Decretos De Guillermo El Conquistador

Nombre: Marta Carrasco Alberca
Centro asociado: Valdepeñas (Ciudad Real)

Comentario de texto Histórico:

Statutes of William The Conqueror. 1066

This document was written in England during the reign of William the Conqueror, between 1066-1087. It is a legal text, more specifically a royal statutes. Some sources indicate that was done in the subsequent reign of his son Enrique I, howeverthis would not make much sense because this statutes had to be apply in their years of reign. Therefore, venture a little; we could say that took place in the early years of hegemony.
The period in which it was being drafted is of vital importance if we wish to understand the text: after strong migrations and invasions in the Middle Age and multiple successions to throne in England, theNorman Conquest established an important event in the history of English law, as it introduced in England, through foreign occupation, a strong centralized power, with great administrative experience, which had been proven efficient in the Norman duchy. It had begun the “Common Law”.
With the Norman Conquest the kingdom of tribes disappeared and the feudal system was installed. The Normanlords settle in a conquered country, in which ignored its language, its inhabitants and its customs. This generated in them a need to rally around a sovereign to defend the conquest and the properties. Because of that, William reorders a feudal and administrative system: he dissolved the big counties, that have enjoyed independence during the Anglo-Saxon predecessors reigns, and distributed theconfiscated territories to the Normans nobles of is confidence. He introduced the Continental European feudal system in England to apply his new domains the socio-political principles in their territories heritage of Normandy. So, all the proprietors of lands swore loyalty to William I. Thus it was establish that the loyalty of a vassal to the king prevailed over obedience to his master immediatelyabove the pyramid of feudal serfdom. He forced the feudal lords to recognize the jurisdiction of local courts, which William retained along with many other Anglo-Saxon institutions. Were separated ecclesiastical and civil courts. The power of the papacy in English domestic politic was substantially curtailed. Another outstanding achievement was the survey of farms conducted and recorder in theDomesday Book (another important document in this period).

It is believed that attached to this document there was another more extensive, which is alluded to in the text, which would be the laws of his predecessor Edward the Confessor.
The purpose of this document would clearly impose a set of standards that marks the lives of the inhabitants of the country, which should comply underpain of different penalties for disobedience. You could say that it was the internal control imposed by the king over human behaviour, in short, the rules governing social behaviour for the coexistence of the citizens of England.


Having explained the context in which this document was produced we can proceed to analyze the text in question.
The text begins with these words: “Here is shown whatWilliam the King of the English, together with his princes, has established since the Conquest of England”. It supposed that the reference to “his princes” means his confident men, as there is no reference in the history to the existence of princes in his reign.
It is composed of ten different statutes:
-The first refers to the religion, and orders that one God and the faith in Christhad to reign in his whole kingdom. In this period the Catholic faith was very important in the unification of England, as there were a lot of different cultures mixed in the country. Furthermore, it was also of interest to the king to strengthen the powers of the Church in order to gain their support against others pretenders to the throne, thus achieving absolutism. However, the Church had...