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

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  Speaker 1: Section fourteen 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 Pamela and Agami, Chapter seven, The Normans and
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  Speaker 1: the South, Part two. With the passing of Robert Giscard,
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  Speaker 1: the half century of Norman conquest is practically at an end,
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  Speaker 1: to be followed by another half century of rivalry and consolidation,
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  Speaker 1: until Roger the Second united all the Norman conquests under
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  Speaker 1: a single ruler and took the title of king in
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  Speaker 1: eleven thirty, just a hundred years after the foundation of
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  Speaker 1: the first Norman principality of Aversa. Giesegard's lands and title
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  Speaker 1: of Duke passed to his son Rogier, generally called Rogier
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  Speaker 1: Boorsa to distinguish him from his uncle and cousin of
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  Speaker 1: the same name. The Norman possessions in Calabria and the
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  Speaker 1: recent acquisitions in Sis remained in the hands of Gisgas's brother,
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  Speaker 1: Count Rogier, nominally a vassal of the Duke of Apulia,
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  Speaker 1: while the northern principality of Capua kept its independence to
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  Speaker 1: be subsequently exchanged for feudal vassalage. Roget of Apulia, however,
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  Speaker 1: was a weak ruler in spite of the good will
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  Speaker 1: of the Church and his uncle's support, and the revolt
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  Speaker 1: of his brother Bouiemont and the Apulian barons threatened the
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  Speaker 1: land with feudal disintegration. Want of governance was likewise rid
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  Speaker 1: large over the reign of his son William, who succeeded
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  Speaker 1: as duke in eleven eleven and ruled until eleven twenty seven.
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  Speaker 1: Gisgard's real successor as a political and military leader was
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  Speaker 1: his brother Roger, conqueror and organizer of Sicily and founder
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  Speaker 1: of a state which his more famous son turned into
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  Speaker 1: a kingdom. Once master of Calabria, Count Roget had begun
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  Speaker 1: to cast longing eyes beyond the straits of Messina at
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  Speaker 1: the rich island, which has in all ages proved a
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  Speaker 1: temptation to the rulers of the South. No member of
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  Speaker 1: the House of Vauteville there, Panegyrist tells us, ever saw
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  Speaker 1: a neighbor's lands without wanting them for himself, And in
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  Speaker 1: this case there was a prophet for the soul as
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  Speaker 1: well as for the body. If the count could win
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  Speaker 1: back to the worship of the True God, a land
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  Speaker 1: given over to infidelity and administered temporarily for the divine service.
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  Speaker 1: The fruits and rents usurped by a race unmindful of God.
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  Speaker 1: Footnote Jeffrey Malatera, Volume two, page one, and footnote. The
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  Speaker 1: language is that of Geoffrey Malatire. The excuse meets us
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  Speaker 1: throughout the world's history, six centuries earlier, when Cloves bore
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  Speaker 1: it ill that the Aryan Visigoths should possess a fair
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  Speaker 1: portion of gall which might become his. Six centuries later,
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  Speaker 1: when Emmanuel Downing thought of this sin to tolerate the
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  Speaker 1: devil worship of the Naraganzits, if upon a just war,
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  Speaker 1: the lords should deliver them, to be exchanged for the
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  Speaker 1: gainful pillage of Negro slaves. Footnote Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections,
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  Speaker 1: forth Series, Volume six, page sixty five, end footnote. Nor
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  Speaker 1: is the doctrine without advocates. In our own day, we
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  Speaker 1: may think of the conquest of Sicily as a sort
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  Speaker 1: of crusade before the Crusades, decreed by no church council
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  Speaker 1: and spread abroad by no preaching or privileges, but conceived
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  Speaker 1: and executed by Norman enterprise and daring. Like the greater
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  Speaker 1: crusades in the East. It profited by the disunion of
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  Speaker 1: the moslem Like them, too, it did not scruple to
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  Speaker 1: make alliances with the Infidel and to leave him in
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  Speaker 1: peaceful cultivation of his lands when it was over. The
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  Speaker 1: conquest of Sicily began with the capture of Messina in
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  Speaker 1: ten sixty one and occupied thirty years. It was chief
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  Speaker 1: the work of Rogge, though Giska aided him throughout the
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  Speaker 1: earlier years and claimed to share in the results for
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  Speaker 1: himself as well as vassilage for Roget's portion. The decisive
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  Speaker 1: turning point was a joint enterprise, the siege and capture
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  Speaker 1: of Palermo in ten seventy two, which gave the Normans
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  Speaker 1: control of the Saracen capital, the largest city in Sicily,
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  Speaker 1: with an all anchoring harbor from which it took its name.
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  Speaker 1: The Saracens, however, still held the chief places of the island,
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  Speaker 1: the ancient Carthaginian strongholds of the western center Eiriks and
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  Speaker 1: inexpugnable Enna, known since medieval times as Castro Giovanni Giirrigenti,
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  Speaker 1: the most beautiful city of Mortals, with its ancient temples
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  Speaker 1: and olive groves, rising from the shores of the African
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  Speaker 1: Sea Taormina, looking up at the snows and fires of Etna,
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  Speaker 1: and forth over Ionian waters to the bold headlands of
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  Speaker 1: Calabria and Syracuse, sheltering a Saracen fleet in that great
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  Speaker 1: harbor which had witnessed the downfall of Athenian greatness. To
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  Speaker 1: subdue all these and what lay beyond required nineteen years
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  Speaker 1: of hard fighting, varied of course by frequent visits to
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  Speaker 1: Roger's possessions on the mainland and frequent expeditions in aid
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  Speaker 1: of his nephew, but requiring, even when the great Count
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  Speaker 1: was present in person, military and diplomatic skill of a
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  Speaker 1: high order. When, however, the work was done and the
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  Speaker 1: last Saracen stronghold, Noto, surrendered in ten ninety one, Count
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  Speaker 1: Roger had under his dominion a strong and consolidated principality,
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  Speaker 1: where Greeks and Mohommedans enjoyed tolerance for their speech in
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  Speaker 1: their faith, where a Norman fortress had been constructed in
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  Speaker 1: every important town, and where the barons, holding in general
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  Speaker 1: small and scattered fiefs, owed loyal obedience to the Count,
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  Speaker 1: who had made their fortunes a sharp contrast to the
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  Speaker 1: turbulent few utilism of Apulia, which looked upon the House
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  Speaker 1: of Hauteville as leaders but not as masters. Roget was
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  Speaker 1: also in a position to treat with a free hand
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  Speaker 1: the problems of the church, reorganizing at his pleasure the
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  Speaker 1: diocese which had disappeared under Mohammedan rule, and receiving from
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  Speaker 1: Pope Urban the Second in ten ninety eight for himself
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  Speaker 1: and his heirs the dignity of apostolic legate in Sicily,
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  Speaker 1: so that other legates were excluded and the Pope could
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  Speaker 1: treat with the Sicilian Church only through the count. This
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary privilege, the foundation of the so called Sicilian monarchy
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  Speaker 1: in ecclesiastical matters, was the occasion of ever recurring disputes
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  Speaker 1: in later times, but the success of Roget's crusade against
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  Speaker 1: the Infidel seemed at the moment to justify so unusual
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  Speaker 1: a concession. At his death in eleven o one, Roget
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  Speaker 1: the First left behind him two sons, Simon and Rogier,
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  Speaker 1: under the regency of their mother Adelaide. Four years later,
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  Speaker 1: Simon died, leaving as the undisputed heir of the Sicilian
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  Speaker 1: and Calabrian dominions. The ten year old Roge the Second,
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  Speaker 1: who at the age of sixteen took personal control of
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  Speaker 1: the government. During the regency, the capital had crossed the
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  Speaker 1: Straits of Messina from the old Norman headquarters in the
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  Speaker 1: Calabrian hills of Mileto where Roge the First lay buried.
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  Speaker 1: Henceforth it was fixed at Palermo, fitz center for a
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  Speaker 1: Mediterranean state. When his cousin William died, Roge the second
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  Speaker 1: was quick to seize the Apulian inheritance, which he had
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  Speaker 1: to vindicate in the field, not only against the revolted
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  Speaker 1: barons but against the Pope, Anxious to prevent at all
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  Speaker 1: costs the consolidation of the Norman possessions in the hands
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  Speaker 1: of a single ruler, securing his investiture with Tapulia from
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  Speaker 1: Pope Honorius the Second in eleven to one, roget two
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  Speaker 1: years later took advantage of the disputed election to the
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  Speaker 1: papacy to obtain from Anacletus the Second the dignity of king,
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  Speaker 1: and on Christmas Day eleven thirty he was crowned and
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  Speaker 1: anointed at Palermo, taking henceforth the title, by the grace
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  Speaker 1: of God, King of Sicily, Apulia and Calabria. Help and
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  Speaker 1: shield of the Christians, heir and son of the Great
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  Speaker 1: count Roge. What this kingdom was to mean in the
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  Speaker 1: history and culture of Europe we shall consider in the
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  Speaker 1: next lecture. Meanwhile, in order to complete our survey of
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  Speaker 1: the deeds of the Normans in the South, we mistake
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  Speaker 1: some notice of the part they played in the Crusades
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  Speaker 1: and in the Latin East. A movement which comprised the
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  Speaker 1: whole of Western Europe and even made Jerusalem farers out
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  Speaker 1: of their kinsmen of the Scandinavian North could not help
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  Speaker 1: affecting a people such as the Normans, who had already
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  Speaker 1: served a long apprenticeship as pilboms to distant shrines and
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  Speaker 1: as soldiers of the cross in Spain and Sicily. Three
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  Speaker 1: Norman prelates were present at Clermont in ten ninety five
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  Speaker 1: when Pope Urban fired the Latin world with the cry
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  Speaker 1: Dieu le veux, and they carried back to Normandy the
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  Speaker 1: Council's decrees and the news of the Holy War. The
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  Speaker 1: Crusade does not, however, seem to have had any special
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  Speaker 1: preachers in Normandy, where we hear of no such scenes
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  Speaker 1: as accompanied the fiery progress of Peter the Hermit through
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  Speaker 1: Lorain and the Rhineland, and of none of the popular
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  Speaker 1: movements which sent men to their death. Under Peter's leadership
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  Speaker 1: in the Danube Valley and beyond the Bosphorus, pioneers and
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  Speaker 1: medat arms rather than enthusiasts and martyrs. The Normans kept
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  Speaker 1: their heads when Europe was seething with a new adventure,
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  Speaker 1: and the combined band of Normans, Breton and English which
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  Speaker 1: set forth in September ten ninety six does not appear
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  Speaker 1: to have been very large at its head. However, rode
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  Speaker 1: the Duke of Normandy, Robert Curtose, called by his contemporaries
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  Speaker 1: the soft Duke, Knightly, kind hearted and easy going, incapable
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  Speaker 1: of refusing a favor to anyone under whom the good
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  Speaker 1: piece of the conqueror's time had given way to general
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  Speaker 1: disorder and confusion impecunius. As always, he had been obliged
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  Speaker 1: to pawn the duchy to his brother William Rufus, in
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  Speaker 1: order to raise the funds for the expedition. With him
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  Speaker 1: went his fighting uncle Odo of Bayeux, and the Duke's
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  Speaker 1: chaplain Arnulf, more famous in due time as Patriarch of Jerusalem.
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  Speaker 1: It does not appear that Robert was an element of
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  Speaker 1: special strength in the crusading host. Although we fought by
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  Speaker 1: the side of the other leaders at Nicia and Antioch,
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  Speaker 1: and at the taking of Jerusalem. He spent the winter
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  Speaker 1: pleasantly in the south of Italy on his way to
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  Speaker 1: the east, so that he reached Constantinople after most of
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  Speaker 1: the others again gone ahead, and he slipped away from
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  Speaker 1: the hardships of the siege of Antioch to take his
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  Speaker 1: ease among the pleasant, fair and Cyprian wines of Laodisha.
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  Speaker 1: Footnote Laodisha Admare, not the Phrygian Laodisha of the Apocalypse,
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  Speaker 1: and footnote Robert was always something of Laodician. When his
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  Speaker 1: fows as a crusader had been fulfilled at the Holy Sepulcher,
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  Speaker 1: he withdrew from the stern work of the new Kingdom
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  Speaker 1: of Jerusalem and started home, bringing back a Norman bride
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  Speaker 1: of the South for the blessing of Saint Michael of
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  Speaker 1: the Peril, and hanging up his standard in his mother's
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  Speaker 1: abbey church at Cone. Legend, however, was kind to Robert.
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  Speaker 1: Before long he had killed a giant Saracen in single combat,
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  Speaker 1: and refused the crown of the Latin kingdom because he
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  Speaker 1: felt himself unworthy until he became the hero of a whole,
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  Speaker 1: long forgotten cycle of romance. The real Norman heroes of
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  Speaker 1: the First Crusade must be sought elsewhere again, among the
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  Speaker 1: descendants of Tonquard of Vouteville. When Robert Curtose and his
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  Speaker 1: companions reached the south on their outward journey, they found
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  Speaker 1: the Norman armies engaged in the siege of Amalfi under
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  Speaker 1: the Great Count Roger and Giese Guard's eldest son Boiemont,
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  Speaker 1: a fair haired, deep chested son of the North, so
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  Speaker 1: tall in stature that he stood above the tallest man
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  Speaker 1: by nearly a cubit. The fresh enterprise caught the imagination
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  Speaker 1: of Boiemont, who had lost the greater part of his
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  Speaker 1: father's heritage to his brother Roger Borsa, and saw the
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  Speaker 1: possibility of a new realm in the east, and cutting
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  Speaker 1: a great cloak into crosses for himself and his followers,
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  Speaker 1: he withdrew from the siege and began preparations for the
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  Speaker 1: expedition to Palestine. Among those who bound themselves to the
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  Speaker 1: great undertaking were five grandsons and two great grandsons of
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  Speaker 1: Tonquard of Vouteville, chief among them Boismont's nephew, Tonkred, whose
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  Speaker 1: loyalty and prowess were to be proved on many desperate
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  Speaker 1: battlefield of Syria. Commanding what was perhaps the strongest contingent
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  Speaker 1: in the Crusading army, and profiting by the experience of
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  Speaker 1: his campaigns and the Balkans in his father's reign, Boimont
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  Speaker 1: proved the most vigorous and resourceful leader of the First Crusade.
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  Speaker 1: His object, however, had little connection with the relief of
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  Speaker 1: the Eastern Empire or the liberation of the Holy City,
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  Speaker 1: but was directed toward the formation of a great Syrian
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  Speaker 1: principality for himself, such as the other members of his
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  Speaker 1: family had created in Italy and Sicily. As the center
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  Speaker 1: for such a dominion, Antioch was far better suited than Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 1: both commercially and strategically, and Boimont took good care to
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  Speaker 1: secure the control of this city for himself before obtaining
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  Speaker 1: the entrance of the Crusading forces. He showed the Norman
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  Speaker 1: talent of conciliating the native elements Greek, Syrian and Armenian
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  Speaker 1: in his new state, and a time seemed in a
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  Speaker 1: fair way to build up a real Norman kingdom in
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  Speaker 1: the East. In the end, however, the Eastern Empire and
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  Speaker 1: the Turks proved too strong for him. He lost precious
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  Speaker 1: months in captivity among the Mussulmans, and when he had
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  Speaker 1: raised another great army in France and Italy, some years later,
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  Speaker 1: he committed the folly of a land expedition against Constantinople,
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  Speaker 1: which ended in disaster. Boemont did not return to the East,
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  Speaker 1: and his bones are still shown to visitors beneath an
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  Speaker 1: Oriental mausoleum at Canoza, where Latin verses lament his loss
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  Speaker 1: to the cause of the Holy Land. Toncred struggled gallantly
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  Speaker 1: to maintain the position in Syria during his uncle's absence,
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  Speaker 1: but he fought a losing fight, and the Principality of
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  Speaker 1: Antioch dwindled into an outlying dependency of the Kingdom of Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 1: in which relation it maintained its existence until the line
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  Speaker 1: became extinct with Beaumo the Seventh in twelve eighty seven.
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  Speaker 1: Two other Norman princes appear as leaders in the course
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  Speaker 1: of the later Crusades, Richard the Lion Hearted, whose participation
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  Speaker 1: in the Third Crusade we have already had occasion to
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  Speaker 1: notice and Frederic the Second, who succeeded to the power
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  Speaker 1: and the policy of his Norman ancestors of the south.
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  Speaker 1: For each of these rulers, however, the Crusade was merely
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  Speaker 1: an episode in the midst of other undertakings. The day
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  Speaker 1: of permanent Frankish states in Syria had gone by, and
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  Speaker 1: neither made any attempt at founding Assyrian kingdom. The Fourth
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  Speaker 1: Crusade was in no sense a Norman movement, so that
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  Speaker 1: the Normans did not contribute to the new France which
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  Speaker 1: the partition of the Eastern Empire created on the Greek mainland,
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  Speaker 1: where Frankish castles rose to perpetuate the memory of Burgundian
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  Speaker 1: Dukes of Athens and Lombard warders of the Passive Thermopylae.
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  Speaker 1: In the Frankish states of Syria we find a certain
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  Speaker 1: number of Norman names, but no considerable Norman element in
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  Speaker 1: the Latin population. The fact is that the share of
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  Speaker 1: the Normans and the First Crusade was out of all
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  Speaker 1: proportion to their contributions to the permanent occupation of the East.
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  Speaker 1: The Principality of Antioch was the only Norman state in
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  Speaker 1: the Eastern Mediterranean, and its distinctively Norman character largely disappeared
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  Speaker 1: with the passing of Boemont, the first Antncrid. Unlike their
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  Speaker 1: fellow Christians of France and Italy, the Normans were not
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  Speaker 1: drawn by the commercial and colonizing side of the Crusading movement.
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  Speaker 1: The Norman lands in England and Italy offered a sufficient
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  Speaker 1: field for colonial enterprise, and the results were more substantial
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  Speaker 1: and more lasting than the romantic but ephemeral creations of
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  Speaker 1: Frankish power in the East. While the position of the
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  Speaker 1: Syrian principalities as intermediaries in Mediterranean civilization was matched by
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  Speaker 1: the free intermixture of Eastern and Western culture in the
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  Speaker 1: Kingdom of Sicily end of Section fourteen.