Levi Roach - Empires of the Normans: Conquerors of Europe

Empires of the Normans

Conquerors of Europe

Levi Roach

For Clara and Lettie

W hen the seventeen-year-old Frederick II entered Mainz in early December 1212, he was met by cheering crowds. For years, the German throne had been contested by warring factions. Now the succession of young Frederick the boy from Apulia, as he was affectionately known looked set to settle matters. Frederick was dressed in finery: furs and a heavy cloak to keep out the winter chill, to which he was unaccustomed. He was guided into the city by the local archdeacon and the crowds parted as they went. Their destination was the great cathedral in the heart of the city. Two bishops wearing relics around their necks met Frederick there at the great brass doors. Then the archbishop, Siegfried, joined them, leading the imperial entourage inside.

As the crowd filed in, Frederick laid his arms and cloak down before the altar. Then he prostrated himself demonstratively in the shape of the cross, entreating divine mercy. All the bishops and clerics did likewise, while others sang litanies, invoking the assistance of the saints. Once Frederick had risen, Archbishop Siegfried asked him if he would fulfil the duties incumbent upon him as king (to defend the Church and his people), which Frederick happily affirmed. Hearing this, all those in attendance shouted their approval: Amen! Amen! So let it be! So let it be! After a series of further prayers, the ceremony now reached its high point, as Siegfried consecrated Frederick with holy oil, formally anointing him king. He then entrusted Frederick with the regalia, the symbols of his office: the sword, that Frederick might defend the Church and chasten the unjust; the ring, as a sign of Christian faith; the sceptre and staff, that he might offer just judgement; and the crown, as a signification of the glory and holiness of his office. After more prayers, Siegfried led the newly crowned Frederick from the altar down the choir to the throne that had been erected there. Here Frederick uttered his coronation oath his solemn promise to offer peace and justice, and show appropriate mercy before receiving the kiss of peace from the archbishop. Finally, he ascended the throne. Seated in majesty, Frederick watched the ensuing Mass with deep satisfaction. He had entered Mainz a prince, but he left it an anointed monarch. Frederick was now king by the grace of God, ruler of the Germans (and Holy Roman emperor in waiting).

Frederick was the latest monarch of a distinguished line, stretching back to his grandfather, the legendary German emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Yet the impression of continuity is deceptive. For the young Frederick was not really German. In fact, he barely knew the country. He was an Italian Norman (known as the boy from Apulia), whod not stepped foot north of the Alps before this. And as his reign would show, Frederick owed far more to the Norman south than to his German roots. For in his relations with his son and co-ruler, Henry (VII), Frederick would repeatedly insist on applying more rigorous Sicilian customs north of the Alps.

As a Norman monarch, Frederick was far from alone. England, most of Wales, and large parts of Ireland not to mention a number of key holdings in France were under the authority of the infamous bad King John, a direct descendant (in the female line) of the great Norman conquistador William I (the Conqueror). To Johns north, William the Lion, the long-reigning king of Scots, was himself three-quarters Norman, supported by a largely Norman aristocracy. And in the Mediterranean, Frederick controlled Sicily and southern Italy, while almost half the Holy Land was in the hands of Bohemond IV of Antioch, the great-great-grandson of the notorious Italo-Norman sell-sword Bohemond of Taranto.

With Fredericks coronation, Norman power and influence had reached its apex. In one form or another, the Normans had come to dominate western Europe and the Mediterranean. Their impact can scarcely be exaggerated. To Normandy, theyd brought a new aristocracy and ruling dynasty; to Britain and Ireland, theyd brought castles, chivalric culture, Romanesque architecture and the French language (still spoken by aristocrats in Fredericks day); to southern Italy, theyd brought ties to Rome and the Catholic church; and to Germany, theyd brought new attitudes to law and order. The Norman achievement was, however, remarkably fragile. For in all these regions, the Normans settled and adapted to local society. The result was a world that was recognisably Norman but where the Normans themselves had become more localised. In the Mediterranean, the Normans had long since come to identify as Sicilians, Apulians and Calabrians; in the British Isles, theyd similarly started to see themselves as English and Scottish (albeit of a Francophone aristocratic variety). They were at once everywhere and nowhere a people with an exalted past, but little future.

These years of Norman ascendancy first saw the emergence of a common European culture, and the Normans were an essential part of this process. It was thanks to them that the British Isles and southern Italy would form part of western (Catholic) Europe. Nor was their influence limited to areas of direct Norman rule. The Normans were involved at crucial moments during the Christian conquest of Islamic Iberia. They established a short-lived kingdom in North Africa, threatening the Fatimid rulers of Egypt and Almohad lords of Morocco. And they played an essential part in the collapse of Byzantine authority in Asia Minor, events which paved the way to the First Crusade.

For the descendants of a few shiploads of Vikings who settled on the northern reaches of the River Seine c.911, the Normans had come a long way. The following pages are dedicated to understanding how, by a combination of luck, pluck and piety, they achieved this. Its a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and kingdoms lost. We begin with the legendary Rollo, whose piratical raids on the Seine laid the foundations for the future duchy of Normandy. Thereafter, we follow his descendants as they achieve dominance in northern France, fighting off threats from neighbours in Flanders and Anjou. In the following years, we see them launch more daring ventures, first to England, where William the Conqueror seized one of Europes most valuable crowns; then to southern Italy, where the sons of the otherwise obscure Tancred de Hauteville created an equally exalted kingdom of their own. From these new bases, the Normans extended their influence further still, settling in Scotland and conquering large parts of Wales and Ireland. More spectacular, if short-lived, was their impact on the eastern Mediterranean, where we see them come close to toppling the Byzantine Empire. By the time of Fredericks coronation in December 1212, theyd even supplied the next German king. In an age of overachievers, the Normans repeatedly stood out: their churches were bigger, their leaders bolder, their troops fiercer. This is their story.