Invasion of England, 1066
The Battle of Hastings
King Edward of England (called "The Confessor" because of his construction of Westminster Abbey) died on January 5, 1066, after a reign of 23 years. Leaving no heirs, Edward's passing ignited a three-way rivalry for the crown that culminated in the Battle of Hastings and the destruction of the Anglo-Saxon rule of England.
The leading pretender was Harold Godwinson, the second most powerful man in England and an advisor to Edward. Harold and Edward became brothers-in-law when the king married Harold's sister. Harold's powerful position, his relationship to Edward and his esteem among his peers made him a logical successor to the throne. His claim was strengthened when the dying Edward supposedly uttered "Into Harold's hands I commit my Kingdom." With this kingly endorsement, the Witan (the council of royal advisors) unanimously selected Harold as King. His coronation took place the same day as Edward's burial. With the placing of the crown on his head, Harold's troubles began.
Across the English Channel, William, Duke of Normandy, also laid claim to the English throne. William justified his claim through his blood relationship with Edward (they were distant cousins) and by stating that some years earlier, Edward had designated him as his successor. To compound the issue, William asserted that the message in which Edward anointed him as the next King of England had been carried to him in 1064 by none other than Harold himself. In addition, (according to William) Harold had sworn on the relics of a martyred saint that he would support William's right to the throne. From William's perspective, when Harold donned the Crown he not only defied the wishes of Edward but had violated a sacred oath. He immediately prepared to invade England and destroy the upstart Harold. Harold's violation of his sacred oath enabled William to secure the support of the Pope who promptly excommunicated Harold, consigning him and his supporters to an eternity in Hell.
The third rival for the throne was Harald Hardrada, King of Norway. His justification was even more tenuous than William's. Hardrada ruled Norway jointly with his nephew Mangus until 1047 when Mangus conveniently died. Earlier (1042), Mangus had cut a deal with Harthacut the Danish ruler of England. Since neither ruler had a male heir, both promised their kingdom to the other in the event of his death. Harthacut died but Mangus was unable to follow up on his claim to the English throne because he was too busy battling for the rule of Denmark. Edward became the Anglo-Saxon ruler of England. Now with Mangus and Edward dead, Hardrada asserted that he, as Mangus's heir, was the rightful ruler of England. When he heard of Harold's coronation, Hardrada immediately prepared to invade England and crush the upstart.
Hardrada of Norway struck first. In mid September, Hardrada's invasion force landed on the Northern English coast, sacked a few coastal villages and headed towards the city of York. Hardrada was joined in his effort by Tostig, King Harold's nere-do-well brother. The Viking army overwhelmed an English force blocking the York road and captured the city. In London, news of the invasion sent King Harold hurriedly north at the head of his army picking up reinforcements along the way. The speed of Harold's forced march allowed him to surprise Hardrada's army on September 25, as it camped at Stamford Bridge outside York. A fierce battle followed. Hand to hand combat ebbed and flowed across the bridge. Finally the Norsemen's line broke and the real slaughter began. Hardrada fell and then the King's brother, Tostig. What remained of the Viking army fled to their ships. So devastating was the Viking defeat that only 24 of the invasion force's original 240 ships made the trip back home. Resting after his victory, Harold received word of William's landing near Hastings.
Construction of the Norman invasion fleet had been completed in July and all was ready for the Channel crossing. Unfortunately, William's ships could not penetrate an uncooperative north wind and for six weeks he languished on the Norman shore. Finally, on September 27, after parading the relics of St. Valery at the water's edge, the winds shifted to the south and the fleet set sail. The Normans made landfall on the English coast near Pevensey and marched to Hastings.
Harold rushed his army south and planted his battle standards atop a knoll some five miles from Hastings. During the early morning of the next day, October 14, Harold's army watched as a long column of Norman warriors marched to the base of the hill and formed a battle line. Separated by a few hundred yards, the lines of the two armies traded taunts and insults. At a signal, the Norman archers took their position at the front of the line. The English at the top of the hill responded by raising their shields above their heads forming a shield-wall to protect them from the rain of arrows. The battle was joined.
The English fought defensively while the Normans infantry and cavalry repeatedly charged their shield-wall. As the combat slogged on for the better part of the day, the battle's outcome was in question. Finally, as evening approached, the English line gave way and the Normans rushed their enemy with a vengeance. King Harold fell as did the majority of the Saxon aristocracy. William's victory was complete. On Christmas day 1066, William was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
The Bayeux Tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry (actually an embroidery measuring over 230 feet long and 20 inches wide) describes the Norman invasion of England and the events that led up to it. It is believed that the Tapestry was commissioned by Bishop Odo, bishop of Bayeux and the half-brother of William the Conqueror. The Tapestry contains hundreds of images divided into scenes each describing a particular event. The scenes are joined into a linear sequence allowing the viewer to "read" the entire story starting with the first scene and progressing to the last. The Tapestry would probably have been displayed in a church for public view.
History is written by the victors and the Tapestry is above all a Norman document. In a time when the vast majority of the population was illiterate, the Tapestry's images were designed to tell the story of the conquest of England from the Norman perspective. It focuses on the story of William, making no mention of Hardrada of Norway nor of Harold's victory at Stamford Bridge. The following are some excerpts taken from this extraordinary document.
King Edward sends Harold on a Mission
The Tapestry's story begins in 1064. King Edward, who has no heirs, has decided that William of Normandy will succeed him. Having made his decision; Edward calls upon Harold to deliver the message.
This at any rate, is the Norman interpretation of events for King Edward's selection of William is critical to the legitimacy of William's later claim to the English crown. It is also important that Harold deliver the message, as the tapestry explains in later scenes.
In this scene King Edward leans forward entrusting Harold with his message. Harold immediately sets out on his fateful journey.
Harold Swears an Oath to William
Pursuing his mission, the Tapestry describes how Harold crosses the English Channel to Normandy, is held hostage by a Norman count and is finally rescued by William.
Harold ends up in William's castle at Bayeux on the Norman coast where he supposedly delivers the message from King Edward. At this point the Tapestry describes a critical event. Having received the message that Edward has anointed him as his successor; William calls upon Harold to swear an oath of allegiance to him and to his right to the throne. The Tapestry shows Harold, both hands placed upon religious relics enclosed in two shrines, swearing his oath as William looks on. The onlookers, including William, point to the event to add further emphasis. One observer (far right) places his hand over his heart to underscore the sacredness of Harold's action. Although William is seated, he appears larger in size than Harold. The disproportion emphasizes Harold's inferior status to William. The Latin inscription reads "Where Harold took an oath to Duke William."
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Tuesday, 31 December 2013
battle of hasting norman conquest
Monday, 23 December 2013
anglo norman period
II. ANGLO-NORMAN PERIOD (1066-1215)
Wace, Arthurian Romance, Welsh Poetry, Layamon...
The 11th century is remarkably barren in great names and memories which, captivate the imagination, it was, however, an advance upon the 10th, which Baronius has described as the central and worst period of intellectual darkness. In England, for about 150 years after the Conquest, there was no unity of intellectual life; in political life, however, the iron hand of the Conqueror compelled an external uniformity, by the exaction of homage to himself. The strength of the Norman monarchy, the absence of religious differences, and, after a time, the loss of Normandy, were causes working powerfully in aid of the conciliation and interfusion of the of the different elements of the population. But at first was as if three separate nations were emcamped confusedly on British soil – the Normans, the English, and the Welsh. The clergy, as a fourth power, of all nationalities or of none, became, - by its use of Latin as a common tongue, by preaching a common faith and teaching a common philosophy, and as representing the equality and charity which are among the essential features of Christianity, - an ever present mediating influence tending to break down the partitions between the camps. The intellectual state and progress of each nation, down to and a little beyond the end of the 12th century, must now be briefly discussed.
1. Normans – In less than two centuries after the Northmen under Rollo had settled in Normandy, they had not only exchanged their Teutonic speech for the language of France, but made, - with French as the medium of expression, - remarkable literacy progress. In this progress the Normans settled in England participated to the full. It is probable that the Turoldus, who, availing himself of earlier Frankish lays and chronicles, composed towards the end of the 11th century the noble heroic poem called the Chansom de Roland, was an abbot of Peterborough, son of the clerk of the same name who was the Conqueror’s preceptor. From the reign of Henry I., though the names of several writers are known, little of importance has come down to us. The treatise on politeness called Urbanus, attributed to Henry himself, is in all probability the composition of a later age. The works of the hapless satirist, Lue de la Barre, are not extant, and Evrard’s translation (1130) of Cato’s Disticha into French verse is not a noteworthy performance. The reign of Stephen, though confusion and civil war prevailed over a great part England, witnessed an extraordinary outburst of literacy activity. Of the historians who shed a luster on this reign we shall speak in a different connexion; but it was also memorable for its French poets. Guichard of Beaulieu, a cell of St.Albans’s (1150), produced a poem in Alexandrines of some merit, on the vices of the stage age; Geoffrey Gaimar (1140) wrote his lively Estorie des Engles (a chronicle of the Anglo-Saxon kings); and Benoit de Ste More, either in this early reign or early in that of Henry II.,, produced a vast poem on the History of the War of Troy, which seems to have been the original exemplar on which the numerous "Troy-books" of later generations were modeled. The family of Benoit was of Norman extraction, but settled in England. Under Henry II, whose ceaseless and enlightened energy stimulated production wherever it was exerted, French poetry took an ever bolder sweep. Robert wace, a native of Jersey and a clerk of caen, composed about 1155 his famous Brut d’ Angleterre, a history of the kings of Britain from Brutus to Cadwallader, founded on the Historia Britonum of Geoffrey for Monmouth. Again, when Henry had commissioned Benoit to write a metrical history of the dukes of Normandy, the quick-witted wace anticipated his slower rival, and produced in 1160 the first part of the Roman de Rou, treating of the same subject.
Thus far we have considered the Anglo-Norman poets chiefly as chroniclers; we have now to regard them as romance writers. It is true that in their hands history slides into romance, and vice versa; thus the Brut d’ angletrre may be regarded as historical in so far as it treats of the series of British kings, mythical as that seies itself may be, but as a romance in most of that portion of it which is devoted to the adventures of Arthur. We here enter upon a wide field; the stores of Arthurian, Carlovingian, and general chivalrous romance suggest themselves to the fund to the mind; a thousand interesting inquiries present themselves; but the limits traced for us prescribe a treatment little more than allusive; that is, French romance can only be described in virtue of the stimulating and suggestive effect which it had English writers. This effect was produced is a measure by great poems like the Alexadreis (1200), by the original French romances on Charlemagne and his peers, and by that on the third crusade and the powers of King Richard. But the romances relating to Arthur, doubtless on account of the extent to which they really sprang from British soil, were those which most profoundly stirred the English mind. It is not difficult to trace the steps by which the legend grew. Gildas, writing in the 6th century, knows of Arthur’s victory at Mount Badon, but does not name him. Nenius, whose date is uncertain but who should probably be assigned to the 9th century, mention the same victory as one of several which were gained by" magnanimous Arthur" over the Saxon invader. Three centuries pass, and the story comes to us again, greatly amplified, in the British History of Geoffrey of Monmouth (1126). This history, Geoffrey assures us, was founded upon a book in the Breton language, brought over from Britanny by an archedeacon of Oxford. Ritson scouted the assertion as fictitious, yet it was probably true, and the supposition of a Breton origin for his history is exactly what would best account for the great development which we find the Arthur legend to have now attained, in comparison with the age of Nennius. For Britanny was the fruitful parent of numbersless forms of imaginative fiction, - a trait noticed by Chaucer:
"These olde gentil Bretons in their daies,
Of divers aventures maden laies:"
and what character would the Breton bards be more likely to embellish than of the hero king, who, during and before the migration of their forefathers, had made such a gallant stand against the Saxon? Yet, though Geoffrey has so much to tell us of Arthur, he is silent about the Round Table. That specified feature of the legend first appears in the Brut of Wace, and was probably derived from Breton poems or traditions to which Geoffrey had not access. Layamon reproduces it, with additional details, in his version of Wace. Other branches of Arthurian romance, especially those relating to Tristan and Perceval, became about this time widely popular; it is to this period also that the Chavalier du Lion of Chretien de Troyes belongs. Suddenly there is a great change. A cycle of romance, which till now had breathed only of revenge, slaughter, race- hartreds, unlawful love, magic and witchcraft becomes transformed in a few years into a series of mystical legends, symbolizing and teaching one of the profoundest dogmas of the Catholic creed. This strange effect was produced by the infusion into the Arthur legend of the conception of the Saint Graal, the holy vessel used by Christ at the Last Supper, and containing drops of his blood, which Joseph of Arimathes, was said to have brought into Britain. This transformation seems to have been executed by Walter Map, the remarkable Welshman whose genius decisively colours the intellectual history of the last forty years of the 12th century. Map is said to have written a Latin of the Graal, which is not now extant; yet from it all the authors of the French prose romances on Arthur and the Saint Graal which appeared between 1170 to 1230 – Robert de Borron, his kinsman Helie, Luc de Gast, and Map himself – profess to have translated their compositions. The chief of these works are the Saint Graal, Merlin, the Quest of the Saint Graal, Lancelot, Tristan and Mort Artur. In all, to "achieve the Saint Graal," that is, to find or see that holy vessel which, on account of the sins of men, had long since vanished from Britain, is represented as the heights of chivalrous ambition; but among all Arthur’s knights, only Sir, Galahad, the son of Lancelot, is sufficiently pure in heart to be favoured with the sublime version. English versions, more or less literal, of these romances, among which may be named the works of Lonelich and Sir Thomas Malory, and the alliterative poem of Joseph of Arimathie, attest the great and enduring popularity of the Graal form of Arthurian legend.
2. After a long period of silence, the bardic poetry of Wales broke out, just when the independence of the nation was about to be extinguished, into passionate and varied utterance. The princess who struggled successfully against the attacks of Henry II, found gifted bards – Gwalchmai, Elidir, Gwion, &c. – to celebrate in fiercely strains their imperfect triumphs. A translation of one of Gwalchmai’s odes may be found, under the title of the Triumph of Owen, among Gray’s poems. Supposed "Prophecies of Merlin," a sample of which may be seen in the strange work of Geoffrey of Monmouth, fed the popular belief that Arthur yet lived, and would return one day to Wales as a deliverer. Both the Triads and the Mobinogion refer in part to Arthur, but from different stand – points. In the Triads such mention as there is of him represents him as a British king, doing battle with the foes, of his race, and full of a sententious wit and wisdom. In the Mabinogion the indigenous Welsh is over-powered by that of the Norman trouves; we have the Arthur, not of history or tradition, but of chivalry; the mysterious Saint Graal proves as attractive to the Celtic as to the Teutonic imagination. Three of the romances by Chretien de Troyes appears in a Welsh dress among the tales of the Mabinogion. After the loss of independenceunder Edward L., the importance and originally of Welsh literature appear to have progressively declined.
3. The English-speaking portion – that is, the great mass – of the population, down to the reign of John, has left few literacy traces of its existence. Whoever wished to move amongst the educated and cultured classes, and to associate with persons of rank, authority, or influence, found it necessary, though he might be descended from Alfred himself, to speak French in good society, and to write in French whatever he wished good society to read. From the Conquest to 1200, the industry of the most lynx – eyed antiquary has discovered – with the exception of the continuation of the Saxon Chronicle – no literacy record the continuation of the Saxon Chronicle – no literary record in English beyond a few short fragments, such as the lines preserved as a part of Canute’s ksong by Thomas of Ely, the prophecy of Here, and the hymm of St. Godris. The continuation beyond the Conquest of the Saxon Chronicle was made by the monks of Peterborough. It is not complete for the reign of Stephen, passing over several years subsilention; but it records the accession of Henry II in 1154, and then ends abruptly. The writer or writers were perhaps unable to stand up any longer against the then universal fashion of employing Latin for any serious prose work. Moreover, as the Anglo-Saxon was no longer taught in schools nor spoken in the higher circles of society, it had lst much of its original harmony and precision of structure; and "when the annalist found himself using one inflexion for another, or dropping inflexions altogether, he may well have thought it high time to exchange a tongue which seemed to be crumbling and breaking up, for one whose were fixed and grammar rational.Little did the downl – hearted monk anticipate the future glories which, after a crisis of transformation and fusion, would surround his rude ancestral tongue."
A few years after the beginning of the 13th century we have to note the appearance of an important and interesting work in English – Layanon’s Brut. But it can scarely be said to belong to English literature, unless Beowulf and Judith be similarly classified, for the language is almost as purely Teutonic as in these. In the older version of the Brut not more than fifty words of Latin or French origin have been found; and of these several were in common use in England before the Conquest. The Brut is strictly a monument of the age of transition. We need not, with some writers, call the language "semi – Saxon;" it is certainly English, and, from a particular point of view, English than we speak now; but it is not that form of English which, from first to last, has been the instrument employed to build up English literature. That form, as we shall see in the next section, was determined and conditioned by the necessity of effecting a compromise between the speech of the governors and that of the governed, so that the new standard English should remain, as to its grammatical framework, comparatively intact, while admitting to its franchise, and enrolling among its vocables, an indefinite numbers of foreign recruits.
The work of Layamon is a translation, but with very considerable additions, of Wace’s Brut d’ Angleterre. The most interesting of these additions (the sources of which have not been as yet pointed out) constitute an expansion of the legendary history of Arthur. Layamon was the parish priest of Ernly – on Severn (now Areley Regis), a remote Worcestershire village, far from the capital or any large city. At such a place Norman influence would be at a minimum; the people would go on from one generation to another, living and speaking much as their fathers did before them; and we may suppose some indications of literacy taste and poetic feeling among members of his flock, the good Layamon took this way of gratifying them. But it must be carefully observed that in the Brut, although the language is English, the poetical atmosphere, the intellectual horizon, and even the cast of diction, are Norman – French. The rich poetic vocabulary of the Anglo – Saxon poets, traceable as late as the reign of Edgar, has vanished beyond recovery. Not one of the innumerable poetic compounds relating to battle and victory which are found in Beowulf, Andreas, &c., occurs in the duller pages of the Brut. Words expressive of jurisdiction and government, of which the Anglo-Saxon, while the native race was dominant, had a great variety, are in the Brut, if used at all, borrowed to a large from French. The labours of the clergy and monks during all this period were applied with unwearying diligence and signal success to the building up of a Latin literature. In the list of chronicles occur the well-known names of Florence of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, and Henry of Huntingdon. Many histories of particular monasteries were written, and have recently to a large extent been made accessible, through the labours of editors employed under the superintendent of the Master of the Rolls. St Anselm, Archibishop of Canterbury in the reigns of William II, and Henry I., employed his great metaphysical and dialectical powers in the endeavor to establish a harmony between reason and faith. The scholastic philosophy, technically speaking, began with Peter Lombard and his Book of Sentences (1151); from the university of Paris it spread all over Europe; and in the next period it will be seen that several of the most eminent schoolmen were natives of the British Isles. The works of our countryman, John of Salisbury, who studied and resided much at Paris about the middle of the century, throw a curious light on the tenets and mutual relations of the scholastic sects.
Sunday, 22 December 2013
about middle english
Anglo-Norman literature, also called Norman-french Literature, or Anglo-french Literature, body of writings in the Old French language as used in medievalEngland. Though this dialect had been introduced to English court circles in Edward the Confessor’s time, its history really began with the Norman Conquest in 1066, when it became the vernacular of the court, the law, the church, schools, universities, parliament, and later of municipalities and of trade. For the English aristocracy, Anglo-Norman became an acquired tongue and its use a test of gentility. It was introduced into Wales and Ireland and used to a limited extent in Scotland. The earliest extant literary texts in the Anglo-Norman dialect belonged to the reign of Henry I in the early 12th century, the latest to that of Henry IV in the early 15th century. The alienation toward France during the Hundred Years’ War started an increasing use of English, the last strongholds of a French dialect being Parliament and the law, in both of which it still survives in a few formulas.
From the 12th through the 14th century, Anglo-Norman was second only to Latin in its use as a literary language in England. Most types of literary works were represented in Anglo-Norman as in French, with a slight difference of emphasis. The chanson de geste was an exception; this type of French epic poem was not unknown in England, but there seem to have been no original works of the kind written there. Conversely, Anglo-Norman works were known, copied, or imitated on the Continent. One important difference between continental and Anglo-Norman literature is that the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 led to an outpouring of doctrinal and devotional works for the laity in England not paralleled in France, which perhaps explains the fact that in the early periods England was often in advance of the Continent in the development of new literary forms. Historical writing was popular both in Normandy and in the rest of the Continent; and although, after the Norman Conquest, Latin replaced English for use in documents and chronicles, examples of both are found in Anglo-Norman. Religious houses caused lives of native saints to be written, and the nobility had a taste for romances about imaginary English ancestors. Thus social and political differences between the two countries prevented Anglo-Norman literature from being a mere provincial imitation of French.
Religious and didactic writings.
In the 12th century the oldest substantial Anglo-Norman prose work, “The Book of Kings,” was written in England, as were many versions of the Psalter. Sanson de Nanteuil translated into verse the proverbs of Solomon, with commentary; and in the 13th century Robert of Greatham wrote the “Sunday Gospels” for a noble lady. The same century saw the beginning of the magnificent series of Anglo-Norman apocalypses, best known for their superb illustrations, which served as a model for a series of tapestries at Angers, France. Anglo-Norman was rich inliterature of legends of saints, of which Benedeit’s “Voyage of St. Brendan” was perhaps the oldest purely narrative French poem in the octosyllabic couplet. Wace led the way in writing a saint’s life in standard form but was followed by Anglo-Norman writers in the 12th century who wrote numerous biographies, many connecting religious houses with their patron saints.
The earliest play entirely in French, the Mystère d’Adam, is Anglo-Norman. The resurrection playLa Seinte Resureccion was probably 12th century but was rewritten more than once in the 13th century. There were a few religious allegories, the most important, the “Castle of Love,” being the oldest in French.
The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 led to the compilation of instructive works, the oldest and most attractive being the Merure de seinte église (“Mirror of Holy Church”) by St. Edmund of Abingdon. In the 13th–14th century countless treatises appeared on technical subjects—manuals for confession, agriculture, law, medicine, grammar, and science, together with works dealing with manners, hunting, hawking, and chess. Spelling treatises produced in the late 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries are valuable for the light they shed on continental French as well as Anglo-Norman.
Romances.
Anglo-Norman literature was well provided with romances. In the 12th century one Thomas wrote a courtly version of the Tristan story, which survived in scattered fragments and was used by Gottfried von Strassburg in Tristan und Isolde as well as being the source of the Old Norse, Italian, and Middle English versions of the story. Béroul’s Tristan, also 12th century, was probably written in England, but by a Norman; Waldef, a long, confused story of an imaginary king of East Anglia and his sons, has passages of remarkable originality. In the 12th century some romances were composed in the form of the chanson de geste; for example, Horn, by Master Thomas, which is connected with the Middle English Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild.Yet another Thomas wrote the Roman de toute chevalerie (“Romance of All Chivalry”), an independent version of the Alexander romance and the source of the Middle English romanceKing Alisaunder. In the 13th century the more courtly type of romance reappeared in Amadas et Idoine and in Amis et Amiloun.
Lais and fabliaux.
Marie de France, the earliest named French woman poet, wrote fables based on an English source and 12 narrative lays (dedicated, probably, to Henry II of England) in octosyllabic rhymed couplets. She claimed that they had Breton lays as their originals. The lais combined realistic and fairy-tale elements, and their author was skillful in the analysis of love problems and often showed a keen interest in contemporary life. A few other fabliaux have been found copied in manuscripts from religious houses, probably for exemplary purposes.
Political and historical writings.
Fragments of political songs are found in Peter Langtoft’s Chronicle, which begins as a Brut—a complete chronicle of British history—but became a source for the times of Edward I. The Dominican Nicholas Trevet wrote a prose chronicle of European history from which Chaucer derived his “Man of Law’s Tale.” Earlier than these was an Anglo-Norman verse, Estoire des Engleis, by Geffrei Gaimar (c. 1140), which is the earliest chronicle in French. Two magnificent biographies of the 1st Earl of Pembroke (William Marshal) and of Edward, the Black Prince, were written for English patrons by foreigners. Official documents were often in Anglo-Norman, and the Yearbooks, unofficial reports of cases in the common pleas, ran from the reign of Edward I to that of Henry VIII. English began to be used in Parliament alongside French in the late 14th century.
Natural history and science. One of the earliest writers in Anglo-Norman, Philippe de Thaon, or Thaün, wrote Li Cumpoz (The Computus), the first French bestiary, and a work on precious stones. Simund de Freine based his Roman de philosophie on Boethius, to whom the 13th-century Petite Philosophie also owes much.
Saturday, 21 December 2013
middle english period history
Of far greater importance, however, are the works which constitute Anglo-Norman historiography. The first Anglo-Norman historiographer is Geoffrey Gaimar, who wrote his Estorie des Angles (between 1147 and 1151) for Dame Constance, wife of Ralph FitzGilbert (The Anglo-Norman Metrical Chronicle, Hardy and Martin, i. ii., London, 1888). This history comprised a first part (now lost), which was merely a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, preceded by a history of the Trojan War, and a second part which carries us as far as the death of William Rufus. For this second part he has consulted historical documents, but he stops at the year 1087, just when he has reached the period about which he might have been able to give us some first-hand information. Similarly, Wace in his Roman de Rou (ed. Anthony Holden, Paris, 1970–1973), written 1160–1174, stops at the battle of Tinchebray in 1107 just before the period for which he would have been so useful. His Brut or Geste des Bretons (Le Roux de Lincy, 1836–1838, 2 vols.), written in 1155, is merely a translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
- "Wace," says Gaston Paris, speaking of the Roman de Rou, "traduit en les abrégeant des historiens latins que nous possédons; mais çà et là il ajoute soit des contes populaires, par exemple sur Richard 1er, sur Robert 1er, soit des particularités qu'il savait par tradition (sur ce même Robert le magnifique, sur l'expédition de Guillaume, &c.) et qui donnent à son oeuvre un réel intérêt historique. Sa langue est excellente; son style clair, serré, simple, d'ordinaire assez monotone, vous plaît par sa saveur archaïque et quelquefois par une certaine grâce et une certaine malice."
The History of the Dukes of Normandy by Benoît de Sainte-More is based on the work of Wace. It was composed at the request of Henry II. about 1170, and takes us as far as the year 1135 (ed. by Francisque Michel, 1836–1844, Collection de documents inédits, 3 vols.). The 43,000 lines which it contains are of but little interest to the historian; they are too evidently the work of a romancier courtois,who takes pleasure in recounting love-adventures such as those he has described in his romance of Troy. Other works, however, give us more trustworthy information, for example, the anonymous poem on Henry II.'s Conquest of Ireland in 1172 (ed. Francisque Michel, London, 1837), which, together with the Expugnatio hibernica of Giraud de Barri, constitutes our chief authority on this subject. TheConquest of Ireland was republished in 1892 by Goddard Henry Orpen, under the title of The Song of Dermot and the Earl (Oxford, Clarendon Press). Similarly, Jourdain Fantosme, who was in the north of England in 1174, wrote an account of the wars between Henry II., his sons, William the Lion of Scotland and Louis VII., in 1173 and 1174 (Chronicle of the reigns of Stephen ... III., ed. by Joseph Stevenson and Fr. Michel, London, 1886, pp. 202–307). Not one of these histories, however, is to be compared in value with The History of William the Marshal, Count of Striguil and Pembroke, regent of England from 1216–1219, which was found and subsequently edited by Paul Meyer (Société de l'histoire de France, 3 vols., 1891–1901). This masterpiece of historiography was composed in 1225 or 1226 by a professional poet of talent at the request of William, son of the marshal. It was compiled from the notes of the marshal's squire, John d'Early (d. 1230 or 1231), who shared all the vicissitudes of his master's life and was one of the executors of his will. This work is of great value for the history of the period 1186–1219, as the information furnished by John d'Early is either personal or obtained at first hand. In the part which deals with the period before 1186, it is true, there are various mistakes, due to the author's ignorance of contemporary history, but these slight blemishes are amply atoned for by the literary value of the work. The style is concise, the anecdotes are well told, the descriptions short and picturesque; the whole constitutes one of the most living pictures of medieval society. Very pale by the side of this work appear the Chronique of Peter of Langtoft, written between 1311 and 1320, and mainly of interest for the period 1294–1307 (ed. by T. Wright, London, 1866–1868); the Chronique of Nicholas Trevet (1258?–1328?), dedicated to Princess Mary, daughter of Edward I. (Duffus Hardy, Descr. Catal. III., 349-350); the Scala Chronica compiled by Thomas Gray of Heaton († c. 1369), which carries us to the year 1362-1363 (ed. by J. Stevenson, Maitland Club, Edinburgh, 1836); the Black Prince, a poem by the poet Chandos Herald, composed about 1386, and relating the life of the Black Prince from 1346-1376 (re-edited by Francisque Michel, London and Paris, 1883); and, lastly, the different versions of the Brutes, the form and historical importance of which have been indicated by Paul Meyer (Bulletin de la Société des anciens textes français, 1878, pp. 104–145), and by F. W. D. Brie (Geschichte und Quellen der mittelenglischen Prosachronik, The Brute of England or The Chronicles of England, Marburg, 1905).
Finally we may mention, as ancient history, the translation of Eutropius and Dares, by Geoffrey of Waterford (13th century), who gave also the Secret des Secrets, a translation from a work wrongly attributed to Aristotle, which belongs to the next division (Rom. xxiii. 314).
Didactic literature[edit]
middle english poetry
Middle-English Or Anglo-Norman Period (1100-1500)
The Normans, who were residing in Normandy(France) defeated the Anglo-Saxon King at the Battle of Hastings (1066) and conquered England.
The Norman Conquest inaugurated a distinctly new epoch in the literary as well as political history ofEngland. The Anglo-Saxon authors were then as suddenly and permanently displaced as the Anglo-Saxon king.
The literature afterwards read and written by Englishmen was thereby as completely transformed as the sentiments and tastes of English rulers. The foreign types of literature introduced after the Norman Conquest first found favour with the monarchs and courtiers, and were deliberately fostered by them, to the disregard of native forms. No effective protest was possible by the Anglo-Saxons, and English thought for centuries to come was largely fashioned in the manner of the French. Throughout the whole period, which we call the Middle English period (as belonging to the Middle Ages or Medieval times in the History of Britain) or the Anglo-Norman period, in forms of artistic expression as well as of religious service, the English openly acknowledged a Latin control.
It is true that before the Norman Conquest the Anglo-Saxons had a body of native literature distinctly superior to any European vernacular. But one cannot deny that the Normans came to their land when they greatly needed an external stimulus. The Conquest effected a wholesome awakening of national life. The people were suddenly inspired by a new vision of a greater future. They became united in a common hope. In course of time the Anglo-Saxons lost their initial hostility to the new comers, and all became part and parcel of one nation. The Normans not only brought with them soldiers and artisans and traders, they also imported scholars to revive knowledge, chroniclers to record memorable events, minstrels to celebrate victories, or sing of adventure and love.
The great difference between the two periods—Anglo-Saxon period and Anglo-Norman period, is marked by the disappearance of the old English poetry. There is nothing during the Anglo-Norman period likeBeowulf or Fall of the Angels. The later religious poetry has little in it to recall the finished art of Cynewulf. Anglo-Saxon poetry, whether derived from heathendom or from the Church, has ideas and manners of its own; it comes to perfection, and then it dies away. It seems that Anglo-Saxon poetry grows to rich maturity, and then disappears, as with the new forms of language and under new influences, the poetical education started again, and so the poetry of the Anglo-Norman period has nothing in common the Anglo-Saxon poetry.
The most obvious change in literary expression appears in the vehicle employed. For centuries Latin had been more or less spoken or written by the clergy in England. The Conquest which led to the reinvigoration of the monasteries and the tightening of the ties with Rome, determined its more extensive use. Still more important, as a result of foreign sentiment in court and castle, it caused writings in the English vernacular to be disregarded, and established French as the natural speech of the cultivated and the high-born. The clergy insisted on the use of Latin, the nobility on the use of French; no one of influence saw the utility of English as a means of perpetuating thought, and for nearly three centuries very few works appeared in the native tongue.
In spite of the English language having been thrown into the background, some works were composed in it, though they echoed in the main the sentiments and tastes of the French writers, as French then was the supreme arbiter of European literary style. Another striking characteristic of medieval literature is its general anonymity. Of the many who wrote the names of but few are recorded, and of the history of these few we have only the most meagre details. It was because originality was deplored as a fault, and independence of treatment was a heinous offence in their eyes.
(a) The Romances
The most popular form of literature during the Middle English period was the romances. No literary productions of the Middle Ages are so characteristic, none so perennially attractive as those that treat romantically of heroes and heroines of by-gone days. These romances are notable for their stories rather than their poetry, and they, like the drama afterwards, furnished the chief mental recreation of time for the great body of the people. These romances were mostly borrowed from Latin and French sources. They deal with the stories of King Arthur, The War of Troy, the mythical doings of Charlemagne and of Alexander the Great.
(b) The Miracle and Morality Plays
In the Middle English period Miracle plays became very popular. From the growth and development of the Bible story, scene by scene, carried to its logical conclusion, this drama—developed to an enormous cycle of sacred history, beginning with the creation of man, his fall and banishment from the Garden of Eden and extending through the more important matters of the Old Testament and life of Christ in the New to the summoning of the quick and the dead on the day of final judgment. This kind of drama is called the miracle play—sometimes less correctly the mystery play—and it flourished throughout England from the reign of Henry II to that of Elizabeth (1154-1603).
Another form of drama which flourished during the Middle Ages was the Morality plays. In these plays the uniform theme is the struggle between the powers of good and evil for the mastery of the soul of man. The personages were abstract virtues, or vices, each acting and speaking in accordance with his name; and the plot was built upon their contrasts and influences on human nature, with the intent to teach right living and uphold religion. In a word, allegory is the distinguishing mark of the moral plays. In these moral plays the protagonist is always an abstraction; he is Mankind, the Human Race, the Pride of Life, and there is an attempt to compass the whole scope of man’s experience and temptations in life, as there had been a corresponding effort in the Miracle plays to embrace the complete range of sacred history, the life of Christ, and the redemption of the world.
(c) William Langland (1332 ?…?)
One of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages was William Langland, and his poem, A Vision of Piers the Plowman holds an important place in English literature. In spite of its archaic style, it is a classic work in English literature. This poem, which is a satire on the corrupt religious practices, throws light on the ethical problems of the day. The character assumed by Langland is that of the prophet, denouncing the sins of society and encouraging men to aspire to a higher life. He represents the dissatisfaction of the lower and the more thinking classes of English society, as Chaucer represents the content of the aristocracy and the prosperous middle class. Although Langland is essentially a satiric poet, he has decided views on political and social questions. The feudal system is his ideal; he desires no change in the institution of his days, and he thinks that all would be well if the different orders of society would do their duty. Like Dante and Bunyan, he ennobles his satire by arraying it in a garb of allegory; and he is intensely real.
(d) John Gower (1325?—1408)
Gower occupies an important place in the development of English poetry. Though it was Chaucer who played the most important role in this direction, Gower’s contribution cannot be ignored. Gower represents the English culmination of that courtly medieval poetry which had its rise in France two or three hundred years before. He is a great stylist, and he proved that English might compete with the other languages which had most distinguished themselves in poetry. Gower is mainly a narrative poet and his most important work is Confession Amantis, which is in the form of conversation between the poet and a divine interpreter. It is an encyclopaedia of the art of love, and satirises the vanities of the current time. Throughout the collection of stories which forms the major portion of Confession Amantis, Gower presents himself as a moralist. Though Gower was inferior to Chaucer, it is sufficient that they were certainly fellow pioneers, fellow schoolmasters, in the task of bringingEngland to literature. Up to their time, the literary production of England had been exceedingly rudimentary and limited. Gower, like Chaucer, performed the function of establishing the form of English as a thoroughly equipped medium of literature.
(e) Chaucer (1340?…1400)
It was, in fact, Chaucer who was the real founder of English poetry, and he is rightly called the ‘Father of English Poetry’. Unlike the poetry of his predecessors and contemporaries, which is read by few except professed scholars, Chaucer’s poetry has been read and enjoyed continuously from his own day to this, and the greatest of his successors, from Spenser and Milton to Tennyson and William Morris, have joined in praising it. Chaucer, in fact, made a fresh beginning in English literature. He disregarded altogether the old English tradition. His education as a poet was two-fold. Part of it came from French and Italian literatures, but part of it came from life. He was not a mere bookman, nor was he in the least a visionary. Like Shakespeare and Milton, he was, on the contrary, a man of the world and of affairs.
The most famous and characteristic work of Chaucer is the Canterbury Tales, which is a collection of stories related by the pilgrims on their way to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. These pilgrims represent different sections of contemporary English society, and in the description of the most prominent of these people in the Prologue Chaucer’s powers are shown at their very highest. All these characters are individualized, yet their thoroughly typical quality gives unique value to Chaucer’s picture of men and manners in the England of his time.
The Canterbury Tales is a landmark in the history of English poetry because here Chaucer enriched the English language and metre to such an extent, that now it could be conveniently used for any purpose. Moreover, by introducing a variety of highly-finished characters into a single action, and engaging them in an animated dialogue, Chaucer fulfilled every requirement of the dramatist, short of bringing his plays on the stage. Also, by drawing finished and various portraits in verse, he showed the way to the novelists to portray characters.
Chaucer’s works fall into three periods. During the first period he imitated French models, particularly the famous and very long poem Le Roman de la Roseof which he made a translation—Romaunt of the Rose.This poem which gives an intimate introduction to the medieval French romances and allegories of courtly love, is the embryo out of which all Chaucer’s poetry grows. During this period he also wrote the Book of the Duchess, an elegy, which in its form and nature is like the Romaunt of the Rose; Complaint unto Pity, a shorter poem and ABC, a series of stanzas religious in tone, in which each opens with a letter of the alphabet in order.
The poems of the second period (1373-84) show the influence of Italian literature, especially of Dante’sDivine Comedy and Boccaccio’s poems. In this period he wrote The Parliament of Fowls, which contains very dramatic and satiric dialogues between the assembled birds; Troilus and Criseyde, which narrates the story of the Trojan prince Troilus and his love for a damsel, Creseida; The Story of Griselda, in which is given a pitiful picture of womanhood; and The House of Fame, which is a masterpiece of comic fantasy, with a graver undertone of contemplation of human folly.
Chaucer’s third period (1384-90) may be called the English period, because in it he threw off foreign influences and showed native originality. In theLegend of Good Woman he employed for the first time the heroic couplet. It was during this period that he wrote The Canterbury Tales, his greatest poetic achievement, which places us in the heart of London. Here we find his gentle, kindly humour, which is Chaucer’s greatest quality, at its very best.
Chaucer’s importance in the development of English literature is very great because he removed poetry from the region of Metaphysics and Theology, and made it hold as “twere the mirror up to nature”. He thus brought back the old classical principle of the direct imitation of nature.
(f) Chaucer’s Successors
After Chaucer there was a decline in English poetry for about one hundred years. The years from 1400 to the Renaissance were a period bereft of literature. There were only a few minor poets, the imitators and successors of Chaucer, who are called the English and Scottish Chaucerians who wrote during this period. The main cause of the decline of literature during this period was that no writer of genius was born during those long years. Chaucer’s successors were Occieeve, Lydgate, Hawes, Skelton Henryson, Dunbar and Douglas. They all did little but copy him, and they represent on era of mediocrity in English literature that continues up to the time of the Renaissance.
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