Feudalism in England I Other Important Developments In France 1 Castles castles at the time aren t like they are today They were just weak structures that were placed to intimidate the serfs and protect the lords With more time the castles change and evolve to stone buildings but to keep them working they had to be run and structured right Castellans were the roaming groups such as knights or other groups that went around attacking lords and vassals to gain power 2 Primogeniture The term that means only the oldest son of the lord could inherit the land of the father the second son went to the church and any other sons after that go nothing II Guillaume le B tard William the Bastard or William the Conqueror o The early life of le Bat rd Got his name from his father Duke Robert the 1st of Normandy but he was a not a noble son but his father doesn t have any other sons So the Duke makes him the heir to his throne This doesn t sit well with the others in his family and there are 6 attempts to kill William before he turned 24 In 1047 there is a rebellion by his family and they run him out of France and he meets King Henry the 1st and they return and attack and kill off most of his family King Henry makes William one of his vassals After this William meets Matillda but she is not Normand and she is French o Problems with the Church Pope Leo the 9th at the time saw that William wanted to marry Matillda and he says no because they were second cousins and they didn t want that to happen William does it anyways but the pope threatens to excommunicates them and stops them from ruling Normandy But the pope doesn t because Matillda gives the pope him an abbey and from William another abbey Also had to become the protector of the pope they come with the Truce of God which was a prohibition that stops Christians from fighting with each other and to keep peace throughout France o Claim to English Throne There are three different claims to the throne William Harald III and Harold of Godwinson Earl of Wessex William claims that he has control over this because Earl was his vassal and he had already been given it before by the former king The Witenagemot a council of elders that appoint who will be king of England They pick Earl as the king and this makes William made and says he will attack if he wasn t appointed king This is stopped because of the Truce of God and Williams goes to the pope and bribes him with abbeys and the pope says ok Another problem that came up was his title at Lillebonne he sits down with his vassals and says whatever title you have here I will give you double in England and they say ok They set out and wait because of the weather o Invasion of England William invades after the weather clears up in August and he finds no one there to battle with him because of the weather and crops Earl s army had left or had died Earl regains his army and sets out to attack William o Battle of Hastings At this plain William and Earl battle and in this battle Earl died and William wins and he now waits to become king But there is a problem the Witenagemot appoints Earls son to be king and this makes William mad o March to London William marches to London and burns everything its way When he gets there he says give me the throne or I will burn this place to the ground the Witenagemot say ok because they think they will keep their jobs but after 4 years William takes over and becomes king and gives his vassals the Witenagemot spots III Feudalism in England after William s Invasion The first thing William did was to make the Domesday Book it was a census of England so that he could know what he would be getting every year even though he wasn t there He also built the White Tower and other structures to strengthen England After this William has three sons and he splits up everything he has between them instead of the system that is in place The two sons William the 2nd and Henry the 2nd both get lands but they fight over this between each other because they wanted to for themselves o Reorganization of Aristocracy o Strong Central Government versus Decentralization o Opposition to Feudalism Key Terms White Tower Lillebonne Harald III Truce of God Domesday Book Witenagemot Harold of Godwinson Earl of Wessex Primogeniture