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| February 2010 |
| Billie Silvey |
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| Norman Invasion
The invasion of the Norman French under William the Conqueror in 1066 was a watershed event in early English history. The Normans introduced feudalism, a system in which all society was organized into a huge pyramid. Everything belonged to the king, and every person owed fealty to the person over him. This included paying taxes of their produce and raising forces or serving in the military. The central White Tower of the Tower of London (right) was constructed by William. The English language fell into disrepute, as commoners were the only ones who spoke it. Many of the words in our language today entered it during the period. For example, cow, hog and sheep were the words used by the English common people who tended them, while beef, pork and mutton came from the French who ate them. |
| Chaucer's World |
| The world that Chaucer wrote in, that his Pilgrims populated, was the world of the Middle Ages. Without cars, transport was slow, at the speed of a horse. That was the way the pilgrims traveled to Canterbury, and it gave them the leisure to visit and tell stories. Common people didn’t have books or TV, so story-telling was one way to pass the time. Four major events marked the Middle Ages in Britain—the Norman Invasion, the Crusades, the Magna Carta, and the Black Death. |
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| Crusades
The church was a major force in the Middle Ages. It was the pope who sent the whole of Europe to free the Holy Land from the Muslims. Thus the Crusades formed the backdrop of the early years. In 1099, the Crusaders captured Jerusalem, From 1189-1199, England’s King Richard the Lionheart was on almost continual crusade, being captured during his return from the third and ransomed by the nation. He was the famous King Richard of the Robin Hood legends. His brother John, who stayed home and ruled the country, was the evil Prince John. |
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| I’ve found that one of the most painless introductions to Chaucer’s times for people today is the Cadfael series of detective novels set in the Middle Ages, written by scholar Edith Pargeter under the name Ellis Peters. It features a former soldier in the Crusades who became a monk and who uses his knowledge of human nature and botany to solve mysteries. The novels formed the basis of a television series starring Derek Jacobi. |
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| Black Death
The Black Death, or bubonic plague, ravaged England in 1348, killing a third to a half of the population. With fewer people came a shortage of laborers and a rise in wages. This was a major step in the rise of the middle class and the fall of feudalism. This was the backdrop against which Chaucer began work on Canterbury Tales in 1387. |
| Magna Carta
The nobles chafed under the centralization of power of the king. Raising armies and ransoms was expensive, and the nobles had their crops to tend and their local affairs to handle. They drafted a charter, the Magna Carta, to demand certain concessions from the king. Signed by John in 1215 at Runnymede, the Magna Carta was the first step toward the building of English Common Law, which became the basis of our legal system. |