Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/291

Age of Disorder: Feudalism 209 333. New Invasions. Moreover, frequent new invasions from all directions kept the three parts of Charlemagne's empire, and England besides, in a state of fear and disaster. The Moham- medans, who had got possession of northern Africa and of Spain, gained control of the island of Sicily shortly after Charlemagne's death and began to terrorize Italy and southern France. On the east the Slavs whom Charlemagne had defeated in his time con- tinued to make trouble, and the Hungarians, a savage race from Asia, penetrated into the Prankish kingdom. Finally they were driven back eastward and settled in the country now named after them Hungary. 334. The Northmen. Lastly there came the Northmen, 1 bold and adventurous pirates from the shores of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, who not only attacked the towns on the coast of the West Prankish kingdom but made their way up the rivers, plun- dering and burning the villages and towns as far inland as Paris. So there was danger always and everywhere. If rival nobles were not fighting one another, there were foreign invaders of some kind devastating the country, bent on robbing, maltreat- ing, and enslaving the people whom they found in towns and villages and monasteries. No wonder that strong castles had to be built and the towns surrounded by walls. 335. Medieval Fortresses controlled by Individuals. In the absence of a powerful king with a well-organized army to support him, each district was left to look out for itself, and the people came to depend on the nobles to protect them. The Romans had been accustomed to build walls around their camps, and a walled camp was called castra ; in such names as Rochester, Winchester, Gloucester, Worcester, we have re- minders of the fact that these towns were once fortresses. These camps, however, were all government fortifications and did not belong to private individuals ; but as the disorder caused by the incoming barbarians increased, the various counts and dukes and other large landowners began to build forts for themselves. 1 These Scandinavian pirates are often called vikings, from their habit of leaving their long boats in the vik, which meant, in their language, " bay " or " inlet."