﻿I0I3 



NORMANDIE. 



NORMANDIK 



1014 



the capital waa Rouen ; and Baaae, or Lower Normandie, the chief town 

 of which waa Caen. Upper Normandie was subdivided into the 

 following districts : — Caux, Bray, tho Norman Vexin, Roumoie, Auge, 

 Ouche, and Lieuvin; Lower Normandie comprised the plains of 

 Alen9on, and Caen, together with the districts of Houlme, Bessin, 

 Socage, Cotentin, and Avranchiu. Normandie now forms the depart- 

 ments of SeiseInfebiecbe, Eobe, Calvados, Manche, and of 

 Orse, with the exception of the arrrondissement of Mortagne. 



Le-Yexin-Normand was so designated to distinguish it from that 

 portion of Le- Vexin, which was in the early ages included in the domains 

 of the crowQ and entitled Le Vexin-Fran9ai8. 



The population of the fire departments into which Normandie has 

 been divided, with the exception of the arrondissement of Mortagne 

 in the department of Orne (which comprehends a portion of the 

 county of Perche), was, in ISol, 2,587,717. The length of the pro- 

 vince, from east to west, is about 160 miles; the breadth varies from 

 about 60 to 110 miles. The area is about 11,300 square miles. 



A detailed description of the country is given under the names of 

 the departments into which it is now divided. Normandie contains 

 no great elevations, except in the south, where it is traversed by the 

 eastern prolongation of the Armorican chain of bills, and in the west, 

 where a branch of that chain extends into the Cotentin. It is watered 

 on the east side by the Seine and its tributaries the Euro and the 

 Rille ; in the centre by the Orne, Dives, and Toucques ; and in the 

 west by the Douve, Vire, St^e, and Celune. The climate is moist and 

 temperate, and the soil produces abundantly all sorts of grain ; apples 

 and pears are grown in great quantity, from which are made cider 

 ■ad perry, the common drink of the peasantiy. The meadow and 

 grass lands are extensive and excellent, and afford pasturage to great 

 numbers of cattle and horses. Normandie contains many important 

 towns. Hanuf.tctures of cotton, linen, woollen stufis, and lace are 

 carried on in Rouen, Evrcux, Caen, Lisieux, Bayeux, Vire, and other 

 towns. Along the coast are the ports of Dieppe, Hftvre, Honfleur, 

 Isigny, Cherbourg, and Qrauville. 



The country was, in Roman times, inhabited by a number of Celtic 

 nations, and was included in the Roman province of Lugdunensis 

 Secunda. This part of Qaul was, on the downfall of the empire, con- 

 quered by Clovia (A.D. 497-600), and incorporated by him in the kingdom 

 of the Franks. In the division of the Prankish territory among the 

 sons of Clothaire I., it was inclnded in the kingdom of Neustria, In 

 the attacks of the Northmen on France, Neustria bad its share of the 

 general devastation. Among the most formidable of their chieftuns 

 wu Kollo, who first attacked France in 876 : ho ravaged alternately 

 the north and the south of France, the Low Countries, and England ; 

 and in 911 he led a numerous army from the last-mentioned coimtry 

 to the sii-ge of Paris. He failed in bis attempt upon Paris, but 

 received, from the weakness or policy of Charles le Simple, the hand 

 of his daughter Giiele in marriage, with the cession of an extensive 

 province, to be held as a fief, on condition of his ceasing to ravage 

 the rest of the kingdom and making profession of the Christian 

 religion. The ceded province lying between the Seine, the Epte, and 

 the sea, became the duchy of Normandie. 



Rollo appears to have possessed qualifications far beyond those of 

 an ordinary sea-king. He introduced the feudal system in its complete 

 and regular form. The first fiafs granted by him were to some of the 

 churches of his duchy, the rest of which he divided into counties and 

 distributed among the chief officers of his army. The Normans 

 applied tbems«lves with energy to the cultivation of the ravaged landii ; 

 strangers from all parts were invited to settle within the duchy, and 

 the laws were strictly administered for the protection of property. 

 He rebuilt the ruined churches, and took every precaution for the 

 defence of his territories against the attacks of other pirates, inclosing 

 the towns with walls, securing the mouths of the rivers by barricades, 

 and keeping up the valour and warlike skill of his subjects by hostili- 

 ties along his frontier, especially against the Bretons, whom he partly 

 reduced to subjection. 



The warriors whom RoUo established in his new settlement adopted 

 the language, the social and political institutions, and the religion of 

 the nation which they had conquered ; but they imparted to each 

 that vigour which was the characteristic of their own nation. The 

 rude dialect, formed by a corruption of the Latin language, which 

 was then common in France, became a regular and a written lan- 

 guage, embodied in their judicial code or in the poetry and romance. 

 which constituted their popular literature. The feudal system 

 received from them a stability which rendered it an important instru- 

 ment in the restoration of social order in Europe. Their attention 

 to -the sermons and the catechetical instructions of the clergy was 

 marked by the lams aasiduity which characterised their other pursuits ; 

 although churcbas and priests had been, during their piratical career, 

 th* objects of their bitterest hostility. 



Borne years after the establishment of the duchy, a new invasion 

 of France by the piratical Northmen took place (923-927), and the 

 iavaders, when defeated, found shelter and assistance among the 

 subjects of Rollo, by whose support they were enabled to renew their 

 ravages. The cession of Le-Bessin, or the territory of Bayeux, and of 

 a portion of Maine, bought off the Duke of Normandie, and the pirates, 

 left to their own resources, were almost entirely destroyed in a battle 

 near Limogaa. Itollo abdicated bis duohy (927) in favour of hia son. 



Ouillaume (William) I., called Longue-Ep^e (long-sword), was the 

 successor of Rollo. He gained several advantages over the Breton 

 chiefs who opposed him. He received from the King of Franca, the 

 cession of Le-Cotentin and L'Avi-anchin, which he added to his 

 dominions. He had a principal share in the restoration of Louis IV. 

 to the throne of France. He afforded an asylum to Harald VII., 

 king of Denmark, whom he restored by an armed force to his throne. 

 Guillaume was assassioated by the attendants of Arnolphe, count of 

 Flanders, at a conference which he held with that noble at Pecquigny 

 on the Somme (912), just as he was on the point of abdicating his 

 duchy to assume the habit and vows of a monk. 



Guillaume left no legitimate offspring, but his natural son Richard I., 

 afterwards called Sans-Peur (the Fearless), a boy of 10 years, wai 

 recognised as duke by the Normans, and placed by them under the 

 care of three or four guardians, of whom two at least were recent 

 emigrants from Denmark, and had not renounced paganism. Louis IV., 

 king of France, hastened to Rouen (943) and secured the person of 

 the young duke, whom he conveyed to Laon, that be might be there 

 brought up in a manner befitting his rank and prospects. To put an 

 end to the dissensions bHween Louis and Hugues, duke of France, 

 the partition of Normandie was agreed upon ; aud these two, uniting 

 their forces, attacked the duchy on onesiile, while it was assailed on the 

 other by the Bretons, who gladly seized so favourable an opportunity 

 of throwing off the Norman yoke. The address and perseverance of 

 Bernard the Dane, regent of Nor.-nandie, triumphed over these 

 difficulties. In this warfare Richard grew up, signalising his courage 

 and obtaining thereby his distinguishing epithet of Sans-Peur. Louis 

 (954) and Hugues (956) died leaving their children minors. 



In the reign of Lothaire, son and successor of Louis IV., new 

 attempts were made on the person and dominions of Richard (963), 

 who resorted for assistance to the King of Denmark and obtained the 

 support of an auxiliary force. By the ravages of this barbarous 

 soldiery the king and his chief adviser, Thibaut, connt of Chartrea, 

 were obliged to sua for peace. On the death of Louis V., successor 

 of Lothaire, Richard waa one of the most energetic and iufiuential 

 supporters of Hugues Capet, in bis usurpation of tlie throne of France 

 (987). Richard died at Fecamp (996), after a reign of 53 years. 



The early part of the reign of Richard II,, surnamed Le Bon, was 

 distinguished by an attempt on the part of the peasantry of Normandie, 

 who had been reduced to an inferior condition by the settlement of 

 the Northmen under Rollo. Secret assemblies were held in each 

 county of the duchy, and two deputies were appointed by each to 

 meet in a general assembly in » central place, to maintain their pre- 

 tensions to perfect equality with the dominant race. The plan was 

 however discovered. A baud of soldiers, despatched by the duke, 

 surprised the general assembly at its sitting, seized the deputies and 

 others of the peasantry, and causing them to be mutilated by cutting 

 off their hands and feet, sent them home to strike general terror. 

 The peasantry after this resigned themselves to a servitude against 

 which they deemed it in vain to struggle (997). 



A connection between the affairs of Normandie and England was 

 first established by the marriage of Ethelred II. with Emma, the 

 sister of Duke Richard (1002). In the following year hostilities 

 appear to have broken out between the two powers, and a force, 

 landed from an English fleet, was repulsed in an attempt to ravage 

 the duchy. At a subsequent period Ethelred, when attacked by 

 Swcyn, king of Denmark, and abandoned by his subject', took refuge 

 in Normandie (1013-14) ; until recalled by his subjects. Ou his death, 

 Emma returned with her children to Normandie ; but subsequently 

 married Canute the Dane, the usurper of her children's inheritance. 



Another remarkable event marked this reign. Rodolph, a Norman 

 chieftain, who had some complaint against Richard, proceeded with 

 many companions to Rome, in the double character of a pilgrim and 

 an appellant to the authority or influence of the Pope (lOlti). By the 

 advice of the pontilT he engaged in the service of the Lombard 

 princes of Benevento, and attacked the Greeks of Apulia, which 

 country was then subject to the emperors of Constantinople. Hany 

 young Normans, encouraged by Duke Richard, engaged in tho service 

 of Rodolph; and this expedition, in the course of a, century, led to 

 the establishment of a Norman dynasty on the throne of the two 

 Sicilies. [SiciUES, Kingdom of.] 



On the death of Richard 11. (1026 or 1027), his eldest son Richard III. 

 succeeded to the throne. Soon after his accession he had a war with 

 his brother Robert, whom he obliged to submit ; but, immediately 

 on his return to Rouen, he died uuder circumstances which led to a 

 strong suspicion of poison; and the vacant duchy was seized by 

 Robert, whose character and exploits obtained for him the twofold 

 epithet of Le Magnifique (the Magnificent) and Le Diable (the Devil). 

 He had to struggle against the rebellion of his vassals, but he 

 triumphed over these opponents, and became the arbiter of the disputes 

 among his neighbours, restoring Baldwin of Flanders to his country 

 (1030), and enabling (1031) Henri L to mount the throne of France. 

 Henri, in return for his powerful support, ceded to him as a fief the 

 district called Vexin-Franfais, between the Epte and tho Oise. In 

 1034 Robert equipped a fleet for an expedition to England, in order 

 to restore Alfred and Edward (afterwards the Confessor), the children 

 of Ethelred II. by Emma, to the throne of their ancestors, then 

 usurped and occupied by Canute the Dane. The fleet was however 



