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authoritative power to divert their men’s ability and military might towards their
own goals. They also had enough economic resources to make their fortunes in the
new lands. Perhaps it would not be wrong to assume that in this respect there is a
similarity between the duchy of Normandy and the small principality of the
Ottomans. Initially, both of these principalities were not very significant. In the
course of time however, by using their economic resources and power, their leaders
systematically acquired new lands. Consequently, a combination of economic
wealth, manpower and authority allowed these leaders to acquire new lands:
Even before the conquest of England his (William the
Conqueror’s) power and authority in Normandy had been
scarcely less than royal…however, their (Norman’s) most
conspicuous advantage was their wealth. The conditions created
by the raiding and settlement, and the fighting that went on in
and around Normandy during the first half of the tenth century
enabled Rollo and his early successors to possess themselves of
an enormous accumulation of land and treasure. 8
One of the important questions here with regard to Bartlett’s thesis is how
Frankish were the Picards, Poitevins and Lombards, and most importantly how
Frankish were the Normans? We cannot consider eleventh-century Europe by
today’s understanding. First of all, there were great difficulties of communication
among and between societies. There were no railways, not even proper roads. 9
Rulers could not be omnipresent; other means of communication had to be found.
Minting money, for instance, was one way for new rulers to make themselves
known in the society. In Eastern Europe, in the Byzantine Empire, the situation was
the same. It had far-flung lands and in different parts of the empire there were
regional differences, even though the language of the elite, religion, basic system of
land tenure, and legal system — the core elements of the society — were the same.
8 Le Patourel, Norman Empire, pp. 280-5.
9 Davis, Constantine to St Louis, p. 4.
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