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TEUTONIC PEOPLES
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See also:TEUTONIC PEOPLES
, a comprehensive See also:term for those populations of See also:Europe which speak one or other of the various See also:Teutonic See also:languages, viz., the See also:English-speaking inhabitants of the See also:British Isles, the See also:German-speaking inhabitants of See also:Germany, See also:Austria-See also:Hungary and See also:Switzerland, the Flemish-speaking in-habitants of See also:Belgium, the Scandinavian-speaking inhabitants of See also:Sweden and See also:Norway and practically all the inhabitants of See also: He cites native poems which declared that the Inguaeones, Hermiones and Istaeuones—the three See also:main branches of the Germani (see below)—were sprung from three sons of a certain Mannus (perhaps " See also:Man "), who was himself the son of the See also:god Tuisto the son of See also:Earth; and in a Frankish document at least four centuries later we hear again of three See also:brothers named Erminus, Inguo and Istio, from whom many . nations were descended . In English documents also we find See also:eponymous See also:national ancestors grouped tcgether in genealogical trees, and there is reason to believe that the common origin of the various Teutonic peoples was remembered to a certain extent until comparatively See also:late in the See also:middle ages . The linguistic characteristics of the various Teutonic peoples have been dealt with under TEUTONIC LANGUAGES . In regard to See also:physical features they present at the present time very many varieties both of stature and of pigmentation, though on the whole they are probably the tallest and fairest of See also:European peoples . These characteristics are noted by a number of See also:ancient writers in language which seems to show that they must at that time have been at least as pronounced as among any of the pre-sent Teutonic peoples . Moreover, the tallness and dolichocephaly which now specially See also:mark the more See also:northern peoples of the See also:group appear very prominently in cemeteries of the See also:migration See also:period in Switzerland and other neighbouring countries . On the whole, however, the skeletons found in German and Scandinavian tombs dating even from the earliest period do not show any very remarkable See also:differences from those of the present See also:day . But whether we are justified in speaking of a Teutonic See also:race in the anthropological sense is at least doubtful, for the most striking characteristics of these peoples occur also to a considerable extent among their eastern and western neighbours, where they can hardly be ascribed altogether to Teutonic admixture . The only result of anthropological investigation which so far can be regarded as definitely established is that the old Teutonic lands in northern Germany, Denmark and See also:southern Sweden have been inhabited by See also:people of the same type since the See also:neolithic See also:age, if not earlier . The results of investigations in prehistoric See also:archaeology are treated in the articles GERMANY and SCANDINAVIAN See also:CIVILIZATION . As no Teutonic See also:inscriptions are extant from before the 3rd or 4th centuries, it cannot be stated with See also:absolute certainty what types of See also:objects are characteristic of Teutonic civilization in the See also:bronze and earliest See also:iron ages . Yet throughout the bronze age it is possible to trace a fairly well-defined group of antiquities covering the See also:basin of the See also:Elbe, See also:Mecklenburg, See also:Holstein, See also:Jutland, southern Sweden and the islands of the See also:Belt, and archaeologists have conjectured with much See also:probability that these antiquities represent the See also:early civilization of the Teutonic peoples . The civilization was, of course, not wholly of native growth . Strong See also:foreign See also:influence, first See also:Aegean and later See also:Etruscan, can be distinguished; but the types introduced from the See also:south have generally undergone considerable modification and expansion . The somewhat surprising degree of See also:wealth and See also:artistic skill of which many of even the earliest antiquities give See also:evidence is probably to be explained by the importance of the See also:amber See also:trade . Both in eastern and in western Germany the objects found are of somewhat different types and seem to point to a See also:lower See also:standard of civilization . What peoples inhabited these regions can only be conjectured, but there is a certain amount of evidence from See also:place-names—not altogether satisfactory—that the Celtic peoples at one time extended eastwards throughout the basin of the See also:Weser . With the beginning of the iron age (perhaps c . 500-400 B.C.) Celtic influence becomes apparent everywhere . By this time, however, the See also:great Celtic See also:movement towards the south-See also:east had probably begun, so that the Teutonic peoples were now cut off from See also:direct communication with the centres of southern civilization . r . See also:History.—The first recognition that the inhabitants of Germany, Holland, &c., were a people distinct from their Celtic neighbours See also:dates from about the middle of the 1st See also:century inc., when See also:Caesar's See also:conquest of See also:Gaul rendered a knowledge of northern Europe more generally accessible to the See also:Romans . Certain notices See also:relating to individual Teutonic tribes come down from still earlier times . Thus there can be little doubt that the See also:Cimbri (q.v.) and their See also:allies, who invaded Illyricum, Gaul and Italy in the last years of the preceding century, were for the most See also:part of Teutonic nationality . The See also:Bastarnae also, who in the 3rd century B.C. invaded and settled in the regions between the Carpathians and the See also:Black See also:Sea, are said by several ancient writers to have been Teutonic. by origin, though they had largely intermarried with the native inhabitants . Again, individual travellers from the time of See also:Pytheas onwards had visited Teutonic countries in the See also:north . In none of the early records, however, do. we get any clear indication that the Teutonic peoples were distinguished from the Celts . From the time of Caesar onwards the former were known to the Romans as " Germani," a name of uncertain but probably Gaulish origin . It is said to have been first applied to certain Belgic tribes in the basin of the See also:Meuse, who may formerly have come from beyond the See also:Rhine . At the beginning of our era the Teutonic peoples stretched from the Rhine to the See also:Vistula . Before Caesar's arrival in Gaul they had advanced beyond the former See also:river, but their further progress in this direction was checked by his See also:campaigns, and, though both See also:banks of the river were occupied by Teutonic tribes throughout the greater part of its course, most of these remained in definite subjection to the Romans . The eastern-most Teutonic tribe was probably that of the Goths, in the basin of the Vistula, while the farthest to the south were the See also:Marcomanni and Quadi, in Bohemia and See also:Moravia . These latter districts, however, had been conquered from the See also:Boii, a Celtic people, shortly before the beginning of our era . Towards both the south and See also:west the Teutonic peoples seem to have been pressing the Celts for some considerable time, since we are told that the See also:Helvetii had formerly extended as far as the Main, while another important Celtic tribe, the See also:Volcae Tectosages, had occupied a still more remote position, which it is impossible now to identify . How far the Teutonic peoples extended nort..-wards at this time cannot be determined with certainty, but it is clear that they occupied at least a considerable part of the Scandinavian See also:peninsula . It has already been mentioned that the Teutonic peoples of this period seem to have been fully conscious of their common origin . What exactly the grouping into Inguaeones, Hermiones and Istaeuones was based upon can only be conjectured, though probably its origin is to be sought rather in See also:religion than in See also:political See also:union . The name of the Hermiones, who are defined as " central " or " interior " peoples, is probably connected with that of the Irminsul, the sacred See also:pillar of the Old See also:Saxons . The Inguaeones again are defined as being "-next to the ocean "; but the name can be traced only in Denmark and Sweden, where we find the eponymous See also:hero See also:Ing and the god Yngvi (See also:Frey) respectively . It is likely that the name really belonged only to the peoples of the southern Baltic . Very probably there were many tribes which did not regard themselves as belonging to any of these See also:groups . Tacitus himself records a variant See also:form of the See also:genealogy (see above), according to which See also:Manlius had a larger number of sons, who were regarded as the ancestors of the See also:Suebi, Vandilii, See also:Marsi and others (see SUEBI, See also:VANDALS) . In two at least of these cases we hear of sanctuaries which were resorted to by a number of tribes . It is not to be doubted that such religious confederations were favourable to the existence of political unions . Generally speaking, however, each tribe formed a political unit in itself, and the combinations brought together from time to time in the hands of powerful See also:kings were liable to fall to pieces after the first disaster . For a few years at the beginning of the See also:Christian era the part of Germany which lies west of the Elbe was under See also:Roman See also:government; but after the defeat of Varus (A.D . 9) the Rhine and the See also:Danube formed in See also:general the frontiers of the See also:empire . Roman influence, however, made itself See also:felt both by way of trade and especially by the employment of German soldiers in the See also:auxiliary forces .
In the age of national migrations—from the 4th to the 6th century—the territories of the Teutonic peoples were vastly extended, partly by conquest and partly by arrangement with the Romans
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These movements began in the east, where we find the Goths ravaging See also:Dacia, See also:Moesia and the See also:coast regions-as early as the 3rd century
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In the following century the Vandals settled in See also:Pannonia (western Hungary), while the Goths occupied Dacia, which had now been given up by the Romans, and subsequently took See also:possession also of large territories to the south of the lower Danube
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The 5th century was the time of the greatest national movements
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In 406-9 the Vandals and other tribes invaded Gaul from the east and subsequently took possession of Spain and north-western Africa
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Immediately afterwards the Visigoths
PEOPLES
invaded Italy and captured See also:Rome; then turning westwards they occupied southern Gaul and Spain
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The southern Suebic peoples, the See also:Alamanni and Bavarians, extended their frontiers as far as the See also:Alps probably about the same time
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Not much later a considerable portion of northern Gaul See also:fell into the hands of the See also:Franks, and before the middle of the century the eastern part was occupied by the Burgundians
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Several of these movements were due, without doubt, to pressure from the See also:Huns, an eastern people who had conquered many Teutonic tribes and established the centre of their See also:power in Hungary
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Their empire, however, speedily See also:broke up after the See also:death of their See also: It is customary to attribute this great expansion partly to the increasing weakness of the Romans and partly to pressure of population in Germany . Both explanations may contain a certain amount of truth; but there is no doubt that the military strength of the Teutonic nations was far more formidable now than it had been in the time of the early empire . Not only is it clear, both from See also:literary and archaeological evidence, that they were better armed (see below), but also their power was much more concentrated . Thus during the 1st century we hear of about a dozen different tribes in and around the lower part of the basin of the Rhine . In later times, with one or two possible exceptions, these were all included under the general term Franci, and by the end of the 5th century all had become subject to one king . Similar processes can be traced elsewhere, e.g. among the Alamanni and in the northern kingdoms . Their effect, of course, must have 'been to provide the kings with greater wealth and with larger permanent bodies of armed men . The See also:motive force towards See also:extension of territories was supplied by military ambition; especially we have to take See also:account of the growth of a warlike spirit in the North, which was constantly See also:driving See also:young warriors to seek their fortunes in the service of See also:continental princes . Where the movement was really of a migratory See also:character it may generally be ascribed to See also:external pressure, in particular from the Huns and the See also:Avars . The first See also:half of the 6th century saw the subjugation of the Burgundian and Visigothic portions of Gaul by the Franks and the recovery of Africa by the-Romans . This latter event was soon followed by the overthrow of the Ostrogothic See also:kingdom; but not many years later Italy was again invaded by the Langobardi (See also:Lombards), the last of the great Teutonic migrations . By this time the extension of Teutonic dominion towards the south and west had brought about its. natural sequel in the occupation of the old Teutonic lands in eastern Germany, including even the basin of the Elbe, by See also:Slavonic peoples . Before the end of the century Bohemia also and Lower Austria, together with the whole of the basins of the See also:Drave and the See also:Save, had become Slavonic countries . The See also:story of the succeeding centuries may briefly be de-scribed as in general a See also:process of return to the ethnographical conditions which prevailed before the migration period . The Franks and the Langobardi remained in Gaul and Italy, but they gradually became denationalized and absorbed in the native populations, while in Spain Teutonic nationality came to an end with the overthrow of the Visigothic kingdom by the See also:Moors, if not before . Yet throughout the west and south-west the Teutonic frontier remained from fifty to two See also:hundred See also:miles in advance of its position in Roman times . In south-eastern Europe also the Teuwnic elements were swallowed up by the native and Slavonic populations, though a small remnant lingered in the See also:Crimea until probably the 17th century . On the other hand the political consolidation of the various continental Teutonic peoples (apart from the Danes) in the 8th century led to the See also:gradual recovery of eastern Germany together with Lower Austria and the greater part of See also:Styria and See also:Carinthia, though Bohemia, Me-a via and the basins of the Vistula and the See also:Warthe I sisting partly of members of the royal See also:family and partly of warriors old and young in the See also:personal service of the king . Such bodies of course had always existed (see below) and exercised at all times a powerful influence upon the kings, frequently even forcing them into See also:war against their own wishes . That they appear more prominently now than in earlier times is due to the fact that owing to the increased See also:size of the kingdoms, they had become both more numerous and more wealthy . The principle of See also:representation for the unofficial classes, i.e. for those not under the immediate lordship of the king, scarcely begins before the 13th century . Of all the institutions of the Teutonic peoples probably none exercised a greater influence on their history than the comitotus . From Caesar we learn that it was customary at tribal assemblies for one or other of the chiefs to propose an expedition . He had generally no difficulty in gathering a following, and those who embraced his service were held See also:bound to accompany him to the end, any who See also:drew back being regarded. as traitors .
Incidents illustrative of this See also:custom are of frequent occurrence in early history and tradition
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Moreover, kings and other distinguished persons kept See also:standing bodies of young warriors, an See also:honour to them in time of See also:peace, as Tacitus says, as well as a See also:protection in war
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Chiefs of known prowess and liberality attracted large retinues, and their influence within the tribe, and even beyond, increased proportionately
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The followers (called by Tacitus comites, in England " thegns," among the Franks antrustiones, &c.) were expected to remain faithful to their See also:lord even to death; indeed so See also:close was the relationship between the two that it seems to have reckoned as See also:equivalent to that of See also:father and son
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According to Tacitus it was regarded as a disgrace for a comes to survive his lord, and we know that in later times they frequently shared his See also:exile
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Perhaps the most striking instance of such devotion was that displayed at the See also:battle of See also:Strassburg in 357, when the Alamannic king Chonodomarius was taken prisoner by the Romans, and his two hundred comites gave themselves up voluntarily to See also:share his captivity
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In return for their services the chief was expected to See also:reward his followers with treasure, arms and horses
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If he were a king the reward might take the form of a See also: The same classes are met with in later times, though occasionally one of them disappears, e.g. the See also:nobility among the Franks and the freedmen (as a distinct class) in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, except See also:Kent . Each of these classes was, to a large extent at least, hereditary and had See also:separate rights and privileges of its own . Among the chief of these must be reckoned the wergeld or " man-See also:price." When See also:homicide took place vengeance was regarded as a sacred See also:duty See also:incumbent on the relatives, and sometimes at least the lord also, of- the slain man; , but, as in the See also:case of any other injury, See also:compensation could be made by a fixed See also:payment . From the evidence of later custom it is probable that the normal payment for a See also:freeman was a hundred See also:head of See also:cattle . The sums paid for members of the other classes were more variable; for the freedman, however, they were always lower, and for the See also:noble higher, sometimes apparently three or four times as high . Similar gradations occur in the compensations paid for various injuries and insults, in fines and, atnong some tribes, in the value attached to a man's See also:oath . There is a See also:good See also:deal of uncertainty in regard to both the exact position and the See also:numbers of the nobles and freedmen I of Tacitus's age . It is probable, however, that the latter, like have always remained mainly Slavonic . In the British Isles the Teutonic See also:element, in spite of temporary checks, eventually became dominant everywhere . Lastly, from the very beginning of the 9th century bodies of Scandinavian warriors began to found kingdoms and principalities in all parts of Europe . The settlers, howevver, were not sufficiently numerous to preserve their nationality, and in almost all cases they were soon absorbed by the populations (Teutonic, Celtic, Latin or Slavonic) which they had conquered . Their settlements in See also:Greenland and See also:Canada likewise came to an end, but See also:Iceland, which was formerly uninhabited, remained a Scandinavian See also:colony . The permanent expansion of the Teutonic peoples outside Europe did not begin till the 16th century . 2 . Form of Government.—From the evidence at our disposal it is difficult to determine how far the Teutonic peoples were under kingly government in early times . Tacitus speaks of tribes which had kings and tribes which had not, the latter Kingship, apparently being under a number of- principes . On nearer examination, however, it appears that kingship was intermittent in some tribes, while in others, which had no kings, we find mention of royal families . All such cases were perhaps See also:peculiar to the western peoples; in the east, north and centre we have no evidence for kingless government . Further, while Tacitus represents the power of Teutonic kings in general, with reference no doubt primarily to the western tribes, as being of the slightest, he states that among the Goths, an eastern people, they had somewhat more authority, while for the Swedes he gives a picture of See also:absolutism . It is quite in See also:harmony with these statements that many Northern and probably all the Anglo-Saxon kingly families traced their origin to the gods . The Swedes, indeed, and some of the eastern peoples seem to have regarded their kings themselves as at least semi-divine (see below, § Religion) . As the west was the side most open to foreign influence during the Roman period, it is likely that the form of government which prevailed here was less See also:primitive than the other, especially as we know that kingship had by this time died out among the Gauls . In later times we very frequently find a number of " kings," generally belonging to one family, within the same tribe; and it is not improbable that the early principes were persons of similar position . The kingless See also:state may therefore have arisen out of kingship through divisions of the royal power or through failure on the part of the leading men to agree on a head acceptable to all . On the other hand the conditions of the migration period were doubtless favourable to monarchical government, and from this time onwards kingship appears to have been universal, except among the Old Saxons and in Iceland . The concilium or tribal See also:assembly figures largely in Tacitus's account of the Germani, and he represents it as the final authority on all matters of first-See also:rate importance . Further, Tribal it was here that the principes were chosen, serious Assembly. charges brought against members of the tribe and youths admitted to the rights of warriors . The duties of opening the proceedings and maintaining See also:order belonged not to the king but to the priests, from which we may probably infer that the gathering itself was primarily of a religious character and that it met, as among the Swedes in later times, in the immediate neighbourhood of the tribal See also:sanctuary . Such religious gatherings were no doubt common to all Teutonic peoples in early times, but it may be questioned whether among the eastern and northern tribes they were invested with all the See also:powers ascribed to them by Tacitus . After his time tribal assemblies are seldom mentioned, and though we hear occasionally, both in England and elsewhere, of a concourse of people being present when a king holds See also:court on high days or religious festivals, there is no evidence that such concourses took part in the discussion of state affairs . Indeed, considering the greatly increased size of the kingdoms in later times, it is improbable that they were drawn from any except the immediately adjacent districts . When we hear of deliberations now they are those of the king's See also:council or court, a See also:body See also:con- the liti or lati of later times, consisted not only of manumitted slaves but also of whole communities which had forfeited their See also:liberty through unsuccessful warfare or other causes . In addition to these classes there was also a considerable population of slaves, who had no legal status or wergeld and were regarded as the See also:property of their masters . In general, however, their See also:lot seems to have struck the Romans as favourable, since they were not attached to their masters' households but lived in homes of their own, subject to fixed payments in See also:corn, live stock and clothing . Groups of family and kindred occupy a prominent position in the accounts of Teutonic society given by Caesar and Tacitus . It was regarded as a universal duty to afford protection to one's kinsmen, to assist them in the redress of wrongs and to exact vengeance or compensation in case of death, Hence to have a numerous kindred was a See also:guarantee of See also:security and influence . The large amounts fixed for the wergelds of nobles and even of freemen were paid no doubt, as in later times, not only by the slayer himself, but by every member of his kindred in proportion to the nearness or remoteness of his relationship; and in like manner they were distributed among the kindred of the slain . The importance of the kindred, however, was not limited to purposes of mutual. protection . It appears also in the See also:tenure of land, and according to Tacitus the tribal armies were drawn up by kindreds . As to the nature of these organizations the evidence is not altogether consistent . It is clear that agnatic See also:succession prevailed among the princely families of the See also:Cherusci, and the general account given in the Germania seems to imply that this type of organization was normal . On the other hand there are distinct traces of cognation not only in Tacitus's See also:works but also in Northern traditions and more especially in the Salic See also:law . On the whole it seems not unlikely that at the beginning of the Christian era the Teutonic peoples of the continent were in a state of transition from cognatic to agnatic organization . All the usual forms of See also:marriage were known, including marriage by See also:capture and marriage by See also:purchase . The latter Marriage . appears most prominently in Kent and among the Old Saxons, Langobardi and Burgundians . In other nations, e.g. the Franks, we find the payment of a very small sum, which is often regarded as sythbolic and as a relic of real purchase . Yet this explanation is open to question owing to the very early date at which the regulation appears, and to the fact that in the case of widows the sum specified had to be paid to relatives of the widow herself on the See also:female side, and by preference to those of a younger See also:generation . Again, Tacitus states that the presents of arms and oxen given by the See also:bride-See also:groom at marriage were made to the bride herself and not to her See also:guardian, and such appears to have been the case in the North also from early times . It is not certain, therefore, that marriage by purchase was a universal and primitive Teutonic custom . Of the actual ceremonies practised at marriage not very much is known . It was preceded, however, by a formal See also:betrothal and accompanied by a feast . Moreover, even among those peoples with whom purchase prevailed it was customary for the bridegroom to present the bride with a " See also:morning-See also:gift," which in the case of queens and princesses often took the form of considerable estates . There is no doubt that: the marriages of See also:heathen times were often of a See also:kind which could not be permitted after the See also:adoption of See also:Christianity . Among these may be mentioned marriages with brothers' widows and stepmothers, the latter especially in England . See also:Polygamy was known, but limited, both in early and late times, to persons of exceptionally high position, while of See also:polyandry there is hardly any trace . Indeed, the sanctity attached to marriage seems to have struck the Romans as remarkable . On the other hand strife between persons connected by marriage appears to have been of extremely frequent occurrence, and no motive plays a more prominent part in Teutonic traditions . 4 . State of Civilization.—lt is a much disputed question whether the Teutonic peoples were really settled agricultural communities at the time when they first came into contactwith the Romans, shortly before the beginning of our era . That See also:agriculture of some kind was practised is clear enough from Caesar's account, and See also:Strabo's statement to the contrary must be attributed to See also:ignorance or exaggeration . But Caesar himself seems to have regarded the Germani as essentially See also:pastoral peoples and their agriculture as of quite secondary importance, while from Tacitus we gather that even in his time it was of a somewhat primitive character . For not only was the husbandry co-operative, as in much later times, but apparently the ploughlands were changed from See also:year to year without any recognition of a two-course or three- course See also:system . Caesar, moreover, says that the clans or kindreds to whom the lands were allotted changed their abodes also from year to year—a statement which gives a certain amount of See also:colour to Strabo's description of the Germani as quasi-nomadic . Yet there is good reason for believing that this representation of early Teutonic See also:life was by no means universally true . We have evidence, both archaeological and linguistic, that the cultivation of cereals in Teutonic lands goes back to a very remote period, while the antiquity even of the ox-plough is attested by the See also:rock-carvings at Tegneby in Bohuslan (Sweden), which are believed to date from early in the bronze age . Further, that the tribes were not normally of a migratory character, as Straba seems to imply, is shown by the existence of sanctuaries of immemorial age and by frontier ramparts such as that raised by the Angrivarii against the Cherusci . It would seem that See also:Julius Caesar encountered the Germani under somewhat abnormal conditions . Several of the tribes with which he came into collision had been expelled from their own territories by other tribes, and we are expressly told that Ariovistus's troops had not entered a See also:house for fourteen years . Further, there is satisfactory evidence that the basin of the Rhine, perhaps also a considerable area beyond, had been conquered from Celtic peoples not very See also:long before—from which it is probable that western Germany was still in a more or less unsettled See also: |