The Normans

Summary
The Normans were originally Norsemen, people coming from presentday Scandinavia, who settled on northern France during the tenth century.
According to D. Carpenter, the Normans founded the duchy of
Normandy after the territory of Rouen and its surrounding areas were given, in
911, by the Frankish Carolingian king, Charles the Simple, to the Viking leader
Rollo and his followers. Rollo therefore was the first Duke of Normandy and
became a vassal to the French king. This Norsemans descendants eventually
became utterly French as regards language, customs, and religion, leaving
behind his connection with Scandinavia. After having settled Normandy, they
launched several expansionary campaigns which led them to acquire great
power. The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 can be considered the most
important of such campaigns.
The Norman connection with England began with Aethelred the
Unreadys marriage to Emma, daughter of Richard I, duke of Normandy, in
1002, in an attempt to secure English frontiers against Danish attacks from
across the Channel. In 1013 Aethelred and his family went into exile to
Normandy fleeing from the Danish king Sweyn I who had been accepted as king
in England.
Aethelred and Emmas son, Edward, later known as the Confessor,
lived in Normandy for twenty five years. In 1041 he returned to England to
succeed his half-brother Harthacnut, restoring this way the rule of the House of
Wessex after the reign of Danish kings. In the later years of Edwards reign he is
said to have promised the throne to his Norman cousin William, then duke of
Normandy. However, when Edward died heirless in 1066 the Witan elected
Harold Godwinson as succesor to the English throne. This immediately resulted
in the Norman invasion and subsequent conquest of England after defeating
Harolds army at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066. From 1066 to 1154
the Normans, having replaced the Anglo-Saxons, were the new ruling line in
England, beginning with William the Conqueror in 1066 and eventually ending
with his grandson Stephen in 1154.

In December 1066 Duke William of Normandy was crowned king of

England as William I in Westminster Abbey. According to Gillingham, it took
William five years to be fairly confident that the conquest had been completed.
He had to cope with several rebellions against Norman rule from 1067 to 1070.
One of the hardest measures he took to crush them was the Harrying of
the north which consisted in a devastating ravage of the lands to the north of
England. Another important measure he took that transformed the English
landscape was the encastelation of the territory. Following Carpenter, the castles
served as administrative units and instruments of government, later on, also
became symbols of lordship.
After Williams death in 1087 during a battle in Mantles Williams
second son, William Rufus, became King of England, while Williams eldest
son, Robert, ruled in Normandy. While Rufus kingship was supported by
influential men who thought he would be a better ruler than his brother, Roberts
succession was objected by a powerful coalition of great barons known as
magnates who wanted to reunite England and Normandy. These magnates
claimed that it was hard for them to give proper service to Rufus and Robert
because of their distant relationship. Although these two brothers remained in
conflict, the Kingdom continued to be ruled by them until 1096. In that year,
Robert sold Normandy to Rufus so as to carry out an expedition aimed at
recovering Jerusalem from the Muslims.
In 1100 King Rufus was killed in the New Forest. As soon as Henry,
William Is youngest son, learnt that Rufus had died, he moved fast. He took
possession of the treasury in Winchester and was crowned three days after his
brothers death. Later, Robert arrived back in Normandy; therefore, Henry had to
prepare for an imminent invasion. When Duke Robert arrived in England, he
opened into negotiations with King Henry. As a result, Henry was to keep
England and pay Robert a pension. Eventually Robert was imprisoned in 1106.
Henry's only legitimate son drowned in a shipwreck in 1120, and when
the king died in 1135 the succession was uncertain. However, Henry's nephew,
Stephen who seized the crown, became King of England that same year. In 1139,
Henrys daughter called Matilda decided to invade England to win her
inheritance. Thus, a civil war erupted. Matilda could finally enter London but
she had to leave the country later on because of her harsh relations with London

Citizens. Therefore, she was never crowned Queen of England. In the end,
Stephen and Matilda came to an agreement by which Stephen would remain
king until his death but would be succeeded by Matilda`s son, Henry. In 1154,
Henry became the first member of the House of Plantagenet to rule England.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cantor, N. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. New York: Harper Collins, 1993. (Chapter
Seven)
Carpenter, D. The Struggle for Mastery. 1066-1284. The Penguin History of Britain. London:
Penguin, 2003. Chapters 2only pp. 26-29 & 49-60Chapter 3, Chapter 7).
Gillingham, J. 3. The Early Middle Ages, in Morgan K, ed. The Oxford History of
Britain. Oxford New York : Penguin, 1984 OUP, 1999.
"Norman Conquest." Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica 2009 Ultimate
Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopdia Britannica, 2009.