The Normans

No wonder the Normans thought God was on their side. No door could be closed against them. They could walk in anywhere and take over. In reality the Normans were not, as they liked to think, unique. Their story is simply a dramatic example of changes creeping over Europe. The eleventh and twelfth centuries are a crucial period in European history. For the first time since plague hit the late Roman empire the population was expanding and was to go on expanding until cut back again by the Black Death. Waste land was being brought into cultivation, marshes drained, towns and trade developing rapidly. The Germans were colonising the Slav lands in eastern Europe. In Spain the Moslems were being rolled back and new Christian kingdoms formed.

The population growth was sustained by improving the productivity of agriculture. What made that possible was a shift in the climate. For a couple of centuries western Europe was a little warmer and much drier. This benefited the north more than the south, which became too dry. It especially benefited grain production: wheat for bread, barley for beer, oats for horses. But to exploit the possibilities peasant labour had to be redeployed to produce surpluses for the market. The new unit of estate organisation was what we call the 'manor'. Control over land - and not simply over men - then became critical to the power of lords. So they changed from the old practice of dividing up an inheritance among sons to having just one take over the whole. And instead of giving land to their vassals, they leased it in return for oaths of homage and military service.

This greater stability in landholding and the concentration of power in fewer hands was part of a trend towards a tighter organisation of society, and the transformation of loose groupings of peoples into disciplined states managed by effective central authorities. Organisation and discipline were the new watch words. Monasteries - hitherto separate communities - were organised into monastic orders. Bishoprics - hitherto virtually autonomous - were being brought under central control. The fighting men had to learn new techniques of warfare: what counted was no longer acts of individual valour but the co-ordinated cavalry charge, hard to master but devastating in its effects. The upsurge of the new Europe is seen not merely in Norman exploits but in the Crusades. The First Crusade at the end of the eleventh century set up Europe's first colonies overseas, in the Holy Land. The Normans were deeply involved in that, sending contingents both from Normandy and southern Italy. As the crusaders made their way to Jerusalem the Normans seized control of Antioch and held on to it. Is it significant that there was never an Irish contingent on the Crusades?

Click here for part 3, or here to go to the start of the article.

From the Appletree Press title: The People of Ireland (currently out of print).
Also see A Little History of Ireland.