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A Brief History of Ancient England

During medieval times the great formative forces of the Roman Empire, Christianity, and the Renaissance reached England. When England strove to subjugate her northern neighbor, she came armed, not only with superior might, but with some of the values which go with the development of civilization.

I. Common background:

Inhabitants of ancient England: Though there were only two races, the English and the Danes in late 8th-century England, there were many kingdoms, which were forever fighting among themselves. This didn't seem to bother most of the people, for it was the responsibility of their kings and lords to protect them; however, it did impede culteral progress.
Political and social structures of Pict, Scot, and Briton were the same:
1. Tribal kingdoms
2. Small homesteads inhabited by a kinship group
Political and social structure of the Angle was basically the same as that of their northern neighbors. They too were organized in small kingdoms; they lived in villages of kin groups.

II. Christianity: The advent of Christianity gave a new cohesion. This came from two sources:

Romans-Mission of St. Nynia to the Picts. He was a Briton, a Bishop regularly instructed at Rome, who built a church at Candida Casa and from there conducted a mission to the Southern Picts, circa 400 AD.
Second infusion came from Ireland in 563 by Columba, a churchman of princely descent and founder of two religious houses. His excessive zeal led to civil war and a bloody battle at Cooldrevny. He was exiled along with 12 companions to the Island of Hy. Columba reawakened the dormant Christianity of the Scots, and eventually 'Columban' Christianity spread it's influence through the Western Islands to with the return of the sons of Aethelfrith into Northumbria. The Scottish church did not conform entirely to the Roman way.

III. Scandinavian attacks:

Black "Gentiles"...the Danes
White "Gentiles"...the Norse

IV. English Influence Upon the British Isles:

Eventually the system of government became a feudal system. This was based upon the concept that all land belongs to the king, and he leases large provinces to his leading noblemen as 'tenants-in-chief' in return for oath of fealty and a pledge to bring his aid in wartime a stipulated number of knights. The noblemen's land, in turn was divided into smaller estates leased to Knights and Gentlemen in return for service in times of war. Because a Knight was a fighting specialist, he had no time to earn a living, so he was allotted land from which he could draw rent in form of money or kind to defray expenses. He was both the mailed fist of the King and a shield of his subjects. Those lowest on the division of land would also be expected to aid in wartime with shield and spear.

The feudal system was originated among the Franks and perfected in England under William the Conqueror. It was introduced into Scotland by David I in 1124.

The vassal, or inferior partner, received his fief, [usually a piece of land] and protection from the lord. In return he did service, either by taking a contingent of knights and other troops to fight in his lord's army, or by paying his lord money for the hire of mercenary warriors. The "feif" was conferred by the ceremony of homage: the vassal, kneeling before his lord, solemnly vowed to give him service and obedience.

Knights: All kinds of men were knights, from individuals who served for pay and in expectation of being rewarded with a grant of land, to rulers of society--kings, dukes and counts. They were part of the military elite who praciticed the art of fighting on horseback with lance grasped firmly under the arm, a technique known as jousting, and shared a common code of values embodied in chivalry.

The ceremony of initiation into knighthood varied according to wealth and circumstances. A landless younger son was knighted by his father and invested with the arms of knighthood. More elaborate rites were developed for the powerful.

The Tournament: Tournaments were festive occasions, and sometimes political gatherings where rebels mustered armies. But their real purpose was to serve as mock battles, where groups of knights learned to fight as disiplined units in co-ordination with their infantry, and where they established the tactics which brought victory in battle.

Competition was not confined to enclosed arenas, but could range over wide areas of the countryside. At times dirty tricks were played. A shrewd ploy was for a group of knights to pretend that they were not competing and then join the fray at the end of the day when the other participants were exhausted. In the tourney, as in war, captured knights had their harnesses taken and paid ransoms; a poor knight who was a skilled warrior could make his fortune from these competitions.

Although knights practiced diligently for battle, it was rare in medieval warfare because battles were generally considered to be too uncertain. Far more was to be achieved by taking or holding castles and towns, and by reducing an enemy's economic resources by despoiling his land.

From 1066 to 1135 England was heirarchical, with the king firmly at the top of the social structure. Viscounties and castellanies [a castle and the land it controlled] were divisions under the king. Nobles might do homage to their king, but more as a mark of alliance than as an admission of their obligations to him, which often resulted in confiscation of lands and titles.

The House of Normandy was established with William I [William the Conqueror], who was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 25 December 1066. He was the natural son of Robert the Devil, Duke of Normandy, whom he had succeeded in 1035. He was careful to try to preserve the old Anglo-Saxon way of life within the new and efficient feudal order which he introduced.

He strove to cover up the break in the dynastic continuity by every means possible. So that he might know the scope and nature of his new kingdom, and assess taxation fairly, he caused to be made that famous survey called the Domesday Book.

The king was the head of the state; and they carefully preserved their genealogies. The actual government of the kingdom fell under the jurisdiction of various officials. Those within the Royal Household were:

Constable: the chief military officer.
Marischal: in charge of the cavalry.
Chamberlain: provided administrative costs from royal rents and feudal dues.
Chancellor: keeper of royal seal and Crown records; presided over King's chapel.
Steward: managed the Royal household.

Outside the Royal Household were 'Officers of the Crown' appointed by the king from Earls or Barons:

Justiciars were local administrative and judicial authorities
Sheriffs acted as 'Royal Agents' in local districts. Except on the rare occasions when the king or his judges came to a shire, the sheriff and his officials were the only representatives of the kings government outside the royal court. The sheriff was the 'shire-reeve', the person responsible for supervising the king's estates in the shire and collecting the income from them to pay into the Exchequer as a sum called the sheriff's 'farm'.

The sheriff also presided over the shire or county court where he dispensed justice and carried out administrative tasks, supervised the keeping of the peace through the lesser courts of the districts, called 'hundreds' or 'wapentakes', and was responsible for delivering writs summoning litigants to appear in the royal courts. In times of war he was expected to maintain military control of the shire for the king. In many shires his activities centered on a royal castle in the county town.

Many sheriffs exploited the power their position gave them for their own financial gain. As a result, in 1170, Henry held inquiries into their conduct and dismissed most of them. From then on, sheriffs were usually professional administrators rather than local barons. However, although the Exchequer could control them financially, the problem of controlling their local political activities remained to plague later kings.

To prosper in a world where local territorial advantages were all-important, it was necessary to proceed by methodical means, using castles and steady military pressure. It was essential to know how to make and break agreements, and when to retreat in the face of stronger rivals. With this brief background in ancient English social order it is easier to understand the subterfuge, vying for favors and other political undercurrants found in the ranks of upper English society during the dark ages of history.

GLOSSARY

Burgess: Holder either of land or a house in a borough, with special judicial privileges and a part to play in running the borough.

Castellan: A governor or holder of a castle.

Castellany: A lordship consisting of a castle and its surrounding lands.

Chancery: The king's writing office, headed by the Cancellor.

Exchequer: The king's financial office and court, hearing pleas affecting the financial interests of the Crown.

Fealty: An oath of fidelity. Sometimes confused with homage since both were commonly performed together when a vassal received a fief from a lord. An oath of fealty, however, could be performed to one from whom no land was held. Fealty to the Crown overrode all other obligations, even that of homage to another great lord.

Fief: A landed estate, normally heritable, held on condition of homage and of the performance of services to a superior lord, by whom it is granted. The services were principally to give military aid, later commuted to scutage.

Forest: Not necessarily woodland, but land reserved for the king's hunting; usually under Forest Law controlled by the forester instead of the sheriff.

Honor [or Honour]: A technical term for the group of estates from which the greater tenants-in-chief of the Crown derived their prestige and status. A superior lordship upon which inferior lordships were dependent.

Hundred: An administrative sub-division of the shire, embracing several vills, and having a court to which men of the hundred owed suit at regular intervals.

Jurisdiction: The right to administer justice, and keep the resulting fines.

Justice: Judge appointed by or on behalf of the Crown.

Justiciar: The chief legal and political advisor in England, who deputized for the king in his absence.

Knight's Fee: A fief owing the service of one knight; notionally an estate providing sufficient revenue for the maintenance of one knight, although the size varied widely.

Lordship: Land held and farmed by the tenant-in-chief or by the under-tenants themselves.

Manor: The basic unit of landholding, with its own court and probably its own hall. Some consisted of one village, others of fractions of villages, others still of several villages.

Mark: A sum of money amounting to two-thirds of a pound sterling, i.e., 13s4d; a gold mark=6 Pounds.

Reeve: A royal official. Also a manorial official, appointed by the lord, or sometimes elected by the peasants.

Scutage: Literally 'shield money'; a payment in lieu of military service, paid in respect of the knights which a tenant-in-chief owed to the Crown. The personal obligation of the tenant-in-chief himself to serve could not be discharged by scutate, but only by fine.

Seat: The principal manor of a lord, still used today.

Seisin: Feudal possession. To be 'in siesin' was to be 'siezed of' control of an estate. Livery of seisin [i.e.,delivery of seisin by a grantor] was usually done by some symbolic act.

Sheriff: The royal officer of a shire, managing its judicial and financial affairs.

Tenant-in-chief: Lord holding land directley from the king.

Under-tenant: Tenant holding land from a main landholder or tenant-in-chief.

Vill: The smallest administrative unit of the realm, a subdivision of the hundred, corresponding roughly to the administrative 'parish'. Usually identifiable with a village or township but including the area up to the bounds of neighboring vills.

ALBUM