"And therefore must make room
Where greater spirits
come." -- Marvell.
There is a famous old
story about Hasting, the viking captain. Once he went
adventuring along the shores of the Mediterranean, and when he
came in sight of one of the Tuscan cities, he mistook it for
Rome. Evidently he had enough learning to furnish him with
generous ideas about the wealth of the Roman churches, but he
had brought only a handful of men, and the city looked large
and strong from his narrow ship. There was no use to think of
such a thing as laying siege to the town; such a measure would
do hardly more than tease and provoke it: so he planned a
sharp stroke at its very heart.
Presently word was
carried from the harbor side, by a long-faced and tearful
sailor, to the pious priests of the chief church, that
Hasting, a Northman, lay sick unto death aboard his ship, and
was desirous to repent him of his sins and be baptized. This
was promising better things of the vikings, and the good
bishop visited Hasting readily, and ministered eagerly to his
soul's distress. Next day word came that the robber was dead,
and his men brought him early to the church in his coffin,
following him in a defenceless, miserable group. They gathered
about the coffin, and the service began; the priests stood in
order to chant and pray, their faces bowed low or lifted
heavenward. Suddenly up goes the coffin-lid, out jumps
Hasting, and his men clutch at the shining knives hidden under
their cloaks. They strip the jewelled vestments from the
priests' backs; they shut the church doors and murder the poor
men like sheep; they climb the high altar, and rob it of its
decorations and sacred cups and candlesticks, and load
themselves with wealth. The city has hardly time to see them
dash by to the harbor side, to hear the news and give them
angry chase, before the evil ships are standing out to sea
again, and the pirates laugh and shout as they tug at the
flashing oars. No more such crafty converts! the people cry,
and lift their dead and dying priests sorrowfully from the
blood-stained floor. This was the fashion of Italy's early
acquaintance with the Northmen, whose grandchildren were to
conquer wide dominion in Apulia, in Sicily, and all that
pleasant country between the inland seas of Italy and Greece.
It must have seemed
almost as bad to the Romans to suffer invasion of this sort as
it would to us to have a horde of furious Esquimaux come down
to attack our coasts. We only need to remember the luxury of
the Italian cities, to recall the great names of the day in
literature and art, in order to contrast the civilization and
appearance of the invader and the invaded. Yet war was a
constant presence then, and every nation had its bitter
enemies born of race prejudice and the resentment of conquest.
To be a great soldier was to be great indeed, and by the time
of the third of the Norman dukes the relation of the Northmen
and Italians were much changed.
Yet there was not such
a long time between the time of Hasting the pirate, and that
of Tancred de Hauteville and Robert Guiscard. Normandy had
taken her place as one of the formidable, respectable European
powers. The most powerful of the fiefs of France, she was an
enemy to be feared and honored, not despised. She was loyal to
the See of Rome; very pious and charitable toward all
religious establishments; no part of Southern Europe had been
more diligent in building churches, in going on pilgrimage, in
maintaining the honor of God and her own honor. Her knights
prayed before they fought, and they were praised already in
chronicle and song. The troubadours sung their noble deeds
from hall to hall. The world looked on to see their bravery
and valor, and when they grew restless and went a-roving and
showed an increasing desire to extend their possessions and
make themselves lords of new acres, the rest of the world
looked on with envy and approval. Unless the Normans happened
to come their way; that of course was quite a different thing.
We cannot help
thinking that the readiness of the Englishman of to-day to
form colonies and to adapt himself to every sort of climate
and condition of foreign life, was anticipated and foreboded
in those Norman settlements along the shores of the
Mediterranean sea. Perhaps we should say again that the
Northmen of a much earlier date were the true ancestors of all
English colonists with their roving spirit and love of
adventure, but the Normandy of the early part of the eleventh
century was a type of the England of to-day. Its power was
consolidated and the territory became too narrow for so much
energy to be pent up in. The population increased enormously,
and the familiar love of conquest and of seeking new fortunes
was waked again. The bees send out new swarms when summer
comes, and, like the bees, both Normans and Englishmen must
have a leader and centralization of the general spirit, else
there is scattering and waste of the common force.
We might go on with
this homely illustration of the bees to explain the way in
which smaller or larger groups of pilgrims, and adventurers of
a less pious inclination, had wandered southward and eastward,
toward the holy shrines of Jerusalem, or the rich harvest of
Oriental wealth and luxury. Not much result came from these
enterprises, though as early as 1026, we find the Duke of
Naples allowing a company of Norman wanderers to settle at
Aversa, and even helping them to build and fortify the town,
and to hold it as a kind of out-post garrison against his
enemies in Capua. They were understood to be ready for all
sorts of enterprises, and the bitter flowers of strategy and
revolt appeared to yield the sweetest honey that any
country-side could offer. They loved a fight, and so they were
often called in by the different Italian princes and proved
themselves most formidable and
trustworthy allies in case of sudden troubles. This is what an
historian of that time says about them:
"The
Normans are a cunning and revengeful people; eloquence
and dissimulation appear to be their hereditary qualities.
They can stoop to flatter; but unless they are curbed by the
restraint of law they indulge the licentiousness of nature and
passion, and in their eager search for wealth and dominion
they despise whatever they possess and hope whatever they
desire. Arms and horses, the luxury of dress, the exercises of
hawking and hunting, are the delight of the Normans; but on
pressing occasions they can endure with incredible patience
the inclemency of every climate, and the toil and abstinence
of a military life."
How we are reminded of
the old vikings in this striking description! and how we see
certain changes that have overlaid the original Norse and
Danish nature. There are French traits now, like a not very
thick veneering of more delicate and polished wood upon the
sturdy oak.
Aversa was quickly
made of great importance to that part of the world. The Norman
colony did good missionary work, and Robert Guiscard, the
chief Norman adventurer and founder of the kingdom of Naples,
was leader and inspirer of great enterprises. In following the
history of the time through many volumes, it is very
disappointing to find such slight reference to this most
interesting episode in the development of Norman civilization.
In one of the green
valleys of the Côtentin, near a small stream that finds its
way into the river Dove, there are still standing the
crumbling walls of an ancient Norman castle. The neighboring
fields still keep their old names of the Park, the Forest, and
the Dove-Cot; and in this way, if in no other, the remembrance
is preserved of an old feudal manor-house. Not long ago some
huge oaks were clustered in groups about the estate, and there
was a little church of very early date standing in the shade
of a great cedar tree. Its roof had a warlike-looking rampart,
and a shapely tower with double crosses lifted itself high
against the sky.
In the early years of
the eleventh century there lived in this quiet place an old
Norman gentleman who was one of Duke Richard the Good's best
soldiers. He had wandered far and wide in search of gain and
glory. The Duke had given him command of ten armed men who
formed his body-guard, and after a long service at court this elder Tancred
returned to his tranquil ancestral home to spend the rest of
his days. He was poor, and he had a very large family. His
first wife, Muriel, had left several children, and their good
step-mother treated them all with the same tenderness and wise
helpfulness that she had shown to her own flock. The young de
Hautevilles had received such education as gentlemen gave
their children in those days, and, above every thing else,
were expert in the use of arms and of horses and the pleasures
of the chase. They trained their falcons, and grew up brave
and strong. There were twelve sons, all trained to arms. Three
of the elder family were named William, Drogo, and Humphrey,
and the sixth, their half-brother, was Robert, who early won
for himself the surname of Guiscard, or the Wise. Tall fellows
they were, these sons of the Chevalier de Hauteville. One of
the old French historians tells us that they had an air of
dignity, and even in their youth great things were expected of
them; it was easy to prophesy their brilliant future.
While they were still
hardly more than boys, Serlon, their eldest brother, who had
already gone to court, killed one of Duke Robert's gentlemen
who had offered him some insult, and was banished to England
where he spent some time in the dreariness of exile, longing
more and more to get back to Normandy. This brought great
sorrow to the household in the Côtentin valley; it was most
likely that a great deal depended upon Serlon's success, and
the eager boys at home were looking to him for their own
advancement. However, the disappointment was nor very
long-lived, for at the time when Henry of France was likely to
lose his throne through the intrigues of his brother and his
mother, Constance of Provence, and came to the Duke of
Normandy for aid, Serlon came home again without being asked,
and fought like a tiger at the siege of Tillières. You
remember that this siege lasted a long time, and it gives us a
good idea of the warfare of that age to discover that every
day there came out of the city gate an awesome knight who
challenged to conqueror to single combat. The son of brave old
Tancred was not frightened by even the sight of those unlucky
warriors who lay dead under the challenger's blows, and one
morning Serlon went to the gate at daybreak and called the
knight out to fight with him.
The terrible enemy did
not wait; he presently appeared in glistening armor and
mounted upon a fiery steed. He asked Serlon who he was, and as
if he knew by instinct that he had met his match at last,
counselled the champion of Normandy to run away, and not try
to fight with him.
Nobody had recognized
the banished man, who carefully kept the visor of his helmet
down over his face, and when the fight was over and the
enemy's head was off and borne at the head of his victorious
lance, he marched silently along the ranks of the Norman
knights, who were filled with pride and glory, but for all
their cheering he was still close-helmeted. Duke Robert heard
the news of this famous deed, and determined that such a
valiant knight must not hide himself or escape, so he sent a
messenger to command the stranger to make himself known. When
he found that Serlon himself had been the hero, he ran to meet
him, and embraced him and held him to his heart, and still
more, gave back to him all the lands and treasures which had
come to him by his marriage and which had been confiscated
when he was sent into exile. All these glories of their elder
brother made the other sons more eager now than ever to show
their prowess, but there was slight chance in Normandy, for
the war lasted but little longer. But when Robert had put the
French king on his throne again, he determined, as we have
seen already, to go on a pilgrimage. There was not much
prospect of winning great fame at home while young William the
heir was so unpopular and Alan of Brittany was his careful
guardian. The de Hautevilles were impatient at the prospect of
years of petty squabbles and treacherous intrigues; they
longed for a broader field for their energies. There was no
such thing as staying at home and training the falcons; their
hungry young brothers and sisters were pushing their way
already, and the ancient patrimony was growing less and less.
So William and Drogo and Humphrey went away to seek their
fortunes like fairy-book princes, and hearing vague rumors of
Rainulf's invitation to his countrymen, and of his being made
count of the new possessions in Aversa, they turned their
faces towards Italy. We cannot help lingering a moment to
fancy them as they ride away from the door of their old home
-- the three brave young men together. The old father looks
after them wistfully, but his eyes are afire, and he lives his
own youth over again and wishes with all his heart that he
were going too. The little sisters cry, and the younger
brothers long for the day when their turn will come to go
adventuring. The tame falcons flutter and peck at their hoods,
there where they stand on their perches with fettered claws;
the grass runs in long waves on the green hill-sides and
dazzles the eyes that look after the sons as they ride towards
the south; and the mother gives a little cry and goes back
into the dark hall and weeps there until she climbs the turret
stairs to see if she cannot catch one more look at the
straight backs and proud heads of the young knights, or even
one little glint of their horses' trappings as they ride away
among the orchard leaves.
They would have to
fight their way as best they could, and when they reached
Apulia at last they still found work enough for their swords.
South of Rome were the territories of the independent counts
of Naples and the republic of Amalfi. South of these the Greek
possessions of Lombardy, which had its own governor and was
the last remnant of the Eastern empire.
The beautiful island
of Sicily had been in the hands of the Moslems and belonged to
the African kingdom of Tunis. In 1038 the governor of Lombardy
believed he saw the chance that he had long been waiting for,
to add Sicily to his own dominions. The Arabs were fighting
among themselves and were split up already into several weak
and irreconcilable factions, and he begged the Normans to go
and help his own army to conquer them. After a while Sicily
was conquered, but the Normans were not given their share of
the glory of the victories; on the contrary,
the Lombard governor was too avaricious and ungrateful for his
own good, and there was a grand quarrel when the spoils were
divided. Two years afterwards the indignant Normans came
marching back to attack Apulia, and defeated the Greeks at
Cannæ so thoroughly that they were only left in possession of
a few towns.
This was is 1043, and
we cannot help feeling a great satisfaction at finding William
de Hauteville president of the new republic of Apulia. Had not
the three brothers shown their bravery and ability? Perhaps
they had only remembered their old father's wise talk, and
profited by his advice, and warning lest they should spend
their strength by being great in little things instead of
aiming at nobler pieces of work. All the high hopes which
filled their hearts as they rode away from Normandy must have
come true. They were already the leaders in Apulia, and had
been foremost in the organization of an aristocratic republic.
Twelve counts were elected by popular suffrage, and lived at
their capital of Melfi, and settled their affairs in military
council. And William, as I have said, was president.
Presently from East
and West envious eyes began to look at this powerful young
state. Europe knew well enough what had come from giving these
Normans foothold in Gaul not so very long ago, and the Pope
and the emperors of the West and East formed a league to chase
the builders of this new Normandy out of their settlements.
The two emperors, however, were obliged to hurry back to
defend their own strongholds, and Leo the Tenth was left to
fight his neighbors alone, with the aid of some German
soldiers, a mere handful, whom Henry the Third had left. The
Normans proposed fair terms to his Holiness, but he ventured
to fight the battle of Civitella, and was overpowered and
beaten, and taken prisoner himself. Then the shrewd Normans
said how grieved they had been to fight against the Father of
the Church, and implored him, captive as he was, to receive
Apulia as a fief of the Holy See. This seems very puzzling,
until we stop to think that the Normans would gain an
established position among the Italian powers, and this
amounted to an alliance with the power of the papal interests.
William de Hauteville
died, and the office of president, or first count, passed to
his next brother, Drogo, and after him to Humphrey. One day,
while Drogo was count, a troop of pilgrims appeared in Amalfi,
with their wallets and staves. This was no uncommon sight, but
at the head of the dusty company marched a young man somewhere
near twenty-five years of age, and of remarkable beauty. The
high spirit, the proud nobility in his face, the tone of his
voice even, showed him to be an uncommon man; his fresh color
and the thickness of his blond hair gave nobody a chance to
think that he had come from any of the Southern countries.
Suddenly Drogo recognized one of his step-brothers, whom he
had left at home a slender boy -- this was Robert, already
called Guiscard. He had gathered a respectable little troop of
followers -- five knights and thirty men-at-arms made his
escort, -- and they had been forced to put on some sort of
disguise for their journey, because the court of Rome, jealous
of the growing power of the Normans in Italy, did every thing
to hinder their project, and refused permission to cross their
territories to those who were coming from the North to join
the new colony. Humbert de Hauteville was with Robert --
indeed the whole family, except Serlon, went to Italy sooner
or later after the old knight Tancred died; even the mother
and sisters.
Robert arrived in time
for the battle of Civitella, and distinguished himself
amazingly. Indeed he was the inspirer and leader of the Norman
successes in the South, and to him rather than to either of
his elder brothers belongs the glory of the new Normandy.
His frank, pleasant
manners won friends and followers without number, who loved
him dearly, and rallied to his standard. He was well furnished
with that wiliness and diplomacy which were needed to cope
with Southern enemies, and his wild ambition led him on and on
without much check from feelings of pity, or even justice.
Like many other Normans, he was cruel, and his acts were those
of a man who sees his goal ahead, and marches straight toward
it. While William the Conqueror was getting ready to wear the
crown of England, Robert Guiscard was laying his plans for the
kingdom of the two Sicilies.
After a while Drogo
was assassinated, and then Humphrey was put in his place, but
he and Robert were always on bad terms with each other
apparently. Robert's faults were the faults of his time, and
yet his restlessness and ambition seem to have given his
brother great disquietude; perhaps Humphrey feared him as a
rival, but at any rate he seems to have kept him almost a
prisoner of state. The Guiscard gained the votes of the people
before long, when the count died and left only some young
children, and in 1054 he was made Count of Apulia and general
of the republic. We need not be surprised to find his title
much lengthened a little later; he demanded the ducal title
itself from Pope Nicholas, and styles himself "by the grace of
God and St. Peter, Duke of Apulia, Calabria, and hereafter of
Sicily." "The medical and philosophical schools of Salerno,
long renowned in Italy, added lustre to his kingdom, and the
trade of Amalfi, the earliest of the Italian commercial
cities, extending to Africa, Arabia, India, with affiliated
colonies in Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and
Alexandria, enriched his ample domain. Excelling in the art of
navigation, Amalfi is said to have discovered the compass.
Under her Norman dukes, she held the position of the queen of
Italian commerce, until the rise of the more famous cities of
Pisa, Genoa, and Venice.["]*
Roger de Hauteville,
the youngest brother of all, who was much like Robert in every
way, was the conqueror of Sicily, and the expedition was
piously called a crusade against the unbelievers. It was
thirty years before the rich island was added to the
jurisdiction of Rome, from which the Mussulmans had taken it.
Roger was given the title of count, but his dominion was on a
feudal basis instead of being a republic. This success induced
Robert to make a campaign against the Eastern empire, and the
invasions continued as long as he lived. They were not very
successful in themselves, but they were influential in
bringing about great changes. The first crusade was an outcome
of these plans of Robert's, and all the altered relations of
the East and West for years afterward.
We must go far ahead
of the slow pace of our story of the Normans in Normandy and
England to give this brief sketch of the Southern dukedoms.
The story of the de Hautevilles is only another example of
Norman daring and enterprise. The spirit of adventure, of
conquest, of government, of chivalry, and personal ambition
shines in every page of it, and as time goes on we watch with
joy a partial fading out of the worse characteristics of
cruelty and avarice and trickery, of vanity
and jealous revenge. "Progress in good government," says Mr. Green in his preface to A
Short History of England, "is the result of social
developments." The more we all think about that, the better
for us and for our country. No doubt the traditions of Hasting
the Northman and his barbarous piracies had hardly died out
before the later Normans came, first in scattered groups, and
then in legions, to settle in Italy. One cannot help feeling
that they did much to make amends for the bad deeds of their
ancestors. The south of Italy and the Sicilian kingdom of
Roger were under a wiser and more tolerant rule than any
government of their day, and Greeks, Normans, and Italians
lived together in harmony and peace that was elsewhere
unknown. The people were industrious, and all sorts of trades
flourished, especially the silk manufacture. Perhaps the soft
air and easy, luxurious fashion of life quieted the Norman
restlessness a little. Who can tell?
Yet we get a hint of a
better explanation of the prosperity of the two Sicilies in
this passage from an old chronicle
about King Roger: "He was a lover of
justice and most severe avenger of crime. He abhorred
lying; did every thing by rule, and never promised what he did
not mean to perform. He never persecuted his private enemies,
and in war endeavored on all occasions to gain his point
without shedding of blood. Justice and peace were universally
observed throughout his dominions."
A more detailed
account of the reigns of the De Hautevilles will be found in
the "Story of Sicily," but before this
brief review of their conquests is ended, it is only fair to
notice the existing monuments of Norman rule. The remains of
Norman architecture, dating back to their time, may still be
seen in Palermo and other cities, and give them a romantic
interest. There are ruins of monasteries and convents almost
without number, and many churches still exist, though
sometimes more or less defaced by modern additions and
ignorant restoration. The Normans raised the standard of
Western forms of architecture here as they did elsewhere, and
their simpler buildings make an interesting contrast with
Eastern types left by the Saracens. Outside the large cities
almost every little town has at least some fragments of Norman
masonry, and in Aderno -- to note only one instance of the
sort -- there is a fine Norman castle in excellent
preservation, which is used as a prison now. At Troina, a
dreary mountain fortress, there is a belfry and part of the
wall of a cathedral that Roger I. built in 1078. It was in
Troina that he and his wife bravely established their court
fifteen years earlier, and withstood a four months' siege from
the Saracens. Galfridus,
an old chronicler, tells sadly that the young rulers
only had one cloak between them, and grew very hungry and
miserable; but Eremburga, the wife, was uncomplaining and
patient. At last the count was so distressed by the sight of
her pallor and evident suffering, that he rallied his men and
made a desperate charge upon his foes, and was happily
victorious. Galfridus says of that day: "The single hand of
Roger, with God's help, did such execution that the corpses of
the enemy lay around him on every side like the branches of
trees in a thick forest when strewn by a tempest." Once
afterward, when Roger was away fighting in Calabria, Eremburga
was formally left in command, and used to make the round with
the sentinels on the walls every night.
We must look in Palermo for the noblest monuments of
Norman days, and beside the churches and palaces, for the
tombs of the kings and archbishops in San Rosario Cathedral.
There lies Roger himself, "mighty Duke and first
King of Sicily." Mr. Symonds says*: "Very sombre and
stately are these porphyry resting-places of princes born in
the purple, assembled here from lands so distant, from the
craggy heights of Hohenstauffen, from the green orchards of
Côtentin, from the dry hills of Aragon. They sleep and the
centuries pass by. Rude hands break open the granite lids of
their sepulchres to find tresses of yellow hair, and fragments
of imperial mantles embroidered with the hawks and stags the
royal hunter loved. The church in which they lie changes with
the change of taste in architecture and the manners of
successive ages. But the huge stone arks remain unmoved,
guarding their freight of mouldering dust beneath gloomy
canopies of stone, that tempers the sunlight as it streams
from the chapel windows."
And again at Venosa,
the little town where the poet Horace was born, and where
William de Hauteville with his brothers Drogo, Humphrey, and
Robert Guiscard are buried, we cannot do better than quote the
same charming writer:
"No chapter of history
more resembles a romance than that which records the sudden
rise and brief splendor of the house of Hauteville. In one
generation the sons of Tancred de Hauteville passed from the
condition of squires in the Norman vale of Côtentin to
Kinghood in the richest island of the Southern Sea. The Norse
adventurers became sultans of an Oriental capital. The
sea-robbers assumed, together with the sceptre, the culture of
an Arabian court . . . lived to mate their daughters with
princes and to sway the politics of Europe with gold. . . .
What they wrought, whether wisely or not, for the ultimate
advantage of Italy, endures to this day, while the work of so
many emperors, republics, and princes, has passed and shifted
like the scenes in a pantomime. Through them the Greeks, the
Lombards, and the Moors were extinguished in the South. The
Papacy was checked in its attempt to found a province of St.
Peter below the Tiber. The republics of Naples, Caëta, Amalfi,
which might have rivalled perchance with Milan, Genoa, and
Florence, were subdued to a master's hand. In short, to the
Norman, Italy owed that kingdom of the two Sicilies, which
formed one third of her political balance; and which proved
the cause of all her most serious revolutions."
Much has been lost of
the detailed history of the Norman-Italian states, and lost
especially to English literature. If the development of
Southern Italy had gone steadily forward to this time, with
the eagerness and gathering force that might have been
expected from that vigorous impulse of the eleventh century,
no doubt there would have been a permanent factor in history
rather than a limited episode. The danger of the climate, to
those born and reared in Northern or Western Europe, was
undoubtedly in the way of any long-continued progress. To-day
the Norman buildings look strangely different from their
surroundings, and are almost the only evidence of the once
brilliant and prosperous government of the Normans in the
South. One enthusiastic historian, who wrote before the
glories of the de
Hautevilles had faded, would have us believe that "there was more security in the thickets of Sicily
than in the cities of other kingdoms."
Jewett's Notes
A. H. Johnson: "The Normans in
Europe."
"Studies in Southern Italy."
Notes for Chapter 7
“And therefore must make room…":
The
lines are from “An Horatian Ode upon
Cromwell's Return from Ireland,” by Andrew Marvell
(1621-1678).
[ Back ]
"The Normans are a cunning…":
Jewett's account of the expansionist impulse of the Normans under
Richard the Good (pp. 132-134) through the quotation of a
contemporary Italian description of the Normans seems drawn from
Arthur Henry Johnson, The Normans in Europe (1877), pp.
75-7. (See Jewett's Sources).
The quotation in Jewett is exactly as it appears in Johnson (p.
80). However, this quotation also appears
in Edward Gibbon, The
Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire, v. 5, pp. 559-60,
where he attributes it to Jeffrey Malaterra, "a contemporary
and national historian." Jewett seems to refer to
Gibbon in Chapter 3; it is possible he also is one of her
sources.
[ Back ]
This elder Tancred:
Wikipedia
says that Tancred of Hauteville (980 – 1041) "was an
eleventh-century Norman petty lord about whom little
is known. His historical importance comes entirely
from the accomplishments of his sons and later
descendants. He was a minor noble near Coutances in
the Cotentin. Various legends arose about
Tancred which have no supporting contemporary evidence
that has survived the ages."
[ Back
]
Lombard governor: In a
letter of 17 July 1887, Edward Augustus Freeman wrote
to Jewett after reading the 1887 edition of The
Story of the Normans. He said that she
must rewrite page 139 to correct errors two
errors. He says she "must not call George
Maniakes Maurice or place the Norse of 1040 at
Amalfi instead of Melfi." Jewett must have felt
embarrassment at this demand, but fortunately, she was
given an opportunity to correct these problems in
1891, when T. Fisher Unwin decided to add a British
edition of her book to their list of titles in the
Story of the Nations series. And, indeed, she
did make two changes in Chapter 7.
Those changes appear in this
edition of the Unwin printing of 1891. In the
1887 American edition, the passages appeared as
follows:
1887, p. 139
After a while Sicily was conquered, but the Normans
were not given their share of the glory of the
victories; on the contrary, Maurice, the
governor, was too avaricious and ungrateful for his
own good, and there was a grand quarrel when the
spoils were divided.
1887, p. 140
Twelve counts were elected by popular suffrage, and
lived at their capital of Amalfi, and settled their
affairs in military council.
"Progress in good
government,” says Mr. Green: In his
"Preface to the First Edition," of A Short History
of the English People (1880), John Richard Green
says "In England, more than elsewhere, constitutional
progress has been the result of social development"
(volume 1, p. xxv, or p. xviii in the 1899 edition;
(see Jewett's
Sources).
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from an old chronicle…. a lover of justice and most
severe avenger of crime:
See
The Normans in Europe (1877), Arthur Henry
Johnson, p. 81. This quotation is the same in
Johnson, except for one punctuation mark: "… his
private enemies; and in war…."
Jewett's account of the conquest
Sicily and the governing of Roger and his son, Roger
II, closely follows Johnson, pp. 79-81 (see Jewett's
Sources).
The quotation about Roger also
appears in: "The Norman Kingdom in Sicily," The
Quarterly Review, v. 141, (1876), pp. 211-223.
In this review of 3 Italian histories, the statement
is attributed to "the Monk of Telesia" (p. 212).
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"The Story of Sicily":
Jewett
seems to refer to a future volume in the same series
as The Story of the Normans, the Stories of
the Nations: The story of Sicily: Phoenician,
Greek, and Roman (1892), by Edward Augustus
Freeman. As he was completing this volume, which
appeared the year of his death, he was corresponding
with Jewett (see Fields,
Letters
#20 and Other
Letters
1877), and he presumably also was working with
his son-in-law on his four volume The History of
Sicily from the Earliest Times, 1891-1894.
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]
Galfridus, an old
chronicler: Galfridus is better known
as Geoffrey of Monmouth, of whom Wikipedia
says: "Geoffrey of Monmouth … (c. 1100 – c. 1155)
was a cleric and one of the major figures in the
development of British historiography and the
popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best
known for his chronicle Historia Regum
Britanniae ("History of the Kings of
Britain"), which was widely popular in its day and
was credited, uncritically, well into the 16th
century, being translated into various other
languages from its original Latin; but is now
considered unreliable as history." A likely
source for the quotation from Galfridus is
Augustus J.C. Hare, Cities of Southern Italy
and Sicily, 1883, p. 403. (see Jewett's
Sources). However, her text varies from this
text in several small ways.
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]
"mighty Duke and first King
of Sicily": This phrase describing
Duke Roger is from Augustus J. C. Hare, Cities
of Southern Italy and Sicily, p.
493. (see Jewett's Sources).
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]
more security in the thickets
of
Sicily: The quotation is from Richard Payne
Knight, The Normans in Sicily: Being a Sequel
to "An Architectural Tour in Normandy"
(1836), p. 86. (see Jewett's
Sources)
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]
On Jewett's Notes
A. H. Johnson:
The Normans in Europe. "(see Jewett's
Sources). The first quotation appears on
p. 84; the second on p. 80.
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Studies in Southern Italy:
Jewett's
note apparently refers to John Addington
Symonds (1840-1893), Sketches in
Italy (1883), which includes selections
from "Sketches and Studies in Italy."
This passage appears on p. 259. Note
that there are minor differences in
punctuation, and that the final clause begins
"… that temper the sunlight …." (see Jewett's
Sources).
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Assistance from: Allison Anderson and
Gabe Heller.
.
