England in the Middle Ages concerns thehistory of England during themedieval period, from the end of the 5th century through to the start of theearly modern period in 1485. When England emerged from the collapse of theRoman Empire, theeconomy was in tatters and many of the towns abandoned. After several centuries of Germanic immigration, new identities and cultures began to emerge, developing into kingdoms that competed for power. A richartistic culture flourished under theAnglo-Saxons, producingepic poems such asBeowulf and sophisticatedmetalwork. The Anglo-Saxons converted to Christianity in the 7th century, and a network ofmonasteries andconvents were built across England. In the 8th and 9th centuries, England faced fierceViking attacks, and the fighting lasted for many decades. Eventually,Wessex was established as the most powerful kingdom and promoted the growth of an English identity. Despite repeated crises of succession and aDanish seizure of power at the start of the 11th century, it can also be argued that by the 1060s England was a powerful, centralised state with a strong military and successful economy.
TheNorman invasion of England in 1066 led to the defeat and replacement of the Anglo-Saxon elite with Norman and French nobles and their supporters.William the Conqueror and his successors took over the existing state system, repressing local revolts and controlling the population througha network of castles. The new rulers introduced afeudal approach to governing England, eradicating the practice ofslavery, but creating a much wider body of unfree labourers calledserfs. Theposition of women in society changed as laws regarding land and lordship shifted.England's population more than doubled during the 12th and 13th centuries, fueling an expansion of the towns, cities, and trade, helped bywarmer temperatures across Northern Europe. A new wave of monasteries and friaries was established whileecclesiastical reforms led to tensions between successive kings andarchbishops. Despite developments in England's governance andlegal system, infighting between the Anglo-Norman elite resulted in multiple civil wars and theloss of Normandy.
The 14th century in England saw theGreat Famine and theBlack Death, catastrophic events that killed around half of England's population, throwing the economy into chaos, and undermining the old political order. Social unrest followed, resulting in thePeasants' Revolt of 1381, while the changes in the economy resulted in the emergence of a new class ofgentry, and the nobility began to exercise power through a system termedbastard feudalism. Nearly 1,500villages were deserted by their inhabitants and many men and women sought new opportunities in the towns and cities. New technologies were introduced, and England produced some of the greatmedieval philosophers andnatural scientists. English kings in the 14th and 15th centuries laid claim to theFrench throne, resulting in theHundred Years' War. At times England enjoyed huge military success, with the economy buoyed by profits from the international wool and cloth trade, but by 1450 the country was in crisis, facing military failure in France and an ongoing recession. More social unrest broke out, followed by theWars of the Roses, fought between rival factions of the English nobility.Henry VII's victory in 1485 overRichard III at theBattle of Bosworth Field conventionally marks the end of theMiddle Ages in England and the start of theEarly Modern period.
At the start of the Middle Ages, England was a part ofBritannia, a former province of theRoman Empire. Thelocal economy had once been dominated by imperial Roman spending on a large military establishment, which in turn helped to support a complex network of towns, roads, andvillas.[1] At the end of the 4th century, however, Roman forces had been largely withdrawn, and this economy collapsed.[2] Germanic settlers began to arrive in increasing numbers during the 5th and 6th centuries, establishing small farms and settlements,[3] and their language,Old English,swiftly spread as more settlers arrived and those of the previous inhabitants who had not moved west or toBrittany switched fromCommon Brittonic andBritish Latin to the migrants' language.[4][5][6] New political and social identities emerged, including anAnglian culture in the east of England and aSaxon culture in the south, with local groups establishingregiones, small polities ruled over by powerful families and individuals.[7] By the 7th century, some rulers, including those ofWessex,East Anglia,Essex, andKent, had begun to term themselves kings, living invillae regales, royal centres, and collecting tribute from the surroundingregiones; these kingdoms are often referred to asthe Heptarchy.[8]
In the 7th century, theKingdom of Mercia rose to prominence under the leadership ofKing Penda.[9] Mercia invaded neighbouring lands until it loosely controlled around 50regiones covering much of England.[10] Mercia and the remaining kingdoms, led by their warrior elites, continued to compete for territory throughout the 8th century.[11] Massive earthworks, such as thedefensive dyke built byOffa of Mercia, helped to defend key frontiers and towns.[12] In 789, however, the firstScandinavian raids on England began; theseViking attacks grew in number and scale until in 865 theDanishmicel here orGreat Army, invaded England, capturedYork and defeated the kingdom of East Anglia.[13] Mercia andNorthumbria fell in 875 and 876, andAlfred of Wessex was driven into internal exile in 878.[14]
However, in the same year Alfred won a decisive victory against the Danes at theBattle of Edington, and he exploited the fear of the Viking threat to raise large numbers of men and using a network of defended towns calledburhs to defend his territory and mobilise royal resources.[15] Suppressing internal opposition to his rule, Alfred contained the invaders within a region known as theDanelaw.[16] Under his son,Edward the Elder, and his grandson,Æthelstan, Wessex expanded further north into Mercia and the Danelaw, and by the 950s and the reigns ofEadred andEdgar, York was finally permanently retaken from the Vikings.[17] The West Saxon rulers were now kings of theAngelcynn, that is of the whole English folk.[18]
With the death of Edgar, however, the royal succession became problematic.[19]Æthelred took power in 978 following the murder of his brotherEdward, but England was then invaded bySweyn Forkbeard, the son of a Danish king.[20] Attempts to bribe Sweyn not to attack usingdanegeld payments failed, and he took the throne in 1013.[20] Swein's son,Cnut, liquidated many of the older English families following his seizure of power in 1016.[21] Æthelred's son,Edward the Confessor, had survived in exile in Normandy and returned to claim the throne in 1042.[21] Edward was childless, and the succession again became a concern.[21] England became dominated by theGodwin family, who had taken advantage of the Danish killings to acquire huge wealth. When Edward died in 1066,Harold Godwinson claimed the throne, defeating his rival Norwegian claimant,Harald Hardrada, at thebattle of Stamford Bridge.[22]
In 1066,William, Duke of Normandy, took advantage of the English succession crisis to begin theNorman Conquest.[23] With an army ofNorman followers and mercenaries, he defeated Harold at theBattle of Hastings on 14 October 1066 and rapidly occupied the south of England.[24] William used a network ofcastles to control the major centres of power, granting extensive lands to his main Norman followers and co-opting or eliminating the former Anglo-Saxon elite.[25] Major revolts followed, which William suppressed before intervening in the north-east of England, establishing Norman control of York anddevastating the region.[26] Some Norman lords used England as a launching point for attacks intoSouth andNorth Wales,spreading up the valleys to create newMarcher territories.[27] By the time of William's death in 1087, England formed the largest part of an Anglo-Norman empire, ruled over by a network of nobles with landholdings across England, Normandy, and Wales.[28] England's growing wealth was critical in allowing the Norman kings to project power across the region, including funding campaigns along the frontiers of Normandy.[29]
Norman rule, however, proved unstable; successions to the throne were contested, leading to violent conflicts between the claimants and their noble supporters.[30]William II inherited the throne but faced revolts attempting to replace him with his older brotherRobert or his cousinStephen of Aumale.[31] In 1100, William II died while hunting. Despite Robert's rival claims, his younger brotherHenry I immediately seized power.[32] War broke out, ending in Robert's defeat atTinchebrai and his subsequent life imprisonment. Robert's sonClito remained free, however, and formed the focus for fresh revolts until his death in 1128.[33] Henry's only legitimate son,William, died aboard theWhite Ship disaster of 1120, sparking a fresh succession crisis: Henry's nephew,Stephen of Blois, claimed the throne in 1135, but this was disputed by theEmpress Matilda, Henry's daughter.[34][nb 1] Civil war broke out across England and Normandy, resulting in a long period of warfare later termedthe Anarchy. Matilda's son,Henry, finally agreed to a peace settlement atWinchester and succeeded as king in 1154.[36]
Henry II was the first of theAngevin rulers of England, so-called because he was also theCount of Anjou in Northern France.[37] Henry had also acquired the hugeduchy of Aquitaine by marriage, and England became a key part of a loose-knit assemblage of lands spread across Western Europe, later termed theAngevin Empire.[38] Henry reasserted royal authority and rebuilt the royal finances,intervening to claim power in Ireland and promoting the Anglo-Norman colonisation of the country.[39] Henry strengthened England's borders with Wales and Scotland, and used the country's wealth to fund a long-running war with his rivals in France, but arrangements for his succession once again proved problematic.[40] Several revolts broke out, led by Henry's children who were eager to acquire power and lands, sometimes backed by France, Scotland and the Welsh princes. After a final confrontation with Henry, his sonRichard I succeeded to the throne in 1189.[41]
Richard spent his reign focused on protecting his possessions in France and fighting in theThird Crusade; his brother,John, inherited England in 1199 but lost Normandy and most of Aquitaine after several years of war with France.[42] John fought successive, increasingly expensive, campaigns in a bid to regain these possessions.[43] John's efforts to raise revenues, combined with his fractious relationships with many of the English barons, led to confrontation in 1215, an attempt to restore peace through the signing ofMagna Carta, and finally the outbreak of theFirst Barons' War.[44] John died having fought the rebel barons and their French backers to a stalemate, and royal power was re-established by barons loyal to the youngHenry III.[45] England's power structures remained unstable and the outbreak of theSecond Barons' War in 1264 resulted in the king's capture bySimon de Montfort.[46] Henry's son,Edward, defeated the rebel factions between 1265 and 1267, restoring his father to power.[47]
On becoming king, Edward I rebuilt the status of the monarchy, restoring and extending key castles that had fallen into disrepair.[48] Uprisings by the princes of North Wales led to Edward mobilising a huge army,defeating the native Welsh and undertaking a programme of English colonisation and castle building across the region.[49] Further wars were conducted inFlanders and Aquitaine.[50] Edward also foughtcampaigns in Scotland, but was unable to achieve strategic victory, and the costs created tensions that nearly led to civil war.[51]Edward II inherited the war with Scotland and faced growing opposition to his rule as a result of his royal favourites and military failures.[52] TheDespenser War of 1321–22 was followed by instability and the subsequent overthrow, and possible murder, of Edward in 1327 at the hands of his French wife,Isabella, and a rebel baron,Roger Mortimer.[53][nb 2] Isabella and Mortimer's regime lasted only a few years before falling to a coup, led by Isabella's sonEdward III, in 1330.[55]
Like his grandfather, Edward III took steps to restore royal power, but during the 1340s theBlack Death arrived in England.[56] The losses from the epidemic, and the recurring plagues that followed it, significantly affected events in England for many years to come.[57] Meanwhile, Edward, under pressure from France in Aquitaine, made a challenge for the French throne.[58] Over the next century, English forces fought many campaigns in a long-running conflict that became known as theHundred Years' War.[59] Despite the challenges involved in raising the revenues to pay for the war, Edward's military successes brought an influx of plundered wealth to many parts of England and enabled substantial building work by the king.[60] Many members of the English elite, including Edward's sonthe Black Prince, were heavily involved in campaigning in France and administering the new continental territories.[61]
Edward's grandson, the youngRichard II, faced political and economic problems, many resulting from the Black Death, including thePeasants' Revolt that broke out across the south of England in 1381.[62] Over the coming decades, Richard and groups of nobles vied for power and control of policy towards France untilHenry of Bolingbroke seized the throne with the support ofparliament in 1399.[63] Ruling as Henry IV, he exercised power through a royal council and parliament, while attempting to enforce political and religious conformity.[64] His son,Henry V, reinvigorated the war with France and came close to achieving strategic success shortly before his death in 1422.[65]Henry VI became king at the age of only nine months and both the English political system and the military situation in France began to unravel.[66]
A sequence of bloody civil wars, later termed theWars of the Roses, finally broke out in 1455; these wars were spurred on by an economic crisis and a widespread perception of poor government.[67]Edward IV, leading a faction known as theYorkists, removed Henry from power in 1461 but by 1469 fighting recommenced as Edward, Henry, and Edward's brotherGeorge, backed by leading nobles and powerful French supporters, vied for power.[68] By 1471 Edward was triumphant and most of his rivals were dead.[68] On his death, power passed to his brotherRichard of Gloucester, who initially ruled on behalf of the youngEdward V before seizing the throne himself as Richard III.[68] The futureHenry VII, aided by French and Scottish troops, returned to England and defeated Richard at thebattle of Bosworth in 1485, bringing an end to the majority of the fighting, although lesser rebellions against hisTudor dynasty would continue for several years afterwards.[69]
The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms werehierarchical societies, each based on ties of allegiance between powerful lords and their immediate followers.[70] At the top of the social structure was the king, who stood above many of the normal processes of Anglo-Saxon life and whose household had special privileges and protection.[71] Beneath the king werethegns, nobles, the more powerful of which maintained their own courts and were termedealdormen.[72] The relationship between kings and their nobles was bound up with military symbolism and the ritual exchange of weapons and armour.[73] Freemen, calledchurls, formed the next level of society, often holding land in their own right or controlling businesses in the towns.[74]Geburs, peasants who worked land belonging to athegn, formed a lower class still.[75] The very lowest class were slaves, who could be bought and sold and who held only minimal rights.[76]
The balance of power between these different groups changed over time. Early in the period, kings were elected by members of the late king's council, butprimogeniture rapidly became the norm for succession.[77] The kings further bolstered their status by adopting Christian ceremonies and nomenclature, introducing ecclesiastical coronations during the 8th century and terming themselves "Christ's deputy" by the 11th century.[78] Huge estates were initially built up by the king, bishops, monasteries andthegns, but in the 9th and 10th centuries these were slowly broken up as a consequence of inheritance arrangements, marriage settlements and church purchases.[79] In the 11th century, the royal position worsened further, as theealdormen rapidly built up huge new estates, making them collectively much more powerful than the king—this contributed to the political instability of the final Anglo-Saxon years.[80] As time went by, the position of thechurls deteriorated, as their rights were slowly eroded and their duties to their lords increased.[74]
The kingdom of Wessex, which eventually laid claim to England as a whole, evolved a centralised royal administration. One part of this was the king's council, thewitenagemot, comprising the senior clergy,ealdormen, and some of the more importantthegns; the council met to advise the king on policy and legal issues.[81] The royal household included officials,thegns and asecretariat of clergy which travelled with the king, conducting the affairs of government as it went.[82] Under the Danish kings, a bodyguard ofhousecarls also accompanied the court.[83] At a regional level,ealdormen played an important part in government, defence and taxation, and the post ofsheriff emerged in the 10th century, administering localshires on behalf of an ealdorman.[84] Anglo-Saxonmints were tightly controlled by the kings, providing a high-quality currency, and the whole country was taxed using a system calledhidage.[85]
The Anglo-Saxon kings built up a set of written laws, issued either as statutes or codes, but these laws were never written down in their entirety and were always supplemented by an extensive oral tradition of customary law.[86] In the early part of the period local assemblies calledmoots were gathered to apply the laws to particular cases; in the 10th century these were replaced byhundred courts, serving local areas, andshire moots dealing with larger regions of the kingdom.[87] Many churchmen andthegns were also given permission by the king to hold their own local courts.[88] The legal system depended on a system ofoaths in which the value of different individuals swearing on behalf of the plaintiff or defendant varied according to their social status – the word of a companion of the king, for example, was worth twelve times that of achurl.[89] If fines were imposed, their size similarly varied accord to the oath-value of the individual.[90] The Anglo-Saxon authorities struggled to deal with thebloodfeuds between families that emerged following violent killings, attempting to use a system ofweregild, a payment of blood money, as a way of providing an alternative to long-running vendettas.[91]
Within twenty years of the Norman conquest, the former Anglo-Saxon elite were replaced by a new class of Norman nobility, with around 8,000 Normans and French settling in England.[92] The newearls (successors to the ealdermen), sheriffs and church seniors were all drawn from their ranks.[93] In many areas of society there was continuity, as the Normans adopted many of the Anglo-Saxon governmental institutions, including the tax system, mints and the centralisation of law-making and some judicial matters; initially sheriffs and the hundred courts continued to function as before.[94] The existing tax liabilities were captured in theDomesday Book, produced in 1086.[95]
Changes in other areas soon began to be felt. The method of government after the conquest can be described as afeudal system, in that the new nobles held their lands on behalf of the king; in return for promising to provide military support and taking an oath of allegiance, calledhomage, they were granted lands termed afief or anhonour.[96][nb 3] Major nobles in turn granted lands to smaller landowners in return for homage and further military support, and eventually the peasantry held land in return for local labour services, creating a web of loyalties and resources enforced in part by new honorial courts.[98] This system had been used in Normandy and concentrated more power in the king and the upper elite than the former Anglo-Saxon system of government.[99] The practice of slavery declined in the years after the conquest, as the Normans considered the practice backward and contrary to the teachings of the church.[100] The more prosperous peasants, however, lost influence and power as the Normans made holding land more dependent on providing labour services to the local lord.[101] They sank down the economic hierarchy, swelling the numbers of unfreevilleins orserfs, forbidden to leave their manor or seek alternative employment.[102]
At the centre of power, the kings employed a succession of clergy aschancellors, responsible for running the royal chancery, while thefamilia regis, the military household, emerged to act as a bodyguard and military staff.[103] England's bishops continued to form an important part in local administration, alongside the nobility.[104] Henry I and Henry II both implemented significantlegal reforms, extending and widening the scope of centralised, royal law; by the 1180s, the basis for the futureEnglishcommon law had largely been established, with a standing law court in Westminster—an earlyCommon Bench—and travelling judges conductingeyres around the country. King John extended the royal role in delivering justice, and the extent of appropriate royal intervention was one of the issues addressed in theMagna Carta of 1215.[105] The emerging legal system reinvigorated the institution of serfdom in the 13th century by drawing an increasingly sharp distinction between freemen and villeins.[106]
Many tensions existed within the system of government.[107] Royal landownings and wealth stretched across England, and placed the king in a privileged position above even the most powerful of the noble elite.[108] Successive kings, though, still needed more resources to pay for military campaigns, conduct building programmes or to reward their followers, and this meant exercising their feudal rights to interfere in the land-holdings of nobles.[109] This was contentious and a frequent issue of complaint, as there was a growing belief that land should be held by hereditary right, not through the favour of the king.[110] Property and wealth became increasingly focused in the hands of a subset of the nobility, the great magnates, at the expense of the wider baronage, encouraging the breakdown of some aspects of local feudalism.[111] As time went by, the Norman nobility intermarried with many of the great Anglo-Saxon families, and the links with the Duchy began to weaken.[112] By the late 12th century, mobilising the English barons to fight on the continent was proving difficult, and John's attempts to do so ended in civil war. Civil strife re-emerged under Henry III, with the rebel barons in 1258–59 demanding widespread reforms, and an early version of Parliament was summoned in 1265 to represent the rebel interests.[113]
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On becoming king in 1272, Edward I reestablished royal power, overhauling the royal finances and appealing to the broader English elite by using Parliament to authorise the raising of new taxes and to hear petitions concerning abuses of local governance.[114] This political balance collapsed under Edward II and savage civil wars broke out during the 1320s.[115] Edward III restored order once more with the help of a majority of the nobility, exercising power through theexchequer, the common bench and the royal household.[116] This government was better organised and on a larger scale than ever before, and by the 14th century the king's formerly peripateticchancery had to take up permanent residence inWestminster.[117] Edward used Parliament even more than his predecessors to handle general administration, to legislate and to raise the necessary taxes to pay for the wars in France.[118] The royal lands—and incomes from them—had diminished over the years, and increasingly frequent taxation was required to support royal initiatives.[119] Edward held elaborate chivalric events in an effort to unite his supporters around the symbols of knighthood.[120] The ideal ofchivalry continued to develop throughout the 14th century, reflected in the growth ofknightly orders (including theOrder of the Garter), grandtournaments andround table events.[121]
Society and government in England in the early 14th century were challenged by theGreat Famine and the Black Death.[122] The economic and demographic crisis created a sudden surplus of land, undermining the ability of landowners to exert their feudal rights and causing a collapse in incomes from rented lands.[123] Wages soared, as employers competed for a scarce workforce.Statute of Labourers 1351 was introduced tolimit wages and toprevent the consumption of luxury goods by the lower classes, with prosecutions coming to take up most of the legal system's energy and time.[124] Apoll tax was introduced in 1377 that spread the costs of the war in France more widely across the whole population.[125] The tensions spilled over into violence in the summer of 1381 in the form of the Peasants' Revolt; a violent retribution followed, with as many as 7,000 alleged rebels executed.[126] A new class ofgentry emerged as a result of these changes, renting land from the major nobility to farm out at a profit. The legal system continued to expand during the 14th century, dealing with an ever-wider set of complex problems.[9]
By the time that Richard II was deposed in 1399, the power of the major noble magnates had grown considerably; powerful rulers such as Henry IV would contain them, but during the minority of Henry VI they controlled the country.[127] The magnates depended upon their income from rent and trade to allow them to maintain groups of paid, armed retainers, often sporting controversial livery, and buy support amongst the wider gentry; this system has been dubbedbastard feudalism.[128][nb 4] Their influence was exerted both through theHouse of Lords at Parliament and through the king's council.[130] The gentry and wealthier townsmen exercised increasing influence through theHouse of Commons, opposing raising taxes to pay for the French wars.[131] By the 1430s and 1440s the English government was in major financial difficulties, leading to the crisis of 1450 and a popular revolt under the leadership ofJack Cade.[132] Law and order deteriorated, and the crown was unable to intervene in the factional fighting between different nobles and their followers.[133] The resulting Wars of the Roses saw a savage escalation of violence between the noble leaderships of both sides: captured enemies were executed and family landsattainted. By the time that Henry VII took the throne in 1485, England's governmental and social structures had been substantially weakened, with whole noble lines extinguished.[134]
Medieval England was apatriarchal society and the lives of women were heavily influenced by contemporary beliefs about gender and authority.[135] However, the position of women varied considerably according to various factors, including theirsocial class; whether they were unmarried, married, widowed or remarried; and in which part of the country they lived.[136] Significant gender inequalities persisted throughout the period, as women typically had more limited life-choices, access to employment and trade, and legal rights than men.[137]
In Anglo-Saxon society, noblewomen enjoyed considerable rights and status, although the society was still firmly patriarchal.[138] Some exercised power as abbesses, exerting widespread influence across the early English Church, although their wealth and authority diminished with the monastic reforms of the 9th century.[139] Anglo-Saxon queens began to hold lands in their own right in the 10th century and their households contributed to the running of the kingdom.[140] Although women could not lead military forces, in the absence of their husbands some noblewomen led the defence of manors and towns.[141] Most Anglo-Saxon women, however, worked on the land as part of the agricultural community, or asbrewers orbakers.[142]
After the Norman invasion, the position of women in society changed. The rights and roles of women became more sharply defined, in part as a result of the development of the feudal system and the expansion of the English legal system; some women benefited from this, while others lost out.[143] The rights of widows were formally laid down in law by the end of the 12th century, clarifying the right of free women to own property, but this did not necessarily prevent women from beingforcibly remarried against their wishes.[144] The growth of governmental institutions under a succession of bishops reduced the role of queens and their households in formal government. Married or widowed noblewomen remained significant cultural and religious patrons and played an important part in political and military events, even if chroniclers were uncertain if this was appropriate behaviour.[145] As in earlier centuries, most women worked in agriculture, but here roles became more clearly gendered, withploughing and managing the fields defined as men's work, for example, anddairy production becoming dominated by women.[146]
The years after the Black Death left many women widows; in the wider economy labour was in short supply and land was suddenly readily available.[147] In rural areas peasant women could enjoy a better standard of living than ever before, but the amount of work being done by women may have increased.[148] Many other women travelled to the towns and cities, to the point where they outnumbered men in some settlements.[149] There they worked with their husbands, or in a limited number of occupations, includingspinning, making clothes,victualling and as servants.[150] Some women became full-timeale brewers, until they were pushed out of business by the male-dominatedbeer industry in the 15th century.[151] Higher status jobs and apprenticeships, however, remained closed to women.[152] As in earlier times, noblewomen exercised power on their estates in their husbands' absence and again, if necessary, defended them in sieges and skirmishes.[153] Wealthy widows who could successfully claim their rightful share of their late husband's property could live as powerful members of the community in their own right.[154]
An English cultural identity first emerged from the interaction of the Germanic immigrants of the 5th and 6th centuries and the indigenous Romano-British inhabitants.[155] Although early medieval chroniclers described the immigrants as Angles and Saxons, they came from a much wider area across Northern Europe, and represented a range of different ethnic groups.[156] Over the 6th century, however, these different groups began to coalesce into stratified societies across England, roughly corresponding to the later Angle and Saxon kingdoms recorded byBede in the 8th century.[157] By the 9th century, the term theAngelcynn was being officially used to refer to a single English people, and promoted for propaganda purposes by chroniclers and kings to inspire resistance to the Danish invasions.[158]
The Normans and French who arrived after the conquest saw themselves as different from the English. They had close family and economic links to the Duchy of Normandy, spokeNorman French and had their own distinctive culture.[158] For many years, to be English was to be associated with military failure and serfdom.[159] During the 12th century, the divisions between the English and Normans began to dissolve as a result of intermarriage and cohabitation.[160] By the end of the 12th century, and possibly as early as the 1150, contemporary commentators believed the two peoples to be blending, and the loss of the Duchy in 1204 reinforced this trend.[161] The resulting society still prized wider French cultural values, however, and French remained the language of the court, business and international affairs, even if Parisians mocked the English for their poor pronunciation.[162] By the 14th century, however, French was increasingly having to be formally taught, rather than being learnt naturally in the home, although the aristocracy would typically spend many years of their lives in France and remained entirely comfortable working in French.[163]
During the 12th and 13th centuries, the English began to consider themselves superior to the Welsh, Scots andBretons. The English perceived themselves as civilised, economically prosperous and properly Christian, while theCeltic fringe was considered lazy, barbarous and backward.[164] Following the invasion of Ireland in the late 12th century, similar feelings were expressed about the Irish, with the distinctions clarified and reinforced in 14th-century English legislation.[165] The English also felt strongly about the foreign traders who lived in the special enclaves in London in the Late Middle Ages; the position of the Jews is described below, but Italian and Baltic traders were also regarded as aliens and were frequently the targets of violence during economic downturns.[166] Even within England, different identities abounded, each with their own sense of status and importance. Regional identities could be important – men and women fromYorkshire, for example, had a clear identity within English society, and professional groups with a distinct identity, such as lawyers, engaged in open fighting with others in cities such as London.[167]
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The Jewish community played an important role in England throughout much of the period. The first Jews arrived in England in the aftermath of the Norman invasion, when William the Conqueror brought over wealthy members of theRouen community in Normandy to settle in London.[168] The Jewish community expanded out across England and provided essential money-lending and banking services that were otherwise banned by theusury laws.[169] During the 12th century, the Jewish financial community grew richer still, operating under royal protection and providing the king with a source of ready credit.[170] All major towns had Jewish centres, and even the smaller towns saw visits by travelling Jewish merchants.[171] Towards the end of Henry II's reign, however, the king ceased to borrow from the Jewish community and instead turned to extracting money from them through arbitrary taxation and fines.[172] The Jews became vilified and accusations were made that they conductedritual child murder, encouraging thepogroms carried out against Jewish communities in the reign of Richard I.[173] After an initially peaceful start to John's reign, the king again began to extort money from the Jewish community and, with the breakdown in order in 1215, the Jews were subject to fresh attacks.[174] Henry III restored some protection and Jewish money-lending began to recover.[175] Despite this, the Jewish community became increasingly impoverished and was finallyexpelled from England in 1290 by Edward I, being replaced by foreign merchants.[176]
Christianity had been the official imperial religion of the Roman Empire, and the first churches were built in England in the second half of the 4th century, overseen by a hierarchy of bishops and priests.[177] Many existingpagan shrines were converted to Christian use and few pagan sites still operated by the 5th century.[177] The collapse of the Roman system in the late 5th century, however, brought about the end of formal Christian religion in the east of England, and the new Germanic immigrants arrived with their ownpolytheistic gods, includingWoden,Thunor andTiw, still reflected in various English place names.[178] Despite the resurgence of paganism in England, Christian communities still survived in more western areas such asGloucestershire andSomerset.[179]
The movement towards Christianity began again in the late 6th and 7th centuries, helped by the conversion of theFranks in Northern France, who carried considerable influence in England.[180] PopeGregory I sent a team of missionaries to convert KingÆthelberht of Kent and his household, starting the process of converting Kent.[180]Augustine became the firstArchbishop of Canterbury and started to build new churches across the South-East, reusing existing pagan shrines.[181]Oswald andOswiu, kings of Northumbria, were converted in the 630s and 640s, and the wave of change carried on through the middle of the 7th century across the kingdoms of Mercia, the South Saxons and theIsle of Wight.[182] The process was largely complete by the end of the 7th century, but left a confusing and disparate array of local practices and religious ceremonies.[183] This new Christianity reflected the existing military culture of the Anglo-Saxons: as kings began to convert in the 6th and 7th centuries, conversion began to be used as a justification for war against the remaining pagan kingdoms, for example, while Christian saints were imbued with martial properties.[184]
The Viking invasions of the 8th and 9th centuries reintroduced paganism to North-East England, leading in turn to another wave of conversion.Indigenous Scandinavian beliefs were very similar to other Germanic groups, with a pantheon of gods includingOdin,Thor andUllr, combined with a belief in a final, apocalyptic battle calledRagnarok.[185] The Norse settlers in England were converted relatively quickly, assimilating their beliefs into Christianity in the decades following the occupation of York, which theArchbishop had survived. The process was largely complete by the early 10th century and enabled England's leading Churchmen to negotiate with the warlords.[186] As the Norse in mainland Scandinaviastarted to convert, many mainland rulers recruited missionaries from England to assist in the process.[187]
With the conversion of much of England in the 6th and 7th centuries, there was an explosion of local church building.[188] English monasteries formed the main basis for the church, however, and were often sponsored by local rulers, taking various forms, including mixed communities headed byabbesses, bishop-led communities ofmonks, and others formed around marriedpriests and their families.[189]Cathedrals were constructed, staffed either withsecular canons in the European tradition or, uniquely to England,chapters of monks.[190] These institutions were badly affected in the 9th century by Viking raids and predatory annexations by the nobility.[191] By the start of the 10th century, monastic lands, financial resources and the quality of monasteries' religious work had been much diminished.[191] Reforms followed under the kings of Wessex who promoted theBenedictine rule then popular on the Continent.[192] A reformed network of around 40 monastic institutions across the south and east of England, under the protection of the king, helped re-establish royal control over the reconquered Danelaw.[193]
The 1066 Norman conquest brought a new set of Norman and French churchmen to power; some adopted and embraced aspects of the former Anglo-Saxon religious system, while others introduced practices from Normandy.[194] Extensive English lands were granted to monasteries in Normandy, allowing them to create daughter priories and monastic cells across the kingdom.[195] The monasteries were brought firmly into the web of feudal relations, with their holding of land linked to the provision of military support to the crown.[196] The Normans adopted the Anglo-Saxon model of monastic cathedral communities, and within seventy years the majority of English cathedrals were controlled by monks; every English cathedral, however, was rebuilt to some extent by the new rulers.[197] England's bishops remained powerful temporal figures, and in the early 12th-century raised armies against Scottish invaders and built up extensive holdings of castles across the country.[198]
New orders began to be introduced into England. As ties to Normandy waned, the FrenchCluniac order became fashionable and their houses were introduced in England.[199] TheAugustinians spread quickly from the beginning of the 12th century onwards, while later in the century theCistercians reached England, creating houses with a more austere interpretation of the monastic rules and building the great abbeys ofRievaulx andFountains.[200] By 1215, there were over 600 monastic communities in England, but new endowments slowed during the 13th century, creating long-term financial problems for many institutions.[201] TheDominican andFranciscanfriars arrived in England during the 1220s, establishing 150 friaries by the end of the 13th century; thesemendicant orders rapidly became popular, particularly in towns, and heavily influenced local preaching.[202] The religiousmilitary orders that became popular across Europe from the 12th century onwards acquired possessions in England, including theTemplars,Teutons andHospitallers.[203]
The Church had a close relationship with the English state throughout the Middle Ages. The bishops and major monastic leaders played an important part in national government, having key roles on the king's council.[204] Bishops often oversaw towns and cities, managing local taxation andgovernment. This frequently became untenable with the Viking incursions of the 9th century, and in locations such asWorcester the local bishops came to new accommodations with the localealdormen, exchanging some authority and revenue for assistance in defence.[205] The early English church was racked with disagreement ondoctrine, which was addressed by theSynod of Whitby in 664; some issues were resolved, but arguments between the archbishops of Canterbury and York as to which had primacy across Britain began shortly afterwards and continued throughout most of the medieval period.[206]
William the Conqueror acquired the support of the Church for the invasion of England by promising ecclesiastical reform.[207] William promoted celibacy amongst the clergy and gave ecclesiastical courts more power, but also reduced the Church's direct links to Rome and made it more accountable to the king.[208] Tensions arose between these practices and thereforming movement of PopeGregory VII, which advocated greater autonomy from royal authority for the clergy, condemned the practice ofsimony and promoted greater influence for the papacy in church matters.[209] Despite the bishops continuing to play a major part in royal government, tensions emerged between the kings of England and key leaders within the English Church. Kings and archbishops clashed over rights of appointment and religious policy, and successive archbishops includingAnselm,Theobald of Bec,Thomas Becket andStephen Langton were variously forced into exile, arrested by royal knights or even killed.[210] By the early 13th century, however, the church had largely won its argument for independence, answering almost entirely to Rome.[211]
In the 1380s, several challenges emerged to the traditional teachings of the Church, resulting from the teachings ofJohn Wycliffe, a member ofOxford University.[212] Wycliffe argued thatscripture was the best guide to understanding God's intentions, and that the superficial nature of theliturgy, combined with the abuses of wealth within the Church and the role of senior churchmen in government, distracted from that study.[213] A loose movement that included many members of the gentry pursued these ideas after Wycliffe's death in 1384 and attempted to pass aParliamentary bill in 1395: the movement was rapidly condemned by the authorities and was termed "Lollardy".[214] The English bishops were charged to control and counter this trend, disrupting Lollard preachers and to enforcing the teaching of suitable sermons in local churches.[215] By the early 15th century, combating Lollard teachings had become a key political issue, championed by Henry IV and his Lancastrian followers, who used the powers of both the church and state to combat theheresy.[216]
Pilgrimages were a popular religious practice throughout the Middle Ages in England, with the tradition dating back to the Roman period.[217] Typically pilgrims would travel short distances to a shrine or a particular church, either to dopenance for a perceived sin, or toseek relief from an illness or other condition.[218] Some pilgrims travelled further, either to more distant sites within Britain or, in a few cases, onto the continent.[219]
During the Anglo-Saxon period, many shrines were built on former pagan sites which became popular pilgrimage destinations, while other pilgrims visited prominent monasteries and sites of learning.[220] Senior nobles or kings would travel toRome, which was a popular destination from the 7th century onwards; sometimes these trips were a form of convenient political exile.[221] Under the Normans, religious institutions with important shrines, such asGlastonbury, Canterbury andWinchester, promoted themselves as pilgrimage destinations, maximising the value of the historic miracles associated with the sites.[222] Accumulatingrelics became an important task for ambitious institutions, as these were believed to hold curative powers and lent status to the site.[223] Indeed, by the 12th century reports of posthumousmiracles by local saints were becoming increasingly common in England, adding to the attractiveness of pilgrimages to prominent relics.[224]
Participation in theCrusades was also seen as a form of pilgrimage, and indeed the same Latin word,peregrinatio, was sometimes applied to both activities.[225] While English participation in theFirst Crusade between 1095 and 1099 was limited, England played a prominent part in theSecond,Third andFifth Crusades over the next two centuries, with many crusaders leaving forthe Levant during the intervening years.[226] The idea of undertaking a pilgrimage toJerusalem was not new in England, however, as the idea of religiously justified warfare went back to Anglo-Saxon times.[227] Many of those who took up the Cross to go on a Crusade never actually left, often because the individual lacked sufficient funds to undertake the journey.[228] Raising funds to travel typically involved crusaders selling or mortgaging their lands and possessions, which affected their families and, at times, considerably affected the economy as a whole.[229]
England had a diverse geography in the medieval period, from theFenlands ofEast Anglia or the heavily woodedWeald, through to the uplandmoors ofYorkshire.[230] Despite this, medieval England broadly formed two zones, roughly divided by the riversExe andTees: the south and east of England had lighter, richer soils, able to support botharable andpastoral agriculture, while the poorer soils and colder climate of the north and west produced a predominantly pastoral economy.[231] Slightly more land was covered by trees than in the 20th century, andbears,beavers andwolves lived wild in England, bears being hunted to extinction by the 11th century and beavers by the 12th.[232] Of the 10,000 miles of roads that had been built by the Romans, many remained in use and four were of particular strategic importance—theIcknield Way, theFosse Way,Ermine Street andWatling Street—which criss-crossed the entire country.[233] The road system was adequate for the needs of the period, although it was significantly cheaper to transport goods by water.[234] The major river networks formed key transport routes, while many English towns formed navigableinland ports.[235]
For much of the Middle Ages, England's climate differed from that in the 21st century. Between the 9th and 13th centuries England went through theMedieval Warm Period, a prolonged period of warmer temperatures; in the early 13th century, for example, summers were around 1 °C warmer than today and the climate was slightly drier.[236] These warmer temperatures allowed poorer land to be brought into cultivation and forgrapevines to be cultivated relatively far north.[237] The Warm Period was followed by several centuries of much cooler temperatures, termed theLittle Ice Age; by the 14th century spring temperatures had dropped considerably, reaching their coldest in the 1340s and 1350s.[238] This cold end to the Middle Ages significantly affected English agriculture and living conditions.[239]
Even at the start of the Middle Ages the English landscape had been shaped by human occupation over many centuries.[232] Much woodland was new, the result of fields being reclaimed by brush after the collapse of the Roman Empire.[232] Human intervention had establishedwood pastures, an ancient system for managing woods and animals, andcoppicing, a more intensive approach to managing woodlands.[240] Other agricultural lands included arable fields and pastorage, while in some parts of the country, such as the South-West, waste moorland remained testament to earlierover-farming in theBronze Age. England's environment continued to be shaped throughout the period, through the building ofdykes to drain marshes, tree clearance and the large-scale extraction ofpeat.[241] Managedparks for hunting game, including deer and boars, were built as status symbols by the nobility from the 12th century onwards, but earlier versions of parks, such ashays, may have originated as early as the 7th century.[242]
The English economy was fundamentallyagricultural, depending on growing crops such aswheat,barley andoats on anopen field system, and husbandingsheep,cattle andpigs.[243] In the late Anglo-Saxon period many peasants moved away from living in isolated hamlets and instead came together to form larger villages engaged in arable cultivation.[244] Agricultural land became typically organised aroundmanors, and was divided between some fields that the landowner would manage directly, calleddemesne land, and the majority of the fields that would be cultivated by local peasants.[245] These peasants would pay rent to the landowner either through agricultural labour on the lord's demesne fields or through rent in the form of cash and produce.[245] By the 11th century, amarket economy was flourishing across much of England, while the eastern and southern towns were heavily involved in international trade.[246] Around 6,000watermills were built to grind flour, freeing up labour for other more productive agricultural tasks.[247]
Although the Norman invasion caused some damage as soldiers looted the countryside and land was confiscated for castle building, the English economy was not greatly affected.[248] Taxes were increased, however, and the Normans established extensiveforests that were exploited for their natural resources and protected byroyal laws.[249] The next two centuries saw huge growth in the English economy, driven in part by the increase in the population from around 1.5 million in 1086 to between 4 and 5 million in 1300.[250] More land, much of it at the expense of the royal forests, was brought into production to feed the growing population and to producewool for export to Europe.[251] Many hundreds of new towns, some of themplanned communities, were built across England, supporting the creation ofguilds,charter fairs and other medieval institutions which governed the growing trade.[252] Jewish financiers played a significant role in funding the growing economy, along with the new Cistercian and Augustinian religious orders that emerged as major players in the wool trade of the north.[253]Mining increased in England, with asilver boom in the 12th century helping to fuel theexpansion of the money supply.[254]
Economic growth began to falter at the end of the 13th century, owing to a combination ofoverpopulation, land shortages anddepleted soils.[255] The Great Famine shook the English economy severely and population growth ceased; the first outbreak of the Black Death in 1348 then killed around half the English population.[255] The agricultural sector shrank rapidly, with higher wages, lower prices and diminishing profits leading to the final demise of the old demesne system and the advent of the modern farming system centring on the charging of cash rents for lands.[256] As returns on land fell, many estates, and in some cases entire settlements, were simply abandoned, and nearly 1,500villages were deserted during this period.[257] A new class of gentry emerged who rented farms from the major nobility.[258] Unsuccessful government attempts were made to regulate wages and consumption, but these largely collapsed in the decades following the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.[259]
The Englishcloth industry grew considerably at the start of the 15th century, and a new class of international English merchant emerged, typically based in London or the South-West, prospering at the expense of the older, shrinking economies of the eastern towns.[258] These new trading systems brought about the end of many of the international fairs and the rise of thechartered company.[260] Fishing in the North Sea expanded into deeper waters, backed by commercial investment from major merchants.[261] Between 1440 and 1480, however, Europe entered a recession and England suffered theGreat Slump: trade collapsed, driving down agricultural prices, rents and ultimately the acceptable levels of royal taxation.[262] The resulting tensions and discontent played an important part in Jack Cade's popular uprising in 1450 and the subsequent Wars of the Roses.[166] By the end of Middle Ages the economy had begun to recover and considerable improvements were being made inmetalworking andshipbuilding that would shape the Early Modern economy.[263]
Technology and science in England advanced considerably during the Middle Ages, driven in part by theGreek andIslamic thinking that reached England from the 12th century onwards.[264] Many advances were made in scientific ideas, including the introduction ofArabic numerals and a sequence of improvements in theunits used for measuring time.[265] Clocks were first built in England in the late 13th century, and the firstmechanical clocks were certainly being installed in cathedrals and abbeys by the 1320s.[266]Astrology,magic andpalm reading were also considered important forms of knowledge in medieval England, although some doubted their reliability.[267]
The period produced some influential English scholars.Roger Bacon, a philosopher and Franciscan friar, produced works onnatural philosophy,astronomy andalchemy; his work set out the theoretical basis for futureexperimentation in the natural sciences.[268]William of Ockham helped to fuse Latin, Greek and Islamic writing into a general theory of logic; "Ockham's Razor" was one of his oft-cited conclusions.[269] English scholars since the time of Bede had believed the world was probably round, butJohannes de Sacrobosco estimated the circumference of the earth in the 13th century.[270] Despite the limitations ofmedieval medicine,Gilbertus Anglicus published theCompendium Medicinae, one of the longest medical works ever written in Latin.[271] Prominent historical and science texts began to be translated into English for the first time in the second half of the 14th century, including thePolychronicon andThe Travels of Sir John Mandeville.[272] The universities of Oxford andCambridge were established during the 11th and 12th centuries, drawing on the model of theUniversity of Paris.[273]
Technological advances proceeded in a range of areas. Watermills to grind grain had existed during most of the Anglo-Saxon period, usinghorizontal mill designs; from the 12th century on many more were built, eliminating the use of hand mills, with the older horizontal mills gradually supplanted by a newvertical mill design.[274]Windmills began to be built in the late 12th century and slowly became more common.[275] Water-poweredfulling mills andpowered hammers first appeared in the 12th century; water power was harnessed to assist insmelting by the 14th century, with the firstblast furnace opening in 1496.[276] New mining methods were developed and horse-powered pumps were installed in English mines by the end of the Middle Ages.[277] The introduction ofhoppedbeer transformed the brewing industry in the 14th century, and new techniques were invented to better preserve fish.[278] Glazed pottery became widespread in the 12th and 13th centuries, withstoneware pots largely replacing wooden plates and bowls by the 15th century.[279]William Caxton andWynkyn de Worde began using theprinting press during the late 15th century.[280] Transport links were also improved; many road bridges were either erected or rebuilt in stone during the long economic boom of the 12th and 13th centuries. England's maritime trade benefited from the introduction ofcog ships, and many docks were improved and fitted with cranes for the first time.[281]
Warfare was endemic in early Anglo-Saxon England, and major conflicts still occurred approximately every generation in the later period.[282] Groups of well-armed noblemen and their households formed the heart of these armies, supported by larger numbers of temporary troops levied from across the kingdom, called thefyrd.[283] By the 9th century, armies of 20,000 men could be called up for campaigns, with another 28,000 men available to guard urban defences.[283] The most common weapon was thespear, withswords used by the wealthier nobles; cavalry was probably less common than in wider Europe, but some Anglo-Saxons did fight from horseback.[284] The Viking attacks on England in the 9th century led to developments in tactics, including the use ofshield walls in battle, and the Scandinavian seizure of power in the 11th century introduced housecarls, a form of elite household soldier who protected the king.[285]
Anglo-Norman warfare was characterised byattritional military campaigns, in which commanders tried to raid enemy lands and seize castles in order to allow them to take control of their adversaries' territory, ultimately winning slow but strategic victories.[286] Pitched battles were occasionally fought between armies but these were considered risky engagements and usually avoided by prudent commanders.[286] The armies of the period comprised bodies of mounted, armouredknights, supported byinfantry.[287]Crossbowmen become more numerous in the 12th century, alongside the oldershortbow.[287] At the heart of these armies was thefamilia regis, the permanent military household of the king, which was supported in war byfeudal levies, drawn up by local nobles for a limited period of service during a campaign.[288] Mercenaries were increasingly employed, driving up the cost of warfare considerably, and adequate supplies of ready cash became essential for the success of campaigns.[289]
In the late 13th century Edward I expanded thefamilia regis to become a small standing army, forming the core of much larger armies up to 28,700 strong, largely comprising foot soldiers, for campaigns in Scotland and France.[290] By the time of Edward III, armies were smaller in size, but the troops were typically better equipped and uniformed, and the archers carried thelongbow, a potentially devastating weapon.[291]Cannons were first used by English forces at battles such asCrécy in 1346.[292] Soldiers began to be contracted for specific campaigns, a practice which may have hastened the development of the armies of retainers that grew up under bastard feudalism.[293] By the late 15th century, however, English armies were somewhat backward by wider European standards; the Wars of the Roses were fought by inexperienced soldiers, often with outdated weapons, allowing the European forces which intervened in the conflict to have a decisive effect on the outcomes of battles.[294]
The first references to anEnglish navy occur in 851, when chroniclers described Wessex ships defeating a Viking fleet.[295] These early fleets were limited in size but grew in size in the 10th century, allowing the power of Wessex to be projected across theIrish Sea and theEnglish Channel; Cnut's fleet had as many as 40 vessels, while Edward the Confessor could muster 80 ships.[296] Some ships were manned by sailors called lithesmen and bustsecarls, probably drawn from the coastal towns, while other vessels were mobilised as part of a national levy and manned by their regular crews.[297] Naval forces played an important role during the rest of the Middle Ages, enabling the transportation of troops and supplies, raids into hostile territory and attacks on enemy fleets.[298] English naval power became particularly important after the loss of Normandy in 1204, which turned the English Channel from a friendly transit route into a contested and critical border region.[299] English fleets in the 13th and 14th centuries typically comprised specialist vessels, such asgalleys and large transport ships, andpressed merchant vessels conscripted into action; the latter increasingly includedcogs, a new form of sailing ship.[300] Battles might be fought when one fleet found another at anchor, such as the Englishvictory at Sluys in 1340, or in more open waters, asoff the coast of Winchelsea in 1350; raiding campaigns, such as theFrench attacks on the south of England between 1338 and 1339, could cause devastation from which some towns never fully recovered.[301]
Many of the fortifications built by the Romans in England survived into the Middle Ages, including the walls surrounding their military forts and cities.[302] These defences were often reused during the unstable post-Roman period.[302] The Anglo-Saxon kings undertook significant planned urban expansion in the 8th and 9th centuries, creatingburhs, often protected with earth and wood ramparts.[303]Burh walls sometimes utilised older Roman fortifications, both for practical reasons and to bolster their owners' reputations through the symbolism of former Roman power.[304]
Although a small number of castles had been built in England during the 1050s, after the conquest the Normans began to build timbermotte and bailey andringwork castles in large numbers to control their newly occupied territories.[305] During the 12th century the Normans began to build more castles in stone, with characteristic squarekeeps that supported both military and political functions.[306] Royal castles were used to control key towns and forests, whilstbaronial castles were used by the Norman lords to control their widespread estates; a feudal system called the castle-guard was sometimes used to provide garrisons.[307] Castles andsieges continued to grow in military sophistication during the 12th century, and in the 13th century new defensive town walls were constructed across England.[308]
By the 14th century, castles were combining defences with luxurious, sophisticated living arrangements and landscaped gardens and parks.[309] Early gunpowder weapons were used to defend castles by the end of the 14th century andgunports became an essential feature for a fashionable castle.[310] The economics of maintaining castles meant that many were left to decline or abandoned; in contrast, a small number of castles were developed by the very wealthy into palaces that hosted lavish feasts and celebrations amid elaborate architecture.[311] Smaller defensible structures called tower houses emerged in the north of England to protect against the Scottish threat.[312] By the late medieval period, town walls were increasingly less military in character and more often expressions of civic pride or part of urban governance: many grand gatehouses were built in the 14th and 15th centuries for these purposes.[313]
Medieval England produced art in the form of paintings, carvings, books, fabrics and many functional but beautiful objects.[314] A wide range of materials was used, including gold, glass and ivory, the art usually drawing overt attention to the materials utilised in the designs.[314] Anglo-Saxon artists created carvedivories,illuminated manuscripts, embroidered cloths, crosses and stone sculpture, although relatively few of these have survived to the modern period.[315] They produced a wide range ofmetalwork, frequently using gold andgarnets, with brooches, buckles, sword hilts anddrinking horns particularly favoured designs.[316] Early designs, such as those found at theSutton Hoo burial, used azoomorphic style, heavily influenced by Germanic fashions, in which animal shapes were distorted into flowing shapes and positioned alongsidegeometric patterns.[317] From the 7th century onwards morenaturalistic designs became popular, showing aplasticity of form and incorporating both animals and people into the designs.[318] In the 10th century,Carolingian styles, inspired by Classical imagery, began to enter from the continent, becoming widely used in the reformed Benedictine monasteries across the south and east of England.[319]
The Norman conquest introduced northern French artistic styles, particular in illuminated manuscripts and murals, and reduced the demand for carvings.[320] In other artistic areas, including embroidery, the Anglo-Saxon influence remained evident into the 12th century, and the famousBayeux Tapestry is an example of older styles being reemployed under the new regime.[321]Stained glass became a distinctive form of English art during this later medieval period, although the coloured glass for these works was almost entirely imported from Europe.[322] Little early stained glass in England has survived, but it typically had both an ornamental and educational function, while later works also commemorated the sponsors of the windows into the designs.[323] Englishtapestry making and embroidery in the early 14th century were of an especially high quality; works produced by nuns and London professionals were exported across Europe, becoming known as theopus anglicanum.[324] English illuminated books, such as theQueen Mary Psalter, were also famous in this period, featuring rich decoration, a combination of grotesque and natural figures and rich colours.[325] The quality of illuminated art in England declined significantly in the face of competition from Flanders in the 14th century, and later English illuminated medieval pieces generally imitated Flemish styles.[326]
The Anglo-Saxons produced extensive poetry inOld English, some of which was written down as early as the 9th century, although most surviving poems were compiled in the 10th and early 11th century.[327]Beowulf, probably written between 650 and 750, is typical of these poems, portraying a vivid, heroic tale, ending with the protagonist's death at the hands of adragon, but still showing signs of the new Christian influences in England.[328] Old English was also used for academic and courtly writing from the 9th century onwards, including translations of popular foreign works, includingThe Pastoral Care.[329]
Poetry and stories written in French were popular after the Norman conquest, and by the 12th century some works on English history began to be produced in French verse.[330] Romantic poems about tournaments and courtly love became popular in Paris and this fashion spread into England in the form oflays; stories about the court ofKing Arthur were also fashionable, due in part to the interest of Henry II.[331] English continued to be used on a modest scale to write local religious works and some poems in the north of England, but most major works were produced in Latin or French.[332] In the reign of Richard II there was an upsurge in the use ofMiddle English in poetry, sometimes termed "Ricardian poetry", although the works still emulated French fashions.[333] The work ofGeoffrey Chaucer from the 1370s onwards, however, culminating in the influentialCanterbury Tales, was uniquely English in style.[334] Major pieces of courtly poetry continued to be produced into the 15th century by Chaucer's disciples, andThomas Malory compiled the older Arthurian tales to produceLe Morte d'Arthur.[335]
Music and singing were important in England during the medieval period, being used in religious ceremonies, court occasions and to accompany theatrical works.[336] Singing techniques calledgymel were introduced in England in the 13th century, accompanied by instruments such as theguitar,harp,pipes andorgan.[337] Henry IV sponsored an extensive range of music in England, while his son Henry V brought back many influences from occupied France.[338]Carols became an important form of music in the 15th century; originally these had been a song sung during a dance with a prominent refrain — the 15th century form lost the dancing and introduced strong religious overtones.[339]Ballads were also popular from the late 14th century onwards, including theBallad of Chevy Chase and others describing the activities ofRobin Hood.[340]Miracle plays were performed to communicate the Bible in various locations. By the late 14th century, these had been extended into vernacular mystery plays which performed annually over several days, broken up into various cycles of plays; a handful have survived into the 21st century.[341] Guilds competed to produce the best plays in each town and performances were often an expression of civic identity.[342]
In the century after the collapse of the Romano-British economy, very few substantial buildings were constructed and manyvillas and towns were abandoned.[343] Newlong- and round-houses were constructed in some settlements, while in others timber buildings were built imitating the older Roman styles.[344] The Germanic immigrants constructed small rectangular buildings from wood, and occasionally grander halls.[345] However, the conversion to Christianity in the 6th and 7th centuries reintroduced Italian and Frenchmasons, and these craftsmen built stone churches, low in height, following a narrow, rectangular plan, plastered inside and fitted with glass and colourfulvestments.[346] ThisRomanesque style developed throughout the period, featuring characteristic circular arches.[347] By the 10th and 11th centuries, much larger churches and monastery buildings were being built, featuring square and circular towers after the contemporary European fashion.[348] The palaces constructed for the nobility centred on great timber halls, while manor houses began to appear in rural areas.[349]
The Normans brought with them architectural styles from their own duchy, where austere stone churches were preferred.[350] Under the early Norman kings this style was adapted to produce large, plain cathedrals with ribbedvaulting.[351] During the 12th century the Anglo-Norman style became richer and more ornate, with pointed arches derived from French architecture replacing the curved Romanesque designs; this style is termedEarly English Gothic and continued, with variation, throughout the rest of the Middle Ages.[352] In the early 14th century thePerpendicular Gothic style was created in England, with an emphasis on verticality, immense windows and soaring arcades.[353] Fine timber roofs in a variety of styles, but in particular thehammerbeam, were built in many English buildings.[354] In the 15th century the architectural focus turned away from cathedrals and monasteries in favour of parish churches, often decorated with richly carved woodwork; in turn, these churches influenced the design of newchantry chapels for existing cathedrals.[355]
Meanwhile, domestic architecture had continued to develop, with the Normans, having first occupied the older Anglo-Saxon dwellings, rapidly beginning to build larger buildings in stone and timber.[356] The elite preferred houses with large, ground-floor halls but the less wealthy constructed simpler houses with the halls on the first floor; master and servants frequently lived in the same spaces.[356] Wealthier town-houses were also built using stone, and incorporated business and domestic arrangements into a single functional design.[357] By the 14th century grander houses and castles were sophisticated affairs: expensively tiled, often featuring murals and glass windows, these buildings were often designed as a set of apartments to allow greater privacy.[358] Fashionable brick began to be used in some parts of the country, copying French tastes.[354] Architecture that emulated the older defensive designs remained popular.[359] Less is known about the houses of peasants during this period, although many peasants appear to have lived in relatively substantial, timber-framed long-houses; the quality of these houses improved in the prosperous years following the Black Death, often being built by professional craftsmen.[360]
The first history of medieval England was written by Bede in the 8th century; many more accounts of contemporary and ancient history followed, usually termedchronicles.[361] In the 16th century, the first academic histories began to be written, typically drawing primarily on the chroniclers and interpreting them in the light of current political concerns.[362]Edward Gibbon's 18th-century writings were influential, presenting the medieval period as a dark age between the glories of Rome and the rebirth of civilisation in the Early Modern period.[363] Late Victorian historians continued to use the chroniclers as sources, but also deployed documents such asDomesday Book andMagna Carta, alongside newly discovered financial, legal and commercial records. They produced aprogressive account of political and economic development in England.[364] The growth of theBritish Empire spurred interest in the various periods of English hegemony during the Middle Ages, including the Angevin Empire and the Hundred Years' War.[365]
By the 1930s, older historical analyses were challenged by a range ofneo-positivist,Marxist andeconometric approaches, supported by a widening body of documentary, archaeological and scientific evidence.[366] Marxist andNeo-Marxist analyses continued to be popular in the post-war years, producing seminal works on economic issues and social protests.[367]Post-modern analysis became influential in the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on identity, gender, interpretation and culture. Many studies focused on particular regions or groups, drawing on new records and new scientific approaches, includinglandscape andenvironmental archaeology. Fresh archaeological finds, such as theStaffordshire Hoard, continue to challenge previous interpretations, and historical studies of England in the Middle Ages have never been so diverse as in the early 21st century.[368]
The period has also been used in a wide range of popular culture.William Shakespeare's plays on the lives of the medieval kings have proved to have had long lasting appeal, heavily influencing both popular interpretations and histories of figures such as King John and Henry V.[369] Other playwrights have since taken key medieval events, such as the death of Thomas Becket, and used them to draw out contemporary themes and issues.[370] The medieval mystery plays continue to be enacted in key English towns and cities. Film-makers have drawn extensively on the medieval period, often taking themes from Shakespeare or the Robin Hood ballads for inspiration.[371]Historical fiction set in England during the Middle Ages remains persistently popular, with the 1980s and 1990s seeing a particular growth of historicaldetective fiction.[372] The period has also inspired fantasy writers, includingJ. R. R. Tolkien's stories ofMiddle-earth.[373] English medieval music was revived from the 1950s, with choral and musical groups attempting to authentically reproduce the original sounds.[374] Medievalliving history events were first held during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the period has inspired a considerable community ofhistorical re-enactors, part of England's growing heritage industry.[375]
