English Villages Part 7

The slope of the roof is much lower than before, and often the former high-pitched roofs were at this period replaced by the almost flat roofs prevalent in the fifteenth century. The parapets are often embattled.

The rose, the badge of the houses of York and Lancaster, is often used as an ornamental detail, and also rows of the Tudor flower, composed of four petals, frequently occur. One of the most distinctive mouldings is the _cavetto_, a wide shallow hollow in the centre of a group of mouldings. Also we find a peculiar wave, and a kind of double ogee moulding which are characteristic of the style.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WINDOW, CHRISTCHURCH, OXFORD]

Spires of this period are not very common, and usually spring from within the parapet. The interiors of our churches were enriched at this time with much elaborate decoration. Richly carved woodwork in screens, rood-lofts, pulpits, and pews, sculptured sedilia and a n.o.ble reredos, and much exuberance of decorative imagery and panel-work, adorned our churches at this time, much of which was obliterated or destroyed by spoliators of the Reformation period, the iconoclastic Puritans of the seventeenth century, or the "restorers" of the nineteenth. However, we may be thankful that so much remains to the present day of the work of our great English church-builders, while we endeavour to trace the history of each church written in stone, and to appreciate these relics of antiquity which most of our villages possess.

CHAPTER X

NORMAN VILLAGES AND THE _DOMESDAY BOOK_

The coming of the Normans--_Domesday Book_--Its objects--Its contents-- Barkham in _Domesday_--Saxon families--Saxons who retained their estates--Despoiled landowners--Village officers and artisans-- Villeins--_Bordarii_--_Cottarii_--_Servi_--Socmen--Presbyter--Names of Normans--The teaching of _Domesday_.

There was a great stir in our English villages when the news was brought to them that William of Normandy had landed in England, and intended to fight for the English Crown. News travelled very slowly in those days.

First the villeins and the cottiers who were not fighting with their lord heard that a great battle had been fought at Stamford Bridge, in Yorks.h.i.+re, in which their gallant King Harold had defeated his own brother Tostig, aided by the King of Norway, Hardrada, and a large army.

Then the news reached them that William of Normandy had arrived, and that Harold was marching night and day to meet him. Then they heard of the fatal battle of Hastings; and when it was told them that their brave King Harold was slain, and that William, the Norman, was the conqueror of England and the acknowledged king of the country, all England groaned to hear the fatal news. And then, after a few years, they found that their old lord had been deprived of his estates, and a new, haughty, proud Norman, who talked like a Frenchman, and laughed at their dear old Saxon language, came and ruled over them. He brought Norman servants with him, who took the best of the land, and made the Saxons do all the hard work on the farm, treating them like slaves.

And now we must examine a most valuable doc.u.ment which throws a wonderfully clear light on the condition of England just before and after the Conquest. I refer to the _Domesday Book_, or survey of the country which William caused to be made. The Anglo-Saxon chronicler tells us that after a great Council at Gloucester the king "sent his men over all England, into every s.h.i.+re, and caused to be ascertained how many hundred hides were in the s.h.i.+re, or what land the king himself had, and cattle within the land, or what dues he ought to have in twelve months from the s.h.i.+re. Also he caused to be written how much land his archbishops had, and his suffragan bishops, and abbots, and earls; and though I may narrate somewhat prolixly, what or how much each man had who was a holder of land in England, in land, or in cattle, and how much money it might be worth. So very narrowly he caused it to be traced out, that there was not one single hide, nor one yard of land, nor even, it is shame to tell, though it seemed to him no shame to do, an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine was left that was not set down in his writ. And all the writings were brought to him afterwards."

The commissioners appointed by the king, among whom were Remigius, Bishop of Lincoln, and Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham, were to inquire the following details concerning each parish:--

Its name. Who held it in the time of King Edward the Confessor. The present possessor. Number of hides in the manor, number of ploughs, of homagers, villeins, cottars, free tenants, tenants in socage; how much wood, meadow, and pasture; number of mills and fishponds; the value in the time of the last king; and its present value.

Such a survey was of immense value. Its object, according to the king, was that every man might know and be satisfied with his rightful possessions, and not with impunity usurp the property of others. But it was also of great service to the king, so that he might know who were his va.s.sals, the amount of taxation which he could draw from them, and the actual strength of his new kingdom.

The commissioners performed their work with much care and exactness. The survey is wonderfully complete, and was compiled in a very short time.

It is of great value to the historians of subsequent ages. The writing of the book is very clear and beautiful, the abbreviations alone presenting some difficulty to an unaccustomed reader. No illuminations adorn the text. At the head of each page the name of the county is written in red ink. The book is preserved in an ancient chest in the Public Record Office, where it was removed from the Chapter House at Westminster.

As an example we may take the _Domesday_ description of the parish of Barkham, which runs as follows:--

"IN CERLEDONE HD.

"Rex ten in dnio Bercheha. AElmer Tenuit de rege. E. Te 7 m iii hid.

Tra e iii car. In dnio e una, 7 vi uilli 7 iiii bord cu iii car. Ibi v. ac pti. Silua de XL pore. Valuit iiii lib. T.R.E. 7 m: iii. lib."

TRANSLATION.

"In the hundred of Charlton.

"The king holds Barkham in demesne. AElmer held it of King Edward. Then, as now, it was rated for three hides. The land is three ploughlands. In demesne there is one ploughland. There are six villeins, four borderers with three ploughs. There are five acres of pasture. Wood for the pasturage of forty hogs. It was worth 4l. in the time of King Edward, afterwards, and now, 3l."

King Edward here mentioned was Edward the Confessor. A hide, when it is used as a measure of land, may be taken at about one hundred and twenty acres. A ploughland was as much land as one plough with oxen could plough in a year. The villeins were men who tilled their lord's land, and in return for certain services had holdings under him. The borderers were cottagers who also worked for their lord and held smaller holdings, from one to ten acres. In other entries we find the number of serfs recorded, and also mention of the hall of the lord of the manor, where the manorial courts were held, the church, the priest's house, the names of landowners and tenants, the mill, and of the various officers and artisans who made up the village community.

_Domesday_ tells us of the old Saxon families, many of whom lost their estates when the Conqueror came, and were supplanted by the favourites of the new king. Some of them contrived to weather the storm and retain their lands. Almer, or Almar, the lord of Barkham, who succeeded his brother Stigand as Bishop of Elmham in 1047, when the latter became archbishop, was among the number of the dispossessed, and probably found shelter with many of his compatriots in the cloister. Several of William's Norman adventurers married the heiresses of the old Saxon gentry, and thus became possessed of great estates. Thus Robert D'Oili married the daughter of WiG.o.d, lord of Wallingford, and soon gained possession of his father-in-law's property.

However, the names of the fortunate Saxons who retained their estates are few in comparison with those who were dispossessed. We find Edgar Atheling, real heir to the throne, retaining a small estate; but he was a feeble prince, and therefore not to be feared by William. His sister Cristina had also land in Oxfords.h.i.+re. Bishop Osbern, of Exeter, a kinsman of the late king, also held his estates; and amongst the list we find Seward the huntsman, of Oxfords.h.i.+re; Theodric the goldsmith; Wlwi the huntsman, of Surrey; Uluric the huntsman, of Hamps.h.i.+re, who were not deprived of their lands, their occupations being useful to the king.

The list of despoiled landowners is a long one, and need not here be recorded. One Brictric was very unfortunate. When amba.s.sador to Baldwin of Flanders he refused to marry the count's daughter Maud. The slighted lady became the Conqueror's consort, and in revenge for her despised love caused Brictric to be imprisoned and his estates confiscated, some of which were given to the queen. The luckless relations and connections of the late royal house were consistently despoiled, amongst them Editha, the beautiful queen of King Edward, and daughter of Earl G.o.dwin, of whom it was written: "_Sicut spina rosam genuit G.o.dwynus Editham_"; and Gida, the mother of Harold; G.o.dric, his son; and Gwith, his brother.

Harold himself--the earl, as he is called, and not the king, who fought and died at Senlac, if he did not, as the romance states, end his life as a holy hermit at Chester--had vast estates all over England, which went to enrich William's hungry followers. Hereward the Wake, the English hero, also held in pre-Norman days many fat manors. Few of the Saxon landowners were spared, and it is unnecessary here to record the names of the Uchtreds, Turgots, Turchils, Siwards, Leurics, who held lands "in the time of King Edward," but whose place after Domesday knows them no more.

_Domesday_ tells us also the names of the officers and artisans who played important parts in the old village communities. The _villani_, or villeins, corresponding to the Saxon _ceorls_, were the most important cla.s.s of tenants in villeinage, and each held about thirty acres in scattered acre or half-acre strips, each a furlong in length and a perch or two in breadth, separated by turf balks. The villein thus supported himself and his family, and in return was bound to render certain services to the lord of the manor, to work on the home farm, and provide two or more oxen for the manorial plough-team. He was not a free tenant, could acquire no property, and his lord's consent was needed for the marriage of his daughters. But the law protected him from unjust usage; his holdings were usually regranted to his son. He could obtain freedom in several ways, and by degrees acquired the rights and privileges of a free tenant.

Next to the villeins were the _bordarii_, who lived in _bords_ or cottages, _i.e._ boarded or wooden huts, and ranked as a lower grade of villeins. They held about five acres, but provided no oxen for the manorial plough-team. Below them were the _cottarii_, or cottiers, who were bound to do domestic work and supply the lord's table. They corresponded to the modern labourer, but lacked his freedom. The lowest cla.s.s of all were the _servi_, or serfs, who corresponded to the Saxon _theows_. In Norman times their condition was greatly improved; they mingled with the cottiers and household servants, and gradually were merged with them.

The _sochemanni_, or socmen, our yeomen, who abounded chiefly in the Danish district of England, were inferior landowners who had special privileges, and could not be turned out of their holdings, though they rendered certain services to the lord of the manor, and in this respect differed little from the villeins. _Domesday Book_ also mentions a cla.s.s of men called _burs_ or _geburs_, who were the same as _coliberti_; also the _commendati_, who received privileges in return for services rendered to the lord of the manor.

Each village community was self-contained, and had its own officers.

Although _Domesday Book_ was not compiled in order to ascertain the condition of the Church and its ministers, and frequently the mention of a parish church is omitted where we know one existed, the _presbyter_, or priest, is often recorded. Archbishop Egbert's _Excerptiones_ ordained that "to every church shall be allotted one complete holding (mansa), and that this shall be free from all but ecclesiastical services." According to the Saxon laws every tenth strip of land was set aside for the Church, and _Domesday_ shows that in many villages there was a priest with his portion of land set apart for his support.

Then there was a _prepositus_, bailiff or reeve, who collected the lord's rents, a.s.sisted by a _bedellus_, beadle or under-bailiff. _Bovarii_, or oxherds, looked after the plough-teams. The _carpentarius_, or carpenter; the _cementarius_, or bricklayer; the _custos apium_, or beekeeper; the _faber_, or smith; the _molinarius_, or miller--were all important officers in the Norman village; and we have mention also of the _piscatores_ (fishermen), _pistores_ (bakers), _porcarii_ (swineherds), _viccarii_ (cowmen), who were all employed in the work of the village community.

_Domesday Book_ enables us to form a fairly complete picture of our villages in Norman and late Saxon times. It tells us of the various cla.s.ses who peopled the village and farmed its fields. It gives us a complete list of the old Saxon gentry and of the Norman n.o.bles and adventurers who seized the fair acres of the despoiled Englishmen. Many of them gave their names to their new possessions. The Mandevilles settled at Stoke, and called it Stoke-Mandeville; the Vernons at Minshall, and called it Minshall-Vernon. Hurst-Pierpont, Neville-Holt, Kingston-Lysle, Hampstead-Norris, and many other names of places compounded of Saxon and Norman words, record the names of William's followers, who received the reward of their services at the expense of the former Saxon owners. _Domesday Book_ tells us how land was measured in those days, the various tenures and services rendered by the tenants, the condition of the towns, the numerous foreign monasteries which thrived on our English lands, and throws much light on the manners and customs of the people of this country at the time of its compilation.

_Domesday Book_ is a perfect storehouse of knowledge for the historian, and requires a lifetime to be spent for its full investigation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DIAGRAM OF A MANOR]

CHAPTER XI

NORMAN CASTLES

Castle-building--Description of Norman castle--A Norman household-- Edwardian castles--Border castles--Chepstow--Grosmont--Raglan--Central feature of feudalism--Fourteenth-century castle--Homes of chivalry-- Schools of arms--The making of a knight--Tournaments--Jousts--Tilting at a ring--Pageants--"Apollo and Daphne"--Pageants at Sudeley Castle and Kenilworth--Destruction of castles--Castles during Civil War period.

Many an English village can boast of the possession of the ruins of an ancient castle, a gaunt rectangular or circular keep or donjon, looking very stern and threatening even in decay, and mightily convincing of the power of its first occupants. The new masters did not feel very safe in the midst of a discontented and enraged people; so they built these huge fortresses with strong walls and gates and moats. Indeed before the Conquest the Norman knights, to whom the weak King Edward the Confessor granted many an English estate, brought with them the fas.h.i.+on of building castles, and many a strong square tower began to crown the fortified mounds. Thence they could oppress the people in many ways, and the writers of the time always speak of the building of castles with a kind of shudder. After the Conquest, especially during the regency of William's two lieutenants, Bishop Odo and Earl William Fitz-osbern, the Norman adventurers who were rewarded for their services by the gift of many an English manor, built castles everywhere. The wretched men of the land were cruelly oppressed by forced labour in erecting these strongholds, which were filled "with devils and evil men." Over a thousand castles were built in nineteen years, and in his own castle each earl or lord reigned as a small king, coining his own money, making his own laws, having power of life and death over his dependants, and often using his power most violently and oppressively.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD SARUM]

The original Norman castle consisted of a keep, "four-square to every wind that blew," standing in a bailey court. It was a mighty place with walls of great thickness about one hundred and fifty feet high. It contained several rooms, one above the other. A deep well supplied the inhabitants with water. Spiral stone steps laid in the thickness of the wall led to the first floor where the soldiers of the garrison resided.

Above this was the hall, with a chimney and fireplace, where the lord of the castle and his guests had their meals, and in the thickness of the wall there were numerous chambers used as sleeping-apartments and garderobes, and the existence of a piscina in one of these shows that it was a small chapel or oratory. The upper story was divided by wooden part.i.tions into small sleeping-rooms; and unlike our modern houses, the kitchen was at the top of the keep, and opened on the roof.

Descending some stone steps which led from the ground floor in ancient time we should visit the dungeons, dark, gloomy, and dreadful places, where deep silence reigns, only broken by the groans of despairing captives in the miserable cells. In one of these toads and adders were the companions of the captive. Another poor wretch reposed on a bed of sharp flints, while the torture-chamber echoed with the cries of the victims of mediaeval cruelty, who were hanged by their feet and smoked with foul smoke, or hung up by their thumbs, while burning rings were placed on their feet. In Peak Castle, Derbys.h.i.+re, a poor, simple squire, one G.o.dfrey Rowland, was confined for six days without either food or drink, and then released from the dungeon with his right hand cut off.

In order to extract a heavy ransom, to obtain lands and estates, to learn the secrets of hidden treasure, the most ingenious and devilish tortures were inflicted in these terrible abodes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A NORMAN CASTLE (1) The dungeon.

(2) Chapel.

(3) Stable.

(4) Inner bailey.

(5) Outer bailey.

(6) Barbican.

(7) Mount.

(8) Soldiers' lodgings.]