The Norman peasants' revolt | |
---|---|
Date | 996 |
Location | Normandy |
Caused by | Peasants wanted concessions on various economic grievances. |
Methods | Complaints sent to central assembly |
Status | Defeated |
The Norman peasants' revolt in 996 was a revolt [1] against the Norman nobility. The revolt was ultimately defeated by the nobles under the early reign of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. His uncle Rodulf of Ivry was the regent of Normandy during the revolt. [2] [3]
The revolt was started in 996 after the peasants had met in local assemblies (conventicula) throughout Normandy. The revolt was coordinated by a central assembly (conventus) that was formed by members of the local assemblies. Each conventicula sent two representatives to the central assembly. [4]
The peasants wanted concessions on various economic grievances. [1] One reason in particular included local barons harassing the peasants with vexatious services. The main reason, however, was the removal of hunting rights for the lower classes; peasants were no longer able to hunt even a single deer. [5] : 51 Medieval sources claim that the revolt was caused by demands of free hunting and fishing rights. [6]
The revolt probably only affected the Seine valley rather than the whole of Normandy. Dating of the revolt in 996 has also been disputed. [1]
The revolt may have been a reaction to the rise of serfdom in Normandy. [7] [6] It has been suggested that the revolt resulted in abolishing serfdom in Normandy.[ citation needed ] Lack of serfdom in Normandy has also been linked to the depopulation of coastal France brought by extensive warfare during the time period. However, evidence for existence and extent of serfdom has been difficult to obtain. [8]
Peasant leaders who brought complaints to the regent Rodulf of Ivry had their hands and feet cut off, after they were captured. [2] [3] Others were blinded, impaled, or burnt alive, and small land owners were made to forfeit their land. [5] : 51
Despite the revolt at the start of his reign, the rest of the Richard II's rule was very peaceful. In May 1023 he did not implement the Peace of God, due to the calm situation in his lands. [3] However, Norman culture retained more of its Frankish and Gallo-Roman characteristics and eventually lost its Scandinavian influences. [2] [3]
William the Conqueror, sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward. By 1060, following a long struggle to establish his throne, his hold on Normandy was secure. In 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, William invaded England, leading an army of Normans to victory over the Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands, and by difficulties with his eldest son, Robert Curthose.
William II was King of England from 26 September 1087 until his death in 1100, with powers over Normandy and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales. The third son of William the Conqueror, he is commonly referred to as William Rufus, perhaps because of his ruddy appearance or, more likely, due to having red hair.
Year 996 (CMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.
Rollo was a Viking who, as Count of Rouen, became the first ruler of Normandy, a region in today's northern France. He emerged as a leading warrior figure among the Norsemen who had secured a permanent foothold on Frankish soil in the valley of the lower Seine after the Siege of Chartres in 911. Charles the Simple, king of West Francia, granted them lands between the mouth of the Seine and what is now Rouen in exchange for Rollo agreeing to end his brigandage, swearing allegiance to him, religious conversion and a pledge to defend the Seine's estuary from other Viking raiders.
The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black Death in the 1340s, the high taxes resulting from the conflict with France during the Hundred Years' War, and instability within the local leadership of London.
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants existed: non-free slaves, semi-free serfs, and free tenants. Peasants might hold title to land outright, or by any of several forms of land tenure, among them socage, quit-rent, leasehold, and copyhold.
The Kingdom of France in the Middle Ages was marked by the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and West Francia (843–987); the expansion of royal control by the House of Capet (987–1328), including their struggles with the virtually independent principalities, and the creation and extension of administrative/state control in the 13th century; and the rise of the House of Valois (1328–1589), including the protracted dynastic crisis against the House of Plantagenet and their Angevin Empire, culminating in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), which laid the seeds for a more centralized and expanded state in the early modern period and the creation of a sense of French identity.
The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between King Charles III of West Francia and the Viking leader Rollo. The duchy was named for its inhabitants, the Normans.
Richard II, called the Good, was the duke of Normandy from 996 until 1026.
Richard I, also known as Richard the Fearless, was the count of Rouen from 942 to 996. Dudo of Saint-Quentin, whom Richard commissioned to write the "De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum", called him a dux. However, this use of the word may have been in the context of Richard's renowned leadership in war, and not as a reference to a title of nobility. Richard either introduced feudalism into Normandy or he greatly expanded it. By the end of his reign, the most important Norman landholders held their lands in feudal tenure.
England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the medieval period, from the end of the 5th century through to the start of the early modern period in 1485. When England emerged from the collapse of the Roman Empire, the economy was in tatters and many of the towns abandoned. After several centuries of Germanic immigration, new identities and cultures began to emerge, developing into kingdoms that competed for power. A rich artistic culture flourished under the Anglo-Saxons, producing epic poems such as Beowulf and sophisticated metalwork. The Anglo-Saxons converted to Christianity in the 7th century, and a network of monasteries and convents were built across England. In the 8th and 9th centuries, England faced fierce Viking attacks, and the fighting lasted for many decades. Eventually, Wessex was established as the most powerful kingdom and promoting the growth of an English identity. Despite repeated crises of succession and a Danish seizure of power at the start of the 11th century, it can also be argued that by the 1060s England was a powerful, centralised state with a strong military and successful economy.
Dudo, or Dudon, was a Picard historian, and dean of Saint-Quentin, where he was born the 960s. He was an erudite scholar and he likely acquired his education in Liège or perhaps Laon. By 987, Dudo had become a canon at St Quentin, the abbacy of which was held by the counts of Vermandois. In that year he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Richard I of Normandy by Albert I, Count of Vermandois which was successful. Dudo became a frequent visitor to the Norman court in the two years prior to Richard's death in 996. In a letter to Adalbero, Bishop of Laon, Dudo said that, as a result, Richard asked him to write a work recording "the customs and deeds of the Norman Land, the rights established within the kingdom of his great-grandfather Rollo". During a second stay in Normandy, Dudo wrote his history of the Normans, a task which Duke Richard had urged him to undertake. Very little else is known about his life, except that he died before 1043.
William Longsword was the second ruler of Normandy, from 927 until his assassination in 942.
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Rodulf of Ivry was a Norman noble, and regent of Normandy during the minority of Richard II.
Henry II, also known as Henry Curtmantle, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189. During his reign he controlled England, substantial parts of Wales and Ireland, and much of France, an area that altogether was later called the Angevin Empire, and also held power over Scotland and the Duchy of Brittany.
The medieval English saw their economy as comprising three groups – the clergy, who prayed; the knights, who fought; and the peasants, who worked the land and towns involved in international trade. Over the five centuries of the Middle Ages, the English economy would at first grow and then suffer an acute crisis, resulting in significant political and economic change. Despite economic dislocation in urban and extraction economies, including shifts in the holders of wealth and the location of these economies, the economic output of towns and mines developed and intensified over the period. By the end of the period, England had a weak government, by later standards, overseeing an economy dominated by rented farms controlled by gentry, and a thriving community of indigenous English merchants and corporations.
Serfdom has a long history that dates to ancient times.
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