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system in Normandy. They were changes to meet the immediate needs that the
Normans encountered in the region.
The introduction of feudalism has been one of the most important debates
surrounding the Norman Conquest. If we define feudalism in this context as a
system in which land grants were made in return for military service, there is no
clear evidence of the existence of such a system anywhere in Europe at any time.
The Normans certainly did not bring such a system with them. It is true, on the other
hand, that in the course of time noble and sometimes other free property came to be
described in terms of fiefs, in England as elsewhere in Europe. In England, the
specific services that became attached to fiefs were perhaps more related to tax
arrangements, such as scutage or aids assessed on knights’ fees, than to the military
system of the country.
Except for a few military elements — the usage of crossbows, the import of
crossbowmen and the new type of fortification, motte and bailey castles — the
Normans did not bring such great changes from the Continent. In the past it was
believed that knights were introduced into England by the Normans, but it seems
that there were already some military personnel who functioned in the same way. On
the other hand, perhaps the Norman Conquest did help the spread of continental
chivalric ideas and ideals.
We do see a process of Europeanization in the religious life of Suffolk both
before and after the Conquest. Church reforms had already started in England in the
tenth century. In the eleventh century, before the Conquest, there were again some
ecclesiastical migrants from the Continent, who were involved in church reforms.
Nevertheless, the Conquest again hastened the flow of immigrants and quickened
the speed of reform, in spite of the fact that many of the Norman ecclesiastics and
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