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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
A TIME-HONOURED MYTH of the Norman Conquest is the myth of the Norman yoke. It is a myth which was particularly strong in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, and which, beyond the formulaic traditional plot structure, had a number of variants used for various political purposes with wide-reaching ramifications. Although not of such apparent importance today, the myth of the Norman yoke must be investigated in a study of contemporary memory, in order to discover to what extent elements of the myth may still be influential.
The literal meaning of the word ‘yoke’ is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plough or cart that they are to pull. The word is used figuratively to refer to something regarded as repressive or restrictive. ‘Yoke’ was first applied to the Norman Conquest by medieval chroniclers. In Orderic Vitalis's Historia Ecclesiastica we find the following sentence:
And so the English groaned aloud for their lost liberty and plotted ceaselessly to find some way of shaking off a yoke that was so intolerable and unaccustomed. (my emphasis)
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