- Hierarchical
- fluid, people could move up and down in status

KING
EARLS
THEGNS >1%
CEORLS ~10%
PEASANTS
SLAVES ~10%

- king ruled, key roles: defence, laws, Church, earls

- the Witan 'wise men' summoned by the king, important men, consulted on decisions. Could recommend the next king if there were issues with inheritance

EARLDOMS
SHIRES - thegn as 'shire-reeve'
HUNDREDS - approx. 12 villages, had a reeve

- laws made by the king, though different customs around the country

PUNISHMENT
- Wergild
- capital punishment
- corporal punishment

POLICING
- tithing
- hue & cry

TRIALS
- jury
- ordeal

VILLAGE
- 12-15 houses
- houses, wattle & daub; one large room
- church building

TOWN
- 10% pop.
- defensive wall
- mint
- London = 10,000 people
- York, Southampton, Winchester = 5,000 people
- markets where trade could be taxed

ECONOMY
- village: based on agriculture, subsistence or barter
- town: based on trade, exchange or barter

- rich - owned 25% of land
- powerful - participated in the Witan, advised king, earls, thegns
- influenced government
- influenced daily life, people believed in heaven/hell and that God had an influence on everyday life

- clear organisation: two archbishops; 15 bishops
- abbeys

Edward, no heir
English customs

Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex
- rich, powerful, fought for Edward
- embassy to Normandy
- Tostig
- promise?

William, Duke of Normandy
- promises from Edward

Edgar Atheling
- relative

Harald Hardrada
- wants more land

- Edward dies
- Harold is crowned
- Hardrada lands
- Gate Fulford (Viking)
- Stamford Bridge (Anglo-Saxon)
- William lands
- Hastings (Norman)
- submission of the earls
- William is crowned

- castle building
- Marcher earldoms

REBELLION
- began in summer 1067
- 1068 Edwin & Morcar
- 1069, JANUARY the North & Edgar Atheling; SUMMER/AUTUMN Swein & Edgar Atheling

- 1070/1 Herward the Wake @ Ely

HARRYING OF THE NORTH

CHANGES IN LAND OWNERSHIP

- Revolt of the Earls 1075 a Norman revolt

change

FEUDALISM
- king
- tenants-in-chief
- knights
- villeins

- knight service
- labour service

ARISTOCRACY

little change

HOWEVER

- all land the king's demesne
- gifted land
- stronger hold on government, all decisions went through him
- used regents for much of his reign as he was in Normandy

DOMESDAY BOOK

some changes

IN ADDITION

- wergild now paid to the king
- Murdrum fine
- Forest laws
- increased executions
- Church courts
- trial by combat
- Norman-French official language of the royal court; Latin used for court records

- sheriffs continued but tended to be Norman after 1071

some change

- homes destroyed due to war/castle building
- towns: new around castles
- travel for trade safer after 1071
- new French communities in some places
- southern ports = more trade with France
- northern ports = less trade with Scandinavia

- villages: new lords, changes in status

- women had fewer rights
- language change

lots of change

LANFRANC

- centralised control under Archbishop of Canterbury
- regular councils of bishops
- archdeacons 'policing'
- bishops replaced with Normans
- reforms: simony, nepotism, pluralism, marriage

- increased no. of monasteries
- rebuilding cathedrals

WILLIAM died in 1087

ODO

ROBERT - revolt 1078-80

WILLIAM RUFUS

HENRY

- disputed succession
- rebellion in 1088