenues for as long as he wished.

The king could take away land if a vassal did not provide the military or labour service required of them or was disloyal.

This was called forfeiture because they forfeited the right to hold the land.

And if you have a look at the illustration on the left, it shows land being forfeited.

A knight's role was to guard and fight for their overlord or be sent for up to 40 days of knight service to fight for the king.

All knights had to be supplied with the expensive armour, weapons, and horses required for knight service.

For peasants to use the lord's land to grow their food, they were required to work for their overlord.

Labour service included farming the lord's land or providing goods for the lord such as wood, honey, or fish.

If you have a look at the mediaeval image on the left, it shows peasants reaping corn with their overlord supervisor directing their work.

The strict feudal system of Norman England gave William unprecedented power and control, far more than he had over his vassals in Normandy.

William had secured a continual flow of money and soldiers.

He could also forfeit land from his opponents and grant it to his supporters.

As long as William could keep track of all the land in his kingdom, the legitimate, or at least the currents landholders, the amount of land they held and where they held it, and the service and taxes that were due from it, William could extract and redistribute the full resources of his kingdom.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What were the obligations of holding land under the feudal system.

Select three correct answers.

A, knight service, B, labour service, C, paying homage, D, paying no inheritance fee.

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

Okay, welcome back.

Well done if you knew the obligations in the feudal system were knight service, labour service, and paying homage.

Why was the feudal system important for maintaining Williams's authority? Select two correct answers.

A, it provided greater freedoms for peasants.

B, it provided regular soldiers.

C, it provided regular sums of money to William.

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

Okay, welcome back.

Well done If you knew it was B, it provided regular soldiers and C, it provided regular sums of money to William.

Okay, let's move onto the final task, task C.

What I want you to do here is list four facts, which could help you answer the following question.

Explain how the feudal system helped William control England.

So we just need four facts to help you explain how the feudal system helped William to control England.

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

Okay, excellent and welcome back.

Now there's many different facts you could have come up with, but compare your facts with what I have here.

William owned all the land.

Everyone depended on him for their fief.

Okay, let's have a look at the second fact.

The feudal system was a fixed social hierarchy that kept English people dependent on their Norman overlords.

And then those that wished to hold land had to pay homage to William, which involved swearing to be loyal to him.

And the final fact to help us explain how the feudal system helped William control England was that the feudal system provided William with knights to fight for him, including putting down revolts against him.

Okay, excellent.

Let's summarise today's lesson, the feudal system in Norman England.

The feudal system was a fixed social hierarchy.

William owned all the land, fief holders held their land at the king's discretion.

Those that wish to hold land were obliged to pay homage, relief and provide knight service or labour service.

The feudal system gave William greater control over England than that of previous kings.

Well done on a brilliant lesson and thank you for joining me for the beginning of our study into the nature of Norman England.

I hope you've learned a lot in this lesson, and I will see you next time when we continue our inquiry.

See you in the next lesson.