BRITAIN IN THE XX CENTURY: THATCHERISM

Margaret Thatcher (Baroness Thatcher 1979-90) was the United Kingdom’s first woman prime minister. She came to office in May 1979 and remained until her resignation in November 1990, making her the longest continually serving prime minister in 150 years.

Mrs. Thatcher is both admired and despised by many in her country: to some her radical economic policies reversed decades of decline and re-established Britain as a major economic power on the world stage; to others her harsh economic policies caused social friction and divided the nation.

Margaret Roberts was born on 13^th October 1925 in the small town of Grantham in the north of England. Margaret’s father, Alfred, was a self-educated man who had been forced to leave school at fourteen. He worked his way into the grocery business until he owned his own shop, above which the Roberts’ family lived. Margaret’s mother, Beatrice, a woman of little ambition, had been a seamstress. Alfred and Beatrice gave birth to another daughter, Muriel, in 1929. The sisters were brought up in a serious, practical and religious environment.

Margaret was educated at Kesteven & Grantham Girls’ School, before proceeding to Oxford University to read chemistry. In 1943 Margaret became the president of the Oxford University Conservative Association, the first women to hold the position.

After several unsuccessful attempts to become a member of parliament (MP), Margaret married Denis Thatcher, a wealthy businessman of the chemicals industry, in 1951. Two years later they gave birth to twins, Mark and Carol.

In 1959, Margaret Thatcher was elected member of parliament for Finchley, near London. Unusually, parliamentarians took favour to the bill proposed in her maiden speech in the House of Commons, 1960, which duly became legislation. Within just two years she had been appointed parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Pensions. Following Edward Heath’s election as prime minister in 1970, Margaret Thatcher was promoted into the cabinet as the Secretary of State for Education. She made some highly controversial moves, which quickly earned her the title of ‘the most unpopular women in Britain’. She scrapped the entitlement of primary school children to free milk, giving way to the nickname ‘Thatcher, Milk Snatcher’.  Following Heath’s election loss in 1974 due to a bitter dispute with the trade unions, Mrs. Thatcher was elected leader of the Conservative Party in February 1975. Together with Keith Joseph and John Hoskyns, she began the task of understanding what had gone wrong with the British economy, then in a dire state. She called for a reversal of socialism – less state intervention, less taxation, less public expenditure, more individual power and responsibility, more competition, more private ownership.

On 4^th May 1979, before a dismal economic backdrop and bitter industrial relations, Margaret Thatcher won the general election and became Britain’s first women prime minister, with a Conservative majority of 44 in the House of Commons.

Mrs. Thatcher’s early years as prime minister were marked by a multitude of difficulties. The government’s harsh monetary policy of high interest rates, required to steadily bring down the rampant inflation, was highly damaging to business and exacerbated a deep recession brought about by an international oil crisis in the summer of 1979. Unemployment soon passed three million, a figure unthinkable just a few years beforehand. This economic crisis sparked deep rivalry in the cabinet and triggered a number of high profile resignations.

In April 1982, Argentina launched an unexpected invasion of the neighbouring Falkland Islands, British territory for almost 150 years. After an unsuccessful diplomatic attempt to halt the invasion, Margaret Thatcher, determined to reclaim the islands, dispatched a Royal Navy task force. With a high risk of failure, the government’s survival lay in the balance. Ten weeks later Argentina surrendered and Britain reclaimed the Falkland Islands. But the war was not without its difficulties. The sinking of the General Belgrano was perhaps the single most controversial act of the war, in which Margaret Thatcher gave the orders to sink an Argentinean submarine that was sailing away from the declared exclusion zone. 368 sailors drowned. The British press gave their overwhelming support to the ‘Iron Lady’ during the war, though some suggest that she merely had domestic political motives behind the war.

With Mrs. Thatcher’s personal ratings soaring in the opinion polls, and with a divided Labour party in disarray, the Conservatives won the largest landslide election victory since 1945, with a parliamentary majority of 144.

During the 1984 Conservative Party Conference in October, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) planted and detonated a bomb in the Grand Hotel, Brighton, missing the prime minister only by feet. Five of Mrs. Thatcher’s colleagues were killed. The bomb had been retaliation for Mrs. Thatcher’s stance over the IRA Hunger Strikes of 1980-81. Convicted Irish terrorists being held in the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland had gone on hunger strike, refusing to end until their demands for ‘special status’ were met. Mrs. Thatcher regarded any such concession as surrender to terrorism and refused to grant the strikers their demands. After many weeks, Bobby Sands, the leader of the IRA in the prison, and nine other strikers, died.

Mrs. Thatcher entered office with one overriding objective: to reverse the socialism that she believed had done great harm to the British economy. Her monetarist program called for deregulation, tax cuts, greater use of supply side policies and a rigorous control of the money supply in order to keep inflation low. But she also entered office upon a dismal economic scene that would only get worse. Her policy of high interest rates hit business, prolonging a deep recession. Upon entering office, income tax was cut immediately and offset by a subsequent increase in VAT (Value Added Tax), representing an important shift from direct to indirect taxation. Under Mrs. Thatcher Britain was the pioneer in a global wave of privatization - that is the sale of state-owned industries. This program can claim significant economic success, removing large government subsidies that had previously kept such businesses afloat, and in some cases, but not all, improving their efficiency by the introduction of market forces.

Alongside privatization, trade union reform lay at the heart of the Thatcher economic plan. The unions were held responsible for Britain’s relative economic decline since 1945. A series of bold steps were phased in over the decade, gradually taking from the unions much of the power granted to them over the decades. Restrictions were placed on many forms of industrial action through the legalization of secondary picketing and the introduction of secret ballots.

The turning point in government-union relations came in 1984 with the beginning of the year-long miners’ strike. The strike was a response to the government’s decision to close a great number of mines across the country. The economic case for the pit closures was to make the industry more efficient and more competitive.

Determined that her third term in office should have a more purposeful drive than the second, Mrs. Thatcher pressed on with an increasingly radical agenda. The Community Charge - better known as the ‘Poll Tax’ - was an attempt to replace the old rates system. Towards the late 1980s questions arose about the future of Britain’s economic and political relationship with Europe and of the case for Economic and Monetary Union. On this topic the government became deeply divided. Mrs. Thatcher rejected any form of political or economic integration with Europe, believing that it would pose a threat to the economic success her government had achieved in the previous decade. But her famous ‘Bruges Speech’ in 1988, in which she set out her vision of a family of independent, sovereign nation states, struck the wrong note with many colleagues.

In November 1990, following a high-profile resignation from Commons Leader Geoffrey Howe, former cabinet member Michael Heseltine stood against the prime minister in the Conservative Party leadership ballot. Only just surviving the first round, and persuaded that a second attempt would result in a humiliating defeat, Margaret Thatcher resigned on 22^nd November 1990.

In 1992 Margaret Thatcher was made a Baroness and duly took her seat in the House of Lords. The following year, Lady Thatcher launched her autobiography, ‘The Downing Street Years’ (1993, Harper Collins), followed by an autobiography of her years before Prime Minister, ‘The Path to Power’ (1995). Although rumors of Margaret Thatcher’s intentions to remain a ‘back-seat driver’ in subsequent administrations have apparently not materialized, Lady Thatcher has remained a highly influential force in British politics. Her public support for William Hague (1997) and then Iain Duncan Smith (2001) in the Conservative Party leadership contests proved to be the deciding factor in the election outcomes. Her high-profile intervention in the Pinnochet extradition case (1999) attracted considerable media coverage. Following a series of minor strokes in late 2001, Lady Thatcher was advised by her doctors to retire from public life. She was, however, persuaded to take part in a television interview late in 2002 in which the frail former prime minister recalled her life with husband Denis. In June 2003 Sir Denis Thatcher died, several months after a heart transplant.

In March 2002 her eagerly awaited book, ‘Statecraft: strategies for a changing world’ was published.

QUEEN ANNE – THE LAST BRITISH SOVEREIGN OF THE HOUSE OF STUART

Anne (1665-1714), queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1702-14), the last British sovereign of the house of Stuart. Anne Stuart was an unlikely person to become queen of England. She was born on February 6, 1665 to the Duke and Duchess of York and was their second daughter out of three children. Shortly before her birth, her uncle, King Charles II, had married and seemed destined to have a large family after fathering several illegitimate children.  But he had no more children. As Anne grew older she was tormented by numerous health problems, but she survived to adulthood. She only received a limited education, yet Anne would reign during a critically important period in her nation’s history. During her reign she would oversee two major events in English history, one domestic and one foreign. The first being the Act of Union that united England and Scotland. The second was a major international war, the War of Spanish Succession. Best remembered as the last of the Stuart dynasty Anne had no heirs. The events of her reign paved the way for Britain to become an international world power.

Although born into royalty, her education was similar to that of other aristocratic girls: languages and music. Her knowledge of history was limited and she received no instruction in civil law or military matters that most male monarchs were expected to have. She was also a sickly child, and may have suffered from the blood disease porphyria, as well as having poor vision and a serious case of smallpox at the age of twelve. Poor health would torment Anne her entire life, probably contributing to her many miscarriages.

Anne grew up in an atmosphere of controversy. Her father James, the Duke of York, and both her mother and later her stepmother were Roman Catholic. They would have preferred to raise Anne and Mary (their only children to survive early childhood) as Catholics. Nevertheless, prominent Protestants, such as Henry Compton, later bishop of London, took their side and ensured the girls would not only be required to attend Protestant services but that they also receive Protestant religious instruction.

Anne’s life dramatically changed when the Lord Treasurer and Earl of Danby, in an attempt to strengthen his influence with King Charles II, proposed the marriage of Anne's sister, Mary, to William of Orange. Their father, the Duke of York, had wanted to wed Mary to the heir to the French throne, a Catholic. Danby persuaded by the King to allow the marriage to William, a rabid anti-Catholic, thus straining the close relationship between Anne and Mary. Once the marriage had taken place, William interfered in Anne’s life by arranging a marriage to the Prince of Hanover. This time the Duke of York got the king to oppose the marriage, although Anne did not realize this, and therefore felt that she had been denied by the Prince.

Anne eventually married Prince George of Denmark in 1683. This was an arrangement Anne’s father negotiated in secret with sponsorship by King Louis XIV of France, who hoped for an Anglo-Danish alliance against William of Orange and the Dutch. No such alliance would ever materialize.

When King Charles II died, Anne’s father became king. His Catholicism and his desire to rule without Parliament’s input caused Parliament to call on William of Orange and Mary to take the throne. When this occurred Anne supported it and opposed her father. Her husband did not affect Anne’s position, as he remained politically weak and inactive, suffering from a drinking problem. His influence in matters of state would remain small throughout their marriage. The relationship he had with Anne was a close one and she loved him deeply, however, their marriage was saddened by Anne’s twelve miscarriages and the fact that none of their other five children reached adulthood. Although her father converted to Roman Catholicism in 1672, Anne remained Protestant and gave her tacit consent to James's overthrow by the anti-Roman Catholic Glorious Revolution of 1688, which brought her sister Mary and Mary’s husband, William of Orange, to the throne.

After Mary died, followed by William, in 1702, they had no heirs and the throne then passed to Anne. The only challenge to the throne was her half brother James, a Catholic. Since the English, having suffered under the Catholic rule of earlier Stuarts, they wanted a Protestant monarch. Thus Anne ascended to the throne, as the last Stuart monarch, and was the first married queen to rule England alone. Becoming Queen Anne restored to favour John Churchill, who had been disgraced by her predecessor, making him duke of Marlborough and captain-general of the army. Marlborough won a series of victories over the French in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14, known in America as Queen Anne’s War), and he and his wife, Sarah, had great influence over the queen in the early years of her reign.

The end of Anne’s friendship with Sarah signalled a change in political influences as well. Although Anne had always been a strong Tory throughout her reign she had vigorously supported the War of Spanish Succession, a Whig war. Sarah Churchill was a Whig and her husband John, though a Tory, was the leading English general in the conflict. Because of the Churchill’s influence, Anne had always been inclined to support the war, which was the most important event in foreign affairs during Anne's reign. However, when Abigal Masham a Tory replaced Sarah as Anne’s close friend it signaled a shift in the politics of the government too, particularly in with regards to the war of Spanish Succession. Some historians believe Anne manipulated her ministers to enact the policies she wanted while others see her as a monarch manipulated by her ministers. Whatever the case when the Tories came into power they negotiated an end to the war.

Domestically much also happened of great significance during Anne’s reign. The Settlement Act of 1701 was the first important piece of legislation of Anne's reign. It stated that if Anne died without children the throne would pass to the German Hanovers. This angered Scotland where the Stuart dynasty had originated. The Scots threatened to bring back James, Anne's Catholic half brother and pretender to the throne, to rule. To head off a revolt and unite support for the crown Anne pushed for the Act of Union which would unite England and Scotland. The Act of Union was finally accepted in 1707. Also significant in domestic politics is that Queen Anne became the last British monarch to veto an act of Parliament.

In the last couple years of her life Anne became very ill. She was often bedridden and attended to by doctors. These doctors used many techniques to try to cure Anne including bleeding her and applying hot irons. These crude medicinal techniques probably did more harm than good. Anne died in London on August 1, 1714, and, having no surviving children, was succeeded by her German cousin, George, elector of Hannover, as King George I of Great Britain.

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE (1558-1603) – A TIME OF GREAT PROSPERITY AND ACHIEVEMENT

Queen Elizabeth I is declared Britain's greatest-ever monarch after a unique opinion poll organized to mark the reigning monarch's Golden Jubilee. She narrowly beat the current Queen.

Elizabeth I - the last Tudor monarch - was born at Greenwich on 7 September 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Her early life was full of uncertainties, and her chances of succeeding to the throne seemed very slight once her half-brother Edward was born in 1537. She was then third in line behind her Roman Catholic half-sister, Princess Mary. Roman Catholics, indeed, always considered her illegitimate and she only narrowly escaped execution in the wake of a failed rebellion against Queen Mary in 1554.

Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on her half-sister's death in November 1558. She was very well educated (fluent in six languages), and had inherited intelligence, determination and shrewdness from both parents. Her reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English history. The Queen herself was often called 'Gloriana', 'Good Queen Bess' and 'The Virgin Queen'. During her reign a secure Church of England was established. Its doctrines were laid down in the 39 Articles of 1563, a compromise between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Elizabeth herself refused to 'make windows into men's souls ... there is only one Jesus Christ and all the rest is a dispute over trifles'; she asked for outward uniformity. Most of her subjects accepted the compromise as the basis of their faith, and her church settlement probably saved England from religious wars like those which France suffered in the second half of the 16^th century.

Although autocratic and capricious, Elizabeth had astute political judgment and chose her ministers well; these included Burghley (Secretary of State), Hatton (Lord Chancellor) and Walsingham (in charge of intelligence and also a Secretary of State). Overall, Elizabeth's administration consisted of some 600 officials administering the great offices of state, and a similar number dealing with the Crown lands (which funded the administrative costs). Social and economic regulation and law and order remained in the hands of the sheriffs at local level, supported by unpaid justices of the peace.

Elizabeth's reign also saw many brave voyages of discovery, including those of Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh and Humphrey Gilbert, particularly to the Americas. These expeditions prepared England for an age of colonization and trade expansion, which Elizabeth herself recognized by establishing the East India Company in 1600.

The arts flourished during Elizabeth's reign. Country houses such as Longleat and Hardwick Hall were built, miniature painting reached its high point, theatres thrived - the Queen attended the first performance of Shakespeare's ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’. Literature bloomed through the works of Spenser, Marlowe and Shakespeare. Elizabeth's religious compromise laid many fears to rest. Fashion and education came to the fore because of Elizabeth's penchant for knowledge, courtly behavior and extravagant dress.

However, Elizabeth's reign was one of considerable danger and difficulty for many, with threats of invasion from Spain through Ireland, and from France through Scotland. Much of northern England was in rebellion in 1569-70. A papal bull of 1570 specifically released Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance, and she passed harsh laws against Roman Catholics after plots against her life were discovered. One such plot involved Mary, Queen of Scots, who had fled to England in 1568 after her second husband's murder and her subsequent marriage to a man believed to have been involved in his murder. As a likely successor to Elizabeth, Mary spent 19 years as Elizabeth's prisoner because Mary was the focus for rebellion and possible assassination plots, such as the Babington Plot of 1586. Mary was also a temptation for potential invaders such as Philip II. Despite Elizabeth's reluctance to take drastic action, on the insistence of Parliament and her advisers, Mary was tried, found guilty and executed in 1587.

In 1588, aided by bad weather, the English navy scored a great victory over the Spanish invasion fleet of around 130 ships - the 'Armada'. The Armada was intended to overthrow the Queen and re-establish Roman Catholicism by conquest, as Philip II believed he had a claim to the English throne through his marriage to Mary.

During Elizabeth's long reign, the nation also suffered from high prices and severe economic depression, especially in the countryside, during the 1590s. The war against Spain was not very successful after the Armada had been beaten and, together with other campaigns, it was very costly. Though she kept a tight rein on government expenditure, Elizabeth left large debts to her successor. Although Elizabeth freely used her power to veto legislation, she avoided confrontation and did not attempt to define Parliament's constitutional position and rights.

Elizabeth chose never to marry. If she had chosen a foreign prince, he would have drawn England into foreign policies for his own advantages (as in her sister Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain); marrying a fellow countryman could have drawn the Queen into factional infighting. Elizabeth used her marriage prospects as a political tool in foreign and domestic policies. However, the 'Virgin Queen' was presented as a selfless woman who sacrificed personal happiness for the good of the nation, to which she was, in essence, 'married'. Late in her reign, she addressed Parliament in the so-called 'Golden Speech' of 1601 when she told MPs: 'There is no jewel, be it of never so high a price, which I set before this jewel; I mean your love.' She seems to have been very popular with the vast majority of her subjects.

Overall, Elizabeth's always shrewd and decisive leadership brought successes during a period of great danger both at home and abroad. Elizabeth, the last of the Tudors, died at seventy years of age at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603, having become a legend in her lifetime. The date of her accession was a national holiday for two hundred years.

The image of Elizabeth's reign is one of triumph and success. Investing in expensive clothes and jewellery (to look the part, like all contemporary sovereigns), she cultivated this image by touring the country in regional visits known as 'progresses', often riding on horseback rather than by carriage. Elizabeth made at least 25 progresses during her reign. Good Queen Bess maintained a regal air until the day she died; a quote, from a letter by Paul Hentzen, reveals the aging queen's regal nature: "Next came the Queen in the sixty-fifth year of her age, as we were told, very majestic; her face oblong, fair, but wrinkled; her eyes small yet black and pleasant; her nose a little hooked; her lips narrow... she had in her ear two pearls, with very rich drops... her air was stately; her manner of speaking mild and obliging." This regal figure surely had her faults, but the last Tudor excelled at rising to challenges and emerging victorious.

THE WARS OF ROSES (1455-1485)

The Wars of Roses is the name commonly applied to a series of civil wars that arose out of a dynastic struggle between two main branches of the English royal house, the House of York and the House of Lancaster. The emblem of the House of York was the white rose. Although tradition has it that the red rose was the badge of Lancaster, that is probably not true.

The first king in the Lancastrian line was Henry IV, who had deposed his corrupt and tyrannical cousin, Richard II, and assumed the throne. Medieval notions of hereditary rights and the divine right of kings were such that Henry IV’s right to the throne he had gained by usurpation was never entirely accepted, and his reign was troubled by civil unrest and a seemingly endless series of uprisings. His son, Henry V, directed his nobles’ hostile energies outward by declaring war on France. His spectacular triumph over a vastly superior French force at the Battle of Agincourt (1415) made him a national hero. As one of the terms of the peace treaty he married the French king’s daughter, Princess Katherine, thus giving himself and his heirs a place in the French succession. Henry V was a soldier at heart, and he was soon off to fight again. He died rather suddenly in 1422. After his death the country was subject to the long and factious minority of Henry VI. A marriage was arranged for him with Margaret of Anjou, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Duke of Anjou. Forceful and ambitious, young Margaret had no trouble controlling her easily led husband. Margaret and her favourites at court comprised a faction that arranged everything to increase their own wealth and power.

Henry, who inherited from his maternal grandfather a tendency toward insanity, lapsed into a state of catatonia in 1453. This provided an opening for a powerful faction led by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (called the “kingmaker”) to make Richard, Duke of York, Protector of the Realm. Ironically, Richard of York had a better hereditary claim to the throne than Henry VI did, because York was descended from the second son of King Edward III, while Henry was descended from John of Gaunt, Edward’s third son, whose line had gained the throne by means of Henry IV’s deposing of Richard II. York’s personality was also far better suited to kingship than was Henry’s.

The first military action of the Wars of Roses was the battle of Saint Alban’s (22 May 1455), which resulted in a decisive victory for the Duke of York. York’s innocent intentions at this point are shown by the fact that although he had the king in his power, he made no effort to depose him, or even to impose demands on him. Instead, he apologized for having raised arms against his sovereign and presented a list of grievances. They established an uneasy truce that lasted for four years.

Civil war resumed in 1459. Both sides won victories and suffered defeats, but the Earl of Warwick decisively defeated the Lancastrian forces at Northampton (1460). In a dramatic gesture before the assembled lords, York attempted to claim the throne by marching up to it and laying his hand possessively on it. He was repulsed by the shocked silence that greeted this gesture. Realizing he would lose support if he attempted to depose Henry, York settled for being named Henry’s heir. Margaret, of course, refused to accept this compromise, which effectively disinherited her son, Edward.

Gathering her forces, Margaret continued her struggle against York. In 1461, the Lancastrian army surprised York and killed him at Wakefield. Warwick was also defeated at this time, at the second battle of Saint Alban’s.

York’s own son Edward, already at eighteen a charismatic military leader, defeated the Lancastrians at Mortimer’s Cross (1461), and reached London before Margaret’s forces could get there. He assumed the throne as Edward IV in March of 1461. His armies pursued Margaret and completely defeated her forces at Towton, though Henry, Margaret, and their son Edward escaped to Scotland.

Edward then reigned peacefully until his death (1483). His twelve-year-old son Edward succeeded him as Edward V, but his uncle, Edward IV’s youngest brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, usurped the throne as Richard III. Even the Yorkist supporters were outraged at Richard’s bold move, especially as the boy king Edward and his younger brother Richard were imprisoned in the Tower and died mysteriously there.

The alienated nobles threw their support behind Henry Tudor, the claimant from the House of Lancaster. With their air and that of the French, his forces defeated Richard’s army at the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485). Richard himself was killed in a bold but futile charge against the rebels, and Henry Tudor then assumed the throne as King Henry VII, the first king in the Tudor dynasty. Thus did the Wars of Roses end at last. After decades of bloody civil war, the English people were grateful for the peace and prosperity they experienced under Henry VII, who reigned until his death from tuberculosis in 1509.

The Wars of Rose broke the feudal power of the nobles and effectively marked the end of the Middle Ages in England. Many of the ruling nobles had been slain during the wars, and their estates were confiscated by the Crown.

Lawlessness had torn England since the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War. It grew even worse during the Wars of Roses. Not enough able leaders remained to maintain law and order. It was said that “few would venture alone into the country by day and fewer still into the towns by night.” The people longed for a strong government that would bring peace and prosperity. Henry VII seized the opportunity to reestablish the royal power and to launch policies that marked the beginning of modern England.)

THE CONTRIBUTION OF WILLIAM, THE CONQUEROR TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRITISH SOCIETY

William, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Normandy, spent his first six years with his mother and received the duchy of Normandy upon his father's death in 1035. A council consisting of noblemen and William's appointed guardians ruled Normandy but ducal authority became weaker under the Normans’ violent nature and the province was wracked with assassination and revolt for twelve years. In 1047, William reasserted himself in the eastern Norman regions and, with the aid of France’s King Henry I, crushed the rebelling barons. He spent the next several years consolidating his strength on the continent through marriage, diplomacy, war and savage intimidation. By 1066, Normandy was in a position of virtual independence from William’s feudal lord; Henry I of France and the disputed succession in England offered William an opportunity for invasion.

On October 14, the Normans defeated the English forces at the celebrated Battle of Hastings, in which Harold was slain. William then proceeded to London, crushing the resistance he encountered on the way. On Christmas Day 1066 Duke William of Normandy was acclaimed king in Westminster Abbey. It was an electrifying moment. Believing that inside the church something had gone horribly wrong, they set fire to the neighbouring houses.

The Normans had to live like an army of occupation, living, eating, and sleeping together in operational units. This is not to say that every single Englishman actively opposed the Normans. They meant that England received not just a new royal family but also a new ruling class, a new culture and language.

Since Normandy was a principality ruled by a duke who owed homage to the king of France this also meant that from now  ‘English’ politics became part of French politics. But the French connection went deeper still. The Normans, being Frenchmen, brought with them to England the French language and French culture. At this time it is the foreignness of English art that is most striking.

In ecclesiastical architecture, for example, the European terms ‘Romanesque’ and ‘Gothic’ describe the fashionable styles much better than ‘Norman’ and ‘Early English’.

Under his rule, the English learned Norman customs and the French language. The wealthy built castles, cathedrals, and monasteries in the French style. The people learned new skills from Norman weavers and other workers.

It was a French architect, William of Sens, who was called in to rebuild the choir of Canterbury Cathedral after the fire of 1174. Similarly Henry III’s Rebuilding of Westminster Abbey was heavily influenced by French models just as national language, a language spoken—and written—by anyone who wanted to consider himself civilized. Throughout most of the period a well-educated Englishman was trilingual. English would be his mother tongue; he would have some knowledge of Latin, and he would speak fluent French.

Almost everything that happened in late 11^th-century England has been discussed in terms of the influence of the Norman Conquest. But the second half of the 11^th century was a period of rapid development throughout Europe.

The arrival and conquest of William and the Normans radically altered the course of English history. Rather than attempt a wholesale replacement of Anglo-Saxon law, William united continental practices with native custom. By depriving Anglo-Saxon landowners of their rights, he introduced a brand of feudalism in England that strengthened the monarchy. William introduced feudalism into England. He confiscated the lands of English nobles and divided them among Norman nobles. In return for the lands, the nobles became William’s vassals. They promised to be loyal to the king and to provide him with soldiers. William maintained many English laws and government practices. Villages and manors were given a large degree of autonomy in local affairs in return for military service and monetary payments. The Anglo-Saxon office of sheriff was greatly enhanced: sheriffs arbitrated legal cases in the shire courts on behalf of the king, extracted tax payments and were generally responsible for keeping the peace. “The Doomsday Book” was authorized in 1085 as a survey of land ownership to estimate property and establish a tax base. Within the regions covered by the Doomsday survey, the dominance of the Norman king and his nobility are revealed: only two Anglo-Saxon barons that held lands before 1066 retained those lands twenty years later. All landowners were summoned to pay homage to William in 1086. William imported an Italian, Lanfranc, to take the position of Archbishop of Canterbury; Lanfranc reorganized the English Church, establishing separate Church courts to deal with infractions of Canon law. Although he began the invasion with papal support, William refused to let the church dictate policy within English and Norman borders.

He died as he had lived: an inveterate warrior. He died September 9, 1087 from complications of a wound he received in a siege on the town of Mantes.

“The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” gave a favorable review of William’s twenty-one year reign, but added, “His anxiety for money is the only thing on which he can deservedly be blamed; ...he would say and do some things and indeed almost anything ...where the hope of money allured him.” He was certainly cruel by modern standards, and demanded a high toll from his subjects, but he laid the foundation for the economic and political success of England.