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The Middle English Period And Its Influences
The Middle English Period (1150-1500):
There were many changes that differentiated this period from the old English period. There are changes in its sounds and meaning of words. There are also different changes in the source of words stock where we notice that many old English words were replaced by French words due to the influence of the Norman Conquest on the Middle English period. Before talking about the noun phrase and the main influences in the middle English let us see what kind of political background covered this period.
First of all we know that the main influence on the Middle English period was the French influence as a result of the Norman Conquest. How did the Norman conquests begin? Well, the Normans came from a district known as Normandy which is on the northern coast of France. There were some Scandinavian people who settled in France and those people were known as the Northmen, Normans. The section of France where the Northman settled and ruled was called Normandy. There were also Danes who settled in this region. There was an agreement between the king of France, Charles the simple, and Rollo who was the leader of the Danes back then in Normandy. Rollo later becomes the first duke of the Normans as he did turn in to the French king. So we can say the civilization of the Normans was French and they were people of a very high civilization.
Before the recording of the Norman Conquest in history the relations between England and Normandy was quite intimate. In 1002 the king of England Ǽthelred known as the unready, married a Norman wife. He was doomed to exile by the Danes. He settled with his brother in law. So Edward the confessor was bought up in a Norman French atmosphere. When there were no more Danish heirs to rule Edward was restored and he sat again on the throne of his father. He assigned his Norman friends very important roles in the government and he ruled England for twenty four years. However in the month of January of the year 1066 Edward died childless. England again had to find a new successor to the throne. During the reign of Edward there were many earls who were given districts. Godwin was one of those earls. He was Edwards’s principle advisor. Godwin died and his son Harold took his title and right after Edward’s death he was the virtual ruler of England. While all of this was happening William, who was the duke of Normandy and the second cousin of Edward watched with troubled eyes. He was lead to believe by Edward that he was the true successor of England after Edward dies. Harold had been lead to this right as well. Harold was once captured by William and had been mad to swear that he should not oppose when William is to be king. However Harold broke that promise and he sat himself on the throne of England right after Edward’s death. William wanted to take England and he was determined to. William had strong forces and he could take England in a glimpse of the eye. He only had two disadvantages. He was the illegal son of Robert the devil. He was also accused of poisoning his brother who was the duke of Normandy before him. He became duke after his poisoned brother. Nevertheless William the great as the chronicles called him was not known to leave the battle filed without giving all he has in order to obtain the kingdom.
He decided to invade England and he turned for the church for blessing. There were many people who came to his aid. Most of them were seeking adventure and they were looking forward to the promised parts of land that William decided to give them after he conquers England. In September he came to the south of England with a large number of men. Harold was facing other forces who claimed the rights of the throne Such as the king of Norway. It was very difficult for Harold to defeat them. Harold then rushed to the south and met his Norman enemy. He made his forces follow him on a hill at Senlac, which was close to Hastings; he waited for William to attack. The battle started at nine o’ clock in the morning. His position on the hill was a great advantage for him that he resumed his grounds and William decided to take the advantage of his position of the hill. William made a deceiving move and he pretended to retreat. The English believed this move and they stated to follow the Normans and the Normans this time stood still and started a new battle with the English after they made the English loose the advantageous position. Harold was killed in this battle. His army were lost and they had no leader. Night fell over them and Harold’s army began to flee and William was left standing with his army on the field. William was later crowned king of England on Christmas day 1066. So William got the throne as a result of this conquest. One of the most important consequences was the introduction of the new nobility. The old English nobility was terminated due to the campaigns which were carried out by William to demonstrate his position on the throne. The government and the church were all under William’s control and they were made up of his followers.
That was a quick glimpse on the most important political event in England during the Middle English period. There are also other political events in this period that can not go unnoticed. Let us take a look at the most important political aspect in this period. There are six main political aspects. We will look at feudalism, the hundred year’s war, the Black Death, the peasant revolt, the crusades, Magana Carta, and reformation and restoration concerning the church.
1) Feudalism:
One of the most known political aspects in this period is feudalism. We have to know what the word stands for in order to see how it characterised this period. This word describes the unfair and out of date laws and customs. These customs and laws were related to these institutions of ‘fief’ which is in Latin ‘feodum’. This word was joined with the Latin to become what we know today as feudalism. This word is known in French as ‘feudalisme’. That was the origin of the word feudalism but what does feudalism consist of?
The main three parts that make up the feudal system are lords, vassals, and fiefs. When we combine the three elements together we get a clear picture of what feudalism is like. We will see them in order now. A lord was who is given land by the lord. what we know as nobleman who owned a piece of land. The vassal is a person .the land was known as fief. The vassal must provide military services to the lord in exchange for the fief. This relation ship between the lord, the vassal and the fief form the concrete base of feudalism.
This is a live example of feudalism. Let’s say that john was the vassal of William the conqueror. When john pledged his loyalty to William this means that he also promised to give him knights when ever he needed them. In return William gave john twenty manors as fief. If William, the king, ordered his army to battle the john has must go to the battle with nine knights. If there are no official knights then he will hire wondering knights. John in return gives each of his knight’s one manor. The knights by accepting the manor they pledged their loyalty to john and so the became johns vassals and john becomes their lord. This was considered to be the character of the English society even before the Normans ruled England.
However this system could not withhold the changes of time. The lords were no more able to secure lands for their vassals. In the thirteenth century Europe transformed from this system to money based system. The soldiers were paid coins of gold instead of land. Meanwhile land ownership still defined class in England but money was needed and it was an integral part of a wealthy noble.
2) The Hundred Years War:
The term one hundred year’s war was invented by the historians to describe the series of events tat happened during this period. The relation between England and Europe had been disturbed by the unsteady atmosphere that over shadowed England concerning the small wars that took place to gain position of the kingdom. This state of England reached its climax when the French and the English decide to have an open hostile war with each other. The most important figure in this war was Edward the third. The Roman Catholic Church regards Edward as the patron saint of kings, and difficult marriages but he was replaced by St George however he remained the saint of the royal family. The main conflict of the war was that France was interfering with England’s policy to control Scotland. This led Edward the third to insist on the claim that the French throne belonged to England. The war started at 1337 and ended on 1453. It took almost 116 years. The war actually started when Philip reclaimed the Gascon land. He used feudal law as his evidence and he said that Edward had broken his oath by not attending to the needs of his lord. In return Edward said that he was the true claimer of the French throne. On all saints day the French bishop then, Henry Burghersh, arrived in pairs and he challenged the king of England when he declared war. This war is actually a series of events in time. The first event was the Edwardian war then the Carolinian war took place after that. The Lancastrian war took place after the Carolinian war and the last event was the appearance of Joan of Arc which was considered the beginning of the end. In 1429 Joan of arc, one of the French leaders claimed that she received visions telling her to drive the English out. The troops were influenced by her and they attacked the English. The French had an army of eight thousand soldiers and they beat an English army of three thousand soldiers. This was considered to be the first victory of land on behalf of the French. In 1430 Joan was captured and sold to the English to be executed. During these events there were two lengthily periods of truces. The war stimulated the feeling of nationalism. It devastated France as a land due to the damage that was done. But it awakened French nationalism. France transformed from the feudal system to become a centralized state but England was in a better state than France. Also the language used during the period of the war was mostly the Middle English language in England because French was the language of the enemy. The hundred years war is considered to be one of the causes that made the French language used less by the people in England.
This is a family tree relating to the French and English royal houses at the beginning of the war.
3) The Black Death and the Peasant Revolt:
During the hundred years war between England and France there was a devastating event that took place. It started in East Asia and it soon reached the coast of England. In 1348, in the southeast of England in particular, people witnessed a contagious disease and they had never seen like it before. It was caused by the rats that came along with the landing and leaving ships of trade on the coast of England. The rats we carriers of this disease and when the goods such as food was transmitted by ship to England the rats would feed upon these goods and thus they would contaminate it. People in England did not notice what the rats were doing until later on when it was probably too late. The disease did not miss one spot of the country. Nearly three quarters of England’s growing populations died. The Black Death was a name referring to what we know today as the plague. The rich class suffered less than the poor. The rich would usually lock themselves up in their castles while the poor were left to be the victims of this horrible disease. As a result of this disease there was a shortage in labor. As a result of the shortage of labor there were high wages. Most of the people left to search for those high wages. The people who were left behind were unsatisfied by their current condition. This lead to what is known as the peasant’s revolt in the year 1381. The Black Death gave importance to the laboring class economically and it was beneficial to the English language since it was the language that was used then by the English-speaking part of the population.
4) The Crusades:
The period of Middle English period was known for its Christian crusades. The word crusade classifies any war as righteous as long as it has a religious justification. The word crusade comes from the French croisade, and the Italian word crociata comes from the french word as well. The crusaderes were known as fideles Sancti Petri (the faithful of St. Peter) or milites Christi (knights of Christ). The crusaders saw themselves taking a journey and they were not allowed to carry arms. They were made to vow to reach Jerusalem and they were given clothes with a cross on or ‘crux’. They sewed it on their clothes and thus this ‘taking of the cross’ became related to the journey. According to westerners, to go on a crusade means to fight for a just cause or to root out evil. According to the Islamic world the crusades were cruel where Christians slaughtered Muslims.
There are nine crusades altogether concerning the kings who ruled Britain. The most important one is considered to be the third one led by Richard known a s the lion heart. The pope called for a crusade. The pope then was known as Pope Gregory the eighth. When Richard became king he took the cross and he agreed with Philip the second, who was king of France, to go on a third crusade. They did not o this out of friendship but they feared that each might try to take the others territory. So he spent most of his father Henry the second of England for preparations. He set out on the crusade in summer of 1190. This third crusade is known as the king’s crusade. In Jerusalem Saldin recaptured the holy lands. So these two kings set forth. Philip left in1191 after recapturing acre from the Muslims. Richard left after Phillip in one year because he was not able to live in a different territory where there was not any suitable food or water that he was used to. He made a truce with Saladin. On his way his ship was wrecked. He landed in Austria where he was captured by his enemy duke Leopold. The duke gave Richard to Henry the sixth and he was held for ransom. In the year 1097 Henry waned to go on a crusade but he died of malaria. Richard died fighting and he never saw the holy land again.
1) Magna carta:
Magana carta refers to the ‘great charter of freedoms’. It is a Latin word literary meaning great paper. It was established in 1215 and it is an English paper. Magna Carta led to the rule of constitutional law. It is the most important legal document in the history concerning democracy. The main cause for publishing Magna Carta was a disagreement between king john, pope innocent the third and his English barons about what rights the king has. Magna Carta needed the king to respect certain rights and accept that the will of the king could be bound by law. the barons after capturing London forced king john to sign a document called ‘’article of the barons’’. King John attached his seal to it on June 1215. In return the barons renewed their oaths to king john. They made a formal document and this was the original Magna Carta. Many instances of the Magna Carta had been renewed through out the middle Ages during the Tudor, the Stuart, and Hanoverians period. There were many documents referring to Magna Carta and so they are not only one. This document was not the first to limit the king’s power but it was based on the Charter of liberties. It did not practically limit the power of the king in the middle ages. However the kings did somehow abide by the rules. For instance, the government of king john needed money to support armies. Add to that the loss of their French territories. This required the kings to raise taxes however it was difficult for taxes to be raised because they wanted to keep the taxes over at the same level. The most important content in Magna Carta was the clause number sixty one, which was known as the security clause. This clause said that about twenty five barons were to be made into a committee and they could over rule the kings will by taking in his castles and possessions if they had to. The king in return had to make an oath to the committee in return. As we saw that the document was signed under pressure so the king john was not willing to submit to this document. The clause number sixty one made him king by name only. He announced that he disagrees with the contents of the document and England witnessed what is known as the civil war. Of course king john died in the middle of the war and his nine year old son Henry the third succeeded him to the throne where the war ended. Magna Carta was reissued and some clauses were omitted such as clause number sixty one. Henry ruled for fifty six years and it was the longest reign of an English monarch in the medieval time. Of course there are other clauses that were not preferred by the king such as the one saying that a king there should be a fir trial before anyone gets sent to jail. Another one states that the church is the one with the final saying in any matter concerning the country making the king as the supervisor only.
During the time that Magna Carta was issued there were two political movements, the levelers and the digger’s movements in England. The levelers saw Magna Carta as a ‘political bible’. They claimed that it was above any government. They believed that all should be treated equally without distinction. A man named Oliver Cromwell refused to give the levelers their rights and he was announced traitor. Lilburn was on of the leader’s f this movement and he was always heard saying ‘The ground and foundation of my freedome I build upon the grand charter of England.’ The digger’s movement, at the time of Magna Carta, despised Magna Carta and they demanded that land should be given to all for farming and other things. Those were the two important political movements in England during the time of Magna Carta.
Seal of King John on original Magna Carta.
6) Restoration and Reformation:
Queen Mary the first of England known as bloody Mary
Restoration:
When Mary became queen in 1553 she decided to make England a Roman Catholic country again. So the first thing she did was to cancel the reformation legislation. She also asked the pope to renew henrys marriage to her mother so that she should be the rightful heir to the throne. Once she succeeded in these two goals she again needed to secure that the catholic religion stays in England after she is gone. So she was advised by the holy roman emperor to get married. Following that advice she married the roman emperor’s son Phillip the second of Spain intending to prevent her half protestant sister, Elizabeth, from sitting on the throne and returning England to Protestantism by having an heir. There were rebellions because the people did not accept the emperor’s son. She made it clear that he would not inherit the kingdom even if there is no heir. In spite of the fact that she was legally married she never became pregnant. What looked like pregnancy to her were in fact the beginnings of stomach cancer.
After the year 1555 the horrible deeds of Mary began. There was the Marian Prosecution and about two hundred and eighty three Protestants were burnt to death because they would not take Catholicism as a religion. A man named John Foxe wrote a book called the Book of Martyrs and in it he named the queen Bloody Mary and he described every detail of the executions. This was all she was remembered for. The heroic actions of some martyrs were taken as great examples to follow and people every where kept them in mind while they refused to give in to this regime. There were productive forces concerning the church. The clerks kept teaching people all about Catholicism. Even Protestantism was being taught secretly as a rebellious act acts this regime. On of the most known leaders of the Protestants was Thomas Bentham. In 1558, Mary died childless and all her work to keep Catholicism was lost.
Reformation:
When Queen Mary died childless, her half protestant sister inherited the throne. She started to bring back what Mary had changed. The parliament passed an Act of Supremacy in 1559 that but ten Acts in to use again. Elizabeth took the title of ‘The Supreme Governor of the Church of England’. Elizabeth also replaced the Act of Uniformity in 1559 to force people to go to Sunday service in an Anglican church. Again there were rebellions known as The Rising of the North and they were the last Tudor rebellions. Elizabeth went on destroying all that was catholic and replacing it with what was protestant. What helped Elizabeth in this reformation was he looks reign period. Even after her death in 1603 people were still protestant and they refused to accept a new milder form of Protestantism which is Puritanism. Catholicism became a strange form of religion. Puritanism became strong after Elizabeth’s death and during the reign of the Stuart king the English civil war broke out due to this. (This move took place in the early modern English period and because it is the opposite of restoration it was placed here.)
That was a quick political overview of the government of England in the Middle English period. It is very important that we consider the characteristics of the noun phrase in the Middle English period to show what has changed since the old English period. After that we shall consider the main foreign influences of this period.
There were many changes that differentiated this period from the old English period. There are changes in its sounds and meaning of words. There are also different changes in the source of words stock where we notice that many old English words were replaced by French words due to the influence of the Norman Conquest on the Middle English period. Before talking about the noun phrase and the main influences in the middle English let us see what kind of political background covered this period.
First of all we know that the main influence on the Middle English period was the French influence as a result of the Norman Conquest. How did the Norman conquests begin? Well, the Normans came from a district known as Normandy which is on the northern coast of France. There were some Scandinavian people who settled in France and those people were known as the Northmen, Normans. The section of France where the Northman settled and ruled was called Normandy. There were also Danes who settled in this region. There was an agreement between the king of France, Charles the simple, and Rollo who was the leader of the Danes back then in Normandy. Rollo later becomes the first duke of the Normans as he did turn in to the French king. So we can say the civilization of the Normans was French and they were people of a very high civilization.
Before the recording of the Norman Conquest in history the relations between England and Normandy was quite intimate. In 1002 the king of England Ǽthelred known as the unready, married a Norman wife. He was doomed to exile by the Danes. He settled with his brother in law. So Edward the confessor was bought up in a Norman French atmosphere. When there were no more Danish heirs to rule Edward was restored and he sat again on the throne of his father. He assigned his Norman friends very important roles in the government and he ruled England for twenty four years. However in the month of January of the year 1066 Edward died childless. England again had to find a new successor to the throne. During the reign of Edward there were many earls who were given districts. Godwin was one of those earls. He was Edwards’s principle advisor. Godwin died and his son Harold took his title and right after Edward’s death he was the virtual ruler of England. While all of this was happening William, who was the duke of Normandy and the second cousin of Edward watched with troubled eyes. He was lead to believe by Edward that he was the true successor of England after Edward dies. Harold had been lead to this right as well. Harold was once captured by William and had been mad to swear that he should not oppose when William is to be king. However Harold broke that promise and he sat himself on the throne of England right after Edward’s death. William wanted to take England and he was determined to. William had strong forces and he could take England in a glimpse of the eye. He only had two disadvantages. He was the illegal son of Robert the devil. He was also accused of poisoning his brother who was the duke of Normandy before him. He became duke after his poisoned brother. Nevertheless William the great as the chronicles called him was not known to leave the battle filed without giving all he has in order to obtain the kingdom.
He decided to invade England and he turned for the church for blessing. There were many people who came to his aid. Most of them were seeking adventure and they were looking forward to the promised parts of land that William decided to give them after he conquers England. In September he came to the south of England with a large number of men. Harold was facing other forces who claimed the rights of the throne Such as the king of Norway. It was very difficult for Harold to defeat them. Harold then rushed to the south and met his Norman enemy. He made his forces follow him on a hill at Senlac, which was close to Hastings; he waited for William to attack. The battle started at nine o’ clock in the morning. His position on the hill was a great advantage for him that he resumed his grounds and William decided to take the advantage of his position of the hill. William made a deceiving move and he pretended to retreat. The English believed this move and they stated to follow the Normans and the Normans this time stood still and started a new battle with the English after they made the English loose the advantageous position. Harold was killed in this battle. His army were lost and they had no leader. Night fell over them and Harold’s army began to flee and William was left standing with his army on the field. William was later crowned king of England on Christmas day 1066. So William got the throne as a result of this conquest. One of the most important consequences was the introduction of the new nobility. The old English nobility was terminated due to the campaigns which were carried out by William to demonstrate his position on the throne. The government and the church were all under William’s control and they were made up of his followers.
The Battle of Hastings
1) Feudalism:
One of the most known political aspects in this period is feudalism. We have to know what the word stands for in order to see how it characterised this period. This word describes the unfair and out of date laws and customs. These customs and laws were related to these institutions of ‘fief’ which is in Latin ‘feodum’. This word was joined with the Latin to become what we know today as feudalism. This word is known in French as ‘feudalisme’. That was the origin of the word feudalism but what does feudalism consist of?
The main three parts that make up the feudal system are lords, vassals, and fiefs. When we combine the three elements together we get a clear picture of what feudalism is like. We will see them in order now. A lord was who is given land by the lord. what we know as nobleman who owned a piece of land. The vassal is a person .the land was known as fief. The vassal must provide military services to the lord in exchange for the fief. This relation ship between the lord, the vassal and the fief form the concrete base of feudalism.
This is a live example of feudalism. Let’s say that john was the vassal of William the conqueror. When john pledged his loyalty to William this means that he also promised to give him knights when ever he needed them. In return William gave john twenty manors as fief. If William, the king, ordered his army to battle the john has must go to the battle with nine knights. If there are no official knights then he will hire wondering knights. John in return gives each of his knight’s one manor. The knights by accepting the manor they pledged their loyalty to john and so the became johns vassals and john becomes their lord. This was considered to be the character of the English society even before the Normans ruled England.
However this system could not withhold the changes of time. The lords were no more able to secure lands for their vassals. In the thirteenth century Europe transformed from this system to money based system. The soldiers were paid coins of gold instead of land. Meanwhile land ownership still defined class in England but money was needed and it was an integral part of a wealthy noble.
2) The Hundred Years War:
The term one hundred year’s war was invented by the historians to describe the series of events tat happened during this period. The relation between England and Europe had been disturbed by the unsteady atmosphere that over shadowed England concerning the small wars that took place to gain position of the kingdom. This state of England reached its climax when the French and the English decide to have an open hostile war with each other. The most important figure in this war was Edward the third. The Roman Catholic Church regards Edward as the patron saint of kings, and difficult marriages but he was replaced by St George however he remained the saint of the royal family. The main conflict of the war was that France was interfering with England’s policy to control Scotland. This led Edward the third to insist on the claim that the French throne belonged to England. The war started at 1337 and ended on 1453. It took almost 116 years. The war actually started when Philip reclaimed the Gascon land. He used feudal law as his evidence and he said that Edward had broken his oath by not attending to the needs of his lord. In return Edward said that he was the true claimer of the French throne. On all saints day the French bishop then, Henry Burghersh, arrived in pairs and he challenged the king of England when he declared war. This war is actually a series of events in time. The first event was the Edwardian war then the Carolinian war took place after that. The Lancastrian war took place after the Carolinian war and the last event was the appearance of Joan of Arc which was considered the beginning of the end. In 1429 Joan of arc, one of the French leaders claimed that she received visions telling her to drive the English out. The troops were influenced by her and they attacked the English. The French had an army of eight thousand soldiers and they beat an English army of three thousand soldiers. This was considered to be the first victory of land on behalf of the French. In 1430 Joan was captured and sold to the English to be executed. During these events there were two lengthily periods of truces. The war stimulated the feeling of nationalism. It devastated France as a land due to the damage that was done. But it awakened French nationalism. France transformed from the feudal system to become a centralized state but England was in a better state than France. Also the language used during the period of the war was mostly the Middle English language in England because French was the language of the enemy. The hundred years war is considered to be one of the causes that made the French language used less by the people in England.
Edward the Confessor
St Edward the confessor
During the hundred years war between England and France there was a devastating event that took place. It started in East Asia and it soon reached the coast of England. In 1348, in the southeast of England in particular, people witnessed a contagious disease and they had never seen like it before. It was caused by the rats that came along with the landing and leaving ships of trade on the coast of England. The rats we carriers of this disease and when the goods such as food was transmitted by ship to England the rats would feed upon these goods and thus they would contaminate it. People in England did not notice what the rats were doing until later on when it was probably too late. The disease did not miss one spot of the country. Nearly three quarters of England’s growing populations died. The Black Death was a name referring to what we know today as the plague. The rich class suffered less than the poor. The rich would usually lock themselves up in their castles while the poor were left to be the victims of this horrible disease. As a result of this disease there was a shortage in labor. As a result of the shortage of labor there were high wages. Most of the people left to search for those high wages. The people who were left behind were unsatisfied by their current condition. This lead to what is known as the peasant’s revolt in the year 1381. The Black Death gave importance to the laboring class economically and it was beneficial to the English language since it was the language that was used then by the English-speaking part of the population.
4) The Crusades:
The period of Middle English period was known for its Christian crusades. The word crusade classifies any war as righteous as long as it has a religious justification. The word crusade comes from the French croisade, and the Italian word crociata comes from the french word as well. The crusaderes were known as fideles Sancti Petri (the faithful of St. Peter) or milites Christi (knights of Christ). The crusaders saw themselves taking a journey and they were not allowed to carry arms. They were made to vow to reach Jerusalem and they were given clothes with a cross on or ‘crux’. They sewed it on their clothes and thus this ‘taking of the cross’ became related to the journey. According to westerners, to go on a crusade means to fight for a just cause or to root out evil. According to the Islamic world the crusades were cruel where Christians slaughtered Muslims.
There are nine crusades altogether concerning the kings who ruled Britain. The most important one is considered to be the third one led by Richard known a s the lion heart. The pope called for a crusade. The pope then was known as Pope Gregory the eighth. When Richard became king he took the cross and he agreed with Philip the second, who was king of France, to go on a third crusade. They did not o this out of friendship but they feared that each might try to take the others territory. So he spent most of his father Henry the second of England for preparations. He set out on the crusade in summer of 1190. This third crusade is known as the king’s crusade. In Jerusalem Saldin recaptured the holy lands. So these two kings set forth. Philip left in1191 after recapturing acre from the Muslims. Richard left after Phillip in one year because he was not able to live in a different territory where there was not any suitable food or water that he was used to. He made a truce with Saladin. On his way his ship was wrecked. He landed in Austria where he was captured by his enemy duke Leopold. The duke gave Richard to Henry the sixth and he was held for ransom. In the year 1097 Henry waned to go on a crusade but he died of malaria. Richard died fighting and he never saw the holy land again.
1) Magna carta:
Magana carta refers to the ‘great charter of freedoms’. It is a Latin word literary meaning great paper. It was established in 1215 and it is an English paper. Magna Carta led to the rule of constitutional law. It is the most important legal document in the history concerning democracy. The main cause for publishing Magna Carta was a disagreement between king john, pope innocent the third and his English barons about what rights the king has. Magna Carta needed the king to respect certain rights and accept that the will of the king could be bound by law. the barons after capturing London forced king john to sign a document called ‘’article of the barons’’. King John attached his seal to it on June 1215. In return the barons renewed their oaths to king john. They made a formal document and this was the original Magna Carta. Many instances of the Magna Carta had been renewed through out the middle Ages during the Tudor, the Stuart, and Hanoverians period. There were many documents referring to Magna Carta and so they are not only one. This document was not the first to limit the king’s power but it was based on the Charter of liberties. It did not practically limit the power of the king in the middle ages. However the kings did somehow abide by the rules. For instance, the government of king john needed money to support armies. Add to that the loss of their French territories. This required the kings to raise taxes however it was difficult for taxes to be raised because they wanted to keep the taxes over at the same level. The most important content in Magna Carta was the clause number sixty one, which was known as the security clause. This clause said that about twenty five barons were to be made into a committee and they could over rule the kings will by taking in his castles and possessions if they had to. The king in return had to make an oath to the committee in return. As we saw that the document was signed under pressure so the king john was not willing to submit to this document. The clause number sixty one made him king by name only. He announced that he disagrees with the contents of the document and England witnessed what is known as the civil war. Of course king john died in the middle of the war and his nine year old son Henry the third succeeded him to the throne where the war ended. Magna Carta was reissued and some clauses were omitted such as clause number sixty one. Henry ruled for fifty six years and it was the longest reign of an English monarch in the medieval time. Of course there are other clauses that were not preferred by the king such as the one saying that a king there should be a fir trial before anyone gets sent to jail. Another one states that the church is the one with the final saying in any matter concerning the country making the king as the supervisor only.
During the time that Magna Carta was issued there were two political movements, the levelers and the digger’s movements in England. The levelers saw Magna Carta as a ‘political bible’. They claimed that it was above any government. They believed that all should be treated equally without distinction. A man named Oliver Cromwell refused to give the levelers their rights and he was announced traitor. Lilburn was on of the leader’s f this movement and he was always heard saying ‘The ground and foundation of my freedome I build upon the grand charter of England.’ The digger’s movement, at the time of Magna Carta, despised Magna Carta and they demanded that land should be given to all for farming and other things. Those were the two important political movements in England during the time of Magna Carta.
Seal of King John on original Magna Carta.
6) Restoration and Reformation:
Queen Mary the first of England known as bloody Mary
Restoration:
When Mary became queen in 1553 she decided to make England a Roman Catholic country again. So the first thing she did was to cancel the reformation legislation. She also asked the pope to renew henrys marriage to her mother so that she should be the rightful heir to the throne. Once she succeeded in these two goals she again needed to secure that the catholic religion stays in England after she is gone. So she was advised by the holy roman emperor to get married. Following that advice she married the roman emperor’s son Phillip the second of Spain intending to prevent her half protestant sister, Elizabeth, from sitting on the throne and returning England to Protestantism by having an heir. There were rebellions because the people did not accept the emperor’s son. She made it clear that he would not inherit the kingdom even if there is no heir. In spite of the fact that she was legally married she never became pregnant. What looked like pregnancy to her were in fact the beginnings of stomach cancer.
After the year 1555 the horrible deeds of Mary began. There was the Marian Prosecution and about two hundred and eighty three Protestants were burnt to death because they would not take Catholicism as a religion. A man named John Foxe wrote a book called the Book of Martyrs and in it he named the queen Bloody Mary and he described every detail of the executions. This was all she was remembered for. The heroic actions of some martyrs were taken as great examples to follow and people every where kept them in mind while they refused to give in to this regime. There were productive forces concerning the church. The clerks kept teaching people all about Catholicism. Even Protestantism was being taught secretly as a rebellious act acts this regime. On of the most known leaders of the Protestants was Thomas Bentham. In 1558, Mary died childless and all her work to keep Catholicism was lost.
Reformation:
Queen Elizabeth Regime of Protestantism
When Queen Mary died childless, her half protestant sister inherited the throne. She started to bring back what Mary had changed. The parliament passed an Act of Supremacy in 1559 that but ten Acts in to use again. Elizabeth took the title of ‘The Supreme Governor of the Church of England’. Elizabeth also replaced the Act of Uniformity in 1559 to force people to go to Sunday service in an Anglican church. Again there were rebellions known as The Rising of the North and they were the last Tudor rebellions. Elizabeth went on destroying all that was catholic and replacing it with what was protestant. What helped Elizabeth in this reformation was he looks reign period. Even after her death in 1603 people were still protestant and they refused to accept a new milder form of Protestantism which is Puritanism. Catholicism became a strange form of religion. Puritanism became strong after Elizabeth’s death and during the reign of the Stuart king the English civil war broke out due to this. (This move took place in the early modern English period and because it is the opposite of restoration it was placed here.)
That was a quick political overview of the government of England in the Middle English period. It is very important that we consider the characteristics of the noun phrase in the Middle English period to show what has changed since the old English period. After that we shall consider the main foreign influences of this period.
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