Crowns & Constitutions Marc Zarlengo

Pope Gregory VII successfully reasserted Papal authority over the universal Church at the expense of secular monarchs in the eleventh century.

Medieval society between 476 and 1066 consisted of a patchwork of various sources of inter-dependent authority, both secular and Christian, that developed organically upon the foundations of the old Western Roman Empire. This episode summarizes that development in order to lay the groundwork for the Magna Carta.  

Despite efforts to assert royal authority among powerful nobles by the Carolingian and West Saxon kings, Normandy and the Danelaw could not be subdued. This episode introduces the Normans and Danes under King Cnut as they establish a permanent impact on law and culture beginning in the ninth century.

Canon law, or the law of the Church, like the other areas of law we have discussed so far, developed organically to meet the needs of society. This episode covers both the Church’s legal structure and canon law’s early contributions to the development of the legal system in Western Christendom.

As feudalism developed, so did the villages and manors where the free and unfree peasants lived. Customary manorial law and manorial courts provided necessary legal and political structure for both lords and peasants. 

The discussion on feudalism is continued with a specific focus on the details of feudal law that governed the interactions between lords and vassals. As military campaigns moved from foot to horseback, knighthood became an important element to the feudal structure and the episode concludes with a discussion on chivalry.