Charge of the Norman Calvary  (Bayeux Tapestry)

The term Norman  refers to the  Norse (North)  and Frankish society of Normandy during the middle ages. They were descended not only from Vikings but also from Franks. They spoke a dialect of French and were Christians.  Their society was complex in its government, law, art, architecture and literature. They impacted  not only Normandy but England and southern Italy.

In 911, Charles III ceded Normandy to the Norse chieftain Hrolf (Rollo). Following several generations of intermarriage with the native Frankish-Celtic population, a distinct ethnic culture emerged.  Under Frankish law younger sons of nobles could not inherit lands reserved for eldest sons. In time, these landless  Norman knights arrived in Italy, first as pilgrims and then as mercenaries, taking part  in the wars between Byzantines and Lombards; eventually branching out on their own. The first Norman incursions into Sicily were measured in hundreds of Norman knights accompanied by greater numbers of non-Norman infantry, and not all of them remained here. Except for Benedictine and diocesan clergy, there were few men of learning among the Norman arrivals. Unlike the swift conquest of England,  the Normans' conquest of Italy was a bit  slower.

 The patriarchs of Rome  resented Byzantine influence in Italy and the power of the Lombards in  Italy was viewed as a nuisance, whereas the campaign against the Sicilian Arabs  was more of a holy war. The Papal policy in southern Italy was to (1) restore Sicily to Latin Christendom, (2) separate the  Orthodox Christians from Constantinople's influence and (3)  reduce the influence of Islam in Sicily.  The Normans did not Latinize Sicily quickly enough for Papal tastes, nor did they immediately seek to convert the island's Muslims. In fact, they were often at odds with the popes.

 In 1061, having assumed control of much of southern Italy, a Norman force crossed into Sicily at Messina and seized the city from its Saracen garrison. In 1066, a Norman force, including some knights who had fought in the Italian campaigns, won the Battle of Hastings  and  established the Norman rule in England. In Sicily, the de Hauteville brothers, Robert "Guiscard" and Roger, reached Palermo in 1071.  Roger and his knights eventually brought the entire island under Norman control.

The Sicilian culture of the Arabs and Byzantines was a prosperous intellectual, artistic and economic environment at the center of the Mediterranean. Sicily  was a geographic crossroads between north and south, east and west. The Norman conquest led to a combining of the    Romanesque architectural style of Normandy   with Byzantine,  and Moorish traditions to create   a new aesthetic expression.

The Normans adapted  Arab institutions to European patterns.  Throughout the Norman era (roughly from1070 to 1200), ethnic and religious tolerance were generally accepted in  Sicilian society.   Sicily became part of Europe rather than Africa (under the Moors) or Asia (under the Byzantines).

During the twelfth century  Sicily become a kingdom under Roger II  (whose realm included not only Sicily but most of Italy south of Rome). Sicily under the Normans emerged as one of Europe's most important regions ushered in a "Golden Age" which continued into the Swabian era  of Frederick II during the thirteenth century.

The Normans' system of justice allowed separate, but equal, jurisdictions based on Shari'a law for Muslims, Judaic law for Jews, Byzantine Greek law for Byzantines and Norman feudal law for Normans. Important documents were multilingual. A Latin (and Roman Catholic) orientation eventually prevailed, but until the reign of Frederick II a more egalitarian society existed here than any other part of Europe.

Change did not come overnight. Some communities were more  were Orthodox Christian and Greek-speaking while others were predominantly Muslim and Arabic-speaking. Mosques stood alongside churches and synagogues. The Norman vassals and knights, though Christian, were Roman Catholic.  The Normans eventually Latinized Sicily. Some isolated Orthodox monasteries in the northeast  of Sicily survived this process for a time, but most of Sicily's greatest Norman churches, though incorporating Byzantine elements, were founded or re-constructed as Latin.

 Norman Sicily evolved into a nation with Sicilians as its "people." In other Italian regions such developments were literally centuries away. In time, the territory ruled by the Normans on the Italian peninsula,  became known  il Regno  or the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.  Palermo  was the capital  and  under Frederick II, the capital of the entire Holy Roman Empire. The period beginning with the arrival of the Normans in 1061 and ending with the death of their descendant, Frederick, in 1250, was a brief, but remarkable, shining moment in European history.