SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND From Anglo-Saxon Times E. M, WELMOT-BUXTON, RR.HistS. Tj A no CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY *1 i DATEDUE i Nfl^^=g^ «f?6T|i'v >^ *^-*'^ \ ] m GAYLORD L 1 3 192- * 027 939 PRINTED IN Ul 3 A. mimm 457 .„„ I Cornell University W Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027939457 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND ^ A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM ANGLO-SAXON TIMES FOR UPPER AND MIDDLE FORMS BY E. M. WILMOT-BUXTON, F.R.Hist.S. AUTHOR OF *A HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN,' 'mAKBRS OF EUROPE* "the ancient WORLD,' ETC. NEW YORK E, P. BUTTON AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS INTRODUCTION THERE are two methods of writing Social History for the young. The first and easier way is to chat pleasantly about the manners and dress of each period. The second is to describe certain lines of development which appear to have affected the community very closely, and to exclude others. This latter method involves the sacrifice of much picturesque detail, and lays the writer open to the charge of having omitted to deal with subjects that, for one reason or another, appeal especially to the individual critic. But it seems to be the only way to account for certain modern conditions of no small importance, which cannot be fully understood till their history is known ; and this, one may beheve, is the chief, if not the only, value of Social History as an educational subject. For the reason given above, this book is planned so as to describe the historical growth of certain social de- velopments according to the century or half century during which they became most prominent. This has involved some disregard of arbitrary limits, such as periods or reigns ; but from the time of the Conquest, at any rate, it has been found possible to deal more or less continuously with such movements as the growth of towns, of freedom from villeinage, of Tudor Nationalism ; the rise of the burgher, of the modern " middle class " and of the still more modern democracy, by describing their origin and development in the period when they are most in historical evidence. vi A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND The field is a vast one, and many subjects have not been dealt with at all. Yet the reader, who will look in vain for a complete description of the growth of the army and the navy, of the development of ParUament, is reminded that, though such matters are connected with Social History, they do not necessarily give young readers any clear conception of the kind of people who were concerned in them. What seems of more importance, considering limita- tions of space, is to show how certain social changes, often almost unheeded at the time by those in authority, affected the outlook of the ordinary folk then living in this land, and to indicate the reasons for such changes. For this purpose the subjects of real value would seem to be the Gilds, the Enclosures question, mediaeval Labour conditions, the influence of Printing, the effect upon England of the Reformation, the rise of Uni- versities, the migration from countryside to town, and the conditions that led to a wealthy middle class and a growing democracy. Nowadays there is a clear call, which will probably grow more insistent, for a certain amount of Social Science teaching in our schools ; and with it comes a feeling of uneasiness as to whether the study of economics will not prove a very dry morsel for immature intelligence to swallow. But when its dry bones are clothed with the most living kind of history, and closely connected both with the lives of our pupils and with the places with which they are most familiar, it can become one of the most fascinating of all studies. Nothing more can be claimed for this book than an attempt to arouse interest in this subject and to afford the groundwork of future study, since much has been omitted or dealt with in brief and elementary fashion. But, given a fair knowledge of political history, a young INTRODUCTION vii student should find enough in these pages to stimulate interest in the conditions under which he is living, although the book itself frankly deals far more fully with the Mediaeval, Tudor, and Stuart conditions than with those of even the last century. For, as we approach the modern period, we still often cannot see the wood for the trees. Moreover, years of experience have con- vinced the writer that a multitude of details, such as is afforded by lists of inventions, manufactures, or minute conditions of Franchise Acts, is not only intensely boring, but almost useless from a mental point of view. Therefore only such changes have been indicated as justify the names given to the Industrial Revolution, the Period of Reform, or the Growth of Democracy, without giving details of the spinning jenny, the phono- graph, or the number of ships in the Navy at any given time. An attempt has been made throughout the book to illustrate the story of the past by quotations from con- temporary documents and Hterature ; and the writer is the first to lament that Umitations of space have pre- vented this being done more fully, since nothing shows so well the atmosphere of the period to which each belongs. The exercises added to each chapter endeavour in most cases to link up conditions past and present, and may prove suggestive to young students who are inter- ested in " human history." At the end of each period is appended a hst of books suggested for further study ; to most, if not aU, of which the writer of this short history owes a debt of warm gratitude. E. M. W.-B. Storrington, November 1919 CONTENTS I. The Wandering of the Nations, a.d. 450-550 . i The Wandering Tribes — Roman Obstruction — Sea Influence — Invasion of Britain — Conquest of Britain. II. The Beginnings of Settlement, a.d. 550-650 . 7 Social Life in Early England — Old English Settlements : Camp, Hall, and Tun — Beowulf s Disclosures — -The Lady of Heorot — Celtic Influences — Position of Women in General — Old English Laws — "Class" Gradations. III. Development of Civilization, a.d. 600-800 . 15 Early English Religion — Charms — Influence of Chris- tianity — Methods of Conversion — Effects of Conversion — Position of Women after Christianity was Introduced — Education — International Interests. IV. The Fury of the Northmen, a.d. 800-1000 . 23 Northmen as Conquerors — Reforms, of Alfred — EfEect of Viking Invasion — Reign of Canute — ^Early Organiza- tion of England. V. The Normans in England, a.d. 1050-1150 . 31 The Normans — Effects of Conquest — Cosmopolitan Spirit — Intercourse between England and the Continent — ^Feudal System — Class Distinctions — Feudal Service — The Norman Baron — Misrule of Stephen — Castles — Monastic Education — The Court — Connection with Europe. VI. The "Wonderful Thirteenth Century." a.d. 1150-1300 44 The Rise of Chivalry — Pilgrimages — Nature of Chivalry — ^Militant Orders — Effect of Crusades — ^Mon- astic Influence— Coming of the Friars — Dominicans and Franciscans — Rise of the Universities. X A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND CHAP. PAGE VII. The Origin and Growth of Mediaeval Towns. A.D. I 200-1350 ...... 58 The "Tun" — Monastery Towns — Feudal Towns — Arundel Castle — ^Town Government — ^Representatives in Parliament— The Burgher— The Manor— The Gilds — Merchant and Craft Gilds — ^Miracles and Mysteries — The Fairs — Fate of Gilds — Apprentices — Growth of London. VIII. The Agricultural Problems of Labour, Pestil- ence, AND Revolt, a.d. 1300-1400 . ' . 79 A Change of Spirit — Position of the Labourer — ^Wages — Serfdom — Black Death — Effect of Great Pestilence — Statute of Labourers — Condition of Labour — Influence of Friars — ^Wyclif — Change in Condition of Peasant. IX. On the Road in the Fourteenth Century. A.D. 1300-1400 ...... 91 London in Fourteenth Century — Story of London Bridge — Canterbury Pilgrims — Wayside Scenes — Sanctuary — Roads — Hermit ; Pedlar ; Minstrel — Dangers of Wayfaring Life. X. The Last Days of Mediaeval England, a.d. 1400-1500 ....... 102 A Bird's-Eye View of Mediaeval England — ^The Border- land — Wool Trade — Enclosures — From Peasant to Squire — Effects of Wars of Roses — Rise of Middle Class — Condition of the Labourer — ^The Nobility — Retainers — Baronial Raids. XL How Printing came to England, a.d. 1450-1509 no Caxton — Yeoman Life — Apprentice Life — Merchant Life — A Student in Flanders — Life as a Craftsman Printer — ^Life of a Prince — ^A Royal Palace — ^The Red Pale. XII. A New World, a.d. 1500-1550 . . . 122 Absolutism — ^The New learning and the New Religion —The Church and the Renaissance — The Spirit of Greek letters — Early Greek Scholars — Selling — Grocyn — CONTENTS xi More — Reformation in England — Efiect on People — Attitude of Sir Thomas More — Dissolution of the Monasteries — Risings — Result on Social Conditions — Redistribution of Land — ^Money-getting — ^The Universities — Diversities of Sects — Reformed Clergy — Persecutions — Hatred of Spain — Growth of National Spirit. XIII. The England of Elizabeth, a.d. 1550-1600 . 136 . Condition of Tudor Countryside — Changes in Archi- tecture from Norman Times — Trade Prosperity^— Foreign Trade — Cabot — The Discoverers — The Navy — Eliza- bethan London — ^Theatre — Dress — Royal Exchange — St Paul's — ^Meals. XIV. Royalist and Roundhead, a.d. 1600-1660 . 149 King and Parliament — Changes in Character of People — Growth of National Spirit — The Religious Question — The English Bible — Changes in Social Condition — ^The Old and the New Cavalier — ^New Merchant Class — Colon- izers — Royalists and Roundheads — ^The Royalist Verney — The Roundhead Hutchinson — ^The Perfect Puritan — Court of Cromwell. XV. England after the Restoration, a.d. 1660- 1700 162 The Typical Cavalier of the Restoration — ^The Typical Puritan — TJie Great Plague — ^The Great Fire^ — A New London — Grinling Gibbons — Open Spaces and Parks — Stuart Dress and Manners — Education — Newspapers — Travelling — ^Naval Power — Changes in Oxford Life — ■ End of " Merrie England." XVI. An Age of Prose, a.d. 1700-1800 . . -175 Gradual Change in Social Classes — Sir Roger de Coverley and John Wilkes — Changes in Social Life — " Queen Anne " Houses — Georgian Houses — Communication — Love of Travel — ^Weymouth, Bath, Brighton — Change in Eco- nomic Conditions — ^The Face of the Country — Woollen Trade — Rise of Manufacturing Cities — Improvement in Agricultural Conditions — Scottish Turnips — Foreign Trade — Great Institutions — Prison System — Social Pro- gress — Booksellers and Patrons — Education — The Re- ligious Revival — Methodism — Exploration and Discovery. xii A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND CHAP. XVII. The Period of Reform, a.d. 1800-1850 . . 194 Changes in Society — The Country Squire — Peasant Character — Migration from Country to Town — Police Force — Capitalists — ^Industrial Revolution — Factory Acts — Growth^f Middle Class Power — ^Reform Acts — Reform of Penal Laws — Free' Trade — The Hungry Forties — Chartism-^^The'Poor Law System — ^The Great Exhibition. XVIII. Progress, a.d. 1850-1900 .... 207 The Railway System — Education — Post Office — Growth of Imperialism — Inventions and Discoveries — Social Features. Index 217 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND A SOCIAL HISTORT OF ENGLAND CHAPTER I THE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS A.D. 450-550 IT has often been noticed how closely the Ufe story of nations follows that of human beings in its develop- ment. In the early history of Europe we have a very good example of this fact. When a boy (or girl for that matter) is beginning to grow up he gets restless ; the old life bores him, the old paths in which he has always trodden become too narrow. He longs for change, for adventure, for a wider outlook, and he gladly seizes the opportunity to go forth and make his own Ufe. So, in the centuries that followed the birth of Christ, when the Roman Empire was beginning to loosen her iron grip upon the outposts of her colonies, Europe awoke to the fact that she was no longer a child in lead- ing-strings, that she was ready to go out and make her own countries and to settle where she willed. Thus there began that restless movement that we call the Wandering of the Nations. We trace its progress, indistinctly at times, but unmistakable enough, in that earliest form of history book, the songs and poems sung and recited and handed down from one generation to another. The nations moved in tribes, mainly towards the west and south, sometimes because they needed room for freer expansion, more fertile soil, new foes to conquer ; some- times from sheer love of movement and adventure. But 2 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND often they were forced to move westward by the growing pressure of the hordes of Huns advancing from the east, which, as in the days of Attila, destroyed all upon which they laid their hands. " Full often," says one of their lays, " the whizzing shaft and •feUing spear flew from the tribes (about the Vistula) against the grim foes, seeking to avenge their warriors and their wives." ^ The Wandering Tribes — Little by httle some of these migratory tribes stand out by name, in connection with some hero chieftain of their race. " Off a ruled the Angles, Alewih the Danes . . ., and though Alewih was of all men the proudest, yet over Offa he never proved a conqueror ; and Offa, first among men, whUe yet a lad, won the greatest of thekingdoms. None at his age ever won greater renown. With his sword he extended his ' borders against the Myrgings ; and from henceforth Angles and Swaefs held sway. " For a long time to come, however, these will be mere names ; we shall have no clear idea of the characteristics of these nations nor of the Umits of their territories. We see them all as barely civilized, their reUgion a vague nature-worship, fiiUed with a dread of darkness and night, and dim, unknown regions peopled by them with witches and warlocks, monsters and watersprites. Their one clear faith was a trust in the sword and breastplate, the shield wall and the iron arrow ; they slept with their weapons in their hands, and their highest office was the defence of their leader in the fight. The Roman Obstruction — As these fierce tribes moved west and south during the third and fourth centuries of the Christian era, they presently found their way obstructed, if not altogether barred, by the legions of Rome. We have no clear mention of the latter in this early Hterature, though constant mention is made of the nomads by the Roman historians, who, as a rule, do not trouble to distinguish between them in any way, but call them all " Germans." The chief effect of the Roman ob- ' Widsith. THE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS 3 struction was to increase the pressure, and so to augment the restlessness and agitation of the wandering tribes, causing them to break through in one direction or another, or to turn their attention to lands hitherto unknown. Influence of the Sea — Hence it came about that, at a period when the tribe rather than the family had developed as the centre of the social world of tTiat age, some particularly enterprising hordes had settled to some extent in the lands Ijang about the rivers Elbe and Weser, as well as to the north of these, in the country we now call Denmark. Finding there a long sea border, they had learnt to build and to navigate their black boats, and in these they raced to and fro over the stormy seas, and became masters of what their minstrels love to call the " swan-path." From the earliest dawn of their history the sea has always held a peculiar fascination for our forefathers. They may grumble at the hardships of a seafaring life, much as our sailors do nowadays, but of their own free wiU they return to it again and again. "On the dark wave," says their Sea/arer, "Care sighed hot about my heart, while Hunger within tore out the vitals of me, sea-weary. ' ' But though his hands maybe numbed and frozen as he strives to keep the prow to the overwhelming waters, though his " feet are bound in icy fetters by the frost, and icicles hang about him, while the hail flies by in showers," yet he is nothing daunted. " Strong is the test to him who long explores the sea road," he boasts, and returns again to his battle with the deep in search of the walrus and whale and seal. Invasion of Britain — Soon the narrow seas become but a bridge leading them to a land of new desire, for they have discovered an island known as Britain, an island whose green pastures, well-watered fields, and convenient coast- line opened up excellent prospects for a future dwelling- place. At first a faint resistance is offered to their advance. A certain officer, known as the Count of the Saxon Shore, has been set by Roman overseers of past days to guard 4 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND the east and south-east coast against invasion. But his efforts avail nothing against the increasing number of the newcomers, and he has little support from the inhabitants themselves. For by this time the Britons, once so fierce and warlike in face of the Roman conqueror, have, under that cenqueror's strict rule, grown tamer and more docile. They are torn, too, by quarrels among themselves, and by cruel attacks from foemen of the north and west, whom they call " Picts and Scots." They even welcome the rovers from across the North Sea at times, and make effort to enlist their help against these mysterious northerners ; but they soon find that, in a contest between wild beasts, the sheep stand sorry chance of safety ; and before the end of the fifth century these " fierce and impious whelps from the lair of the barbarian lioness, whom they dreaded more than death itself," ^ have made Britain, to a very large extent, their own. In our earliest " Chronicles," written by monks long after the events took place, from information and tradi- tion handed down from father to son, or gathered from the minstrel song and saga, we get a few scant records of the invasion. We hear how the Wealas — ^the Welshmen or foreigners, as the invaders called them — strenuously opposed the first onset of the barbarian chieftains in the year 455, but also how, two years later, they fled in terror from Kent and fell back on London. Later on, the " Welsh " fled thfe Enghsh " Mke fire," and Britain was devastated at the hands of the newcomers. One chronicler teUs how the cunning foe proposed a truce and offered a banquet to the Britons, in which each guest sat between " Saxons." At a given signal knives were drawn and each hapless Briton was laid low. Others speak of massacres, starvation, wholesale surrender, the slaughter of the priest at the altar, the destruction of church and monastery, the cruel fate of such Roman fcities as Bath and Chester. Conquest of Britain — For by the middle of the sixth century the Saxon raiders had conquered the south and 1 Gildas, O.E. Chron. THE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS 5 midlands, and were fast driving the Britons over the moorlands of Devon and the hills of the west into what we now call Cornwall and Wales. Bitter is the lament of one of their native poets for the " White Town " of Uriconium by the Wrekin. " The White Town between Treu and Trodwyrl : More common was the broken shield coming from battle Than the ox at eventide. More common was the blood Upon the grass than the furrow made by the plough." The pages of early English literature are fuU of descrip- tions of the way in which these forefathers of the EngUsh nation advanced in battle against those whom they set out to conquer. So large a place, indeed, is occupied by such details that we might almost be tempted to see in them nothing but a great tribal army always at war and knowing no life but that of the camp. We hear the responsive shout of the " barons " and " thegns " as their leader, raising his shield aloft, bids them bear themselves well in the fight. We hear the clash of shields, as they lock together to form a wall of defence, the rattle of the iron-tipped arrow or the flung javelin, the rip of cloven helmet or chain armour, the crash of the battle-axe, the thud of horses' hoofs as the vanquished flee from the field. And always in grim, poetic vein the chronicler reminds us of the raven, " dewy-nebbed " — or, as we should say, with watering mouth — awaiting his prey, " singing a grisly war-song," while the grey wolf lurks on the out- skirts of the field. No doubt it was in these years of warfare, of treachery, of bloodshed that the seeds were sown of finer things — the seeds of patriotism, of self-sacrifice, of loyalty to one's overlord, of discipline and self-control. But had there been no other side to their existence, we might well think of our forefathers as merely a race of bloodthirsty savages, and marvel that, within one hundred and fifty years after the beginnings of invasion, we find an England very fairly settled, open to civilizing influences, and ready to listen to the message of Christianity which was to bring actual civilization in its track. 6 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND Exercises 1. Give some causes of the invasion of Britain. Com pare them with the motives and causes of Emigration ii modern times. 2. Where do you know of traces of British, Roman, anc Saxon remains in this land ? CHAPTER II THE BEGINNINGS OF SETTLEMENT A.D. 550-650 IF we want a true picture of the social Ufe of our English forefathers, we may find it in a poem com- posed before the latter ever set foot in Britain. For, although they were influenced by their new surroundings, the invaders, to a very great extent, brought their manners and customs with them ; and so the story of Beowulf, the tribal hero of the Continental Saxon, is also the story of our earliest England. Social Life in Early England — Here we find painted for us the HaU of the Chieftain, where dwell, in personal attendance upon their lord, his " thegns," or hearth-com- panions, veterans, and youths who had yet to prove their valour. Their duty is to defend their lord and his family at all times of need, and in return he, the Ring-Giver, as they love to call him, rewards them with "treasure" — a ring or bracelet of red gold, a well-tried sword, a horse, or even a daughter of the chieftain race. The tie between chieftain and thegn of noble blood was very strong. Their lord endures " thegn-sorrow " at their loss, sits glum and sorrowful by the desolate hearth when the dragon Grendel has torn them from the Hall. The thegn, on the other hand, shows absolute devotion to his chief, is his " shoulder companion " in the fight, his adviser and counsellor at home. In a time of sore stress, when Beowulf is nigh to death before the onslaught of the dragon, one of his young thegns reminds his companion how at mead-time, in the beer-hall, they promised their lord and ring-giver that one day they would well requite those helmets and sharp swords that he had given them. 8 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND How he had reminded them of honour and gave them treasure because he accounted them brave warriors. " Let us go then to his help. I would prefer to perish with him than to bear back our shields in safety." So he goes alone to his lord's help, and with him slays the dragon, though he cannot save the chieftain's Ufe. " Hardly w%nt it with that young warrior when he saw his best beloved at the end of life, in the death-struggle." And yet another poem, The Wanderer, suggests a moving picture of past joy. " He recalls then in his memory how he his lord did clip and kiss, and on his knee laid down both hands and head, as when in days of old he received precious gifts from his ring-giver." Next in rank we find the " ceorl," or freeman, not of noble origin, but classed as a warrior of the tribe from the time he was old enough to quit himself like a man. He had the right of appearing, armed and on horseback, at the tribal council called by the chieftain, where he might show his approval by clashing his spear on his shield, or his disapproval by placing his lips to the edge of his buckler and giving a hum of dissent. He was " free " in the sense that he could neither be imprisoned nor beaten nor put to death. If he were killed his relatives could claim " wer-geld " — the price of his blood. But if he committed a crime he could be outlawed, became a " wolf-head," was driven out to the woods, and could be hanged upon the nearest tree by anyone who chose to capture him. The lowest grade of social order was that of the " theows," the serfs or thralls, who were generally drawn from the conquered race, and became the servants of the community. But sometimes we find among them free- men who had lost their freedom for theft and been sold with all their households into slavery. Old English Settlements— The first actual settlements made by our forefathers grew up, naturally enough, out of the camp or the mead-hall. Scarcely ever do we find them taking over the devastated towns of the British, with their marks of Roman civilization plain upon them. THE BEGINNINGS OF SETTLEMENT 9 The newcomer looked askance at the villa with its bath, its hot-water spring, its floor of mosaic, at the strong stone walls which enclosed the town in which it stood, at the stone-paved roads connecting one city with another. A house of stone was to him a prison, and he turned away from such buildings to the more famiUar woods and forests, where he found both the material and the locality he desired. With his axe he made a clearing, with the felled trees he built his tent. The land thus cleared was " folc-land," and was divided up by the chieftain among the freemen of the tribe to be held for life only. But to the thegn who had done some especially honourable service to his lord was granted " boc-land," or " freehold," secured in later days by " book " or charter, and held by him and his heirs for ever. The Hall of the Chieftain, at first the centre of the camp, soon became the point round which clustered the wooden huts of his eorls, barons, and thegns, with " bowers " for the women and sheds in which slept the thralls or slaves. The Hall, as we see it in the pages of Beowulf, is long and high-roofed, with an entrance at both ends, a hearth in the middle, the smoke from which escaped through a hole in the roof above, and long benches on either side. A raised platform for the chieftain, a long table for the mead-cups are the only other furniture, save for the war weapons and trophies which hang from the rough-hewn walls. The whole enclosure, surrounded by a mound and a ditch, was called a tun, and was the rude origin of our modern township. It was guarded by armed watch- men, who looked with keen suspicion at the approach of any stranger. " If any unknown man leave the beaten path," says a code of early laws,^ " without making his presence known by shouting or blowing his horn, he is liable to be taken as a thief and either slain or sold." Beyond the tun lay the " mark-land," an unknown, unexplored tract of wood or marsh-land, peopled by the imaginative EngUsh with demons and dragons, water- ' Laws of Ine. 10 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND sprites and witches. In Beowulf, whose scenery may well be that of an early northern England, it is described as " a secret land, wolf -haunted slopes and windblown peaks, a dangerous fen-path . . .," whose mere, overhung with rustling groves, is full of strange portents—" fire on the flood . .. . even the stag, hard pressed by hounds, will rather give up his hf e on the shore than venture in to hide his head." From such grim scenes the warriors hastened gladly to the cheerful Ufe within the tAn. In fine weather they would spend the days of peace in hunting, fishing, riding, or hawking ; but when the dark days and long nights of winter were upon them they had other amusements. They were fond of plajdng a game involving the use of dice and a chequered board, they sang rough songs of warfare, they loved to Hsten to the harp and the saga of the minstrel, and they certainly spent' much time in drinking and in sleep. They were hospitable too, and rejoiced in the presence of a noble guest. On Beowulf's arrival at Hrothgar's HaU of Heorot, he is given glad welcome, though he is obliged to observe the time-honoured rule that bids a guest lay aside spear and shield before entrance. The warriors throng the benches, and the thegn, whose duty it is to bear the fretted mead-vessel, pours out the foam- ing ale. They drink and pledge one another, while at intervals the scop, the " shaper " of songs or poet minstrel, sings a song, recounting the deeds of heroes. Then upon the scene appears the Lady of Heorot, wife of Hrothgar, who first carries a golden cup to the chieftain ; then, when he has touched it with his lips, to each " eorl " and thegn in the haU ; and lastly, as custom bade, to BeowuK, the guest of her lord. Tlien she takes her seat beside Hrothgar, and the banquet proceeds till dusk. At another banquet, given when Beowulf has killed the fen monster Grendel, we have a great giving of gifts. A banner of gold, another richly ornamented, a jewelled sword and armour, and horses with gold inlaid bridles, Hrothgar's own war-horse, with saddle wrought with precious stones, are given to the victor. To the sound of THE BEGINNINGS OF SETTLEMENT 11 the harp rises the battle-song, and with great ceremony the banquet proceeds undisturbed to its close, unless, perchance, overcome by the heady liquor, the warriors take to boasting and thence to strife. This was the life of our forefathers in those early days of settlement, a life so dear to them that an exile laments in heartbroken wise ^ : " The memory of kinsmen passes into my heart : I greet them with joy, but they fade away : the spirit of the fleeting shadows brings no more the old familiar songs. All round this land the walls stand wind-beaten and frost-bitten, and halls are all decayed. The wine-hall crumbles, its lord lies lifeless, its warriors are fallen by the wall. Where is the steed ? Where the treasure-giver ? Where are the benches for the feast ? Where the joys of the mead-hall now? " This love of home and its simple joys was connected closely with the influence of the women of the race. And here we may notice an .interesting point which accounts for the un- doubted mixture of Celtic or British strain in the future race of English people. Celtic Influence — In those early invasions, when Britain had yet to be conquered, the newcomers certainly did not bring their women-folk with them in their crowded war vessels. In later days the nobles probably brought across wives and kinswomen and brides given in settle- ment of feuds or aUiances. But in the great majority of cases the invaders took wives to themselves of the British race, princesses or maids of low degree according to their rank. And that is why in their children even to the present day we find that strain of Celtic romance, mysticism, and love of beauty for its own sake, that sense of the hidden " tears of things " mingled with keen joy in hfe, running through the sturdy warrior spirit and love of material things that marked the Anglo-Saxon breed. Position of Women — In this early Uterature we find a high place given to the Lady of the House, the " loaf- giver," or " peace- weaver," as she is lovingly called. In ' The Wanderer. 12 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND Beowulf she gently admonishes her guest that in Heorot is " every earl true to his fellow, mild of heart." A proud princess who had enacted that any man who looked upon her beauty should lose his Ufe is held worthy of blame. " Such is not a queen-hke custom for a woman that a peace-weaver should deprive a man of his Hfe." The fact that a bride was bought from her kinsmen with money or cattle no more made her a " chattel " than the dowry of the present day. We read that a king " must buy his queen with cattle, with cups and bracelets. The earl must grow strong in war and the wife in the love of her people. She must be wise and gay, generous in treasure- giving, and in the mead-haU always must she greet the chief of the princes first of all, giving straightway the first cup to the hand of her lord. And they together, being householders, must take counsel." ^ Another tiny picture of the home life of the race stands out in the lines which describe the return of the sailor to his wife : " Dear is the welcome when the ship runs inshore, his boat is come and her man is home, her own true food-giver. She bids him enter, washes his wave-stained suit, gives him fresh clothing. Pleasant is it for him on land when love drives him to his own hearthstone." Old English Laws — As the settlement became accom- plished and the chieftain developed into the king, we find the beginnings of a primitive code of law. Such are the Laws of Ine, King of Wessex, in the early part of the eighth century, of which the following throw hght upon certain features of this social side of Ufe : " If any man fight in the king's house, he must atone for it with aU his possessions, and it is according to the king's will as to whether he loses his Hfe or not. " If any man fight in a monastery, he must pay a fine of I20S. " If in the house of a nobleman {ealdorman) or any other distinguished person, he must atone for it by pa5dng 60s., and another 60s. as a fine to the king. ' Gnomic Verses. THE BEGINNINGS OF SETTLEMENT 13 " If in the house of a taxpayer (tenant) or a farmer, he must pay 30s. as a fine to the king, and 6s. to the free- holder. " And even if he fight in the fields, he must pay 30s. for a fine to the king." Ranks of Society — In these distinctions we have a good example of the different ranks of society before the Con- quest ; and this is made still clearer by the " wer-geld," or scale of money due to -the relatives of a slain man by him who slew him. In a tenth-century document the title of each grade is slightly different, and the order runs thus : King. Archbishop. Bishop and earl {ealdorman) . King's reeve, or officer. Mass-thegn (priest). Secular thegn. Ceorl. Thegns would correspond roughly to the modern tax- paying tenant class, and these were of two kinds. " King's thegns " are " such as stand in immediate relationship to him," and are liable to pay him as " heriot " four horses, two of them saddled, two swords, four spears and shields, a helmet and coat of mail, and a sum of gold. These were under the authority of the king alone. The lower class pay a horse and its saddle and a set of arms, and are subject to other persons of authority. The thegn might inherit his rank ; on the other hand, if a ceorl has amassed wealth to the extent of five hides of land, built a church, a kitchen, a belfry, or a castle-gate, and owns a seat in the hall of the king, he takes rank with a thegn forthwith, though not necessarily becoming one. A merchant, moreover, who had three times crossed the open sea at his own expense, also ranks with a thegn. Then come laws dealing with other forms of trans- gression : " If any man steal and his wife and children know not 14 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND of it, he must pay a fine to the king of 60s. If he steal with the knowledge of his family, let them all be sold into slavery. A ten-year-old boy may be an accomplice of theft." " If a stranger or foreigner go off the footpath through a wood and neither shouts nor blows his horn, let him be taken for a thief and either slain or put to ransom." " If a man burn down a tree in a wood and it become known, he must pay the full fine ; he must pay 60s. For fire is a thief." " If a man cut down quite a number of trees and is afterwards discovered, he must pay for three trees, 30s. each. Nor need he pay more, however many trees there were ; for the axe is an informer, not a thief." Exercises 1. What points strike you as most interesting in Old English Laws ? 2. What do you gather of the position of women in Old English days ? 3. Describe or draw a picture of an Old English Hall. CHAPTER III DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATION A.D. 600-800 DURING the century that followed the period of conquest, certain changes in the social Ufe and character of these Early EngUsh settlers began to develope. Since they need no longer fight for bare existence, their character became less that of the warrior, more that of the yeoman or farmer. As they moved inland, away from the coast-line, their interests were no longer sea-bound, but were drawn to the need of clearing land overgrown with forest or of cultivating the soil. Moreover, they began to lose touch almost entirely with the continent from which they came, except on the rare occasions of noble visitors or of marriage with a bride from overseas. Thus they became narrower, more local in their interests. These causes, acting together, presently brought about a loss of tribal instinct and an increase of what we may call the " parochial " spirit. When settlements became permanently fixed round the mead-hall of the petty king, when granaries were built and temples raised to Woden or Thor in their midst, the Englishman lost his roving spirit and preferred an abiding place for himself and his family for his own lifetime and that of his descendants. And thus was prepared the way for a wave of civiUzation that, at the very end of the sixth century, was to flow over this Early England through the channel of the Christian Church. Early English Religion — Those Early EngUsh poems to which reference has so often been made in these pages are marked here and there with Christian ideas and aspirations ; but these are due to the editing of Christian 16 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND scribes, in their efforts to baptize a heathen literaturi For these English settlers were frankly heathen, ur touched by the faith that was fast spreading over Europ< Tlieir insular position was bound to delay their conversioi and their beliefs remained those of their northern ancestoi for more than a century after their arrival. Their religion was simple enough, and full of romanti features. They believed in Asgard, Hall of the Godi where Woden ruled, and whither possibly wended th souls of dead heroes, though there was much vagueness a to this future state. We find them laying the body c their chieftain on a ship laden with treasure and armou and weapons, and sending him forth with a banner abov his head to the bosom of the great deep. None could sa what was the fate of that quiet form, nor that of the soi which had given it life. In the same way they believed that the ancestor c their race floated ashore from the ocean as an unknow babe ; and thus " from the great deep to the great dee he goes." Sometimes such dead heroes themselves became god to their descendants, but more frequently we find thei worshipping some manifestation of Nature such as Thoi the Thunder-god, or Freya, who makes the com grov or the Moon Goddess, or Eostra, goddess of the dawi Loki, the serpent who is coiled round Midgard, the Eartl is to them, the representation of evil ; but to them als the earth is full of wicked spirits, whose power must b warded off by incantations and charms. Here is one c such charms used by a woodman who has just double up with a stitch in the side. His fellows gather round hin and while one holds a wooden shield, as though to guar him from darts shot from the air, the others sing : " Loud were they, lo, loud, as over the land they rode ; Fierce of heart were they as over the hill thej rode. Shield thee now thysslf : from this spite thou mayst escape thee ! Out, little spear, if herein thou be ! Underneath the linden stood he, underneath the shining shield, While the mighty women mustered up their strength ; And the spears they sent screaming through the airi Back agam to them will I send another DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATION 17 Arrow forth a-flying from the front against them ; Out little spear, if herein thou be I If it were the shot of Esa, or if it were of elves the shot, Or if it were of hags the shot ; help I bring to thee, Flee witch, to the wild hill-top, But thou — ^be thou hale, and help thee the Lord." '■ Over all their beliefs broods the dark form of the goddess Wyrd or Fate, who " hurries men blindly on along the path she marks for them," and rules the affairs of men. That these beUefs.were far from satisfying the mind of the average Englishman of the seventh century is seen by the declaration of that thegn of Edwin of Northumbria, who about the year 627 is heard to say : " The present Ufe of man, O King, in comparison with the time unknown to us is as if, at a banquet, when the fire is kindled and thy thegns sit round it, a sparrow should fly swiftly through the haU from one door and depart by the other. From the winter out into the winter again it passes. Such, O King, is our mortal life. What has gone before, what shall follow after, who shall tell ? " Influence of Christianity — It was Saint Augustine who, in the year 597, first brought to Kent the answer to this question. The Celtic Church of Wales, it is true, had never entirely lost the faith brought by their first conquerors, by missionaries among the legions of Rome. But the faith of a conquered people, even had it been a more definite form of Christianity than that of the British Church, would never have appealed to a race that was accustomed to worship the Storm God Woden, or Thor the Thunderer. The message of Augustine came, on the other hand, from an Empire which commanded the respect and admiration of Ethelbert, King of Kent, who knew by experience the difficulties of asserting even a qualified kind of lordship over England as far as the Humber banks. He knew no more of the real weakness of the fallen Roman Empire, already absorbed by barbarian rulers, than he did of the rapidly growing power of the Catholic Church within her borders. But the message, 1 Translation by the late Rev. Stopford Brooke. 18 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND though strange and disquieting, with its news of a patient and suffering Saviour of mankind in place of a violent, all-powerful, and unmerciful god of battles, came from a quarter that demanded a deferential hearing, and in course of time Ethelbert was baptized in the Church of St Martin a1? Canterbury. The story of the conversion of the seven provinces into which the England of those days was roughly divided is too detailed to be told here. We must read elsewhere of how Paulinus, following in the wake of his royal mistress, converted Edwin of Northumbria, and made Cefi, the heathen priest, the destroyer of heathen temples in that land ; of how Penda of Mercia, the persecutor of the faith, became, not a Christian, but an unmerciful critic of those who called themselves the followers of the Crucified without obeying His commands ; of Cuthbert and Wilfred, and all those noble names of men who taught the faith first in this EngHsh land. Method of Conversion— But the method of conversion to Christianity and its very marked effects belong in a special manner to the social history of this time. It was no easy matter to wipe out the rehgion of a race when that religion was deeply rooted in the primary instincts of the people ; and Gregory the Great, then Pope of the Universal Church, was wise enough to insist on a com- promise. The Church was patient with all sincere beliefs, but such behefs must be Christianized in form. Recog- nizing the truth of their complaint, " They have taken away the ancient worship and no one knows how the new worship is to be performed," he ordained that the heathen temples should be consecrated, not destroyed ; that their sacrifices should not be forbidden, but made to the one true God ; that they should be won gently to a knowledge of Christ, not driven in anger from their nature worship and their crowded Asgard. Even their feast days, their ceremonies at mid-summer and harvest and Easter, were not rejected, but were connected with some feast of the Church. And thus we stiU find traces of the mid-summer fires on the Eve of St John, of the DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATION 19 mistletoe on Christmas Eve, the boar's head and Yule log, and of the special significance of the Mass said at the Aurora of Christmas, and at the break of Easter Day, when the festival of the Goddess of the Dawn merged into the Feast of the Risen Christ. Effects of Conversion — The effects of even a partial conversion to Christianity were very marked. For the first time England was brought into direct touch with the organization of the ancient Roman Empire and began to share in those features of its rule which the Christian Church had made her own. Where they had been con- tent with a rough code of tribal morality, the Enghsh now found the advantage of a legal system both civil and ecclesiastical. In place of separate provinces, each warring more or less against the other, the land was divided up into dioceses by Theodore of Tarsus, each ruled by a bishop who looked to Rome for authority. Thus for the first time the idea of unity and centraUzation arrived in England, and kings and bishops were glad to work hand in hand. Before the end of the seventh century English nobles and English kings, such as CadwaUa and Ine of Wessex and Offa of Mercia, made the toilsome journey to Rome, and set the fashion for pil- grimages which, if they sometimes led rather to worldly than to heavenly joys, must at any rate have brought the travellers into very close connection with the wider life of Europe. In other ways the effect of the new faith profoundly influenced the character of the nation. A bom fighter was the Enghshman still, but he no longer won praise for unnecessary violence and slaughter. Charity and mercy became new virtues as distinct from the older code of hospitality. " In the days of Edwin," we read, " so great was the peace that a woman with a child at her breast might pass from sea to sea without hurt." That same Edwin, King of Northumbria, would have cups of brass hung upon posts by wayside springs for the use of travellers ; King Oswald broke his dishes of gold and silver to distribute the pieces to the poor at his gates. 20 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND Laws are drawn up for the protection of thralls or theows. These must not be wantonly beaten or ill-iised, nor deprived of their savings ; and later on we find the Laws of Alfred decreeing that after seven years of faithful service the slave should be given his freedom at the cross- roads. . The position of women, never a degraded one among our forefathers, rose to one of high honour when such women as Hilda of Whitby ruled a great double monastery, with monks on one side, nuns on the other, and when kings and bishops sought counsel from her lips. But perhaps the most important gift brought by the Christian missionary was that of education. Education — In the Europe of those days the monks of the Order of St Benedict were opening schools for the instruction, not only of their own novices, but of all lads of a studious turn of mind. In England such monasteries soon flourished exceed- ingly. At Canterbury St Augustine had founded a college for the study of Latin wMch became the parent of the " Schools " of Kent and East Anglia, and soon vied in popularity with that of Malmesbury and Glastonbury, and was only overshadowed in future days by that of York. Alcuin, the great English scholar of the days of Egbert, describes the daily routine in the monastic " university " of York — ^how the bishop schoolmaster teaches his boys all the morning, instructing them in Latin, especially in the study of Virgil, Ovid, and Cicero, in Roman law, in Greek, in astronomy and music, and most of all in theology. At noon the bishop celebrates the chief Mass of the day, after which comes dinner and recreation, when literary questions are put and discussed. Then after due exercise comes further study, such as the " nature of man, of cattle, birds, and beasts," and of the properties of numbers. After vespers the students kneel to receive the bishop's blessing at the ending of the day. Through the industry of such men as these England became famous for her libraries. Valuable manuscripts were brought from a Europe that was fast ceasing to DEVELOPMENT OF CIVILIZATION 21 realize their worth, careful copies were made by skilled penmen ; the Ubrary of York was second only to that of Rome in importance. When teaching the sons of the Emperor Charlemagne in the early years of the ninth century, Alcuin begs that he may send to his own country " youths who may obtain thence necessary books, and so bring into France the flowers of Britain, that the garden of Paradise be no more confined to York." The outer husk of such books was scarcely less precious than the kernel. The most beautiful materials, studded with jewels and ornamented with gold, was not too precious to be used in bookbinding ; the richest colours and most patient workmanship adorned the capitals of the pages within. A collection of such books was literally worth its weight in gold. International Interests — Stone churches, the outward sign of a permanent faith, began to be built during the eighth century, traces of which may be found at Canter- bury, at Ripon, Hexham, Wearmouth, and Crowland. At Jarrow, in his quiet cell, the Venerable Bede was writing a history of the Church that was to remain the chief authority for the history of those days, even to the present time. From York, as we have seen, Alcuin was chosen to be the tutor of the sons of Charlemagne, most enlightened of Emperors of that day. From Crediton, then the seat of a western bishopric, Winfrid or Boniface went forth to carry the Gospel message to the Saxons and Franks of the Continent. On the other hand we find the Northumbrian Benedict Biscop searching Gaul and Rome herself for builders and glass-workers, for pictures and wall paintings to adorn his church at Wearmouth, and after- wards at Jarrow, and thus to teach his people by eye as well as ear the mysteries of the Faith. Best known of all, from the unlearned lay brothers who tend the cattle of the monastery at Whitby, comes Caedmon, first native poet of English soil, who, by a God-given gift, turns whatever "holy stories " are told to him " into sweetest song." " Meditating and ruminating like a clean animal," says Bede, " he sang of the creation 22 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND of the world and of many other things, since he had received freely the gift of singing." Exercises 1. Show in what ways England was connected with the Continent in these days. 2. What do you find interesting in the education of this period ? 3. What were some of the effects of the conversion of England to Christianity ? CHAPTER IV THE FURY OF THE NORTHMEN A.D. 800-1000 IT was upon an England such as this — prosperous, beginning to be famous for its Uterature, its learning, and its standard of civihzation — ^that there suddenly descended the avalanche of the Danish Invasion. " From the fury of the Northmen, Good Lord, deUver us," ran a clause in the Litany of that day, and well iiiight that be the prayer of every Englishman. For a hundred years at least, during the whole period covered by the ninth century, the land was subject to a series of terrible onslaughts. " In the year 787," says the Chronicle, " their ships came first in the days of King Beorhtric, and the reeve rode to them and wanted to make them go with him to the King's ' tun,' for he knew not what they were. And they slew him." Such is the brief notice of the first appearance of the Vikings as raiders, and within the next ten years North- umbria, already weakened by her long and vain struggle for supremacy against Mercia and Wessex, was laid completely waste. " Whither march ye, ye noble chieftains ? The Danes have descended upon the North. They have burnt your haUs, they are carrying off your wealth, they are tossing your young children aloft on the point of their spears ; they carry away your wives into slavery." " And both kings and people, in bewilderment, lost their vigour of mind and body and were utterly prostrated." This is the contemporary picture painted for us, though it scarcely does justice to the efforts of the English to repel the invader. But the latter held the advantage in that, even if vanquished, he had but to take to his boats 24 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND and flee away with his stolen goods, only to return at a more favourable opportunity. The Northmen as Conquerors— By the middle of the ninth century the Northmen were coming into this land not as raiders, but as conquerors. Every summer the " Great Horde," as the EngMsh called the Danish army, in distinction to their own national levy, the " fyrd," had made its landing, and harried the country far and wide. But now it wintered there as well, while three hundred and fifty " long ships " of war lay in the mouth of the Thames, keeping ward over London. The north and east, weak with internal faction and knowing nothing of unity with the south, had become an easy prey, and for the next two hundred years the influence of Scandinavia was to be the predominant feature there, just as it had become already in Northern France about Rouen, the City of Rou or Rolf the Ganger. The most terrible feature here was the loss of the monasteries, with their treasures of learning and books. " They slew the abbot and the monks (of Peterborough), and all that they found there, which before was very rich, they made so that it became nothing." In vain are they opposed by such heroic rulers as Edmund of East Anglia, who, when pressed to fly for his life, replies : " 'Tis not ray wont to flee, and I would rather die, if need be, for mine own land." And again, when the heathen invaders offer him life and safety if he will give up land and treasure, he answers boldly : " Never will Edmund bend to the heathen chieftain, except he first bend with faith to the Saviour," and so goes forth to meet his death at their hands. The Reforms of Alfred — Only in a small portion of Wessex did the invaders meet with efiicient opposition, and that from "a httle band," well trained and very mobile, led by that prince who was to be known as the " darling of the English." Again and again Wessex is overrun by the Dane, but Alfred stands his ground, now here, now there, until in 878 the camp of Guthrum is THE FURY OF THE NORTHMEN 25 suddenly seized, hostages are given, and within a fortnight the chieftain is baptized, and Alfred stands sponsor to his former foe. At once he set to work to defend the country against fresh attacks. By a simple and common-sense arrange- ment he remedied the dislocation caused by a system of universal conscription by keeping half his fyrd at home and the other half in the field by turns. Realizing the immense advantage given by the Danish navy, he designed a fleet of ships " nearly twice as long, but swifter, steadier, and higher " than those of the in- vader. As a consequence we read in the Chronicle of a fight off the coast of Wessex with six Danish warships, in which two are captured and one escaped with the loss of nearly all the crew. The other three, which had run aground, were then attacked in a brief but fierce confUct, and two of them, when floated off by the rising tide, were again forced aground on the Sussex shore and captured. This is our first record of a naval battle, the precursor of the fight with the Armada, of St Vincent and Trafalgar, and Jutland. Next Alfred turned his mind to the sorry condition inland, where laws and morals had been well-nigh forgotten in the long conflict with barbarism. The code of laws that bears his name is a revival of that of Ine, but is based more expUcitly upon the precepts of the Ten Commandments and their amplification in the Christian Gospels. He did not claim originaMty in their expression. "I, Alfred, King, gathered them together," he says modestly, " venturing not to set down much of mine own, for I knew not what of it would please those who come after us." His code was the beginning of better things, and, though he ruled only a part of a hopelessly divided land, this reign of Alfred shows a marked improvement in social conditions. Scholar as well as warrior, he laid aside the sword only to take up the pen and to make provision for a return of some semblance of learning to the devastated country. 26 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND He tells us in the preface to one of his books that, when he first came to look into the state of things, he found scarcely one of his priests able to translate the Latin of his " Mass- book." Forthwith he set to work to make translations, not only of prayer-books, but of such collections of informa- tion as hejound in the pages of Boethius, the mediaeval " bookmaker," who discourses so delightfully upon most subjects under the sun. Sometimes he gives us original accounts of such events as the visit of the explorers, Othere and Wulfstan, who bring to an incredulous king, as proof of their adventures, a long white walrus tooth. Under his encouragement education began once more to flourish in England among the few who had " leisure and means to apply themselves to it." In the days of his son Edward the Elder, and of his daughter Ethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians, Dane and Englishman began to settle down side by side in peace. Battles there stiU were, such as that at Brunanburh, where " Athelstan, king, lord of earls, and his brother Edmund the Atheling, hfe-long glory won in the fight with edges of sword . . . when they clove the shield wall, cut down the leaden shields with the bloodstained sword — ^those sons of Edward." But the general trend is towards the peace of the days of Edgar (973-975), whom " kings honoured far and wide, and submitted to him as was fitting." Effect of Viking Invasion — Yet the coming of the Vikings, devastating shock as it would at first appear, was on the whole of advantage rather than otherwise as far as social history is concerned. It led, as we have seen, to a wide scheme of "recon- struction " as regards the army, the navy, law, and educa- tion. But most important of all, perhaps, it brought back to England that spirit of enterprise, of energy, and hard- ness that it was beginning to lose. Xot without loss was the Latin civilization imposed from without upon a people alien in race, language, and instinct ; and the Danish blight came to check a premature and possibly THE FURY OF THE NORTHMEN 27 unnatural growth in this respect. We have seen some tokens of revival in the impulse towards exploration, as shown in the spirited stories of Othere and Wulfstan, who had " dwelt to the northward further north than any man," and became famous explorers, as well as hunters of the walrus and the seal. The Danish influence brought with it, on the other hand, a reaction towards fierce ideals on the part of the rulers and a heedlessness of morals even among the teachers of the people that needed the strong and ruthless hand of one such as Archbishop Dunstan to reform. His was the battle of the regular monks, with their strict ascetic rule, against the secular clergy with their lower standard ; and as Archbishop of Canterbury under Edgar he succeeded in building many new monasteries and in filling them with " shepherds of a holier race " than the " illiterate clergy, subject to the disciphne of no regular order." Throughout the long contest sounds a note of dread. The Chronicle makes it clear that the greater part of the people expected the end of the world to occur in the year 1000 A.D., and preferred to build houses of wood rather than stone because of the lack of permanence in human life. As the tenth century drew to its close there died with it something of the old brave spirit that flares up for almost the last time in the battle-song of Maldon, in the year 991, when the Vikings reappear in the guise of victors demanding tribute. The first half of the eleventh century is darkened by the treachery and weakness of Ethelred the Unwise before the foe. Never now do we hear of heroic fights, " for the army, destitute of a leader and ignorant of miHtary affairs, either retreated before it came into action or else was easily overcome." And now the hated " dane-geld " is levied regularly each year upon a people burdened and oppressed and forced to silence. Yet strangely enough it was under a Danish king, Canute, greatest of Vikings, that a large measure of peace and security returned to the tortured land. " I have never spared nor will I spare either 28 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND myself or my pains for the necessary service of my whole people," writes from Rome this king, under whom England became more nearly English than she had yet been, in the brief breathing space that was to be hers before the coming of the Norman. Organization of England — Before we leave this period, we must glance briefly at the organization of govern- ment, such as it was, before the more definite introduction of a " system " under Norman rule. The Anglo-Saxon " witan " was a purely advisory council, consisting solely of the king's friends and sup- porters, though in theory every freeman had a right to sit upon it. We find it called by Edwin of Northumbria to decide as to the acceptance of a new faith at the beginning of this period, and again at the end to consult as to the succession to the throne on Edward the Con- fessor's death. But there is very little evidence that it had any kind of elective power or any marked influence over the people as a whole. Actual administration of justice was maintained in the courts of the shire or the hundred, the details of which hardly belong here. More closely connected with the social history of the time are the " Frith Gilds," con- fraternities for the purpose of maintaining peace and good behaviour. In these it was the duty of each " brother " to act as a kind of informal policeman. He was bound to avenge an injury done on any other member, and also to furnish a fixed yearly sum, which paid the fines exacted from members, helped the poor and sick, and procured Masses for their souls after death. In those days the population of England was almost entirely agricultural, and there were no towns in the land. The Anglo-Saxon, indeed, still looked on walled settle- ments with suspicion, and the English " burh " was a hamlet with a number of wooden thatched huts, a " hall " for the baron, a httle church, all enclosed within a low mound and a moat. The serfs and labourers (ceorls) were bound to their lord by certain laws of service. They must reap, plough, sow for him, or pay their plough penny or THE FURY OF THE NORTHMEN 29 " repp-silver." Sometimes the larger " burhs " combined money and labour dues, and we find Oxford paying £20 and six measures of honey, and Dunwich £50 and 60,000 herrings. The chief industry, apart from agriculture, was fishing — mostly in the rivers, though " sea-swine " — porpoises — are mentioned ; and we also find workers in salt, glass, gold, and silver. The monasteries were the chief industrial centres, since euery priest was bound by rule to learn and practise a handicraft. The trade and industry of the country in the year before the Conquest was mostly in the hands of the seafaring Danes, whose settlements can be traced along the north- east coast by the place-name terminations of -ness and -by. But a letter of Charles the Great to Offa of Mercia speaks of " English " traders among the bands of pilgrims, who are travelling with a safe " pass " to Rome, and refer- ences are fouiid to their gold and silver work. The enter- prise of Othere and Wulfstan, the northern explorers, has been already mentioned ; and after the building of Alfred's fleet, we find mention in the records of port dues of a Uvely trade with Normandy, France, and Flanders. A dialogue of Aehric Bata, written in the late tenth century, makes the merchant talk of his silks, gems, dyes, and dyed stuffs, wine, oil, ivory, sulphur, and glass, which he buys cheaply in the East and sells " dearly " in this land. And we know that Cornish tin and lead, even silver and gold, horses and wool were exported, and also slaves, tiU this was prohibited by Ine's law, " That Christian men and uncondemned be not sold out of this country." Exercises 1. Consider carefully the effects of the invasion of the Northmen on England. 2. What are the claims of Alfred to the title of The Great ? 3. What modern connections can you trace between England and Scandinavia. 30 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND Some Books to be Consulted or Read The story of Beowulf and several translations of Old English poenxs, charms, and stories in Britain Long Ago. (E. M. Wilmot Buxton.) National Life and Character, 650-1400. (Dale.) Studies in Anglo-Saxon Institutions. (Chadwick.) Life in Early Britain. (Windle.) Old English Social Life. (Dyer.) Foundations of England. (Ramsay.) Anglo-Saxon Britain. (Grant Allen.) Old English History. (Freeman.) England under Anglo-Saxon Kings. (Lappenberg.) CHAPTER V THE NORMANS IN ENGLAND A.D. IO5O-II5O " Now are they in servage full many that erst were free." (Mannyng's Chronicle) A PERIOD of new beginnings is not likely to be one of peace, and the displacement, or at least the violent reform, of existing institutions, however vague these were, was bound to be a time of tumult and unrest. The Norman period, which brought about great changes, or rather crystallized some of the most striking tendencies in the development of this country's civilization, has left behind it singularly little material for its story of social Ufe. And with one marked exception, that story is told by Saxon chroniclers, who are not intent on making the best of their conquerors. The exception is that remark- able Norman document known as the Domesday Book, the record of the Conquest told in details of land and men and available wealth, which not only paints the Britain conquered by William, but also gives a fairly clear ex- pression of Norman ideas of government. The Normans — Who were these Normans and why do they rank as of such importance as completely to over- shadow those earlier conquerors — Angles, Saxons, and Danes ? Their race distinction is interesting. They were a blend of the Scandinavian blood, with its dauntless energy, vitality, and courage, together with the Latin element, intellectual, cultured, mystical, yet quick of wit and firm of wiU. To their subjects they are objects of unwilling admiration. " A fierce and crafty race," says Henry of Huntingdon, and Willian of Malmesbury describes them 32 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND with a half-concealed sneer as " finely apparelled, delicate in food, inured to war .... ever ready to use stratagem where strength fails. They live in large buildings, envy their equals, wish to excel their superiors, and plunder their subjects, though they defend them from others. TTiey are faithful to their lords, though a slight offence renders them otherwise. They are hospitable and re- Ugious, and are given to weigh treachery by its chances of success." The Conqueror himself they regarded much as a school- boy looks upon a severe but just headmaster. " He was a very wise man," says the Chronicle, " and more powerful, more dignified and stronger than any of his predecessors. He was mild to the good men who loved God, and over all measure severe to the men who gainsaid his will . . ., but among other things is not to be forgotten the good peace that he made in this land, so that a man who had any confidence in himself might go over his realm unhurt with his bosom full of gold ; and no man dared slay another though he had done never so much evil against him." Yet it was for ever to be remembered that " loving the tall deer as though he were their father," he ordained that whoso should slay hart or hind should be blinded ; and that to make his great game preserve in the New Forest he " turned out of house and home a great multitude of men and took their land for thirty miles round." This, however, was but a tiny detail in that immense reorganization of land which was the keynote of the Norman period, and is known by the name of the Feudal System. Such a system was doubtless necessary if the conquest was to be complete. It was no new thing ; in a vague and indeterminate way it had been in worldng for years past. But now it was not only to be made definite, it was to mark a strong line of demarcation between the races for more than a century. " Lo ! thus," says Robert of Gloucester, moralizing over the treachery of unhappy Harold, " the EngUsh folk came to the ground for a THE NORMANS IN ENGLAND 33 false king, who had no right to the kingdom, and came to a new lord, who had more right. And thus, cert;ainly, the land was brought into the Norman's hand, and it is doubtful if ever it may be recovered. All the high men of England are of the Normans and the low men of the Saxons. . . . And men of religion, of Normandy also, he endowed here with lands and rents, so that there are few districts in England that the monks of Normandy have not somewhat in their hand." And another chronicler speaks bitterly of the extortions of the conquerors. " Whence money was got no one asked, but get it they must ; the more they talked of right, the more wrong they did." There is, however, another side to the picture. Effects of Conquest — When the Normans conquered England they opened to this land the gate of Europe. Her new position as a province of what was to become a continental empire ruled by her kings, meant that, without losing the sturdy characteristics of the race deep-rooted in her soil, she was gradually to take her part in the march of Latin civilization through Norman- French channels, and to share in its advantages. Latin thought, Latin education, Latin interests swamped the land, and the national insularity upon which England has always prided herself was broken down. All business of importance, aU schools, all " poUte " communication were transacted in Latin or Norman-French ; it was the mark of a " boor " to keep the language or manners of the country. " Lo ! thus came England into Normandy's hand," laments Robert of Gloucester," and the Normans could speak then but their own speech and spoke French as they did at home, and (hd teach it also to their children, so that the high men of this land that came of their blood all hold that speech that they had from them. For unless a man know French, one accounts of him Httle. But low men hold to Enghsh and their own speech yet." 34 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND At first the line of demarcation proved a barrier indeed. For at least a hundred years the native Englishman looked upon the conquering race as foreigners, and noted with haU-concealed disdain the French dress and meat, literature aii^ songs, and with reluctant admiration the method of fighting with cavalry and bowmen. For him- self, he held aloof with his own language and meagre Uterature, content to till the soil that was once his own under the rule of a Norman master. Cosmopolitan Spirit in England — Yet, while this divid- ing line between the ranks of society in England undoubtedly existed, the twelfth century was to see an outburst of feeling that can fairly be termed cosmopohtan. The position of England as part of a great Angevin Empire does not alone account for it ; all over Europe it is found in equal strength. Nor was it the expression of an empire's unity so much as that of a society, with universal ideas, language, and Hterature. The foundation of this cosmopolitan spirit was, no doubt, to be found in the ideal of the Christendom of that period, with its unity of faith, its universal institutions, its constant intercourse with every part of Europe. The Church of those days, indeed, commanded a loyalty that was to prove a strong check upon the lesser local allegiances, such as Feudalism, which, uncorrected by the traditions of Christendom, might well have run rampant in Western Europe and developed the provincial spirit at the expense of the larger outlook. The Latin tongue which was her speech was the learned language of Europe, while French was common to the West, together with certain " dialects " spoken in Italy, North- West France, and England. It was the Church which had issued that trumpet- call to the Crusades, a means of common action in which all Europe took part. It was from the Cistercian monks of Burgundy as a centre that she sent over Western Europe a new wave of monasticism, with all that it stood for in learning, architecture, art, THE NORMANS IN ENGLAND 35 and education. And in these universal movements England took her full share. She opened her arms to continental bishops such as Ansebn of Bee, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, and Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln ; and sent in return her John of Salisbury to be Bishop of Chartres. One of the most popular statesmen in the thirteenth century was Simon de Montfort, the " foreigner " ; and in the middle of the twelfth century an Englishman, Nicholas Breakspear, sat in the Papal Chair. Yet already in that twelfth century was heard the first note of disunity, when we find the Angevin Empire breaking up under King John, and hear of a dispute between Edward L and Philip the Fair that was to be the prelude of that great disaster of mediaeval times, the Hundred Years' War with France. Intercourse between England and the Continent — But still throughout the next two centuries there is con- stant intercourse between England and the Continent. Chaucer's Wife of Bath, an ordinary, middle-class dame, had been two or three times to Rome on pilgrimage, and there was a constant stream of pilgrims from all parts of Europe to the shrine of St Thomas of Canterbury. Wandering scholars work their way from Bologna to Paris, and thence to Oxford or Cambridge, visiting many a flourishing city of Germany and France, and even Scandinavia, on their rounds. Legates hurry from one court to another throughout Western Christendom, monks move freely from monastery to monastery; and in the midst of the bustling interests of Europe, the Norman and the Anglo-Saxon gradually merge into the EngUshman of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Feudal System — The most important change that England saw during this period was one that affected the social conditions of every rank, while at the same time creating classes where before no such distinction had existed. Roughly speaking, it was the conscription method of 36 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND the time, and briefly it amounted to this. Before the Conquest the land was held by the people ; after it, by the king. The statement is, of course, open to many modifications, for, as we have seen, the possession of land in very early times marked a distinction in 'class ; but there was, with the exception of the actual serfs, much less distinction in class between the Saxon king, earl, and thegn or freeman, than between the Norman king, baron, and burgher or villein. The keynote of the Conqueror's government was the complete supremacy of the king over baron, bishop, and burgher alike. He held a " Great Council," it is true, three times a year, but it was merely advisory, and more or less a picturesque fiction. " He was very worshipful," writes the Chronicle; " he wore his crown thrice in every year when he was in England. At Easter he wore it at Winchester, at Whitsuntide at Westminster, at mid-winter at Gloucester, and then there was with him all the great men of all England, archbishops and bishops, abbots and earls, thegns and knights, ... in order that ambassadors from foreign countries might admire the splendour of the assembly and the costliness of the feasts." The actual method of government, apart from the " shire " and " hundred " courts, and the newer " manor " courts which were to absorb so much of the judicial and administrative business of the local districts, was by means of the strong links that were forged by the feudal system between the tenant and his overlwrd. Put very briefly, this system meant that the tenant, were he baron or burgher, " paid his rent in steel," being bound to provide his own " overlord " with military service proportioned to his holding of land, or its equiv- alent in goods or money. In reality the system was far less simple than its state- ment here ; nor was it actually " systematized " for many a long year. Our only key to its working lies within the pages of Domesday Book, completed within two years of THE NORMANS IN ENGLAND 37 the death of WiUiam I. — that is, in 1086. We must be content to know that the king had divided up the land among a great number of " tenants in chief," owing to him a definite amount of " dues," labour, and military service ; that these tenants sub-divided their lands into smaller holdings among the squires or gentry, as they might be called nowadays, and these again sub- let their land to " freemen " on Uke conditions. But even this bare statement may mislead, for the lowest class of landowner, the villein or the sokeman, may be ruled directly by the baron or the abbot and owe allegiance to him without any middleman. Each manor, in point of fact, was ruled like a petty state, and the owner thereof owed his people protection and justice as much as they owed to him their feudal dues, a certain amount of goods, labour, and military service in time of need. Class Distinctions — A rough gradation of classes might start from the lowest — that of the serfs. Numbering, according to Domesday, about 25,000, this class was distin- guished from the rest as being entirely without legal rights. The serf might be given a cottage and a garden, partly, at least, for his own use ; he might be given a certain amount of leisure and allowed to hold " property " in the shape of a tool or piece of furniture ; but he might be slain by his master's hand without interference by the law, and even sold to another, until the influence of the Church forbade it. Next to him comes the " boor " (A.-S. gebur), once a free labourer, bound to work only two days a week for his lord, and possessing thirty acres of his own. But in Norman days, though he has certain legal rights, he is no longer free, since at his death the whole of his little property — oxen, cow, sheep, and even household utensils — ^becomes the possession of his lord. Both these classes seem to have been included in that of the " villeins," the peasants who formed the great bulk of the conquered nation and remained its backbone during many years of obscurity under Norman lords. 38 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND The "viU," the "hundred," and the "shire" are for years the units of government ; and to the superior court the " village " sends its representatives — ^the " reeve " and four of its men. But they are accounted little among the county magistrates, the baron and his friends, *vho name them in Domesday as "vile plebeians." Feudal Service — The land owned by the " lord " and tenanted by the villeins was known as a " manor." The services given by the villeins in return for their strips of land were of various kinds. Both they and their wives must devote a certain number of days each week to plough, sow, reap, thresh, " hedge and ditch " for their lord ; and at harvest and sowing time these days increased in number. For the rest of the week the villein worked upon his own scattered acres, some of the produce of which was also claimed by his lord. Thus one of the vUlages owned by the baron or abbot would provide his meat, another his bread, another honey or poultry, or eggs, or cloth. Hence the really valuable economic factor of the country was the obscure burgher, villein, or serf, the producer, and the backbone, therefore, of the community. And in his obscurity we will leave him for the present, until he emerges a century later, less Saxon but more English, to assert his position in the England that was emerging out of the iron clutch of her conquerors. Meantime, let us glance at the manner of men and the lives of those who were helping to shape the England of the future during this period of transition. Our chief authority here, besides the remains of Norman architecture, is the famous Bayeux Tapestry, supposed to have been worked by WiUiam's queen and her ladies, a copy of which may be seen in the South Kensington Museum. Therein we see depicted mounted knights with spurs and Norman bowmen. The knight wears a hauberk or leathern coat of mail, covered with fiat iron rings, underneath which is a long tunic of wool or Unen. Long cloth stockings, called chausses, are cross- THE NORMANS IN ENGLAND 39 gartered with thongs of leather. He carries a high shield with a rounded top. He is clean-shaven, as are the Norman barons, with close-cut hair. But his wife wears her hair in two long plaits falling from her neatly veiled head over her long tunic, which fits closely to below the waist and then is gathered full. We see again the long boats of the Normans, with square sail, and oars for use when saiUng was impossible. They were steered by an oar which passed through a looped rope on the right side of the boat, and were large enough to carry the troops of horses we see being conveyed across the channel to the field of Senlac. Then the tapestry shows us a Norman castle built of timber, on the top of a mound, with a ditch and bank below. This brings us to the consideration of the Norman baron, the dominant figure of the period. The Norman Baron — His castle, with its square towers and " keep," its thick walls and deep moat guarded by a drawbridge and spiked gate, dominated the region in which it stood. Such a one is the White Tower of the Tower of London, built by a priest architect, Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, at WiUiam's request, to guard the port of the River Thames. Lower down the river, on its tributary, the Archbishop of Canterbury built another square fortress, floored and divided into rooms for habita- tion, with fireplaces in the thick walls ; and before the end of the Norman period these great towers rose through- out the length and breadth of the land. Within the boundaries of such a castle gathered a vast array of retainers, knights and soldiers, butlers, chamber- lains, cooks and bakers. In the Bayeux Tapestry we see the latter busy boihng and baking at huge fires, and carry- ing the joints upon the roasting spits to the baron's table through a doorway in the haU. If the baron were a lover of sport and song, Uke Hugh the Fat, Earl of Chester, he held a " school " of tournaments in which youths were incited to every kind of knightly feat, or he kept a train of minstrels and " jongleurs " to amuse his leisure hours. Hawking and hunting filled such days as were not occupied 40 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND in fighting with or against his fellow-baron. For the period was, above all things, one of unrest and strife among a class whose energy is bound to find an outlet, and who is at his best when he leads his retainers on a crusade or builds a wonderful cathedral, and at his worst when he joyfully obeys the royal command to harry the rebeUious north countty with fire and famine and sword, and to destroy in his dread sweep town and village alike. A picture of that same " Wolf " baron, Hugh of Chester, drawn by a writer of the time,^ may stand for a descrip- tion of his class in general. " A violent, loose-Hving but generous barbarian, honouring self-control and a religious life in others, though he had very Uttle of it himself ; Hving for eating and drinking, for wild and wasteful hunting by which he damaged his own and his neighbours' lands ; for murderous war against the troublesome Welsh ; for fine indulgence without much reference to right and wrong ; very open-handed ; so fat that he could hardly stand ; very fond of the noise and riotous company of a great following of retainers, old and young, yet keeping about him also a simple-minded, rehgious chaplain, who did his best, undiscouraged, though the odds were much against him, to awaken a sense of right in his wild flock." Such was the man who besought Anselm, Abbot of Bee, to come over and help him found a new community of Benedictine monks at Chester, a step which led to that curious interview between Rufus and the learned monk of Bee, and was the actual reason for his being made Archbishop of Canterbury, very much against his will. Education and the Monastic Life — That education and the religious life of the monastic schools during this period were at a low ebb indeed is proved by the need of the reforms of his predecessor, Laiifranc of Canterbury, who found the monJis of Christ Church, the teachers and " professors " of that important school, " amusing them- selves with falconry and horse-racing ; loving the rattle of dice; indulging in drink ; wearing fine clothes ; disdain-^ 1 Qrderic. THE NORMANS IN ENGLAND 41 ing a frugal and quiet life, and were more like fine gentle- men than monks." It was the canon laws of Anselm that struck a blow at all this, and brought about reforms that altered the whole face of the monastic system. These enact that monks " must be clad in proper garments of one colour," with plain shoes in place of the twisted horns in fashion at the court. They must have their heads tonsured and must not be present at drinking parties, nor drink "to the pin" — that is, from peg-pots marking out how much was to be swallowed at each draught. Monks must not rent farms, nor must the clergy decide any fate involving capital punishment, nor act as baiUffs for laymen. Nine abbots were deposed for buying their offices, and the marriage of the clergy was strictly for- bidden. The fashion among laymen of wearing the hair long was also condemned, and a special 'enactment is found against the practice of buying and seUing slaves, " that wicked trade used hitherto." The Court — It is in the hf e of Anselm, saint and arch- bishop, told by his faithful friend and chaplain, Eadmer, that we get a glimpse of the miseries of the people under the royal custom of moving the court from place to place — from Windsor to Gloucester, from London to Winchester. With the king went a huge crowd of courtiers, ecclesiastics, knights, and servants ; and " whatsoever tract of land they passed through, they spoiled, they wasted, they destroyed. What they found in the houses which they invaded, and could not consume, they took to market to sell for themselves, or they burned it ; or, if it was drink, after washing their horses' feet with it they poured it abroad. Their cruelties to the fathers of famihes, their insults to their wives and families, is shameful to re- member ; and so, whenever the king's coming was known beforehand, they fled from their houses, and to save them- selves and what was theirs, as far as they could, hid themselves in the woods, or wherever they thought they would be safest." Connection with Europe — The chief debt that England owed to Ansehn, however, as in fact to the Norman 42 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND Conquest as a whole, was the close communication established with the heart of Christendom at Rome, and with all the civilizing influences of education, Hterature, medicine, music, and architecture that the Continent could offer. The monfisteries of that day contained many a monk who had travelled' in many lands, and could bring the wider spirit of Europe into the narrow cloisters of Britain ; and we find the closest intercourse between European scholars, learned in medicine, history, law, and philosophy, and the monks of Malmesbury, Canter- bury, or Gloucester. TTie Norman architecture alone, when compared with the rude wooden structures of the Saxon, is a proof of the coming of a new and enUghtened spirit, though tainted with savagery and despotism. Rochester Cathe- dral, Evesham Abbey, the east end of St Alban's Abbey, and part of Winchester and Gloucester Cathedrals, with the transepts of Ely, show what mighty builders were these Normans ; and though none of the original work remains there, we have records of the great church built by Lanfranc at Canterbury, and that by Maurice, chaplain to William I., in London, which was to become famous as Old St Paul's. A curious medley indeed are the social conditions of the century that followed the Conquest — a mixture of savage oppression and generous piety, during which men flock as readily to a crusade as to the harrowing of a countryside, hold life in no sanctity whatever, and love a Mass as well as a rough jest or a drinking song. But during these years, though to the outward eye the line of cleavage between Norman and Saxon stiU held strong, there was many a sign that the Norman of lower rank was coming under the influence of Saxon wife or mother as surely as the Saxon was being shaped by the rough hand of his conquerors. The villein and serf still stood aloof, but by the reign of Henry II., in the middle, that is, of the twelfth centiuy, a blencUng of the two races had begun to come about, not yet complete, but constituting a change in social condi- THE NORMANS IN ENGLAND 43 tions which was to show its real importance in the period that follows. Exercises 1. Describe the feudal system, and give your own opinion as to its merits or demerits. 2. What remains of Norman architecture do you know ? 3. What does England owe to the Norman Conquest ? CHAPTER VI THE "WONDERFUL THIRTEENTH CENTURY" A.D. II50-I3OO THE century that immediately followed the Norman Conquest was, we have seen, a period of turbulence and violence, coupled with a spirit of iron discipline ; a time of " great crimes and great repentances " ; a scene of violent contrasts in which a few people became extremely powerful, and the majority of the nation, once the owners of the land, hved in poverty and subjection. But this state of things was only a preliminary to the golden age of mediaeval England, and prepared the way for what, with some reserves, may be called the most wonderful of centuries. The characteristic keynote of the thirteenth century wUl be found in the idea of Growth. Already we have seen in the fifty years that immediately precede it the germs of many new institu- tions and ideas, and in this period we may trace the Growth of Town Life,' the Rise of the Universities, a partial Emancipation of the villeins, the Foundation of Trade Gilds, the Origin of ParHament, and many other interest- ing movements. For England, in her growing spirit of Unity, with uni- versal interests and a well-recognized position abroad, was beginning to learn how best to work and how best to play. The strongest link which coimects the England of the Norman Period with the England of the thirteenth century is the Spirit of Chivalry, which developed in the former and profoundly influenced the latter, being, of course, the inspiration of the romantic adventure known as the Crusades. 44 " WONDERFUL THIRTEENTH CENTURY " 45 The Rise of Chivalry — In the very midst of the Norman oppression in England there awoke in Europe a great revival — intellectual, social, reUgious. It may have had its origin partly in a reaction from the true dark ages, the period from the sixth to the tenth century, when famine, pestilence, and the ruthless hand of the barbarian had devastated Europe. Or it may have been the outcome of the wave of rehgious excitement roused by the theory that the end of the world would come a thousand years after the Birth of Christ. We see its outcome in such a characteristic idea as that of the Truce of God, when, in the midst of a world at war, a knight would take solemn oath not to commit sacrilege ; to treat aU travellers with respect ; to " keep the peace " from Wednesday evening to Monday morning in each week ; not to fight for purposes of private revenge ; and ever to keep sacred and to defend the persons of women and children. Pilgrimages — ^Another result of this wave of devotion was the rush made by aU sorts and conditions of men to visit the hallowed scenes of the Holy Land ; and the fact that many of these fell victims to the Turkish rulers only added zest to the enterprise. To visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, to come home and found a church in his native land, became the ambition of every man of wealth, and that of the " palmer " was to return with staff and hat decorated with palm twigs, or with cockle-sheUs from the shrine of St James of Compostella. " At that time," says a writer of these days, " began to flow towards the Holy Sepulchre so great a multitude. . . . First of all went the poorer folk ; then men of middle rank ; and lastly, very many kings, counts, marquises, and bishops ; aye, and a thing that had never happened before, many women bent their steps in the same direction." At the head of that long line of pilgrims we may find Robert the Magnificent, father of the Conqueror ; and hard upon his steps comes Eldred, Bishop of York, who in the days of King Wilham made the newly conquered realm famous in the Holy City by his gift of a wondrous chalice of gold. 46 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND Chivalry — But the chief outcome of this spirit of re- Ugious zeal was that remarkable body of sentiment and custom known as Chivalry, which has been well described as the " whole duty of a gentleman." Religion, Honour, Courtesy were its watchwords, and we have only to recall the condition of Western Christendom in the eleventh and twelfth centuries to realize the importance of the part it had to play. Knighthood was its outcome, but its influence per- meated every rank of society. The education of a knight began at the age of seven with the idea of the honour of personal service. The small boy was proud to hold the wine-cup behind the chair of his lord, or his stirrup when he rode on horseback. JFor seven years, though most of his time was spent in learning reading, writing, music, and the laws of chivalry from the ladies of the household, he studied also the duties of a squire — ^how to hunt and hawk and look after the stables and the kennels. At fourteen he could become a squire, when one of his duties was to carve for his lord at table, first tasting the food himself as a precaution against poison. He had also to arm him for battle, keep his weapons bright, fight by his side, he at his door when he slept. When the squire had mastered his duties, he had to " win his spurs " by performing some deed of valour that should prove him worthy of knighthood. Then came the ceremony of girding on his armour. All the previous night had been spent on his knees with sword held upright in his hands, keeping vigil before the altar upon which the new-forged armour lay. When morning came he served the Mass, and having thus dedicated himself by prayer and fasting to the chivalrous service of God, was solemnly dedicated by the Church to his high office. His armour was then buckled on by some fair damsel to whom he was bound to show devotion and respect. For " to do the pleasure of ladies " was not the least important part of his duty. Sometimes two knights vowed brotherhood in arms — dressed alike, wore similar armour, sang, played, prayed together, and supported each other in every kind of contest. " WONDERFUL THIRTEENTH CENTURY " 47 To men such as these the Spirit of Chivahy was intensely real. In one of the most famous of mediaeval romances, Tristan, as he lies a-djdng, says to his squire, " I now take leave of Chivalry, which I have so much loved and honoured. Wilt thou hear, Sagremor, the most shame- ful word that ever passed the lips of Tristan ? I am conquered. I give thee my arms. I give thee my Chivalry." The Militant Order — Out of this spirit rose two great militant,. reHgious Orders, which played a prominent part in the story of their times. The Knights Hospitallers, about the middle of the eleventh century, formed themselves into a body in order to found a guest-house or hospital for pilgrims, in con- nection with the Church of St Mary, opposite the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This Hospice, dedicated to St John, was managed by Benedictine monks under one called the " Guardian of the Redeemer's Poor." When Godfrey of Boulogne visited it after the first crusade, he found that the monks were combining a life of absolute poverty with most devoted care of the sick and wounded. He endowed the Hospital of St John with lands and money, appointed a Grand Master, and built a new and splendid church for the Order, the inmates of which wore over their black robes an eight-pointed cross in white Hnen, afterwards to be known as the Maltese Cross. Until the early part of the twelfth century the Order had been a company of priests and laymen, many of whom in course of time had taken religious vows and retired from the ranks of knighthood. But now their character changed to that of a mihtant order, which, whilst still tending the sick, had, as its special office, the duty of guarding the Holy Sepulchre. The members now wore a red tunic or surcoat, with a white cross, over their armour, and took the vows of ordinary monks, caUing themselves the " Servants of the Poor." They boasted their independence of all spiritual authority save that of the Pope, and this, together with their immense number — fifteen thousand knights — great wealth, and important 48 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND work, made them the chief support in many ways of the system of Chivalry. When the Holy Land was lost we find them setthng for a time at Rhodes, from whence they migrated to Malta, till they were, dispersed by the French Revolution. A great London Hospital still bears their name, and*can trace its supporters, as well as many of the adornments of its Chapel, to the Knights Hospitallers of old. The Knights Templars were founded in the twelfth century by Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, as a " perpetual sacred soldiery " to defend the Temple and the Holy Sepulchre, as well as the brigand-infested passes on the road to Jerusalem. Prayer and fasting was part of their rule, but it was easily relaxed, and to " drink like a Templar " was only one of the sayings which reflect the mingled admiration, dread, and dislike with which they seem to have inspired their mediaeval brethren. The Temple Church, which still stands in London, was built about 1185, when their arrogance and independence had already made them well-known figures in England. They wore a white tunic with a large red cross, and carried a banner, white and black, " fair and favourable to the friends of Christ, black and terrible to His foes." Jealousy, combined with fear of their growing power and numbers, caused them to be suppressed at the end of the thirteenth century in France, on a charge of heresy ; and though Edward II. openly stated his disbelief in the charges brought against them as to faith and morals, seeing that these were mainly inspired by dismissed members of the Order, we find in the diary of Henry de Bray, for the year 1307, the brief notice, " In this year for heresy the Order of Templars was suppressed." In Paris they had fared worse. Five hundred of their number were burnt ; and still on the anniversary of their suppression the legend says that the heads of seven Templars rise to meet a phantom clad in a red cross mantle, who asks : " Who shall now defend the Holy Temple ? Who shall free the Sepulchre of the Lord? " To which the answer comes : " None ! The Temple is destroyed! " " WONDERFUL THIRTEENTH CENTURY " 49 Effect of the Crusades — The whole thrilling story of the Crusades must be read elsewhere, but their effect on social history can be stated here. By opposing the rule of the Turk in Europe they prevented Christendom from being overwhelmed by a tide of Eastern sentiment, custom, and religion which would inevitably have altered the whole condition of the Western World and stamped it indelibly with an alien civiUzation. At the same time the Crusades brought Europe, very much to her benefit, into touch with social conditions far more advanced than her own. The Saracen of the Middle Ages was a learned, cultured gentleman, skilled in medicine, music, science ; very superior to the rough, uneducated crusader of the Western World, and the latter was the gainer by the friendly intercourse so often found at this time. " Leeches " returned to Europe in the train of knights and barons, and taught some of the mysteries of their art to the rough and ready doctors of the West. In the sixteenth century their system of numbers was to replace the clumsy Roman figures ; from them we learnt the secrets of architecture and the elements of geometry. Another important result of the Crusades on England was the opening up of the East to the commerce of the West. Knightly crusaders thought it by no means amiss to carry on an extensive trade in the silks and spices of Palestine and Syria, and there was a steady stream of commercial enterprise across the Mediterranean, especially by way of Venice, the " southern terminus of a great trade route," to which was borne in growing quantities the produce of England and Northern Europe, to be dis- tributed through the Eastern World. Upon the literature of the day the Crusades have left their clear majk. They are the theme of almost all the epics of Chivalry. Charlemagne, Roland, Bevis of Hampton play their part, regardless of dates, along- side with Richard the Lion Heart and Godfrey of Boulogne. Gigantic failures as they were, they still gave to the Middle Ages that inspiration of Hope and High Ideals 50 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND which accounts for all that is finest in the century we are now about to study. The Crusades had been undertaken as a conflict with foes of flesh and blood ; in the thirteenth century there came the call for a new crusade against spiritual, and therefore mcJre dangerous, enemies — vice and ignorance. Monastic Influence — The monastic system, which had done so great a work in this direction, was, for the time, under echpse. Yet, because it is impossible to understand the conditions of the thirteenth century without realizing what the work had been, we will once again look back to the previous period during which Norman and Angevin kings held rule. It is difficult to overrate the influence of the Church upon the social conditions of the twelfth century. We see the mediaeval bishop as the one great restraining force against the despotism of the king. Anselm got the better of Rufus over the question of investiture, and incidentally made it clear that the bishop baron, with the power of the Church behind him, was no mere vassal where spiritual things were concerned. Archbishop Thomas of Canterbury, though slain over a question . of lay rights and clerical offenders, won his cause and the universal esteem of Christendom. Hugh of Avalon, Bishop of Lincoln, held the turbulent Henry IL in his gentle hand, was the only check upon the restless Richard, and was borne to his honoured grave by the miscreant John Lackland. More important is the fact that the bishops and abbots, great landholders as they were, acted often as a buffer between the merchant or working class and the exactions of baron or king. No doubt the rule of the mediaeval ecclesiastic was despotic enough, but it was a fatherly despotism that by no means disregarded the rights of freeman or villein. Now these men, whose names have come ddVn to us as opponents of the royal power, were the product of the monastic system of which this twelfth century had seen a marked revival. The revival began in the days of " WONDERFUL THIRTEENTH CENTURY " 51 Henry I., when Normans built many monasteries in expiation of many crimes. In the reign of Stephen we find that over a hundred were founded, probably as the only means of coping with the utter misery of the land during those nineteen years. As many more, built in the reign of Henry II., were the aftermath of the earlier religious revival. In their lonely outposts at Byland, RievauLx, and Fountains the Cistercians kept the rule of St Bernard in all its severity, while carrying on an energetic warfare against evil-doing. " What shaU we think," cries the Augustinian, William of Newburgh, " of all these rehgious places which in King Stephen's time began to flourish but that they are God's castles, wherein the servants of the true anointed King do keep watch, and His young soldiers are exercised in warfare against spiritual evil ? " Then new Orders arose, pecuhar to England, such as that founded by St Gilbert of Sempringham, himself the descendant of old EngHsh and Norman forbears. Return- ing from an idle Ufe in France to the England he had left as a runaway student, Gilbert turned schoolmaster and set up a co-education school for children. Gradually this developed into a rehgious house of nuns and monks — a double monastery such as we have seen in the days of Hilda of Whitby. The Gilbertine Priories which flourished with amazing fervour all over eastern England kept the rule of St Augustine, but were independent foundations, and strong enough to count as important allies of Thomas of Canterbury in his struggle with the king. It was in the year of that same Henry's accession that news was brought to England of the new Pope, Adrian IV., known here as Nicholas Breakspear, son of a poor Enghsh clerk at Langley, near St Albans. As a boy " of graceful appearance but somewhat lacking in clerkly requirements," he had begged to be admitted to the abbey as a novice, but had been dismissed with the gentle hint, " Wait, my son, and go to school, that you may become better fitted for the cloister." The University 52 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND of Paris claimed him as she had claimed so many a wan- dering scholar, and there he won his educational spurs, and" later on joined the Order of the Augustinian Canons in Provence. His election as Prior caused a revolt ; the Provengals wpuld have no Englishman to rule them, and Nicholas was offered a post at the Papal Court, from which he soon became bishop, cardinal, and pope. He" lived to approve the good work of Theobald in the See of Canterbury, but not to know of the struggle of Archbishop Thomas, whose death secured a victory that was greater in appearance than reality. For the death of Thomas Becket left the Church in England " without a programme and without a leader," and within a few years the Sees were filled by courtier prelates, amongst whom Hugh of Lincoln and Richard of Canterbury stand as marked exceptions. To St Hugh England owed the introduction of the Carthusian Order, as weU as the firm opposition which prevented the king from appointing his own lay courtier friends to vacant stalls in the cathedral. But by the end of the twelfth century the old spirit of zeal had died down. Even the Cistercians, the White Monks, whose rigid rule had formed a protest against the laxity of the Benedictines, the Black Monks, had fallen from their first ideal of poverty. They had now become the greatest sheep-farmers in the land ; and while England lost on the spiritual side by their decline she gained on the material plane by her largely increased trade in wool. If religious ideals were to be maintained in Europe in days which were fast growing lax in morals and unin- spired in faith, a new impulse was a necessity, and this was to come in the early years of the thirteenth century. Coming of the Friars — The Dominicans — St Dominic in Spain, in the year 1216, had founded an Order of Friar Preachers, for the purpose not merely of attacking a definite heresy of his own day, but of bring^ the spirit of the cloister into the world. Not only priests, but lay people, men and women, were enlisted into his " Militia of Jesus Christ," and wore the white tunic, with the " WONDERFUL THIRTEENTH CENTURY " 53 black cloak, embroidered with a black and white cross. These members of the Third Order, who numbered among them the famous Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, killed at the Siege of Toulouse in 1218, were bound by a simple rule of prayer and good works ; while the monks, the " Hounds of the Lord," were fighting ignorance and heresy with the weapons of learning and eloquence. The first Dominican settlement was that corner of Old London now marked by the space between Blackfriars and London Bridge, and one of their earliest undertakings was at Oxford, where their trained minds and intellectual skiU made them an immediate success in the world of letters. The whole century, indeed, is dominated by the philosophy of one of their Order, St Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of the mediaeval " Doctors," whose teaching touches even so minute a social question as the right of a serf to receive Holy Orders without the consent of his lord — a right which St Thomas consistently upheld, although he accepted serfdom as part of the inevitable conditions of the time. The Franciscans — Three years after the appearance of the Dominicans at Dover a little band of Franciscans tramped, in their grey tunics, from Canterbury to London. By the rule of that joyous Troubadour of God, St Francis of Assisi, lover of man and bird and beast, they were pledged not to possess house or land ; but their brother friars, the Dominicans, afforded them hospitality until their rule was relaxed sufficiently to allow them to hire a plot of ground in CornhiU on which to build their cells of wattles filled in with straw. From thence they went into the poorest parts of the city, preaching, visiting, nursing the sick, hving on the bread given them by kind-hearted onlookers, " mixing their sour small beer with water to make it go farther," and always practising the light- hearted gaiety of their Founder in the midst of hardship and poverty. Then two of the Uttle band visited Oxford, again as guests of the Dominicans ; they gave lectures — religious and scientific — ^both ahke sound in their sim- plicity and truth. Crowds of disciples flocked about 54 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND them ; their success was as immediate as that of the Black Friars. Such an appeal was made by the message as weU as by the character of the messengers, that during the next few years Black and Grey Friars were to be found in every large town in England. At first the Dominicans were the more learned, Franciscans the more practical in the character of their work, though often enough in those early days of fervour the two Orders joined hands in their labours. Finally the Friars became an im- portant party within the Church, pledged to help the parochial clergy of the town as " evangelizers " or itinerant preachers, as well as in actual works of mercy. The nature of their work made them the objects oi scrutiny, criticism, often of jealousy, and their very popularity was a source of danger to themselves. The attacks of Langland in his Piers Plowman and the gibes of Chaucer turn mainly on the charge that the Friar was " the best beggar in his house," with the defects of character that would accompany such a voca- tion ; but, though the rule of poverty may have beei] to some degree relaxed in course of years, the fact remainj that at the Reformation, when the Friars were the firsi — and the last — ^to be attacked, there was no spoil to be found. From the year 1532, when the Franciscar Convent of Christ Church was dissolved, to the year 1540 when the Dominican Priory at Norwich was handed ovei to the Corporation, nothing was to be found in theii possession but the " churches in which they worshipped the Mbraries in which they studied, the houses in whicl: they passed their hves." ^ Their effect on the social condition of England, bott as regards learning and practical work, was markec enough. They numbered among them such names a; the Franciscan Roger Bacon, one of our earhest scientists Hales and Duns Scotus, as weU as Albertus Magnus anc the Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas. A Franciscan Peter of Wimbledon, physician to Henry III.'s queen is mentioned by Adam de Marsh in a letter to Bishoj f), Coming of the Friars. " WONDERFUL THIRTEENTH CENTURY " 55 Grosseteste as a man " of excellent reading and great probity." Another Franciscan, Reginald de Stokes of Oxford, is described as "an honourable man of mature judgment, of advanced learning and skill in the arts and in medicine, whose knowledge of the world, circumspect discretion, mature discourse, and humble devotion made him worthy of trust." These sayings must, in fairness, be set over against the prejudices of Langland, whose business as a reformer was to point out the darker sides of human nature ; and against the jeers of Chaucer, whose more kindly humour is still ready enough to whet his jest at the expense of others. Even in those days, as in these, the " parson," in literature or on the stage, was fair game for mockery. Rise of the Universities — That both Orders of Friars played an important part in the development of the univer- sities of the thirteenth century is clear from the records. There was possibly the germ of a university — more probably a grammar school — at Oxford in the days of Alfred ; but not until the thirteenth century do we find distinct recognition of such an institution, though it certainly existed during the previous century in some form or other. Early in the thirteenth century we find three great centres of study flourishing at Paris, Bologna, and Oxford, when Paris was known as "the first school in Christendom," and Oxford was a good second. Bologna, already the home of Dominicans, was noted for its great Law Schools ; Paris and Oxford were not only the theological centres of Europe, but also the homes of science. Cambridge, popularly supposed to have been founded by a band of scholars who migrated from Oxford owing to a " town and gown " scuffle in the days of King John, may have developed its " schools of repute," as they are termed in the twelfth century, from a priory of Augustinian Canons at Barnwell. Giraldus Cambrensis was one of its scholars and teachers, and by the middle of the reign of Henry III. we have 56 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND distinct mention of a " society of scholars," a recognized and powerful body. The university of that day was a spontaneous growth, consisting of men rather than of buildings. The scholars, attracted by the personaUty of a famous teacher, or by the wish to quahfy themselves for the many new openings for men of letters offered by the wider outlook of the time, gathered hterally round some " Chair " of Studies, and sat either on benches or on the stone floor t