INCURSIONS OF THE NORTHMEN.—The Scandinavians, or Northmen, were a Teutonic people, by whom were gradually formed the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Their incursions, prior to Charlemagne, were towards the Rhine, but at length assumed more the character of piracy. They coasted along the shores in their little fleets, and lay in wait for their enemies in creeks and bays; whence they were called vikings, or children of the bays. By degrees they ventured out farther on the sea, and became bolder in their depredations. They sent their light vessels along the rivers of France, and established themselves in bands of five or six hundred at convenient stations, whence they sallied out to plunder the neighboring cities and country places. They did not cause, but they hastened, the fall of the Frank Empire. In 841 they burned Rouen; in 843 they plundered Nantes, Saintes, and Bordeaux. Hastings, a famous leader of these hardy sea-robbers, sailed along the coast of the Spanish peninsula, took Lisbon and pillaged it, and burned Seville. Making a descent upon Tuscany, he captured, by stratagem, and plundered the city of Luna, which he at first mistook for Rome. In 853 the daring rovers captured Tours, and burned the Abbey of St. Martin; and, three years later, they appeared at Orleans. In 857 they burned the churches of Paris, and carried away as captive the abbot of St. Denis. As pagans they had no scruple about attacking churches and abbeys, to which fugitives resorted for safety and for the hiding of their treasures. Robert the Strong fell in fighting these marauders (866). Their devastations continued down to the year 911, in the reign of Charles the Simple; then the same arrangement was made which the Romans had adopted in relation to the Germanic invaders. By the advice of his nobles, Charles decided to abandon to the Northmen, territory where they could settle, and which they could cultivate as their own. Rolf, or Rollo, one of their most formidable chiefs, accepted the offer; and the Northmen established themselves (911) in the district known afterwards as Normandy. Rollo received baptism, wore the title of duke, and thus became the liege of King Charles, who reigned at Laon, and whom he loyally served. Later the Normans joined hands with ducal France, and helped Paris to throw off its dependence on royal France and the house of Charlemagne which had ruled at Laon. It was by Norman help that the duchy of France was raised to the rank of a kingdom, and Hugh Capet, in the room of being a vassal of kings of German lineage, became the founder of French sovereigns. Under the Normans, tillage flourished; and the feudal system was established with greater regularity than elsewhere.
THE DANES IN ENGLAND.—When, in 827, Egbert, the king of Wessex, united all the Saxons in England under his rule, the Danish attacks had already begun. In his later years these ravages increased. Alfred (871-901) was reduced to such straits in 878, that, with a few followers, he hid himself among the swamps and woods of Somersetshire. It was then, according to the legend, that he was scolded by the woman, who, not knowing him, had set him to watch her cakes, but found that he, absorbed in other thoughts, had allowed them to burn. Later, Alfred gained advantages over the Danes; but, in the treaty that was made with them, they received, as vassals of the West Saxon king, East Anglia, and part of Essex and Mercia. Already they had a lodgment in Northumberland, so that the larger part of England had fallen into Danish hands. The names of towns ending in by, as Whitby, are of Danish origin. Alfred compiled a body of laws called dooms, founded monasteries, and fostered learning. He himself translated many books from the Latin. His bravery in conflict with the Danes enabled him to spend his last years in quiet. Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred (925-940), was victorious over the Danes, and over the Scotch and Welsh of the North. Under Edgar (959-975), the power of England was at its height. He kept up a strong fleet; but, in the time of Aethelred II. (the Unready), the Danish invasions were renewed. He and his bad advisers adopted the practice of buying off the invaders at a large price. In 994 Swegen invaded the country. He had been baptized, but had gone back to heathenism. In 1013 England was completely conquered by him. Aethelred fled to Duke Richard the Good of Normandy.
CANUTE.—The son of Aethelred, Edmund, surnamed Ironside, after the death of Swegen, kept up the war with his son Cnut, or Canute. After fighting six pitched battles with him, Edmund consented to divide the kingdom with him; but in the same year (1016) the English king died. Canute (1017-1035) now became king of all England. He had professed Christianity, and unexpectedly proved himself, after his accession, to be a good ruler. One of the legends about him is, that he once had a seat placed for himself by the seashore, and ordered the rising tide not to dare to wet his feet. Not being obeyed by the dashing waves, he said, "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws." After that he never wore his crown, but left it on the image of Jesus on the cross. Canute inherited the crown of Denmark, and won Norway and part of Sweden; so that he was the most powerful prince of his time. His sons, however, did not rule well; and in 1042 the English chose for king one of their own people, Edward, called the Confessor, the son of Aethelred. In the time of Canute, the power of the Danes, and of the Northmen generally, was at its height. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and England were ruled by them; and Scandinavian princes by descent governed in Normandy and in Russia. Although a most vigorous race, the Northmen showed a wonderful facility in adopting the language and manners of the people among whom they settled. The effect of their migrations was to diminish the strength and importance of their native countries which they had left.
OTHER SETTLEMENTS OF NORTHMEN.—The Northmen made many other voyages which have not yet been mentioned. As early as 852 there was a Scandinavian king in Dublin. They early conquered the Shetland Isles, the Orkneys, and the Hebrides. On the northern coast of Scotland, they founded the kingdom of Caithness, which they held to the end of the twelfth century. Iceland was discovered by the Northmen, and was settled by them in 874. About the same time Greenland was discovered, and towards the end of the tenth century a colony was planted there. This led to the discovery of the mainland of America, and to the occupation, for a time, of Vinland, which is supposed to have been the coast of New England. In Russia, where the Northmen were called Varangians, Rurik, one of their leaders, occupied Novgorod in 862, and founded a line of sovereigns, which continued until 1598.
INCURSIONS OF SARACENS.—The Saracens were marauders in Italy, as the Northmen were in France. From Cairoan (in Tunis), as we have seen, they sent out their piratical fleets, which ravaged Malta, Sicily, and other islands of the Mediterranean. These corsairs, checked for the moment by the fleets of Charlemagne, afterwards began anew their conquests. From Sicily, of which they made themselves masters in 831, they passed over to the Italian mainland. Among their deeds are included the burning of Ostia, Civita Vecchia, and the wealthy abbey of Monte Cassino, They landed on the shores of Provence, established a military colony there, pillaged Arles and Marseilles, and continued their depredations in Southern France and Switzerland.
INCURSIONS OF HUNGARIANS.—The Magyars, called by the Greeks Hungarians, a warlike people of the Turanian group of nations, crossed the Carpathian Mountains about 889. They overran the whole of Hungary and Transylvania. In 900, in the course of their predatory invasions, they penetrated into Bavaria, and the king of Germany paid them tribute. They carried their incursions into Lombardy and into Southern Italy. They even crossed the Rhine, and devastated Alsace, Lorraine, and Burgundy. Such terror did they excite that their name remained in France a synonym of detestable ferocity.
CHARACTER OF THE LATER INVASIONS.—The incursions in the ninth century differed from the great Germanic invasions which had subverted the Roman Empire. The Northmen and the Saracens moved in small bands, whose main object was plunder, and not either permanent conquest, or, as was the aim of the Arabians, the spread of a religion by the sword. The Hungarians alone established themselves in the valley of the Theiss and the Danube, after the manner of the Franks, the Burgundians, and the Goths; and there they remained. The great effect of the last invasion was to accelerate the breaking up of political unity, and the introduction of feudal organization, or the preponderance of local rule as opposed to centralized power.
THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND AND ITALY.
Later than the events narrated above, there were two great achievements of the Northmen, which it is most convenient to describe here, although they occurred in the eleventh century. They are the conquest of England, and the founding of the kingdom of Naples and Sicily.