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Pearsall Surname Project
Number of Pearsalls By Location
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Surname
History and Genealogy
of the Pearsall Family in England
and America:
Volume I
Front Cover
Inside Front Cover
The Motive
Thanks
Illustrations
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Appendix I
Volume II
Volume III
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Rollo was
trained and raised as a Norseman. It is true the clergy secured the task
of training the infant Duke Guillaume, and that seems to be the beginning
and end of the story of the conversion of Rollo.
It
is an interesting fact that when these Vikings landed in Normandy they were
all equal, but says the local historian, in the progress of conquest, the
habits of military obedience raised him, who had been only first among
equals, to the supreme authority among his countrymen, who freely elected
him their duke. His companions became counts and barons, and the freemen
who were his followers, knights or inferior vassals. These were consulted
by him and his successors on all important occasions of national concern.
The clergy were for a long time excluded from this great council or
parliament, because they were not Norse-men, and necessarily kept at a
distance by national prejudice and jealousy. But the two nationalities
were finally blended together by intermarriages, by the influence of
religion, and by adopting the same laws and judicial institutions. The
Grand Coutoumier, the earliest monument of
Norman legislation now extant, states that Duke Rollo, having become sovereign
of Neustria, recorded, i.e. collected the ancient customs of the country,
which could have been no other than the laws of the Franks, and where any
doubt or difficulty occurred in ascertaining these, he consulted
"with many sage men, to whom the truth was known, as to what had
been of old time said and done: to which he added other new laws, drawn
up by the same counselors and adapted from the very laws of Norway to
which they had so strongly excepted. The feudal law was thus reduced to a
system and its many problems stated and solved by the subtle intellect of
the Norman lawyers. It was afterwards transplanted in all its vigor into England by the Conqueror, who used it as
an effectual instrument of consolidating his power, and establishing a
more powerful monarchy than any which had existed in Europe
since the time of Charlemagne. The custom of Normandy has therefore many
analogies with the ancient Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon laws, and these
different people have borrowed so much from each other, and were so often
blended and confounded together in their wars, conquests, and migrations,
that it is difficult to distinguish with accuracy the origin of their
various judicial institutions, but always it is those old followers of
Odin who, out of the great wealth of their Asiatic system, provide the
laws and regulations to meet the new conditions. Hence the marked
similarity to the old Mosaic laws, that has so often been noticed and
quoted by modern judges. Rollo is said to have established the Court of
Exchequer, as the supreme tribunal of justice, and the perfect security
afforded by the admirable system of police, established in England by King Alfred, is also attributed
to the legislation of the first duke of Normandy. [History of the Northmen by Henry Wheaton, London, 1831.]
The
common danger from the Northmen once removed,
the quarrels in France
again broke out. Charles, by the spontaneous allegiance of Lotharingia, and by the aid of the Northmen, had gained an increase of strength, and
jealousy perhaps was the immediate cause of the rebellion. A strong rival
coalition arose. Robert of Paris was chosen king, leaning on the united
powers of Vermandois, and Burgundy. Yet Charles, aided by the
people of Lotharingia, by Rollo and some Northmen, who had settled on the Loire,
was strong enough to win a great
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