Course Handbook - Faculty of History

4.2 Option 2 - The Normans in Britain, Europe and the Mediterranean
Dr C.S. Watkins and others
4.2.1 Option Outline
4.2.2 Texts
Emerging from their Scandinavian-Frankish settlements in Normandy, the
Normans spread out over Europe. Around the first millennium we find them in
southern Italy as pilgrims helping out the local population in their fight against
the Byzantine authorities. What started as a temporary mercenary support
operation then turned into a sustained Norman mercenary expansion culminating
in the conquest of Capua, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily. By the middle of the
eleventh century the Normans can also be found in northern Spain, often as
mercenaries engaged in the struggle against the Muslims. Though no settlement
on the Italian scale followed, a small principality at Tarragona was established by
the beginning of the twelfth century. Expansion in the Mediterranean also led to
mercenary involvement in Byzantium where Normans and Franks served the
emperor, as well as feathering their own nest in eastern Anatolia. Later during
the crusading movement south Italian and other Normans can be found at
Antioch, Jerusalem and elsewhere in the Latin East. The most famous expansion
of the Normans was the westward one into Britain after 1066, but Norman
soldiers and mariners were long active in many areas – even, as late as 1400, the
Canary islands.
Any study of the so-called ‘Norman achievement’ raises important questions
about ethnic identity in the Middle Ages, both as it was understood at the time
and as it has been understood by more recent historians. Moreover, the topic
lends itself very well to comparative study. Matters of emigration (exile,
overpopulation) colonisation (warfare and castle building), ethnic identity and
cultural amalgamation (bilingualism) modes of government (the parallel
existence of legal customs), can be fruitfully studied for all areas concerned. The
study of documentary sources (charters, feudal registers) can be used to study the
'feudal' impact of the Normans. Above all, however, the historical writing
associated with Norman expansion (especially in Normandy, England and Italy)
is an important source for exploration. Whether or not one sides with Davis and
his followers, in seeing Norman identity as a later ‘myth’, or with Douglas and
his friends, in extolling Norman virtues, the study of Norman activities provides
an excellent framework for examining comparatively the history of Europe in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries.
4.2.3 Classes
All students should acquire and read M.M. Chibnall, The Normans, Peoples of
Europe series (Oxford, 2000), which is now the best short introduction to the
Normans in Europe.
There will be eight classes, as follows:
Venues
Dr E Van Houts: Room 8, 22, Parkside, Emmanuel College
Dr C.S. Watkins: Room 2, Old Lodge, Magdalene College
Dr A Taylor: Gibbs Building, G5, King's College
Dr N Berend: History Faculty Seminar Room 9.
1. The Normans and Normandy (Dr E. Van Houts) 14 Oct
2. The Normans in the Mediterranean (Dr E. Van Houts) 21 Oct
3. The Normans in Britain (Dr C.S. Watkins) 28 Oct
9