The Normans (French: Normands; Latin: Nortmanni) were the
people who in the 10th and 11th centuries gave their name to Normandy, a region
in France. They were originally Viking raiders and pirates from Denmark, Norway
and Iceland, who under their leader Rollo agreed to swear fealty to King
Charles III of West Francia. Through generations of assimilation and mixing
with the native Frankish and Roman-Gaulish populations, the Northmen's
descendants ("Norman" comes from "Norseman") would
gradually merge with the Carolingian-based cultures of West Francia. The
distinct cultural and ethnic identity of the Normans emerged initially in the
first half of the 10th century, and it continued to evolve over the succeeding
centuries.
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| Victorian interpretation of the Normans' national dress, 1000–1100 |
The Norman dynasty had a major political, cultural and
military impact on medieval Europe and even the Near East. The Normans
were famed for their martial spirit and eventually for their Christian piety,
becoming exponents of the Catholic orthodoxy into which they assimilated.
They adopted the Gallo-Romance language of the Frankish land they settled,
their dialect becoming known as Norman, Normaund or Norman French, an important
literary language. The Duchy of Normandy, which they formed by treaty with the
French crown, was a great fief of medieval France, and under Richard I of
Normandy was forged into a cohesive and formidable principality in feudal
tenure. 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 founded the
Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II after conquering southern Italy on 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. 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 Ireland, Scotland and
Wales in Great Britain, to the coasts of north Africa and the Canary Islands.
The legacy of the Normans persists today through the
regional dialects of France, England and Sicily, as well as the various
cultural, judicial and political arrangements they introduced in their
conquered territories, the long endurance of which contrasts with the
developments in many continental areas of Europe.
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