Concept of education

The Wytan made the obvious choice and Harold Godwinson became the new King. He marched to the north, to a place known as Stamford Bridge, where a Battle took place against Harald Hardrada; Harold won and Harald is killed. Then he received news from the south and in this case the enemy came from Normandy led by William. So a second battle took place known as the Battle of Hastings (14 October 1066) and Harold died in battle and William was Crowned King in London as William I. (The Bayeux Tapestry Gives us the description of the events in the battle).

This conquest was the last successful Invasion of the English history. The Normans succeed because the number Of men that William brought with him can be established at 20000 and in the Course of about 10 years all the Anglo-Saxon landowners had been destitute. All England belonged to Normans then, it was a brutal invasion, they came to stay. They also were great builders, they could built a castle In 3-4 days, as the Motte and bailey castles which Were fortifications made of wood (which was then replaced by stone), situated On a hill called a motte , accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, Or bailey, surrounded by a protective trench. So they defend themselves from Elevated positions. The most famous one is the tower Of London, which is actually called white tower. It was erected by the Normans to exercise pressure on the capital. Gradually they became masters and honors of the place. We are confronted With feudal lords, so this is actually the moment when England becomes a feudal country. The basic structure of feudalism is:

The possessions in the feudal world are called feuds, For a start there is only one owner who own all, the king. He divided the land into feuds, which are “given” to different Members of the nobility, who can Exploit it to obtain benefits from it, but they in return had to serve the king (giving men for the war, paying taxation, supporting the king, give him food…). If a noble dies and there no succession

the        land goes back to the king. This is how the system works. At the same time these members of the nobility divided their feuds, called Subinfeudation, and give it to minor Nobility. Down bellow there are the serfs Who are in most of the cases “bound to the land”. An important fact is that the king needed to have real knowledge of the Land because of this system of feudalism, so the Normans wrote a book called The Domesday/Doomsday Book which contains All the info about England. It is a wonderful source of information, but it was Done in a very cruel manner: the officers of the king was so brutal because they Extracted the information from Anglo-Saxon people and if they discover a lie They killed on spot, that is why the book is called Doomsday, it explain the Cruel policy of the Normans to extract the information. So by that time the King had at his disposal all the knowledge of England.

William I didn’t speak English and it Became the language of the lower classes. The Normans imposed their language so Upper classes spoke French and Latin. The Normans brought their culture and this is why 60% of the words in English Derive from Latin or French. This explains why sometimes there are two words For one concept. As English was the language of the defeated there was no Education in English language. We also have to take into account that William I had two titles: King of England and Duke of Normandy. But Tradition said that the Duke of Normandy had to pay homage to the King of France, but William didn’t want so it supposed the beginning of many conflicts, Because nobility did not know if go against Normandy or against England, Because the two lands had the same lord.