Medieval Literature：A Brief Introduction4

　　The date that even a child of three in England is supposed to know is 1066， the year of the conquest of England by the French-speaking Normans. It was the year in which the Normans came under William the Conqueror， and the last Anglo-Saxon King Harold died with an arrow shot through his eye at the battle of Hastings. It was also the year that marked the beginning of the Middle English or Anglo-Norman period （1066-1400）. The Norman line of kings sat on the throne for some 90 years and gave place to the Angevin kings （or the Plantangenets） in 1154. King Henry II and his descendants stayed in power for 245 years until they were superseded by the House of Lancaster in 1399 when the last of the Plantangenets， Richard II， was dethroned. This happened just one year before Chaucer died. Regarding this period there are a few occurrences of historic magnitude that should be kept in mind：

　�。�1） The Establishment of the Feudal System： William the Conqueror did this effectively within a short space of time. He grabbed Anglo-Saxon land by force and gave it to his nobles and followers. These became lords of manors demanding allegiance from their Anglo-Saxon serfs and owed it to their immediate superiors. The hierarchy was a multi-tiered degradation with the king at the top keeping all the power in his hands. The relative peace that followed brought power and wealth and made the milieu congenial to the growth of art and literature.

　　（2） The 1381 Peasant Uprising： Within the system the nobles and the aristocrats had all the power and privileges while the serfs remained as wretched as ever. The widespread disaffection led eventually to the peasants revolt in 1381 which was led by Wat Tyler of Kent and Jack Straw of Essex. 100，000 people marched on London， destroyed manor-houses， burnt court papers―records of their bondage， and demanded the abolition of serf slavery and a general pardon. Though it was eventually put down， serfdom died out gradually.

　�。�3） The Completion of the Domesday Book （1086）： Though undertaken as a tax-book or rent-roll to provide the king with an estimate of his resources，the Domesday Book serves also as a historical record of Anglo-Saxon institutions， customs， and way of life which would have otherwise been lost to time.

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