Normans

The Normans are participants in sea voyages to the territory of the Franks of the late VIII - mid XI centuries. Historians describe the Normans as greedy, warlike, hardy, eloquent, inclined to mix with an alien population. The first period of Norman expansion (late VIII-IX centuries) was characterized by scattered expeditions against the Frankish state, attacks on the shores of England, Scotland, Ireland and their relocation to the Orkney , Faroe , Hebrides and Shetland Islands , and somewhat later - to Iceland . From the end of the 9th century, larger groups of Normans attacked France and England, passing from plunder and collecting tribute to the settlement of conquered territories. In Northern France they found the Duchy of Normandy (911), conquer northeastern England. At the beginning of the 10th century, all of England was already subordinate to the Danish kings . The campaigns of the Normans ceased around the middle of the 20th century. The descendants of the Normans - natives of Normandy - subjugated England in the 2nd half of the ΧΙ century ( Norman conquest of England , 1066), as well as southern Italy and Sicily , having founded the Sicilian kingdom here ( 1130 ).

The Danish and Norwegian Vikings in the second half of the 9th century, led by Rolf Pedestrian, began to occupy the northern land of France, now called Normandy . In 911, Charles III Rustic agreed to recognize Norman lands at the mouth of the Seine . Rolf took the Frankish name Rollon and took a vassal oath to the King of the Franks Karl , becoming the first Duke of Normandy .

The Normans adopted Christianity , adopted the French language and culture, mixed with the local population. A nationality was emerging that was not completely identical to either the Scandinavian predecessors or the French neighbors.

The territory of Normandy roughly corresponds to the territory of the old church province of Rouen or Neustria and does not have natural borders. It was inhabited mainly by the Gallo-Romans . Also, there lived a small number of Franks and representatives of other Germanic tribes and Viking settlers who began to arrive in the 880s . In the X century, the initially destructive raids of the Norman gangs along the Gallia rivers gradually turned into the possession of land with their constant settlement, with the participation of women and children, the construction of castles and fortresses. And although over time the Norman settlers were assimilated by the French, even after many centuries among the inhabitants of Normandy and the northern regions of France there was a high percentage of blondes who stand out among the French (usually dark-haired).

The Normans adopted the feudal doctrines of the Franks and developed them in Normandy and England into a harmonious system.

From the second half of the VIII century to the middle of the XI century, England was subjected to fierce and numerous raids by the Normans, first from Norway , then also from Denmark . Both Norwegians and Danes were known in England under the name Dan . In 842, the Normans burned London , in 860 they captured the entire northeast coast of England, in 871 they re-captured London, forcing King Alfred the Great to flee south. The territory of East Anglia captured by the Normans underwent continuous Danish-Norwegian colonization and later received the name of the Danish right strip or Denlo (English Dane Law). In the Denlo strip, their own legal and administrative-territorial systems of Scandinavian origin were established, which sharply differed from those applied in the rest of the country. The legal specificity of the Denlo strip persisted for most of the Middle Ages and contributed to the adoption in the Anglo-Saxon society of a number of Scandinavian legal institutions, in particular a jury . Over time, the Norman aliens mixed with the local population, adopted Christianity and adopted the local language and customs.

The raids of the Normans heavily affected the position of the Anglo-Saxon peasants, whose farms were often utterly ruined. The peasants were forced to pay a special land tax (“ Danish money ”), established by Alfred the Great, to fight the Normans, and to personally participate in the construction of defensive structures and in the performance of sentry and military service.

Alfred the Great and his closest successors succeeded for some time to restrain the onslaught of the Normans and even push them far to the north-east. But at the end of the 10th century, the Norman invasion resumed with renewed vigor, this time from Denmark. The king of Denmark and Norway, Sven Wiloborodoy , captured London in 1013 and was proclaimed king of England. Deposed King Ethelred II fled to Normandy . However, Sven died on this campaign (1014). The youngest son of Sven Knud I , who participated in the campaign, was proclaimed king of England. The titles of the King of Denmark and the King of Norway were inherited by the elder brother of Knud Harald II . The Danish army returned to Denmark.

In the same 1014, Ethelred II, who returned from exile, was restored to the throne. Knud was forced to flee to Denmark. Gathering and equipping, with the help of Harald II, the army and navy, he again went to England in 1015 and in October 1016 secured the return of the title of king of England. "Danish money" was now significantly increased and used by the king to organize the defense of England from other Normans. The Danish nobility took leading positions at court and received a lot of land in the south of England.

Knud I died in 1035, by which time he had united the titles of the king of England, Denmark and Norway. After him, two of his sons ruled England one after another - Harold I (1035-1040) and Hardeknud (1040-1042). This reign of the Danish kings in England ended.

King of England became the son of Ethelred II Edward, known as Edward the Confessor . Edward’s power was weak. Know Anglo-Danish origin held Danish orientation. Another part of the nobility, led by the king, was looking for an alliance with the Norman Duke Wilhelm . In the first half of Edward's reign (until 1048), the threat of a Norwegian invasion forced England to keep a large military fleet on alert, but in 1048 the fleet was dissolved and the “Danish money” was canceled. After the death of childless Edward (1066), the nobility at the meeting elected Harold Godvinson, crowned under the name Harold II, to be the king of Wessex Earl (Earl) of Anglo-Danish origin. But William, with a large army consisting of knights of Normandy and other French lands, crossed the English Channel and moved to London. The pretext for the invasion of England was the earlier oath of Harold Godwinson to William of Normandy to recognize the latter as the heir to Edward the Confessor. Having defeated the army of Harold II, who had come forward to meet him at the Battle of Hastings , William occupied London and was proclaimed king of England . The place of the old Anglo-Saxon and Danish nobility was taken by the new French nobility. During the reign of William (died 1087), who restored the "Danish money", the Normans' new onslaught against England was successfully repelled and in the end their raids finally stopped. Instead of Scandinavian influence, French influence was established in England.

The Normans, who had actively colonized East Anglia and Ireland since the end of the 8th century, paid less attention to Scotland. Norwegian colonization affected only the islands adjacent to Scotland - Orkney , Shetland and Hebrides , as well as the western and northern coasts of Scotland. In the occupied territories, the Normans created strongholds for the attack on Ireland. Norwegians brought their own language - the West Norwegian Norn - and laws. In the Shetland Islands, the norn existed as a spoken language until the 19th century . The picts who lived in these territories before the arrival of the Norwegians were partly assimilated, partly exterminated. At the end of the reign of King Harald I the Fair-haired (beginning of the tenth century), the islands captured by the Norwegians, the west coast and the north of the main part of Scotland - Caithness and Sutherland - formally became part of Norway, forming, together with the Faroe Islands , the county of Orkney . At the end of the X century, the county of Orkney was Christianized - before Christianity was established in Scandinavia. The Scottish kings only in the middle of the XIII century, when Scotland was already under Anglo-Norman influence, managed to stop the Norwegian expansion and regain the Hebrides and the entire coast of the main part of Scotland. Thus, the period of Norman presence in the British Isles came to an end. After another 200 years, the Shetland and Orkney Islands were transferred to the Scottish crown.

Having captured the Shetland, Orkney and Hebrides islands in the 8th century , the Normans began predatory raids (lasting about 200 years) into Irish territory, and soon proceeded to the creation of settlements in Ireland. In 798, the Norwegians settled in the Dublin area, and from 818 began to colonize the southern coast, creating settlements near the current cities of Wexford and Cork . In Ulster, the Normans took possession of the church capital of Ireland - the city of Armagh , and in the west founded a colony, which later became the city and port of Limerick , at the confluence of the Shannon River into the estuary , which cuts deep into the island.

Relying on these settlements, the Normans made numerous predatory expeditions, penetrating rivers into the interior of the island. The main object of robbery was the richest and most developed southern and eastern parts of Ireland. In the first half of the 9th century, one of the leaders of the Normans, Torgils actually kept a significant part of the island under his command. The city of Athlone made the capital of Torgils the city of Athlone on the Shannon River, by Lake Loch Rhe .

The dominance of strangers led to the liberation struggle, which intensified especially at the beginning of the XI century. The battle was led by local leaders - King of Manster Brian Boru and ruler Mita Malachi . Malachi defeated the Norman forces and drove the Normans out of Dublin.

In 998, Malachi was recognized as King of Ulster, losing to Briand Dublin, and since 1002, the title of Ard-ri (High King) of Ireland. Briand carried out political reform, tried to tighten the tax system, built many fortresses on the Shannon River, created a strong fleet, preparing for the upcoming battles for the liberation of Ireland from the Normans. For an attempt to introduce cattle taxation for general needs, he received the nickname Brian Bayrome, which meant "cattle collector." ^[one]

At the end of 1013 , taking advantage of the rebellion raised against Brian by the ruler of Dublin, the Normans began to gather strength, sending reinforcements to the Orkney Islands, Norway and Denmark. The decisive battle took place in 1014 near Dublin at the Wolf's Meadow (now Klontarf ). The Normans and their allied separatists were completely defeated. 88-year-old Brian died in this battle. As a result of the Battle of Clontarf, Ireland was freed from a foreign yoke. The robber raids of the Normans also occurred after the Battle of Klontarf, but became rarer and less dangerous.

The bicentennial dominance and predatory raids of the Normans caused great damage to Ireland and slowed down its economic and social development. If commodity production began to develop in neighboring countries by this time, then in Ireland the traditional patriarchal society with subsistence farming was preserved. ^[one]

At least two campaigns are reliably known, during which Norman ships passed through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea .

The first was committed around 860 by the legendary Danish king Hasting , whose army, having descended the Seine and the Loire , first ravaged Paris , then penetrated the Iberian Peninsula, and then reached the shores of Liguria , where the ancient city of Luna was mistaken, mistakenly accepted by Hasting for Rome ^[2] .

The second, larger, dates from about 860 years and is attributed to the semi-legendary king of Sweden Björn Zheleznobokom . The Normans sacked the coast of North Africa , Valencia , the Balearic Islands , Provence and northwestern Italy and returned without hindrance.

The Normans fell into the Mediterranean and in another way - as mercenaries in the Byzantine forces . In particular, in the XI century. a squad of Scandinavian mercenaries participated in the Byzantine wars against the Normans and Sicilian Arabs over southern Italy ^[3] . Normans entered Byzantium through Russia ^{[4] [5]} .

The Norman military class was new and markedly different from the old Frankish aristocracy , many of whose representatives could trace their origin to the time of the Carolingians , and the Normans rarely could remember their ancestors before the XI century . Most knights were poor and poor in land; by 1066, Normandy had supplied armed riders for longer than a generation. Chivalry at that time had a low position in society, and showed that a person was just a professional warrior.

The Normans spoke Old Norse , which formed around the 8th century. and existed until about the XIV century. Old Norse language fell into two dialects : eastern and western.

On the basis of the western dialect, the Norwegian, Faroe and Icelandic languages ​​developed, as well as extinct by the 19th century. norn The eastern dialect broke up into Swedish and Danish.

In countries where Norman settlers mixed with the local population, the Old Norse language did not survive and did not develop into independent languages, but had more or less influence on local languages ​​or their regional variants. In Normandy, the interaction of local Old French dialects with the Old Norse language led to the formation of the Norman language, which can be considered as a regional version of the Old French language. To a lesser extent, the influence of the Old Norse language is manifested in the Celtic languages ​​of the British Isles - Gaelic , Irish, Manx. The English language was strongly influenced by the Old Norse language, both directly from the Normans during the 8th – 11th centuries, and indirectly through the Norman language, which (in the Anglo-Norman version) was the official language of England under the kings of the Norman dynasty and the first kings of the Plantagenet dynasty (from the middle of the XI century until about the XIV century.). The Scottish regional version of the English language was additionally influenced by the Scottish (Celtic) substrate, which also had a Scandinavian influence in its time.

• Varangians
• American Viking Trekking
• Norwegian possessions
• Anti-normanism