CHAPTER VI.

Norwich in the Norman Period.

THE Norman Conquest of England caused many changes in Norfolk and Norwich. One of the immediate results of the invasion, in 1066, was a vast influx of foreigners into the county and city; and the pressure of the Norman yoke was felt as much in Norwich as in any part of the kingdom. It was about the same period that Jews began to settle here for the first time, enriched by the extortions incident to a conquest, and, as Fuller says, “buying such oppressed Englishmen’s goods as Christians did not care to meddle with.”

William the Conqueror caused a survey to be made of all the lands in the country, the register of which is called the DOMESDAY BOOK, and was finished in 1081. It is written in Roman with a mixture of Saxon, and is still preserved in the chapter-house at Westminster, amongst the national archives. It was printed in the 40th of George III. for the use of the members of both houses of parliament, and the public libraries of the kingdom. It specifies the extent of the land in each district; the state it was in, whether meadow, pasture, wood, or arable; the name of the proprietor; the value, &c. Domesday Book, p. 13, states:—

“In Norwic, in the time of King Edward, were 1320 burgesses, of whom one was so much the king’s vassal, that he might not depart or do homage (to any other) without his licence. His name was Edstan; he possessed 18 acres of land and 12 of meadow, and two churches in the burgh and a sixth part of a third, and to one of these churches there belonged one mansion in the burgh and six acres of meadow: these six acres Roger Bigod holds by the king’s gift. And of 1238 (of the said burgesses) the king and the earl had soc, sac, and custom; and of 50 Stigand had the soc, sac, and patronage; and of 32 Harold had the soc, sac, and patronage,” &c., &c.

Soc, sac, and custom was the entire jurisdiction, for _soc_ is the power that any man had to hold courts, wherein all that dwell on his land, or in his jurisdiction are answerable to do suit and service; _sac_ is the right of having all the amerciaments and forfeitures of such suitors; and _custom_ includes all other profits. At this time, also, there were no fewer than 136 burgesses who were Frenchmen, and only six who were English in the new burgh, which comprised the parishes of St. Giles’ and St. Peter’s Mancroft. The Dutch and the Flemings, about this time, came over the sea and located themselves in the city and county, and introduced the worsted and other manufactures.

William I. gave the Earldom of the city of Norwich to Ralph de Guader, who designed to wed the daughter of one William Fitz-Osbern, sister of Roger Earl of Hereford, and a relative of the king. This matrimonial scheme not pleasing the king, it was prohibited, but barons in those days would sometimes have a will of their own, and the fair affianced was made a bride within the castle walls, whose doorway in an angle marks the site of the act of disobedience to the sovereign. After the sumptuous feast, with its attendant libations, a rebellion was planned by Waltheof, Earl of Northumberland, Huntingdon, and Northampton, and Roger, Earl of Hereford. Having carried the forbidden marriage into effect, they became bold in their language and designs, until a chorus of excited voices joined them in oaths as conspirators against their lord the king. Treachery revealed the plot, and the church lent its aid to the crown to crush the rebels. Lanfranc, then the primate and archbishop, sent out troops, headed by bishops and justiciaries, the highest dignitaries of church and law, to oppose and besiege them. The bridegroom fled for succour to his native Brittany, leaving his bride for three months to defend the garrison with her retainers, at the end of which time the brave Emma was forced to capitulate, but upon mild terms, obtaining leave for herself and her followers to flee to Brittany. Her husband became an outlaw, her brother was slain, and scarcely one guest present at that ill-fated marriage feast escaped an untimely end.

Nor did the city go unscathed. The devastation carried into its midst was heavy; many houses were burnt, many were deserted by those who had joined the earl, and it is curious to read in the valuation of land and property, taken soon after this event, how many houses are recorded as void, both in the burgh or that part of the city under the jurisdiction of the king and earl, and in other portions, subject to other lords; for it would seem that the landlords of the soil on which the city stood were the king or earl of the castle, the bishop, and the Harold family. Clusters of huts were then built round the base of the hill, and constituted the feudal village; its inhabitants consisting of villains, of which there were two classes, the husbandmen or peasants annexed to the manor or land, and a lower rank described as villains in gross, or absolute slaves, transferable by deed from one owner to another, the lives of these slaves being a continual state of toil, degradation and suffering.

After the banishment of Earl Ralph, the king, having obtained possession of the castle, appointed Roger Bigod constable, with a limited power as bailiff, he having to collect the rents and revenues belonging to the crown. He retained these honours during the reign of the succeeding monarch, William Rufus, though he joined in the fruitless attempt to place that king’s elder brother, Robert Curthose, on the throne. These troubles were not ended till 1091, when the king made peace with his brother Robert, agreeing that the lands of those who had assisted him should be restored to them.