Lakhasly

William the Conqueror's coro nat ion did not go as
planned. Whe n the peop le shouted "God Save th e
King" the nervous Norman guards at Westminster
Abbey rhought th ey were going to attack William.
In their fear th ey set fire to nearby houses and rhe
coronation ce remony ended in disorder.
Although Will iam was now crowned king. his
conquest had only just begun. and the fight ing
lasted for ano ther five years. T here was an AngloSaxon
rebellion again st th e Norrnans every year
unt il 1070. The small Norman army marched from
village to village, destroying places it could not
cont rol. and building forts to guard others. It was a
true army of occupation for at least twenty years.
The north was parti cularly hard to control. and th e
Norman army had no mercy. When the Saxons
fought back. the Normans burnt. destroyed and
killed. Between Durham and York not a single
house was left standing. and it took a century for
the north to recover.
Few Saxon lords kept the ir lands and those who did
were the very small num ber who had acce pted
William immed iately. All the others lost
everything. By 1086. twenty years after th e arrival
of the Normans, only two of th e greater landlords
An (ITgu mt.'JI1 beru't't'n King Henry' 11 L1nJ his archbishop, Thomas Bt"ckt't.
Behind Beeker send am knighrs, probr.lbl)' those who killed him 10 pkast'
Henry. Thepie/ure iUustrafes the stn j~ll." berueen Church andsWleJuring
the earlyMiddle Ages. TheChurch controlled mone:,. land (including room
lIndfelu.l.u este res}, andmen. As a resl.lr , the kings of England had 10 be
wry careful in their dealings u'irh cht'ChIITCh. Th.>:o Irlt'd 10 pre tenr tiny
mcrecse in Church power, andtried to ,If>poinl bishops u•hoU'OlI/J hi: mOTe
ln~'al lfl lhe kinR rhan 10 [he Ch l~rch. Becket died because he [rit.'J w prew nr
[he kinR fromgaininRmore control 0/ ChllKh affairs.
and only two bishops were Saxon, Willi am gave th e
Saxon land s to his Norman nobles, After each
English rebellion there was more land to give away.
His army included Norman and othe r French land
seekers. Over 4.000 Saxon landl ords were replaced
by 200 Norman ones.
Feudalism
William was careful in the way he gave land to his
nobles. T he king of France was less powerful than
many of the great landlords. of whom WilIiam was
the outstanding example. In England. as each new
area of land was captured. William gave parts of it
as a reward to his captains. This meant th at th ey
held separate small pieces of land in different parts
of th e count ry so th at no noble could easily or
quickly gather his fightin g men to rebel. Willi am
only gave some of his nobles larger esta tes along th e
troublesome borde rs with Wales and Scotland. At
the same t ime he kept en ough land for him self to
make sure he was much stronger than his nobles,
Of all the farmland of England he gave ha lf to the
Norman nobles, a quarter to the Ch urch, an d kep t
a fifth himself. He kept th e Saxon system of
she riffs, and used th ese as a balance to local nobles.
As a result England was different from the rest of
Europe because it had one powerful family, instead
of a large number of powerful nobles. William, and
the kings after him . thought of England as th eir
personal property.
William organised his English kingdom according
to the feudal system which had already begun to
develop in England before his arrival. The word