Norman Conquest Source Eight Analysis

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How far could the historian make use of sources 8 and 12 to investigate the extent to which the lives of the English people were transformed by the Norman conquest?

Both source eight and source twelve provide a perspective into life of the people of England after the Norman conquest. Source eight, an extract from the Domesday book which was used to provide William with the information he needed about what the people of England had in terms of what they owned. Source eight makes a comparison between the taxation the people of Herefordshire owed King Edward to the taxation that those owed King William. The other source, twelve, was written by the monks of Peterborough who formed part of the King’s obituary, who detail their opinion of the King whom had just died.

The content of source eight is somewhat useful in investigating …show more content…

It suggests the relationship between the people of Herefordshire and the King. For example, when a ‘burgess serving with a horse died the King had his horse and weapons’ and in return for this the King would govern and protect in the best way he could. This shows the usefulness of the source to a historian as suggests that the relationship between the regular English man and the Saxon King was very unequal but there was mutual respect as the two relied on each other. A good relationship between King and subjects after the Norman conquest would have improved the lives of the English people as he was the overall decision maker which would affect their lives. He was in charge of distributing land and as most people worked on the land it was important that the relationship was good as a means to survival. Towards the end of source eight it states that

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