A short history of social life in England. Margaret Bertha Synge
startling régime Vengeance gave way to Forgiveness, Cruelty to Mercy, Pride to Humility, and the love of Family life to the larger Brotherhood which the dust of ages has proved powerless to dim, and the centuries, as they roll onward, have strengthened with indestructible unity.
CHAPTER V
Circa 1066—1204
"SAXON AND NORMAN AND DANE ARE WE"
"I looked: aside the dust-cloud rolled,
The Waster seemed the Builder too;
Upspringing from the ruined Old
I saw the New."
Whittier.
WHILE the Danes were settling themselves into their new English homes, plundering parties of Viking pirates were wresting from France her sea-coast territory in the north-east, known to history as the Northman's Land or Normandy.
The same power of assimilation that had enabled the Danes to merge themselves in the English now characterised the Northmen in France. Like their brethren across the English Channel, they became Christian, they learnt to speak in the language of their adopted country, they wore French dress, they absorbed French manners. From sea-faring men they became famous equestrians, and grew to be some of the foremost fighters in Europe.
Years passed by, accentuating on either side the sea this process of absorption, until in 1066 the Northmen of France stood face to face with the Northmen of England on English soil.
Every detail of the Battle of Hastings is known to lovers of history. Shoulder to shoulder, shield to shield, on the heights above Senlac in the grey October dawn stood the English, battle-axes in hand, under their leader Harold, the fair-haired Saxon. Arrayed against them was the Norman force, fully armed, and magnificently disciplined. There were archers and lancers backed by horsemen, and all under the Duke William, a very Viking chieftain himself, with his gigantic height, his fierce brows, his reckless bearing—Norman in his daring, Norman in his very pitilessness.
The conquest practically complete, the newly won land was distributed among the conquerors. Scattered over the country of the vanquished, the Normans kept the same order that had characterised them on the transports at sea as in the battle itself, an order which united all in a great chain of duty. As the simple man-at-arms owed faith and service to his captain, so the knight owed his service to his military superior the baron, while in his turn the baron served his King. Thus, then, the Norman feudal army settled on the land amidst a people already acquainted with the feudal system. But the chances of war had carried men rapidly from the lowest to the highest grade of society. The foot-soldier with black bow and arrow appeared after the Conquest as a fully armed knight mounted on horseback, while many a poor Norman knight now commanded a company, whose rallying cry was his own name. Herdsmen and weavers, butchers and cooks, with obscure names in France, became illustrious barons on this side the water!
The possession of wealth and land now became the basis of society. The Anglo-Saxon freeman vanished under a system by which every landholder was made to depend on another, whom he was bound to serve, not as his chosen patron, not, as of old, by reason of the love he bore him as kinsman or friend, but as owner of the lands he cultivated, the leader he was obliged to follow into battle. Homage to his landlord—the faithful promise on bended knee to be "his man for ever," sealed by a warm grip of the hand—was the rent he paid for the ground.
In the great Domesday Book, compiled by the Conqueror, every field and farm in England are faithfully recorded, every mill and fish-pond, every wood and bit of forest land, every pig and cow are entered—and taxed.
And so the famous day was ushered in when, on the hot plains of Salisbury, William the Conqueror gathered together the whole body of English land-owners, 60,000 men in all—Saxon, Dane and Norman—great and small from every part of the island. There each man knelt and swore to be the King's man, faithful to him above all others. Men have seen in this great Assembly the foreshadowing of our Lords and Commons in the Parliament of to-day. Be this as it may, it was without doubt the foreshadowing of that great national unity after which England had so long struggled in vain. At this Council (1086), England became for ever a kingdom one and indivisible, "which since that day no man has dreamed of parting asunder"—
"Strong with a strength that no fate might dissever.
One with a oneness no force could divide."
To guard against any attempted rising on the part of the conquered, castles were built in every position of importance, and these were the homes of the Norman barons. Familiar enough are the remains of these old Norman keeps to-day—familiar the thick massive walls, standing four square on rising ground, surrounded by river or moat, and entered by the solid and inhospitable gateway. Familiar are the towers and battlements frowning defiance over the surrounding country, their narrow slits of windows suggestive of draughts and sunlessness within. Inside is the square courtyard, grass growing unheeded on the spot where once clanked hosts of armed men. We see again the long hall, or salle, as the newcomers renamed it, at once dining-room and justice hall, serving as of old for sleeping accommodation for retainers and dogs, when the long day was done and the baronial family had ascended the outside staircase which led to their comfortless bedroom. For one bedroom in those days did duty for the whole family. The lord and his lady had a roof and hangings to their bed, while the rest of the family occupied small beds ranged round the room.
Quilts, made of feathers, seem to have taken the place of the modern mattress; then came linen sheets and cloth coverlets made of cat's hair, beaver, badger or martin. On one side of the bedroom stood a perch for the falcons, on the other a similar arrangement for hanging articles of dress. The whole scheme sounds somewhat insanitary to modern ideas. Their day was divided as follows:
"Lever à cinque, diner a neuf,
Souper à cinque, couctier à neuf.
Fait vivre d'ans nonante et neuf."
The meals themselves differed little from those under the old régime. Close attention was paid to cooking, and we are told that William the Conqueror brought over his whole kitchen establishment to ensure good dinners on the English shores. As of old, a boar's head was considered among the best of dishes, and it was borne into the hall preceded by musicians sounding trumpets.
Here is one of the new King's menus:—
1 Boar's head with its tusks in its snout, garnished with flowers.
2 Venison, cranes, peacocks, swans, wild geese, kids, pigs and hens.
3 Spiced and seasoned meats, with wine, red and white.
4 Pheasants, woodcock, partridge, larks, plovers, brawn.
5 White powder and large sweetmeats.
The peacock was a favourite dish; so were crane and porpoise. Spiced wines and cordials were drunk freely by the Normans, who were naturally a more temperate people than the Saxons, but with the rapid assimilation of the two races this restraint soon disappeared. So fast indeed did Norman and Saxon blend, that in dress and language they soon became identical. The tunic, cloak and leg bandages were still worn; the women's gown became the "robe," her headgear the
couvre-chef
or kerchief. The women of the period wore their hair in long plaits, sometimes reaching to the feet, one on either side. So much indeed did the Normans admire the long flowing hair of the Saxons, that they imitated them by allowing their closely cropped hair to grow immoderately long. This fashion was denounced strongly by the clergy as effeminate, and it is recorded that on Easter Day, 1105, the priest, after inveighing against it, coolly drew a huge pair of scissors from his pocket and went from seat to seat mercilessly cropping the whole congregation,