History 1

THE VIKING NORMANS

In 911, a group of Norwegian Scandinavian raiders under the leadership of Rollo sailed up the Seine and forced the French king to cede French territory. The price the king asked was that Rollo become a subject of the king and swear loyalty. This he did, and the Norsemen settled a very small area in the north of France. Rollo, however, considered himself to be an independent ruler and aggressively set about increasing the territory under his control. This constant expansion of territory would become the hallmark of the Norman experience in history.

Normandy was in name a duchy of France, but the Norman dukes ruled the area as if it were an independent kingdom with little interference from the French king. By the eleventh century, the duchy of Normandy had become one of the most powerful regions in western Europe. There were, however, even more promising times ahead—in 1066, the Norman duke, William the Bastard, conquered the English forces of Harold Godwinson and became king of England. Norman culture and political structure would cross the channel and dramatically change English culture and history.

The Scandinavians who settled Normandy very quickly adopted the religion, customs, and language of the surrounding French populations. Rollo converted to Catholicism, but the adoption of French culture and language did not immediately alter the social structure of the Norman lords. From 911 until 980, the history of the Normans is one of constant blood-feuds and territorial battles, a history similar to that played out in early Scandinavia, the Danelaw in England, and Iceland.

Around 980, however, the Normans began to develop a unique set of institutions that would catapult them into the front-rank of European power and cultural influence. The most significant event in early Norman history was the placing of Hugh Capet on the throne of France—the Capetians only gained the throne through the help of the Normans and in gratitude, they allowed the Normans to operate independently.

Once free from monarchical intrusion, the Norman dukes began to solidify an administrative system over their territories. This system became the model for subsequent medieval government: the feudal system. The Normans faced sporadic resistance from nobility within their domains. To counter this nobility, the Norman lords made clergy, who were largely drawn from the nobility, as their vassals since the monastic and church lands were on lands owned by the duke. All the knights resident on church and monastic lands the dukes forced into military loyalty. They used this core of vassals and knights to overcome the nobility which were forced to enter into feudal obligations to the duke.

The word, "feudal," comes from the word, "feud." A feudal obligation, then, was essentially built off of clan or tribal protection. For the early tribal Scandinavians, the only way to enforce law was through clan protection and blood-feuds. Should a crime be committed against a member of the clan, it was the job of the entire clan to either seek retribution or enforce a penalty. It was on this ground that the dukes of Normandy built their feudal system. Under this system, lay nobility were allowed to control a certain amount of territory. They were required, however, to enter into oaths to the duke; these oaths required their military service should the duke require it.

The feudal system allowed the Norman dukes to control a vast amount of territory independently of the Capetian kings. It gave the dukes large military resources guaranteed through a network of loyalties. From Normandy, the feudal system spread rapidly first to Italy and then France — with Duke William II, the Bastard, this new and powerful form of government would cross the channel to England.

As with the Scandinavian settlers of Iceland, the Normans did not stay put in Normandy. With a growing scarcity of land in the eleventh century, some Norman lords migrated to Italy where they carved out their own independent Norman duchies. Italy had remained a largely non-urbanized and backward country after it had been devastated by Justinian's attempt to retake the western empire at the beginning of the sixth century. The establishment of Norman duchies and the feudal system in Italy was the primary reason for the recovery of Italy in the later middle ages.

Then they turned their eyes to the British Isles.

1066 marked the claim of the Viking Normans to England and its crown and the defeat of Harold Godwinson, the last Saxon king of England. Once established, the Normans spread into Ireland and Scotland, and it is from there that we get the beginning of the Clans that were not of the Gael - the Gordons being one of them. (Along with Armstrong, Douglas, Johnson, Stewart and Bruce).

The Gordons are an ancient and distinguished family, originally from Normandy, where their ancestors are said to have had large possessions. From the great antiquity of the race, many fabulous accounts have been given of the descent of the Gordons. Some derive them from a city of Macedonia, called Gordonia, whence they went to Gaul; others find their origin in Spain, Flanders, &C. Some writers suppose Bertrand de Gourden who, in 1199, wounded Richard the Lion-heart mortally with an arrow before the castle of Chalus in the Limoges, to have been the great ancestor of the Gordons, but there does not seem to be any other foundation for such a conjecture than that there was a manor in Normandy called Gourden. It is probable that the first persons of the name in this island came over with William the Conqueror in 1066. According to Chalmers, the founder of this great family came from England in the reign of David the First (1124-53), and obtained from that prince the lands of Gordon (anciently Gordun, or Gordyn, from, as Chalmers supposes, the Gaelic Gordin, "on the hill"). He left two sons, Richard, and Adam, who, though the younger son, had a portion of the territory of Gordon, with the lands of Fanys on the southern side of it.

The elder son, Richard de Gordon, granted, between 1150 and 1160, certain lands to the monks of Kelso, and died in 1200. His son, Sir Thomas de Gordon. confirmed by charter these donations, and his son and successor, also named Thomas, made additional grants to the same monks, as well as to the religious of Coldstream. He died in 1285, without male issue, and his only daughter, Alicia, marrying her cousin Adam de Gordon, the son of Adam, younger brother of Richard above mentioned, the two branches of the family this became united.

His grandson, Sir Adam de Gordon, Lord of Gordon, one of the most eminent men of his time, was the progenitor of most of the great families of the name in Scotland.

It was this Sir Adam de Gordon who along with Sir Edward Mabuisson was sent to Rome by King Robert the Bruce in 1320 as the bearer of the famous letter to the Pope drawn up at Arbroath by the Scottish barons, to declare the real temper and rights of the Scottish people as against the claims of the English Edwards - see the Declaration of Arbroath page.

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