HIST 192 Discussion Materials (Fall 2018 – Week 2)

Tuesday:

The Normans Come to England

Videos:

Medieval castle images, with medieval music (9:39 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioGvEA_KNc4

Horrible Histories: Norman Family Tree Song:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2lwjyl
(alternative URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJAY2QNtGug)

Secrets of the Castle: Why Build a Castle? (Episode 1, 58 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydoRAbpWfCU

FAMILY TREES OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR (d. 1066) AND WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR (1028-87)
http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/bt/images/tree.gif

THE NORMAN KINGS OF ENGLAND
http://www.englishcrown.co.uk/imgs/nor_tree.gif

 

The Norman Conquest:

The back-story (according to the Normans): Edward the Confessor, King of England, is elderly and childless. He decides to name his maternal cousin William, Duke of Normandy, as his heir. Edward sends his brother-in-law, Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, the most powerful noble in England, on a diplomatic visit to Normandy. He is shipwrecked, arrested, and delivered to Duke William as a prisoner. William offers to release Harold unharmed if Harold will swear an oath to support William’s claim to be the heir to Edward’s throne. Harold swears and returns to England. Edward the Confessor then dies, and Harold claims the throne of England. There is another claimant waiting to claim the throne of England: Harald Hardrada, King of Norway.

 

 

MAPS:

The conquest of England, 1066
http://www.mondes-normands.caen.fr/angleterre/histoires/4/zooms/map4-5-william.htm

William the Conqueror’s domains
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks14/1400541h-images/William-02.jpg

Map of medieval England and Wales
htpps://www.heritage-history.com/ssl/cds/british_middle_ages/maps/philips/phil034.jpg

Relief map of British Isles
https://nimax-img.de/Produktbilder/zoom/52366_1/Georelief-Great-Britain-3D-relief-map.jpg

Major rivers of England
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b4/ba/a5/b4baa5194f4d7bce45a47d16513bd137.jpg

Major roads of medieval England and Wales
https://erenow.com/postclassical/medieval-britain-a-very-short-introduction/medieval-britain-a-very-short-introduction.files/image016.jpg

Historic counties of England, Wales, and Scotland
http://jonathan.rawle.org/hyperpedia/counties/images/bigold.gif

Interactive county/castle map of England (click on county to see castles in that county)
http://www.ecastles.co.uk/ukmap.html

Castles were major building projects, and required lots of land, labor, and wealth to build.

Questions:

  1.         WHO built castles? (List at least 3 kinds of people – not the construction workers, but the owners of the castles)
  2.         WHY build a castle? (List at least 3 important reasons for building a castle)
  3.         WHERE were castles built? (List at least 3 major criteria for choosing a site)

 

Gies and Gies, Life, pp. 8-20 (mid-page):
Motte-and-bailey castles
Berkhamsted Castle
Chepstow Castle: plan and aerial photo

 

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: William I  (URL below)
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1186ASChron-William1.html
What did the author of this eyewitness account see as:
the king’s virtues?
the king’s vices?
How might this description reflect the condition of England in the reign of William the Conqueror (1066-87)?

 

Thursday:
Early Castles and Their Lords
Gies and Gies, Life, Chap. 2 (pp. 32-56)
Map of England and Wales (1928; there is a numbered list of counties at bottom of map)
Chepstow Castle, Herefordshire:
location (map of Monmouthshire)
aerial photo of  Chepstow, River Wye, and Severn estuary
plan and aerial photo of castle, and more detailed aerial photo
useful website on Chepstow Castle and its construction phases
another website, with excellent photos

Terms:

  • Fief or fee (Latin feudum: land or other asset granted by a lord to a vassal in return for military service and fealty)
  • Lord
  • Liege lord (chief lord)
  • Vassal (lord’s knight or similar follower)
  • Homage:  Ceremony by which a vassal undertakes to be a lord’s “man” (Latin, homo), and swears “fealty” (Latin, fidelitas: faithfulness) to him
Henry of Huntingdon: Baronial behavior in Stephen’s reign, 1135-54:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/henry-hunt1.html
manuscript pages  from Henry of Huntingdon’s Historia anglorum (History of the English)
Matilda (1102-67), daughter of Henry I of England; m. (1) Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1125);  and (2) Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou
Stephen of Blois (shown here with crown), Matilda’s cousin, who succeeded Henry I as king of England (1135-54)

Questions:

1.  In the reading by Henry of Huntingdon, what are the signs of chaos that Henry identifies at the beginning of the reading?  Are these to be taken literally?

2.  In the reading by Henry of Huntingdon, what does Henry have to say about the treatment of the clergy by lords during the rebellion?  Why do you think that he says this?

3.  What does Henry have to say about the behavior of many bishops?  Why do you think that he says this?

4.  Did Henry support King Stephen, or the king’s enemies (the allies of his cousin Matilda), or was he politically neutral?  Cite evidence for your judgment.