Conquest and Colonisation: The Normans in Britain 1066–1100

241 Pages·1994·22.661 MB·English

by  Brian Golding (auth.)

British History in Perspective
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Brian Golding Conquest and Colonisation:
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CONQUEST AND
COLONISATION
THE NORMANS IN BRITAIN, 1066-1100
BRIAN GoLDING
Seniur Lecturer in Histary
University of Southampton
M
St. Martin's Press
© Brian Golding 1994
Softcover reprint of the hardcover lst edition 1994 978-0-333-42917-4
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ISBN 978-0-333-42918-1 ISBN 978-1-349-23648-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-23648-0
First published in the United States of America 1994 by
Scholarly and Reference Division,
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ISBN 978-0-312-12127-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Golding, Brian.
Conquest and colonisation: the Normans in Britain, 1066-1100 I
Brian Golding.
p. em.-(British history in perspective)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-12127-3
1. Great Britain-History-William I, 1066-1087. 2. Great
Britain-History-William II, Rufus, 1087-1100. 3. Normans-Great
Britain. I. Title. II. Series.
DA197.G65 1994
942.02'1-{).c20 93-47458
CIP
CONTENTS
Priface Vll
Acknowledgements
X
Maps
England and Normandy in the second half of the
eleventh century
Xl
2 The Church in post-Conquest England and Wales
Xll
3 The Normans in Wales, 1066-11 00
Xln
4 The castles of early-Norman England and Wales x1v
1 The Sources
2 Prelude to the Conquest 10
3 The Nonnan Conquest, 1066-1100 27
4 Setdem.ent and Colonisation 61
5 Governing the Conquered 86
6 Military Organisation 119
7 A Colonial Church? 146
8 Anglo-Nonnan England 177
Notes 194
Select Bibliograplry 215
Index 219
v
PREFACE
For over nine hundred years the Norman Conquest has been a
subject of discussion and debate. Of Sellars and Yeatman's two
memorable dates in history, l 066 remains the only one that still
readily comes to mind, and is still instandy recognisable. Regarded
by contemporaries as expressing the will of God, a divine judgement
on an errant king and nation, the Conquest has for the most part
continued to be interpreted in quasi-moral terms. So, for seven
teenth-century historical commentators, Stuart government was
defined within the context of the 'Norman yoke', an alien autocracy
that had long subverted pure Anglo-Saxon institutions of free
government: a reading which Freeman was to develop in the
nineteenth century when he implicidy compared Victorian par
liamentary democracy, typified by Gladstone, with the witenagemot
persuaded by the rhetoric of earl Godwine. Alternatively, the
Anglo-Saxon state has been regarded as administratively and milit
arily, if not morally, backward, a kingdom on the edge of a
Franco-centric 'Western civilisation' that needed the Norman dy
namic as a catalyst for its own internal development and external
expansion during the medieval period and beyond. Like most
colonisers, the Normans devalued the achievements of the culture
they conquered, and the justificatory, and circular, argument for
their success was that they 'won' because they were 'superior'. Later
historians have too often implicidy, and sometimes explicidy, col
luded in this analysis.
Yet the historiography of the Conquest does raise important issues
V11
Preface
of national identity on both sides of the Channel. How did the
mid-eleventh-century English perceive themselves? Was there a
clearly defined gens Normannorum? and how did the Normans, if they
were a distinct race, relate themselves to a wider Francophone
culture? Our answers to these questions are inevitably determined
by our own contexts and contemporary cultural conditions; each
generation inevitably constructs its own history of the Conquest.
Nevertheless, there does seem to be one historiographic constant.
However much historians might argue over whether or not the
Conquest was a 'Good Thing', or over the extent of 'cataclysmic'
change consequent upon 10 66, there has been, since the twelfth
century, general agreement that assimilation between Normans and
English was speedily achieved, and that the Conquest occasioned no
permanent, long-term disjunction. Chroniclers, often themselves of
mixed race, stressed continuity; the author of the Dialogue of the
Exchequer wrote that by his time (c.ll70) English and Normans were
indistinguishable. Thus the Conquest was subsumed into the tele
ological flow ofi English history: it became part of the national
heritage -and 'Heritage'. Thus it has come about that those most
potent symbols of alien dominion, the great stone castles of Anglo
Norman England, are now part of the central core of monuments
which not even the most philistine and market-led administrator has
yet suggested should be alienated.
This account of the Norman Conquest is intended as a synthesis of
recent scholarship within the context of an interpretation which argues
that the Norman penetration of England, and to a lesser extent of
Wales and Scotland also, before 1100 proceeded fitfully, and was by
no means assured of success until the 10 70s. The interaction of native
and colonising influences was highly intricate. It had begun years
before 10 66; it would only be fully realised during the reign of
Henry I. The first sections of this book examine the background to
the Norman invasion, and the course of military conquest that
began at Hastings. It then discusses the process of colonisation,
before analysing the impact of the Normans in three central areas
of English society: government, military organisation, and the
Church, before concluding with an attempt at an overview of the
assimilative process and the emergence of an Anglo-Norman England.
Vlll
Preface
Notes and bibliography have necessarily been kept to a minimum
and are intended to provide no more than pointers to further
discussion. Where essays in journals have recently been republished
in a collection, that reference has generally been given.
IX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In writing, I have contracted many debts, to historians living and
dead. Above all, my gratitude and thanks are due to my friends and
colleagues at the Battle Conferences on Anglo-Norman Studies.
Many will find their insights reflected here; I hope not too distor
tedly. The Conferences' founder, Professor Allen Brown, did more
than anyone this century to foster research on the Conquest:
controversial and inspirational, his influence remains profound. His
heir as conference organiser, Marjorie Chibnall, has encouraged
and supported me, as she has so many other colleagues. To others,
too, I owe much: to Professor Christopher Holdsworth and Mr John
Gillingham for their careful criticisms, and to Drs Janet Burton and
Tessa Webber, who have also read drafts, and to my Special Subject
students over more than a decade, who have stimulated, criticised,
and advised. I thank them all.
X