Evidence Of The Churches Role In Society example essay topic

What are the strengths and failures of the Battle of Maldon and the 'related texts' as evidence for the structure of English Society The Battle of Maldon is a medieval text depicting a battle between English warriors and Danish invaders. Earl Byrtnoth was commanding the warriors in the name of King AEthelred. The poem portrays the heroism of the bravest warriors and the sheer cowardice of those that fled. Controversy over the aim of the poem is apparent as Stagg says that the poets "style of writing is so hyperbolic that it robs what little of trustworthiness there is". On the one hand there is little doubt that the battle happened and in this sense the poem is accurate, however very little archaeological evidence has been found around that historical sight to consolidate the poems content. Another problem may well lie in the later translations of the text especially before 1725 and the Cotton Library fire.

When copyists began to copy the text they may well have lost some of the meaning of the poem by the way they understand it, they are likely to translate the text to fit contemporary understanding. It is possible to see that the church appears to play a major role in the society of the English in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Lines one hundred and one to one hundred and five display a deeply engrained belief in fate and God's hand in it, "There against the fierce ones stood readyByrtnoth with his men... Then the fight was nigh, glory in combat: the time had come when fated men must fall there".

It is possible to see that there was a deeply engrained belief, in the higher circles of society especially, that if you died on the battle field then God had fated you to do so. Also the use of glory indicates a connection with religion as glory and glorification are synonymous with Christ, God, and religion in general. This idea is backed up by lines one hundred and seventy three to one hundred and eighty whereby a fallen warrior believes that they will reach heaven in God's peace. This idea would no doubt be reflected through society as lines two hundred and five to two hundred and eight suggest that society acknowledges the bravest, a lord would expect his warriors to avenge his death or lose his life in the process. The church also played a major role as a buttress to the King's legitimacy and power. Often the king was associated with God and heaven.

The Anglo-Saxon chronicles report that in 979 King Edward died and it goes on to link the late king with God, "in life was an earthly king; he is now after his death a heavenly saint... his heavenly father has greatly avenged him... those that would not bow to his (God's) living body will bow humbly to his dead bones". Further evidence of the churches role in society can be found in Byrtferth's Life of Saint Oswald. The king's godly status is again referred to, "it was the lords manifold mercy which sustained him because he was most worthy of it... he struck blows with his right side not paying heed to the swan white hair of his head, since alms and holy masses comforted him". Such a belief that the king had God on his side no doubt trickled down through society, the English with their godlike king were living, socialising and fighting in the name of the Lord. At a time when heathen kings were becoming Christian kings, such as Edwin, Oswald, Osi us and Ecg frith, more and more monasteries and religious houses sprung up.

Such an existence of these places meant that the king could exert more power on the local population through his loyal monks. Such advances in local organization began to make it easier for the king to govern as there was much more political continuity. Such was the strong connection between the people and the church, in particular the upper echelons of society, that many people gave away land to the church to return goods "which God has lent him" The Battle of Maldon and its related texts do show us a great deal about the role of the church in society, such as its role in upholding the king's authority and maintaining order in specific localities. However what we cannot pick up from these texts is whether the church played any other part in society.

These other roles may well be in the provision of education, social welfare, and to be a role model for the locality. The workings and nature of the royal court are revealed. The aim of a king was to make his court seem grand and aggressive so as to attract the best warriors from his lands. In the Battle of Maldon Byrtnoth rides up and down his line looking for the area where his most loyal warriors were and dismounted his horse and went to join them. Obviously these men mentioned between lines twenty-two and twenty-four most impressed the king when they had time in court. We know this is what happened as there is evidence of King Alfred setting up a kind of rotation system that saw each of his thanes spend one month in the court and two months in their locality.

In that one month the thanes lived like kings and had to prove their loyalty to their lord. Often visitors showered the king in gifts such as money and armaments. There was an atmosphere of 'if you scratch my back I will scratch yours' and line one hundred and twenty to one hundred and twenty three of the Battle of Maldon there is an example of this kind of attitude", His gave thanks to him for that, to the chamber-thegn, when he had the time... ". even though the earl's life is saved here and the gift is given for an understandable reason other examples of greasing the wheels of bureaucracy can be found particularly in the efforts made by AEthelric's wife to convince the king that he should allow her late husbands will despite the revelations about treachery. In order to secure the will the wife decides to make generous donations to both the church and the king. Warring was an integral part of English society around the turn of the century. As England was not united and surrounded by hostile opponents like the Welsh and the Celts, kings had to make use of their armies so as to protect land, gain land for trade and resources, and to simply so off their great powers and influence.

Such was the seriousness of war in society that Cnut's Secular Code stated that if a "man, through cowardice, flees from his lords or his comrades... is to forfeit all he owns and his own life". Obviously there is great shame associated with desertion so much so that it was expected a man's conscience would bring him to his demise. There existed in English society a great millstone around peoples' necks of their duty to their king and God. Anyone disobeying the king disobeyed God and with the climate of religiosity did not deserve life. There are only a few telling lines that paint a clear picture of the structure of society. From the Life of St Oswald we can clearly see that there existed a feudal system in England with peasants at the bottom and the king at the top.

In this text Byrtnoth says that "AEthelred... was consecrated at the apex of the kingdom". Obviously there is a triangular shape to the set up of society with lowliest of the nation at the bottom and the king sitting at the apex of the pyramid which represents society. It is most likely that when he was depicted pictorially he would have been seated as close to god as possible highlighting his divine position. More evidence to suggest the existence of a feudal society comes from the peace treaty between AEthelred and Tryggvason, "If an Englishman man slay a Dane... he shall pay for him lb 25... ". and in stark contrast if a slave was killed then he would pay just lb 1. Evidently there was a difference in the considerations of the worth of various people in society, and this is exactly what the feudal system is designed to do. For the nobility however they had opportunities to further their status in society simply by corruption.

Titles could be bought or could be achieved by favours and dedicated loyalty. Unfortunately the texts aren't the best source of evidence for the nature of the society in England around this time. The structure of society is depicted in the eyes of the nobles and earls, there is no evidence of what life was actually like for ordinary peasant farmers. There is no mention of subsistence farming which Raft is says most of the population survived on and the rest made a profit from.

Nor is there any mention of the set up of towns and villages that existed at the time. Apart from brief mentions about fortifications in certain towns and other related military happenings very little is said about the way towns operated and their structure. Powicke says that "the social practice and ideals of Anglo-Saxons were capable of varied developments" If this is true then surely the Anglo-Saxon chronicles would have recorded social change. There can be two arguments stemming from this.

The first is that the evidence in the texts only relates to the naturally conservative nobility who resist change anyway so that is where the lack of coverage of the social developments mentioned by Powicke. However the second argument is that the peasantry and similar groups of people played no major role in society in England at this time. This argument however is somewhat tenuous. It is not likely that the largest part of a population are not going to play a major role in the development of its own society. So it is most probable that the texts chose to ignore the people on the bottom row of the feudal triangle and only featured those that had responsible positions in society. Evidence that exists in these texts is going to be biased intentionally or simply a one sided view of a poet who knew or cared little about the goings on in other areas of society.

Another failure in the texts to portray society is the lack of primary evidence from the peasantry, however this is not the writers or historians fault it is simply unfortunate that the levels of literacy were so low that if any records by ordinary folk were made then they would be few and far between and no doubt have perished over the years. The evidence in the Battle of Maldon is not substantial enough as a single document to give a full and fair depiction of society in England. There are some insights into society through the eyes of the nobility involved in this particular battle but no doubt it is possible to extend this evidence and apply it to the attitudes of the entire nobility. In particular the Battle of Maldon is depicting only a few hours of time and perhaps cannot be used entirely on its own. However when the related texts are analyzed they consolidate the findings in the poem and can go into greater detail such as the matter of divine right for the kings rule is partly mentioned on lines one hundred and one to one hundred and five and this is backed up by the ASC report on the death of King Edward and talk of him in the most godly way possible.

In short the single text of the Battle of Maldon is not extensive enough to gain an accurate picture of society but when used in conjunction with other documents and texts a reasonably detailed picture of society emerges, albeit a noble account of society perhaps making it that little bit less reliable. It is necessary to go into greater detail and find texts relating to the ordinary people in England so as to build a real, representative picture of society.

Bibliography

web R Loan, Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, 1961/1986, chs 5-7 R A bels, Lordship and Military Organisation in Anglo-Saxon England, 1988, chs 4, 7-8 E James, Britain in the First Millennium, 2001, chs 9-10 DG S cragg, Battle of Maldon, AD 991, 1991, 15-36.