History of Great Britain
Seminar part, WEEK 4
1,
please, read following pgs. from A Brief History of Great Britain :
54-63, The Norman Kingdom of England
Feudal England under the Normans
The Church in Feudal England
The Towns of Feudal England
-participated in the general revival of European urban life in the 11th and 12th
centuries.
-Domesday Book listed 112 boroughs, or towns; most of the largest were built on
old Roman
-Roman walls made them natural sites for reurbanization. The largest towns were
also bishop’s seats.
-Towns were part of the feudal system.
What legally constituted a town, the possession of a charter, was in the hands of
either the feudal lord of the territory or the king. Each town was put under a
particular legal regime at the establishment of its charter; often, one legal regime
was simply copied from town to town. A town’s rights included the right to hold
markets, the right to have its own courts, and the right to sell land freely in a less
legally complicated way than land held by a feudal lord. Towns were strongly
associated with personal freedom: An unfree peasant or villain who lived in a
town for a year and a day became free—hence the saying “town air makes free.”
A lord could also free a town’s citizens from paying the toll on his roads or
bridges, and thus the most desirable lord for a town was the king, who could do
this
for the entire country. The king was by far the most important lord of towns in
England.
2,
[Link]
Questions to be answered:
A, What information is in the book?
B, Why is the Domesday Book still important today?
3,
[Link]
Questions to be answered:
A, Look at the Tapestry, the images of the Norman and English people. How are they
portrayed? Are they strikingly different or similar societies? Discuss details such as clothes,
visual composition or actions.
B, According to scholar Paul Burns, the Bayeux Tapestry can be considered a form of early
cinema. What do you think? Discuss.
4,
A, Who was Robin Hood ? Was he a real person? How are history and legends blended in
Robin Hood’s story? (you can watch The History Channel documentary The Real Robin Hood
2010)
