The Normans

The Normans (French: Normands) were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They are descended from the Vikings of Frank. They emerged during the 10th century.
 They played a major political, military, and cultural role in medieval Europe. They are famed for their martial spirit and Christian mysticism(piety). 


The Benedictine Monk Goffredo (Geoffrey) Malaterra described the Normans as "eager after both gain and dominion" and "a race skillful in flattery given to the study of eloquence, so that the very boys were orators, a race altogether unbridled unless held firmly down by the yoke of justice.


Normandy
The  Duchy of Normandy was established in the mid 10th century by Rollo or Robert I (First Duke of Normandy, 846-931) It was founded in the former kingdom of Neustria. The pagan culture was substituted by the Christian faith and Gallo-Romance Language of the local people. The small groups of Vikings that settled there adopted the language and culture of the French majority into their own customs to create the Norman culture.
During the Norman period Feudalism was being adopted across Europe including the Normans. This system was hierarchical with a King and Queen, Lords and Lady's, Knights and peasants. In Norman society Knights were poor and land hungry. By 1066, Normandy had been exporting fighting horsemen for more than a generation. Knighthood before the time of the Crusades held little social status, and simply indicated a professional warrior wealthy enough to own a war horse.

Rollo,  1st Duke of Normandy

Conquest

The Normans are renowned for there conquest achievements. Normans first began a conquer of   Mezzogiorno or Southern Italy in 1017. They eventually captured Sicily and Malta from the Moslem Saracens, under the famous Robert Guiscard, a Hauteville, and his young brother Roger the Great Count. Roger's son, Roger II, who was crowned king in 1130 (exactly one century after Rainulf was "crowned" count) by Pope Anacletus II. The kingdom of Sicily lasted until 1194, when it fell to the Hohenstaufens through marriage.

Soon after the Normans first began to enter Italy, they entered the Byzantine Empire(Eastern Roman empire), and then Armenia against the Pechenegs, Bulgars, and especially Seljuk Turks. 

The famous Norman conquest in history was the conquest of England. The Normans were in contact with England from an early date. This relationship eventually produced closer ties of blood through the marriage of Emma, sister of Duke Richard II of Normandy, and King Ethelred II of England.  Ethelred fled to Normandy in 1013, when he was forced from his kingdom by Sweyn Forkbeard. His stay in Normandy (until 1016) influenced him and his sons by Emma, who stayed in Normandy after Cnut the Great's conquest of the isle.  Edward the Confessor returned from his father's refuge in 1041, at the invitation of his half-brother Harthacnut, he brought with him a Norman-educated mind. He also brought many Norman counsellors and fighters, some of whom established an English cavalry force. This concept never really took root, but it is a typical example of the attitudes of Edward. He appointed Robert of Jumièges archbishop of Canterbury and made Ralph the Timid earl of Hereford. He invited his brother-in-law Eustace II, Count of Boulogne to his court in 1051, an event which resulted in the greatest of early conflicts between Saxon and Norman and ultimately resulted in the exile of Earl Godwin of Wessex. 

In 1066, Duke William II of Normandy conquered England killing King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. The invading Normans and their descendants replaced the Anglo-Saxons as the ruling class of England. The nobility of England were part of a single French-speaking culture and many had lands on both sides of the channel. Early Norman kings of England were, as Dukes of Normandy, vassals to the King of France.

Eventually, the Normans merged with the natives, combining languages and traditions. In the course of the Hundred Years' War, the Norman aristocracy often identified themselves as English. The Anglo-Norman language became distinct from the French language, something that was the subject of some humour by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Anglo-Norman language was eventually absorbed into the Anglo-Saxon language of their subjects and influenced it, helping (along with the Norse language of the earlier Anglo-Norse settlers and the Latin used by the church) the development of Middle English which would gain much vocabulary of French origin.

William the Conqueror invades England

In Ireland, The Normans had a profound effect on Irish culture and history after their invasion at Bannow Bay in 1169. They merged Norman and Irish culture and were said to be "more Irish than the Irish themselves". The Normans settled mostly in an area in the east of Ireland, later known as the Pale, and also built many fine castles and settlements. 

In Scotland one of the claimants of the English throne opposing William the Conqueror, Edgar Atheling, eventually fled to Scotland. King Malcolm III of Scotland married Edgar's sister Margaret, and came into opposition to William who had already disputed Scotland's southern borders. William invaded Scotland in 1072, riding as far as Abernethy where he met up with his fleet of ships. Malcolm submitted, paid homage to William and surrendered his son Duncan as a hostage, beginning a series of arguments as to whether the Scottish Crown owed allegiance to the King of England. 

In Wales, before the Norman Conquest of England, the Normans had come into contact with Wales. Edward the Confessor had set up the aforementioned Ralph as earl of Hereford and charged him with defending the Marches and warring with the Welsh. In these original ventures, the Normans failed to make any headway into Wales.  Normans began a long period of slow conquest during which almost all of Wales was at some point subject to Norman interference. 

Culture

The Normans have many great examples or architecture. They spread a unique Romanesque idiom to England and Italy and the encastellation of these regions with keeps in their north French style fundamentally altered the military landscape. Their style was characterised by rounded arches (particularly over windows and doorways) and massive proportions. One of the most splendid  examles of Norman architecture is the Tower of London, home of the British Crown Jewels:

Tower of London

William I (the Conqueror) the facts!

• Claimed the throne by killing his enemy Harold II(last Saxon King of England) who was killed by an arrow in his eye.
• The battle of Hastings lasted about a day, they even took a break for lunch!
• Reigned 1066-1087, first monarch of the Kingdom of  England
• Crowned on Christmas day in Westminster Abbey 
• William once was so fat he fell off his horse!
• Died aged 60
• So fat he was buried in a square, metal coffin
• His tomb was often raided, all that remains is his femur! 
• Buried in Normandy

William the Conqueror