The Normans in Southern Italy: Lordship and Feudalism

An important aspect of the Norman domination of southern Italy was the strengthening of the military or banal lordship (both lay and ecclesiastic): in other words, those forms of possession of land that also included public duties, such as military service and justice. For a long period, in mainland southern Italy, these powers created a state of tension between the great vassals and the central power (the duke of Apulia or the king).

The way the feudal pyramid functioned required the vassal to supply his superior (count, duke or king) with military contingents and tax revenues. In exchange, he obtained the administration of an area in which the inhabitants were obliged to pay him tribute and provide labour services (corvées). The vassal lived in a different manner from the other citizens, usually in a castle, nearly always outside the towns or in the countryside and he devoted himself mainly to warfare.

An attempt was made to structure relations between the vassals and between the latter and the king in a rigorous manner. The criminal law was reorganised and the distribution of the fiefs was altered by a series of laws issued by Roger II known as the Assizes of Ariano[1] and also by the Catalogus Baronum[2], a record of military obligations.

In the early Middle Ages, feudalism did not appear to be present in Southern Italy (with the exception, in some respects, of the Lombard states). The most important new element introduced by the Normans was lordship, which, however, developed in very different forms in time and in different areas : a lord (a layman or a church) had rights deriving from the ownership of land (rural lordship) and certain public rights, such as the right to collect taxes, administration of justice, military service (banal lordship). He had, therefore, multiform authority over a specific territory and he availed himself of the services of specialised personnel. The most important aspect of this power was the military one; the lord created a corps of professional soldiers (the milites or knights).  The results of the feudal system were many and varied. In Calabria and Sicily, Robert Guiscard and Roger I distributed the fiefs in such a way as to prevent the multiplication of the large domains. However, in Byzantine Apulia and in the former Lombard states, the lordships were born of an anarchical form of appropriation of the land that subsequently caused a continuous state of rebellion of the Norman barons against the central power (whether ducal or royal). The mainly military character of the lordships founded by the Normans had two fundamental consequences:

• The public aspects assumed took on major importance, so that the landed lordship was overshadowed by the banal or military one.
• The Norman lordship was essentially lay in character.

On the other hand, there were not many ecclesiastical lordships (abbeys and dioceses) in southern Italy before the Norman Conquest: Montecassino, St Vincent on Volturno, St Clement of Casauria, Holy Trinity of Cava. The secular Church was always fairly weak during the Norman period, so that its power could not be compared with that of the same institution in northern Italy. Even during the period of the kingdom, the number of titulars of dioceses and archdioceses able to seriously influence the kingdom’s politics and/or economy was insignificant.

The consequence of the mainly military character of the Norman lordship was, on the one hand, the permanent state of war (in which the lords fought between themselves) and, on the other, the actual size of the fiefs. In general, the Normans replaced the pre-existing Lombard political units (principalities, counties, areas governed by gastalds) with their own lordships. In other cases, they created new, much larger ones (the counties of the Principate, Molise, Loritello, etc.). It was in Byzantine Apulia that the largest counties were set up (Monte Sant’Angelo, Conversano, Taranto and Montescaglioso). By contrast, in Sicily and Calabria there were no counties, with the exception of Catanzaro and Squillace in Calabria. After the kingdom had been founded, in order to give greater stability to the central power, Roger II tended to create counties that were fragmented over a large area. Furthermore, he intervened with regard to the size and the title of the counties in order to limit the power of the counts. As far as the recruitment of the feudal class was concerned, with the exception of the areas previously under Lombard control, all the new lords were Normans; the natives were found much more frequently among the lower levels of the nobility, especially the knights.

The functioning of the Norman rural lordships in southern Italy was based on the possession of land. Often the lords divided their land into lots, distributing these among the peasants (the contracts were known as livelli). The rents often took the form of a share of the harvest, which was very high, especially for the produce that was non-essential (wine, etc.).  Despite the fact that their lordship was essentially a banal (i.e. fiscal and military) one, the Normans did not manage to preserve the complex Byzantine system of direct taxation. They made great use, however, of indirect taxation (already applied in the Lombard principalities): an example of this is the tax on the forest paid by the community to the vassals; other taxes included the herbaticum (for pasture) and kalendaticum (paid on the first day of the month). As far as juridical rights are concerned, although the Norman lords administered civil law, only rarely were they responsible for criminal law.

The fortified residence of a lord, the castle was an absolutely new element in the landscape of southern Italian, symbolizing the new seignorial power of a military nature. It is no coincidence that the sources record frequent attacks by the citizens on such buildings. Today all that is left of the Norman castles are a few isolated towers.  The principal function of the castles was that of imposing the new power on the local population; their use for warfare was of secondary importance. In general, they were built immediately after the conquest (the castle of Bari dates from 1075, that of Troia, 1080, and the same applies to Palermo), with the dual purpose of control and defence. Although castles were generally associated with towns or villages, they were located outside them and were often built on mottes, large man-made mounds, for example, San Marco Argentano, in Calabria. On the other hand, very little is known about their interiors. During the period of the kingdom, some castles had a purely military function; in this case they were commanded by a castellan and did not constitute the residence of a lord.

The official members of the aristocracy were milites or knights. In order to serve in the higher ranks of the fighting forces it was, in fact, necessary to be rich enough to pay for the equipment. In the case of the Normans, this comprised a pointed helmet with a nose-guard, a coat of mail down to the knees, an almond-shaped shield (in wood and leather), a sword (90 cm) and a lance (2 m). The most expensive item was the horse, armoured for battle. A knight was admitted to the military career with a ceremony of investiture (adoubement), during which he received a cingulum, the belt to which his arms were attached, and his sword. Radical changes resulted from the advent of the monarchy in the twelfth century. The permanent state of war, typical of the ducal states, disappeared, thanks, above all, to the process of transformation, initiated by Roger II of the vassals themselves into royal officials. War became specifically a royal prerogative; the policy of the Hautevilles provided for a strategy that was, on the whole, defensive. In fact, it was founded, on the one hand, on the castles and, on the other, on military service organized in individual fiefs. Roger meticulously recorded the latter in an important administrative document (corresponding to the Domesday Book in England) known as the Catalogus Baronum.

Before the institution of the monarchy, the lords dispensed justice themselves, employing officials and assistants with a wide range of titles and functions (sometimes these were Byzantine titles, such as protocamerarius, strategos, catepan, etc.). With the advent of the monarchy the lords’ freedom to deal with public law was limited and royal officials, such as justiciars and judges, appeared. Another important activity of the vassals was hunting, mainly of large game, which conferred prestige on those who caught it (bears, deer and wild boar). In the late 12^th century, falconry, an eminently aristocratic form of hunting, first made its appearance.   Other seignorial activities included pastimes about which, however, little is known: games of chance certainly played were dice and aliossi (knucklebones). The chronicler Hugo Falcandus referred to hastiludia, a game that involved breaking lances while running.

The most important legislative act of Norman rule in Italy was unquestionably the body of laws known as the Assizes of Ariano. Having gained political control of his kingdom, Roger II promulgated a series of laws during a general assembly of the barons meeting at Ariano Irpino in 1140. The Assizes constituted a synthesis of different juridical traditions (Lombard and Byzantine) grafted onto Roman law. This represented a sort of constitution for the new kingdom, which was founded on the centrality and quasi-sacredness of the monarchy, and was opposed to any disruptive force, especially the feudal one (thus following the example of Anglo-Norman law). The laws of Ariano broke the principle of the rights of personal status, replacing it with that of territoriality. The privatistic tendencies typical of early medieval criminal law (based on pecuniary settlement) were supplanted by a system of state criminal law. Judges had wide discretionary powers when deciding on punishments. These were of three types: pecuniary, deprivation of freedom and corporal

During their progressive penetration of southern Italy, the Normans adapted themselves to the monetary systems existing in the different areas, in much the same way that they did in England. There were two pre-Norman monetary areas: on the mainland, where Byzantine gold and copper coins were in use and, in Amalfi and Salerno, the tari, imitations of Arabic coins; in Sicily the Arabs had a monetary system based on the gold dinar and the silver dirhem. The first coins minted in Italy by the Normans were a number of anonymous follari struck under Robert Guiscard and Roger I. The latter, after the conquest of Sicily, introduced new types of tari, kharrube and follari to the island, stamped with a tau. However, the true monetary reorganisation took place under Roger II: the king prohibited the circulation of foreign coins and introduced one of his own, the ducat. With the monetary reform of 1140 the Sicilian tari was imposed as the standard coin throughout the kingdom. The striking of coins was limited to just a few mints: Palermo and Messina for the Sicilian tari; Salerno[3] for the follari of the duchy of Apulia; Amalfi for the tari of base gold.

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[1] Ortensio Zecchino ‘Les Assizes de Roger II (1140)’, Les Normands en Méditerraneé, University of Caen, 1994, pages 143-159 is a useful account.

[2] Evelyn Jamison Catalogus Baronum, Rome, 1972 is the most recent edition of this central source.

[3] Paolo Peduto ‘La monnaie normande a Salerne, de Roger Borsa a Tancrède (1085-1194)’, Les Normands en Méditerraneé, University of Caen, 1994, pages 151-160 is an important paper.

Sources for Chartism: Merlin 5th November 1839

Merlin - 5th November, 1839 - Chartist Insurrection at Newport - Total Defeat of the Insurgents - Upwards of 20 Killed and a Large Number Wounded

We have this day to perform the most melancholy duty that ever devolved upon us as journalists and we write with the most intense feelings of regret.

The mania of Chartism which has been produced and actively cherished in this country amongst the great body of the working classes by selfish designing and profligate demagogues has appallingly raged; and the blood of many infatuated wretches has been spilt in an insurrectionary struggle. We have elsewhere in the present number of the Merlin, as well as upon many former occasions, expressed our opinions on the monstrous delusion of what the plunderers of the people, enemies of social order artfully call the "Peoples Charter"; and we now proceed to the sad details of the fatal consequences which have resulted to some of the ill-fated insurgents who have been lured from honest industry and have harkened to the voice of their betrayers.

On Saturday and Sunday last reports had come that the Chartists of the Hills were preparing for an attack on Newport and that in the event of success they intended to march to Monmouth for the liberation of Vincent and the other Chartist prisoners confined in the jail of that town. From the frequency and vagueness of such reports for some weeks little importance (generally speaking) was attached to these rumours until Sunday when Thomas Philips Junior Esquire, Mayor of Newport obtained information to which some credence was attached that an insurrectionary movement had been determined on in the Chartist Lodges. Some well-informed from the manufacturing districts stated that the "Rise" was to have taken place on the preceding Tuesday but was deferred to Sunday night or early Monday morning; that the disaffected had been possessing themselves of arms and that they had sent scouts to Newport to ascertain the state of preparation in which the town would be placed by the authorities. The Mayor from the first moment of serious alarm adopted every precautionary measure which firmness, correct judgement and indefatigable exertion could accomplish in the time and under the circumstances. He swore in a large number of special constables from amongst all classes - and was in frequent communication with the detachment of the brave 45th Regiment stationed at the Poor House and appointed the Westgate Hotel as the headquarters of the little band elected for the defence of the town. At eight o'clock Lieutenant Grey of the 45th with two sergeants and thirty soldiers arrived at the Westgate Hotel from the barracks at the Poor House beyond Stow Hill. The gallant Lieutenant immediately placed himself and men under the direction of the Mayor and the brave determined fellows were judiciously posted through the premises. Business was entirely suspended, the shops were all shut, and a solemn stillness pervaded the town. The shutters of the Westgate Hotel windows were closed but the entrance was open and the passage occupied by several gentlemen with staves who acted as special constables, there being no appearance of military force from the exterior of the house. At about nine o'clock the cheering of many voices was heard in the distance from the direction of Stow Hill producing the utmost alarm as evidenced by the countenances of those inhabitants who appeared at their windows. A few minutes after the front ranks of the numerous body of men armed with guns, swords, pikes, bludgeons and a variety of rude weapons made their appearance and wheeled round the corner of the hotel from Stow Hill with more observance of regularity in movement than is usual for rioters to display; an observer who saw the movement down Stow Hill calculates this body of Chartists must have amounted to five thousand men.

When the head of the column arrived at the Westgate, the rear ranks were at the house of Mr. Sallows and they appeared to be almost twelve abreast. The leading ranks then formed in front of the house and a large body made an attempt to enter the yard leading to the stables but found the gates strongly secured against them. They then wheeled to the portico of the inn holding their guns and other weapons in a menacing manner and called out as t'was understood "Give us up the Prisoners" (those that had been captured during the previous night by the special constables). A volley was immediately discharged at the windows of the house which broke almost every pane of glass within the frames on the lower floor and they made a rush into the passage a dense crowd forcing the special constables to fly from the points of their pikes. At this critical moment the soldiers who were in the large lower room of the eastern wing fired over the shutters which were nearly mid-way up the window but it was supposed that the balls passed over the heads of the visitors. The shutters were soon removed and Mr. Philips the undaunted Mayor, Lieutenant Grey and Sergeant Daly of the 45th appeared at the window. The Mayor had the Riot Act in his hand and appeared as if about to address or exhort the insurgents when he received a slug through the left arm (a rather severe flesh wound) near the wrist. Sergeant Daly was wounded in the forehead (with two slugs made from lead apparently taken from a window frame), he was hit on the peak of his cap the stiff leather of which prevented his being killed on the spot. The firing of the troops was steady and murderous both on the rioters in front of the hotel and on those who rushed into the premises. Several unhappy wretches fell in view of the people inside.

During the melee the Mayor was again wounded and had two providential escapes of life. A Chartist was about to pierce his body with a pike when he was shot by a soldier and secondly he was near being shot by one of the military who in the smoke produced by the firing mistaking Mr. Philips for one of the foe levelled his piece at him (then only at half cock) and would have fired but for a person who happily turned the muzzle of the gun aside and the Mayor announcing himself. The heat of the conflict lasted about a quarter of an hour when the defeated Chartists took to their heels in all directions, throwing away their arms and abandoning their dead and dying, and we are credibly informed that the Chartists at the rear of the column up Stow Hill fled across the fields below the church and in all directions scattering their weapons as they went and appearing panic stricken on hearing the roll of the musketry. Many who suffered in the fight crawled away, some exhibiting frightful wounds and glaring eyes wildly crying for mercy and seeking shelter from the charitable; others desperately maimed were carried by the hands of humanity for medical aid, and a few of the miserable objects that were helplessly and mortally wounded continued to writhe in torture, presenting in their gory agonies a dismal and impressive example to any of the political seducers or the seduced who might have been within view and a sickening and melancholy spectacle for the eye of the philanthropist.

Besides the injuries which were unfortunately sustained by Mr. Philips and Sergeant Daly we regret to state that Mr. Henry. Williams, Ironmonger of this town was wounded severely and Mr. Morgan, Draper, of the Waterloo House, Commercial Street received a gun shot wound, the ball was extracted and it is consoling to hear that at the latest moment of our enquiries that the wounded are doing well.

After the dispersal of the rioters, the slain chartists nine in number at the Westgate were placed in the yard of the inn and. presented a deplorable sight. Many of the inhabitants of the town went to see them and curses both loud and deep were uttered against the men who brought the unfortunate wretches to be thus sacrificed in the criminal purpose of forwarding by murder their infamous and destructive projects.

While witnessing this scene a withering passage in the catalogue of human woes took place, a young woman who had forced her way through the crowd of spectators in the yard no sooner got a view of the dead than she uttered a heart-rendering shriek and threw herself upon one of the bodies. The gush of fondness and of sorrow was great, she was dragged from him she loved, the blood of the fallen rioter having smeared her face and arms. There were other pitiable circumstances that might be set down as episodes the recital of which might cause a sigh even from the bosoms where the flame of hate burns but time urges to the recital of the leading facts.

The areas about Newport had literally swarmed with workmen from mining districts armed in various ways and it was said that upwards of ten thousand men within twenty minutes march from the town were waiting orders from the Chartist Chiefs. The Pontypool Road teemed with them and in one quarter alone the hills about Pen-y-lan farm there could not be less than three thousand. Several persons were stopped in coming to town and taken as prisoners and as far as we can learn not injured. A gentleman connected with the Merlin coming from Crindau to Newport was stopped and questioned, he expostulated with the men who had his collar and jostled him but did not experience much violence at the request of a person who seemed to have some influence with the detaining party, he was allowed to enter Newport. Mr. Brough of Pontypool and others were brought from the country and kept as prisoners all night. Numerous houses of parties on the hills were entered and searched for arms and all weapons found there were taken. Some Videttes who were sent from Newport to observe the state of the roads met with rough handling by the Chartists. Two gentlemen had a very narrow escape with their lives after being pursued by armed men in a wood who were urged on to kill them. Mr. Walker of the Parrot was badly wounded in the thigh.

The night was most tempestuous and the rain fell in torrents. The state of the weather, providentially, was a great cause of the failure of concentration amongst the thousands of disaffected. Had the night been favourable there would have been according to numerous concurring statements probably twenty thousand men within an hours march of Newport by three o'clock in the morning. The Chartists and the host of the poor unwilling creatures whom they forced along with them were exposed to the inclemency of the night for hours. Their ammunition was spoilt, and hungry and spiritless they sought shelter in vain.

Many of the scouts who had been prowling about Newport for information during the night were captured by the special constables who in this respect did good service and shall have honourable mention when we are able to ascertain the names of the most active. And above all as fortunate for the cause of Order and justice the insurgent leaders seemed to have egregiously blundered with respect to the movements of their most effective and best armed Chartists.

Had the attack been made as it was resolved upon in the middle of the night or even earlier in the morning before a single soldier was on duty in Newport our readers may judge what would have been the fate of the town. Among the precautionary measures taken by the Mayor on Monday morning were the distribution of public notices, the following with many other bills issued as soon as possible from the Merlin office were circulated through the town and neighbourhood:

Borough of Newport - County of Monmouth

The Justices of the Borough strictly require all persons who have been sworn in as Special Constables of the Borough to attend at the Westgate at nine o'clock this morning in order to perform active duty.

Dated this 4th day of November, 1839
By Order of the Justices.

Our Sovereign Lady the Queen strictly chargeth and commendeth all persons being assembled immediately to disperse themselves and depart to their habitations or to their lawful business upon the pains contained in the Act made in the first year of George for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies.

God Save the Queen

Borough of Newport 4th November, 1839
The Riot Act has been read by Order of Justice.