1 / 27

HIS3406 Early English Constitutional History by Prof. Frederick Hok-ming Cheung

Medieval English History (I: William I to Henry I) Medieval English Kings . The Anglo-Saxon Kings:Harthacnut, r. 1040-1042Edward (the Confessor), r. 1042-1066Harold (Godwineson), r. 1066The Norman Kings:William I (the Conqueror), r. 1066-1087William II (Rufus), r. 1087-1100Henry I (Lion of Ju

yoko
Download Presentation

HIS3406 Early English Constitutional History by Prof. Frederick Hok-ming Cheung

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

    1. HIS3406 Early English Constitutional History by Prof. Frederick Hok-ming Cheung

    2. Medieval English History (I: William I to Henry I) Medieval English Kings The Anglo-Saxon Kings: Harthacnut, r. 1040-1042 Edward (the Confessor), r. 1042-1066 Harold (Godwineson), r. 1066 The Norman Kings: William I (the Conqueror), r. 1066-1087 William II (Rufus), r. 1087-1100 Henry I (Lion of Justice), r. 1100-1135 Stephen, r. 1135-1154

    3. The Angevin (Plantagenet) Kings: Henry II (Father of the English Common Law), r. 1154-1189 Richard I (the Lion-Hearted), r. 1189-1199 John (the Lackland), r. 1199-1216 Henry III, r. 1216-1272 Edward I, r. 1272-1307 Edward II, r. 1307-1327 Edward III, r. 1327-1377 Richard II, r. 1377-1399

    4. The Lancastrian Kings: Henry IV, r. 1399-1413 Henry V, r. 1413-1422 Henry VI, r. 1422-1461 Edward IV, r. (1461) 1471-1483 Edward V, r. April 9 – July 6, 1483 Richard III, r. 1483-1485

    5. The Tudor Kings: Henry VII, r. 1485-1509 Henry VIII, r. 1509-1547 Edward VI, r. 1547-1553 Mary, r. 1553-1558 Elizabeth I, r. 1558-1603

    6. The Stuart Kings: James I, r. 1603-1625 Charles I, r. 1625-1649 Charles II, r. 1660-1685 James II, r. 1685-1689

    7. (Main reference: C. Warren Hollister, The Making of England to 1399.) In January 1066, Edward the Confessor (the last Anglo-Saxon King) died (childless). Earl Harold (Godwineson) was at his deathbed. With the support of Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury, Harold claimed that Edward had designated him as his heir.

    8. However, King Harold Hardrada of Norway also had a claim to the English throne, arising out of the treaty made between Harthacnut and King Magnus Norway in 1038.

    9. The third claimant to the English throne was Duke William of Normandy, whom King Edward the Confessor had named as his heir in 1051. Furthermore, William also claimed priority over Harold Godwineson on the basis of an episode that had occurred in 1064 or 1065: according to the Norman sources, Earl Harold

    10. Godwineson took a solemn public oath, acknowledging Duke William’s right to the English throne. The Pope in Rome in 1066 granted Duke William a papal banner to carry with him when he invaded England. The story of Harold’s oath did more than an additional element to Duke William’s legal claim to the English throne. It also allowed William and his supporters to paint Harold as a feudal traitor who had betrayed his lord.

    11. The Battle of Hastings was fought on Saturday, October 14. On Christmas Day 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey as the legitimate successor of King Edward the Confessor. It remained only for William the Conqueror to consolidate his conquest of England and establish firm rule over an already highly centralized kingdom.

    12. (Please also see Frederick Hok-ming Cheung, “Conquest, Consolidation, and Legitmation of Norman England,” in The Legitimation of New Orders: Case Studies in World History, ed. Leung Yuen-sang, Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007, pp. 179-195; and “The Role of the Christian Church in the Court Politics of Norman England,” in Politics and Religion in Ancient and Medieval Europe and China. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press,1999, pp.147-162.)

    13. The Administrative Contributions of William the Conqueror: The vigor of the Anglo-Norman royal government under William the Conqueror, r. 1066-1087, unmatched elsewhere in western Christendom, is illustrated in his consolidation of the Christian Church [in 6 years, by 1072, replaced all the Anglo-Saxon bishops by others, mainly Norman] and administrative accomplishments, especially the Domesday Survey [later published in two large volumes known as Domesday Book (1086)]. Circuits of royal administrators toured the countryside, gathering information from as many as 7,000 jurors representing the local shire and hundred courts.

    14. The King’s officials undertook to list every manor, the name of the person (the tenant) who held it in 1066 and in 1086, from whom it was held, its assessment in hides, its value in 166 and in 1086, and the number and social status of its tenants. Some historians -- noting that the survey is organized not by shires and hundreds, but rather by tenants-in-chief within each shire – have suggested that Domesday was intended to inform the King about the new structures of landholding that had emerged in his Anglo-Norman Kingdom since 1066, so that when a tenant-

    15. in-chief’s property fell to the King, the Kong would know where his estates were located and how much they were worth. Professor James C. Holt has noted that the presentation of Domesday Book to the King coincided with the Salisbury Oath – when William the Conqueror demanded an oath of direct allegiance from all the landholding tenants of England – Prof. Holt has suggested that these two events were related and that they were planned together at the 1985 Christmas court; thus, the

    16. Domesday Survey was intended to survey the new patterns of landholding that had emerged in England in the two decades after the Conquest (in 1066). Hence, the King would know the potential wealth of his Anglo-Norman Kingdom and its existing tax assessment system. He would also know the value of all the estates that might, through death or forfeiture, fall into the King’s hands, for which the royal sheriffs might be required to account. According to Prof. C. Warren Hollister, “But the

    17. reason William’s great men went along with the Domesday survey and with the Salisbury Oath was because in return for the homage and fealty they swore to him at Salisbury, William guaranteed their clear title to all the property Domesday Book recorded as holding. After twenty years of conquest, expropriation, forfeiture, and exchange, many Normans had no clear legal title to the lands they currently possessed. Domesday Book provided this title and thus set a seal of permanence on their acquisitions. Thereafter, William’s followers would not need to appeal to the charters

    18. and writs of their Anglo-Saxon predecessors to defend their rights to their property. They would need to appeal only to the record of Domesday itself. From Domesday, however, there would be no appeal: and hence its title, which means “judgment day.” [C. Warren Hollister, The Making of England. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), pp.148-149; see also James C. Holt, “1086,” in Domesday Studies, ed. James C. Holt (Woodbridge, 1987), pp. 41-64; and Robin Fleming, Domesday Book and the Law: Society and Legal Custom in Early Medieval England. (Cambridge, 1998)].

    19. William II (Rufus), r. 1087-1100 was crowned King of England by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster Abbey on September 26, 1087. On August 2, 1100, William II was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest. Rufus was at his early forties when he was killed, and his sudden death provoked a crisis in the royal succession. (Please see C. Warren Hollister, “The Strange Death of William Rufus,” Speculum 48(1973), pp. 637-753; reprinted in Monarchy, Magnates, and Institutions, pp. 59-75).

    20. Henry, the youngest brother, moved swiftly and surely – seized the royal treasury in Winchester, won the approval of a royal council, and then dashed to London where he was crowned at Westminster Abbey on August 5 (only three days after the shooting). In preparation for Robert Curthose, the eldest brother’s return from the First Crusade, Henry did everything in his power to win the support of his subjects. He sought to appease the barons and the Church by issuing an elaborate coronation charter, known in later years as the “Charter of Liberties, in which he agreed to discontinue the predatory practices of William Rufus.

    21. In the Charter of Liberties (1100), Henry I, r. 1100-1135, promised to “neither sell nor put at farm nor, on the death of an archbishop, bishop, or abbot, take anything from a Church’s demesne or from its vassals during the interval before a successor is installed. …… If any of my barons or earls or other tenants shall die, his heir shall not redeem his land as he did in my brother’s time, but shall henceforth redeem it by a just and lawful relief. …… And if the wife of one of my tenants survives her husband …… I will not give her in marriage unless she herself consents.” (English Historical Documents, Volume II, p. 433 [translation by C. Warren Hollister]).

    22. However, according to Prof. Hollister, “The coronation charter [Charter of Liberties, 1100] was neither a prelude to constitutional monarch nor an open act of royal generosity, but one of several gambits that Henry employed to gain needed support in the oncoming crisis.” (Hollister, The Making of England, p. 159). The reign of Henry I contributed significantly to royal administration. Henry I was known as the “Lion of Justice,” and he ruled firmly and justly. [Please refer to C. Warren Hollister, “Royal Act of Mutilation: The Case against Henry I.” Albion 10:4(1978), pp. 330-340; reprinted in Monarchy, Magnates, and Institutions, pp. 291-301; and Henry I. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001)].

    23. Judicial fines added to the royal revenue, and by extending the scope of the King’s justice, Henry I increased the flow of money into his treasury. The reign of Henry I witnessed a dramatic growth in the royal judicial system and the royal administration. Although local justices were appointed in each shire to assist the sheriffs in judicial business, the important legal cases were judged by the King and his curiales at the royal court (curia Regis). Henry I also started the practice of sending itinerary justiciars to various parts of England to hear pleas. These itinerant justices, or “justice in eyre,” acted in the King’s name. During the reign of Henry I, the judicial tours grew ever more systematic until, by the reign’s end, they had developed into a comprehensive, regularized procedure.

    24. The chief instrument of command of Henry I was his royal writs, which were brief royal commands or statements, written in Latin, witnessed and authenticated by the attachment of the royal seal. Usually, a writ would be addressed to the local sheriff or justiciar, or to the baronial or ecclesiastical lord of an area, or to all the King’s officials and faithful men of a particular shire or group of shires. About 1,500 royal acts have been recorded and collected in Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum, Volume II: Regesta Henrici Primi, 1100-1135, ed. Charles Johnson and H.A. Cronne (Oxford, 1956). These writs, according to Prof. Hollister, “address an immense

    25. variety of judicial and administrative matters: grants or confirmations of lands and privileges, orders of restitution, commands to act in some way or to cease to acting in some way, exemption from certain taxes, or freedom from tolls. Taken together, they convey a powerful impression of the scope and authority of royal government of Henry I.” (Hollister, The Making of England, p. 165; on the administrative Kingship of Henry I, please refer to C. Warren Hollister, “The Rise of Administrative Kingship: Henry I,” American Historical Review 83(1978), pp. 867-891, reprinted in Monarchy, Magnates, and Institutions, pp. 223-245).

    26. During the reign of Henry I, the “exchequer” started its work, which was a twice-yearly audit of the royal income from the shires. The term “exchequer” derives from the table around which the auditors worked. On the table lay a “chequered cloth” resembling a checkerboard, divided into columns representing various denominations of money. The auditors placed markers on these columns to represent the accounts of sheriffs who reported in. The exchequer accounts were recorded on long rolls of parchment known as “pipe rolls”, now valuable historical sources (especially for the reign of Henry I, because only the “1130” survived). The single surviving pipe roll of Henry I, for the year 1129-1130, constitutes the earliest extant fiscal account of a major principality in the history of Western Europe.

    27. The reign of Henry I marked the age of Anglo-Norman royal administration, which Prof. W.L. Warren saw as the seed of the modern state. (Please see W.L. Warren, “The Myth of Norman Administrative Efficiency.” Transaction of the Royal Historical Society, 5th Series, 34(1984), pp. 113-132.

More Related