At the end of the 4th century, however, Roman forces had been largely withdrawn, and this economy collapsed. The local economy had once been dominated by imperial Roman spending on a large military establishment, which in turn helped to support a complex network of towns, roads, and villas. Main article: History of Anglo-Saxon EnglandĪt the start of the Middle Ages, England was a part of Britannia, a former province of the Roman Empire. Political history Early Middle Ages (600–1066) 10.3 Architecture, castles, churches, landscape.Henry VII's victory in 1485 conventionally marks the end of the Middle Ages in England and the start of the Early Modern period. More social unrest broke out, followed by the Wars of the Roses, fought between rival factions of the English nobility. At times England enjoyed huge military success, with the economy buoyed by profits from the international wool and cloth trade, but by 1450 the country was in crisis, facing military failure in France and an ongoing recession. English kings in the 14th and 15th centuries laid claim to the French throne, resulting in the Hundred Years' War. New technologies were introduced, and England produced some of the great medieval philosophers and natural scientists. Nearly 1,500 villages were deserted by their inhabitants and many men and women sought new opportunities in the towns and cities. Social unrest followed, resulting in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, while the changes in the economy resulted in the emergence of a new class of gentry, and the nobility began to exercise power through a system termed bastard feudalism. The 14th century in England saw the Great Famine and the Black Death, catastrophic events that killed around half of England's population, throwing the economy into chaos, and undermining the old political order. Despite developments in England's governance and legal system, infighting between the Anglo-Norman elite resulted in multiple civil wars and the loss of Normandy.
A new wave of monasteries and friaries was established while ecclesiastical reforms led to tensions between successive kings and archbishops. England's population more than doubled during the 12th and 13th centuries, fueling an expansion of the towns, cities, and trade, helped by warmer temperatures across Northern Europe. The position of women in society changed as laws regarding land and lordship shifted. The new rulers introduced a feudal approach to governing England, eradicating the practice of slavery, but creating a much wider body of unfree labourers called serfs. William the Conqueror and his successors took over the existing state system, repressing local revolts and controlling the population through a network of castles. The Norman invasion of England in 1066 led to the defeat and replacement of the Anglo-Saxon elite with Norman and French nobles and their supporters. Despite repeated crises of succession and a Danish seizure of power at the start of the 11th century, it can also be argued that by the 1060s England was a powerful, centralised state with a strong military and successful economy. In the 8th and 9th centuries England faced fierce Viking attacks, and the fighting lasted for many decades, eventually establishing Wessex as the most powerful kingdom and promoting the growth of an English identity. The Anglo-Saxons converted to Christianity in the 7th century and a network of monasteries and convents were built across England. A rich artistic culture flourished under the Anglo-Saxons, producing epic poems such as Beowulf and sophisticated metalwork. After several centuries of Germanic immigration, new identities and cultures began to emerge, developing into kingdoms that competed for power. When England emerged from the collapse of the Roman Empire, the economy was in tatters and many of the towns abandoned. England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the medieval period, from the end of the 5th century through to the start of the Early Modern period in 1485.
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