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Outline of Universal History

G >> George Park Fisher >> Outline of Universal History




CHARACTER OF THE LATER INVASIONS.--The incursions in the ninth century
differed from the great Germanic invasions which had subverted the
Roman Empire. The Northmen and the Saracens moved in small bands,
whose main object was plunder, and not either permanent conquest, or,
as was the aim of the Arabians, the spread of a religion by the
sword. The _Hungarians_ alone established themselves in the
valley of the Theiss and the Danube, after the manner of the Franks,
the Burgundians, and the Goths; and there they remained. The great
effect of the last invasion was to accelerate the breaking up of
political unity, and the introduction of feudal organization, or the
preponderance of local rule as opposed to centralized power.



THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND AND ITALY.

Later than the events narrated above, there were two great
achievements of the Northmen, which it is most convenient to describe
here, although they occurred in the eleventh century. They are the
conquest of England, and the founding of the kingdom of Naples and
Sicily.



I. THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.

The NORMAN INVASION.--The duchy of Normandy had become very strong and
prosperous, and, under the French-speaking Northmen, or Normans, had
grown to be one of the principal states in Western
Europe. _Edward_, king of England, surnamed the _Confessor_,
or Saint (1042-1066) had been brought up in Normandy, and favored his
own Norman friends by lavish gifts of honors and offices. The party
opposed to the foreigners was led by _Godwin_, earl of the West
Saxons. After being once banished, he returned in arms; and Norman
knights and priests were glad to escape from the country. Edward's
wife was _Edith_, daughter of Godwin. They had no children; and
on his death-bed he recommended that Earl _Harold_, the son of
Godwin, should be his successor. The Normans claimed that he had
promised that their duke, _William_, should reign after him. It
was said that _Harold_ himself, on a visit to William, had,
either willingly or unwillingly, sworn to give him his
support. _Edward_, who was devout in his ways, though a negligent
ruler, was buried in the monastery called Westminster, which he had
built, and which was the precursor of the magnificent church bearing
the same name that was built afterwards by King _Henry
III_. _Harold_ was now crowned. Duke _William_, full of
wrath, appealed to the sword; and, under the influence of the
archdeacon _Hildebrand_, Pope _Alexander II_. took his side,
and sanctioned his enterprise of conquest. At the same time the north
of England was invaded by the king of the Norwegians, a man of
gigantic stature, named _Hardrada_. The Norman invaders landed
without resistance on the shore of _Sussex_, on the 28th of
September, 1066, and occupied _Hastings_. _Harold_ encamped
on the heights of _Senlac_. On the 14th of October the great
battle took place in which the Normans were completely victorious. The
English stood on a hill in a compact mass, with their shields in front
and a palisade before them. They repulsed the Norman charges. But the
Normans pretended to retreat. This moved the Saxons to break their
array in order to pursue. The Normans then turned back, and rushed
through the palisade in a fierce onset. An arrow pierced the eye of
_Harold_, and he was cut to pieces by four French knights. The
Norman duke, _William the Conqueror_, was crowned king on
Christmas Day; but it was four years before he overcame all
resistance, and got full control over the country. The largest estates
and principal offices in England he allotted to Normans and other
foreigners. The crown of _William_ was handed down to his
descendants, and gradually the conquerors and the conquered became
mingled together as one people.



EFFECT OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

CHARACTER OF THE SAXONS.--The Saxons at the time of the Conquest were
a strong and hardy race, hospitable, and fond of good cheer, which was
apt to run into gluttony and revels. Their dwellings were poor,
compared with those of the better class of Normans. They were
enthusiastic in out-door sports, such as wrestling and hunting. They
fought on foot, armed with the shield and axe. The common soldier,
however, often had no better weapon than a fork or a sharpened
stick. The ordeals in vogue, as a test of guilt and innocence when one
was accused of a crime, were, plunging the arm into boiling water, or
holding a hot iron in the hand for three paces. _London_ was fast
growing to be the chief town, and eclipsing _Winchester_, the old
Saxon capital. A king like _Alfred_, and scholars like
_Bede_ and _Alcuin_, not to speak of old chronicles and
ballads, show that literature was valued; but the Danish invasions in
_Northumberland_, where schools and letters had flourished, did
much to blight the beginnings of literary progress.

THE NORMAN SPIRIT AND INFLUENCE.--The tapestry at _Bayeux_
represents in a series of pictures the course of the Norman conquest.
There we see the costume of the combatants. The Norman gentlemen were
mounted, and fought with lance and sword. Of their bravery and
military skill, their success affords abundant proof. Although the
Normans were victors and masters in England, not only was the conquest
gradual, but the result of it was the amalgamation of the one people
with the other. The very title of _conqueror_, attached to
William, was a legal term (_conquaestor_), and meant
_purchaser_ or _acquirer_. There was an observance of legal
forms in the establishment and administration of his government. The
_folkland_, or the public land, was appropriated by him, and
became crown-land. So all the land of the English was considered to be
forfeited, and estates were given out liberally to Norman
gentlemen. The nobility became mainly Norman, and the same was true of
the ecclesiastics and other great officers. All the land was held as a
grant from the king. In 1085 the making of _Domesday_ was
decreed, which was a complete statistical survey of all the estates
and property in England. The object was to furnish a basis for
taxation. The _Domesday Book_ is one of the most curious and
valuable monuments of English history. Among the changes in law made
by William was the introduction of the Norman wager of battle, or the
duel, by the side of the Saxon methods of ordeal described above. In
most of the changes, there was not so much an uprooting as a great
transformation of former rules and customs.

ENGLAND AND THE CONTINENT.--One of the most important results of the
Norman Conquest was the bringing of England into much more intimate
relations with the continent. The horizon of English thought and life
was widened. One incidental consequence was the closer connection of
the English Church with the Papacy. Foreign ecclesiastics, some of
them men of eminence and of learning, were brought in. It was this
connection with the continent that led England to take so important a
part in the Crusades.

THEN NORMAN GOVERNMENT.--As regards feudalism, one vital feature of
it--the holding of land by a military tenure, or on condition of
military service--was reduced to a system by the conquest. But
_William_ took care not to be overshadowed or endangered by his
great vassals. He levied taxes on all, and maintained the place of
lord of all his subjects. He was king of the English, and sovereign
lord of the Norman nobles. He summoned to the _Witan_, or Great
Assembly, those whom he chose to call. This summons, and the right to
receive it, became the foundation of the _Peerage_. Out of the
old Saxon _Witan_, there grew in this way the _House of
Lords_. The lower orders, when summoned at all, were summoned in a
mass; afterwards we shall find that they were called by
representatives; and, in--the end, when the privilege of appearing in
this way was converted into a right, the _House of Commons_ came
into being. In like manner, the _King's Court_ gradually came to
be, in the room of the Assembly itself, a judicial and governing
Committee of the Assembly. From this body of the king's immediate
counselors emerged in time the _Privy Council_ and the _Courts
of Law_. Out of the Privy Council grew, in modern times, the
_Cabinet_, composed of what are really "those privy councilors
who are specially summoned." Committees of the National Assembly, in
the course of English history, acquired "separate being and separate
powers, as the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the
government." Thus the English Constitution is the product of a steady
growth.

MINGLING OF BLOOD AND LANGUAGES.--A multitude of Normans emigrated
into England, especially to _London_. The Normans became
Englishmen, as a natural consequence. But they affected the spirit and
manners of the people by whom they were absorbed. By opening avenues
for French influence, _chivalry_, with its peculiar ideas and
ways, was brought into England. But it must never be forgotten that
the _Normans_ were kinsfolk of the Saxons. Both conquerors and
conquered were Teutons. The conquest was very different, in this
particular, from what the conquest of Germany by France, or of France
by Germany, would be. The French language which the Normans spoke had
been acquired by them in their adopted home across the channel. To
this source the _Latin_ element, or words of Latin etymology, in
our English tongue is mainly due. The loss of the old Saxon
inflections is another marked change; but this is not due, to so large
an extent, solely to the influence of Norman speech. But the English
language continued to be essentially Teutonic in its structure. For a
long time the two tongues lived side by side. At the end of the
twelfth century, if French was the language of polite intercourse,
English was the language of common conversation and of popular
writings. Learned men spoke, or could speak, and they wrote, in Latin.

NORMAN BUILDINGS.--The Normans built the cathedrals and castles. Down
to the eleventh century, the _Romanesque_, or "round-arched"
architecture, derived from Italy, had been the one prevalent style in
Western Europe. In the modification of it, called the _Norman_
style, we find the round arch associated with massive piers and narrow
windows. _Durham_ cathedral is an example of the Norman
Romanesque type of building. The Norman conquerors covered England
with _castles_, of which the White Tower of London, built by
William, is a noted specimen. Sometimes they were square, and
sometimes polygonal; but, except in the palaces of the kings, they
afforded little room for artistic beauty of form or decoration. They
were erected as fortresses, and were regarded by the people with
execration as strongholds of oppression.



II. THE NORMANS IN ITALY AND SICILY.

THE NORMAN KINGDOM OF NAPLES AND SICILY.--Early in the eleventh
century, knights from Normandy wandered into Southern Italy, and gave
their aid to different states in battle against the Greeks and
Saracens. In 1027 the ruler of Naples gave them a fertile district,
where they built the city of _Aversa_. By the reports of their
victories and good fortune, troops of pilgrims and warriors were
attracted to join them. The valiant sons of the old count,
_Tancred_ of _Hauteville_, were among the number. They
supported the Greek viceroy in an attack on the Arabs in Sicily; but,
on his failing duly to reward them, they turned against him, and
conquered _Apulia_ for themselves. Under _Robert Guiscard_
(1057-1085), they made themselves masters of all Southern Italy. They
had already defeated Pope Leo IX. at _Civitella_, and received
from him as fiefs their present and anticipated conquests in Apulia,
Calabria, and Sicily. Twelve years after, _Robert_, with the help
of his brother _Roger_, wrested Sicily, with its capital,
_Palermo_, from the Saracens, who were divided among themselves
(1072). The seaports of _Otranto_ and _Bari_ were also taken
by _Robert_. He even entered on the grand scheme of conquering
the Byzantine Empire, but his death frustrated this endeavor. His
nephew _Roger II_. (1130-1154) took the remaining possessions of
the Greeks in Southern Italy and Sicily, united them in the kingdom of
Naples and Sicily, and received from the Pope the title of king. In
this kingdom the feudal system was established, and trade and industry
flourished. In culture and prosperity it surpassed all the other
Italian communities. At _Salerno_ was a famous school of medicine
and natural science; at _Amalfi_ and _Naples_ were schools
of law. But the Norman nobility was corrupted and enervated by the
luxury of the South, and by the influence of Mohammedan customs, and
modes of thought. During fifty-six years _Roger_ and his two
successors, _William the Bad_ (1154-1166) and _William the
Good_ (1166-1189), ruled this flourishing kingdom, which then fell
by inheritance to the _Hohenstaufen_ German princes. On the
mainland and in Sicily, numerous stately buildings and ruined castles
and towers point back to the romantic period of Norman rule.

NORMAN TRAITS.--It is a remarkable fact, that the Normans, although so
distinguished as rovers and conquerors, have vanished from the face of
the earth. They were lost in the kingdoms which they founded. They
adopted the languages of the nations which they subdued. But while in
England they were merged in the English, and modified the national
character, this effect was not produced in Italy and Sicily. In Sicily
they found Greek-speaking Christians and Arabic-speaking Mussulmans;
and Italians came into the island in the track of the conquerors. The
Normans did not find there a nation as in England; and they created
not a nation, but a kingdom of a composite sort, beneficent while it
lasted, but leaving no permanent traces behind. "The Normans in
Sicily," says Mr. Freeman, "so far as they did not die out, were
merged, not in a Sicilian nation, for that did not exist, but in the
common mass of settlers of Latin speech and rite, as distinguished
from the older inhabitants, Greek and Saracen." Independent,
enterprising, impatient of restraint, gifted with a rare imitative
power which imparted a peculiar tinge and a peculiar grace to whatever
they adopted from others, they lacked originality, and the power to
maintain their own distinctive type of character and of speech.

Mr. Freeman has eloquently described the spread of the Normans, "the
Saracens of Christendom," in all corners of the world. They fought in
the East against the Turks. "North, south, east, the Norman lances
were lifted." The Norman "ransacked Europe for scholars, poets,
theologians, and artists. At Rouen, at Palermo, and at Winchester he
welcomed merit in men of every race and every language." "And yet that
race, as a race, has vanished." "The Scottish Brace or the Irish
Geraldine passed from Scandinavia to Gaul, from Gaul to England, from
England to his own portion of our islands; but at each migration, he
ceased to be Scandinavian, French, or English: his patriotism was in
each case transferred to his new country, and his historic being
belongs to his last acquired home." Norman blood was in the veins of
the Crusaders who first stood on the battlements of Jerusalem, and of
the great German emperor, _Frederic II_.



THE NORMANS.


TANCRED OF HAUTEVILLE.
|
+--Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, _d._ 1085.
|
| SICILY
|
+--ROGER, the Great Count, _d._ 1101
|
+--Roger (of Apulia, 1127; king, 1130), 1101-1154.
|
+--WILLIAM I the Bad, 1154-1166,
| _m._ Margaret, daughter of Garcia IV of Navarre.
| |
| +--WILLIAM II the Good, 1166-1189,
| _m._ Joanna, daughter of Henry II of England.
|
+--CONSTANCE (_d._ 1198),
_m._ Emperor Henry VI.



THE FEUDAL SYSTEM.

ORIGIN OF FEUDALISM.--When the Franks conquered Gaul, they divided the
land among themselves. This estate each free German held as
_allodial_ property, or as a _free-hold_. The king took the
largest share. His palaces were dwellings connected with large farms
or hunting-grounds, and he went with his courtiers from one to
another. To his personal followers and officers he allotted
lands. These _benefices_, it seems, were granted at first with
the understanding that he might resume them at will. As holders of
them, the recipients owed to him personal support. Other chiefs, and
land-owners of a minor grade, took the same course. This was the germ
of _feudalism_. More and more it grew to be the characteristic
method of living and of government in Western Europe after the fall of
Charlemagne's empire. The inheritors of his dominion were not the
kings of France, of Germany, or of Italy, but the numerous feudal
lords. Against the invasions of the Norman, Saracen, and Hungarian
plunderers, the kings and the counts proved themselves incapable of
defending territory or people. Meantime, the principle of
heredity--the principle that benefices should go down from father to
son, or to the next heir--had gained a firm footing. Another fact was
that the royal offices became hereditary, and were transmitted to the
heirs of allodial property. Thus the exercise of government and the
possession of land were linked together. In times of danger, small
proprietors more and more put themselves under the protection of the
richer and stronger: that is, _allodial_ property became
_feudal_. This custom had begun long before, in the decadence of
the Roman empire, when not only poor freemen, but also men of moderate
means, ruined by taxation, put themselves under the protection of the
great, and settled on their lands. They became thus _colons_
(_coloni_). In the later times of disorder of which we are now
speaking, farmhouses in the country gave place to fortified
_castles_ on hill-tops or other defensible sites, about which
clustered in villages the dependents of the lord, who tilled his land,
fought for him, and, in turn, were protected by him.

THE SUBSTANCE OF FEUDALISM.--"Feudality recognizes two principles, the
land and the sword, riches and force,--two principles on which every
thing depends, to which every thing is related, and which are united
and identified with one another; since it is necessary to possess land
in order to have the right to use the sword in one's own name (that is
to say, to have the right of private war), and since the possession of
land imposes the duty of drawing the sword for the suzerain, and in
the name of the suzerain of whom the land is held." Feudalism is a
social system in which there is a kind of _hierarchy_ of lands in
the hands of warriors, who hold of one another in a gradation. There
is a chain reaching up from the tower of the simple gentleman to the
royal _chateau_, or castle. In this social organization, there
are the two grand classes of the _seigneurs_ and the
_serfs;_ but the _seigneur_, even if he be a king, may also
hold fiefs as a _vassal_.

SUZERAIN AND VASSAL.--The _suzerain_ and the _vassal_, or
_liege_, were bound together by reciprocal obligations. The
vassal owed (1) military service on the demand of the lord; (2) such
aid as the suzerain called for in the administration of justice within
his jurisdiction; (3) other aids, such as, when he was a prisoner, to
pay the ransom for his release; and pecuniary contributions when he
armed his eldest son, and when he married his eldest daughter. These
were legal or required aids. They took the place of _taxation_ in
modern states. There were other things that the vassal was expected to
do which were _gracious_ or _voluntary_. If the liege died
without heirs, or forfeited the fief by a violation of the conditions
on which it was held, it reverted to the lord. The liege was
_invested_ with the fief. He knelt before the suzerain, put his
hands within the hands of the suzerain, and took an oath to be his
_man_. This was _homage_,--from _homo_ in the Latin,
and _homme_ in French, signifying _man_. The suzerain might
at any time require its renewal. Under the feudal system, every thing
was turned into a fief. The right to hunt in a forest, or to fish in a
river, or to have an escort on the roads, might be granted as a fief,
on the condition of loyalty, and of the _homage_ just described.

PRIVATE WAR.--The vassal had the right to be tried by his peers; that
is, by vassals on the same level as himself. He might, if treated with
injustice, go to the superior: he might appeal to the suzerain of his
immediate lord. But suzerains preferred to take justice into their own
hands. Hence the custom of _private war_ prevailed, and of
judicial combats, or _duels_, so common in the middle ages.

ENTANGLEMENTS OF FEUDALISM.--Many suzerains were mutually vassals,
each holding certain lands of the other. The same baron often held
lands of different suzerains, who might be at war with each other, so
that each required his service. The sovereign prince might be bound to
do homage to a petty feudal lord on account of lands which the prince
had inherited or otherwise acquired. The power of the suzerain
depended on a variety of circumstances. The king might be weak, since
feudalism grew out of the overthrow of royal power. The king of
_France_, with the exception of titular prerogatives and some
rights with regard to churches, which were often disputed, had no
means of attack or defense beyond what the _duchy_ of France
furnished him. Yet logically and by a natural tendency, the king was
the supreme suzerain. "Feudalism carried hid in its bosom the arms by
which it was one day to be struck down."

ECCLESIASTICAL FEUDALISM.--The clergy were included in the feudal
system. The bishop was often made the _count_, and, as such, was
the suzerain of all the nobles in his diocese. Cities were often under
the suzerainty of bishops. Besides their tithes, the clergy had
immense landed possessions. The abbots and bishops often availed
themselves of the protection of powerful vassals, of whom they were
the suzerains. On the other hand, bishops, who were also themselves
_dukes_ or _counts_, sometimes did homage for their
temporalities to lay suzerains, especially to the king. In
_France_ and in _England_, in the middle ages, the feudal
clergy possessed a fifth of all the land; in _Germany_, a
third. The church, through bequests of the dying and donations from
the living, constantly increased its possessions. It might be
despoiled, but it could defend itself by the terrible weapon of
excommunication.

SERFS AND VILLAINS.--In the eleventh century Europe was thus covered
with a multitude of petty sovereigns. Below the body of rulers, or the
holders of fiefs, was the mass of the people. These were the
_serfs_,--the tillers of the ground, who enjoyed some of the
privileges of freemen, and who, since they were attached to the
_seigneurie_, could not be sold as slaves. The _villains_
were a grade above the serfs. The term (from _villæ_) originally
meant _villagers_. They paid rent for the land which the
proprietor allowed them to till; but they were subject, like the
serfs, to the will of the suzerain; and the constant tendency was for
them to sink into the inferior condition. _Slavery_, as
distinguished from serfdom, gradually passed away under the
emancipating spirit fostered by Christianity and the Church.

THE INHERITANCE OF FIEFS.--At first the _Salic_ principle, which
excluded females from inheriting fiefs, prevailed. But that gave way,
and daughters were preferred in law to collateral male relatives. When
a female inherited, the fief was occupied by the suzerain up to the
time of her marriage. It never ceased to be under the protection of
the sword. In _France_, the right of primogeniture was
established, but with important qualifications, which varied in
different portions of the country. The eldest, however, always had the
largest portion. In _Germany_, the tendency to the division of
fiefs was more prevalent. Among the _Normans _ in _England_,
and under their influence in _Palestine_, the law of inheritance
by the eldest was established in its full rigor.

SPIRIT OF FEUDALISM.--Feudalism had more vitality than the system of
absorbing all the land by a few great proprietors, which existed in
the period of the decline of the Roman Empire. Individuality, courage,
the proud sense of belonging to an aristocratic order, were widely
diffused among the numerous feudal landowners. The feeling of loyalty
among them was a great advance upon the blind subjection of the slave
to his master. But the weight of feudalism was heavy on the lower
strata of society. The lord was an autocrat, whose will there was
neither the power nor the right to resist, and who could lay hold of
as much of the labor and the earnings of the subject as he might
choose to exact. The petty suzerain, because his needs were greater,
was often more oppressive than the prince. The serf could not change
his abode, he could not marry, he could not bequeath his goods,
without the permission of his lord.



THE SAXON, FRANCONIAN, AND HOHENSTAUFEN IMPERIAL HOUSES.


HENRY I [1] 918-936.
|
+--OTTO I, 936-973, Emperor, 962, _m._
| 1, Eadgyth, _d._ of Edward the Elder;
| |
| +--Liutgarde.
|
| 2, Adelheid, [2] _d._ of Rudolph II, King of Burgundy.
| |
| +--OTTO II, 973-983, _m._
| Theophania, daughter of Romanus II, Eastern Emperor.
| |
| +--OTTO III, 983-1002.
|
+--Henry the Wrangler, Duke of Bavaria.
|
+--Henry the Wrangler.
|
+--(St.) HENRY II, 1002-1024, _m._ Cunigunda of Luxemburg.

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