I'm curious as to if there are any historical texts which describes the relationship between the Anglo-Saxons and their new masters. Were they resented? Were they accepted? Similarly, did the Normans regard the Anglo-Saxons as inferior and barbaric?
And ultimately, when did the line between "Anglo-Saxon" and "Norman" disappear to make way for an "English" identity?
It’s important to understand that until at least the reign of John I, the title “King of England”, was merely an appendage to the title of leader of the Angevin Empire. William the Conqueror himself spent little time in Britain, and his descendants spent even less, with only 6 months of Richard I’s 10 year reign spent in England. There were only around 8000 Norman settlers initially; most of which were of a relatively noble social ranking, and thus the two cultures did not mix a tremendous amount at first. The lords eventually began to identify themselves with their new island home, but until the Capetian Conquest of the Angevin empire that the monarchy were consistently residents in England, rather than on the mainland.
The rulers that the Anglo-Saxon/Celtic population dealt with first hand were the barons, who were indeed resented enormously. But the reality was that the situation of the peasant was not massively altered by becoming part of this Norman empire. Times were hard, and the people uneducated, so they had little interest or awareness of the political forces that controlled them. Their quality of life was affected very little by the switch of rulers. There were of course rebellions, but these tended to come from the usurped nobles rather than commoners.
There were a great number of very discontent Anglo-Saxons. The most famous example was Hereward the Wake, who waged a lengthy guerrilla war against the new Norman lords of the Fens. However, there were also a great number of Anglo-Saxons who imposed exile on themselves, leaving to serve in the courts of foreign nobles. by 1125, the famous Varangian Guard was majority Englishmen.
Will expand more in a few hours, studying for an exam this evening.
Sources: Tale of Hereward the Wake
"The English and Byzantium: A study of their role in the Byzantine army in the later eleventh century, Jonathan Shepard, 1973 (It's a bit old, I know, but it's still solid)
In Our Time recently covered the subject of the Domesday book, in which Saxons and their treatment at the hands of William's men, was a topic covered in some detail.
