Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-06-25
ANNIVERSARY OF NORMAN TREATY

treaty of st. Claire-sur-E pte was signed
between Charles h e
Cele bration Simple. King Of
France. and Rol o.
az AoueA. chief OF the Scandi-
navian pirates. recognized by right OF
conquest as Duke OF Neustria or Nor
mandy. Normans and their guests in
teres.ed in the Norman conquest have
just now completed at Rouen the COM
memoration of that conquest TRere
were congresses and expositions to gior:-
fy and fete conquest that Is written
largely in the worlds history. The fetes
were religious first. then political. literary.
historical and artistic. with the spec
tacuar. fireworks, Examinations. etc.
The thousandth Norman anniversary,
indeed, is complete review OF sub
legends and myths.
The year OIL was marked by an
event which has left its imprint indelibly
upon France and England. and it may
be said with truth upon all Europe and
America The Scandinavian pirates.
yielding TO the wise overtures of Charles
King Of France, ceased their destructive
incursions along the Seine. Marine. Loire
and Disc and agreed to a pact OF peace
on condition of a concession.
Eudes. son of Robert lie Fort, Duke OF
France. Count of Paris, had preserved
along the river. in which churches and
monasteries had been burned and the
inhabitants massacred. But Tours had
been burned and with II twenty-eight
churches. including the abbey CT ST. Mar
tin. Charities owed its safety to Its
bishop by the miraculous virtue of the
virgins robe, one of the most yenerated
relics of the church.
The rural population. ruined by inces-
SAINT attacks OF the pirates" had no
longer the courage to resist: the seignors
would act upon the defensive, but
took no measures for common defense
against the pirates. who might have been
dislodged from the estuary which was
counts, bishops, abbots, forming classes
Independent of royalty, were not pos
sessed of sufficient cohesiveness to unite
for supreme struggle against the in
vaders
Charles the Simple, who had reigned at
first with Louis lie Begue. in 693, be-
came the sole King Of France
Charles in sos. and having seen from
cx the commencement OF his
0tAVne' reign that the only solution of
the question was a pact Of peace. boldly
announced his purpose and consummated
the treaty Of st. Claire with Rollo.
Then in OIL the suzerainty Of Rollo was
established in the duchy of Normandy,
which included the cities of Rouen, Caen,
ST. Lo. Lisenc. Bayeux and Evreux.
The assimilation OF these wild men was
quick and almost beyond our compre-
hension. And perhaps they were not so
wild and savage as they have been rep
resented. The history Of the Norman is
almost mythical, and writer's maintain
that the marriage Of Rollo with Gisele,
the daughter OF King Charles, Is a legend
which may not be justified by documents
1t was stated, however, that twenty years
before. Rollo had married the daughter
of the Count de Bayeux.
Thirty years after the treaty of St
Claire. one Of the first dukes of Normandy,
Guillaum Tongue Epee, wishing to have
his son Richard learn the Danish Ian
guage. was compelled to send the boy to
Bayeux to a professor there, because at
Rouen in the society OF the dukes French
had became the only language.
If the Normans Of the second genera
ton could SO quickly learn the language
of the country and forget the German
idfom 1t was a proof that the new occu-
pants (whO had taken the name OF Nor
mans) had reached q degree Of civiliza-
ton different without doubt, but as adj
vanced as that of the Franks. The Scan
dinavians were not in any event bar
barians. as were the Huns or the Van
dals: they were not recalcftrant to
Christianism, because. in the seventh
century, such hardy missionaries as
Willebrod and Ansgaire converted them
to Christianity.
The Norman companions of Rollo were
before all else courageous and dis
ciplined warriors. They
Norman were tall. had blue eyes.
vr.= red faces. blond or red
"aIiioiS. hair. Their beauty and
their force are legendary. Armed with
heavy axes they seemed rather more fit
to kill beasts than to combat men. But
these vikings were not. as supposed. mis-
cradle pirates. half naked and wearing
skins of beasts and travelling in light
boats. On the contrary. they were ener-
getic warriors. we'll clothed. often with
magnificent vestments and possessing
large, well equipped vessels which they
called "langskibs" They were not
"dreadnoughts." certainly. but they were
remarkable boats for those days.
In 1880 there was discovered at Gokstad,
near Sandefjord, at the entrance of the
Gulf of Christ.ania, Norman vessel, well
preserved and belonging to the period OF
the Norman invasions of France. II
measured twenty-four meters long and
five meters wide and was capable Of car
rying sixty to seventy men. The rigging
and masts were complete. This lang
skib.' Of which Copenhagen sent re-
duced model to Rouen. Is perhaps one of
the 100 barks. carrying more than $1,000
men. which wintered in the docks OF the
Island of Oesel, plowed the Seine from
Rouen to Paris. and were wrecked In
their attempts against the famous wood
en- tower during the siege OF sS6
the Normans and the creation by the
descendants of Tancrede de Hauteville OF
the kingdom of Sicily appears to be an
extraordinary romance. instead or q ser1-
Gus page of history. So also the creation
of the principality at Antioch and the
attempt to place themselves upon the
throne at Constantinople.
lished a duchy in Apulie. founded king
dom in Sicily conquered the Campania,
the land of Otrante and the Calabria,
and caused the orient to tremble.
While Norman chevaliers were carving
kingdoms In Italy and the orient. the
Norman nobility crossed the channel and
overthrow the Anglo-Saxon royalty and
usurped the throne.
William the Conqueror defeated and
killed the Anglo-Saxon King Harold at
the battle of Hastings October IA, 1905.
History does not recount a more i'm
portant event than the results Of the de-
feat of the Anglo-SaXon dynasty at Hast
ings That hardy enterprise was conceived
and executed with courage and energy