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História da Língua Inglesa   

Re-Evaluating the Conquest

by Michael Wood

When continuity is as important as change, the question needs to be asked: Did the Norman Conquest prove to be such a watershed in English history?

The old Orthodoxy saw the Norman Conquest as a drastic turning point in the history of England.

There was a complete change of the ruling classes in English society: only 2 English magnates can be found in Domesday Book; The English church was governed by Norman prelates; English ceased to be the official language; England became feudal; and English 'imperialism' had its roots here (the invasion of Wales began in 1066).

The new orthodoxy

The new orthodoxy does not deny that a drastic change had occurred, but stresses the points of continuity:

• The structure of English society did not so much change, as have a new layer of lordship imposed upon it: in fact many more than 2 great English landowners can be identified (though they are in the definite minority).

• The great Archbishoprics may have been replaced eventually, but all the major Bishoprics remained English; and even Ealdred was not replaced until his death.

• Latin may have become the official language, but Orderic Vitalis shows that anglicised second-generation Normans were speaking the vernacular and were unable to speak French.

• Feudalism has become a dirty word. In certain respects, England was already feudal. The Norman takeover did not alter English land tenure so very much, but it did make 'free' sokeland unfree.

• English imperialism had been going long before the Normans came on the scene. The Mercians were invading Wales as early as the 9^th Century, and Northumbria still viewed itself as an independent kingdom which had been invaded by the English - Normans or no Normans.

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