WILLAM THE CONQUEROR(1066-1087)
Willam 1st
was the founder of the norman dynasty in England.
His real claim to the english
thrown rested on his victory in the battle of hastings in 1066 AD against
Harold.However the defeat of harold alone did not result in the submission of all
the english men.As a matter of fact,there were many revolts in
south-west,mercia and northambria and one by one they were all ruthlessly
suppressed.Each revolt was followed by fresh confiscation of land possessed by
the english nobility.The land thus captured was used for rewarding williams own
norman followers.At the same time he had to make himself master of both english
and normandy.To the english william was a foriegn ruler.So inorder to secure
his position ,william decided to confiscate the land of rebels by suppressing
the uprisings with an iron hand ,by developing the fuedal system and by using
the english against his own rebellious barons.
OATH OF SALISBURY was one of the anti fuedal measures
taken by William the conqueror.He wanted to remedy some of the defects of
english fuedalism.A universal defects of fuedalism was the weakness of the
royal authority.One reason for this was the absence of royal control over the
sub tenents.They held their estate from their over lords called tenents in
chief.Therefor the sub tenents were not directly responsible for the king who
was theoretically the central authority .In order to make sub tenent loyal to
the royal person,william 1st and others gathered on the Salisbury
plain,wiltshare in 1086 Ad.The king himself administered an oath of Loyalty.The
narons and chief land lords who took the pledge were morally bound to be loyal
to the king.
THE DOOMS DAY BOOK is the result of the great survay of
land and the holders of land made by william 1st ,done with the aim
of strengthening his hold on the feudal barons and their subordinates.The dooms
day survay is probably the first of its kind ever made.It served at once two
purposes,fiscal and political.Politically it helped willaim to ascertain the
tax that was due to him fron every land holder in his realm.Assessment of tax
was based on the findings of the royal surveyers.The decisions were fianl and
incontrovertible like the verdict of God on the last judgement Day and hence
the name of Doom’s Day Book.It is very valuable as a historical source book.
No comments:
Post a Comment