5. Castle building in William I's consolidation of power
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 14-06-17 23:01
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- 5. Castle building in William I's consolidation of power
- Impact of castles
- With limited number of men, able to hold England because of castles
- Castles located so no settlement was more than 20 miles from a castle (easy marching distance within a day so trouble easily dealt with)
- Greatest concentrations in:
- South-East
- Along south coast
- Border of Wales
- important towns and cities
- White Tower in London (soon known as Tower of London)
- Often built after dealing with unrest in cities
- e.g. Warwick, York, Nottingham, Lincoln and Cambridge
- Bases for military garrisons allowing troops to contain surrounding area and move quickly to areas of disquiet
- Also centre of government
- 500 built in England
- Gave sense of permanence, symbol of conquest and sometimes lordship (barons often lived there)
- Value of castles, important loyal to regime:
- e.g. 1075, Lanfranc (regent) wrote to Earl of Hereford, Roger de Breteuil, and urged him to ensure Herefordshire castle didn't fall into rebel hands
- Had psychological impact on local population as dominated skyline and largest building most people had ever seen
- Importance to William seen in willingness to destroy houses even if it cost him rent
- e.g. a reeve at Hereford showed concern as empty messuages meant King lost rent but still considered economic
- Castlle warned people of futility of resistance
- Impact of churches
- New Norman-French aristocracy came to dominate Church
- Most noticeably number of English dioceses were changed and significant number of new cathedrals, abbeys and monasteries were built
- New dioceses were established in:
- Coventry
- Salisbury
- Chichester
- Norwich
- Lincoln
- Bath
- As well as moving dioceses and replacing English bishops, Normans also rebuilt or built massive new cathedrals in distinctive Romanesque style:
- Most notable were Durham, Winchester, Canterbury and Gloucester.
- Impact of new cathedrals were similar to castles
- Large buildings dominated landscape
- Buildings such as Ely Cathedral would have dominated skyline such that when peasant looked up from fields it would have reminded him, not only of God, but also change and dominance brought about by Conquest
- In some towns, such as Durham and Rochester, cathedrals were built alongside castles which would have made construction even more impressive through sheer size of buildings, adding to dominance and show of power
- Not only did buildings emphasise Norman power, inside cathedrals new Norman bishops could use their position to support Norman rule through Church courts and preaching
- Most of William's appointees were hard-working men who were loyal to regime and helped to reinforce Norman governance of England.
- At parish level, however, it should be remembered that parish priests continued to be English were poorly educated and would have played little role in imposition of new rule.
- Impact of castles
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