The Normans, who were residing in Normandy (France) defeated the Anglo-Saxon King at the Battle of Hastings (1066) and conquered England.
The Norman Conquest inaugurated a distinctly new epoch within the literary also as political history of England. The Anglo-Saxon authors were then as suddenly and permanently displaced because the Anglo-Saxon king. The literature afterwards read and written by Englishmen was thereby as completely transformed because the sentiments and tastes of English rulers. The foreign sorts of literature introduced after the Norman Conquest first found favour with the monarchs and courtiers, and were deliberately fostered by them, to the disregard of native forms. No effective protest was possible by the Anglo-Saxons, and English thought for hundreds of years to return was largely fashioned within the manner of the French. Throughout the entire period, which we call the center English period (as belonging to the center Ages or Medieval times within the History of Britain) or the Anglo-Norman period, in sorts of artistic expression also as of spiritual service, English openly acknowledged a Latin control.
It is true that before the Norman Conquest the Anglo- Saxons had a body of native literature distinctly superior to any European vernacular. But one cannot deny that the Normans came to their land once they greatly needed an external stimulus. The Conquest effected a wholesome awakening of national life. The people were suddenly inspired by a replacement vision of a greater future. They became united in a common hope. In course of time, the Anglo-Saxons lost their initial hostility to the new comers, and all become part and parcel of one nation. The Normans not only brought with them soldiers and artisans and traders, they also imported scholars to revive knowledge, chroniclers to record memorable events, minstrels to celebrate victories, or sing of adventure and love.
The great difference between the 2 periods - Anglo-Saxon period and Anglo-Norman period, is marked by the disappearance of the Old English poetry. There is nothing during the Anglo Norman period like Beowulf or Fall of the Angels. The later religious poetry has little in it to recall the finished art of Cynewulf. Anglo-Saxon poetry, whether derived from heathendom or from the Church, has ideas and manners of its own; it involves perfection, then it dies away. It seems that Anglo-Saxon poetry grows to rich maturity, then disappears, like the new sorts of language and under new influences, the poetical education started again, and so the poetry of the Anglo-Norman period has nothing in common the Anglo-Saxon poetry.
The most obvious change in literary expression appears within the vehicle employed. For centuries Latin had been more or less spoken or written by the clergy in England. The Conquest which led to the reinvigoration of the monasteries and therefore the tightening of the ties with Rome, determined its more extensive use. Still more important, as a results of foreign sentiment in court and chateau , it caused writings within the English vernacular to be disregarded, and established French because the natural speech of the cultivated and the high-born. The clergy insisted on the utilization of Latin, the nobility on the utilization of French; nobody of influence saw the utility of English as a way of perpetuating thought, and for nearly three centuries only a few works appeared within the native tongue.
In spite of English language having been thrown into the background, some works were composed in it, though they echoed within the main the emotions and tastes of the French writers, as French then was the supreme arbiter of European literary style. Another striking characteristic of medıevai literature is its general anonymity. Of the various who wrote the names of but few are recorded, and of the history of those few we've only the foremost meagre details. It was because originality was deplored as a fault, and independence treatment was a heinous offence in their eyes.
The Romances
The most popular sort of literature during the center English period was the romances. No literary productions the Middle Ages are so characteristic, none so perenniaally attractive as those that treat romantically of heroes and heroines of by-gone days. These romances are notable for the stories rather than their poetry, and they, like the themes afterwards, furnished the chief mental recreation of time for the great body of the people. These romances were mostly borrowed from Latin and French sources. They deal with the stories of King Arthur, The War of Troy, and the mythıcai doings of Charlemagne and of Alexander the Great.
The Miracle and Morality Plays
In the Middle English period, Miracle plays became very fashionable . From the expansion and development of the Bible story, scene by scene, carried to its logical conclusion, this drama developed to a huge cycle of sacred history, beginning with the creation of man, his fall and banishment from Garden of Eden and extending through the more important matters of the Old Testament and life of Christ in the New to the summoning of the quick and the dead on the day of judgment. This kind of drama is named the play . Sometimes less correctly the play , and it flourished throughout England from the reign of Henry II thereto of Elizabeth (1154-1603).
Another sort of drama which flourished during the center Ages was the Morality plays. In these plays, the uniform theme is that the struggle between the powers of excellent and evil for the mastery of the soul of man. The personages were abstract virtues, or vices, each acting and speaking in accordance together with his name; and therefore the plot was built upon their contrasts and influences on attribute , with the intent to show right living and uphold religion. In a word, allegory is that the distinguishing mark of the moral plays. In these moral plays the protagonist is always an abstraction; he is Mankind, the Human Race, the Pride of Life, and there is an attempt to compass the whole scope of man's experience and temptations in life, as there had been a corresponding effort in the Miracle plays to embrace the complete range of sacred history, the life of Christ, and the redemption of the world.
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