The Normans, or Northmen, were primarily of the Norse, or Scandinavian,
branch of the Teutonic race. They were active, enterprising
men—merchants, navigators, soldiers. Restless under the restraints of a
power that was slowly and surely consolidating the Scandinavian kingdoms,
they broke away from its influence, and boldly ventured forth, conquered
the Shetland Islands, the Orkneys, and the Hebrides, founded the kingdom
of Caithness in Scotland, settled Iceland, discovered Greenland, and
colonized Vinland, which is supposed to be on the coast of New England.
In 911, Rolf, or Rollo, the Ganger, with his daring band of vikings,
obtained a footing in the fertile valley of the Seine. The province,
which was afterwards called Normandy, was received by him as a fief from
Charles the Simple. Friendly relations were soon established, and Rollo
became the king’s vassal with the title of duke, and subsequently married
his daughter. The Normans were brought under French law and customs,
became Christians, adopted the French language, married into French
families, and caught the French spirit.
Edward the Confessor dying without issue in 1066, Harold, his
brother-in-law, succeeded to the throne. But William, seventh Duke of
Normandy, whose aunt, Emma, had been married to Ethelred II of England,
claimed it by hereditary right and by the promise of both Edward and
Harold.
Determined to establish his claim, he set sail with thirty thousand
followers for the coast of England. On October 14, 1066, he met and
defeated Harold, near Hastings, and was soon afterwards crowned king at
Westminster. This was the only conquest—and British soil has throbbed to
the clatter and tramplings of four—that reached down to the people of
the island and thoroughly leavened them. The admixture of a new blood
and a new spirit with theirs proved the greatest good that ever befell
them. It can be considered as nothing short of a regeneration, for it
made the English nation of to-day, the English language, and the English
literature.
The modern Englishman owes to his Teutonic ancestry his love of justice
and fair play, his religious nature, his physical robustness and
intellectual vigor, his love of liberty, and to his French lineage—and
we must not lose sight of the fact that, though originally Teutonic,
the Normans had been metamorphosed by their life in France—his manner,
his tact, his administrative genius, his poetic skill, and his artistic
nature. In him are most happily blended the two races, forming a
composite better than either component, greater even than both elements
while in separation. The changes which Anglo-Saxon thus underwent are
vital, fundamental, and, we may say, revolutionary.
Expressive of the change thus effected, a new name is needed. Before
1066, writers refrained from calling the dominant people of the island,
or their language, by any other term than Anglo-Saxon. But after the
union of the people and of the languages, no name expresses the new
condition of things so well as English. As thus applied, English denotes
always the race resulting from the marriage of the two peoples, or the
speech resulting from the union of the two tongues.