MIDDLE AGES
William the Conqueror’s victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 signalled the start of the Middle Ages, one of the most transformative periods in our history. Emma Wells reveals the effect of the Normans on the medieval countryside
Castles and monasteries dominated the landscape as the feudal system shaped society, from monarch to peasant, reveals Emma Wells
Conquering an overwhelmingly rural country, William I secured a hold on his newly won territory by rewarding large areas of land to the Norman lords who had fought alongside him, and demanded they build strongholds. Castles sprung up like mushrooms throughout the countryside.
At first, they were simple, and often hastily constructed, motte and bailey structures: a wooden keep on an earthen mound called a motte and a courtyard, or bailey, below, surrounded by a ditch and fence. A wellpreserved example is the 12th- or early 13thcentury Castle Hill near Burton in Lonsdale.
As technology advanced and attackers grew more sophisticated, elaborate stone citadels emerged. Hever Castle’s colossal defences and three-storey gatehouse dating from c1270 is a magnificent example. The medieval castle provided protection from attackers and a base for its garrison to dominate the surrounding countryside. It was the administrative, economic and legal centre of local control.
The evolution of the castle coincided with the emergence of a social system called feudalism. In the medieval era, everyone from the king to the poorest peasant had certain rights and responsibilities. This hierarchical system was based on land ownership in return for loyalty or services to the lord or crown. At the bottom of the feudal pyramid were landless serfs (who were ‘unfree’ and tied to the land): peasant communities who shaped the farming landscape. But not all peasants were serfs. Many were freemen — and women — who owned their own land, but owed rent to greater landowners. The noble lords (or tenants-in-chief) at the top owed military service to the king.
MANORS AND VILLAGES
The medieval landscape would have looked very different from today. Thick forest containing dangerous wild animals, such as wolves and boars, covered much of the country.
In clearings throughout the forest were the ‘manors’: the centre of medieval rural life. These lands were held by noble lords or even a church official, such as a bishop or abbess, who ruled over their use and the people on them. Manors varied greatly in size. Some comprised several villages, and others were very small. Most had a church. The lord’s large manor house may have been next to the small peasant houses or he may have lived in a castle separate from the village. As they were made from stone, manor houses are often the only surviving medieval building in British villages, such as the example at Burton Agnes, Yorkshire.
The classic medieval village layout featured peasant dwellings clumped together along a central street, with a communal system of three fields divided into strips stretching out beyond. England was dependent almost entirely on mixed farming, so fields were farmed in either a
“By the mid-14th century, monasteries were England’s wealthiest landowners”
two- or three-course rotation, with one year being fallow to allow the land to recover. Still, productivity was poor and crop yields were often low. Famine was a very real danger.
The ecclesiastical hand of lordship also remains visible in the landscape through the innumerable monasteries, many of which have their origins in this period. Reaching nearly every aspect of life, from baptism to death, the Church was the most powerful medieval institution. Monasteries were also great landowners, endowed with vast estates at their foundation. The lands generated income through arable farming, rent and other services, paid in money and kind. This led to the accumulation of further landholdings, which in turn yielded substantial agricultural estates that flourished over 300 years.
By their numerical peak in the mid 14thcentury, monasteries were the wealthiest landowners in England, more so than any medieval king. In the 12th and 13th centuries, outlying monastic lands were also enclosed to create farmsteads — known as granges — which provided food and raw materials for the parent house. Staffed by lay brothers, they offered employment and nourishment for local landowners and richer peasantry. The impressive stone-aisled tithe barn at Coxwell,
Oxfordshire, is the sole surviving part of the once-thriving 13th-century monastic grange of Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire.
But in the mid-1300s everything changed. The devastating bubonic plague known as the Black Death hit Europe. Once-thriving villages declined in size or were abandoned entirely. The atmospheric remains of the isolated village on the edges of Dartmoor known as Hound Tor is one example (see page 48). The settlement’s regular layout is still discernible: at least four 13th-century longhouses and a barn are visible as earthworks on a grassy hollow.
By the 1350s, the Black Death had loosened its grip. But with almost half the population wiped out, the huge death toll dramatically impacted the social and economic position of rural communities. With fewer people now available to work the land, peasants demanded higher wages, while tenant farmers commanded lower rents. Many advanced to higher social positions. In 1381, things came to a head. Centuries of feudal serfdom and a newly altered social system led to widespread resentment from downtrodden peasants. The first large-scale uprising in English history, the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, was prompted by a poll tax levied to fund war against France. Although the rebellion was defeated by Richard II’s forces, it was another instigator of change in medieval England. The feudal system broke down, its outdated attitudes slowly eradicated. By around 1500, there were no more serfs: all labourers were free. Rural life would never be the same again.