recognize clearly that the people should have an active share in carrying out the laws by which they are governed. This principle logically pointed to the admission of the freemen to a share in the making of those laws, but for some time to come all progress depended on the only class which had sufficient coherence and strength to make itself felt-the baronage. This party had hitherto often struggled to subvert orderly government; it was henceforth to struggle against encroachments upon its rights. TOPICS (1) Compare Henry's methods in Ireland with those of William Suggestive the Conqueror in the English marches. (2) Define accurately and topics fully a knight's fee. (3) What advantages did a mercenary force possess over a regular feudal levy? What counter advantages had a feudal force? (4) In case of a civil struggle between king and barons, to which party would the members of the militia probably ally themselves, and why? (5) Why was the early jury system especially applicable to suits over the ownership of land? (6) Why was the sheriff generally instructed to impanel knights as jurymen? (7) Why was it necessary to forbid the excommunication of the king's officers without his consent? (8) Why did the Constitutions of Clarendon forbid the consecration of a villein without his lord's consent? (9) On what grounds did Becket's murderers defend themselves? (10) Origin of the name Plantagenet. (11) The sept system in Ireland. (12) The English Pale. (13) Search The personal character of Henry II. (14) Richard I. in Palestine. topics (15) The romantic legends regarding Richard's captivity. (16) The attitude of other English monarchs than Richard to the Crusades. (17) Appeals to the King in Council. (18) The murder of Becket (19) How did Becket become a saint ? REFERENCES See maps, pp. 77, 94; Gardiner, School Atlas, map 11; Poole, Geography Historical Atlas, map xxix.; Reich, New Students' Atlas, maps 6, 9. authorities Bright, History of England, I. 89-125; Gardiner, Student's His- Secondary tory, I. 138-165; Ransome, Advanced History, 135-166; Green, Short History, 104–115, History of the English People, bk. ii. -- ch. iii.; Montague, Elements of Constitutional History, 40–51; Sources Illustrative works Stubbs, The Early Plantagenets, chs. iii.-vi., · Select Charters, 2129,- Constitutional History, I. ch. xii. ; Mrs. J. R. Green, Henry II.; Brewer, Student's Hume, ch. vii.; Lingard, History of England, I. ch. xii., II. ch. i.; Norgate, England under the Angevin Kings, I. chs. ix.-xi., II. chs. i.-viii.; Ramsay, The Angevin Empire, chs. i.xxii.; Wakeman and Hassall, Essays Introductory to English Constitutional History, no. iii; Taswell-Langmead, Constitutional History, 73-84, 121-161; Traill, Social England, I. 267–298; Pearson, England during the Early and Middle Ages, ch. xxiii.; Edwards, Wales, chs. vi. vii.; Lawless, Ireland, chs. ix.-xii.; Barnard, Conquest of Ireland; McCarthy, Outlines of Irish History, ch. iii.; Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, I. bk. i. ch. v. Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, nos. 12-21; Colby, Selections from the Sources, nos. 22-24, 27; Kendall, SourceBook, ch. iv.; Henderson, Select Documents, 10, 11 (a forged document); Archer, Crusades of Richard I.; Barnard, Strongbow's Conquest of Ireland; Hutton, St. Thomas of Canterbury. See New England History Teachers' Association, Syllabus, 240, – Historical Sources, 152-154. Helps, Henry II.; Hewlett, Richard Yea and Nay; Scott, The Betrothed, The Talisman, — Ivanhoe; Tennyson, Becket (a drama), The Foresters (a drama); Bates and Coman, English History told by English Poets, 63-80. CHAPTER X. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS (1100-1350) 146. Decline of serfdom THE late Norman and early Plantagenet periods began an economic and social change which was destined to do away with some of the most striking features of feudalism. Through slow crystallization of customs, feudal service was lifted one grade higher. The menial servant who could not be kept busy during his lord's absence from the manor, often was assigned small portions of land to work; such land, if held by him and his children in succession for several generations, gradually became reserved by customary right; and thus he rose from the base to the privileged class of villeins. Again, lords of the manor would often set free a portion of their serfs, either as penance for sacrilege or some worse crime, or upon their deathbeds, as a preparation for departure from life. 147. Enfranchisement of vil Villeins might earn their own enfranchisement, since such of them as had a talent for handicrafts were able during their free hours to earn enough silver to commute their dues in kind into a money payment, an exchange which the lord was always glad to make. They were then able to devote all their time to their wage-earning crafts, and speedily became free tenants. Others, shrewd in purchasing and bargaining, bought their freedom with the proceeds of trade. Many strong-willed villeins fled from their manor and took refuge in some distant town, where, by customary law, a residence of a year and a day freed them from their bondage to the soil of the manor whence they had fled. A still more important leins means of rising in the world lay through entrance into holy orders; for the church was ready to seek every where, in the villein's cottage as in the lord's manor house, for intelligent, devoted servants. 148. Rise of chartered towns As with individuals, so with communities. Places which, like Chester and Carlisle, were located near some old Roman or Norman stronghold; others which, like Oxford or Winchester, were the sites of important monasteries; and others which, like Norwich, stood at the head of navigation on some stream, attracted to themselves the carpenters, masons, glass and metal workers, for whom the Normans now found employment. Villages developed rapidly into towns through the growth of trade, and as soon as they were rich enough they sought charters of privileges from their BEGINNING OF A CHARTER OF HENRY III., GRANTING A GUILDHALL TO lords. Furthermore, nearly all the towns formerly free, but For many reasons the inhabitants of thriving villages 1 Translation: "Henry, by God's grace King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitania, and Count of Anjou, -to his archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, counts, barons, justiciars, foresters, viscounts, prefects, ministers, and to all his bailiffs and faithful subjects, greeting. Know that we have given, granted, and by this charter have confirmed to our burgesses of Oxford a certain house in the village of Oxford, with its appurtenances, which formerly belonged to Moses, son of Isaac the Jew," etc. |