The Anglo-Norman Kingdom

The Anglo-Norman kingdom

A several amount of effects happened during Norman Conquest of England, some of them were influenced by the contact between languages, as for example the adoption of French or the latinization of Normandy, even in England Normans called themselves French due to the similarities between them. However other aspects did not suffer any changes, Normans introduced no new method of agriculture and no new system of state management. The laws of the people were not much altered and the foreign settler became subject to the indigenous customs, so the general economic and social organization of England and the massive governmental imprint imposed on it by generations of Kings and their bishops and earls passed through the conquest with only little changes. When we talk in terms of kingship we have to highlight that William got the traditional powers and rights of the English monarchy after Edward, but in the case he could get any new power after the conquest, he did so. William I was more than a Norman duke and more than an Old-English king, he made himself more powerful than either, he issued under the great seal writs in English and, occasionally, in Latin. He even sent to write a survey which was called Domesday Book, a new and detailed record of its incidence, and a good way to keep under control the state of the wealth in England. King William did not make changes in law but it was clear that the will of the king was superior to custom.

The English chancery with its writ and seal, the English treasury and the Danegeld were admitted by the Normans, but from this time there was a new baronage, more Norman than English, and this led to wider changes emerged from the creation of a foreign and new aristocracy, both...

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...not attend to the council while bishops and abbots attended to the councils by reason of their holding baronies of the king; mainly they attended because they were the Witan of the country. The archbishop of Canterbury claimed and obtained frequently the position of main adviser to the king. Others as officials, menials, and visitors were present because it was the king’s will. This is what we know about his counsel but when we talk about the changes in the king’s household we could say that William brought his own servants and the Anglo-Danish officials, the Thegns. But also the seneschals or stewards, the constables, the marshal, the chamberlain, the chancellor in the chapel and the butler still performed the same type of personal service to the king. They together formed the king’s court, and as the royal government grew, they developed into officers of state.