The Norman Frontier in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries

Abstract

The Norman Frontier in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries. By DANIEL POWER (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2004; pp. 634. £80). THIS is a very substantial book (466 pages of text), based on a long period of detailed research, as attested by the 50 pages of appendices, the 45 pages of bibliography, and the numerous footnotes at the bottom of each page. Its length makes it a rather daunting read; the complexity of the argument also demands constant attention. But the author does his best to help the reader by writing clearly and by summarising his conclusions at the end of each section. The conclusion to the whole book is a model of clarity. Power's main thesis is that the frontier of the Norman duchy has been misrepresented in recent historical literature. Despite its well-known definitions by riverbeds and stone markings, the border region of Normandy was politically, legally, judicially, linguistically and culturally as confused as any other medieval march. The considerable body of literary evidence on which earlier historians have relied to argue that Normandy was unusually clearly delimited by the twelfth century is, according to Power, an inadequate foundation for understanding the true nature of the frontier region. Linearity in thinking about frontiers should give way to study of zones. This involves a full examination of the political and social circumstances of those aristocrats who lived within the rather different communities through which the frontier ran, combined with an awareness that frontier regions can move over time. This programme demands of the historian that he make more chronological and spatial distinctions than did historians of the last generation. He must also penetrate to lower social levels than they did, absorbed as they were almost exclusively in the politics of great princely houses. It is an exacting brief. But while there is much to be said for this energetic and demanding approach, Power may on occasion perhaps overstate the actual fuzziness of Normandy's frontiers in the eyes of twelfth- and early thirteenth-century people. For example, his chapter on the church begins by restating the well-known similarity of the duchy in territorial extent to the metropolitan province of Rouen. The rest of the chapter is devoted to demonstrating that the church in Normandy only sometimes took note of ducal or other secular authority. But there is no attempt to undermine the idea that Normans conceived of their land as comprising the seven bishoprics of the province. And Power's own contention that, while Normandy consisted of small lordships, the lands just beyond it were characterised by much larger ones, also implies that the differences between Normandy and its neighbours were real and perceptible. In this sense, linearity remains meaningful.