The Normans and Their World

by Jack Lindsay

[311] W (1), 33. We have no reliable testimony as to what Harold did swear.

  [312] Foreville (2), 232. Gregarii: Guilhiermoz, 145-7, 336-41.

  [313] Bridgenorth: Ord., iv, 175. Haimo: W. of P., 216ff; Ord., ii, 187; Prestwich (1), 25f.

  [314] W of M., iii, year 1060; Pidal, 271; Wace, 131, 49-55. Omens: W. of M. on William slipping as he lands, cf. Caesar and Rollo etc. Further: Dodswell, 558, for omens in Tapestry and chansons.

  [315] Pidal, 340-3; Frappier, 160, 185; Bédier, ii, 432; Chanson de Roland, 1093. Chanson de R: D (15), 97-100.

  [316] Dodswell, 559; Warnke for AS origin, pp. xlvi-vii, 327f.

  [317] Phillpotts, 198-200; Roland esp. 3905f; Girard 53; Renaus de Montauban, 16f, 30; Chev. Ogier, 388f.

  [318] W. of P., 222; Loyn (3), 51.

  [319] Musset (3), 294. A writ issued before 1069 is to ‘Normans, Flemish, and English’; Bretons not mentioned.

  [320] Wace, 8689ff.

  [321] W. of M., ii, 478; Wace, 6271ff; Haskins (7), 11; Wace, 6305. Wace says that Harold cries at Hastings, ‘li quens di Flandres m’a trahi’, 797ff. Tostig probably passed through Flanders c. 1061 in pilgrimage.

  [322] Ord., Marx 192; Brown (2), 82, n5.

  [323] Loyn (3), 90; an Irish (Norse) king also killed.

  [324] Giles (2), 127f; Round (2), 331. He is called kinsman of both William and Edward.

  [325] Chron. D & E.

  [326] Li, i, 603; Dutaillis, ii, 176; H (2), 218, n2. Men with sticks and clubs are not angry peasants roused by the harrying (S, (5), 575), but are poorly armed soldiers under Harold (W. of P.). For early date of Carmen: C. Morton.

  [327] S (2), 176; Drögereit, 283f.

  [328] H (2), 219. W. of M. (near end of II) as against W. of P., who says Harold had large levies from all over England plus Danish auxiliaries. Levies: S (5), 575, and (4) 116f; Maitland, 156ff; Glover, 10, n1. Tactics: D (15), 79.

  [329] Glover, 6f; Chambers (1), 303-5; Freeman, iii, (2nd ed.), 370, n2. Battle: Lemmon (1), and (2).

  [330] Freeman, ii, 389, n1; Stubbs (2), 279; Larsen (1), opp. 88.

  [331] B (4), 85.

  [332] W. of P. 238. Ord. on castles: Le P., ii, 184; Chibnall, 218f.

  [333] H (2), 251, 255. Tinchebrai: H. W. C. Davis (3) with EHR., xxv, 1910, 295f.

  [334] H. of H., vi, near end; Coulton (4), 23.

  [335] B (4), 108f; W. of M., ii, 320; Vita Wulf., 55; Florence, ii, 18; Chron. Abingdon, ii, 11; H. of H., of H., 207; C. Verlinden, 110; S (5), 608f, and (4), 149-51 and 150, note citing Aegelnoth.

  [336] Accounts of death by monk of Caen and by Ord.; William’s ashes were scattered in religious wars of 16th c.; a thighbone survived till French Revolution.

  [337] H (2), 219f, 61.

  [338] Stephen of Blois could compare William’s bounty only with that of the Byzantine emperor.

  [339] Rufus may have been too easy to magnates who helped him to power, e.g. the Clares: Southern (5), 117. Magnates and monasteries: DB, i, 120b (Exeter church), Sym of Durham, ii, 231; History of Abingdon, (RS), Hp 43.

  [340] Ord. says Ranulf was from the Vessin. Treasury: Li. (2), 153. Abacus: Haskins (8), 105f; Yeldham, chs. 3 & 5. 1198: Wightman, 226. Hindu Arabic numerals not popularized till late 12th c. Needham (3), iii„ 15, 146; E. G. R. Taylor, J. Institute Navigation, 1960, xiii i. Roll of N. Exchequer, 1198, shows lands of a single lord in both Normandy and England treated as owning an essential unity.

  [341] H (2), 232 and (1) 43f; Flor., ii, 35; H. of H., 217; Chron., year 1094; DB, i, 56b — cf. John, 1201 & 1205: Roger of Howden, Chronica, iv, 163; Ralph de Coggeshall, Chron. Angl., 153.

  [342] Mcllwain. After Henry II, neither Richard nor John issued such a charter; Henry III returned to the traditional coronation oath of English kings. Richardson (3); Schramm; Legg; Taylor; Ward; and Bull. Instit. Hist. Research, xiii 124-45, xiv 1-9, 145-8, XV 94-9, xvi 1-11. For law under William: Sayles, 235-8.

  [343] W. of M., V, year 1119; H. of H., beginning VIII. Suger (2), iv, 308. W. of M. mentions a chamberlain of a ‘plebeian father’, keeper of the treasures, who conspired, confessed, was blinded and castrated.

  [344] B (1), 176 (? Ranulf in secret agreement with Henry). Treaty of Dover: Ganshof (8), for details, e.g. French king, 249; Henry’s obligations, 251; the earlier treaty, 250. Robert of Belleme: W. of M. year 1102.

  [345] Stubbs (1), 118f; Ord., iv, 1764, 173f; Flor., ii, 49 (gregarii), Harvey (1), 26f; Hoyt (1), 53; Eadmer, ch. 172.

  [346] H (2), 185f, Prestwich (1), 37-42. Henry II also tried to crown his son while he himself was still alive; no one tried again.

  [347] H (2), 92ff, 206, 68; Joliffe (1), 156ff. Also H (2), 250-4, and Round (5), 380; date prob. between Dec. 1148 and Dec. 1153. Perhaps about this time the English term of two months’ service was reduced to the forty days usual in Normandy and on the continent.

  [348] Sayles (1), 342f; ch. xxi for summary.

  [349] Grégoire (1); Dante, Paradiso, xviii, 46-8. Anna Comnena and tale of Jerusalem, Holingshed has the same of Henry IV in 1413: Norwich (1), 745f. Chanson de Roland: D (15), 98f; Pidal, 269-470, 500f; Bédier, iii, 183-455; W. T. Holmes: D (ii). Varangians: Bréhier; Vasiliev; Anna Comnena, viii, i; x, 3; ii, 9; A. S. S. Bull., May 6, 406, etc.

  [350] D (15), 104-9. Yet Roger entered Sicily as ally of Moslem emir of Syracuse; he made a solemn treaty to their mutual advantage against the Sultan of Mehden who was trying to regain Sicily, etc.

  [351] Eadmer, ch. 97f. Abolition of feud rights in S. Italy: Norwich (1), 321.

  [352] Legge (1), 85-96; Eadmer, chs. 179-81. The master had grown up at Bec ‘to man’s estate’ under Anselm. Ipomedon appears in the alliterate poem, The Parlement of the Thre Ages; see also Kölbing.

  [353] Chalandon, i, 146; Ménager, Quellen u. Forsch., xxxix, 39 and Messina, 306.

  [354] D (15), 171, 182, 179 for refs.

  [355] D (15), 173, 180 for refs.

  [356] Jamison, 40ff; Chalandon, ii, 644-50 and i, 348.

  [357] Chalandon, ii, 530; Cusa, ii, 541; Garufi, 21-3 and 7; Ménager, Messina; 33, Cahen, 36.

  [358] D (15), 180 for refs; 177; 181f.

  [359] Runciman, i, 153f. In 1149 Roger II of Sicily convinced Louis of France that a crusade should be launched against Byzantion; St Bernard agreed, but Conrad of Germany obstructed. For Edgar; Runciman, 227f, 255.

  [360] Feudal incidents earlier in England than in Italy, Sicily, or Antioch.

  [361] For Jerusalem: Runciman, ii, book 4, ch. 1; Munro; The Kingdoms of the Crusades. M. Grandclaude, Mélanges P. Fournier, 1929; La Monte; Riant; Prawer.

  [362] Acta Sanct., May, IV, 1688, 410.

  [363] J. W. F. Hill, 48; Finn, 32. In general S (9); Loyn (r), 316f. Aelfwine: VCH Hereford, i, 275. London: D (i7), 62f; Eadmoth, Loyn (3), 172. From about 1179 thegns and drengs are subject to incidents of feudal type and the trend to commutation: Harvey, 28.

  [364] Finn, 33; DB, 199bi, 196b2. Finn, 33-5 for Ely; for DB as accepting usurpations, 35f.

  [365] Harvey, 6, n12.

  [366] Loyn (3), 120f; Barlow (4), 115; D (2), ii, 22. Flemings in army 1066: Eustace of Boulogne prominent; under him was Arnold of Andres who had followed his father; later his brother Gonfrid was called in by William and rewarded with Arnold: George, 84f; MGH, xxiv, 612-5, 620; Round (1), 462ff. Later, various nobles: Gilbert of Ghent, Walter Bec, Dreux of Beuvrière, but exactly when they came is obscure. We find Gilbert in York garrison 1069. Probably Gerbod the Fleming was also there early: Freeman (2), 680; Stapledon Arch. J., iii, 1846, 16ff. In 1070 William gave him the city and county of Chester, but he seems to have been so harassed that he was glad to get back to Flanders: Ord. ii, 219; George, 87, n26. For evidence about others we must wait till 1084 and also DB: George, 85ff for details of Flemish holdings, especially of Eustace.

  [367] Valin, 29-33; Dudo, 250. Demesne: Hoyt, 5ff; H (2), 278.

  [368] Harvey, 6 nn8-10; H (2), 175, nn5-6. Fighting bishops: H. of H., year 1142.

  [369] Haimo: Harvey, 7f; Matthew, 108ff; G. J. Turner, ii
, 462; H (2), 50. Continuity of commendation: H (2), 67f; S (18); Stephenson (6); D (6), 124-7 and app. 1 no 14. Ban: H (2), 68, n4. Heriot: H (2), 67, n2; forfeitures, 86, n2. Danegeld: Bloch, Soc. feodale, ii, 230.

  [370] Oth: Holt (3), 32, 37; S (5), 483f. The need to collect Danegeld had helped fiscal development.

  [371] B (4), 110f; H (2), 134, 50; D (12); Chron. Mon. de Abingdon, ii, 6. In 1208 Henry I gave a barony of Marshwood to the younger son of the previous holder as ‘the better knight’, S (3), 38.

  [372] Harvey, 4f, see further details 11f. Strayer, 60-3, on rise of knights in 11 c. Normandy till they witness charters; fragmentation of political power etc., with refs.

  [373] Joliffe (1), 77ff; H (2), 49-54, 62-6; S (4), 154; Galbraith (2); D (12), 245-7; Holt (3), 32.

  [374] S (4), 161f for charters under Henry II still lacking clause of warranty, and forgery adding it under Henry III. Horse: ib. 163f. Prestwich (r), 32; Ord., i, 325; Li., i, 554; Holt, 36, n167 (loanlands). See Holt further for the way the crisis worked out.

  [375] H. Hall (2), i, 413; Harvey, 9; H (2), 55. Nigel: CRR, ii, 76; Poole (2), 40; Rot. Lit. Claus., i, 123a (Ramsey). Clusiacs, Cistercians, and Regular Canons of 12th c. never held by military tenure; but sub-enfeoffments, once made, stayed fast.

  [376] Halphen, 178ff; CRR, vi, 54; viii, 365; Poole (2), 34.

  [377] Chron. Land 1095; H (2), 172f; Knowles (2), 175.

  [378] H (2), 174; D (18), p. cviii.

  [379] Harvey, 12f; DB, ii, 372; D (8), for just who they were.

  [380] Red Book, i, 230, 442. Harvey, 15ff, for details, 18 for DB homines.

  [381] Harvey, 19f. Early Bury charter seems to refer to four types and conditions of royal and abbatial services.

  [382] H (2), 167-90. English forces: 170, n2.

  [383] H (1), 16-9; Poole (2), 52. Dextarius in late period cost no less than 10 marks. Mercenaries used by vassals in revolt (1074-5): Lanfranc Opera (Giles), i, 57. Tale of Robert: H (2), 179.

  [384] Rufus: H (2), 180-3; Ord., iv, 172-5; Prestwich (1), 28; W. of M., GR, ii, 540, and HN (Potter) 17.

  [385] Eadmer, ch. 184; Gesta Norm. Ducum, 297; Sym. of D., ii, 281; Weaver, 18; Chron. 1125 (1124).

  [386] Dial de Scacc. 2; Boussard (1), 189-224; Grundmann (1); Lyon (1), 198ff; H (2), 273 n6; M. Powicke (2), 218, 223; Sanders (2), 29f; A. L. Poole (2), 52; Joliffe (3); Barrow (3), 19, Scotland; Lot (4), ii, 517ff, Europe.

  [387] Poole (2), 94-6; examples of £15 and £75, 95. Mesne tenant: S (4), 162f.

  [388] Also sergeantry-tenures: Poole (2), 97-102.

  [389] 11th c. knight and AS warrior of 5 hides: Glover; Denham-Young 108; H (2), 161; Harvey, 20, n64. Also H (2), 157-60, 211-3; Richardson and Sayles, 87.

  [390] Harvey 21; S (4), 136; Galbraith (2), 364-8, on possible link of land grants for life, Feudal grants, demesne land de vestitu et victu. Harvey, 22, on Knightwick and Worcester.

  [391] Harvey, 22-4. Money-fief: Lyon (1), 11, 99f.

  [392] Harvey 24f; relation of such grants to services, 25. Li, i, 634-7; Dialogie, 56; Tallage, etc., Harvey, 25f. Generally manor (unlike villein lands) paid little or no geld — through royal concession or the lord pushing the geld due from the manor on to villein holdings; knightly land also at first had exceptions.

  [393] Rates under Henry II: Harvey, 29.

  [394] Hoyt, 34, 13; Thorne; Colvin; Genicot (2), 16 and (3).

  [395] Harvey 32.

  [396] Prestwich (1), 21; Harvey, 32f. Fragmentation: Poole (2), 45f; CRR, vii, 156; Hatton, MS no 528 (Book of Seals); Dugdale, Antiq. of Warwickshire 467; Poole, 46; case of sharing 42-5. ‘For 1/3 of a fief of a hauberk,’ Harvey, 34. Scutage and use of mercenaries facilitated the dropping out of vavasour-knight.

  [397] Dialogue, 112, 11; Harvey, 34f, 41 (assize).

  [398] Harvey, 36, for details; Fines: Poole (2), 41f, 52; EHR, xxxvi, 1921 45; Morris, i; Chew, 49. Fine common after 1194; may have been used 1172.

  [399] H (2), 190, 192f, 15f, 212, 195 (more examples): esp. 1110 (marriage) and loan of Rufus to bro. for Crusade.

  [400] Distraint: M. Powicke, 457-65; H (2), 196-9, 203. Profits: Poole (2), 41. There may have been attempts, later given up, to bring fyrd soldiers under scutage: which would have been profitable to tenants-in-chief and might have happened in later 11th c. when conditions of sub-infeudations were still blurred. Scutage was late in establishing itself in the marches.

  [401] Barons seek to escape all military commitments. Poole (2), 41-3; Harvey, 42; H (2), 207ff, 108f, 215; Chew (2) and (3). By 1180 the crown gave up trying to get scutage on new enfeoffments uncovered in 1166. Occasionally a lord increased a tenant’s fee from his own land: S (4), 159.

  [402] Raftis, 56-85.

  [403] H (2), 157, 212-5.

  [404] Stubbs, 255; Roger of Hov., iii, 265.

  [405] Poole (4); T. Rogers, i, 342ff; Gras (2), 186ff; Beveridge, 163. Prices vary for young cattle and pigs; goats at 8d (1185), 6d (1186, 1188, 1195), broodmares 3s 6d (1184, 1195), 45 (1196), hives of bees 8d (1166, 1172), 1s (1167, 1195, 1196).

  [406] Chew, 89f; Denholm-Young (1), 114f; Smail, 106f (horse).

  [407] Chew; Denholm-Young l.c. Inflation: Farmer. Rise of money economy: Postan (5). Population: Duby (5), 120; W.C. Robinson; Hollingworth 113f, 117-9. 129, 375-88; Postan (7).

  [408] H (2), 181, n3, 186-90; Hilton (1), 15f. Rise in costs in 13th c.; Denholm-Young. Population figures are largely conjectural but give some relative idea.

  [409] Poole (3), 401-12; Harvey, 41, n170. 1181: M. Powicke, 459, 465. H (2), 273, 258-60; Postan (5), 130.

  [410] Poole (2), 53-6: buzones, 56. Also EHR, xvii, 1932, 177, 545. By 14th c. we meet liveried retainers, though the idea of liveries goes back a century or so: 1218, a north-country robber buys 100 marks’ worth of cloth to clothe his fifteen men ‘as if he had been a baron or an earl’. Eyre of York, (Seldon Soc.) 424; but Cambridge Parliament 1388 is first to legislate on subject: Cam (1), 213.

  [411] Harvey, 42f.

  [412] PL, cxcix, 600, cf. Piers Plowman B Prol., i12ff; vi, 25ff; Peter, Epistolae, xciv; Coulton (4), 281f.

  [413] Denholm-Young (r), 113f.

  [414] Juvenes: Duby (3) Tournaments: Painter (6); P. Meyer, lines 2471-5094; Denholm-Young (2); Green 306; B (1), 255f, 320; D. M. Stenton, 78ff; Gautier, 681, 683 (popes); Cooper in Henry III’s prohibitions (1234, 1236, 1251) at Cambridge.

  [415] H (2), ch. iv; arrière ban 77, 230. Inquest of Bayeux 1133. The ban embraced all free tenants but laid trees on more prosperous land owners, i.e. holders of knights’ fees and vavasours with estates of more than so acres. Length of service: H (2), 89ff; Poole (2), 38-40; Chew (1), 4f. 1130: H (2), 92. Anselm’s poor soldiers: Eadmer, ch. 78. Skilled English knights: H. of H., 263. More on ban: Verbruggen, 264; Ord., iii, 415; Boutaric, 198ff.

  [416] H (2), 100ff, later examples of more than forty days; contracts 102ff; duty of rear vassal 109f; details 111ff, 116ff. Church barons seem normally to pay scutage and not go overseas.

  [417] Poole (2), 61f; Book of Fees pp. 1278, 1202; Cal. Inq. Misc., i, no 501.

  [418] Translation of serviens: H (2), 130f. AS links, 132.

  [419] H (2), 128, nn1-2; Poole (2), 37; Smail (2), 140f.

  [420] Infantry: Verbruggen, 110f, 250ff, 281-4, 291ff, 298ff; H (2), 218f; policing, example at Yarmouth 1104-7: H (2), 229. 1072: Chron., 1075; Clor., ii, 11; Lanfranc, Op., i, 56., 1088: H (2), 223f; Chron., 1087 (8); Flor., ii, 22f; W. of M., ii, 362; Steenstrup, iv, 27; Larson (2), 160, 165f; join rebels, Flor., ii, 24f; Ord., iii, 271. Select fyrd: H (2), 217, 224, 248ff; definition, 14f.

  [421] H (2), 227f, 230, 234-40, 246. Esp.: Richard of Hexham, Historia, iii, 161; Aelred, Relation, iii, 192. I accept Hollister’s differentiation of general and select fyrds though we must not think of precise definitions at the time; rather of practical modifications of a general principle according to circumstances.

  [422] H (2), 236ff (Peterborough etc.), 246f, 20f; D (10), p. lxxxix; F (4), 62f; S (3), 237; H (1), 478, 481. Scotland saw a similar process
. Before 1066 the typical 5-hide warrior was a thegn: H (1), Hollings.

  [423] H (2), 260, 258f (assize): note identity of arms in first and second, showing the process that broke down the system of private feudal tenures; we noted 13th c. efforts of crown to force all tenants with land of certain value (generally £20) to become knights: Poole (2), 35f.

  [424] Hope-Taylor (1); M. W. Thompson (1) and (2); Antiq. J., xxxix, 1959, 219-73; Davison (1); Bloch. Feudal Soc., 301, ‘While masonry work called for specialist workers, the tenants, a permanent source of compulsory labour, were almost all to some extent carpenters as well as wood-cutters.’ Round and Armitage stress the communal aspect of the burh against G. T. Clark who saw burhs as mottes. Native chiefs in west parts of the British Isles fortified residences long before the Ns. The Rhineland shows how motte and bailey castle might sometimes get final form as the end of long process of structural alterations: Herrnbrodt and Miiller-Wille. In Ireland, the motte might be built astride or inside an earlier enclosure that then became the bailey: Ulster J. of Arch., xx, 1959, xxvi, 1963. Castle Neroche, Somerset, has a motte added to previous structure: MA, viii, 258, vi-vii, 323. The Motte at S. Mimms is designed to prop up a great timber tower: suggests development from motte tower to tower keep. Penmaen: Davison, 207; also timber gate-houses known in 10th c. and early 11th c. on the continent; timber-towers may have been a common accompaniment of earthwork fortifications c. 1066.

  We know the names of some military architects, for they appear in accounts. They were strictly designers of military engines and of the defence-works to withstand them. Ailnoth, ingeniator, appears as surveyor of the king’s buildings at Westminster and the Tower in 1157: eighteen years before William of Sens turned up at Canterbury, the first cathedral-builder in England who is more than a name. Ailnoth, whose name sounds English, built, embellished, and demolished castles in the 1160-70s. Gandolf built Rochester Keep. Other architects, one called prudens architectus, appear after that in the service of the king or the magnates. A few scholars knew the work of Vitruvius from the ancient world; but the builders were not affected. Their notions of proportion and structure came from other spheres, partly from the whole traditional world of craft, with a steady movement into a fuller grasp of the relevant construction problems, and partly from the general cultural situation which was absorbed in a hundred ways and which affected them through the attitudes of patrons. But the exact way in which ideas and methods were developed and sifted out is lost to us.