It was terribly hard for the good, honest Anglo-Saxon people to see the
Normans move into their homes and force them to work like slaves on the
very places they themselves had owned. But the Normans had the power and
the Saxons could not help themselves. For hundreds of years the Normans
spoke the French language, and the Saxons, the English. The very names
of the meats on your table at home are signs of the Norman Conquest,
nearly nine hundred years ago. The animals in the pastures and stables
of England were called by the names the Saxons gave them--as cow, calf,
sheep, swine. But the meats of those animals when cooked and served upon
the tables of the masters are still known by the Norman French names, as
beef (Norman name for cow), veal (Norman for calf), mutton (Norman for
sheep), pork (Norman for hog or swine). Milk is a Saxon word, but cream
is from the French, because the Saxons had to milk the cows and drink
only milk, while they served their Norman lords the cream.
The Norman traits of keenness, tact, and worldly wisdom have been
mingling for many centuries with the honest, sturdy integrity of the
Anglo-Saxons. Little by little, as the races grew together, the nobles
became less haughty and cruel and the poorer people were lifted out of
their poverty. But it took many centuries for men to learn the lesson
that
“Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.”
LION-HEARTED RICHARD AND WOLF-HEARTED JOHN
The great-grandson of William the Conqueror was Henry the Second of
England, a great and powerful king. At his death, in 1189, he left two
sons, Richard and John. As Richard was the older he was at once
proclaimed king and duly crowned in Westminster Abbey. He was also Duke
of Normandy, and thought this a greater honor than to be king of
England.
About a hundred years before the time of Richard, great armies had begun
to sail from several of the countries of western Europe to the Holy Land
in Syria. The rock-hewn tomb of Jesus, near Jerusalem, was in possession
of the followers of Mohammed--Turks, Arabs, and Saracens--who controlled
the country. The Christian people of Europe thought it very wrong that
the Saracens owned the Holy City of Jerusalem and could keep Christians
from coming to worship at the tomb of their Lord. So throngs of soldiers
went to the Holy Land to rescue the Holy Sepulchre, or tomb. The wars
which they fought for this cause were known as the Crusades.
[Illustration: KING RICHARD GENEROUSLY FORGIVES BERTRAND DE GURDUN, WHO
HAD ATTEMPTED TO ASSASSINATE HIM.
_From the painting by John Cross_]
In the First Crusade, the Christian knights captured not only the Holy
Sepulchre but also the city of Jerusalem. In the Second Crusade, about
fifty years later, the crusaders were beaten back by the Saracens. Two
years before Richard became king, the Mohammedans again captured
Jerusalem and the sacred tomb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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