The Birth of English Chivalry An in-depth analysis of the reasons for the allegiance and reality of the Middle Ages
After the Battle of Hastings, the War of Conquest had only just begun, but it largely set the stage for the victory of the Norman Conquest. More importantly, it showed the British the advantages of cavalry combat. William the Conqueror brought cavalry from the European continent into the territory of England"At the Battle of Hastings, the cavalry won William's strength"。
The Norman conquest lasted until William's conquest of Chester in 1070 and then ended temporarily. The Norman Conquest also brought about fundamental changes in English society:"About 4,000-5,000 great bourgeois lost their land and were replaced by Normans"。The English ruling class became Norman. In addition, one of William's main initiatives is:"The Norman aristocracy, led by William I, reformed and implemented the feudal system of France, the cognac sub-feudal system"。
Since William had acquired the throne through conquest, he was able to acquire a large amount of royal property for himself"Twice as much as the property owned by Edward the Confessor", William became the owner of all the land in England. The rest"170 Norman nobles were divided between one-third and one-half of the country"。Among them,"Bishops and abbots received 26%, and secular nobles received 49%."。
The military bases in Northumbria, Cheshire, and Shropshire were given to neighbouring chieftains, while most of Sussex was given to the Norman nobles who fought alongside them. These chiefs received land directly from the king and were known as direct chiefs. The king had many feudal obligations, such as the payment of an inheritance when a feudal lord died if his heir reached adulthood;If the heir is a minor, the king provides guardianship or marriage, and if there is no heir, the king returns the land;When the king's eldest son or eldest daughter marries, or when the king himself is captured, the king pays aid or ransom.
The most important clause was the provision for different numbers of knights to serve the king as cavalry, depending on the size of the fief. To support their cavalry service, the king first divided the land among his immediate lieges. The direct lord will directly distribute part of the land to the knights, let them prepare **, horses, etc., and form an army to wait for the lord's call;Either divide most of the land among others and make them the king's feudal lords. Sub-feudal lords could divide the land among knights for military service, or they could manage the land themselves and provide spare knights for military service.
In addition to military service, vassals and knights had to fulfill various feudal obligations to their lords, such as defending castles and participating in daily training. Failure to fulfill these obligations may result in the confiscation or confiscation of the fief. Knights must also bring their own horses, **, and armor to serve. It is generally believed that knights serve for about 40 days per year. It is estimated that there was at that time"5000-6000 knights"。
During this period, England not only had heavy cavalry, but also formed a feudal dependency system with William I as the supreme ruler and feudal lords divided into feudal lords. Under this system, William became the largest feudal lord in England. He divided the remaining territories among other Norman nobles. The resulting Norman lords had large amounts of land and wealth enough to sustain a small private army, which was the economic basis of the knightly system. The lords gave their lands to the knights in exchange for their loyalty and the necessary military and other obligations. The monarch treats them in the same way. Thus, chivalry in the true sense of the word was born in England.
In the traditional knightly system of continental Europe, the monarch established various feudal forces in the process of distributing land. These lords had enormous military and judicial power within their fiefdoms, while the power of the monarch was limited to the royal fiefdoms. In France, for example, King Hugh Capet as ruler only has"The royal lands of Balorleans, Esteppe, Compiègne and some scattered in the northern provinces"。
Outside the Cognac region, his power was even more ineffective. The lords had their own armies and could declare war on each other without the king's permission. If the king personally threatens them, they can even pick up ** against the king. Lords such as Colbert, Perset, and Cowes openly declared war on their monarch, Louis Gross.
Compared to the weak kingdoms of the traditional knightly era, the English monarch had more power in England. The English scholar Quillerverin, when comparing the power of the English and French monarchs, found that the power of the French feudal kings was limited to small royal domains, i.e., around Paris. In contrast,"Norman lords were close to true monarchs in their domains, not just feudal lords"。Influenced by realistic considerations and his experience as a Norman duke, William passed"Judgment Day"with"Salisbury Oath"and other measures, forcing all knights to swear direct allegiance to the king, which became another feature of the English knighthood that distinguished it from the knightly system in continental Europe.
The practical reason for direct allegiance to the King of England.
Since the Norman Conquest, the power of the king of England has increased considerably"。When William and his son arrived in England, they inherited the characteristics of the monarchy that already existed in Normandy, and England became a monarchy, not unlike medieval France, Germany, and Spain"。Of course, the powerful Norman monarchy demanded that King William of England personally control all the knights in the country. The realities faced by William also forced him to strengthen the kingdom.
First, the English aristocracy and commoners supported Harold as king of England. For example, when the Privy Council discussed the heir to the throne, Harold was ultimately chosen"。When Edward proposed Harold as the heir to the throne before his death, no Englishman came forward to support William, so the Privy Council recommended Harold as king"。
We can see that William not only had the support of the English aristocracy, but also became a foreign invader after waging the war, which further fueled the rebellious sentiment of the British people. A good example is that after the victory at the Battle of Hastings, Harold was killed and the Godwins were wiped out. William I thought that the remaining English nobility would try to swear allegiance to him, but this did not happen. William can only"Continue the march, through Dover, again to Canterbury, march west along the River Thames, and when the whole place is deserted, William and his men enter the Hamptons, cross the River Thames, and march east"。
The British could only surrender and could not organize resistance. But the war was far from over, and after William was crowned King of England as Edward's heir on 25 December 1066, there was still resentment in England, so William's former ally Eustaceus of Boulogne declared Dover his territory in 1067 and assembled a fleet of 200 warships to attack East Anglia.
In 1068, the sons of the former king Harold organized an army from Ireland to attack the border. In 1069, the Northumbrian nobility of northern England, led by an army of English and Danes, invaded Yorkshire, killing almost all the Normans, the greatest rebellion against William's rule.
After so many military disasters, William realized that the only way to stabilize his rule was to keep a firm grip on the royal family"。The king initially tried to learn Xi English and rule England through compromise, but then he gave up learning Xi English, and after 1070, the English language never appeared in any official documents again.
Since then, his reign has been a reign of terror"。At the same time, as the ruler of the Kingdom of France, William truly experienced the powerful weakening effect of the original knightly system on the power of the French king. After William came to England, in order to avoid a situation similar to that of the French king, in the process of establishing the English knighthood system, by paying great attention to the king's control over knights at all levels, forcing the knights to swear allegiance directly to the king, successfully avoiding the emergence of strong feudalism and weak royal power.