The Leading Facts of English History Part 8

100. Art.

The English were skillful workers in metal, especially in gold and silver, and also in the illumination of ma.n.u.scripts.[1] Alfred's Jewel, a fine specimen of the blue-enameled gold of the ninth century, is preseved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. It bears the inscription: "Alfred me heht gewurcan," Alfred caused me to be worked [or made].

[1] These illuminations get their name from the gold, silver, and bright colors used in the pictures, borders, and decorated letters with which the monks ornamented these books. For beautiful specimens of he work, see Silvestre's "Pale'ographie."

The women of that period excelled in weaving fine linen and woolen cloth and in embroidering tapestry.

101. Architecture.

In architecture no advance took place until very late. The small ancient church at Bradford-on-Avon in the south of England belongs to the Saxon period. The Saxon stonework exhibited in a few buildings like the church tower of Earl's Barton, Northamptonshire, is an attempt to imitate timber with stone, and has been called "stone carpentry."[2] Edward the Confessor's work in Westminster Abbey was not Saxon, but Norman, he having obtained his plans, and probably his builders, from Normandy.

[2] See Parker's "Introduction to Gothic Architecture" for ill.u.s.trations of this work.

V. General Industry and Commerce

102. Farms; Slave Trade.

The farming of this period, except on the Church lands, was of the rudest description. Grain was ground by the women and slaves in stone hand mills. Late, the mills were driven by wind or water power. The pric.i.p.al commerce was in wool, lead, tin, and slaves. A writer of that time says he used to see long trains of young men and women tied together, offered for sale, "for men were not ashamed," he adds, "to sell their nearest relatives, and even their own children."

VI. Mode of Life, Manners, and Customs

103. The Town.

The first Saxon settlements were quite generally on the line of the old Roman roads. They were surrounded by a rampart of earth set with a thick hedge or with rows of sharp stakes. Outside this was a deep ditch. These places were called towns,[1] from "tun," meaning a fence or hedge. The chief fortified towns were called "burghs" or boroughs. Later on, this cla.s.s of towns generally had a corporate form of government, and eventually they sent representatives to Parliament (S213).

[1] One or more houses might const.i.tute a town. A single farmhouse is still so called in Scotland.

104. The Hall.

The buildings in these towns were of wood. Those of the lords or chief men were called "halls," from the fact that they consisted mainly of a hall, or large room, used as a sitting, eating, and often as a sleeping room,--a bundle of straw or some skins thrown on the floor serving for beds. There were no chimneys, but a hole in the roof let out the smoke. If the owner was rich, the walls would be decorated with bright-colored tapestry, and with suits of armor and shields hanging from pegs.

105. Life in the Hall.

Here in the evening the master supped on a raised platform at one end of the "hall," while his followers ate at a lower table.

The Saxons were hard drinkers as well as hard fighters. After the meal, while horns of ale and mead were circulating, the minstrels, taking their harps, would sing songs of battle and ballads of wild adventure.

Outside the "hall" were the "bowers," or chambers for the master and his family, and, perhaps, an upper chamber for a guest, called later by the Normans a sollar, or sunny room.

If a stranger approached a town, he was obliged to blow a horn; otherwise he might be slain as an outlaw.

Here in the midst of rude plenty the Saxons, or Early English, lived a life of st.u.r.dy independence. They were rough, strong, outspoken, and fearless. Theirs was not the nimble brain, for that was to come with another people (the Normans), though a people originally of the same race. The mission of the Saxons was to lay the foundation; or, in other words, to furnish the muscle, grit, and endurance, without which the nimble brain is of little permanent value.

106. Guilds.

The inhabitants of the towns and cities had various a.s.sociations called guilds (from gild, a payment or contribution). The object of these was mutual a.s.sistance. The most important were the Frith guilds or Peace guilds and the Merchant guilds. The former const.i.tuted a voluntary police force to preserve order and bring thieves to punishment.

Each member contributed a small sum to form a common fund which was useed to make good any losses incurred by robbery or fire. The a.s.sociation held itself responsible for the good behavior of its members, and kept a sharp eye on strangers and stragglers, who had to give an account of themselves or leave the country.

The Merchant guilds were organized, apparantly at a late period, to protect and extend trade. After the Norman Conquest they came to be very wealthy and influential. In addition to the above, there were social and religious guilds, which made provision for feasts, for maintenance of religious services, and for the relief of the poor and the sick.

FIFTH PERIOD[1]

"In other countries the struggle has been to gain liberty; in England, to preserve it." -- Alison

THE NORMAN CONQUEST

THE KING AGAINST THE BARONS

Building the Norman Superstructure -- The Age of Feudalism

Norman Sovereigns

William I, 1066-1087 William II, 1087-1100 Henry I, 1100-1135 Stephen (House of Blois), 1135-1154

[1] Reference Books on this Period will be found in the Cla.s.sified List of Books in the Appendix. The p.r.o.nunciation will be found in the Index. The Leading Dates stand unenclosed; all others are in parentheses.

107. William marches on London; he grants a Charter to the City.

Soon after the great and decisive battle of Hastings (S74), WIlliam the Conqueror advanced on London and set fire to the Southwark suburbs. The Londoners, terrified by the flames, and later cut off from help from the north by the Conqueror's besieging army, opened their gates and surrendered without striking a blow. In return, William, shortly after his coronation, granted the city a charter, by which he guaranteed to the inhabitants the liberties which they had enjoyed under Edward the Confessor (S65).

That doc.u.ment may still be seen among the records in the Guildhall, in London.[2] It is a narrow strip of parchment not the length of a man's hand. It contains a few lines in English, to which William's royal seal was appended. It has indeed been said on high authority that the King also signed the charter with a cross; but no trace of it appears on the parchment. The truth seems to be that he who wielded the sword with such terrible efficiency disdained handling the pen (S154).

[2] See Const.i.tutional Doc.u.ments in the Appendix, p. x.x.xiii.

108. The Coronation; William returns to Normandy.

On the following Christmas Day (1066) William was anointed and crowned in Westminster Abbey. His accession to the throne marked the union of England and Normandy (S191). (See map facing p. 54). He a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of "King of the English," which had been used by Edward the Confessor and by Harold. The t.i.tle "King of England" did not fully and finally come into use until John's accession, more than a hundred and thirty years later. William did not remain in London, but made Winchester, in the south of England, his capital. In the spring (1067) he sailed for Normandy, where he had left his queen, Matilda, to govern in his absence.

While on the Continent he intrusted England to the hands of two regents, one his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the other his friend William Fitz-Osbern; the former he had made Earl of Kent, the latter Earl of Hereford.

During the next three years there were outbreaks and uprisings in the lowlands of Cambridgeshire and the moors of Yorkshire, besides incursions of both Danes and Scots.

109. William quells Rebellion in the North (1068).

The oppresive rule of the regents (S108) soon caused a rebellion, and in December William returned to England to put it down. He found the task a hard one. The King of Denmark made it all the harder by sending over a powerful fleet to held the English. William bribed the Danish commanders and they "sailed away without striking a blow."

Then, little by little, he brought the land to obedience. By forced marches in midwinter, by roads cast up through bogs, and by sudden night attacks William accomplished the end he sought.

But (1068) news came of a fresh revolt in the north, accompanied by another invasion of foreign barbarians. Then William, roused by terrible anger, swore by the "splendor of G.o.d" that he would lay waste the land.

He made good his oath. For a hundred miles beyond the river Humber in Yorkshire he ravaged the country, burning villages, destroying houses, crops, and cattle, and reduced the wretched people to such dest.i.tution that many sold themselves for slaves to escape starvation. Having finished his work in the north, he turned toward the ancient Roman city of Chester, in the west, and captured it. (See map facing p. 38.)

110. Hereward (1091).

Every part of the land was now in William's power except an island in the swamps of Ely, in the east of England. There the Englishman Hereward, with his resolute little band of fellow countrymen, continued to defy the power of the Conqueror. (See map facing p. 38.) "Had there been three more men like him in the island," said one of William's own soldiers, "the Normans would never have entered it."

But as there were not three more, the Conquest was at length completed.