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14 - Normans in European History by Charles Homer Haskins · Normans in European History

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Speaker 1: Section thirteen of the Normans in European History by Charles
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Speaker 1: Homer Haskins. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain
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Speaker 1: recording by Pamel and Agami, Chapter seven, The Normans in
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Speaker 1: the South Part one. Of all the achievements of the
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Speaker 1: Heroic Age of Norman history, none were more daring in
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Speaker 1: execution or more brilliant in results than the exploits of
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Speaker 1: Norman barons in the lands of the Mediterranean, battling against
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Speaker 1: the Infidel in Spain, in Sicily and in Syria, scattering
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Speaker 1: the Papal army and becoming the humble vassals of the
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Speaker 1: Holy See, overcoming Lombard princes and Byzantine generals. The Normans
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Speaker 1: were the glorious adventurers of the Mediterranean world throughout the
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Speaker 1: eleventh century, which constituted the great period of Norman expansion.
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Speaker 1: Then masters of southern Italy and Sicily, they put to
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Speaker 1: work their powers of assimilation and organization, and created a strong,
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Speaker 1: well governed state and a rich, composite civilization, which was
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Speaker 1: the wonder of Europe. If one were tempted to ascribe
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Speaker 1: the successes of the Normans in England to happy accident
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Speaker 1: or to the unique personality of William the conqueror. The
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Speaker 1: story of Norman achievements in the South, the work of
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Speaker 1: scattered bands of simple barons without any assistance from the
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Speaker 1: reigning dukes, would be conclusive proof of the creative power
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Speaker 1: of the Norman genius for conquest and administration. The earliest
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Speaker 1: relations of the Normans with the countries of the Mediterranean
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Speaker 1: were the outgrowth of those pilgrimages to holy places which
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Speaker 1: play so important a part in medieval life and culture.
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Speaker 1: Originating in the early veneration for the shrines associated with
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Speaker 1: the beginnings of Christianity and the sufferings and death of
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Speaker 1: the Christian martyrs, pilgrimages were in course of time reinforced
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Speaker 1: by the more practical motives of healing and penance, until
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Speaker 1: crowds of pilgrims who haunted the roads in the later
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Speaker 1: Middle Ages included many a hori offender who sought to
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Speaker 1: expiate his sins by this particular form of good works.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes these penitents would be sent to wander about the
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Speaker 1: earth for a definite time. More frequently they would be
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Speaker 1: assigned a journey to a neighboring shrine or to some
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Speaker 1: more famous fountain of healing. Grace, such as Compostella Rome
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Speaker 1: or Jerusalem. Compostella hiding among the Galician hills, the bones
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Speaker 1: of no less an apostle than Saint James the Greater,
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Speaker 1: who became in time the patron saint of Spain and
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Speaker 1: spread the name of Santiago over to continents, was early
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Speaker 1: a center of pilgrimage from France, and claimed as one
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Speaker 1: of its devotees the Mighty Charlemagne, the footsteps of whose
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Speaker 1: paladins men traced through the dark defas files of the
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Speaker 1: Pyrenees in the Song of Roland, as well as in
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Speaker 1: the special itinerary prepared for the use of French pilgrims.
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Speaker 1: To the tomb of the Saint Rome was of course
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Speaker 1: more important, for it claimed two apostles, as well as
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Speaker 1: their living successor on the Pontifical throne. It needed no
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Speaker 1: pious invention to prove that Charlemagne had been in Rome
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Speaker 1: and had received the imperial crown as he knelt in
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Speaker 1: Saint Peter's and men told how in their own time
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Speaker 1: the great King Canute had betaken himself thitherwith staff and scrip,
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Speaker 1: and many horses laden with gold and silver. Already the
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Speaker 1: number of strangers in Rome was so great that guide
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Speaker 1: books were compiled indicating its principal sights and marvels, seeing
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Speaker 1: Rome as we might call them, and as the processions
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Speaker 1: wound into the sight of the eternal city, they burst
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Speaker 1: into its praise in that wonderful pilgrim's chorus oooh Roma nobilis,
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Speaker 1: or beasts at dome mina kuntaram urbium ex chellentisima roseo
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Speaker 1: mar tiram sanguin nee rubia albist et virginum lil east
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Speaker 1: khandida salutem di chimus t b per omnia te bendi
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Speaker 1: chimus salve per sekula. Jerusalem was most precious of all,
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Speaker 1: by reason both of its sacred associations and of the
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Speaker 1: difficulty of the journey. No Charlemagne was needed to justify
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Speaker 1: resort to the Holy Sepulcher, where the mother of the
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Speaker 1: Great Emperor Constantine had built the first shrine. But the
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Speaker 1: Great Charles had a hostile constructed there for Frankish pilgrims,
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Speaker 1: and soon legend makes him to follow the road to
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Speaker 1: Constantinople and Jerusalem. As we are reminded in the Great
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Speaker 1: Charlemagne Window at chart there were manuals for the pilgrim
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Speaker 1: to Jerusalem also, but these were chiefly occupied with how
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Speaker 1: to reach the heavenly city, though one of them contents
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Speaker 1: itself with advising travelers to keep his face always to
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Speaker 1: the east and ask God's help. In all this life
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Speaker 1: of the road, the Normans took their full share. Michel
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Speaker 1: would have it that their motive was the Norman spirit
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Speaker 1: of gain, no longer able to plunder neighbors at home,
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Speaker 1: but glad of the chance of making something on the way,
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Speaker 1: and the certainty of gaining a hundred percent by assuring
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Speaker 1: the soul's salvation at the journey's end. Certainly, they were
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Speaker 1: not afraid to travel, nor averse to taking advantage of
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Speaker 1: the opportunities which travel might bring. We find them, sometimes
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Speaker 1: singly and sometimes an armed bands on the road to
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Speaker 1: Spain to roam into the Holy City. At one time.
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Speaker 1: It may be the Duke himself, Robert the Magnificent, who
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Speaker 1: wends his way with a goodly company to the Holy Sepulcher,
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Speaker 1: only to at Nicea on his return, or a holy
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Speaker 1: abbot like Tiri of Sainte Vrille, denied the sight of
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Speaker 1: the earthly Jerusalem which he sought, but turning his thoughts
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Speaker 1: to the city not made with hands, as he composed
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Speaker 1: himself for his last sleep before a lonely altar on
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Speaker 1: the shores of Cyprus. In other cases we find the
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Speaker 1: military element preponderating, as with Roger of Toaweney, who led
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Speaker 1: an army against the Saracens of Spain in the time
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Speaker 1: of Duke Richard the Good, or Robert Crispin half a
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Speaker 1: century later, fighting in Spain, sojourning in Italy, and finally
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Speaker 1: passing into the service of the Emperor at Constantinople, where
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Speaker 1: he had much triumph and much victory. In this stirring world,
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Speaker 1: the line between pilgrim and adventurer was not easy to draw,
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Speaker 1: and the Normans did not always draw it. Often their
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Speaker 1: penitents garb covered a coat of mail, and they carried
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Speaker 1: a great sword along with their pilgrim's staff and wallet.
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Speaker 1: Footnote de Laire Lenormand on Italy, page thirty five and footnote.
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Speaker 1: We must remember that Normandy exported in this period a
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Speaker 1: considerable supply of younger sons, bred to a life of
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Speaker 1: warfare and fed upon the rich nourishment of the Chamson
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Speaker 1: de Geste, but turned loose upon the world to seek
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Speaker 1: elsewhere the lands and booty and deeds of renown which
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Speaker 1: they could no longer expect to find at home. The
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Speaker 1: conquest of England gave an outlet to this movement in
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Speaker 1: one direction, the conquest of southern Italy absorbed it in another.
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Speaker 1: In the eleventh century, as in the early nineteenth, Italy
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Speaker 1: was merely a geographical expression. The unity of law and
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Speaker 1: government which it had enjoyed under the Romans had long
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Speaker 1: since been broken by the Lombard invasion and the Frankish conquest,
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Speaker 1: which drew the center and north of the peninsula into
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Speaker 1: the currents of Western politics, while the south continued to
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Speaker 1: look upon Constantinople as its capital and sicily passed under
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Speaker 1: the dominion of the Prophet and the Fatamite caliphs of Cairo.
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Speaker 1: Separated from the rest of Italy by the lofty barrier
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Speaker 1: of the Abruzzi and the wedge of territory which the
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Speaker 1: papacy had driven through the lines of communication to the west,
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Speaker 1: the southern half followed a different course of historical development,
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Speaker 1: from the days of the Lombards to those of Garibaldi.
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Speaker 1: Nature had thrust it into the central place in the
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Speaker 1: Mediterranean world, to which the Gulfs and bays of its
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Speaker 1: long coast line opened the rich hinterland of Campania and Apulia,
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Speaker 1: and the natural highways beyond here had sprung up those
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Speaker 1: cities of Magna Graecia, which were the cradle of Italian civilization.
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Speaker 1: Here the Romans had their chief harbors at Pozzuoli and Brindisi,
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Speaker 1: and their great naval base at Cape Mizano. Here the
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Speaker 1: ports of Gaeta, Naples, Amalfi, and Body kept intercourse with
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Speaker 1: the East open. During the Middle Ages, and if the
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Speaker 1: genius of Hamilcar and Hannibal had once sought to tear
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Speaker 1: the south and its islands from Italy to unite them
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Speaker 1: with a Carthaginian empire, their close relations with Africa had
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Speaker 1: again been asserted by the raids and conquests of the Saracens,
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Speaker 1: while their connection with the East made them the last
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Speaker 1: stronghold of Byzantine power beyond the Adriatic. In the long run, however,
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Speaker 1: it has been pointed out that if the culture of
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Speaker 1: this region came from the South, its masters have come
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Speaker 1: from the north footnote bertaux la don ittai Meridional, page
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Speaker 1: fifteen and footnote, and its new masters of the eleventh
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Speaker 1: century were to unify and consolidate it at the very
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Speaker 1: time when the rest of the peninsula was breaking up
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Speaker 1: into warring communes and principalities. In the year one thousand,
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Speaker 1: the unity of the South was largely formal. The Eastern
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Speaker 1: Empire still claimed authority, but the northern region was entirely
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Speaker 1: independent under the Lombard princes of Capua, Benevento, and Salerno,
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Speaker 1: while the maritime republics of Naples, Gaeta and Amalfi owed
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Speaker 1: at best only a nominal subjection. The effective power of
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Speaker 1: Byzantium was limited to the extreme south, where its governors
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Speaker 1: and tax collectors ruled in both Apulia and Calabria. Of
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Speaker 1: the two districts, Calabria, now the toe of the boot,
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Speaker 1: was the more Greek in religion and language, as well
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Speaker 1: as in political allegiance, but its scattered cities were unable
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Speaker 1: to defend themselves against a vigorous attack. The large Lombard
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Speaker 1: population of Apulia retained its speech and its law, and
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Speaker 1: showed no attachment to its Greek rulers, whose exactions in
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Speaker 1: taxes in military service brought neither peace and security within
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Speaker 1: nor protection from the raids of the Saracens. There was
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Speaker 1: abundant material for a revolt, and the Normans furnished the occasion.
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Speaker 1: The first definite trace of the Normans in Italy appears
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Speaker 1: in or about the year ten sixteen, when a band
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Speaker 1: returning from Jerusalem is found at Monte Gargano on the
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Speaker 1: eastern coast. There was here an ancient shrine of Saint Michael,
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Speaker 1: older even than the famous Monastery of Saint Michael of
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Speaker 1: the par on the Confines of Normandy, with which it
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Speaker 1: had shared the red cloak of its patron, and a
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Speaker 1: natural object of veneration on the part of Norman pilgrims,
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Speaker 1: who well understood the militant virtues of the Archangel of
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Speaker 1: the Flaming Sword. Here the Normans fell into conversation with
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Speaker 1: a Lombard named Melas, who had recently led an unsuccessful
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Speaker 1: revolt in Apulia, and who told them that with a
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Speaker 1: few soldiers like themselves, he could easily overcome the Greeks,
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Speaker 1: whereupon they promised to return with their countrymen and assist him.
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Speaker 1: Another story of the same year tells of a body
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Speaker 1: of forty valiant Normans, also on their way home from
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Speaker 1: the Holy Sepulcher, who found as Saracen army besieging Salerno
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Speaker 1: and securing arms and horses from the natives, defeated and
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Speaker 1: drove off the Infidel host. Besought by the inhabitants to stay,
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Speaker 1: they replied that they had acted only for the love
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Speaker 1: of God, but consented to carry home lemons, almonds, rich vestments,
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Speaker 1: and other products of the South as a means of
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Speaker 1: attracting other Normans to make their homes in this land
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Speaker 1: of milk and honey. Legend doubtless has its part in
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Speaker 1: these tales. The good orderic makes the twenty thousand Saracens
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Speaker 1: in front of Salerno flee before a hundred Normans, but
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Speaker 1: the general account of the occasion of the Norman expedition
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Speaker 1: seems correct. Possibly a Lombard emissary accompanied the pilgrim's home
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Speaker 1: to help in the recruiting. Certainly, in ten seventeen the
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Speaker 1: Normans are back in force and ready for business. There was, however,
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Speaker 1: nothing sensational or decisive in the early exploits of the
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Speaker 1: Normans on Italian soil. The results of the first campaigns
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Speaker 1: with Meles in northern Apulia were lost in a serious
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Speaker 1: defeat at Cane, and for many years the Normans few
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Speaker 1: in number, but brave and skillful sought their individual advantage
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Speaker 1: in the service of the various parties in the game
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Speaker 1: of Italian politics, passing from one prince to another as
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Speaker 1: advantage seemed to offer, and careful not to give to
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Speaker 1: any so decisive a preponderance that he might dispense with them.
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Speaker 1: The first Norman principality was established about ten thirty at
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Speaker 1: Aversa just north of Naples, where the money of rule
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Speaker 1: continued to circulate more than a sanctuary afterward. But such
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Speaker 1: definite points of crystallization make their appearance but slowly, and
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Speaker 1: the body of the Normans, constantly recruited from home, lived
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Speaker 1: as mercenaries on pay and pillage. Their reputation was, however, established,
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Speaker 1: and when the Prince of Salerno was asked by the
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Speaker 1: Pope to disband his Norman troops, he replied that it
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Speaker 1: had cost him much time and money to collect this
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Speaker 1: precious treasure, for whom the soldiers of the nas they
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Speaker 1: were as meet before the devouring lions. Footnote Aimee Eastward
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Speaker 1: de Linormont, page one twenty four and footnote Among the
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Speaker 1: Norman leaders, the House of Ottavilla stands out pre eminently,
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Speaker 1: both as the dominant force in this formative period, and
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Speaker 1: as the ancestor of the later princes of Southern Italy
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Speaker 1: and Sicily. The head of the family, Tancred held the
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Speaker 1: barony of Ottavilla, in the neighborhood of Courtens, but his
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Speaker 1: patrimony was quite insufficient to provide for his twelve sons,
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Speaker 1: most of whom went to seek their fortune in the South.
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Speaker 1: An elder group consisting of William of the Iron Arm,
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Speaker 1: Drogo and Humphrey, and a younger set of half brothers,
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Speaker 1: of whom the most important are Robert, Gisquert and Rogier.
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Speaker 1: At the outset, scarcely distinguishable from their fellow warriors, Lie
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Speaker 1: Fortissimee normant of their historian aime. The exploits of these
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Speaker 1: brothers are celebrated by the later chronicles in a way
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Speaker 1: which reminds us less of sober history than of the
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Speaker 1: heroes of the Sagas or the Chasson de Jeste. William
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Speaker 1: of the Iron Arm and Drogo seemed to have arrived
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Speaker 1: in the South about ten thirty six, and soon signalized
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Speaker 1: themselves in the first invasion of Sicily and in the
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Speaker 1: conquest of Northern Apulia, where William was chosen leader or
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Speaker 1: account by the other Normans, and at his death in
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Speaker 1: ten forty six, succeeded by Drogo, who was soon afterwards
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Speaker 1: invested with the county by the Emperor Henry the Third.
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Speaker 1: It was apparently in this year that Robert Giscard first
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Speaker 1: came to Italy. Refused assistance by his brothers, he hired
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Speaker 1: himself out to various barons, until he was left by
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Speaker 1: Drogo in charge of a small garrison in the mountains
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Speaker 1: of Calabria. Here he lived like a brigand, carrying off
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Speaker 1: the cattle and sheep of the inhabitants, and holding the
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Speaker 1: people themselves for ransom. On one occasion he laid an
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Speaker 1: ambush for the Greek commandant of Bisignano, whom he had
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Speaker 1: invited to a conference, and compelled him to pay twenty
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Speaker 1: thousand golden soliity for his freedom. Brigand as he was,
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Speaker 1: Robert was more than a mere bandit. His shrewdness and
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Speaker 1: resourcefulness early gained him the name of Gisgau or the Wery,
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Speaker 1: and his Byzantine contemporary, the Princess Anna Comnena, has left
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Speaker 1: a portrait of him, in which his towering stature, flashing
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Speaker 1: eye and bellowing strength are matched by his overleaping ambition
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Speaker 1: and desire to dominate, his skill in organization, and his
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Speaker 1: unconquerable will. Allied by marriage to a powerful baron of
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Speaker 1: the South, he soon began to make headway in the
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Speaker 1: conquest of Calabria, and while Drogo and his brother Humphrey
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Speaker 1: were jealous of Robert's advancement, at Humphrey's death in ten
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Speaker 1: fifty seven, he was chosen to succeed as count and
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Speaker 1: leader of the Normans, leaving to the youngest brother, Rogier.
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Speaker 1: Just derived from Hauteville. The conquest of Calabria and the
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Speaker 1: first attempts on Sicily, Gisgach gave his attention particularly to
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Speaker 1: the affairs of Apulia, and after a series of campaigns
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Speaker 1: and revolts, completed the subjugation of the mainland by the
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Speaker 1: capture of Bari in ten seventy one, five years after
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Speaker 1: the Battle of Hastings. The whole of southern Italy had
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Speaker 1: passed under Norman rule. The South had been conquered, but
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Speaker 1: for whom Robert was no king, and a mere count
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Speaker 1: must have, for form's sake, at least a feudal superior,
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Speaker 1: and this part strangely enough, was taken by the pope.
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Speaker 1: The relations of the Normans with the papacy formed not
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Speaker 1: the least remarkable chefs in the extraordinary history of their
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Speaker 1: dominion of the South. This period of expansion coincided with
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Speaker 1: the great movement of revival and reform in the Church,
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Speaker 1: which was taken up with vigor by the German popes
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Speaker 1: of the middle of the century and culminated some years
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Speaker 1: later in the Great Pontificate of Gregory the seventh. So
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Speaker 1: far as the Italian policy of the papacy was concerned,
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Speaker 1: the movement seems to have had two aspects. An effort
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Speaker 1: to put an end to the disorders produced by simony
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Speaker 1: and by the marriage of the clergy evils, aggravated in
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Speaker 1: the South by the conflicting authority of the Greek and
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Speaker 1: Latin bishops, in a desire to extend the temporal power
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Speaker 1: and influence of the pope and the peninsula. In both
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Speaker 1: of these directions, the conquests of the Normans seem to
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Speaker 1: threaten the papal interests, and we are not surprised to
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Speaker 1: find the first of this vigorous series of popes, thee
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Speaker 1: of the Ninth, in interfering actively in the ecclesiastical affairs
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Speaker 1: of the region, and acting as the defender of the
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Speaker 1: native population which appealed to him, and in the case
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Speaker 1: of Benevento, formally placed itself under his protection. Finally, with
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Speaker 1: a body of troops collected in Germany and in other
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Speaker 1: parts of Italy, he met the Normans in battle at
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Speaker 1: Chivitate in ten fifty three and suffered an overwhelming defeat,
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Speaker 1: which clearly established the Norman supremacy in Italy. The Normans
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Speaker 1: could not, however, follow up their victory as if it
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Speaker 1: had been won over an ordinary enemy. Indeed, they seemed
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Speaker 1: to have felt a certain embarrassment in the situation, and
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Speaker 1: after humbling themselves before the Pope, they treated him with
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Speaker 1: respect and deference, which did not prevent their keeping him
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Speaker 1: for some months in honorable detention at Benevento. Plainly, the
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Speaker 1: Normans were not to be subdued by force of arms,
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Speaker 1: and it soon became evident to the reforming party that
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Speaker 1: they would be useful allies against the Roman nobles and
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Speaker 1: the unreformed clergy, as well as against the dangerous authority
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Speaker 1: of the German Emperor. Accordingly, in ten fifty nine, the
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Speaker 1: year in which the College of Cardinals received its first
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Speaker 1: definite constitution as the electors of the Pope, Nicholas the
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Speaker 1: Second held the council at the Norman Hill fortress of Melfi,
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Speaker 1: attended by the higher clergy of the South, and also
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Speaker 1: by the chief Norman princes, Richard of Aversa and Robert Guiscard.
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Speaker 1: In return for the Pope's investiture of their lands, these
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Speaker 1: princes took an oath of allegiance and fealty to the
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Speaker 1: Holy See, and agreed to pay an annual rent to
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Speaker 1: the Pope for their dominions. In Robert's oath, which has
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Speaker 1: been preserved, he styles himself by the grace of God
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Speaker 1: and Saint Peter, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and with
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Speaker 1: their help thereafter of Sicily, as Duke vassal of the Pope.
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Speaker 1: The cattle thief of the Calabrian Mountains had henceforth a
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Speaker 1: recognized position in feudal society. Gisga, however, was not the
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Speaker 1: man to rest content with the position he had won,
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Speaker 1: or to interpret his obligations of vassalage as an obligation
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Speaker 1: of obedience. He was soon in the field again, pushing
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Speaker 1: up the west coast to Amalfi and up the east
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Speaker 1: into the Abruzzi, taking no great pains as he went
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Speaker 1: to distinguish the lands of Saint Peter from the lands
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Speaker 1: of others. The pope began to ask himself what he
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Speaker 1: had secured by the alliance, and a definite break was
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Speaker 1: soon followed by the excommunication of the Norman leader. By
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Speaker 1: this time the papal sea was occupied by Gregory the Seventh,
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Speaker 1: who was Hildebrand had long been the power behind the
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Speaker 1: throne under his predecessors, the greatest, the most intense, and
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Speaker 1: the most uncompromising of the popes of the eleventh century.
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Speaker 1: Yet even he failed to bend the Norman to his will.
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Speaker 1: Fearing a combination with his bitterest enemy, the Emperor Henry
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Speaker 1: the Fourth, he finally made peace with Gisgar and in
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Speaker 1: the renewal of fealty and investiture which followed the recent
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Speaker 1: conquests of the Normans were expressly accepted. No great time
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Speaker 1: elapsed before the pope was forced to make a desperate
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Speaker 1: appeal for Norman aid. After repeated attempts, Henry the Fourth
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Speaker 1: got control of Rome, shut up Gregory in the Castle
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Speaker 1: of Saint Angelo, and installed another pope in his place,
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Speaker 1: who crowned Henry Emperor in Saint Peter's Then in May
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Speaker 1: ten eighty four, Gistgar's army came. The emperor made what
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Speaker 1: might be called a strategic retreat to the north. The
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Speaker 1: siege of Saint Angelo was raised. In Rome was given
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Speaker 1: over to the butchery and pillage by the Normans and
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Speaker 1: their Saracen troops. Fire followed the sword till the greater
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Speaker 1: part of the city had been burned. Ancient remains and
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Speaker 1: Christian churches such as San Clemente were ruined by the flames,
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Speaker 1: and quarters like the Caelian Hill were never recovered from
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Speaker 1: the destruction. The monuments of ancient Rome suffered more from
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Speaker 1: the Normans than from the Vandals. Unable to maintain himself
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Speaker 1: in Rome without a protector, Gregory accompanied his Norman allies
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Speaker 1: southward as far as Salerno, now a Norman city, where
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Speaker 1: he died the following year, protesting to the last that
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Speaker 1: he died in exile because he had loved justice and
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Speaker 1: hated iniquity. The year ten eighty five also saw the
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Speaker 1: end of Robert Giscar, Sought as an ally alike by
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Speaker 1: the emperors of East and of the Wes, he had
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Speaker 1: begun three years earlier a series of campaigns against the
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Speaker 1: Greek Empire, seizing the ports of Avlona and Durazzo, which
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Speaker 1: were then as now the keys to the Adriatic, and
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Speaker 1: battling with the Venetians by sea and the Greeks by
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Speaker 1: land until his troops penetrated as far as Thessaly. He
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Speaker 1: finally succumbed to illness on the island of Cathalonia at
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Speaker 1: the age of seventy, and was buried in his Apulian
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Speaker 1: monastery of Venosa, where Norman monks sang the chance of
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Speaker 1: Sainte Vroul over a tomb which commemorated him as the
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Speaker 1: Terror of the world. Hikh teror mundi giesecardus hikh ex
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Speaker 1: pulid urbei quem liguris regem roma limanus habend partus arabs
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Speaker 1: mache dumque follows nontexat alexin at fuga said venetum nekfu
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Speaker 1: neck pelagus footnote. William of Malmsbury Gestera Regum, page three
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Speaker 1: twenty two end footnote and section thirteen