Important Events THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY. Monastery at Iona founded by Columba, 565. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, 668-690. THE STRONG Kings of WESSEX. Egbert attains to overlordship, 802-839. Edgar, the Peaceful, emperor of Britain, 959-975 55 SAXON ELEMENTS IN THE PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS OF ENGLAND. Dominant race element. Framework and most essential portions of the language. The common law. Conception and form of local self-government. National characteristics of independence and pertinacity. Johnson, pp. 1-14. early history of the Scandinavian peninsulas whence came the conquerors of England. To the Saxon chronicler, recounting the long and losing struggle against the Danes, the invaders are wild barbarians for whom no epithet is too scathing. They are "wolves," "foxes," "pagans," "children of Satan." Yet the Scandinavians were near of kin to the English and possessed the best characteristics of the Teuton inheritance. The bitter struggle for existence in a land that was one-third water and one-third mountain, and where winter lasted six months of the year, had bred in them endurance, ingenuity, and daring. In the course of the ninth century the people seem to have grown too numerous for the resources of the scant coast-lands, and the more enterprising spirits set out to seek their fortunes in the richer realms to the south. The results of that exodus were mo- Johnson, mentous. We have seen how the Danes possessed them- Pp. 15-31. selves of northern England. In like manner Swedish war-bands ravaged the coasts of the Baltic, and, making their way inland to Novgorod and to Kiev, founded the ancient dynasty of Russia.1 The Norwegians, on the other hand, pushed westward and possessed themselves of the outlying islands of the Atlantic. The Orkneys, the Shetlands, and the north coast of Scotland formed a Viking kingdom that was held in fief of Norway until the fourteenth century. Farther west, the Hebrides, the Isle of Man, Anglesea, and the neighboring Scotch and Irish shores were united in a maritime empire whose valiant princes held their own until, in 1281, their dominions were annexed to Scotland. Continental Settlements. Throughout the ninth and tenth centuries, France and Germany were ravaged by Norse pirates. The Rhine, the Elbe, the Scheldt, the Seine, and the Loire were the open highways by which the black keels of the barbarians made their way to the rich farm lands and populous cities of the interior. Smoking houses and bloody Johnson, battlefields marked their track. Legend records that the PP. 32-35. great Charlemagne gazed ruefully upon their swift craft and predicted the ruin of his empire. In the Litany service the terrified clergy inserted a special prayer, " From the fury of the Northmen, save us, Lord." Normandy. As in England, so on the Continent, the war-bands, coming at first for booty, soon sought permanent homes. Numerous scattered settlements along the rivers of Gaul may still be traced in local terminology. The most 1 Rurik, the Varangian, was chosen king by the Muscovites in 862. Johnson, 41-43. Maine, etc. important conquest made on the Continent, and the only one where the Norse retained race integrity, was the domain of Rollo the Ganger, on the west coast. This mighty warrior succeeded in wresting from Charles the Simple, the degenerate descendant of Charlemagne, and king of the West Franks, a grant of the strip of territory at the mouth of the Seine called thereafter Normandy. As duke of the Normans, the conqueror swore fealty to the Frankish king and became his trusty vassal. Once recognized as a peer of France, Rollo accepted Christianity, married a French princess, and set about governing his new subjects with such discretion that the whilom pirate became known as the father of his people. The lands were divided among his followers as spoils of conquest. Thus the warriors became vassals of the duke, holding their estates under obligation to military service, while the natives, being regarded as a subject race, were treated as serfs. At first Johnson, the Norse Vikings despised the Romanized and degenerate P. 37Franks. Absorbed in hunting and feasting in making war Middle Ages, upon a neighboring lord to extend a boundary, or upon the p. 158. duke to resist a claim, they contemptuously declined to concern themselves with such slave's business as agriculture and the arts. Yet gradually the superior civilization gained influence over the conquerors. They married Frankish Richard II, the Good, 996-1026 Emma, m. Ethelred of England 2 Peers (pares) were vassals of the same suzerain, holding fiefs of land in his domain of equal rank. 3 Literally "roped out." |