Norman England

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They descended from Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock. Their identity emerged initially in the first half of the tenth century, and gradually evolved over succeeding centuries until they disappeared as an ethnic group in the early thirteenth century. The name "Normans" derives from "Northmen" or "Norsemen", after the Vikings from Scandinavia who founded Normandy.

They played a major political, military, and cultural role in medieval Europe and even the Near East.

The Norman conquest of England

began in 1066 with the invasion of

the Kingdom of England by the

troops of William, Duke of

Normandy, and his victory at the

Battle of Hastings. This resulted in

Norman control of England, which

was firmly established during the

next few years.

William, Duke of Normandy, launched his bloody and decisive invasion of Saxon England in 1066. In that year Edward the

Confessor, King of England, died without heir, appointing by his will Harold Godwinsson, son of England’s most powerful nobleman, the

Earl of Wessex, as his successor. Across the Channel, William of Normandy considered himself rightfully the next King of England,

basing his claim on a promise by Edward the Confessor in the early 1050s and an oath of fealty sworn by Harold during an enforced visit to William’s capital at Rouen following his capture by the

Count of Ponthieu.

The Battle of Hastings

The battle was fought over the rest of the day, a savage fight with heavy casualties on each side. The issue in

the balance until late in the afternoon; marked by repeated cavalry attacks on the Saxon position by William’s cavalry, violently repelled until the final

assaults. The Normans found the Saxon warriors with their battle axes, and in particular Harold’s

“housecarles”, a formidable enemy. There were many accounts of knights with their horses being hacked in

pieces by these terrible weapons wielded in great swinging blows.

William, Duke of Normandy

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Prepared by G. Nargiz