Norman Architecture

7/27/2019 Norman Architecture

1/6

STUDENT: ALINA VIDRA

BUSINESS ENGLISH

1ST YEAR

NORMAN ARCHITECTURE

From the time of Alfred to the time of Canute, the influences that

refashioned Britain had come from Scandinavia; for the next hundred years,

dating from the accession of Edward the Confessor, they were to come from

Normandy.

After the death of Canutes son, the Witan named Edward king of

England, and got the name of Edward the Confessor, because he was a

religious man. His court was formed of Normans and Robert de Jumieges

became archbishop of Canterbury. His cousin, Wilhelm the Bastard, who

lived in Rouen, visited him and pretended that the king named him as throne

successor. But Edward the Confessor died in June 1066, and the Witan the

only person who could name kings- nominated Harold, Edwards brother-in

law, king of England. To make his plan come true, William and Lanfranc

organized a plot against Harold. Harold was taken prisoner and set free by

William who made him understand that he was the Dukes vassal.

In September 1066, the Norman fleet was ready to start towards

England, but it couldnt because of the winds. In the same time, the king of

Norway attacked Northumberland, but Harold could defeat him. On 28

September, the Normans landed in Britain and the situation was quite

dramatic for Harold. Harolds army and the king himself died on the

1


2/6

battlefield. On Christmas day, William was crowned at Westminster Abbey

as the English king.

The period in English history following the defeat of King Harold of

England by William, duke of Normandy who became William I of England,

is also referred to as the Norman Conquest. The conquest was formerly

thought to have brought about broad changes in all phases of English life.

The initial military conquest of England was quick and brutal. The members

of the Anglo-Saxon upper class who were not killed in the battle of Hastings

were almost all involved in the rebellion from 1068 to 1070 and were either

killed or deprived of their lands. Thus a Norman aristocracy was

superimposed on the English, and the new elite brought with it Norman

feudal customs which were reinforced by the need for cohesion and mutual

military support among the fairly small group of conquerors.

To consolidate his position William used the existing Anglo-Saxon

administrative system, which functioned as part of a centralized monarchical

tradition. There was little change in the administrative and judicial systems

during the Norman period and later developments were not in the nature of

Norman superimpositions.

Williams I archbishop of Canterbury, Lafranc, established a separate

system of canon law courts and brought the English church into closer

contact with developments in Europe. The Norman kings, however,

successfully resisted papal encroachment on their control over Episcopal

appointments. The period saw many churches and castles built, the latter

chiefly on the south and east coasts on the Welsh and Scottish borders.

When William of Normandy made England subject to his rule, the

Norman prelates brought over into this country a fully developed

architecture style. The Norman buildings in England and France were

2


3/6

largely Romanesque, chiefly based upon the Romanesque architecture of

Lombardy in Italy.

The Normans built on a vast scale to help impose their authority on

the country. Their buildings were mainly of two types: castles and churches.

Churches, abbeys and castles, the main works, showed massive proportions,

sparsely adorned masonry and a frequent use of the round arch. The

development of the style was confined chiefly to the period from 1066 to

1154, a period of tremendous building activity.

The 11th century represented a domination of the Anglo-Saxon style.

The Norman conquerors did not have the raw material they were used to put

in their buildings white stone of Caen and so, they started to built with

what they found in Britain. The next two centuries saw a change in style as

the landlords hired Norman engineers, brick layers and carpenters; the

Norman buildings had carved places with ornamental details, done by

artisans specialized in stone carving.

Arising in Normandy, the new style was quickly introduced into

England, superseding the Saxon. It first appeared at Westminster Abbey,

where only the foundations remain. The greatest activity was in England

where after 1070 the Normans built hundreds of parish churches and began

most of the great cathedrals. All underwent later restorations; the only intact

early Norman design is the small St. Johns Chapel, built by William the

Conqueror, in the tower of London.

Most of the original castles were temporary structures of the type

known as motte-and-bailey castles1. The motte was a steep earth mound

and was topped with a wooden tower-like structure; the bailey was a

courtyard below the motte, protected by a ditch and palisade. These castles

1 D. Grigorescu, Arta Engleza, pag 37

3


4/6

could be built quickly and cheaply, and were usually replaced by more

permanent stone fortifications when time and resources allowed. Many of

the mounds remained however; examples can be seen all over England.

In stone-built Norman castles, the most characteristic feature was the

keep a massive central tower, usually more or less square in plan,

containing all the facilities that were required to survive during a siege. Most

of the best examples date from some time after the Conquest: the most

elaborate at Newcastle upon Tyne and Dover, date from the 1170s and

1180s. However the most famous keep in Britain, the White Tower at the

Tower of London was begun by William the Conqueror, himself. The White

Tower, so called because the stone was originally whitewashed, has been

much remodeled over the centuries, but the Chapel of St. John inside it is

one of the best preserved pieces of early Norman church architecture. It is

almost completely unadorned and although fairly small it gives a feeling of

massive austerity.

The cathedrals started by William the Conqueror were the largest

buildings seen in England up to that time. With the exception of Worcester

Cathedral, William appointed Norman bishops to these cathedrals.

Therefore, these men would have been heavily influenced by the architecture

used in Normandy and this style came to dominate the architecture of the

cathedrals built under William the Conqueror.

Norman architecture tends to be dominated by a round shape style.

The churches and cathedrals built by the Normans tended to use large stones.

This was because cutting stone to certain measurements was a skilled art and

it is assumed that the Normans reckoned that the Saxons who worked on the

stone would not be able to master such a skill.

4


5/6

Norman walls and pillars had faced stone on the outer surfaces but

rubble was put into the hollow between the cut stone. Hence the effect

would be wall, rubble, wall. Pillars were effectively hollow until the central

core was filled with rubble. This method of building was not particularly

strong. To get round this and strengthen them, the Normans made their walls

much thicker than later styles of building which relied on specifically cut

stone that fitted together with the blocks surrounding it thus creating its own

strength.

The doorways into a church or cathedral tended to be highly decorated

with concentric arches that receded into the thickness of the wall. Windows

were built in a similar way but they remained small and let in little light.

This was because the Normans realized that their walls with large window

spaces would not have been able to hold up the weight of the roofs. To assist

in the support of the roofs, the Normans used large pillars. These allowed the

weight of the roof to be dispersed into the foundations to the pillars, once

again saving the walls from taking all of the weight of the roof.

The ceiling of the Norman churches and cathedrals were vaulted.

These vaults allowed the weight of the roof to be evenly distributed

throughout the pillars and walls as the main points of the vaults rested on the

tops of the pillars. The Normans used three styles of vaulting: barrel, rib and

cross.

The Norman architecture contributed more or less to the development

of the English art. The Normans made use of a large range of materials

trying to impose their style although it was not as adorned as the others.

5


6/6

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. GALASEANU, Nicoara, From Stonehenge to the War of

Roses, Bucuresti, 2001

2. GRIGORESCU, Dan, Arta engleza, Editura Meridiane,

Bucuresti, 1973

3. MAUROIS, Andre, Istoria Angliei, Editura Politica,Bucuresti, 1970

4. NICOLESCU, Adrian, Istoria civilizatiei britanice, Editura

Institutul European, Iasi 1999

5. NICOLESCU, Corneliu, Anglia si spiritual englez, Editura

Pro Vita, 2005

6. TREVELYAN, G. M. , A Shortened History of England,

Penguin, 1972

7. X X X ,Dictionary of British History, Wordsworth, 1995

6

Norman Architecture

Documents

Transcript of Norman Architecture