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Normans

This article is about the early medieval Normans. For modern Normans, see Normandy. For other uses, see Norman.

Normans
Arrival in England scene from the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting Normans using longships
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The Normans (Norman: Normaunds; French: Normands; Latin: Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia.[1][2][3] The Norse settlements in West Francia followed a series of raids on the French northern coast mainly from what is now Denmark, although some also sailed from Norway and Sweden.[4] These settlements were finally legitimized when Rollo, a Scandinavian Viking leader, agreed to swear fealty to King Charles III of West Francia following the siege of Chartres in 911, leading to the formation of the County of Rouen. This new fief, through kinship in the decades to come, would expand into what came to be known as the Duchy of Normandy.

The Norse settlers, whom the region as well as its inhabitants were named after, adopted the language, religion, social customs and martial doctrine of the West Franks but their offspring nonetheless retained many of their traits, notably their mercenary tendencies and their fervour for adventures. The intermixing between Norse folk and native West Franks in Normandy produced an ethnic and cultural "Norman" identity in the first half of the 10th century, an identity which continued to evolve over the centuries.[5]

The Norman dynasty had a major political, cultural and military impact on medieval Europe and the Near East.[6][7] The Normans were historically famed for their martial spirit, and eventually for their Catholic piety as adherents of the Catholic orthodoxy of the Romance community.[8]

The original Norse settlers adopted the Gallo-Romance language of the Frankish land they settled, with their Old Norman dialect becoming known as Norman, Normaund or Norman French, an important literary language which is still spoken today in parts of mainland Normandy (Cotentinais and Cauchois dialects) and the nearby Channel Islands (Jèrriais and Guernésiais).

The Duchy of Normandy, which arose from the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, was a great fief of medieval France. The Norman dukes exercised independent control of their holdings in Normandy, while at the same time being vassals owing fealty to the King of France, and under Richard I of Normandy (byname Richard sans Peur, meaning "Richard the Fearless"), the duchy was forged into a cohesive and formidable principality in feudal tenure.[9][10] "Warfare and rivalry with the French was also important in shaping and sustaining Norman identity in Normandy In some ways the struggle with the French played for the Normans the role that the struggle with the Vikings had played for the English. At first, as Viking interlopers in a late-Frankish or French world, the Normans had to fight to prevent themselves from being thrown out as other bands of Vikings had been. Later, as they became settled and acculturated, the Normans had to continue to fight for territory and their political autonomy against various neighbours, the most important of whom, over the long term, were the kings of France. Periodic wars helped solidify and maintain the ethnic as well as political loyalties of the Norman people, and particularly the warrior class.

Norman attitudes toward the French and other neighbours were complex. There was a strong streak of hostility towards their neighbours, and particularly towards the French,expressed in their works"[11]

Between 1066 and 1204, as a result of the Norman conquest of England, most of the kings of England were also dukes of Normandy. Gradually, an Anglo-Norman culture developed in the British Isles. In 1204, Philip II of France seized mainland Normandy by force of arms, having earlier declared the Duchy of Normandy to be forfeit to him. It remained a disputed territory until the Treaty of Paris of 1259, when the English sovereign ceded his claim to the Duchy, except for the Channel Islands. In the present day, the Channel Islands (the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey) are considered to be officially the last remnants of the Duchy of Normandy, and are not part of the United Kingdom but are instead self-governing Crown Dependencies.[12][13]

The Normans are noted both for their culture, such as their unique Romanesque architecture and musical traditions, and for their significant military accomplishments and innovations. Norman adventurers played a role in founding the Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II after conquering southern Italy and Malta from the Saracens and Byzantines, and an expedition on behalf of their duke, William the Conqueror, led to the Norman conquest of England at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.[14] Norman and Anglo-Norman forces contributed to the Iberian Reconquista from the early eleventh to the mid-thirteenth centuries.[15]

Norman cultural and military influence spread from these new European centres to the Crusader states of the Near East, where their prince Bohemond I founded the Principality of Antioch in the Levant, to Scotland and Wales in Great Britain, to Ireland, and to the coasts of north Africa and the Canary Islands. The legacy of the Normans persists today through the regional languages and dialects of France, England, Spain, Quebec and Sicily, and also through the various cultural, judicial, and political arrangements they introduced in their conquered territories.[7][16]

  1. ^ Brown 1994, p. 18: "The first Viking settlers in Normandy, it is agreed, were predominantly Danish, though their leader, Rollo was of Norse extraction."
  2. ^ Brown 1994, p. 19: "the Northmen of Normandy became increasingly Gallicized, increasingly Norman we may say, until by the mid-eleventh century they were more French than the French, or, to speak correctly, more Frankish than the Franks."
  3. ^ Elizabeth Van Houts (2000). The Normans in Europe. Manchester University Press. p. 1. ISBN 9780719047510. Archived from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  4. ^ Du Cluzel de Remaurin, Chevalier. (1863). "Généalogie de la noble et ancienne maison des Le Roy". Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Philosophie, histoire, sciences de l'homme. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 30 May 2023. D'orgine normande, la noble maison des LE ROY 1, divisée en quatre principales bran-ches, dont nous donnons ici la généalogie, remonte à la plus haute antiquité, c'est-à-dire à ces fiers enfants du Nord (Nort-mans) qui, du fond de la Norwège 2, sous la conduite des Hadding, des Gerlon, des Héric et autres chefs non moins inhumains et farouches, inon-dèrent la Gaule au septième siècle, et ne laissèrent rien d'entier sur leur passage que les traces sanglantes de leur barbarie, la désolation et des' ruines, assiégèrent trois fois Paris et en effrayèrent si fort les habitants..." "2 Nortwége selon Moriri, et Norwegue selon Bruzen de a Martinière.
  5. ^ "Sicilian Peoples: The Normans". L. Mendola & V. Salerno. Best of Sicily Magazine. Archived from the original on 14 January 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  6. ^ "Norman Centuries – A Norman History Podcast by Lars Brownworth". normancenturies.com. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  7. ^ a b "The Norman Impact". History Today Volume 36 Issue 2. History Today. 2 February 1986. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Norman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Searle, Eleanor (1988). Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840–1066. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0520062764.
  10. ^ Neveux, François (2008). A Brief History of The Normans. London, England: Constable & Robbinson, Ltd. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-1845295233.
  11. ^ Thomas, Hugh M. (2005). The English and the Normans: ethnic hostility, assimilation, and identity 1066 - c.1220 (1. publ. in pbk ed.). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-19-927886-2.
  12. ^ Marr, J., The History of Guernsey – the Bailiwick's story, Guernsey Press (2001).
  13. ^ Ministry of Justice. "Fact sheet on the UK's relationship with the Crown Dependencies" (PDF). GOV.UK. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2016. HM Government is responsible for the defence and international relations of the Islands.
  14. ^ "Claims to the Throne". Mike Ibeji. BBC. 17 February 2011. Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  15. ^ "Norman and Anglo-Norman Participation in the Iberian Reconquista c.1018–1248 – Medievalists.net". Medievalists.net. 24 September 2008. Archived from the original on 22 January 2019. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  16. ^ "What Did the Normans Do for Us?". John Hudson. BBC. 12 February 2012. Archived from the original on 24 April 2022. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
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