243 



NORMANS NORTH. 



(Hut. of Bug.), " to spare countries which they 

 visited only to plunder, and where they did not hope 

 to dwell ; they were less than others liable to retal- 

 iation, and thej had neither kindred, nor family, nor 

 home. They were, perhaps, the only barbarians 

 who applied their highest title of magistracy to 

 denote the leaders of piratical squadrons, whom they 

 termed vikingr, or sea kings. Not contented with 

 their native and habitual ferocity, some of them 

 (failed Berserker) sought to surpass their com- 

 panions by working themselves into horrible and 

 temporary insanity." The poverty of their country 

 compelled them to adopt this means of subsistence, 

 and their religion^ inspired them with a love for 

 daring enterprises, since it taught them that war- 

 riors, fallen in battle, were admitted to the joys of 

 t'alhalla, the northern paradise. (See Northern 

 Mythology.) They began their piratical excursions 

 in the first part of the ninth century, and soon 

 covered the sea with their boats, and ravaged the 

 coasts of England. Germany, Friesland, Flanders, 

 and France. Under the feeble reigns of Charles the 

 Bald and Charles the Fat, they ascended the rivers 

 to the very heart of France, and plundered Paris 

 itself. It became necessary to purchase their retreat 

 with gold. Their incursions into France were after- 

 wards renewed, and Charles the Simple was obliged 

 (912) to cede to them a part of Neustria (q. v.), 

 which was afterwards called, from them, Normandy, 

 and to give his daughter in marriage to Rollo, their 

 chief. Hollo embraced the Christian religion, was 

 baptized under the name of Robert, and became the 

 first duke of Normandy, and a vassal of the king of 

 France, His followers received the religion of their 

 leader, and abandoned their roving and piratical 

 liabits. (See France, divisions History, Language, 

 and Literature.') Britain was, for about two cen- 

 turies, desolated by the Danes, as they were there 

 called. Egbert (q. v.), in the beginning of the 

 ninth century, had no sooner made some approaches 

 towards a regular government, and the establishment 

 of tranquillity, than the " Scandinavian heathens,'' 

 as the Saxons termed them, made their appearance. 

 Alfred (871 901) finally delivered the country from 

 the invaders, after they had subdued the whole land 

 except the " isle of the nobles," into which the king 

 had retreated with a few nobles. But the relief was 

 only temporary : they returned, under his successors, 

 in greater force, obtained possession of the northern 

 and eastern part of the country, and in the beginning 

 of the eleventh cnntury, three Scandinavian princes 

 (Canute, Harold, and Hardicanute) ruled over all 

 England for the space of about twenty-five years. 

 (See Britain.) The Saxon line was then restored ; 

 but, in 1066, William, duke of Normandy, obtained 

 the English throne. (See William I. the Conqueror.) 

 This conquest, as it is commonly called, had a most 

 important influence on the Saxon manners, language, 

 and constitution, which had hitherto escaped with 

 little change, and is therefore one of the most impor- 

 tant epochs in English history. See Thierry's valu- 

 able work, Histoire de la Conquete de V Angleterre 

 far les Normands, de ses Causes et deses Suites Jusqu'd 

 nos Jours (Paris, 1825), and Hallam's Middle Ages, ch. 

 viii. The Normans also established a new kingdom in 

 Naples, in 1016. (ee Sicilies, the Two.) Accord- 

 ing to the Russian Historian Nestor, the \Varangians, 

 or Varangians, who founded a kingdom in Russia, 

 under Ruric (862), were Normans. The foreign 

 expeditions of the Northmen gradually diminished 

 their numbers and strength at home, and rendered 

 them less formidable. See Depping's Histoire des 

 Expeditions maritimes des Normands et de leurs 

 Etablissements en France au lOme Siecle (Paris, 

 1826); Wheaton's History of the Northmen (1831). 



NORTE, DEL, or RIO BRAVO DEL NORTE, 

 a river of Mexico, which rises in the Rocky nioiin. 

 tains, near the sources of the Arkansas, about lat. 

 41 N., runs S.S.E., and empties itself into the gulf 

 of Mexico j Ion. 96 40' W.; lat. 26 N. It serves 

 but little the purposes of navigation, owing to the 

 sand bars in the flat country, and the mountains in 

 the upper part. It is, however, navigable for boats 

 and canoes in various parts of its course. Length, 

 about 2,000 miles. 



NORTH ; a department of France. See Depart- 

 ment. 



NORTH, FRANCIS, baron Guildford, lord keeper 

 of the great seal under Charles II. and James II., 

 was born about 1640, and became a student of St 

 John's college, Cambridge, after which he entered 

 at the Middle Temple, and was regularly called to 

 the bar. He gradually made his way to the first 

 dignities of his profession, rather by his prudence 

 and dexterity than by extraordinary talents. He 

 was made solicitor- general in 1671, when he received 

 the honour of knighthood ; in 1673, he was made 

 attorney-general ; the next year, chief-justice of the 

 common-pleas ; and, in 1683, lord keeper, when he 

 was raised to the peerage. He died in 1685. Be- 

 sides some papers in the Philosophical Transactions, 

 lord Guildford was the author of a Philosophical 

 Essay on Music, which contributed to the improve- 

 ment of the art. 



2. Sir Dudley North, brother of the lord keeper, 

 engaged in commercial pursuits, and became an 

 eminent Turkey merchant. He was afterwards one 

 of the lords of the treasury in the reien of Charles 

 II. He wrote Observations on the Manners, Cus- 

 toms, and Jurisprudence of the Turks. He died in 

 1691. 



3. Doctor John North, another brother, was born 

 in 1645, and educated at Jesus college, Cambridge, 

 where he obtained a fellowship. In 1672, he was 

 chosen professor of Greek, and the following year he 

 was created D. D. Doctor North was an admirer 

 of Plato, a selection of whose dialogues, including 

 Crito, Phasdo, with the Apologia Socratis, he pub- 

 lished in Greek and Latin (1673, 8vo). His death 

 took place in 1683. 



4. Roger North, a younger brother of the same 

 family, attorney-general under James II., principally 

 merits notice as the historian of his family. His life 

 of the lord keeper (lord Guildford, 1734, 4to) was 

 reprinted in 1808 (2 vols., 8vo); and his lives of Sir 

 Dudley and doctor John North (1744, 4to) appeared 

 in a new edition with the preceding (3 vols., 8vo, 

 1826). 



NORTH, FREDERIC, earl of Guildford, an English 

 statesman of the same family with the foregoing, 

 was the eldest son of Francis, second earl of G uild- 

 ford, and was born in 1732. He received his educa- 

 tion at Eton school and Trinity college, Oxford, 

 after which he passed some time at Leipsic. Re- 

 turning to England, he obtained a seat in the house 

 of commons, and, in 1759, was appointed a com- 

 missioner of the treasury. On the resignation of 

 lord Bute, in 1763, he was made head of that board, 

 which post he held till 1765; and the next year he 

 was made joint receiver and paymaster of the forces. 

 At length, in 1767, he became chancellor of the 

 exchequer, and, in 1770, first lord of the treasury. 

 His administration lasted till 1782, during a period 

 of peculiar difficulty and danger. Having accepted 

 of office at a time when the court party had become 

 unpopular, on account of the secret influence sup- 

 posed to be possessed by lord Bute, something of 

 that unpopularity attached to the whole course of 

 lord North's ministry. But this was greatly aug- 

 by the contest with the North American 



