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 '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 Tilt' (·11..... '1,· "i Vitlill'I', tlu' IlIrllq":III' .~f \\"lllill111 11"'("".'1111"'11. 11 Wit:-. 1'1"'111 1)111' l.i till· ... " wIlPIII" .... tll,lf 1-:,.1"'1'1 1114' 1 It·\ 11,111:0 !'lIltll·!'. e"'IIII'11 Ilnltl.\ .\r\4·tll·. lilt' t;\IIIII·"· ..... Ila\I~III.'r. "!lll Iw. Til£' (';ltllf'dl':\! qf l:clIl"II, "tllll1";1'~(IIIi~ll(' 1';lIIH' 1111.' 1I11111n'I' t.lf 1114.' II Itll I \\1111 "111111114'1'1'.1 1':'1:.:1.111.1 111 Illlili 1'1'/111111 :-<1111'" 1111111111' 1\\'1 rll ...... irllillll' (1'\\1'1':-. vi SlIilll j{"IIIIIJII dlHI 1111' '1'1'\\"1" HI HIlIII'!' ~'Ilfl"·t !-:;I'I'cf-: l·... 'nf! III :\"ClrTll;l1l (f llnlh'n'd I.Oll .... "11 ,II" TIll' Hf HClllf'Il'" lilL! (·I.lI"k 11l1 ..... POIII c':l!l:ltlr:d I,i H.. \lH\., \\1..1..... · 1.1 nJ.w'!"1 111\\'f'l' 1:-: :--1.11\\'11 Ii.·,-". tilt" llllll' ";IIWt' lilt" .1,,\....; ",l""1 . "1~'I\ ~'t·4ktt·"· TIll" \\CJIIlt·t1 tilL: III I il' IT" 'd,lI''' dn·:-:.':,·:-: "cld lu tntJlllll·.1 111l·'I\I~.dl til(' '11;'1"1"'1\\ ~tn· ..·t:-:, till.' lJJlpn.:-:-Olull I)f t·.litll '111 Ihi:; IIl1c·it·lll liltlt' lV\\11 HIWll'llt ~lIl"1nltll .·;tJlilnl, .LI;lll td' lit till' :-:llIkll TIMELESS NORMANDY A fYI,i,o,,1 l.il Qi Iii.. 'O(ln~t "f :\ornll\l1d~'o TLldn~·. a.~ Jila'I~' a~ not, it ;s pitted w;tlt tlte 'Taters made Ity LUllILs a11U shells Jl11U slrfW11 \lilh the litter uf an ;11\o a6;U11 :SOI01ANDY, LA1"\1) OF I:sYASIOJliS 95 which everyonc has heard. The fift~'-eight ularly complete example of Xorman art. ecenes, two of which we ha\'e reproduced, BuilL on tho rema.ins of a H,omlul basilica were embroidered on linen by Mathilda, at the beginning of the twelfth century, the William's wife, and ~i\'e a pictorial idea of eathedml acquired n centra.! tower in the the Norman conquest. Crude as it is in flam bO~'l\nt style in t.he fift('cnt h ccntury, as d..ign, and partly defaced, it ne\'ertheless well as two lateral towers of t.he t~'pe com· re-creates a momentous ('\'ent in the world's monly found ill all the silhouette", pointing .history. It, star·tR with William assembling to the 81iY from Cotentin to the di"trict of aven hunclrc'd boats at the mouth of the Calix. DivC8 and "Ull innulllemblo host of horsf' The surrollmljng countryside is very grecn lDen, sLingers, archers, lind foot soldiers." and of the flu,t, ruther monotonous character They were tho biggei'lt bouts for their time, typical of the region of Cllell. It is the leaHt fifl~' the largest bf.ing able to hold knights picturesque part of Normandy and goes fuUy cquipp d with all their horses and men. down to a seashore without cliffs invariablv consisting of sandy beadles bordered by sand dunes. Only the "rnall town of 1'ort cll·Hessin present; t.ht' piclul'l"sqlle "ight of a fishing harbor of n.ncicnt. tiJU(' . CaRn (rhymes with clans), nn Ihe other hane!. p['()\-ides a nole of contrast in it.!' surrouudings. Here William the ('onqu('ror reign.' I:'Uprellle, not us a conqueror but us It Illltn ill priYat(' life. Through a mazc uf Lnsy "tr('('\;;; one muy Sf'C alllong muny beun. tiful b!lildings t.llC gr('ut Norman Abbey of :'-'ninL Etif'nne. aL"o called the ··.-\hbfl\-C·;lUX nHlrr~ied Tho two l'('cl inn." frolll tho BnYPllx Tnpeslry Homme.... " \\'illiam. who had his reproOur."Carentan, where Kapoleon started to build delicacy covering a structure of strong a cana.1 through the peninsula in order to lines. With the cathedral, the two churches a.void sailing around the capes of La Hougue of Saint Maclou and Saint Ouen completed and La Hague; Carentan, situated in such a a wonderful trinity of religious art.. flat landscape that the Douve, Seye, Mer deret, Seves, and Tante Rivers, whi<:h run FIGHTING THE ENGLISH througb it, see the coming tide flowing back After the martyrdom of Joan of Arc, the fa.r inland when the floodgates remain open. French rose up aga,inst the English. Nor The King of England was astonished at the mandy was in full ferment, and the "Go wealth Rnd size of the towns which, how dons"-as the English were nicknamed by evel', did not prevcnt him from setting fire the French after the familia,r English swear to Valognes, Car .ntan, and Saint-La, words "God damnl"-were hunted down Up to the present, Caen enjoyed a brisk everywhere. ' trade with Le Havre via the entrancing A short truce, and in less than a year canal of Ouistreham. The harbor of there were almost no more English in the Ouislrcham was used by the English in the country, while a general amnesty was fourteenth and fifteenth centuries when they granted to the FranlJ4£s ren,:bJ, who had shipped home the loot collected in successful served the English. This was bad news for raids on Caen. the English, and a new army was sent to Normandy via Cherbourg. Cherbourg l'RANCE'S TWO PATRON SA.ll/TS which was to be fortified by Vauban in the seventeenth century and later chosen by But aU Norman roads finally lead to Napoleon as It naval port for his main Ronen, passing through Lisieux. In Lisieux defense against England-was the last French a basilica wa·s recently built to Saint Therese, town in English hands. From there they the young nun ca.nonized 'only twenty-eight advanced again on Valognes and through years after her death, whom Pope Pius the Cotentin peninsula along the Vire River XlI has just made the second patron saint to Bayeux. They stopped at Formigny and of Fram·c. were defeated in April 1449 in the territory Rouen, Gothic queen of France, is the of Aignerville, where names such as Pre ancient c!tpital of the duchy. Here "each aux-Anglais, Piece-aux-Anglais, and Tom monument is a book, each stone a, souvenir." beuu-aux-Anglais recall their memory. Yet still more appealing than architecture In 1528, Normandy fOllnd itself involved or u,ntiquities is the figure of Joan of Arc. in the religious wars. Catholics with the :For Ronen is her town, saturated with the help of King Philip II of Spain and Prot· glorious and tragic memories of the heroine. estants with the support of Queen Elizltbeth The Rpirit of Joan of Arc, who helped I~rance of England were fighting each other. Rauen to liberate from the English, still was a Protestant town as were Bayeux, hovers ovcr the market place where, con 'havin~ Coutances, Falai!'e, Vire, Carentan. Antoine demned for fBllen back into errors," de BOlubon, the fa.ther of the future King she went to her fiery martyrdom. Today Henry IV. attacked Rouen, which was Rouen is in flames, flames added by the defended by the Count of Montgomery. English to htlr pyre. The fall of the town gave all of Normandy One of H,ollen's landmarks is the tower of to the Catholics, but not for long, for the the big clock, whose single hand has, thanlis fall of Caen soon after reversed the situation. to COlIstltnt repair, poillted the time fOl' History tells us that the Queen of hngland more thun four hundred years. The Cathe promised a lot of help to the Normans. but dral of Notre Dame is a superb example of that the actual help given was very weak the evolution of Gothic architecture in aU and, moreover, paid for dearly by the eession its plcnitude, from the Romanesquc up to the of thc port of Le Havre. NORMANDY. LAND OF.INVASlONS 97 After all thi trouble there wag a period from the North Sea and the Channel to GI peace and order, which men from Nor Sicily and Italy. mandy made use of to penetrate into tho Saint Lawrence c~tllary in North America. THE NORMANDY OF YESTERDAY Led by Cartier and Champlain, they built In a. landscape of greell, tbe Normall of Qaeboo and Moot,real, thus laying the founda. yesterday not only rui~cd cattle and hoI' 'OS, tion of Canada. made butter and cheese, known all o\'cr the In 1759, Cherboul'g was destroyed by the world liS lsigny butter, Camembert and English. Caen etlcaped a similar flLte thanks :Pont-I'Eveql!e cheesl:': they aLso had pros· to & clever trick played on the English by perous imlustries such Ill:! that of Huuen • coastgun.rd nll.mcd Cabieu: when they linen, Alen\,oll lace, Cberbourg mirror.,.. and lIDded in the Orne cstuary lit night, they faiences of Rouen. Normand\' is also the were surprised to hear a drum being beaten l8Jld of good food with sueh ;pecialities as .and orders being shouted by Cabieu to an andouillettcs (small sausages) from Vire und ~nary French army. So they quickly tripe.s a fa 'II/.ode de Ca,en, with which 0110 re-embarked to IH'oid pursuit. must drink Normandy'" favorite bevC'l'l1gc, apple cider. GBO T 0.- THE PAST This part of France, which nature 8(1{'IllS to have showered with bel' gifts, u.\so gave The occupations of Normn.ody in 1815, France writers like Malherbe, Corneille, 1870, and 1114,O did not load to anything ,Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Bu,rbeyd'Aul'o\'illy like the destruction experienced in formC(' Guy de Maupassant, and Fluubcrt, mu!!ieillllS clap. But the reports about the pre8Cnt Like Aubert, and BoeIdieu. Who has invasion speak of total destruction being not seen ILt leacllt a reproduction of "Tbe wrought by the ilwasion of 1944. This Angelus" by Millet or "Le Radeau de /,(", leaves us little hope that even part of those Medu,se" by Gcricault" bot,h 80ns of Nor iDeetimable treal'lurc::l of French history and mandy, IHi was Nicolas POllssin, the master European art, will be saved. of classical paint,ing in France'! Science, too, owes something to Normandy: Laplace The present Will' has linked up aU those and Lc Verrier are well.known astronomers, IIIJDCS that stand out in Norman history. Ilnd Fresnel brought II bout great progress Nonnandy itself is once again being in in the field of optics. yaded; one of the commanding generals is lWned Montgomery. The towns of Ba In spite of these famous names in so yeux, Caen, Carentan, ValogneR, Cherbourg many different spherc:'!, the Norman remains have been the Bcenes of bloody fighting and a peasant well balanced in milld, thrifty wholesale destruction; the invaders them without being a miser, 11 hard worker, find Il8Ivcs, Americans, English, Canadians, in fllmouB for his special way of answering clude without dOli bt l:lome del:leonda,nts of questions: "]>'t eire oen qu'oui! P't ei,rc oen those Iwventurou::l Norman emigrants; and qU'nol1!{' ("Maybe yCH, maybe no!"). And tbe various European war theaters men when he Icaves his country for a while, he iioned in the communiques of thil:l war were always bellI'S in mind the Xormall t!ung : once t,he ,cenes of t h exploit!! of those same J'irai r wir ma ","ormandie, Normans, from H,lIssilL to the Ncar Ecu:lt, C'es/. lc pays qui /II'a dOl/ne Ie juur, eonscripfs tfJorn in 1926 Jilt ho spring of 19-\-1 Germany called up h£'r yOlUlg men horn in I!l26. \Y'hflt rI,)es this mean in figuros? ACf:ording to otTicinl stntisticA. 1;:$2.:.170 b()~'A wero borll in tho old torrit,ory of tho Reil'll ill I,hnt, YOIU'. i.o.. oxcluu,illK Allsu';... the ""Ol(ll'l.o""te. ek. Some IU% of thosa boys diull uOLweell tho yenr, I U:lG und IlI,I-I. So I,hat. by tho "pring of ItI'I'!. G:I1.lllO yOllllg mon bom in I\l:!(l woro slill IIli",'. As tho rostllt of the c(lr