Norman conquest of France. Norman conquest of England. Chapter IV. Norman conquest of England and its aftermath

4.2.2. According to the Scaligerian version, the Bayeux carpet depicts the conquest of England in 1066. It is believed that the images on the Bayeux carpet are associated with the events that led to the Norman (or Norman, as it is also called) invasion of England. decisive battle,

The Battle of Hastings and the Conquest of England by the Normans October 14, 1066 The Duke of Normandy William, nicknamed the Conqueror, in June 1066 gathered an army of 14,000 horsemen, 45,000 infantry and 1,400 ships to move to conquer England under the circumstances of which we

Norman conquest. Normandy was in the middle of the XI century. a country that reached the full flowering of feudal relations. This was primarily reflected in its military superiority: the duke was the head of the heavily armed knightly cavalry of his vassals, and the large incomes received by the sovereign of Normandy from his possessions, and in particular from cities, allowed him to have his own excellent military detachments.

The duchy had a better internal organization than England and a strong central government, which controlled both the feudal lords and the church.

Upon hearing of the death of Edward the Confessor, William sent ambassadors to Harold in England demanding an oath of vassalage and at the same time announced everywhere that Harold was a usurper and perjurer. Wilhelm turned to Pope Alexander II, accusing Harold of breaking his oath and asking the pope to bless William's invasion of England. 50-60s of the XI century. - an era of great change in the history of the Catholic Church in Western Europe. The Cluniacs, supporters of the reform, achieved a victory that marked the internal strengthening of the church (the prohibition of simony - receiving church positions from secular sovereigns, the celibacy of the clergy, the election of the pope by the college of cardinals). This victory meant at the same time the assertion of the independence of the papacy from secular power and the beginning of the struggle of the popes for strengthening their political influence in Europe, and ultimately for the subordination of secular sovereigns to the authority of the papal throne. In this situation, the Pope, believing that the English Church needed reform, sent William a consecrated banner, thereby authorizing a campaign against England. Wilhelm began to prepare for the invasion. Since William could not demand military service from his vassals outside Normandy, he called the barons to a council to get their consent to the campaign. In addition, the duke began recruiting volunteers outside of Normandy. He built many transport ships, collected weapons and food. Wilhelm's first assistant was the seneschal William fitz Osbern, whose brother had estates in England.

Knights flocked to William's camp from everywhere. In addition to the Normans, there were knights from Brittany, Flanders, Picardy, Artois, etc. It is difficult to establish the number of William's troops. Historians believe that Normandy could field 1200 knights, and the rest of France less. Such a peculiar source of the time as the Bayeux carpet gives many images concerning the preparation of the campaign and the events associated with the conquest. According to this source, the largest ships were open barges with one square sail, which could accommodate about 12 horses. Most of the ships depicted were smaller. Historians believe that there were no more than seven hundred ships in total and that they could transport about 5 thousand people (according to Delbrück's calculations, about 7 thousand people). Only 2 thousand soldiers were heavily armed knights with trained horses (1200 people from Normandy and 800 people from other areas). The remaining 3 thousand people are infantry, archers and ship crews. Crossing the English Channel was a risky and new business. However, Wilhelm managed to persuade the barons.

While this preparation was going on, the English king Harold, knowing full well about everything that was happening in Normandy, gathered people and ships in the south of England. Suddenly and completely unexpectedly for him, northern England, in agreement with William, was attacked by the Norwegian king Harald Gardroda and Tosti, who was expelled from England. September 20 they entered, with a large fleet, in the Gulf of the Humber. The English king had to hurry, leaving everything, north to York. In a desperate battle at Stamford Bridge, Harold defeated the attackers on England. The Norwegian king and Tosti were killed (September 25, 1066). But on September 28, in the south of England, the army of William, Duke of Normandy landed in Pivensey.

Harold, having learned about the landing of the enemy, hastened to the south. His troops were weakened both as a result of the battle with the Norwegians and as a result of the campaign. When Harold entered London on October 6, the militia of the southern districts had not yet gathered, and the main force of Harold's troops were the housecarls, nobles and peasants of the southeast. They were foot troops. Harold went to meet the conquerors and began to expect an enemy army, stopping 10 kilometers from Hastings. The meeting took place on October 14, 1066.

Two troops, Anglo-Saxon and Norman (French in composition and language), were, as it were, two stages in the development of military art, personifying the difference in the socio-political system of Normandy and England. The Anglo-Saxon army is basically a peasant foot militia, armed with clubs and, at best, battle axes. Huskerls and Earls had swords, Danish battle-axes and shields, but also fought on foot. Harold had no cavalry or archers. The Norman army is a beautiful, heavily armed knightly cavalry. The knights fought from the saddle. There were also units of archers.

The defeat of the Anglo-Saxon army was a foregone conclusion. Harold and many Tens and Earls perished in the battle. The defeat was complete and final. Wilhelm was in no hurry with further actions; only five days later he went to Dover and Canterbury.

Meanwhile, in London, the prelates announced that Edgar Ætheling, the Anglo-Saxon heir to the throne, was announced, but the northern counts did not support him.

London townspeople decided not to resist William, apparently fearing the defeat of the city. Earls, lords, bishops and sheriffs vied with each other to reconcile with William and declare their loyalty. On the whole, southern England offered no noticeable resistance to the conquerors.

On Christmas Day 1066 William (1066-1087) was anointed king in Westminstroy. The ceremony took place in a peculiar setting: Wilhelm's retinue, on a false rumor of betrayal, set fire to the houses around the cathedral and began to beat everyone who came to hand; everyone except Wilhelm and the priests ran out of the church, a struggle ensued. But the ceremony was still completed properly.

Wanting to win the support of the population, William promised to "observe the good laws of Edward." However, the robberies and violence of the Norman barons continued for quite a long time. In general, by the end of 1068, not only southern, but also northern England recognized William. In order to guarantee the obedience of the citizens of London, the construction of the royal fortress, the Tower, began directly at its city wall.

In 1069, the northern regions of England rebelled against the new king, and William organized a punitive expedition there. As a result, not a single house and not a single living person remained in the entire space between York and Durham. The valley of York became a desert, which had to be re-populated already in the 12th century.

The last uprising against William was undertaken by the small landowner Hereward on the island of Ely in 1071.

Wilhelm's measures to organize management. Almost immediately after the conquest, the construction of royal castles began. These were simple castles on earth embankments, surrounded by moats and palisades, and more complex ones, with a system of ramparts resembling a shell in plan, and, finally, large stone castles, such as the Tower, Rochester, Headingham.

At the beginning of his reign, William acted as "Edward's rightful heir", appealing to his laws. In 1067-1068 he acted on the ground, relying on the Anglo-Saxons, but the resistance and uprisings of 1069 led him to consider all Anglo-Saxons as rebels. The lands of England were declared the property of the king. The lands were confiscated not only of the rebels, but also of all those who did not express obedience to the king. Then Wilhelm, leaving huge tracts of land behind the crown, began to endow his barons with fiefs 10-20 times larger than those they had in Normandy. Church lands are still untouched.

Part of the plots was allocated to pay royal servants, etc. Documents on the conditions of the awards have not been preserved, but they can be judged from later sources, in particular from the Doomsday Book.

In 1085 a land census was undertaken. It was carried out by detachments of William's officials, and its data was summarized in the Domesday Book in 1086. William's officials questioned under oath sheriffs, barons, freemen, clergy, elders and six serfs from each village. All recorded data referred to three dates: before the conquest, 1066 and 1085. Of the 38 counties of England, 34 are described. The census indicates the composition of the lands in each county and in each hundred, the income from these lands, the number of inhabitants and their condition. The purpose of the census is to get an idea about the conquered country, about the possible income from it and to systematize the collection of "Danish money".

The population of England, according to the Domesday Book, was approximately, taking into account the undescribed counties, 1.5–2 million. The social composition of the population is as follows: free farmers - 12%, slaves - 9, bordarii and cat-tarii, small-land peasants - 32 and villans - about 38%, the rest are the nobility, the clergy, the townspeople. The latter was about 5%. 95% of the population lived in villages. During the census, many semi-free and even free, but, for example, dependent on the court peasants were recorded as serfs (ie villans). Thus, the bulk of the peasants on the estates found themselves in the position of hereditary serfs. The villan serf remained a member of the rural community, had a share in the land and an arable plot (sometimes part of it), which he kept from his master, the lord of the manor.

Villan was obliged to the master by corvée (three days a week), paid food dues, performed various jobs and carried the so-called servile duties associated with his personal lack of freedom: posthumous requisition, marriage duty when marrying off his daughter, etc.

Some part of the peasantry, mainly in the north and east of the country, remained free.

The total income from land in rural areas was 73 thousand pounds per year. The crown lands were evenly distributed throughout England. The estates (manors) of each of the barons were scattered over different counties (793 manors of Robert of Merton lay in 20 counties; 493 manors of Odon of Bayeux - in 17). This did not give the opportunity for political gain to the barons in individual counties and contributed to the strengthening of the power of the king. Exceptions to this system were the border counties, where for military purposes the feudal lords received greater rights: Durham - on the border with Scotland, Shrewsbury and Chester - on the border with Wales, Kent, guarding the approaches from the sea.

Income from the land (73 thousand pounds sterling) was distributed as follows: 17,000 to the crown and court, 1,800 to salaries of officials, 19,200 to churches and monasteries (including the Archbishop of Canterbury - 1,750 pounds), 4,000 to Anglo-Saxon landowners who retained William's favor, 30,350 to 170 barons (income above 640 pounds had 8 barons, from 650 to 400 - 10 barons, from 400 to 200 - 24, the rest - less than 200 pounds).

The crown lands were large, but the king's income increased not so much from an increase in the number of these lands, but from the introduction of a system for renting royal manors to sheriffs who contributed rent to the treasury and then squeezed it out of the population (rent increased by 30–50% compared to the era of Edward the Confessor).

The conditions for holding fiefs (fiefs) were as follows: all landowners - large and small, spiritual and secular, Normans and Anglo-Saxons - ultimately kept the land from the king. He was the supreme owner of all land in England and the overlord of all holders, from whomever they received their fiefs directly. All holders (and not just direct ones) were obliged by a personal oath to the king and served directly to him. In 1087, having gathered all the holders, William demanded from them a direct personal oath and service to the king, even if they held the land not directly from the king, but from one of his immediate holders (Salisbury Oath).

This direct oath and direct service to the king through the heads of intermediate lords is a specifically English feature, which greatly contributed to the strengthening of royal authority. The conditions for the award were the same as in Normandy: 1) homage to the king and an oath of allegiance; 2) service with a military detachment of a certain size for 40 days a year within the country; 3) presence in the royal curia on call for advice and court; 4) help with money in certain cases (knighting of the eldest son of the king, marriage of his eldest daughter, ransom of the king from captivity).

If the holding conditions were not met, the fief could be taken away. The baron could not inherit the barony himself, the heir received the barony from the king, only by making a special payment for admission to inheritance, called a relief. If there were no heirs, then the barony went to the crown. All fiefs were indivisible and were transferred on the basis of the right of majorate to the eldest sons. The king had the right of guardianship in case of minority of the heir and the right to dispose of the marriages of heirs and heirs. For every. 200 pounds of income per year, the barony had to supply annually for 40 days of service a detachment of 40 knights. In general, all fiefs could give 4200 knights. Under William, there were no baronial castles; castles were only royal. In other respects, the barons were given complete freedom. Each baron himself chose which fiefs to keep for himself, which to sub-infeud, that is, to transfer from himself to the possession of the knights. However, the baron was not obliged to plant only knights on fiefs, he could also accept non-military holders - sokmen, on the terms of paying cash rent and performing some agricultural work. The Seokmen were Anglo-Saxons, the knights were often also of Anglo-Saxon origin.

Results of the Norman Conquest. The conquerors were not going to completely ruin the peasantry, since they did not bring their peasants to England, and they needed to increase the population of the estates in order to receive rent and taxes. But the conquest accelerated the enslavement of the peasantry, i.e., contributed to the speedy completion of the process of feudalization, which began in the period preceding the Norman Conquest. It was a real coup, as a result of which the number of free peasants sharply decreased. Each lord received the right to have a judicial curia for all his holders, which gave him additional opportunities to subordinate the population of the estates. The new lords and barons began to actively manage: restore destroyed estates, drain swamps, build mills, establish markets and cities. The completion of feudalization was a factor that contributed to the further progress of society.

As a result of the conquest, a completely complete feudal system of land holdings and vassal ties was established. This system was largely transferred to England from Normandy. The feudal system in England was more perfect, because it was transferred in finished form, than in France, where it developed naturally.

English relations were distinguished by the fact that here, by virtue of the very fact of the conquest and the need to stay in the occupied territory among the hostile population, conditions were created for strengthening royal power. The king here is the supreme owner of all the land in the kingdom, all holders directly swear an oath to him, the barons do not have the right to build castles, they receive land in different counties, which excludes the possibility of their political strengthening, the barons do not have state power over the holders, they do not have supreme jurisdiction, the right to conduct private wars. In opposition to the barons, Wilhelm preserves and maintains the judicial assemblies of the counties and hundreds. The fird is preserved - a foot militia of free holders who pay taxes to the king. The royal council does not take on the character of a feudal council of the French type, it sits on persons desirable to the king and pursuing his policy. William rules England himself, by means of his written orders, issued by chaplains under the supervision of the chancellor. The orders are sent to the sheriffs, who represent the king's authority in the counties. As a result of all these circumstances, a monarchy arises, so strong that one can already speak of a certain unity of England. This was facilitated by the fact that the royal power was supported by small and medium-sized feudal lords, the church, the merchants and the free peasantry that survived in some areas. Played a role and the presence of William's significant income from his domains in Normandy.

Wilhelm pursued a very targeted policy towards the church: on the one hand, she received large land grants and a number of privileges (creation of church courts), on the other hand, all the pope's claims to supremacy were rejected. William refused to take the vassalage to Gregory VII and declared that no one but the king could control the affairs of the English church and that without his permission the pope and papal orders could not be obeyed.

William died in 1087 in Rouen, bequeathing England to his son William.

England at the end of the 11th - the first half of the 12th century. William the Red and Henry I. William the Conqueror had three sons: Robert (the eldest), to whom he left Normandy, William, who received England, and Henry. William the Red (1087–1100), even before his father's death, left for England, where, having received news of William's death, he immediately seized the treasury at Winchester and seventeen days later was crowned by Archbishop Lanfranc. There was no open resistance, but since Normandy went to Robert, the question arose about the citizenship of the barons. Some of the barons living in England plotted in favor of Robert; uprisings broke out in Norfolk, Somerset, etc., but they were quickly suppressed. The rebels were led by the brother of William the Conqueror, Odon of Bayeux. Most of the barons of central and eastern England supported William the Red, who had at his disposal both the feudal militia and the infantry. Odon was expelled, and Robert himself remained passive.

In 1089, after the death of Archbishop Lanfranc, William the Red began to fight against the church. He delayed the appointment of a new primate of England, taking the proceeds of the vacant throne into the treasury. He practiced the same system with all church benefices. The conflict with the church continued until 1093, when William repented and handed over the vacant throne of Canterbury to the learned monk Anselm, giving him a number of promises. Soon the king forgot about these promises, demanded feudal assistance from Anselm, retained a significant part of the property of the throne and did not let the new archbishop into Rome for consecration. To top it off, William declared that no pope would be recognized in England without the king's permission. In 1097, William finally let Anselm go to Rome, but as soon as he left England, he immediately seized the income of the Canterbury throne. IN last years reign of William the Red, Anselm chose to stay in Rome. This was the beginning of a long struggle between church and state in England, a struggle that was part of the all-European controversy between the papacy and secular sovereigns.

Treasurer under Wilhelm the Red was chaplain Ranulf Flambard. Creating all sorts of lawlessness and squeezing money out of anyone it was possible, it was he who initiated the selection of church revenues to the treasury.

Under Wilhelm, the severity of laws on hunting and on the protection of reserves was strengthened. The cruel forest laws caused the strongest discontent of the peasants, but there were few open uprisings, excluding 1095, at that time.

Basically, the king was busy with plans to expand the domains (he achieved some success on the border with Scotland and Wales) and return Normandy under his hand. In 1090, he, in agreement with Robert, took away in Western Normandy from his younger brother Henry many possessions.

In 1096, Robert of Normandy pledged his lands to William for 10 thousand marks in silver and went to crusade(I crusade), and it was clear to everyone that he could never redeem Normandy.

In 1100 William the Red was struck by an unknown arrow while hunting in the New Forest. The next day he was hastily buried in Winchester. Many churches refused to call for the murdered king, and there was no investigation. Since Wilhelm had no children, his brother Heinrich acted as a contender for the throne. At that moment he was in England and even attended a hunt in the New Forest. After the murder of his brother, Henry immediately went to Winchester and seized the treasury, and two days later he was already crowned in Westminster, turning to his subjects with a manifesto (“Liberty Charter of Henry I”).

In his charter, Henry I (1100–1035) promised freedom to the church, observance of their privileges and rights to the feudal lords, and “the laws of King Edward” to the people. The king informed the people about his coronation, declared that he would not sell anything from church estates and would not take income from church benefices during periods of vacancies. He promised to abolish bad customs (excessive reliefs, payment for permission to marry baronial heirs and widows), promised not to set arbitrary monetary pledges for criminal barons. The duties of the knights were henceforth limited to military service, which they owed only to the king. Declaring the restoration of the "laws of King Edward", Henry I, as it were, took the Anglo-Saxon population under his protection against the barons, which was supposed to provide the king with his support in the fight against the Norman feudal lords.

Ethnic and linguistic differences between the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman conquerors had not yet disappeared by this time. They were especially keenly felt due to the fact that French was the language of the feudal nobility and, along with Latin, the language of state and law, English remained the language of peasants, townspeople and knights. The fusion of English and French ethnic and linguistic elements proceeded slowly, and one can speak of some kind of completion only by the beginning of the 13th century.

Henry I essentially returns to the political system of William the Conqueror, trying to undo all the "innovations" of William the Red. In general, this policy was popular with the church, the barons and the Anglo-Saxon population. The king made an attempt at reconciliation with the church: he sent for Anselm of Canterbury and gave him a number of promises.

At this time, Robert returned to Normandy, and riots began there. He went on a campaign to England, but no one supported him there, and for a pension of a thousand pounds a year, Robert gave up a number of his possessions. However, Robert's supporters rebelled in his favor, which gave King Henry an excuse to invade Normandy in 1105, defeat Robert and take him prisoner. In captivity, Robert lived another 28 years.

In England, Henry begins a fight with Anselm of Canterbury, who did not want to compromise and was a staunch opponent of church benefices being transferred to the clergy by secular power. Anselm refused to bring homage to Henry and did not consecrate the bishops and abbots appointed by the king. The long struggle was resolved by an agreement that, as it were, anticipated the Concordat of Worms: the bishops and abbots were elected by the monastery chapter and did not receive investiture from worldly hands, but the elections took place in the presence of the king or his representatives, and the chosen ones brought homage to the king until the final consecration.

Administrative reforms of Henry I. The power of the king under Henry I was virtually unlimited, although he issued laws, levied taxes, and decided matters with the consent of the Great Council. The Great Council was dominated by large feudal lords, secular and ecclesiastical. The Great Council met three times a year. The role of this body was reduced to the fact that he gave the king optional advice for him and listened to the binding royal decisions. In fact, the state was ruled by a closer circle of advisers - the Small Curia, consisting of the closest royal associates of both noble and ignoble origin. The highest court ranks were hereditary, and their bearers played the last role in the actual administration. The small curia was, firstly, the highest judicial institution - as such it was called the Royal Curia - and, secondly, the highest financial institution - in this case it was called the Chessboard Chamber (the table in the Chamber is covered with checkered cloth). At the head of both institutions was the justiciar - the main assistant to the king since the time of William the Red. Under Henry I it was Roger of Caen. The chancellor and the treasurer depended on the justiciar. The chancellor is a clergyman, first it was the private secretary of the king, and then the secretary of state. The treasurer was in charge of the royal treasury, which was kept in Winchester.

The royal curia decided, firstly, cases in which the interests of the king were affected; second, cases on appeal; thirdly, litigation between the immediate holders of the crown - the barons. Ordinary litigants, as a special favor, were allowed to refer cases to the Royal Curia, bypassing the local Anglo-Saxon courts of hundreds or counties. The royal curia was in charge of both civil and criminal matters. She was also a control body. Its members traveled around the counties, for their meeting the sheriffs convened full meetings of the counties. Twice a year - on Easter and on the day of the Archangel Michael - full sessions of the Chamber of the Chessboard were convened. The Chamber was divided into two sections: the upper one - the Reporting Chamber and the lower one - the Reception Chamber. Sheriffs from all parts of England brought the money collected in the counties to the House. These were income from domains, money collected from the courts of hundreds and counties, “Danish money”, feudal fees, etc. Sacks of specie were handed over to the cellars by weight, in return the sheriffs received tags with which they went upstairs, where they handed over a report. The data of the report were recorded in a special treasury roll.

The organization of the court and finances greatly contributed to the strengthening of royal power under Henry I, but after his death, unrest began in England, which lasted from 1135 to 1153.

Baronial turmoil. After Henry I, there was no male heir left, and two applicants began the struggle for the throne: Henry I's daughter Matilda and the king's nephew (the son of his sister Adele) Stephen. Matilda, widow of the German Emperor Henry V, married Geoffroy Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. From this marriage she had a son, Henry, for whose sake she fought for the English throne.

Stephen came to London, and the townspeople greeted him with joy. He seized the treasury at Winchester and was crowned. The English magnates and London townspeople accepted Stephen, for they did not want to obey the foreigners who would inevitably come with Matilda. However, Stephen brought with him an army of mercenaries - the Flemings, and the barons did not like it. To appease them, Stefan gave a charter, according to which the barons received all possible privileges: they took over the court, minting coins, and collecting taxes. But the worst thing was that the king allowed the barons to build castles. In a few years, the barons at a feverish pace built 1115 castles, which turned into real nests of feudal anarchy, into centers of unrest. Soon a feudal strife began between the supporters of Stephen and Matilda, whom her followers proclaimed queen in 1141. The southeast of England stood for Stephen, the west for Matilda. Relying on the built castles, the barons with their detachments burned and plundered each other's estates and villages. During this period, England knew well all the delights of feudal unrest. Only in 1153 did the London townspeople and the church achieve negotiations between the opponents, and an agreement was concluded according to which Stephen was recognized as king with the condition that after his death the crown would go to Matilda's son Henry Plantagenet. Stephen was infirm and died the next year, after which Henry took the English throne.

Reign of Henry II Plantagenet. Heinrich Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, even before his election to the English throne, was one of the largest French princes, owning Normandy and the western French lands received from his father: Menom, Anjou, Touraine and Poitou. In addition, shortly before his election, he married the Duchess Allenore of Aquitaine, who had just separated from her first husband, the French King Louis VII. As a result of his marriage to Allenore, Henry became sovereign of the southwestern regions of France. The mighty power of Plantagenet thus consisted of French possessions (all northern, western and southwestern France), for each of which he was a vassal of the French king, and England. Having become king, Henry II (1154-1189) continued the policy that he began to pursue, being the de facto ruler of the kingdom in the last period of Stephen's reign. He began to destroy the "illegitimate" baronial castles and gradually prepare the subjugation of the baronial freemen and the liquidation of the baronial anarchy.

Of great importance to Henry was his policy towards Wales and Scotland. As a result of the expedition undertaken by Henry in 1158, north Wales stopped fighting for a while and gave hostages, and south Wales recognized the supreme authority of the English king. The English border barons were able to return to their castles, but not for long: in 1162, Wales went to war, and the border regions were devastated. The failure of Henry's expedition in 1165 provided Wales with another hundred years of freedom. After that, Henry cared only about strengthening the border with Wales and about how to keep only the supreme power over the princes of north and south Wales.

At the same time, the King of Scotland gave Henry Northumberland and Cumberland (with Newcastle and Carlisle).

Throughout his reign, Henry II, relying on chivalry and townspeople, waged a stubborn and unceasing struggle to strengthen his power, to strengthen the central state institutions, to undermine the power of the feudal magnates and gain power over the church. Only against the background of this struggle can one understand the well-known reforms of Henry II.

This also explains that the court of Henry was closely connected with his person and moved all the time with the sovereign. The king behaved like a despot and sought to turn the barons and nobles into courtiers. A contemporary, describing Henry's court, says that the king's sudden change of heart usually upset all the plans of his courtiers, who were obliged to follow him. “... You can see how they, as if furious, run back and forth, get horses, carts, carriages. All this is tangled and thrown together in the greatest confusion. .. To the King, dare I say, these courtiers' predicaments are clearly a pleasure. Then we drive two or three or four miles through an unfamiliar forest, often in the dark, and feel that our most ardent prayers have been answered if we come across a miserable dirty hut. Often fierce disputes begin over such a hole, and noble gentlemen of the court fight with swords for a room in which it would be bad for a pig to live.

Reforms of Henry II. King and Church. Transformations of the second half of the XII century. start with church reform. The English Church had its own special code of law. The privileges of the clergy expanded considerably in Stephen's reign. Clerics-criminals were sentenced in church courts only to the mildest punishments. The secular authorities did not interfere in the affairs of this kind. Henry II decided to return to the position that was under the kings of the Norman dynasty. In 1163, at the Great Council of Westminster, Henry II proposed that criminal clerics be brought before a secular court. If the accusation turns out to be just, they should be defrocked in the episcopal court, and then handed over for punishment to the secular authorities.

Thomas the Archbishop of Canterbury opposed the reform project. In the period preceding these events, the chancellor of the kingdom Thomas Becket, adviser, friend and companion of the king in entertainment, became famous as an excellent administrator, an energetic conductor of the policy of Henry II, who had nothing to do with the church and clergymen. Having conceived a church reform, Henry II decided to put Thomas on the throne of Canterbury and persuaded him to take holy orders. The king hoped that with his help he would be able to carry out the planned reform.

Thomas, becoming archbishop in 1162, immediately changed his way of life dramatically. From a brilliant courtier, famous for his generosity and luxury, he turned into a strict ascetic, immersed in science, prayer and charitable deeds. He refused the post of chancellor, not being afraid to arouse the wrath of the king, declared himself a zealous successor to Anselm's policy, defended the privileges of the church and acted as an implacable enemy of the planned reform. He began a struggle to return the lost lands and rights to the Canterbury throne, demanded a number of castles from the king, the right of patronage over all the benefices that depended on his throne, deprived the clergy who were in the royal service of the Canterbury beneficiaries. Thomas excommunicated those who did not obey him.

On October 1, 1163, the king demanded the approval of a law on the reform of ecclesiastical courts. Thomas flatly refused to give his consent. The king, in a rage, dispersed the assembled Great Council and, having put together a party of bishops hostile to Thomas, did everything to break him.

The Pope did not want to quarrel with Henry II and tried to moderate the jealousy of Thomas.

In January, 1164, at Clarendon, the king summoned all the bishops and barons, and made them promise that they would observe the customs of Henry I in regard to ecclesiastical courts. He forced to write down these customs in an expanded interpretation, from which the Clarendon Ordinances arose, containing a clause on the reform of church courts. Thomas refused to attach his seal to these decrees and recognize them as binding on the English church. Most of the bishops did not understand the true meaning of the impending change and saw no reason to quarrel with the king. Becket's irreconcilable position was caused by the fear of creating a precedent for concessions to royal claims, the fear of opening the way for further attacks on the privileges of the church.

Thomas refused to appear in court in the case of a criminal cleric, and then Becket himself was accused of neglect of the royal court and sentenced to a fine. Thomas appealed to the pope and ordered his bishops to excommunicate anyone who recognized the condemnation of Thomas by the royal court. After that, Thomas fled to the continent, and the king expelled all his relatives from England. The exile of Thomas lasted six years and turned him into a fanatic. In 1170, the reconciliation of the king with Thomas took place, since the latter threatened the French possessions of Henry II with an interdict. Nothing was said about the Clarendon Ordinances.

Thomas arrived in England on December 1, 1170, and began to furiously denounce his enemies. The king at that time was on the Continent and was very angry with the behavior of the archbishop. He even said: "Is there really no one who would free me from this priest!". Even before that, the pope had announced that if Thomas was arrested, an interdict would be imposed on England. The courtiers of Henry II, fulfilling the secret desire of the king, went to England, appeared in Canterbury and, bursting into the cathedral, brutally killed the archbishop at the altar. By order of the pope, an interdict was immediately promulgated, which caused great discontent in England. The clergy stirred up the people against King Henry. Popular unrest grew.

The English king at that time left for Ireland, where he intervened in the internecine struggle, which led to the capture of part of the Irish territory and the formation of a fortified English region. In the spring of 1172, the situation in England became so tense that Henry II had to accept the legates of the pope and repent. Remission of sins was given to him on the condition of public repentance, taking an oath that he would not leave the power of the pope, destroy all institutions and customs harmful to the church, undertake a crusade and refuse to carry out church reform.

It was a complete defeat. Henry had to temporarily abandon all his plans for the restriction of church privileges.

Judicial reform. In the middle of the XII century. in England there were the following judicial institutions: the royal court, the judicial assemblies of the counties and hundreds, the court of the manor (a feudal curia for vassals chaired by a seigneur); the court of the manor for the villans, presided over by the lord of the manor. Judicial proceedings had a formal-sacred character: guilt was established with the help of an oath, an ordeal, a duel.

In the second half of the XII century. Significant changes are taking place in the organization of the judiciary. In 1166, the so-called accusatory jury was introduced in every hundred (12 people) and in every village (4 people). These people had to name suspicious persons (potential robbers, murderers, robbers, stealers of stolen goods and rebels) under oath to the sheriff and judges, then the alleged criminals were seized and forced to undergo an ordeal. If they were found guilty, their property was confiscated and they themselves were executed. Those who were cleared of suspicion by the ordeal were nevertheless expelled from England.

Since 1176, the competence of traveling royal judges has been expanded, and a single criminal jurisdiction for the whole country has been introduced (using the ordeal). Traveling judges oversee the local administration.

But the most important change was that new order adjudication of civil claims for land ownership and land ownership. For a fee, it was now possible to buy the king's order to investigate the land case by 12 jurors, who gave the relevant evidence under oath. Only free people could buy such an order, and it was very expensive. So far, only land cases have been investigated by the new order. Before the reform, land cases were investigated by judicial duel. Although limited, this reform is a significant step forward in the development of the judiciary. It sharply reduced the competence of the feudal courts and expanded the importance of the royal court. Measures were also taken to streamline the legal proceedings.

Military reform. In 1181, the “Assisi (law) on armaments” was adopted, according to which all the free population was obliged to acquire weapons in accordance with their means. The Anglo-Saxon fird was revived. At the same time, obligatory military service for fief (40 days a year within the kingdom) was replaced by cash payments, which were called "shield money".

The introduction of "shield money" made it possible for the king to start mercenary units from the same knights and free peasants. Now, receiving a salary, they had to obey the king unquestioningly and without any restrictions.

In 1184, the "Forest Assize" was adopted, according to which all the forests of England were declared the property of the king and subject to his uncontrolled and unlimited jurisdiction (outside the common law).

All these reforms were aimed at undermining the importance of the feudal magnates, who were a great force, and strengthening the central authority of the king.

The political struggles of the last period of the reign of Henry II. After the end of the conflict with the church and reconciliation with the Pope, Henry II learned about the impending rebellion of his sons and their mother, Queen Eleanor. The eldest son, also Henry, had already been crowned and bore the title " young king". The reason for the rebellion was given by the desire of Henry II to ensure the future of his youngest son John. The "young king" refused his father his consent to this (1173) and fled to the French king, where his brothers Richard and Geoffroy followed him. Queen Allenora began to raise Poitou to revolt. She was captured and imprisoned, but the rebellion nevertheless began and took on a very wide scope. In each of the rebellious continental provinces, many barons rose up, and some English barons also took part in the rebellion. The count of Flanders and the king of Scotland, to whom the young Henry had made generous promises, supported the rebellious sons of the king.

However, the entire mass of the clergy, the main part of the barons, especially the middle and small barons, chivalry, townspeople and free peasants stood for Henry II, and the rebels in England did not find a serious response to the call for anarchy. Thus, the French provinces became the center of events, while in England only such counties as Leicester, Norfolk, the Bishopric of Durham and the areas bordering Scotland rose. In France, King Louis VII helped the rebels.

The strife lasted for almost two years, but in the end, Henry II, who had a strong foothold in England, took over. The king of Scotland brought him homage for his lands, peace was concluded with France. However, the rebellions of the sons continued in the subsequent period, closely intertwined with the struggle for French possessions, which resumed after Philip II Augustus ascended the throne in France. In 1183, young Henry died, and Geoffroy soon died. Thus, Henry II was left with only two sons: Richard and John.

The fall of Jerusalem in 1187 delayed the outbreak of war between England and France, as public opinion in both countries demanded a crusade. Henry II, Richard and Philip II Augustus accepted the cross. But the kings were not going to leave for the east, because the contradictions between their states were too great. Philip II Augustus attracted Richard to his side, pretending to be him best friend, and persuaded Henry II to betray his youngest son John. Henry II died, and the English throne passed in the autumn of 1189 to Richard.

The reign of Henry II was of great importance for the history of England. In the course of the struggle against the barons, the foundations of a strong central government were created, central institutions, courts, the financial system, and the military system was reorganized. England was relatively pacified, the borders with Scotland and Wales were strengthened. Henry's continental possessions played their part, as they provided funds for the centralization policy in England. This, obviously, is the reason for the stubbornness with which the Plantagenets held on to these possessions.

Richard the Lionheart. Richard the Lionheart (1189-1199) spent the first months of his reign in England, where he revised the administration of the domains and established relations with the Scottish king and with the princes of Wales.

After the death of Henry II, 100 thousand marks remained in the treasury (i.e., triple the annual income). Richard increased this amount by extorting the townspeople, sheriffs and bishops. Having collected the necessary funds and fleet, the king left England and went on a crusade, starting a struggle for land and power in the East. His only success in this struggle was the capture of Cyprus. Supreme power during Richard's absence was in the hands of the justiciar, chancellor and papal legate, William Longchamp. Queen Eleanor, having given an amnesty to all who were imprisoned under Henry II, left for the continent. Longchamp began to rule autocratically, which soon caused an explosion of opposition from the barons. Richard's younger brother John came to England and led intrigues and conspiracies against Longchamp, and in fact against the king. The question of succession arose.

Longchamp, acting at the request of the king, wanted to appoint Arthur, the son of the deceased Geoffroy, as heir. John fought against this in every way, including by supporting the rebellion in Lincolnshire. John achieved victory and forced Longchamp to promise that he would support his candidacy for the throne. Thanks to his extortion, Longchamp lost the support of London business circles and was forced to flee England, and the Great Council began to rule the state under the leadership of administrators trained by Henry II. Despite all this, the authority of the royal power remained unshaken.

Meanwhile, the French king Philip II Augustus, who went on a crusade with Richard, returned to Europe and began to capture Richard's castles in Normandy. Upon learning of this, Richard returned to Europe incognito with a few companions, but on the way he was captured by the Duke of Austria, who agreed to release him only for a very large ransom. The King's brother John spread the rumor in England that Richard was dead and tried to seize power. However, in April 1193 news came that Richard was alive and in the custody of the German Emperor Henry VI. John, hearing that "the devil was freed", fled to Philip II Augustus. But it turned out that Richard was not yet free. Then John and Philip II Augustus began by all means to induce the emperor to keep Richard in captivity longer. They gave 50,000 marks from France and 30,000 marks from John in order for the emperor to keep Richard in captivity at least until September, and they agreed to pay a thousand pounds for each extra month of captivity. The amount of the ransom, appointed by the emperor, was 150 thousand marks.

German magnates forced the emperor to release Richard. Freed at the beginning of 1194, Richard returned to England and began to collect money and people for a campaign against the French king. The situation was very difficult, since 150 thousand marks had not yet been collected to pay a ransom to the emperor. To march on France, they squeezed everything they could from the knights, peasants, townspeople, clergy, demanded fines and ransoms from John's supporters and "gifts" ("on the occasion of the joy of the royal return") from all citizens. Then the reconciliation of the king with John took place, which, however, was not given control over the castles. After staying in England for a little over a month, Richard left for Normandy in mid-May 1194. England was left to the administration of Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, the most experienced administrator who successfully ruled the country in the following period. After 1194 i. Richard never returned to England. Heavy requisitions caused in London in 1196 an uprising of urban artisans and the poor, led by William Longbeard. The uprising was quickly put down. Meanwhile, the king was building and fortifying castles in his French lands in preparation for the fight against Philip II Augustus. In 1199, while inspecting the fortifications of the Aquitaine castles by water, Richard was hit by an arrow and died from the wound. The English throne passed to John.