And if Fontanini's[BC]
authorities be sufficient, it appears that even the Gallic Romance, by
the residence of the papal court at Avignon, and from other causes, made
its way into Italy before it was polished into the Provencal.
As to Naples and Sicily, the expulsion of the Saracens by the Normans,
under Robert Guiscard in 1059, must have produced in that country nearly
the same effect, a similar event soon after brought about in England.
And in fact we have the authority of William of Apulia[BD] to prove,
that the conquerors used all their efforts to propagate their language
and manners among the natives, that they might ever after be considered
only as one people. And Hugo Falcland[BE] relates, that in the year
1150, Count Henry refused to take upon him the management of public
affairs, under pretence of not knowing the language of the French;
which, he adds, was absolutely necessary at court.
That the language of the Romans penetrated very early into Spain,
appears most evidently from a passage in Strabo,[BF] who asserts that
the Turditani inhabiting the banks of the Boetis, now the Guadalquivir,
forgot their original tongue, and adopted that of the conquerors. That
the Romance was used there in the fourteenth century appears from a
correspondence between St.
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