Norman conquests in red.

They played a major political, military, and cultural role in medieval Europe and even the Near East. They were famed for the martial spirit and for their Christian piety. They quickly adopted the Romance language of the land they settled in, their dialect becoming known as Norman, an important literary language. The Duchy of Normandy which they formed by treaty with the French crown was one of the great large fiefs of medieval France. The Normans are famed both for their culture, such as their unique Romanesque architecture and their musical traditions, as well as for the military accomplishments and innovations. Norman adventurers established a kingdom in Sicily and southern Italy by conquest and a Norman expedition on behalf of their duke led to the Norman Conquest of England. Norman influence spread from these new centres to the Crusader States in the Near East and to Scotland and Wales in Great Britain, and to Ireland.

In Russian historiography, the term "Norman" is often used for the Varangians, as for example in the term "Normanist theory". In French historiography, too, the term is often applied to the various Viking groups which raided France in the ninth century before settling down to found Normandy.

Characteristics

In a famous passage, Geoffrey Malaterra characterised the Normans thus:

Specially marked by cunning, despising their own inheritance in the hope of winning a greater, eager after both gain and dominion, given to imitation of all kinds, holding a certain mean between lavishness and greediness, that is, perhaps uniting, as they certainly did, these two seemingly opposite qualities. Their chief men were specially lavish through their desire of good report. They were, moreover, a race skillful in flattery, given to the study of eloquence, so that the very boys were orators, a race altogether unbridled unless held firmly down by the yoke of justice. They were enduring of toil, hunger, and cold whenever fortune laid it on them, given to hunting and hawking, delighting in the pleasure of horses, and of all the weapons and garb of war."^[1]

Their quick adaptability expressed itself in the shrewd Norman willingness to take on local men of talent, to marry the high-born local women; confidently illiterate Norman masters used the literate clerks of the church for their own purposes.

Normandy

Geographically, Normandy was approximately the same region as the old church province of Rouen and what was called Brittania Nova as well as western Flanders. It had no natural frontiers and was previously merely an administrative unit. Historically, its population was mostly French. Added on top of that were the Viking settlers who had begun arriving in the 880s, and who were divided between a small colony in Upper (or eastern) Normandy and a larger one in Lower (or western) Normandy.

In the course of the 10th century the initial destructive incursions of Norse war bands into the rivers of Gaul evolved into more permanent encampments that included women and chattel. The pagan culture was driven underground by the Christian faith and Gallo-Romance language of the local people. The small group of Vikings that settled there adopted the language and culture of the French majority. After a generation or two, the Normans were generally indistinguishable from their French neighbours.

In Normandy they adopted the growing feudal doctrines of the rest of northern France, and worked them, both in Normandy and in England, into a functional hierarchical system. The Norman warrior class was new and different from the old French aristocracy, many of whom could trace their families back to Carolingian times, while the Normans could seldom cite ancestors before the beginning of the 11th century. Most knights remained poor and land-hungry; by 1066, Normandy had been exporting fighting horsemen for more than a generation. Knighthood before the time of the Crusades held little social status, and simply indicated that a man was a professional warrior and wealthy enough to own a war horse. Many Normans of France and Britain would eventually serve as avid Crusaders.

The Norman language was forged by the adoption of the indigenous oïl language by a Norse-speaking ruling class developed into the regional language which survives today.

Conquests

In Italy

The early Norman castle at Adrano.

The two most prominent families to arrive in the Mediterranean were the descendants of Tancred of Hauteville and the Drengots, of whom Rainulf Drengot received the county of Aversa, the first Norman toehold in the south, from Duke Sergius IV of Naples in 1030. The Hautevilles achieved princely status when they proclaimed Prince Guaimar IV of Salerno "Duke of Apulia and Calabria". He promptly awarded their elected leader, William Iron Arm, with the title of count with his capital of Melfi. Soon the Drengots had attained unto the principality of Capua and the Emperor Henry III had legally ennobled the Hauteville leader, Drogo, as dux et magister Italiae comesque Normannorum totius Apuliae et Calabriae in 1047.

La Cuba, a Siculo-Norman palace in Palermo

The Normans left their mark however in the many castles, such as the Iron Arm's fortress at Squillace, and cathedrals, such as Roger II's at Cefalù, which dot the landscape and give a wholly distinct architectural flavour to accompany its unique history. Institutionally, the Normans combined the administrative machinery of the Byzantines, Arabs, and Lombards with their own conceptions of feudal law and order to forge a completely unique government. Under this state, there was great religious freedom, and alongside the Norman nobles existed a meritocratic bureaucracy of Jews, Muslims, and Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox.

In Byzantium

Soon after the Normans first began to enter Italy, they entered the Byzantine Empire and soon thereafter Armenia against the Pechenegs, Bulgars, and especially Seljuk Turks. The Norman mercenaries first encouraged to come to the south by the Lombards to act against the Byzantines were soon fighting in Byzantine service in Sicily. They were prominent alongside Varangian and Lombard contingents in the Sicilian campaign of George Maniaches of 1038-40. There is some debate concerning whether the Normans in Greek service were mostly or at all from Norman Italy and it now seems likely that only a few came from there. It is also unknown how many of the "Franks", as the Byzantines called them, were Normans and not other Frenchmen.

One of the first Norman mercenaries to serve as a Byzantine general was Hervé in the 1050s. By then however there were already Norman mercenaries serving as far away as Trebizond and Georgia. They were based at Malatya and Edessa, under the Byzantine duke of Antioch, Isaac Comnenus. In the 1060s, one Robert Crispin led the Normans of Edessa against the Turks. Roussel de Bailleul even tried to carve out an independent state in Asia Minor and had the support of the local population, but he was stopped by the Byzantine general Alexius Comnenus.

Some Normans joined Turkish forces and aided in the destruction of the Armenians vassal-states of Sassoun and Taron in far eastern Anatolia. Later, many took up service with the Armenian states further south in Cilicia and the Taurus Mountains. A Norman named Oursel led a force of "Franks" into the upper Euphrates valley in northern Syria. From 1073 to 1074, 8,000 of the 20,000 troops of the Armenian general Philaretus Brachamius were Normans — formerly of Oursel — led by Raimbaud. They even lent their ethnicity to the name of their castle: Afranji, meaning "Franks." The known trade between Amalfi and Antioch and between Bari and Tarsus may be related to the presence of Italo-Normans in those cities while Amalfi and Bari were under Norman rule in Italy.

Several families of Byzantine Greece were of Norman mercenary origin during the period of the Comnenian Restoration, when Byzantine emperors were seeking out western European warriors. The Raoulii were descended from an Italo-Norman named Raoul, the Petraliphae were descended from a Pierre d'Aulps, and that group of Albanian clans known as the Maniakates were descended from Normans who served under George Maniaches in the Sicilian expedition of 1038.

In England

Siege of a motte-and-bailey castle from the Bayeux Tapestry.

When finally Edward the Confessor returned from his father's refuge in 1041, at the invitation of his half-brother Harthacanute, he brought with him a Norman-educated mind. He also brought many Norman counsellors and fighters, some of whom established an English cavalry force. This concept never really took root, but it is a typical example of the attitudes of Edward. He appointed Robert of Jumièges archbishop of Canterbury and made Ralph the Timid earl of Hereford. He invited his brother-in-law Eustace II of Boulogne to his court in 1051, an event which resulted in the greatest of early conflicts between Saxon and Norman and ultimately resulted in the exile of Earl Godwin of Wessex.

In 1066, Duke William II of Normandy, conquered England. The invading Normans and their descendants replaced the Anglo-Saxons as the ruling class of England. The nobility of England were part of a single French-speaking culture and many had lands on both sides of the channel. Early Norman kings of England were, as Dukes of Normandy, vassals to the King of France. They may not have necessarily considered England to be their most important holding (although it brought the title of King - an important status symbol). King Richard I (the Lionheart) is often thought to epitomise a medieval English King, but he only spoke French and spent more time in Aquitaine or on Crusade than in England.

Eventually, the Normans merged with the natives, combining languages and traditions. In the course of the Hundred Years war, the Norman aristocracy often identified themselves as English. The Anglo-Norman language became distinct from the French language, something that was the subject of some humour by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon languages eventually merged to form Middle English.

In Wales

Chepstow Castle in Wales, first built by William fitzOsbern in 1067.

Subsequent to the Conquest, however, the Marches came completely under the dominance of William's most trusted Norman barons, including Bernard de Neufmarché, Roger of Montgomery in Shropshire and Hugh Lupus in Cheshire. These Normans began a long period of slow conquest during which almost all of Wales was at some point subject to Norman interference. Norman words, such as baron (barwn), first entered Welsh at that time.

On Crusade

The legendary religious zeal of the Normans was exercised in religious wars long before the First Crusade carved out a Norman principality in Antioch. They were major foreign participants in the Reconquista in Spain. In 1018, Roger de Tony travelled to Spain to carve out a state for himself from Moorish lands, but failed. In 1064, during the War of Barbastro, William of Montreuil led the papal army and took a huge booty.

In 1096, Crusaders passing by the siege of Amalfi were joined by Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred with an army of Italo-Normans. Bohemond was the de facto leader of the Crusade during its passage through Asia Minor. After the successful Siege of Antioch in 1097, Bohemond began carving out an independent principality around that city. Tancred was instrumental in the conquest of Jerusalem and he worked for the expansion of the Crusader kingdom in Transjordan and the region of Galilee.

In Scotland

One of the claimants of the English throne opposing William the Conqueror, Edgar Atheling, eventually fled to Scotland. King Malcolm III of Scotland married Edgar's sister Margaret, and came into opposition to William who had already disputed Scotland's southern borders. William invaded Scotland in 1072, riding as far as the Abernethy where he met up with his fleet of ships. Malcolm submitted, paid homage to William, and surrendered his son Duncan as a hostage, beginning a series of arguments as to whether the Scottish Crown owed allegiance to the English King.

Normans came into Scotland, building castles and founding noble families who would provide some future kings such as Robert the Bruce as well as founding some of the Scottish clans. King David I of Scotland was instrumental in introducing Normans and Norman culture to Scotland, part of the process some scholars call the "Davidian Revolution". Having spent time at the court of Henry I of England (married to David's sister Maud of Scotland), and needing them to wrestle the kingdom from his half-brother Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair, David had to reward many with lands. The process was continued under David's successors, most intensely of all under William the Lion. The Norman-derived feudal system was applied in varying degrees to most of Scotland.

In Ireland

Norman keep in Trim, County Meath.

Rulers

• List of Dukes of Normandy
• List of Counts and Dukes of Apulia and Calabria
• List of Counts of Aversa
• List of Princes of Capua
• List of Dukes of Gaeta
• List of Princes of Taranto
• List of Kings of Sicily
• List of Princes of Antioch
• List of Officers of the Principality of Antioch
• List of Kings of England

Culture

A quintessential Norman keep: the White Tower in London.

Architecture

The Normans' architecture typically stands out as a new stage in the architectural history of the regions which they subdued. They spread a unique Romanesque idiom to England and Italy and the encastellation of these regions with keeps in their north French style fundamentally altered the military landscape. Their style was characterised by rounded arches (particularly over windows and doorways) and massive proportions.

In Italy, the Normans incoporated elements of the native Islamic, Lombard, and Byzantine architecture into their own, initiating a style known as Sicilian Romanesque. In England, the period of Norman architecture immediately succeeds that of the Anglo-Saxon and precedes the Early Gothic.

Visual arts

A bronze lion sculpture attributed to an Italo-Norman artist. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Wars of Religion in the sixteenth century and French Revolution in the eighteenth successively destroyed much of what existed in the way of the architectural and artistic remnant of this Norman creativity. The first by their violence caused the wanton destruction of many Norman edifices; and the second by its assault on religion caused the purposeful destruction of religious objects of any type and by its destabilisation of society resulted in rampant pillaging.

By far the most famous work of Norman art is the Bayeux Tapestry, which is not a tapestry but a work of embroidery. It was commissioned by Odo, the Bishop of Bayeux and first Earl of Kent, employing natives from Kent who were learned in the Nordic traditions imported in the previous half century by the Danish Vikings.

In Britain, Norman art primarily survives as stonework or metalwork, such as capitals and baptismal fonts. In southern Italy, however, Norman artwork survives plentifully in forms strongly influenced by its Greek, Lombard, and Arab forebears. Of the royal regalia preserved in Palermo, the crown is Byzantine in style and the coronation cloak is of Arab craftsmanship with Arabic inscriptions. Many churches preserve sculptured fonts, capitals, and more importantly mosaics, which were common in Norman Italy and drew heavily on the Greek heritage. Lombard Salerno was a centre of ivorywork in the eleventh century and this continued under Norman domination. Finally should be noted the intercourse between French Crusaders travelling to the Holy Land who brough with them French artefacts with which to gift the churches at which they stopped in southern Italy amongs their Norman cousins. For this reason many south Italian churches preserve works from France alongside their native pieces.

Music

A manuscript from Saint-Evroul depicting King David on the lyre (or harp) in the middle of the back of the initial 'B'.

At Saint Evroul, a tradition of singing had developed and the choir achieved fame in Normandy. Under the Norman abbot Robert de Grantmesnil, several monks of Saint-Evroul fled to southern Italy, where they were patronised by Robert Guiscard and established a Latin monastery at Sant'Eufemia. There they continued the tradition of singing.

References

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Elisabeth van Houts, ed. The Normans in Europe Manchester Medieval Sources, Manchester 2000.
• Medieval History Texts in Translation from the University of Leeds.

Secondary literature

• Bates, David. Normandy before 1066, London 1982
• Chalandon, Ferdinand. Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Sicilie. Paris, 1907.
• Chibnall, Marjorie. The Normans, The Peoples of Europe, Oxford 2000
• Crouch, David. The Normans: The History of a Dynasty. Hambledon & London, 2003.
• Douglas, David. The Norman Achievement. London, 1969.
• Douglas, David. The Norman Fate. London, 1976
• Gillingham, John. The Angevin Empire, end ed., London 2001.
• Gravett, Christopher, and Nicolle, David. The Normans: Warrior Knights and their Castles. Osprey Publishing: Oxford, 2006.
• Green, Judith A. The Aristocracy of Norman England. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• Gunn, Peter. Normandy: Landscape with Figures. London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd, 1975.
• Harper-Bill, Christopher and Elisabeth Van Houts, eds. A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World Boydell Press. 2003
• Haskins, Charles H. Norman Institutions, 1918
• Maitland, F. W. Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England. 2d ed. Cambridge University Press, 1988. (feudal Saxons)
• R. Mortimer, Angevin England 1154?1258, Oxford 1994.
• Muhlbergher, Stephen, Medieval England (Saxon social demotions)
• Norwich, John Julius. The Normans in the South 1016-1130. Longmans: London, 1967.
• Norwich, John Julius. The Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194. Longman: London, 1970.
• Robertson, A. J., ed. and trans. Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I. AMS Press, 1974. (Mudrum fine)
• Painter, Sidney. A History of the Middle Ages 284?1500. New York, 1953.

External links

• Dudo of St. Quentin's Gesta Normannorum, English translation
• The Normans, a European People, by the European Commission
• Breve Chronicon Northmannicum (Latin).
• The Normans Jersey heritage trust (pdf)
• Wales History — The Norman Wars.
• Patrick Kelly The Normans: their history, arms and tactics
• Regia Anglorum Who were the Normans?

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