194 CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. V I .
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i
m
origin, whether Celts, Bretons, Franks, Burgundians, Danes or Norsemen, whose blood had been
mingled on the soil of Neustria; and Erenchmen from every province. WiUiam held out the
allurements of pay and pillage to every man of " thewes and bulk " who was willing to risk
himself; and these attracted a motley multitude*. The approach of the invading army was
hailed by many Normans who already abode in the island. Much has been said and written
upon the Norman blood of England. A chameleon-like blood it must be, if we credit its
describers. But this mythic vanity appears to have had as much imsubstantiality at first as
it has, confessedly, acquired in its very devious course. Rufus, the successor of the Conqueror,
his second son by MatUda of Flanders, indicated the pui-ity of his descent by a conspicuous
xanthous complexion—a peculiarity still perpetuated in modern Normandie t.
The vigorous rule of the Conqueror, his prompt and effectual suppression of all resistance
to his tyrannical measures, the arbitrary proceedings by which he deprived the natives of their
possessions to bestow them on his foreign followers (for in a few years after the conquest Saxon
possessions had become rare), and his other courses, by which he made a true conquest of the
land, are well known. The people, the great bulk of the nation, were reduced to the condition of
servants and slaves under their haughty Norman lords, and it was only in a future age that they
were able to emancipate themselves. An invasion from a congenerous source, in 1069, under
Cnut, the son of the second Swein, king of Denmark, which landed on the eastern coast and was
received with sympathy by the inhabitants of Yorkshire and Northumberland, equally of Danish
origin, led to a desolation of that portion of England, which is described in appalling terms.
After William had come off victorious and subdued every opponent, he took the resolve
to render aU future resistance in this quarter ineflfectual, and had recourse to the utmost
barbarism against his valiant foes. He depopulated the country by tire and sword, and converted
much of it into a desert. It is affirmed that upwards of 100,000 persons of every age
and sex feU under the weapons of the Norman soldiery, that for the nine following years tillage
ceased as far as Dui-ham, and that the ruins of the buildings overthrown silently testified to the
horrors for ages afterwards. We have a confirmation of the depopulation of this region in
* "Proceri corpore, prcestantes robore" (Will.Malms.). The
reports of the French Chroniclers are to the same eifect. One
describes them as " Veloces, agües. * * * Pulcher adest facie,
vultuque statuque decorus" : another, "Qualesnunquam antea
in gente Francorum visi fuissent, in pulchritndine fidelicet ac
proceritate corporum."—Quoted in De Bellognet, Ethnogénie
Gauloise, 1861, vol. ii. p. 23. " II en Tint du Maine et de
l'Anjou, du Poitou et de la Bretagne, de la France et de la
Flandre, de l'Aquitaine et de la Bourgogne, du Piémont et des
bords du Rhin. Tous les aventuriers de profession, tous les
enfants perdus de l'Europe occidentale accoururent à grandes
journées. * * * Plusieurs voulaient de la terre chez les Anglais,
un domaine, un château, une ville ; d'autres enfin souhaitaient
simplement quelque riche Saxonne en mariage. * * * Guillaume
ne rebuta personne."—Augustin Thierry, "Hi s t , de la Conq. de
l'Angleterre par les Normands," 3' éd. 1830, vol. i. p. 309.
Baldwin, Count of Flanders, furnished both Flemish men and
ships to aid his son-in-law.
f " Cette race normano-celtique d'hommes aux yeux bleus,
aux cheveux blonds, à la barbe rare, à la taille athlétique, de
belles et robustes femmes aux formes arrondies, aux traits réguliers,
au teint elilouissant de blancheur, ne s'est conservée
que loin des villes, dans le Contentin, le Bessin et le pays de
Caux."—Bédollierre, " Les Français peints par eux-mêmes."
Provins, 1841, vol. ii. p. 163. The same writer treats at considerable
length on the peculiar moral features of the Normans,
their suspicion, litigious spirit, their avidity for gain, their
fondness for fermented drinks and feasting (this quaUty of
their ancient alliances on English soil was often celebrated)
&c., and confirms a singular fact, that they lose their teeth at
a very early age, which he attributes to the use of acid cider.
Although M. Broca dwells forcibly on the great intermixture
of blood in Normandie, he quite agrees in allowing to the inhabitants
the same blond hair.—Ethnol. de la France, pp. 11,
24. In a geographical distribution of the celebrated men
of France, the region in which Normandie is situated has produced
the greatest number of artists, poets, historians, and
philosophers. De Belloguet's testimony is pretty much to the
same effect : — O n le reconnaît encore à la taille haute et svelte
(au moins dans leur jeunesse), aux cheveux d'un blond pâle,
aux yeux gris ou bleus, le visage long, la tournure dégagée
d'une partie des Normands du Calvados, greffés peut-être sur
les Saxons du iitus Saxonicum et de VOtlinga Snxonica."—
Ethnogénie Gauloise, 1861, vol. ii. p. 58.
CHAP. VI.] ETHNOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SUCCESSIVE POPULATIONS. 195
Domesday, the compilation of which was finished in 1086. The Anglo-Saxon and Danish inhabitants
recorded in Yorkshire, in which county in the Survey are included portions of Lancashire,
Westmoreland, and Cumberland, amount only to 9,968—a number exceeded by those of Hampshire.
In the city of York 540 houses are entered as vacua:. This was a calamity of special
magnitude; for it was directed against the most independent and noblest portion of the people of
England, amongst whom the seeds of freedom have ever been deeply rooted. That the general
effect of the Norman Conquest was a serious diminution of the population is well-established.
Desolating wars had been followed by their inevitable consequences, famines, sickness, poverty,
and aU manner of wretchedness; and in the alleviation of these evils, the English could find
none less inclined to afford them sympathy than their haughty and selfish Norman oppressors.
The decrease of the power of the nation is seen strikingly from Domesday, in the many entries
which mark the difference from the times of Edward the Confessor—signs of diminution and decay
everywhere. Except in the specially British districts, we may conclude that by this period the
aboriginal people were either not recognized as a particular part of the population, or perhaps
not recognizable. AU distinction of this kind had been abandoned, or they had become so
mingled with the Anglo-Saxon and Danish immigrants as no longer to be distinguishable from
them. Although both views are to some extent correct, we believe that neither, nor both,
express the whole truth. Of the numerous Semi of the Norman scribes, if we put on one side
other servile classes (in some counties especially prevalent, in Gloucestershire amounting to
more than one-fourth of those enumerated), families of aboriginal blood no doubt formed one
chief constituent, the Anglo-Saxon theows the other, together making the peasant class. At a
much later period of history slavery itself obtained its gradual abolition *. The feudal system
moreover passed through a slow process of extinction, extending into still more modern times
—^allowing the people to disperse themselves much more freely; and the commons became
increasingly important in the state. The consequence of all these changes was the promotion
of a more thorough amalgamation of races : in towns, it may be said, if not literally, yet potentially,
to have become pretty complete; in remote and rm-al situations it is still far from being
accomplished.
I t is worthy of attention that Servi are wholly excluded from the Survey in the more purely
Danish counties of York and Lincoln; in Suifolk they amount only to about a twenty-fourth
part of the persons enumerated, in Norfolk only to a twenty-sixth—the two latter counties
constituting the Danish kingdom of East Anglia; and in Nottinghamshire their total mimber
is restricted to twenty-six. In Domesday the counties of Hereford and Salop are the sole
instances distinguished by containing Wallenses in the enumeration.
During the reigns of the Norman kings, considerable numbers of foreigners transported
themselves into every division of the island—^many of them of mixed blood—especially from the
continental possessions of these monarehs; and multitudes of English, of a much purer stock,
were sacrificed in the wars for maintaining these possessions. The Anglo-Norman invasion
of Ireland, in the time of Henry II., which introduced many Normans and English, and some
Welsh into that island, and by which the invaders came ultimately to occupy in an imperfect
manner every province save Ulster, has been before adverted to. By the close of the eleventh
century there commenced an afdux of Normans to Scotland, when Edgar reached the throne by
aid of an English army, and afterwards addi-essed Ms charters " omnibus in regno suo Scottis et
* There is much curious information on the condition of the servile and peasant classes during the middle ages, in Mr.
Wright's Memoir, .\rchiEol. Journ. vol. xxx. p. 205.