(Fig. 1): Duke William came to Pevensey. A very clear idea is obtained of the general character of a Norman ship and the manner in which it is steered by an oar on the starboard (steer-board) side, etc. This ship, the Mora, bearing William, was given him by Matilda, his wife, and bears on the stern an effigy of his little son Rufus, blowing a bugle and holding a banner. (Fig. 2): Harold made an oath to Duke William. William is shown seated on a throne while Harold, one hand on an altar and the other on a reliquary containing the sacred relics, is taking the oath. (Fig. 3): A scene in the Battle of Hastings. The English Army withstanding the charge of the Norman horsemen after receiving a flight of Norman arrows. Most of the English are armed with javelins and shields, few with axes and swords. One figure is shown using the bow, and he is the only one thus armed on the English side. It has consequently been asserted by some authorities that bows were not used by the English in the battle, but, as Mr. Fowke says, “this seems to be hardly correct literally ... though ... the use of the bow as a weapon of war in our country was then probably rare.” This scene shows the whole width of the Tapestry with the two borders, the upper containing allegorical figures, and the latter displaying the fallen warriors. It may be noted that throughout the picture of the battle the arms and accoutrements of both Normans and English are similar, probably accounted for by the close intimacy that existed between the two countries. (Fig. 4): Here is seated Harold, King of the English; Archbishop Stigand. Harold was crowned in Westminster Abbey on the same day that Edward was buried in the same building. He is represented seated on the throne, wearing the crown on his head and holding the sceptre in his right hand and the orb in the left. Stigand, who, the Normans allege, crowned Harold, is shown standing at his left side.
[EARLY NORMAN ARCHITECTURE.]
Norman, Anglo-Norman, or Romanesque architecture was called by the former name because it followed the Norman style. It is found in Normandy itself, in England, in Italy, and Sicily—in fact, wherever the Northern conquerors established themselves.
Its chief characteristics are solidity and strength—walls of enormous thickness, huge masses of masonry for piers, windows comparatively small, and a profusion of peculiar ornaments.
The earliest Norman work in England—as the transepts of Winchester Cathedral—is almost as plain as Anglo-Saxon; but the Norman churches are larger and higher than those of the Anglo-Saxon period. They are generally cruciform in shape, with a square tower over the intersection of the nave and transepts. The towers are not lofty, but are very solid, and usually contain windows with two lights. In a number of instances the choir ends in a semi-circular apse after the Roman style.
Early Norman work was much plainer than that of the later period; the arch is not recessed, or only once recessed, the edges are square, or have a plain round moulding cut in them, and the zigzag ornament (Pl. [20], Fig. 14) is used, though not so abundantly as at a later period. Windows are generally plain, small, and round-headed, and consist of single lights except in belfry windows. Doors are square-headed under a round arch. The simplest form is a narrow, round-headed opening with a plain dripstone. But Norman windows are not met with as frequently as doors, since they have, in many cases, been destroyed to make room for those of later styles. In England the Norman style is usually assigned to the eleventh century, and in the latter half of it the transition to the Early English style took place. It was introduced into England in the reign of Edward the Confessor, who was more Norman than English, and who himself founded the Abbey of Westminster. Some buildings were of a mixed character (Anglo-Saxon and Norman), some in the old style, others altogether in the new.
Soon after the Norman Conquest, the Norman Bishops who supplanted Englishmen in English sees and abbacies in very many instances commenced to rebuild the cathedrals and churches from their foundations.
The entire English fabric was usually pulled down, and a new building was erected on a much larger plan and in a better manner. It is chiefly in remote places, where the inhabitants were too few and too poor to rebuild and enlarge their churches, that we find remains of the original Anglo-Saxon work.
Early Norman masonry is very rude, the joints between the stones being filled with a great thickness of mortar, from one to three inches thick (this is called “wide-jointed” masonry), and the stonework was usually rubble. In the later work the joints are comparatively fine (“fine-jointed” masonry). The Normans were very active builders. William I. and his son, William II., built one hundred and ninety-five religious houses during their reigns, and all the cathedrals and great churches in the eleventh century were rebuilt, while many new ones were founded; though it is said that of the many churches commenced in the reigns of these two kings but few were completed until after 1100 A.D.