Coordinates: 49.1333N 0.

366667W

Duchy of Normandy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of Saint-

Clair-sur-Epte between King Charles III of West Francia and Rollo, Duchy of Normandy
leader of the Vikings. The duchy was named for its inhabitants, the Duch de Normandie
Normans.
Vassal of the Kingdom of France
From 1066 until 1204 it was held by the kings of England, except
for the brief rule of Robert Curthose (10871106), eldest son of 9111259
William the Conqueror but unsuccessful claimant to the English
throne; and Geoffrey Plantagenet (11441150), husband of
Empress Matilda or Maude (a contraction of Matilda) and father of
Henry II.

In 1202, Philip II of France declared Normandy forfeit to him and

seized it by force of arms in 1204. It remained disputed territory
until the Treaty of Paris of 1259, when the English sovereign ceded
his claim except for the Channel Islands; i.e., the Bailiwicks of
Guernsey and Jersey, and their dependencies (including Sark).

The same ducal title was also sporadically conferred in the Normandy's historical borders in the northwest of
modern-day France and the Channel Islands
Kingdom of France as a purely honorary, non-feudal title, upon
junior members of the King's family. The last French Duke of Capital Rouen
Normandy Louis-Charles from 1785 to 1789; who was titular King
of France, 1793 to his death in 1795 at age 10. Languages Latin
Old Norman
Religion Norse religion
Roman Catholicism
Contents
Government Feudal monarchy
1 Origins Duke of Normandy
2 Norse settlement 9961026 Richard II (first)
3 History 10351087 William the Conqueror
4 French appanage 11441150 Geoffrey Plantagenet
5 Law 11991216 (1204) John Lackland (last)
6 See also
Historical era Middle Ages
7 References
8 External links Treaty of Saint-
Clair-sur-Epte 911
Norman conquest
of England 1066
Origins Normandy
Conquered by
Anjou 1144
The first Viking attack on the river Seine took place in 820. By 911,
Normandy
the area had been raided many times and there were even small Conquered by
Viking settlements on the lower Seine. The text of the Treaty of French Crown 1204
Saint-Clair-sur-Epte has not survived. It is only known through the Treaty of Paris 1259
historian Dudo of Saint-Quentin, who was writing a century after French nominal
the event. The exact date of the treaty is unknown, but it was likely ducal title
in the autumn of 911. By the agreement, Charles III, king of the abolished 1790
West Franks, granted to the Viking leader Rollo some lands along Succeeded by
the lower Seine that were apparently already under Danish control.
Whether Rollo himself was a Dane or a Norwegian is not known. Kingdom of France
For his part, Rollo agreed to defend the territory from other Vikings Kingdom of England
and that he and his men would convert to Christianity.[1]
Today part of France
The territory ceded to Rollo comprised the pagi of the Caux,
Guernsey
vrecin, Roumois and Talou. This was territory formerly known as
Jersey
the county of Rouen, and which would become Upper Normandy.
A royal diploma of 918 confirms the donation of 911, using the
verb adnuo ("I grant"). There is no evidence that Rollo owed any service or oath to the king for his lands, nor that
there were any legal means for the king to take them back: they were granted outright.[1] Likewise, Rollo does not
seem to have been created a count or given comital authority, but later sagas refer to him as Rujarl (earl of
Rouen).[2]

In 924, King Radulf extended Rollo's county westward up to the river Vire, including the Bessin, where some
Danes from England had settled not long before. In 933, King Radulf granted the Avranchin and Cotentin to
Rollo's son and successor, William Longsword. These areas had been previously under Breton rule. The northern
Cotentin had been settled by Norwegians coming from the region of the Irish Sea. There was initially much
hostility between these Norwegian settlers and their new Danish overlords. These expansions brought the
boundaries of Normandy roughly in line with those of the ecclesiastical province of Rouen.[1]

Norse settlement
There were two distinct patterns of Norse settlement in the duchy. In the Danish area in the Roumois and the Caux,
settlers intermingled with the indigenous Gallo-Romance-speaking population. Rollo shared out the large estates
with his companions and gave agricultural land to his other followers. Danish settlers cleared their own land to
farm it, and there was no segregation of populations.[1]

In the northern Cotentin on the other hand, the population was purely Norwegian. Coastal features bore Norse
names as did the three pagi of Haga, Sarnes and Helganes (as late as 1027). The Norwegians may even have set up
a ing, an assembly of all free men, whose meeting place may be preserved in the name of Le Tingland.[1]

Within a few generations of the founding of Normandy in 911, however, the Scandinavian settlers had intermarried
with the natives and adopted much of their culture. In the 11th century, the anonymous author of the Miracles of
Saint Wulfram referred to the formation of a Norman identity as "shaping [of] all races into one single people".[1]

History
Richard II was the first to be styled duke of Normandy, the ducal title becoming established between 987 and 1006.

The Norman dukes created the most powerful, consolidated duchy in Western Europe between the years 980, when
the dukes helped place Hugh Capet on the French throne, and 1050.[3] Scholarly churchmen were brought into
Normandy from the Rhineland, and they built and endowed monasteries and supported monastic schools. The
dukes imposed heavy feudal burdens on the ecclesiastical fiefs, which supplied the armed knights that enabled the
dukes to control the restive lay lords but whose bastards could not inherit. By the mid-11th century the Duke of
Normandy could count on more than 300 armed and mounted knights from his ecclesiastical vassals alone.[4] By
the 1020s the dukes were able to impose vassalage on the lay nobility as well. Until Richard II, the Norman rulers
did not hesitate to call Viking mercenaries for help to get rid of their enemies around Normandy, such as the king
of the Francs himself. Olaf Haraldsson crossed the channel in such circumstances to support Richard II in the
conflict against the count of Chartres and was baptized in Rouen in 1014.

In 1066, Duke William defeated Harold II of England at the Battle of

Hastings and was subsequently crowned King of England, through the
Norman conquest of England. Anglo-Norman and French relations
became complicated after the Norman Conquest. The Norman dukes
retained control of their holdings in Normandy as vassals owing fealty
to the King of France, but they were his equals as kings of England.
From 1154 until 1214, with the creation of the Angevin Empire, the
Angevin kings of England controlled half of France and all of
England, dwarfing the power of the French king, yet the Angevins
were still technically French vassals.

The Duchy remained part of the Anglo-Norman realm until 1204,

when Philip II of France conquered the continental lands of the Duchy,
which became part of the royal demesne. The English sovereigns
continued to claim them until the Treaty of Paris (1259) but in fact
kept only the Channel Islands. Having little confidence in the loyalty
of the Normans, Philip installed French administrators and built a
powerful fortress, the Chteau de Rouen, as a symbol of royal power.
Statue of Rollo, founder of the fiefdom of
French appanage Normandy, standing in Falaise, Calvados,
birthplace of his descendant William the
Although within the royal demesne, Normandy retained some Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy who
specificity. Norman law continued to serve as the basis for court became King of England.
decisions. In 1315, faced with the constant encroachments of royal
power on the liberties of Normandy, the barons and towns pressed the
Norman Charter on the king. This document did not provide autonomy to the province but protected it against
arbitrary royal acts. The judgments of the Exchequer, the main court of Normandy, were declared final. This meant
that Paris could not reverse a judgement of Rouen. Another important concession was that the King of France
could not raise a new tax without the consent of the Normans. However the charter, granted at a time when royal
authority was faltering, was violated several times thereafter when the monarchy had regained its power.

The Duchy of Normandy survived mainly by the intermittent installation of a duke. In practice, the King of France
sometimes gave that portion of his kingdom to a close member of his family, who then did homage to the king.
Philippe VI made Jean, his eldest son and heir to his throne, the Duke of Normandy. In turn, Jean II appointed his
heir, Charles, who was also known by his title of Dauphin.

In 1465, Louis XI was forced by his nobles to cede the duchy to his eighteen-year-old brother Charles, as an
appanage. This concession was a problem for the king since Charles was the puppet of the king's enemies.
Normandy could thus serve as a basis for rebellion against the royal power. Louis XI therefore agreed with his
brother to exchange Normandy for the Duchy of Guyenne (Aquitaine). Finally, to signify that Normandy would
not be ceded again, on 9 November 1469 the ducal ring was placed on an anvil and smashed. This was the
definitive end of the duchy on the continent.

Dauphin Louis Charles, the second son of Louis XVI, was again given the nominal title of 'Duke of Normandy'
before the death of his elder brother in 1789.

Law
There are traces of Scandinavian law in the customary laws of Normandy, which were first written down in the
13th century. A charter of 1050, listing several pleas before Duke William II, refers to the penalty of banishment as
ullac (from Old Norse tlagr). The word was still current in the 12th century, when it was used in the Roman de
Rou. Marriage more danico ("in the Danish manner"), that is, without any ecclesiastical ceremony in accordance
with old Norse custom, was recognised as legal in Normandy and in the Norman church. The first three dukes of
Normandy all practised it.[1]

Scandinavian influence is especially apparent in laws relating to waters. The duke possessed the droit de varech
(from Old Danish vrek), the right to all shipwrecks. He also had a monopoly on whale and sturgeon. A similar
monopoly belonged to the Danish king in the Jutlandic law of 1241. Remarkably, whale and sturgeon still belong
to the monarch in the United Kingdom in the twenty-first century, as royal fish. The Norman Latin terms for
whalers (valmanni, from hvalmenn) and whaling station (valseta, from hvalmannasetr) both derive from Old
Norse. Likewise, fishing in Normandy seems to have come under Scandinavian rules. A charter of 1030 uses the
term fisigardum (from Old Norse fiskigarr) for "fisheries", a term also found in the Scanian law of c. 1210.[1]

There is no surviving reference to the hir or the leiangr in Normandy, but the latter probably existed. The
surname Huscaille, first attested in 1263, probably derives from hskarl, but is late evidence for the existence of a
hir in the 10th century.[1]

See also
Duke of Normandy
Norman architecture

References
1. Jean Renaud, "The Duchy of Normandy", in Stefan Brink, ed., The Viking World (Routledge, 2008), pp. 45357.
2. Robert Helmerichs, "Princeps, Comes, Dux Normannorum: Early Rollonid Designators and Their Significance", The
Haskins Society Journal, vol. 9 (1997), pp. 5777.
3. Norman F. Cantor, 1993. The Civilization of the Middle Ages, p.208f.
4. Cantor 1993.

External links
The Vikings in Normandy (http://www.viking.no/e/maps/ekart-frankrike.htm)
Density of Scandinavian place names (map) (http://www.viking.no/e/france/place_name_map.html)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Duchy_of_Normandy&oldid=791537180"

Categories: Former countries in Europe States and territories established in 911

States and territories disestablished in 1259 Duchy of Normandy Dukedoms of France History of Normandy
Normandy Viking Age in France 10th-century establishments in Europe 1250s disestablishments in Europe
911 establishments in Europe

This page was last edited on 20 July 2017, at 22:13.

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