18 1066-1400. FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE DEATH OF CHAUCER. THE range is over three hundred and thirty-four years, and extends, in English political history, from the beginning of the Norman line of kings all through the dynasty onwards, in the Plantagenet line, to the accession of the house of Lancaster. The order of kings is as follows: NORMANS-William I., William II., Henry I., and Stephen; PLANTAGENETS-Henry II., Richard I., John, Henry III., Edward I., Edward II., Edward III., and Richard II. The last-named sovereign, deposed in 1399, was in that year succeeded by Henry IV., the first of the Lancastrians. The chief events of English history, affecting more or less the literary production of the period, are here presented as they occurred in the successive reigns. Reign of William I., 1066-1087.-The Conquest completed by the defeat of the English, though aided by Sweyn of Denmark, in the north, and the defeat of Hereward the Wake in the marshes of Ely. Remodelling of the Church, and establishment of the feudal system; papal encroachments resisted, and checks placed on the power of the nobles. Reign of William II., 1087-1100.-Tyranny of the king in both Church and State; the danegeld increased, the forest laws cruelly enforced, appropriation of the revenues of bishoprics, &c. The First Crusade. Invasion of England by Malcolm III., twice unsuccessful, the second time Malcolm (in 1093) slain at Alnwick, and Scotland acknowledged by Edgar to be an English fief. Reign of Henry I., 1100-1135.—The king's marriage with Matilda of Scotland (1100); the tyranny of the last reign checked, and justice administered in Church and State. Invasion of Normandy, and captivity of Robert. Struggle against Pope maintained. Loss at sea, in the White Ship, of Prince William (1120); allegiance promised to the king's daughter, Empress Matilda (afterwards married to Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou). Reign of Stephen, 1135-1154.-Civil war between the supporters of Stephen and Matilda's party; David of Scotland defeated at Northallerton (1138). Arrival of Matilda, and her son Henry acknowledged to be Stephen's heir. Reign of Henry II., 1154-1189.—Struggle against papal encroachments continued; the constitutions of Clarendon enforced; murder of Becket (1170). Conquest of Ireland (1172). Revolt of the king's sons, and rebellion of his French vassals-suppressed; revolt of English barons - suppressed; William the Lion of Scotland pays homage (1174). Sudden downfall of the king. Scutage, a serious blow to feudalism, was instituted in this reign. Richard I., 1189-1199.-Crusade and period of his imprisonment (1189-1194). War with France (1194-1199). William the Lion bought back his independence. John, 1199-1216.-His succession disputed; Prince Arthur's murder; loss of French provinces. Quarrel with Pope about a successor to the see of Canterbury; John excommunicated (1209). His abject submission (1213) to Rome. Revolt of his barons; Magna Charta granted (1215). Civil war; invasion by the French. Henry III., 1216-1272.-French invaders driven back, and England kept for the English. Arrival in England of Franciscan and Dominican friars. The Mad Parliament; the Provisions of Oxford; Simon de Montfort's Parliament (in which the burghs were represented); defeat and death of De Montfort at Evesham (1265). Edward I., 1272-1307.-Wales conquered 1277, and finally in 1283. Invasion and partial conquest of Scotland; Wallace executed in 1305. Revolt of Scots under Bruce (1306). Edward II., 1307-1327.-Struggle of king and his favourite, Piers de Gaveston, against the barons. Battle of Bannockburn (in 1314); Scotland free. The Queen Isabella, with Mortimer and the barons, compel the king's abdication; his murder in Berkeley Keep. Edward III., 1327-1377.-Treaty of Northampton recognising Scottish independence (1328). Sudden overthrow of the Government of queenmother and Mortimer (1330). Defeat of Scots at Halidon Hill (1333). Commencement of the Hundred Years' War with France (1338); Cressy (1346); Poitiers (won by the Black Prince, 1356). The Black Death (1348); the oppressive Statute of Labourers (1349). The Good Parliament of 1376. Lollardism. Richard II., 1377-1399.-The Peasants' Revolt (1381). Richard's favouritism; strife with the barons; his abdication; his death at Pontefract Castle (1400). The succession of Scottish sovereigns for the same period was as follows: Malcolm III. (Canmore), 1057-1093; Donaldbain, 1093-1094 ; Duncan II., 1094-1095; Donaldbain restored, 1095-1097; Edgar, 1097-1107; Alexander I., 1107-1124; David I., 1124-1153; Malcolm IV., 1153-1165; William I. (The Lion), 1165-1214; Alexander II., 1214-1249; Alexander III., 1249-1286; Margaret (the Maid of Norway), 1286-1290; John (Baliol), 1292-1296. An interregnum for ten years. Robert I. (Bruce), 1306-1329; David II., 1329-1371; Robert II., 1371-1390; Robert III., 1390-1406. The only noteworthy Scottish literature of this period-Barbour's Brus, Wyntoun's Cronykil, and old ballads-deals with the strife and struggle which almost continuously agitated the country. The strife was with England, and though sometimes aggressive, as shown in the preceding abstract of English history, was in the main a struggle for independence. INTRODUCTION. The long struggle between the Anglo-Saxon or English and Anglo-Norman or French languages, which began shortly after the Conquest in 1066, ended at last in favour of the native tongue. French was absorbed. But till the absorption little was produced in English that possessed any literary merit at all. There was only the continuation of The Saxon Chronicle till 1154, followed half a century later by Layamon's Brut. There was, however, a large body of Latin and French literature, written by monkish chroniclers and romancing trouveurs. Chief among the Latin writers were William of Malmesbury, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Henry of Huntingdon, and Giraldus Cambrensis, all monkish chroniclers; Nicholas Breakspear, the only Englishman that has worn the papal tiara, Thomas à Becket, Robert Grostête, and Matthew Paris, all writers on theological or ecclesiastical subjects; and Michael Scott, Roger Bacon, and John Duns Scotus, philosophical or scholastic writers. The French writers include King Henry I., surnamed Beauclerc; Wace, who translated from the Latin of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and was himself translated into English by Layamon; and Walter Map or Mapes, the friend and councillor of Henry II., who wrote, besides, Latin legends of King Arthur, and blent them with the doctrines of Christianity by inventing and adding the story of The Holy Grail. Numerous French fabliaux and cycles of romances from abroad were also circulating in the country, many of which were rendered into English in the reigns of the first three Edwards. Popular subjects of those romances were the legends of Arthur, Charlemagne, and Alexander the Great, and the histories and traditions of Richard of the Lion Heart, Robert of Sicily, Sir Guy of Warwick, and Sir Bevis of Southampton. Three centuries after the Norman Conquest, English, considerably modified in the interval, was once more the speech of a united nation. The Normans found they had to adopt the language of the majority. In 1350 English was used in the schools; and in 1362 it was enacted by Edward III. that both French and Latin must give place to English in the courts of law. From the date of that enactment English literature, as we understand the word, had a chance, and was both able and swift to take it. Chaucer was then in his twentysecond year; Langland, Barbour, Gower, and Wyclif were middle-aged men, with their literary work still before them. In this period end-rhymes, introduced from France, began to supersede Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse, and took a permanent place in the history of English poetry. The effect of the Norman Conquest upon English was to simplify the grammar and increase the vocabulary, and enrich the literature of the nation with many a song and story. A GENERAL VIEW OF THE LITERATURE OF THE PERIOD. 1. The Saxon Chronicle is continued, and ends abruptly in 1154 with the death of Stephen. With it died Anglo-Saxon poetry and AngloSaxon prose. 2. Religious Poetry, begun in Anglo-Saxon times by Cadmon, continues: (a) Orm's Ormulum, circ. 1215, a metrical version in pure English of the daily service of the church, with a homily in verse added. (b) The Ancren Riwle (Rule of the Anchoresses), circ. 1220, continues the Ormulum. (c) Lives of the Saints, circ. 1300, translated from Latin or French into English verse. (d) Handlyng Synne (or Manual of Sins), 1303, from the French, by Robert Manning of Brunne. (e) Cursor Mundi, circ. 1320, a metrical version of the Scriptures, with legends of the Saints. (The Ayenbite of Inwyt, Remorse of Conscience, 1340, a translation in prose from the French.) (ƒ) The Pricke of Conscience, circ. 1340, in Latin, but also in Northern English, by Richard Rolle of Hampole. (g) Piers Plowman, 1362, by William Langley or Langland. 3. Historical and Narrative Poetry. (The prose histories were written in Latin; were mere annals at first, written by the chroniclers in isolated monasteries, till a more competent class of men arose who lived at the Court. Of these later historians the first is William of Malmesbury, whose book comes down to 1142; and among the last is Matthew of Paris, who lived in the latter part of the thirteenth century.) Geoffrey of Monmouth's twelve short books of Romance, " playfully called history," put forth as a Latin translation from the original Welsh in 1147. Extremely popular (except among the real historians), it got into French, was added to and embellished in France, and came back as the work of Wace, with the title of The Brut, in 1155. From Wace's French, Layamon, an English priest in Worcestershire, translated it into English verse, and Layamon's Brut (1205) is our first great English poem after the Conquest. Romances popularised from the French: (a) King Arthur and the Round Table, introduced in Latin by (c) Life of Alexander; (d) Siege of Troy,-all well known by the time of Chaucer. Lyrics: Ballads of Robin Hood; Owl and Nightingale; and Laurence Minot's Songs (1352) of the great battles of Edward III. |