Judith A. Green - The Normans: Power, Conquest and Culture in 11th Century Europe

INTRODUCTION

I N THE ELEVENTH CENTURY THE climate was improving, population was growing, and people were on the move, west from central Asia, and south from north-western Europe. In 1054 the unity of Christianity between east and west was broken, a rift which lasted for centuries. In 1096 the idea of recovering Jerusalem from Muslims was translated into action. Existing empires and principalities were challenged and new polities were founded. War was at the centre of these events, waged by small armies led by men who achieved lasting fame, men such as William the Conqueror, Robert Guiscard, and Bohemond. That these men were of Norman extraction seemed to their chroniclers to be no coincidence. They were born of a warrior race, whose victories showed that they were favoured by God. Their achievements prompted a remarkable body of historical writing starting with Dudo of Saint-Quentin around the turn of the first millennium, and it did not cease as Normandys period of autonomy came to an end in 1204 when the duchy was brought under the direct control of the king of France.

Normandy was the name given to the territory initially settled by Rollo (Hrlfr, Rou), a Viking leader in the early tenth century. Under Rollo and his successors their followers spread west from the banks of the river Seine in northern France, south and east, until frontiers stabilized. The mixed population of Scandinavian and Frankish origins became known as the Normans, the Northmen. By the early eleventh century Normans were found in southern Italy as pilgrims and mercenaries, then as warlords in permanent occupation. By the end of the eleventh century one family, the Hautevilles, dominated the south, and had subjected Arab Sicily to their rule. Meanwhile, in 1066 Duke William took a large force to southern England and defeated King Harold Godwinson at the battle of Hastings.