NORMANDY, LAND OF INVASIONS By PAUL.FHAKQOIS CARC9PINO Propl I"m ",uch of thci, yeoymphy f,om ...a'~ by fol/on'illy the cou'.e of the fightil/(J. V"""(J the po.,t It' c!' • ,,1/ n W«'paper UCI1.JUII hllve Ie-tr"ed a y()()(J d "t "bout Sormoll<fy. about its bc"chu. to'('/l8, alld ,ieus. 7'hcy have ,,1"0 nad oj the wlwluule dut,ul'liQn IChi,ch the ;ntv, iO/l h.all brouyht to '"ell, IAl1ieux• • ·oi"t·l,6, A'!1,mlan. l·ol"isc. (Jhtrbour!1, Vi're, and mallY other .\"0'1/1(/1/ 10 fl""". Bitt 'lOt """'y have sun ",ilh their O'I'1l eyell the e.elmordi,la.ry wenlth (II,d bCfluty of So,,,,,,,,,/'!!,.,; c'ulttlral trea-yu,1lS of ycste,day. tI,6 pride of Prance amI fill /!,'flrope, Or hlol/) tlwt th,.,t ,e,!ion heM been the scene of iI/Vf'8',:onll .for the l'UJt 2.000 yenr", Helice fI'C hflve (llIked " FrclII'" author to tell our readers about Nonl/f/lldy.-K.M. 'IT would seem as if certain places were the Romans, or from Fl'ancus, Hector's son, predestined to be used as battlefields. like tho Franks. The names of places in Normandy we read today in our newspapers are the same THE }"rRST SIEGE OF PAHIS .. those that our llncestors used to hear in Seven hundred boats, forty thousand men, &be legenuary songs through which the his­ occupying more than five mileR of the Seine Wry of an ient times up to the Middle Ages in front of Paris: I~ real invl\!lion of northern has come do\\'n to us. France. Paris was not vet known as Paris; it was called Lutece, s'ituat.('(! 011 a small As far l\S we know, Titurius Sabinius, one of Caesar's Iieutenant..." won a battle again t island on the river, but already a capital. S~5. Viridovix in 56 B.C.-ncar the forest of This was in &ouves uocording to legend; near Monte· Since 800 the Northmen , or Normans, bourg in the Valognes district according to had been raiding the coasts of Fmnce and, .arne recent discO\oeriCtl. At the time of by way of her rivers, France's provinces ihe ROlllan iu,oasion there were nine 'tribes from the Chan.nel as far Ii the Pyrenees. Ii.ing in whut was th n the province of In 845 Ragnar Lodbrog led his vikings to lieustrie. The namos of eight of t.hese Paris with a hundred and twenty boats and tribes are preserv~d in the names by which took the town. In 885 the "ikings, those "the inhabitant,s of some of these towns a,re Scandinavian men sailing from somewhere known to this day lUl" for exnmple, "Bajo. in the wild north seas, raided the coun­ ~.. (those of Bayeux) or "Lexoviens" try along tho Seine and the Loire Rivers. (of Lisiellx), or in the names of the towns As they were pagans they directed their 1hemselves or the districts. The name of attacks chiefly against, churches, monas-' $be ninth tribt>, the "Unelles," was changed teries, abbeyR, from which t hey knew they into "Constantins" after the founding of could obtain groat loot. They were roving Const.llntil~ (now Coutnnces) by Emperor sailors and, ns such, could not aU remain Constantine, whence eomes the name of inactive during that very siege of Paris Cotentin peninsula. which lasted for a whole year. They raided Old ('hroniclers, great lovers of the wonder· the surrounding regions, and Bayeux was ful and prepared to believe e,Terything, relate t.aken. that the first inhabitants of that region nousnARIF.s, l\1.Al'- .A~D lU\-ER-l\IADE were de eudants of Gomer, the son of Japhet, who was the. on of I-oah. Hence After having been defeated at various one of the counties near Lisieux is namod places, the ,-ikings turned back to their "Montgomery" and gave its name to the or.iginal starting point in France and began Montgomery family. To be a member of to settle in the Seine 11rea. In 911 their ~hill family was more glorious than to be chief was Rollo, also called Rolf tho Walker, descended from Eueus, Venus's son, like beeau e he could not find a horse st~ong 92 THE XXth CENTURY enough to carry him. - After taking Rouen of Monte Cassino and Monte Gargllno, the lLnd Buycux, he led his llIen t.o Paris, but latter beillg dedicated also to Saint l\'lichacl, without suceess, Beaten at Chartres, he a.':I was the fa mOils Korman monastery_ was finally ready to come to an agreement. Thus such Normans as, for instance, the sons of Tllncred de Haute\'iUe, a poor gentle­ The two mai.n points of the agreement man from Cot-entin, went to Italy, fOllght between Rollo and King Charlcs II of li'ranee against Greeks und Saracens, and obtained were, on the one hund, the cession of land from Popt's Leo IX and Nicholas If the­ by the King and, on the other, the ehri ·t· province of Calabria llnd the island of Sicily, enjng of the pagan chief. Tllis "gentlemen's which latter they made into 11 kingdom in agreement" took place at Saint·Clair-sur­ 1130. Ept~, a sllIaU town between Paris and Rouen on the Epte River, which latter About 11 hundred year" after the l1b'TCC­ marked the limit of Norman-occupied ter­ menlo of Saint-Clair-,mr-Epte. the Duchy of ritories. This is how part of 1I0rthern Normandy was ruled by Robert the Devil, France came to be Norman, Normandy, und who had his headquarters Itt Falaisc, the how the da.ring 1\ormans became vu-''lsa1s of epitome of all that is romant ic in old castles, the King of .Frallce. The southern limits n great gray pile of round tower ulld square were Lhe Bmsle ~nd Ept.e Rivers ea"t of the keep. The story goes that, when he WitH a Seine, and the Ane Ilnd Dives Hivers t,o youth of eighteen, he espied a matu>r of the west. Twcnty years later, in 933, interest through the castle window. IInder Normaudy was given its final boundaries the f1owt>ring trees was a pll blic place where when at the df'ath of his father H.ollo, women gltthered to wash their linen, One \\!illillm Long.:'word took an oath of aile· of the;;e was a young girl of silch Ix-allty ~dancc ill rl'tllrn for the cession of the Cotcntin that tIl(' youth feU in love with llPr lit. first and Ananchin pro\'inel' . sight and' sent for her to be brought t.o the castle. ArleUu WIlS Iwr nanll', And she Finally, t.he Coucsnon, a sUlall ri\'l'l' which became the mother of a. SOli, named \oVilliam. marks the border of Brittan\', shift,ed the posit,ion of its mouth and thus'placed famolls Even vcsteI'd11\' , t he women of FuIui;;e h~ir Mont·Saint·l\'1ichel ill Normandy. Hence t,he 8t.iLl was'hed 1 clothes in that same Fn'l1l'h sn~'il1g : alleient brook and talked of Arlettf' unci her phcllomf'mtl SOli, who beeume King JIG COU.Cf.lIlOn, po'r sa. loU", William I of England and weill. down in ..tl ,ni.:r Ie .IUoul en NVr1IfUlidic. I• history us William the Conqueror. En-·n I1ftf'r 11Il\'ing ga,ilwd POfl"l-l;;;;ion of When WiLlinD) wus seven years old, hi. ~urnlU,JJ~ I Normandy and Hpttling there, the father, Robert the De\'il, wen't to t.he Holy I remained t rue to the spirit of till.' \'ikings, Lund and made over the Duchy of Kormandy I t host' f<RnW Yildngs who pelll'trat.ed deeply Lo his Hon. r\ certain night ill the year into Eastern Europe lIurl ;;ailed t.o Icelund, 1039, young William WR.'! s.leepillg by the Grl'ellland, and probably e\'CII America. 8ide of his steward Osbern, his tutor hu\'ing As an iUw;tratiun of their pride, legclld t.clh been treacherously slaill not lung before_ t.he foUowing story. Bolio, rt>fusing lou kiss Suddelll\' William awoke. The curtain was the King' foot as a sign of allegiance, asked mo\'ing,' somebody was in the room, And one of his men to do it fur him; and t,his Osbern was sleeping dl'eply. Should he latter, instead of bending dowll, took the wake him? Too late, II man leaped onto K iug's foot, and lifted it so high that t hI' the Led. King fl'1l over ba·ckwarcls, to the great enjoyment of the Norman spcctaturs. "Hf'lp! Help!" It was Oslx-rn ,houting. "_-\Jl! Bastard! Die ... ," came Mont RO IIJ'atT AN U \Vll.LIAIU Gommeri's allswer. \\'hell t he Normans were. gi¥'en rest from Osbern wus dead, amI "'iUilllll uddenly inLemal disturbltnces, their thollghts im­ realized how great his power might b\~ tllat mediatcly turued to somo conque,'t to be 11 Mont GomJUeri, allied to the great Talvas made or to some distant expedition to the of Bellcme, should have tried to kill him. Holy Llllld to obt.ain forgiveness for Ilome dreadful murder. Thf'Y usuaUy . ct out on A HLM.AS DOCU:ME~T their journeys from Naples, Amalfi, or Bari, The story 'of WilJiulll'S conquest of port.s trading wit.h the NOM' East, as they England is told by the famous Bnyeux were accustomed to \'isit.ing the'anctuaries Tapestry, one of those relics of t.he pust of About It 111111' IdT till' .·,Il ....