Feudalism in England under William the Conqeuror

After his victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 William the Conqueror became the first Norman King of England. Immediately William set out to consolidate his power in England by taking vast swaths of land and redistributing it to Norman lords who would rule on his behalf. This was the beginning of the feudal system in England. Scholars are split on whether or not William actually created feudalism or just capitalized upon a system that was already in the making, but it is clear that the Normans utilized the feudal system in order to cement their power in England. The structure and control the feudal system offered allowed William to maintain control of England throughout his reign.

To understand how the structure of feudalism affected the Norman rule of England, feudalism must first be defined. Feudalism describes both a social and governmental structure where a monarch delegates land and power to vassals who rule on his behalf in exchange for military assistance. While arrangement of feudal power varied from place to place there were four common elements seen throughout feudal government: the fief, the castle, the knight, and vassal commendation . The process through which a lord would become a vassal of the king was called commendation. Commendation was a ceremony that usually consisted of two parts, an act of homage and an oath of fealty . The act of paying homage involved the inferior coming before the king bareheaded and weaponless, as a sign of submission, and then clasping the hands of the king to signify his obedience to him. The king would then produce a bible or other holy relic, which the vassal would place his hands upon in order to swear his oath of fealty. These oaths generally involved the vassal swearing to support the king and honor his act of homage by acting in the interest of the monarch. In return for this act, the king would grant the vassal a fief. A fief is a parcel of land given to a lord to rule on the king’s behalf. These lords would hold the land ‘in fee’ for the king so that the king could maintain control over larger areas of land without being directly involved in the day to day governance of each area. The monarch in these situations still maintained the rights to the land that the vassal has control over, making it easy for the king to ensure his vassal stayed in accordance with his wishes because the vassals land rights could be revoked at any time. Land was not the only object that could be held in fee, government roles and hunting rights were also commonly granted in exchange for fealty. A fief’s main purpose was to provide income for the lord so that he had the means to provide for his knights. Fiefs usually consisted of some amount of land, which varied widely, as well as a number of un-free peasants tied to the land that would work for the lord. The majority of the fiefdoms under the rule of William the Conqueror were taken from Anglo-Saxons and redistributed to Norman lords.

The seat of power for most fiefs was a castle. Castles were integral to the control of England because they gave the Norman aristocracy defensible positions through which they could amass armies and be safe from any rebellious Anglo-Saxons. Placing castles in each of the new fiefdoms formed following the Norman conquest not only gave the Normans a physical advantage in term of defensive outposts but also a distinct psychological advantage that the imposing stone structures provided . These nigh-impenetrable fortresses were placed in strategic positions that made them incredibly difficult to overwhelm and easy to defend. While castles provided the defensive and strategic advantage over the English, knights were the true military backbone of the feudal system implanted by the Normans. Knights were mounted soldiers that abided by a code of honor known as chivalry. Vassals of the king would grant knights an estate or manor with a certain number of peasants attached to it in order to support the costs associated with being a knight. The horse, armor, and weapons necessary to be a knight were astronomically expensive, and without a portion of land it would have been impossible to attain knighthood. It took anywhere from fifteen to thirty peasant families to generate enough money to sustain one knight . The Normans used knights as a powerful tool to quell insurrections and stabilize life in Medieval England.

With the common elements of feudalism defined thusly it becomes easier to see how William the Conqueror and his Norman allies manipulated the political and societal structure in their favor. Immediately after the Battle of Hastings was completed William set about consolidating land previously held by Anglo-Saxon lords and redistributing it to those loyal to him among the Norman aristocracy. Most of the English lords fled the country to find refuge in Scotland, Scandinavia, or Constantinople. Before William came in to power the power structure of the lords in England was very horizontal. There were thousands of lords who shared power with less authority granted to the king than under William. In many instances land was granted to English lords in perpetuity before Norman rule, thereby removing the kings power to take back the land he had granted his vassal. This was not the case under Williams rule. William established a more pyramidal structure to his rule in England. The Normans had a tradition of having stronger bonds between their lords and king than did the English. Whereas the English king only controlled his vassals through land rights, the Normans generally had a system where the ruling Duke, or in this case king, relied on his ‘military familia’ which consisted of a group of lords that were tied to the king through family bonds . The soldiers fielded by the ‘military familia’ were professionals who fought on horseback. They were superior to the un-mounted thegns who comprised the majority of pre-Norman English forces as well as had deeper family ties to the monarch. William utilized these stronger bonds between ruler and ruled in order to maintain a tight grip on the fiefs of England.

After the Norman Conquest all of the land held by over 4000 Anglo-Saxon lords was taken and given to around 200 Norman and French lords . By displacing the former lords who would most likely not be loyal to him William ensured that any who would oppose him would not have access to the land or finances needed in order to field an army. In addition, by granting this land to Normans who were loyal to him William was granted access to all of the resources he was denying his opponents. Now William not only had control of his forces from Normandy, but also controlled the financial and military might of England. English lords had no choice but to vacate the country or to strike deals with their new masters. For those that were willing to make deals with the Normans, William would again use the ritual of vassal commendation to accept oaths of fealty from them. The English lords who fled remained a problem though. There were many rebellions staged by former English lords against Norman England between 1066 and 1085. Every time, William retained control of England because of the political structure he had in place.

For example, the first rebellion occurred in 1067, and was staged by the three sons of Harold Godwinson. King William had already returned to Normandy, just six months after his victory at the Battle of Hastings. The rebels had established themselves in Ireland and were raiding the Western coast of England. The Norman lords who had been established there utilized their castles and mounted forces to repel the invaders long enough for William to return from Normandy and gather men from his surrounding magnates then march to the Western coast. Because William had consolidated land and titles under his ‘military familia’ he had loyal men to defend his throne even in his absence. Perhaps the best example of William utilizing his newly formed feudal hierarchy was in the Harrying of the North in 1069. The earldom of Northumbria was semi-autonomous under previous English kings. In 971 Edgar the Peaceful had promised the earls of the North that interference of the king would be minimal in exchange for their obedience to the crown. William the Conqueror did not want to continue this practice. After the lord he had established in the North, Robert de Comines, was brutally murdered by the locals William formed an army to march North. Despite the small size of his army, William proceeded to obliterate much of the North and decimate the rebel forces there.

This was made possible in large part due to the prowess of the mounted knights who rode with him, the large retinue of loyal lords he could choose to support him, and the amount of defensive fortifications and castles he could utilize along the way. The amount of destruction wrought by William in such a short amount of time is a clear example of how the rigid structure and authority provided to him by his newly formed feudal hierarchy allowed him to act swiftly and effectively in bringing down his opponents. Despite multiple other attempts at rebellion following the Harrying of the North none proved successful. William established Norman lords in all of the earldoms of the North, which prevented any rebels from finding refuge. Even when Edgar Ethling, one of the last rebel Anglo-Saxon lords, sought help from the Danes to overthrow William the Conqueror they were unable to do so. William had such a strong hold on all of the lands of England that the Danes were unable to leave their ships and establish themselves on land to last the winter.

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