From conquerors to kings

We are all aware of the great Norman invasion of England and the resulting massive displacement of the Anglo-Saxon culture.  Also there is Robin Hood that valiant defender of the weak and the poor.  Outside of this I doubt that many really know from where the Normans came and what else these powerful men accomplished.  The Normans; from Raiders to Kings by Lars Brownworth is a well written account of how their daring and energy transformed Europe.” It is the kind of book that makes you wish our textbooks were as good when we were studying history. Names and dates there are indeed but connected to real humans with all their faults, foibles and strengths.

It was those men we call the Vikings who started it all, sweeping down out of Denmark, Norway and Sweden in their graceful seagoing longboats, raiding the coasts of England, Ireland, Scotland and France.  Some were asked by a French king to settle on a vulnerable coast and for a price protect France from further depredations.  These “Northmen” built what we now call Normandy and from there conquered England as Normans.

But of greater interest is how far afield they continued in their insatiable quest for plunder and lands.  It came as a surprise to me to read of the great kingdom they developed in the southern part of Italy, the magnificent capitol of which was Palermo on the island of Sicily. The last Norman king of Sicily was Frederick II. Quoting from the book:   “Like his grandfather, Roger II, he was a great patron of the arts, filling the palaces (that he designed) with mosaics, marbles, paintings, and sculptures.  His court in Palermo became the celebrated intellectual center of Europe, a Renaissance court two centuries before the Renaissance. No wonder his contemporaries referred to him as “Stupor Mundi” - the ‘Wonder of the World.’ ”

William the Conquerer, took England, Robert Guiscard, took a large part of France and the great Count Roger, who took Sicily, were all contemporaries .  To quote the book again: “A hundred years later their descendants ruled over the two most powerful and glittering courts of Europe and the greatest of the Crusader states. The Normans (were) at the great tipping point of European history.  It was their daring and energy that transformed Europe.”

Here is a book to read and re-read. Mr Brownworth has done an excellent job in explaining what happened and why in those years.