Carlos MundyMy family’s ancestry stretches back to the epoch of William the Conqueror, when Godfrey, Count of Mondaye, stood among the knights who accompanied the Norman forces to the shores of England in 1066. This monumental invasion not only redrew the map of power in England but also ushered in profound changes to the very fabric of society—one of the most significant being the gradual decline of slavery, a practice deeply entrenched in the Anglo-Saxon world.
Before the Norman Conquest, slavery was a widespread and accepted institution in Anglo-Saxon England. Known as “thralls,” these individuals were treated as property, subjected to a life of servitude, bought, sold, or inherited like any commodity. Many thralls were the spoils of war, captured during raids or battles, while others fell into slavery due to debt or as punishment for crimes. The Anglo-Saxon legal system explicitly sanctioned the ownership of slaves, and they were primarily used for agricultural labour and other menial tasks.
William the Conqueror’s Domesday Book, compiled in 1086, offers a chilling glimpse into the pervasiveness of this practice. In certain areas, as much as 10% of the population were slaves—an alarming figure that speaks to the depth of the institution’s roots. While the numbers fluctuated across regions, the legal and social structure of slavery remained consistent.
However, by the time William and his Norman knights crossed the Channel, their homeland had already turned away from slavery. In its place, they had developed the feudal system, a hierarchy that structured society through reciprocal obligations between lords and vassals. Peasants, or serfs, while still bound to the land and subservient to their lords, were no longer viewed as property that could be bought and sold. This system, restrictive as it was, offered serfs a degree of autonomy and protection that Anglo-Saxon slaves could only dream of.
When the Normans established their dominion over England, they introduced this feudal system, setting in motion a gradual but profound transformation. Slavery, though not immediately abolished, began to lose its place in society, supplanted by the more flexible and structured system of serfdom. Peasants, now tied to the land rather than the person, could not be traded as property, and while their freedom remained limited, they were no longer chattel.
William the Conqueror’s reign initiated this shift in labour and status, but it was his successors who fully entrenched the feudal system. As the newly crowned king distributed lands to his Norman followers, Anglo-Saxon lands and estates were reshaped, and with them, the nature of labour. Serfdom became the new norm, as the Norman lords favoured this more structured and manageable form of labour over outright slavery. The legal and social transformation, combined with the redistribution of lands, ensured that the institution of slavery began to fade into the past.
Another powerful force in the demise of slavery was the Catholic Church. By the time of the Norman Conquest, the Church had grown increasingly hostile to the idea of enslaving Christians. Its teachings began to influence the nobility, who sought legitimacy through the Church’s moral authority. The Church’s advocacy for the manumission of slaves led to many being freed through religious ceremonies, and such acts were often enshrined in legal charters.
The influence of the Church in combination with the Norman preference for serfdom significantly accelerated the decline of slavery. By the close of the 12th century, the lines between slave and serf had all but vanished, with serfdom becoming the dominant form of labour in England.
Beyond the legal and religious influences, the economic landscape under Norman rule also shifted, rendering slavery an increasingly inefficient and outdated practice. As Norman lords introduced more advanced agricultural techniques and towns flourished under growing trade, the need for a rigid, forced labour system diminished. The flexibility offered by the feudal system, where peasants contributed to the economic and social life of the manor, became far more appealing to landowners than the outright ownership of human beings.
The vast redistribution of land following the Conquest reshaped society itself. The new Norman landowners, having received lands from the crown in exchange for military service, required a labour force that was tied to the land but still allowed for the flexibility that serfdom provided. Serfs could be compelled to work through feudal obligations but were not subject to the outright brutality of chattel slavery. It was a more efficient and ultimately less controversial form of labour, and its adoption further weakened the institution of slavery.
While no formal decree exists from William the Conqueror that abolishes slavery, the evidence is undeniable: the Norman Conquest laid the foundations for its decline. By the late 12th century, the institution of slavery had all but disappeared from England, replaced by the feudal system of serfdom. Though the life of a serf was far from one of freedom, their legal status offered a marked improvement over the inhumane conditions of slavery. Serfs could not be bought or sold, and they enjoyed certain rights and protections under the law, rights that Anglo-Saxon slaves had been denied.
The Norman Conquest marked a turning point in the history of slavery in England. While William and his successors did not embark on a mission to “liberate” slaves in the modern sense, the legal, social, and economic changes they introduced steadily eroded the institution. The introduction of feudalism, the influence of the Church, and the restructuring of English society all contributed to this gradual but decisive shift. In time, slavery ceased to be an accepted institution, and personal freedom, albeit limited, became more highly valued.
Thus, the Conquest not only reshaped the political landscape of England but also paved the way for a society in which human bondage, as it had been practised in the Anglo-Saxon period, slowly but surely disappeared. In this way, the legacy of the Conquest echoes through the centuries, as it laid the groundwork for a more equitable, though still imperfect, social structure.
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Carlos Mundy
Charles Markeaton-Mundy
Metaphore Magazine