What did the Normans ever do for us? [i.e., the British]

Medieval England was in thrall to the powerful, French-speaking elite installed by William the vanquisher from 1066. As land- leting lords, the Normans dominated politically and economically, building highfalutin castles to comprise their strength. So how did England preserve its emerging national indistinguishability contempt this crushing new influence? National individuation Writers in England in the ordinal century displayed national prejudices with no sign of shame. For the mid-twelfth-century author of the whole kit and caboodle of faggot Stephen, Scotland was a potentially wealthy land, but its inhabitants were brutal, barbaric, and filthy. The position could be equally unpopular with others, and were also criticised by their own: the English are noted among foreigners for their persistent drinking wrote the learned privy of Salisbury. much(prenominal) a capacity to identify and contrast peoples by distinguishing characteristics is a feature of a sense of national identity. Yet such(prenominal) growth views are the more striking because England had been conquered twice in fractional a century, in 1016 by the Scandinavian Cnut, in 1066 by the Norman William the Conqueror. For much of the next century and a one-half England, and to a lesser extent the rest of the British Isles, would tolerate part of an assemblage of lands spanning the English Channel. And if the assemblage had a shopping centre, that centre was Rouen, in Normandy.

How, then, did the identity of the English emerge, given the infliction in 1066 of a continental governing class? Some, such as William the Con querors archbishop of Canterbury, said they ! hoped to learn to be Englishmen. However, such neighboring(a) and deliberate toleration of a culture - even if it was whole-hearted - appears uncommon. quite a the engrossment was more gradual, and had many causes of which the following are incisively three. In part, assimilation resulted from aristocratic families dividing their lands between different... If you want to function a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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