Chickens, Churches, and Normans

The Norman Conquest of 1066 was the central "before and after" in English history, and in the history of the English language. The Anglo-Saxon invasion of the 400s had established the Germanic roots of English, but the invasion by the French-speaking Normans added a whole new Latin-based (or Romance) layer. It is for this reason that English is perhaps the richest and most varied of languages.

To use an everyday example, there is the German word for chicken, Hunchen (HUN-ken), which sounds much like its English counterpart. In French, this is poulet (poo-LAY), a close relative of the English word "poultry." Thus English has two words, where German and French each have just one. Another example involves the English words "church" and "ecclesiastical" (ee-klee-zee-AS-ti-kul), an adjective meaning "church-related." The first word is close to the German Kirke (KEER-kuh), the second to the French eglise (ay-GLEEZ).

An English-speaker who studies German will be pleasantly surprised at all the familiar-sound words such as Buch, Auto, and Freund (FROIND)—respectively "book," "auto," and "friend." German grammar, however, is much more of a challenge to English speakers, since English primarily took on Romance, rather than German, sentence structure.

It would soon become clear that Byzantium lacked the power to control the city.

At the south end of the peninsula was the triangle-shaped island of Sicily, which had fallen under Muslim control in 827. Therefore the church was inclined to view the Normans who conquered it as heroes for Christ, though the truth was not so glorious. These Normans had first come south in the early 1000s, when the duke of Naples used them to subdue Lombard princes eager to reassert their power. In return, the Normans had received a county in Italy, thus establishing a foothold in the area.

The church and the German empire each wanted to oust the Byzantines, Lombards, and others, then establish full control over Italy. Their biggest rivals (besides one another) were the Normans, and specifically Robert and Roger Guiscard (gee-SKARD), sometimes known as the de Hauteville (DOHT-veel) brothers. At first the papacy attempted to stop the de Hautevilles with military force, but by 1059 the pope realized they were too powerful.

So Rome tried a different strategy, much like the one used by French kings with the Normans' ancestors nearly 150 years before: in return for a promise that they would defend the Papal States against all other invaders, it conferred the title of duke on both brothers. The de Hautevilles also agreed to drive the Muslims out of Sicily, and Roger began conquering the island in 1061. Meanwhile Robert drove the Byzantines from southern Italy in 1071.

A gondola approaches the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy. Venice flourished as a province of the Byzantine Empire during the early Middle Ages. Photograph by Susan D. Rock. Reproduced by permission of Susan D. Rock.