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→Conquest
==Conquest==
==Conquest==
The Normans spoke French, not English, and imposed a new leadership class on England, giving all the land to their own nobles. The first three Norman kings had to confront and suppress rebellious Englishmen, unreconciled Welsh and Scots, foreign enemies on the continent, and deal with the internal rivalries among the Normans themselves. These kings were soldiers and were brutal and violent when necessary. As itinerant warlords they kept their new subjects under control through force and intimidation rather than through charters and legal formalities. The new institutions that emerged came out of English roots rather than being created by the Normans.
The Normans spoke French, not English, and imposed a new leadership class on England, giving all the land to their own nobles. The "Old English" language added many French and Latinate words to its Germanic base, becoming "Middle English." The Conquest brought England--then a backwater--into closer contact with European culture.
Dramatic changes did occur in three areas. In terms of land ownership, the Normans introduced tenurial relations among the upper classes—that is, knight service in return for land. This was feudalism and it fundamentally altered politics, government, and law. The second area of drastic change was the much greater "manorialisation" of the countryside, whereby the peasants came under the control of the great manors. The third area where Norman influence predominated is architecture, with gothic becoming the favored style for churches.
The Normans, with a much more complex legal and political system, created an effective government. The first three Norman kings, [[William I]], [[William Rufus]], and [[Henry I]], reigned from 1066 to 1135. They had to confront and suppress rebellious Englishmen, unreconciled Welsh and Scots, foreign enemies on the continent, and deal with the internal rivalries among the Normans themselves. These kings were soldiers and were brutal and violent when necessary. As itinerant warlords they kept their new subjects under control through force and intimidation rather than through charters and legal formalities. The new institutions that emerged came out of English roots rather than being created by the Normans. The Normans did impose a new legal system, called the "common law", on top of the old localistic system.
Dramatic changes did occur in three areas. In terms of land ownership, the Normans introduced tenurial relations among the upper classes—that is, knight service in return for land. This was feudalism and it fundamentally altered politics, government, and law. The second area of drastic change was the much greater "manorialisation" of the countryside, whereby the peasants came under the control of the great manors. The third area where Norman influence predominated is architecture, with gothic becoming the favored style for churches.
==Interpretations==
==Interpretations==