PEOCEEDINGS FOE 1889. XXV 



conquel■or^;. Thus, a Celtic clement must luive lemained, oven if its name and language in certain 

 districts disapj)earcd. 



The invasions of some of the liibes eventual!}- assumed the eliaraeter of emigraiiujis and coloni- 

 zations, notably those of the Saxons and the Angles ; tlie latter gave their name to Southern Britain and 

 the language which tlie}' used, in common with other Teutonic tribes, prevailed in the invaded terri- 

 tory. The Franks, on the other hand, gave their name to part of Gaul to be extended eventual!}' from 

 the Atlantic to the Mcditeri'aiiean ; but yielding to tlie ii resistible influence of overwhelming numbers, 

 who generally possessed the Christian religion and a higher civilization than their conquerors, the 

 Franks gradually assumed the language of the latinized Gaul. 



In thus bringing before our view the national cradles, whence in the succeeding centuries, France 

 and England have sprung, we fail to jîerceive an independent ethnological origin on the one part or the 

 other. The people of both countries, originally of a common .stock, have been moulded in an important 

 manner by additional elements of great force. They wore under Roman influence until the fifth 

 contur}'; Teutonic races became dominant until the ninth centurj', at which ^jeriod bands ol Scandi- 

 navian adventurers from the Baltic began to make descents on the coasta accessible to them. The 

 sea-kings and vikings of the North, who regarded piiacy and plunder as the m(>st honorable of all 

 careers, commenced a series of exploits which were continued for many generations. In France 

 these adventurers received the name of Xorinans. In English history they are described as Danes. 

 Alike in England and in France these Scandinavian tribes firmly established themselves in the 

 most attractive jiarts of the territory invaded. As the victorious Franks at an earlier date, so in 

 France the new conquerors gradually adopted the language and manners of the people they had 

 overpowered. 



In explanation of the comparative rapidity with which the conquerors became assimilated and 

 absorbed in the general po2)iilation, we have to remember that the invaders consisted only of men, 

 and that the work of conquest being completed they entered into the ordinary pursuits of life; in 

 establishing themselves in the territorj' they formed ties and rclalionships with the native women. 

 They had power in their hands to enforce compliance, and according to the customs of those days, 

 possession followed choice, when some rite of marriage in accordance with the manners of the northern 

 tiibes was performed. That willingness or unwillingness on the jiart of the native womanhood 

 was not in the character of the times, we find an illustration in the conqueror Eollo. At the siege of 

 Bayeau in 890, ho captured and carried away a French damsel whom he married according to the 

 Danish usage. The union proved a happy one. The wife of the Dane Eollo became the mother of 

 William Longsword, who in his turn followed the example which his father had set him. Eichard 

 the Fearless, was the son of William, and as descent is not exclusively through the siie, in two genera- 

 tions the offspring of the Scandinavian became three-quarters French in blood. That this character- 

 istic feature prevailed is obvious from results which .show conclusively the new relationships which 

 sprung up in a comparatively few years. Whatever course was followed, the fact is recorded by his- 

 torians that in the time of Eichard, grandson of Eollo, Normandy had become as thoroughly French 

 as any part of France. To account for the fact that the Danish language should soon be lost, we have 

 only to consider that as children are brought up by their mothcr.s, and for the first j-ears of their life 

 are continually with them, it is not surpj-ising that they should come to speak only their mother 

 tongue. If the descendants of the Northmen in Normandy became so typically changed in two 

 generations, it is obvious that the same intermingling of genealogy, continued through succeeding 

 generations, would result in the French element in all respects becoming more and more predominant, 

 until the line of separation between the intruding race and the people of the territory w_ould practically 

 cease to exist. 



The Norman invasion of Franco commenced in the ninth century ; Eichard the Fearless 

 reigned in the tenth century ; by the middle of the eleventh century the descendants of the Scandina- 

 vian adventurers had become Frenchmen. They had adopted the Christian faith, and lived according 



Proc. 1889. D. 



