NORMANS. —
I. THE SCANDINAVIAN ORIGINS
The Scandinavian peoples do not enter history until the end of the 8th century, when the “men of the north” (Northmen, Normans) invaded Western Europe. Very imperfect are the pieces of information that we have concerning their origins from the runic inscriptions, from the much later works of the skalds, court poets of the Scandinavian kings, and especially from the epic tales of the sagas.A Nordic branch of the Germanic peoples, the Scandinavians soon divided into three regional groups: the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, settled in their territories much as they are today. The main foundations of the unity of the Scandinavian peoples are the close kinship of their dialects, the originality of their mythology, and the similarity of their social organization and way of life. The Scandinavian languages differ from one another only in dialectal forms. The songs of the ancient Edda, a poem discovered in Iceland in 1643, describe the triad Thor, Odin, and Frey, personifications of the forces of nature; the practices, more magical than cultural, aim to conciliate or ward off the influence of trolls, benevolent or malevolent spirits. The Scandinavians live in close contact with nature; their life is predominantly agricultural, based on a three-field system, of which cereals constitute the main element. The farmstead (torp) and the village (by), the basic units of social organization, are administered autonomously, for self-government, embodied at each level by an assembly (thing), is the distinctive feature of Scandinavian societies. The canton and province, of very ancient origin, form the framework of judicial and fiscal life, over which presides the authority of local leaders (jarf), elected by the assembly of the provincial chiefs. Gradually, however, the power of the king imposed itself, thus preparing the rise of future states; first in Norway, around the Oslo fjord, at the end of the 7th century, with Halfdan the Generous and his son Godfred; then in Denmark, whose king Godfred (d. 810) confronted Charlemagne; and finally in Sweden, where sacrifices common to the entire people, celebrated at Uppsala, prevented unity.
Nevertheless, the Scandinavian world, far from living withdrawn into itself, soon came into contact with external regions. The first journey known to have been made by Westerners to the northern peoples is that of the Marseillese Pytheas, at the end of the 4th century B.C. Later, the northern countries repeatedly sent masses of emigrants—Cimbri and Teutons, Vandals and Burgundians—into the Latin world, while the Angles and Saxons followed the Italians in their migration to the British Isles. Commercial relations, established between the 5th and 8th centuries with the West and the East, foreshadowed the great Scandinavian migrations. To the East, many merchants, crossing the territory of future Russia, retraced and extended the routes already traveled by the Frisians from the shores of Merovingian Gaul and Brittany. Along these routes, the decorative motifs characteristic of the Black Sea coast spread to the West; Arab coins reached Scandinavia, and silver ingots, struck with perforated handles of Frankish type, spread along the Baltic shores. In the 6th century, Scandinavian ships are recorded in the Bay of Biscay (520) and in Frisia (575); in the 8th century, the Norwegians began the peaceful colonization of the Caledonian archipelagos (Hebrides, Shetland, Faroe) and of Ireland. At the end of the same century, the Danes more drastically abandoned attempts to challenge the invincible power of the Franks on land and, between 786 and 793, began exploring the lucrative “route to the west” along the English coasts. Already the age of the Vikings, that is, of the pirates, was heralded, whom the apostle of Frisia, St. Willibrord, could only skirt, and whose mission St. Ansgar barely managed to reach around 830 with the foundation of the bishopric of Birka in Sweden.
II. THE SCANDINAVIAN EXPANSION
The Scandinavian expansion from the 9th to the 11th centuries was therefore not a sudden event but the culmination of a very ancient process. The exodus seems to have stemmed from the inadequacy of arable land for a growing population, and perhaps, in the case of the Danes, from internal political upheavals. To this were added the taste for adventure and the lure of plunder. Determined by common causes, the Norman expansion developed from Crimea to Greenland, with different characteristics: peaceful in the East with the Varangians, traveling merchants associated in companies bound by an oath (etymologically vârar=guarantees, oaths); violent and conquering in the West with the Vikings, pirates in search of plunder and land (etymologically: víkingr=person who frequents the bays, from vík=bay).1. The Varangians in Eastern Europe
From the 9th century, along the trade route from the Baltic to the Black Sea, Swedish trading posts and military stations were established: Novgorod, Smolensk, and above all Kiev. Between the disappearance of the Avars and the incursions of the Pechenegs, the Ukrainian steppe opened to northern adventurers, who were so numerous in the 10th century that they formed small states; the principality of Kiev became the most important under the princes Askold, Olaf, and Igor. Attracted by the splendor of Byzantium, the Varangians dared to attack it in 860 and again in 907; but they were too few in number to avoid mingling with the Slavs and accommodating themselves to Greek power. They provided a guard for the basileus, and the Varangians, converted to Christianity in 988 under Prince Vladimir, adopted Byzantine culture and transmitted it to the future Russia, which received its name from them (Russia from Rutsi laiset, the Finnish name for the Swedes).2. The Vikings in the West
The maritime expansion westward became possible thanks to advances in shipbuilding. The royal tombs at Oseberg and Gokstad in Norway and at Ladby in Denmark have revealed longships 21 to 24 meters in length, with exceptional nautical qualities despite the absence of a deck, thanks to their sharp prows, keels, and simultaneous propulsion by sail and oars (with 30 to 40 rowers). Some ships could carry up to 200 warriors. Skilled sailors, the Normans sailed straight across the ocean, unconcerned with hugging the coasts. Such boldness is explained by the ardor of the Norman warrior; the hero of the sagas, drawn to the sea from childhood, tall, broad-shouldered, fair-haired, the berserkr (= bear-man), is an intrepid, cruel, and avaricious fighter, feared even by his own. The 9th and 10th centuries, a great epoch in Scandinavian history, carried him as far as America.3. The Norwegian maritime expansion
Setting out from the archipelagos near Scotland, the Norwegians methodically conquered the Isle of Man and Ireland and founded, around the mid-9th century, the Principality of Dublin. Trade brought fruitful cultural exchanges until the day when, at Clontarf near Dublin, the leaders of Ireland repelled the Northmen to a few coastal towns (1014). The Isle of Man and the Hebrides remained Scandinavian until the 13th century, the Orkneys and Shetlands until the 14th.Around 860, the Norwegians began colonizing Ireland, where they founded Reykjavik around 875. A century later, Erik the Red established a settlement in Greenland that lasted until the 15th century. Erik’s son, Leif, is said to have reached the shores of the mysterious Vinland (Labrador, Newfoundland, or Nova Scotia) around the year 1000.
4. The Normans in France and England
Pressed by the Franks south of the Jutland, the Danes attacked the Frankish coast by sea. In their light vessels they advanced deep into the interior of the country, “harvesting” every year tribute in gold and silver (Danegeld), which now forms the present wealth of Nordic museums. The fortified bridges and the defenders recruited locally by the Frankish counts, in the absence of Carolingian soldiers, did not prevent the danger from becoming general. Frisia was attacked first, during the anarchy of the reign of Louis II the Pious; it was burned in 836; five years later the country was abandoned to the Dane Rorik. The Normans attacked the English coasts from Essex to Dorset, on the Thames, on the Somme (ruins of Quentovic), on the Seine (burning of Rouen in 841 and of Paris in 845), on the Loire (capture of Nantes in 843), on the Garonne in 844, on the Iberian coasts, Lisbon and Seville; and they reached as far as the Mediterranean (sack of Pisa in 860); the Saracens designated them with the contemptuous name of magi (magi = fire-worshippers).Towards 850 the Norman raids became more concentrated. In France, the Scheldt led them to Cambrai, the Seine and the Yonne to Sens, the Loire beyond Orléans. The populations fled; the monks carried their relics elsewhere (e.g., those of St Philibert) from Noirmoutier to Tournus on the Saône. The victory of Brissarthe, near Le Mans, won in 866 by Robert the Strong, ancestor of the Capetians, and the resistance of his son Odo, at Paris, in the face of the great invasion of 881–886, served only to slow the danger. In England, Anglo-Saxon disunity weakened the defence; York fell in 866; Northumbria was submerged; only the energy of King Alfred the Great of Wessex saved a third of England, south of the line called Watling Street. In France, repulsed at Saucourt-en-Vimeu by Louis III in 883, and in 885 at Louvain, the Normans took advantage of the success gained through the ineptitude of Charles the Fat. It was impossible to drive them off: Charles the Simple (Treaty of St-Clair-sur-Epte, 911) granted the region of the lower Seine to their leader Rollo, who in 25 years imposed himself on the whole country, later called Normandy. Another Norman attempt on the lower Loire was broken by a Breton leader, Alan Barbetorte (939).
5. The Normans in France and England
Pressed by the Franks south of the Jutland, the Danes attacked the Frankish coast by sea. In their light vessels they advanced deep into the interior of the country, “harvesting” every year tribute in gold and silver (Danegeld), which now forms the present wealth of Nordic museums. The fortified bridges and the defenders recruited locally by the Frankish counts, in the absence of Carolingian soldiers, did not prevent the danger from becoming general. Frisia was attacked first, during the anarchy of the reign of Louis II the Pious; it was burned in 836; five years later the country was abandoned to the Dane Rorik. The Normans attacked the English coasts from Essex to Dorset, on the Thames, on the Somme (ruins of Quentovic), on the Seine (burning of Rouen in 841 and of Paris in 845), on the Loire (capture of Nantes in 843), on the Garonne in 844, on the Iberian coasts, Lisbon and Seville; and they reached as far as the Mediterranean (sack of Pisa in 860); the Saracens designated them with the contemptuous name of magi (magi = fire-worshippers). In France, repulsed at Saucourt-en-Vimeu by Louis III in 883, and in 885 at Louvain, the Normans took advantage of the success gained through the ineptitude of Charles the Fat. It was impossible to drive them off: Charles the Simple (Treaty of St-Clair-sur-Epte, 911) granted the region of the lower Seine to their leader Rollo, who in 25 years imposed himself on the whole country, later called Normandy. Another Norman attempt on the lower Loire was broken by a Breton leader, Alan Barbetorte (939).nation normande en Italie et en Sicile, 2 voll., Paris 1907; F. Lot, La grande invasion normande de 852-62, in Bibl. de l'Ecole des Chartes, 69 (1908); id., La Loire, l'Aquitaine et la Seine de 862 à 866, ibid., 76 (1915); H. Prentout, Essai sur les origines de la fondation du duché de Normandie, Caen 1911; Ch. Plummer, The life and times of Alfred the Great, Oxford 1912; C. H. Haskins, The Normans in European History, Boston-New York 1915; W. Cohn, Das Zeitalter der Normannen in Sizilien, Bonn-Leipzig 1920; vari autori, Il Regno normanno, Messina 1932; G. M. Monti, Lo Stato normanno svevo, Napoli 1934; C. Ceci, N. d'Inghilterra e N. d'Italia, Bari 1934; M. Garaud, Les invasions des Normands en Poitou, in Rev. hist., 137 (1937), pp. 241-267; A. W. Brogger, Vinlandsferdene, Oslo 1937, tr. ed., Hamburg 1939; M. Bloch, La Société féodale, I, Paris 1939, pp. 28-95; C. Cohen, Le régime féodal de l'Italie normande, Paris 1940; id., La Syrie du Nord à l'époque des Croisades et la principalité d'Antioche, ibid. 1940; D. C. Douglas, Rollo of Normandy, in The English Historical Review, 57 (1942), p. 417; F. M. Stanton, The Scandinavian Colonies in England and Normandy, in Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc., 4th ser., 27 (1945); W. Chadwick, The beginnings of Russian History, Cambridge 1946.
Guglielmo Mollat
IV. THE FORMATION OF THE NORMAN KINGDOM IN SICILY; RELATIONS WITH THE CHURCH
The spirit of conquest did not abandon the Normans. Some took part in the Spanish reconquest, such as Roger of Tosny at Barcelona (1068), while William of Hauteville (Iron Arm), together with his brothers, set out in 1035 to conquer Apulia and Calabria, driving out the Byzantines. This aroused fears and suspicions among the southern lords and even more so in Pope Leo IX, who was particularly concerned about his fief of Benevento. But the expedition that Leo organised against the Normans ended in defeat; in the battle of Civitate (1053) the Pope himself was taken prisoner; hence the need to negotiate with the Normans, following which he obtained his ransom. An agreement between the Normans and the Pope (Nicholas II) was concluded in 1059.Robert Guiscard, who meanwhile, succeeding his brothers, had consolidated and expanded his domains, secured through this agreement the investiture, as a fief of the Church, of the lands already conquered and those destined for future conquest, binding himself in return to protect the Papacy in its struggle against the Empire. Indeed, Robert, summoned by Gregory VII, came to Rome (1084) when it was besieged by Henry IV and freed the Pope.
Roger, Robert’s brother, meanwhile (1061), undertook the conquest of Sicily. The capture of Palermo in 1072 and Roger’s assumption of the title of Count of Sicily date from this period. Roger displayed, in ecclesiastical matters, a notable independence from the Curia, despite the intrinsically Catholic nature of his state and the great political interest in the development and spread of Catholicism in contrast to the Greek and Muslim religions. He therefore pursued a dual policy, favouring Catholicism but limiting, as far as possible, the powers of the Church, while acknowledging its great spiritual importance. Pope Urban II, for his part, seeing that Roger would not tolerate the establishment of a permanent legate—who in fact showed considerable zeal in Church affairs and whose circumstances advised against making him an enemy—decided to entrust to him (5 July 1098) the legation for all Sicily (v. MONARCHIA SICULA).
With the extinction of the Hauteville line in Apulia and the definitive expulsion of the Saracens from the island, Roger II, son of Roger I, united to it the continental domains and, from the antipope Anacletus, for whose cause he had sided in the schism of 1130, obtained the title of King of Sicily, which was then recognised in 1138, after the resolution of the schism, also by Pope Innocent II. Roger also demanded coronation and anointing according to the sumptuous ceremonial adopted for Charlemagne.
The new Kingdom did not neglect legislative activity, beginning that work which the constitutions of Frederick II would develop and complete. In particular, the Norman Assizes could not but reflect the characteristics of a monarchy in which royal authority, under Romano-Byzantine influence, was conceived as deriving directly from God. In consequence of these principles, in his policy toward the Church, Roger II followed in his father’s footsteps, so that relations between the Papacy and the Kingdom of Sicily were marked by continual struggle, even though Norman legislation was inspired by the principles of the Church in matters of private law and of common interest, especially matrimonial law.
Only William I succeeded in resolving the long-standing disputes regarding the rights of the Church and those of the monarchy in ecclesiastical matters. The Treaty of Benevento (1156) between William I and Pope Adrian IV granted the monarch extensive powers: chiefly, it assured him the right to approve the appointments of bishops who were elected by the clergy and confirmed the Church’s renunciation of the right to appoint legates, thus restoring the situation that had prevailed in the time of Urban II.
During the thirty-four years of the reign of William II, who succeeded William I in 1166, relations between the Church and the Kingdom of Sicily were relatively peaceful.