"The Cradle of English History."

The descent of bands of Scandinavian pirates in Western Europe began toward the end of the eighth century. They were called by the inhabitants of the British Isles "East Men" and "Danes;" on the Continent they were called "North Men."

These "North Men" were of Germanic stock, a vigorous seafaring race not yet christianized, peopling the coast of the Baltic Sea and the two peninsulas which form Norway, Sweden and Denmark today. The pressure of over-population and a national thirst for adventure sent forth hoards of these Northmen as pirates upon the seas. They scoured the coasts of England, Germany and France, pressed up the smallest rivers with their sharp open vessels; they burned and slew all that stood in the way of plunder, then sailed away with their booty. Charlemagne was no sooner crowned at Rome than he was compelled to hasten to the northern coast of France to defend it against these northern pirates. He built defences along the land, guarded the harbors with vessels, and then is said to have wept while addressing his nobles, for he foresaw in this vigorous, energetic race the calamities that would befall his successors. After one hundred years of almost continuous warfare, Charles the Simple (898-929) purchased peace with the Northmen by giving their famous Norwegian leader Rolf, or Rollo, his daughter Gisele in marriage, in 911, and as her wedding dower a territory north of Paris, on both sides of the Seine. Rollo (Robert) and his followers were baptized at Rouen in 912. He immediately gave up his predatory habits, and protected the coasts of France from further invasions of the Northmen. Acknowledging the King of France as his King, or "over-lord," he also adopted the religion and costume of the French. The Normans, as they are now called, were soon distinguished as the bravest of soldiers and sailors, and the most skillful artisans in the kingdom, and their province, called Normandy, became the most prosperous in France. High-minded and patriotic, they were ever ready to take the lead in all daring enterprises, and Rouen, their capital, became a splendid city. Under Rollo's successors western territory was added to the Dukedom of Normandy until checked by the brave Bretons, and the boundary-line of Brittany was fixed at the river Cousseson. Other cities arose, and cathedrals and churches of such noble architecture as to be still the admiration of the world. Finally, in 996, the Duke of Normandy assisted in placing Hugh Capet, Count of Paris, upon the throne of France, and the House of Charlemagne disappeared forever. Charlemagne's prophecy was fulfilled, and the history of modern France begins with the Capetian dynasty in 996. Seventy years later William, Duke of Normandy, the seventh Duke and the successor of "Robert le Diable" (Robert the Devil), in 1066 conquered England and became its King. But though King of England he was still a vassal of the King of France as Duke of Normandy; hence the long wars between France and England; and hence, also, the interest in old Scandinavian Normandy as "the cradle of English history." J. R. Greene's "A Short History of the English People" gives an account of William, the Norman, and his "Conquest." " William," says Greene, "was a type of transition." In the young Duke's character the old world mingled strangely with the new, the pirate jostled roughly with the statesman. William was the most terrible, as he was the last outcome of the northern race. The very spirit of the sea-wolves, who had so long lived on the pillage of the world, seemed embodied in his gigantic form, his enormous strength, his savage countenance, his desperate bravery, the fury of his wrath, the ruthlessness of his revenge. "No knight under heaven," his enemies confessed, "was William's peer."

Normandy belonged to England after the Conquest of 1066 until 1204, when Philip Augustus, King of France, wrested it from King John (Lackland) of England, the thirteenth and last English Duke of Normandy. It remained a province of the French Crown for more than two hundred years, but was retaken by the English under Henry V. after the battle of Agincourt in 1415, and it was held by the English until 1449. Rouen, the capital of Normandy, where William the Conqueror died, was in possession of the English when, to their eternal disgrace, they there burned Joan of Arc at the stake in 1431. Her death was a death-blow to English possessions in France. The final reconquest of Normandy by the French in 1449, under Charles VII., was an easy matter, and the English were entirely driven out of France in 1451-1452. The character of Normandy is so singularly like England, and so many English people are living there, that it seems almost like one country with the English Channel flowing through it. A noted writer of some years ago says: "In that province of France, which is rightly called the cradle of English history, one sees the chalk downs, the farms and orchards, the field and hedgerows, the windmills, the cottages and gardens, the winding streams, the village gables, the church spires, and all the salient points of an unspoiled English landscape." It is today even more English than French, but like the rustic England of a past generation, such as Washington Irving so sweetly and affectionately describes in his "Tales of a Traveller."