书城历史英国历史读本:与《英国语文》同步的经典学生历史读本
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第34章 远古时期的英格兰,公元1154年前(34)

7.就是这些加洛韦人让大卫国王很头疼,因为他们不停大声嚷嚷要求走在队伍最前面,并且要首先上战场,最后大卫没办法,只得同意他们率先发动攻击。得令之后,加洛韦人便穿过当天荒野上的大雾,向对方阵营进发了。而就在这时,大卫的阵营中正好有两位伯爵达成联盟,他们分别在在苏格兰和英格兰的领地,因此自然急于希望和平。这两位名垂青史的伯爵就是布鲁斯与巴里奥,他们想尽了一切办法让大卫班师回朝,最后骑上战马奔驰到诺思阿勒尔顿的前线,想劝阻正在行军的苏格兰人。

a 安茹:位于今法国西部卢瓦尔河下游,大致对应于法国现在的曼恩-卢瓦尔省。--译者注b 加洛韦山区:位于苏格兰西南部,包含威格敦和柯尔库布里两个地区。

8.当时的英军指挥官是杜伦郡的主教,得知此消息后,主教把所有人召集到十字军旗之下,读了一首祷诗后开始演讲。就在演讲快要结束时,从近郊的薄雾中传来了嚣叫声“奥尔本a!奥尔本!”这是苏格兰人的作战口号。

9.很快这支野蛮军队便冲了过来,不一会儿就把围在圣徒军旗之下的诺曼骑士团冲杀得东倒西歪,但这仅仅是暂时的。没多久诺曼骑士们又重新聚拢在军旗战车周围,强壮的约克士兵们也用弓箭让敌人尝到了厉害,苏格兰军队很快就被打得落花流水,慌乱撤退,并且撤退过程中又把后面继续往前冲的人浪彻底打乱,场面极其狼狈。

10.不过苏格兰军队还是一浪接一浪地涌来,只要刀剑还在,即使力量对比如此悬殊,这些北方战士们依然没有停止进攻。长矛与铠甲虽然击败了苏格兰的大刀与格子布,但是诺曼骑士和士兵们也领教了苏格兰人浴血奋战的武勇精神,以及他们对国王是何等的誓死效命。

a 奥尔本:原词Alben,与Albyn和Alpin一样,都是高原地区对苏格兰的称呼,也与Albion同义(见39节注释),即当时对整个不列颠岛的称呼。其含义均表示“白色的岛”,可能是起源于高卢人的叫法,因为他们从南边渡海而来,首先映入眼帘的便是那里的白垩岩山崖。

42

THE FEUDAL SYSTEM

封建制度

allotted,gave;assigned.

candidate,applicant.

ceremony,observance;religious form.combatants,fighters;opponents.developed,unfolded;worked out.equipped,dressed.

favourite,best liked.

poniard,dagger.riveted,bolted.similar,like.

summoned,called together.

tenure,holding.terrible,dreadful.transacted,done.

1.The Normans brought with them into England (1066)the Feudal System,which continued to hold great power over English society until after the last Norman King fell on Bosworth field (1485).It is true that there were some traces of a similar plan among the Angles and the Saxons;but the system was fully developed on the Continent,and chiefly among the Normans.

2.It derived its name from feod,or feud,a piece of land;and its leading feature was,that all land was under military tenure,-an expression which means that a tenant,instead of paying his whole rent in corn,or cattle,or money,gave only a small portion of these,and for the rest was obliged to fight under his lord’s banner,without any pay,when called to arms.

3.The King owned all land:he allotted large districts to the nobles;they subdivided these among the gentry (the English thanes,called by the Normans franklinsa );these,again,sublet their land to their vassals-in every case the higher requiring from the lower service in war.When the King needed an army,he summoned his barons;they called to arms their franklins;these,their vassals and retainers;and thus a large force was gathered round the royal standard.Thelowest classes of society under the Normans were the villeinsb and the serfs.

4.Closely interwoven with the Feudal System was Chivalry or knighthood.As a knight,the King was on a level with the poorest gentleman,and had toa Franklins.-Freeholders;men who held their land for themselves and their heirs for ever.

b Villeins.-Those who held lands at the will of their lord.The word most probably means dwellers invillages,which at first sprang up near the castles of the great lords.

pass through the same training-serving first as a page,and then as an esquire,before he received his golden spurs and took the vows of knighthood.The night before the ceremony,the candidate for knightly honours held his vigil,when,within some dark aisle,amid the tombs of the fallen brave,he kept a lonely and silent watch over the arms he was about to assume.

5.The Knight,when fully equipped,was clad from head to heel in armour,formed of steel plates riveted firmly together;below this he wore a dress of soft leather.On his helmet was a crest;on his three-pointed shield adevice-the origin of our coat-of-arms.His chief weapon was the lance;but besides he wore a two-handed sword,and a poniard called “the daggerof mercy,”used to kill a fallenfoe;and he often carried a battle-axe or mace.

KNIGHTS.

6.The chief sport of chivalry was the Tournament,or joust.It was held within an enclosed space called “the lists.”Ladies and nobles sat round inraised galleries,while the lower orders thronged outside the barriers to witness the sport.At each end of the lists tents were pitched for the rival knights.At sound of trumpet the combatants dashed at full gallop from opposite sides,and met in the centrewith a terrible shock.If the knights were equally matched,the lances flew into splinters,and the horses were thrown back on their haunches;but if one struck with stronger and surer aim,whether the helmet or the shield of his rival,the unlucky knight was hurled from the saddle to the ground,stunned,bleeding,and bruised by hisTHE TOURNAMENT.

heavy armour.

7.After the tilting,the lower classes held sports,the favourite being archery,bull-baiting,and playing at quarter-staff.The last-named was a kind of cudgel-playing;the staff was a pole about six feet long,which the combatants grasped in the middle-striking,parrying,and thrusting with both ends.Very similar to the tournament was the trial by combat;which,like the ordeal of the English,was the Norman appeal to the justice of Heaven.

8.The public business of the realm was transacted by the Curia Regis (the King‘s Court),which at the Conquest took the place of the Witena-gemot.

中文阅读

1.诺曼人在公元1066年踏上英格兰土地,为英国人带来了封建制度。从此之后,这个制度在英格兰落地生根,枝繁叶茂,直到最后一位诺曼国王在公元1485年的博斯沃思战场a上落败,它才宣告落幕。在盎格鲁人和撒克逊人的社会体制中也有类似的制度痕迹,但这制度真正得到深入发展,还是在诺曼人入主不列颠的时期。

2.这个制度的名字来源于“封地b”一词,即分封的一块土地。其制度核心是,所有土地的所有权都是以服军役为条件而获取、持有,也就是说,土地的领主不以玉米、牲畜、金钱来交全部地租,实物地租只占一小部分,而剩余的部分则要求履行为国王而战的义务,国王不需为此支付任何费用。

3.国王当然持有全国的所有土地,他将它们分成大区分封给贵族,贵族又把各自领地细分给乡绅(英国人叫领主,诺曼人叫地主c),以此类推,他们又再将土地转包给他们的家臣,每一个层级都是上一级要求下一级在战争中要出兵作战。当国王需要一支军队的时候,他会召集他属下的贵族大佬,他们又召集他们的乡绅,乡绅再召集他们的家臣,这样层层推进,一支强大的军队就在皇室的旗帜下集结完毕了。在诺曼人中间,社会的最底层是佃农d或者奴隶。