Week 3: Anglo-Norman England and the rise of Romance (Marie de France)
We are in a different atmosphere compared to Beowulf
We are moving away from the complexities found in previous texts
We are some 200 years later of Beowulf’s making, but we are also in a culturally
different Britain you might say
1066 and all that:
Norman Conquest - William the Conqueror became the King of England following
this violent battle: When the new king was proclaimed in French and English, in
one voice the guards mistook the shouts of the spectators for an attack on the
king and attacked them
Subsequent decades marked by extreme violence when the Normans tried to
establish their power
Normans, originally Germanic (Vikings), settled in the Northern of France in the
9th/10th century after years of raids. They adopted the language of the area
and Christian religion
In Britain, therefore, we see an increased multilingualism: Latin (Language of
the church), English (language of the people), Norse, Celtic languages (Welsh,
Cornish, Gaelic)
A language was added to this diaspora, which was Anglo-Norman: an insular
dialect of French developed from the languages of the invaders
Royalty:
1066–1135: House of Normandy: its last king was Henry I, whose son died in a
famous shipwreck, around the 1120s. As a result, he had no direct heirs any
, more. Both his daughter Matilda and his nephew Stephen, fought for the
kingship
1135–1154: The Civil War: unrest because of the fight for the throne
1154: The Westminster Treaty: Henry II as king, the son of Mathilda
1154-1189: Henry II (Plantagenet: Royal house which originated from the French
court of Anjou): he was an ambitious man who marries Eleanor of Aquitaine in
1152 (the former wife of the French king Louis VII)
The divorce settlement between Eleanor and King Louis VII gave her back
enormous portions of the French Kingdom, which sounded favourable to the
English King. In fact, with this union, Henry II was in possession of both England
and a great portion of France.
They travelled to the holy land on a crusade (uncommon for women to do so).
They came back and supported her sons in a kind of uprising against Henry II.
She was consequently arrested for 13 years.
This court of Henry II and Eleanor became a breeding ground for culture. Their
influence touched also Spain which, since 8th to 15th century, a Muslim Regime
and a higher level of literary culture. Within this situation of knotty cultural
influences, a massive increasing wealth and, because of changes in the law
(eldest son inherited everything - primogenitor), we see a class of rich women
who become interested in poetry, literature and have the time and leisure to do
so.
In the south grows the troubadour culture (troveres or troubadours) (chanteurs
or jongleurs): singers who crossed borders to exhibit their shows and introduced
We are in a different atmosphere compared to Beowulf
We are moving away from the complexities found in previous texts
We are some 200 years later of Beowulf’s making, but we are also in a culturally
different Britain you might say
1066 and all that:
Norman Conquest - William the Conqueror became the King of England following
this violent battle: When the new king was proclaimed in French and English, in
one voice the guards mistook the shouts of the spectators for an attack on the
king and attacked them
Subsequent decades marked by extreme violence when the Normans tried to
establish their power
Normans, originally Germanic (Vikings), settled in the Northern of France in the
9th/10th century after years of raids. They adopted the language of the area
and Christian religion
In Britain, therefore, we see an increased multilingualism: Latin (Language of
the church), English (language of the people), Norse, Celtic languages (Welsh,
Cornish, Gaelic)
A language was added to this diaspora, which was Anglo-Norman: an insular
dialect of French developed from the languages of the invaders
Royalty:
1066–1135: House of Normandy: its last king was Henry I, whose son died in a
famous shipwreck, around the 1120s. As a result, he had no direct heirs any
, more. Both his daughter Matilda and his nephew Stephen, fought for the
kingship
1135–1154: The Civil War: unrest because of the fight for the throne
1154: The Westminster Treaty: Henry II as king, the son of Mathilda
1154-1189: Henry II (Plantagenet: Royal house which originated from the French
court of Anjou): he was an ambitious man who marries Eleanor of Aquitaine in
1152 (the former wife of the French king Louis VII)
The divorce settlement between Eleanor and King Louis VII gave her back
enormous portions of the French Kingdom, which sounded favourable to the
English King. In fact, with this union, Henry II was in possession of both England
and a great portion of France.
They travelled to the holy land on a crusade (uncommon for women to do so).
They came back and supported her sons in a kind of uprising against Henry II.
She was consequently arrested for 13 years.
This court of Henry II and Eleanor became a breeding ground for culture. Their
influence touched also Spain which, since 8th to 15th century, a Muslim Regime
and a higher level of literary culture. Within this situation of knotty cultural
influences, a massive increasing wealth and, because of changes in the law
(eldest son inherited everything - primogenitor), we see a class of rich women
who become interested in poetry, literature and have the time and leisure to do
so.
In the south grows the troubadour culture (troveres or troubadours) (chanteurs
or jongleurs): singers who crossed borders to exhibit their shows and introduced
