The Normands are currently the inhabitants of the Normandy, but this term designates in the beginning the “men of North”, the “ Latin Northmanni ” in , the Viking S come from Scandinavia, devastating the coasts of all the Occident before settling in Normandy, from where some will leave, later, for the England, the Italy and the Holy Land.

The other Vikings will carry on their way, venturing to the heart of the the Mediterranean, penetrating far in the grounds of the East, pushing until in Orient, crossing the Atlantique, discovering the Iceland, the Greenland, Newfoundland, but also the coasts of the Canada and even of North America, primarily of the end of with.

Characteristics

As much of other migrating communities, the culture Norman was particularly undertaking and adaptable. The monk Benedictine and italo-Norman chronicler of the Geoffroi Malaterra characterized Norman like “ the particularly skilful ones, scorning their own heritage in the hope to acquire some larger, only avid of profits and domination, tending to all kinds of imitation, holding the happy medium between prodigality and avarice, having undoubtedly succeeded in linking these two apparently opposite values. Their chiefs particularly showed ostentation per desire to be shown well. It was besides a skilful race with the flattery, related to the study of the eloquence, so that the boys were speakers, a race completely unchained unless being firmly retained by the yoke of justice. They hard with the work, the hunger and cold all the times that the chance subjected to it, were concerned hunting and hawking, were fascinated by the horses like all the equipment and the weapons of war. ”

This rapid capacity of adaptation of Norman mentioned by Geoffroy led them to occupy the territories largely dispersed in the whole of Europe. It was also expressed in their judicious determination to engage the men of talent of the vintage and to marry the women of high ranking of the area. The inculture of the Norman lords did not prevent them from putting with confidence the clerks scholars of the Church at the service of their own intentions. The success of their assimilation was so complete that few modern traces remain with Palermo or with London.

Forwardings of plundering

France

In the West of the Europe, in second half of the 9th century, the bands Viking S devastate the coasts of the kingdom of France. They establish bases with Saint-Florent-the-Old with the mouth of the Loire, Noirmoutier, with Taillebourg on the average Charente. However, their most solid installation is made with the mouth the Seine under the control of some Rollon the Walker ( Hrólfr ), then in Basse-Seine while other Vikings settle in Bessin, in Cotentin, on all the littoral and along the rivers, like in the interior (Pays of Caux): these areas will compose the duchy of Normandy when the Jarl Viking of Norwegian or Danish origin Rollon receives from the Carolingian king Charles Simple the, by the Traité Saint-Clearly-on-Epte (911), the county of Rouen and all the territory between the Epte and the sea.

The Scandinavian population which is established in the duchy is mainly originating in the Denmark, but a considerable minority is originating in the Norway, which it is kingdom or Norwegian possessions (of Ireland in particular): these Norwegians fix themselves mainly in the north of the Péninsule of Cotentin. Some bands Varègues come from Sweden also settle in Normandy. These warriors Vikings come in the greatest majority from the cases, only, taking liking or of force of the women of the country for wives and/or concubines. Certain Vikings, mainly from the Norwegians of Ireland come with many women and Celtic slaves.

Colonization Viking in Normandy, just like the formation of the Norman duchy, is spread out in fact over more than one century because, in the years 1020, from the bands Vikings still come to settle in the duchy under the reign of the Duc Richard Irascible the. The duchy of Normandy is constituted especially under the successors of Rollon, of the duke Guillaume Long-Sword and it is only at the next century, under the reign of the duke Guillaume Bastard the, that the ducal capacity is completely marked (starting from 1060 approximately), 150 years after the treaty of Saint-Clearly-on-Epte. The adoption of the language of indigenous oil by the reigning class speaking the Vieux norrois introduced into the language Norman a good number of terms, in particular its nautical lexicon, passed in its near total in the French language.

The survival of Scandinavian elements also appeared on the legal level in the “ducal habits”. Thus the will hamfara remained in the repression of the attacks armed against the residences. The ullac survived with the setting outlaw resulting in the right of exile. Moreover, many Vikings to have essaimé out of their native ground made it because they had been exiled by it. The strict punishment of the flight, illustrated by the history of the oak to which Rollon suspended with a gold ring that nobody thought of flying, also finds its source in the Danish folklore. The right of the war and the wrecks ( veriscum ) also carries the mark of the Scandinavian legislation and the historians think that William the Conqueror had recourse there to mobilize the fleet which allowed him to invade and to conquer England. But the most marked persistence Scandinavian use in manners of Norman is without question the marriage More danico, “with Danish”, legalizing the bigamy. The newborns of a bubbled , the second wife, were regarded by them as legitimate. Thus, Guillaume was “Bastard” only with the eyes of the Church and this did not prevent it his/her father of the designer like his successor. It is only at the end of seven generations, precisely with William the Conqueror, that the dukes of Normandy appear to become monogamists.

At the beginning of already, the Norman ones will leave to illustrate and seek fortune by small groups in Spain, combatant the Moors at the sides of the Christian kings of North like worms 1034 or in 1064 with the battle of Barbastro, but especially in the Mediterranean, Italy of the South and Sicily, until Byzance and in minor Asia, and finally, in “Holy Land” at the time of the crusades.

England

The Norman ones were for a long time in contact with the England. While being delivered to the conquest of England, the Norman ones of the Duché of Normandy do nothing but continue the wave of Norwegian incursions in England.

Not only their similar pagan devastated already the English coasts, but they occupied the majority of the important ports vis-a-vis in England through the Manche. This proximity produced closer links still with the marriage of the girl of the duke Richard II, Emma, with the king Ethelred II. For this reason Ethelred II found refuge in Normandy in 1013, when it was driven out of its kingdom by Sven I {{er}} of Denmark. Its stay in Normandy until in 1016 influenced it like its sons. After the conquest of the island by Knut II of Denmark, his Emma wife remained in Normandy.

When Edouard the Confessor returned finally to England in 1041, with the invitation of his half-brother Knut III, it had been extremely " normannisé". It in addition brought many advisers and of Norman warriors with him. It urged even a small troop the Norman ones to establish and form a force of English cavalry. Although this intention was never really carried out, it is typical attitude towards Normandy of Edouard who named Robert de Jumièges Archevêque of Canterbury and made to Ralph the shy person Count de Hereford. In 1051, it invited his/her brother-in-law Eustace II of Boulogne at its court, which was to have like consequence most important of the first conflicts between Saxons and Norman and of which was to result the exile from the count Godwin de Wessex.

When in 1066, the Norman chief most famous, Guillaume Bastard the, soon called the “Conqueror”, conquers England, the Norman ones and their descendants will replace the Anglo-Saxon as a reigning class of England. After an initial phase of resentment and revolt, the two populations will finish by entremarier and to amalgamate by incorporating the respective languages and traditions. The Norman ones finished, with time, by being identified like Anglo-Norman S, more especially as the Anglo-Norman differed considerably from the Parisian French whose Chaucer was gaussé. Even this distinction, thereafter, disappeared mainly during the One hundred Year old Guerre, the Anglo-Norman aristocracy being identified more and more like English and the languages Anglo-Norman be and Anglo-Saxon born amalgamating to form the Middle English.

Ireland

The arrival of Norman had a major impact on the Irish culture, history and the ethnicity. They settled for the majority in the east of the Ireland, in an area of a ray of about thirty kilometers around Dublin now known under the name of “English Pale”. They also built castles there, including those of Trim and Dublin, as well as villages. At the beginning of, the Norman ones maintained a culture and identity distinct, the two ethnos groups mutually borrowing their language, their culture and their prospects. The Irish crucible combined them quickly and there is often habit to say that they became “Irish than the Irishmen themselves”.

Scotland

Edgar Atheling, one of the applicants to the English throne opposed to William the Conqueror, had found refuge in Scotland. Having married his sister Marguerite, the king Malcolm III of Scotland became adverse in Guillaume who had already disputed the southernmost borders of Scotland.

In 1072, Guillaume invades Scotland until Firth de Tay where it found his fleet. Malcolm made its tender and paid homage to Guillaume, giving his Duncan son like hostage and beginning a series of argumentations aiming at determining if the Scottish crown owed or not allegiance to the English king.

The Norman ones penetrated in Scotland where they built castles and founded noble families which were to provide kings such as Robert I {{er}} of Scotland as well as clans Scot in the Highlands. The king David I {{er}} of Scotland played a central role in the introduction of Norman and of the culture Norman in Scotland, having passed of time at the court of Henri Beauclerc which was married with Mathilde of Scotland, the sister of David Ist This process continued under the successors of this last. The system Norman Féodal was applied in the Lowlands, but the influence on the Scottish language of this area was limited.

Wales

The Norman ones knew the Wales well before the conquest Norman of England. Edouard the confessor had named Ralph the Shy person, count d' Hereford by charging it defending the Steps and with making the war with the Welsh.

These first operations in this country were not followed of effect but, following the conquest, the Steps fell entirely under the domination from the Norman barons from confidence from Guillaume, of which Roger II of Montgommery in the Shropshire and Hugues d' Avranches in the Cheshire. These Norman began one long period of slow conquest during which almost all Wales was more or less prone to interventions Normans. It is at that time that Norman words such as barwn ( baron ) made their entry in the language Welsh E.

The Mediterranean

The Norman ones of Southern Italy throw the bases of the future kingdom of Sicily. Immigration Norman in Italy does not have anything solid mass but it is estimated that a population ranging between 30.000 and 40.000 Norman, which left the duchy for Italy by small groups from thirty to forty warriors, mainly between the Années 1010 and 1120, settling especially in Apulie. However, these Norman often has large families and an important descent, thus mitigating their initial small number.

The Norman ones probably entered like warriors the the Mezzogiorno in 1017 at the latest following the stories of pilgrims. According to the monk Benedictine Aime of the Mount-Cassin, pilgrims of return of Jerusalem in 999, slackened in the port of Salerno when an attack of Sarrasins occurred. The Norman ones fought them so valiantly that Guaimar IV of Salerno requested them to remain. They declined the request of the prince, but offered to the place to send people of on their premises and held promise. The Norman chronicler Guillaume d' Apulie reports that in 1016, the combatant of freedom lombard Mello de Bari persuaded of the pilgrims who it had met with the tomb of Saint-Michel to Monte Gargano to return with more warriors to help them to get rid of the Byzantine S, which they did.

Among the Norman adventurers most famous, one finds Osmond Quarrel and Rainulf Drengot initially, which arrives to Italy in 1016 with three others their brothers. Rainulf is, in 1029, the founder of the first Norman Fief in the Mediterranean when it accepted in 1030 the county of Aversa of the duke Serge IV of Naples. Later arrive of the adventurers not less famous, the brothers Hauteville, who arrive gradually starting from 1035 approximately with mainly, Guillaume Arm-of-Iron, Drogon de Hauteville, Onfroi de Hauteville, Robert Guiscard and his young brother Roger Bosso.

The Hauteville obtained a princely statute when they proclaimed “duke of Apulie and Calabria” the prince Guaimar IV of Salerno which promptly granted the title of count of its capital Melfi Guillaume Arm-of-Iron, their elected chief. Drengot reached the same statute in the principality of Capoue when the emperor Henri III of the Holy roman Empire anoblit the chief of their house, Drogon, like duke and Master of Italy and count of Norman of all Apulie and Calabria in 1047. From there, Robert Guiscard and Roger Bosso could take thereafter the Sicily and Malta with Buckwheats. The son of Roger, became in 1130 the first king Norman of Sicily under the name of Roger II of Sicily, exactly a century after the crowning of Rainulf as count by the pope Anaclet II. To the pinnacle of the Norman kingdom of Sicily, which also included/understood half of the Italian peninsula until the papal States, the population of Palermo turned around 300.000 whereas that of Rome did not exceed 30.000). The revenues from taxes of Palermo exceeded those of very whole England Norman alone. This kingdom was to last until in 1194, when it returned by alliance to the Hohenstaufen S.

The Norman ones also left their mark in the landscape with many castles, like the fortress of Guillaume Arm-of-Iron to Squillace or the cathedrals, like that of Roger II with Cefalù, which strew the country to which they give an architectural savor completion distinct because of his single history. Institutionnellement, the Norman ones associated the administration of the Byzantines, the Arabs and Lombards to their own concepts of feudal right and order to work out a completely original government. In this State which enjoyed a great religious liberty, a meritocratic bureaucracy made up of Jews, Moslems and Christians catholic and orthodoxe, coexisted with the nobility Norman.

Among the other Norman ones to be itself illustrated in Southern Italy, one also counts Trani-stone, Hugues Tubœuf, Tristan de Montepeloso, Mauger de Hauteville, Guillaume de Hauteville, Godefroi de Hauteville, Serlon II of Hauteville, Roussel de Bailleul, Alphonse de Capoue, Robert Scalio or GUI of Hauteville. The Norman ones were to also become very influential in the Italian businesses, for example, when Robert Guiscard was the only support of the pope Gregoire VII in his conflict against the emperor Henri IV. This support was to lead to a battle between the Norman ones and the Romans during whom most of Rome was burned or put at bag.

In 1129, Robert Burdet in Catalonia which guerroie in Catalogne against the Sarrasins takes Tarragone with the Musulmans and declares “prince de Tarragone” independent of the Comté of Barcelona. Later, in minor Asia, Roscelin de Baieul will conquer in 1073 the Galatie of which it will autoproclamera “prince” and will make Ankara its capital.

Crusades

The legendary piety of Norman found to be exerted in the religious wars a long time before the First crusade does not lead to the creation of a principality Norman of Antioche. They were important foreign participants in the Reconquista in Spain. In 1018, Roger de Tosny even tried to create a state in Spain Moor. In 1064, during the war of Barbastro, Guillaume de Montreuil took, with the head of the papal army, enormous spoils.

In 1096, crusaders passing by the seat of Amalfi were joined by Bohémond de Tarente and its nephew Tancrède of Galileo with an army theNorman ones. Bohémond was the chief de facto of the crusade during its passage of the minor Asia. After the success of the Head office of Antioche in 1097, Bohémond started to create a independent principality around this city. Tancrède played a fundamental role in the conquest of Jerusalem and it contributed for the expansion of the Royaume of Jerusalem in Transjordanie and the area of the Galileo.

The East

Shortly after their arrival in Italy, the Norman ones enter the Byzantine Empire and little time after in Arménie against the Petchenègues, the Bulgares and, in particular, the Seldjoukides. Guests first of all by Lombards in the South to intervene against the Byzantines, the Norman mercenaries fight soon with the service of the Byzantines in Sicily. They play a prominent part in the quotas Varègues and lombards of the sicilian countryside of George Maniaces of 1038 - 40.

One of the first Norman mercenaries to becoming Byzantine general was Nicephorus Bryennius in the Années 1050. As of this moment, there were already Norman mercenaries being useful as far as Trébizonde and the Georgia. They were based with Malatya and Édesse, under the Byzantine duke of Antioche, Isaac Comnène. In the Years 1060, Robert Crispin carries out Norman Édesse against the Turks. Roussel de Bailleul will even try to create its own state independent in minor Asia with the support of the local population before being stopped by the Byzantine general Alexis Comnène. Of 1073 with 1074, 8.000 of the 20.000 soldiers of the general Arménie N Philaretus Brachamius were the Norman ones carried out by Raimbaud.

Integration

The spirit Viking, always long-lived into full, grows blurred definitively during while the Norman ones, that they are those, inter alia, of England or of Italy, cease little by little, starting from second half of until the course of, to train distinct people. The capacity of adaptability mentioned by Goffredo Malaterra appeared in the judicious intention of Norman engaging the local men of talent and marrying the local women of high ranking. In the same way, the Norman Masters illiterate but trustful in themselves did not hesitate to make sure the co-operation of clerks educated to serve their intentions. The success of their assimilation was such as with Palermo, few traces of them remain at the time modern. Nevertheless, the Duchy of Normandy, annexed with the kingdom capétien by the King Philippe Auguste in 1204, kept a long time still, vis-a-vis it French royal capacity, a strong particularism, for a long time source of conflicts between the kingdoms of France and England, conflicts resulting directly, or indirectly, of these old Norman, francized Vikings and autochtones normannized by nearly two centuries of autonomy of the duchy.

See too

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