The Origins of the Normans

The people referred to as Normans, were amongst the many Germanic Scandinavians descending on England, Ireland, and France during the Dark Ages of Europe. These Vikings had their origins in Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, and Norway. The bands of warriors marched and sailed under the banners of feudal-princes, in search of territorial expansions, battle glory, and military adventure. The Norsemen under the banner of Ralph the Ganger (Göngú Hrölf) of Denmark, stormed into France in 911, and provided the second of many French land cessions to the North.

By c. 900 the Vikings had ravaged northern France to such an extent that there was little plunder to be found along the rivers which had formed their major avenue of attack. Ironically it was a Danish Army under Prince Hrolf son of Rogvald, which arrived in 911 to pillage the lower Seine Valley that created the Vikings' only lasting impact on Western Europe. Hrolf attempted to besiege Chatres without success, but his army was such a threat to the Seine valley, that Charles, King of the Franks, negotiated a treaty at St.Clair-sur-Epte. Under this treaty all the land bounded by the rivers Brestle, Epte, Avre and Dives was granted to the Danes. By 924 the Franks were forced to grant the Danes the districts of Bayeux, Exmes and Sees, and in 933 the Cotenin and Avranchin.

All of France northwest of Paris was given to this Viking band to quell their wanderlust, and a Dukedom was established, titularly under the aegis of the Frankish Monarchy, yet autonomous for all practical purposes. The territory between Eu in the North, Belleme in the South, and St. James in the West were part of Normandy- the land of the Northmen. The modern counties of Countance, Avranches, Bayeux, Sées, Évreaux, Lisieux, and Rouen all fell into Norse domination under the principality of Hrolf by 935. Hrolf was primesigned in 912 and became known as Rollo. Within two generations he and his followers had adapted the Franks' language, studied Roman laws, local customs, political systems of organization, and methods of warfare.

The Norman love of the sea, and their dynamism, led to commercial prosperity for their young Duchy. By the middle of the 11th century Normandy was one of the most powerful states in Christendom. Desire for conquest, in conjunction with limited available land led many Normans to pursue military goals abroad: to Spain to fight the Moors; to Byzantium to fight the Turks; to Sicily in 1061 to fight the Saracens; and of course to England in 1066. For the next century, these former Danes and Saxons were systematically “Romanized” by their contacts with the French, and the influence of the Holy Roman See. They voluntarily converted to Catholicism through a series of intermarriages and political alliances, during the period between 925 and 1030 c.e. Several substantive changes in Catholic doctrine and secular festivals occurred in order to accommodate the Norman converts. Amongst these were the acceptance of knighthood as a religious as well as political honor, the formulation of Papal sanction of military expansion (Evangelization), and the incorporation of Norse feast days into the Liturgical calendar. In addition there were two periods of “relapse” wherein many of the Norman barons and their vassals reverted to their Heathen Trowe. The first occurred shortly before Hrolf’s death, as the great dryhten struggled with his devotion to his Ancestors and the new oaths he swore to his liege lord and the Church of Rome. The second revival was the result of the call back to Denmark for supplies and the families of the war-band; who had arrived in Normandy in the early part of 1000 c.e., with all their Heathen customs and faith intact. This caused an upheaval in the socio-political fabric of the Folk, and a reverence for the Old Gods which disrupted the tenuous balance between honor and oath. However, this too was a passing moment in Norman history. The migrant pool from home adapted and once again the overt Heathenry became subsumed in the orlay of the new Duchy within a generation.

Due to the organized and specialized nature of their warband, tightly woven in a commitatus web of oaths, their martial skills were highly prized in mercenary markets. After a series of stunning continental victories, they gained the favor of the Papacy, sparking a renewed restlessness and expansive zeal. This combined to form the essence of the feudal state, military power, centered on hierarchical relationships between the church, the state, and the folk. In Normandy William 'the Bastard' succeeded to the dukedom at the age of seven or eight. For the next twelve years of his minority the dukedom was in a constant state of anarchy. The rebellion of the barons came to a head in 1047, when the whole of lower Normandy rose against him. With the help of his feudal overlord Henry I of France, William, aged twenty, crushed the revolt on the field of Vales Dunes, near Caen. The castles of the rebellious barons were razed and the nobles never challenged the duke's power again.

Norman relations with Anglo-Saxon England were uncomplicated. As the Normans became Christian and adopted the French language, so their dukes found a common interest with the rulers of southern Britain in closing the English Channel to Viking fleets. This alliance broke up when the Normans supported Edward and the House of Wessex against Cnut of Denmark in the struggle for the English throne. When Edward the Confessor returned from exile in Normandy to take the English crown in 1042 he was understandably pro-Norman. It was probably because of these pro-Norman sympathies that William's claim to the throne had credibility. The Norman dukes' fear of Scandinavian intervention contributed to William's alliance with Flanders in 1066. Other victims of Viking raids had been the Channel Islands or Iles Normandes. These islands were not a part of the duchy of Normandy in 1066; instead they were a personal dependency of Duke William, as were the Counties of Brittany and Maine. All these areas contributed men and ships to the 'great expedition' of 1066. Many Norman warriors, administrators and churchmen had served in England under Edward the Confessor. Some were responsible for reorganizing English defenses along the Welsh borders around 1055, although their attempts to introduce Norman-French cavalry tactics to the English ultimately failed.

Such then that the Normans under Duke William I, great grandson of Richard I, first acknowledged Duke of Normandy and father of Emma who was the wife of the English monarch Ethelred II, sailed into the history books, by claiming the right to the throne of England upon the death of Edward (the Confessor). By defeating King Harold of England at the Battle of Hastings, he seized the throne of England in 1066, placing the Monarchy of England, feudally within the governance of the Dukedom of Normandy, and thus technically allied to France. Thereafter several waves of Norman barons took possession of feudal estates in Wales, Northumbria, and Wessex.

When the Normans were invited into the situation in Ireland it was after several decades of controlled restlessness in Wales. The monarchy of England sought a way to channel the military aggressiveness of the Norman nobility. Hoping that the unrest in Wales would give them opportunities, many estates were granted in exchange for oaths of fealty. Nearly one hundred years later, Richard Fitzclaire, Earl of Pembroke, at the behest of Henry II, was invited by Dermot Mac Morrow, the deposed King of Linster, to assist in the retaking of his Irish territories and the beginning of the “Old English” period of Irish history begins.

It must be remembered that the primary force within Norman society was their observation of a code of conduct. The bund [Old High German- band] of warriors in Norse society was oathed to their lord, in a very specialized way. Oaths and a complex system of obligation ensued from this martial way of life, and resulted in a culture of elite warriors, even in times of frith [Gothic- peace]. The Normans, although somewhat Romanized, had not lost the lessons of their roots. They were part of the Commitatus, the honor bound warrior band, and not even French Roman influence could alter that. The value placed on the Maintenance of oaths of fealty was extra tribal, in that Tribal [Old English - tribal] differences did not matter once a web of oaths was established. Since the Faith in the Gods they had before their conversion, held that each tribe had their own Gods, and amongst the thiud Tiu was most revered, their institutions clung to Tyric symbolism. Most notably the Irmnisul is adapted in the Fleur de leis. Are [Old English- Honor] of a warrior, and its legally and spiritually binding force is maintained throughout social structures. This was to prove the cornerstone of the dilemma that the gentrified Normans were to encounter in their loyalties.

With the Papal Bull, Laudibiliter in their possession, the Normans began a take over in Ireland, tacitly accepted by the Irish Bishops for religious reasons. England orchestrated a political coup far more than the reform of a church. Under the spiritual dictum they began to become overlords of England in Ireland. As the Normans intermarried with the indigenous peoples, and became inexorably tied to daily life in Ireland, they adopted Celtic customs. They also took on Gaelic modes of dress, and had an affinity for Brehon law, though they maintained the King’s law publicly. The majority of the Norman Lords allied themselves with various Gaelic clans and septs, and became “another” group of assimilated Irish. In fact, some have argued that they became more “Irish” than the indigenous Celts.

Troubles began in 1367, with the Statutes of Kilkenney, when the Crown attempted to “reform” the Norman gentry and turn back the tide of “Norman Degeneracy”, that is to say, gaelicization. After a brief respite, due largely to political upheavals in England, the crown again disrupted life in Ireland by assigning new “civil servants” to administer in place of many of the hereditary emplaced Normans. Despite this, the Norman lords remained firmly allied to England, though they sought fair treatment for their Irish subjects, and even went so far as to defend them at risk of title. But after the Poynings laws of 1494, it became clear, to even the most liberal that the crown was less and less interested in justice and more and more interested in control. Yet the Normans persisted in their loyalty. Even after Henry VIII took England out of the Roman Catholic Church, the gentry maintained their loyalties. Relations strained incredibly, as loyalty to religion and to their King came into conflict. The Normans could separate the two, thanks to hundreds of years as pre-feudal Are-Warriors (Code Warriors), but to the English nobility this was defiance. A series of new appointments and the establishment of the Shire system, complete with independent sheriffs, and a Lord Deputy of New English blood began to press the situation to a head. With the accession of Elizabeth to the throne, and the excommunication of the Church of England came the ultimate crisis. Would the Norman’s loyalty to the English Crown supersede their loyalty to Rome, the Old Church, and their Irish subjects? After much indecision and regret, several Norman families joined the Desmond Rebellion of 1569-1573. The Pope was presented the case, and he sided with the Irish rebellion, and endorsed a split from England. Infuriated, Elizabeth sent legions of troops to crush the Irish, and issues an order, heretofore seen in European Warfare only under Charlemagne, a virtual call for genocide. Elizabeth’s generals were ordered to take no prisoners. The battle at Dúnan Óir ended with the massacre of the surrendered soldiers, and all the women and children of the town. In 1595 at the outset of the 9 Years War, the Normans sided with, and in some cases, are at the forefront of the Session movement. Having witnessed the English rebuke of their loyalties, by assigning new sheriffs and deputies, and no reconciliation with the Church possible, they honored their newly forged kin-ties with the Irish and set off on a new set of loyalties.

Thus we find our Norman history to be one of adaptation and amalgamation. They took the best ideals of their Germanic heritage and found a way to bring them to life in the changing world of post-Christian Europe.

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