Normandy
Normandy is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy.
Normandy comprises mainland Normandy and insular Normandy. It covers. Its population in 2017 was 3,499,280. The inhabitants of Normandy are known as Normans; the region is the historic homeland of the Norman language. Large settlements include Rouen, Caen, Le Havre and Cherbourg.
The cultural region of Normandy is roughly similar to the historical Duchy of Normandy, which includes small areas now part of the departments of Mayenne and Sarthe. The Channel Islands are also historically part of Normandy; they cover and comprise two bailiwicks: Guernsey and Jersey, which are British Crown Dependencies.
Normandy's name comes from the settlement of the territory by Vikings starting in the 9th century, and confirmed by treaty in the 10th century between King Charles III of France and the Viking jarl Rollo. For almost 150 years following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by having the same person reign as both Duke of Normandy and King of England.
History
Prehistory
Archaeological finds, such as cave paintings, prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times. Normandy also has many megalithic monuments.Human presence in the region does not date back earlier than the end of the Lower Paleolithic. In the Middle Paleolithic, it is attested by numerous finds of lithic industry. But, in the Upper Paleolithic, the region was occupied by tundra, which was not very favorable to human life. However, it would be inhabited again, as shown by the Gouy cave near Rouen, which, due to its parietal engravings dated to the Magdalenian, happens to be the northernmost decorated cave in Europe. In addition, many still-visible megaliths are scattered quite regularly throughout the Norman countryside. The Rozel archaeological site presents exceptional traces of footprints and handprints of Homo neanderthalensis.
But it is truly only in the Bronze Age that Normandy began to be developed. At this time, farms, field systems, and vast necropolises were established in the territory, forming an initial network of sites covering the whole of Norman land.
The discovery of objects such as the golden Gallic helmet of Amfreville-sous-les-Monts or the iron one from the Louviers museum, as well as sites such as the large Pîtres necropolis, with its cremation urns, coiled swords and traces of chariot tombs, or the necropolis of Ifs, dating from the end of the Hallstatt period or the beginning of the La Tène period, testify to Celtic presence in Normandy. The Celtic peoples of present-day Normandy were part of Armorica, a confederation of culturally close peoples along the shores of the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean, from the estuary of the Seine to that of the Loire.
The testimony of Julius Caesar allows us to identify the different Gallic groups occupying the region. In 56 or 57 BC, these populations gathered to resist the invasion of the Roman legions. After the Gallic defeat at the siege of Alesia, the peoples of Normandy continued the struggle for some time, but by 51 BC, all of Gaul was subdued by Rome.
File:Mosaîc Lillebonne Orphée.jpg|thumb|left|Great Lillebonne mosaic, in Seine-Maritime, kept in the departmental Museum of Antiquities in Rouen.
Between 27 BC and 15 BC, Emperor Augustus reorganized the Gallic territory and moved the Caletes and the Veliocasses into the province of Gallia Lugdunensis, whose capital was Lyon. The Romanization of Normandy, as elsewhere in the West, involved the construction of roads and towns.
Many Gallo-Roman villas are known in Norman territory. Builders used local materials: flint, chalk, limestone, brick, wattle and daub. Heating of baths or certain rooms used the Roman hypocaust system.
Agriculture provided wheat and flax, according to Pliny the Elder. Finally, in the Norman countryside of Antiquity, the fana were numerous. One example is located west of Harfleur. Excavations have also revealed many terracotta statuettes of mother goddesses in Norman tombs and houses. Thus, at Vieil-Évreux, there existed one of the most important pilgrimage centers in Europe, which included a forum, Roman baths, a monumental basilica, two fana and the second largest theater in Gaul.
From the second third of the 3rd century, "barbarian" raids devastated many places in the Norman region. The coastline had to face maritime piracy from the Saxons, but also from the Franks and Frisians. Germanic contingents were therefore recruited by the Roman army to fight against other Germans, and these immigrants were granted permission to settle in the Empire.
During the reforms of Emperor Diocletian, the future Normandy became distinct by forming the Lyonnaise Secunda, whose borders foreshadowed those of ducal Normandy seven centuries later: it stretched from the Couesnon to the Bresle and was bounded to the south by the upper courses of the Sarthe and the Avre. The only significant difference was that Lyonnaise Secunda included the future Vexin français, with the land of the Veliocasses then remaining undivided, and these immigrants were granted permission to settle in the Empire.
Celtic period
have populated Normandy since at least the Bronze Age. When Julius Caesar invaded Gaul, there were nine different Celtic tribes living in this part of Gaul.Romanisation
The Romanisation of this region partly included in the Gallia Celtica and in the Gallia Belgica was achieved by the usual methods: Roman roads and a policy of urbanisation. Classicists mention many Gallo-Roman villas and archeology found their traces in the past 30 years. In the Late Roman Empire a new province was created and called Lugdunensis Secunda, it sketched the later ecclesiastical province of Rouen, with the Metropolis civitas Rotomagensium, Civitas Baiocassium, Civitas Abrincatum, Civitas Ebroicorum, Civitas Saiorum, Civitas Lexoviorum and Civitas Constantia.
Germanic invasions and settlements
In the late 3rd century AD, Germanic raids devastated Lugdunensis Secunda, as the modern area of Normandy was known at the time. The Romans built a system of coastal defences known as Saxon Shore on both sides of the English Channel. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates that finally settled mainly in the Bessin region. Modern archeology reveals their presence in different Merovingian cemeteries excavated east of Caen. Christianity also began to enter the area during this period and Rouen already had a metropolitan bishop by the 4th century. The ecclesiastical province of Rouen was based on the frame of the Roman Lugdunensis Secunda, whose limits corresponded almost exactly to the future duchy of Normandy. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, followed by dispersed settlements mainly in the Pays de Bray, Pays de Caux and Vexin. As early as 487, the area between the rivers Somme and Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis.The Franks and the Scandinavian invasions
Frankish rule after Rome
Following the disintegration of Roman power in northern Gaul, the region that would later become Normandy passed under the control of the Franks. By the sixth and seventh centuries it was integrated into the Merovingian and later Carolingian realms. Large rural estates, episcopal sees such as Rouen, and fiscal centres marked Frankish authority. The Capitulary legislation and royal courts extended Frankish law and institutions into the area, though local aristocracies maintained significant autonomy.By the ninth century, Carolingian kings such as Charlemagne and Louis the Pious maintained river defenses and fleets, but the weakening of central power after 840 created vulnerabilities. Political divisions between the heirs of Louis the Pious, as codified in the Treaty of Verdun, fractured the Frankish kingdom and left the Seine valley especially exposed to external attack.
Viking raids on the Seine
From the late eighth century, Scandinavian raiders targeted the coasts of northern Gaul. Monastic centres such as Jumièges Abbey and Saint-Wandrille were plundered repeatedly; Rouen itself was attacked and temporarily abandoned in 841. Viking fleets exploited the navigability of the Seine and its tributaries, sailing upriver to raid Paris in 845 under a leader recorded as Ragnar. Annals such as the Annales Bertiniani describe the devastation of monasteries and towns and the payment of tribute by Frankish rulers to secure temporary peace.Over time, groups of Scandinavians began to overwinter in the lower Seine valley, constructing fortified encampments and establishing trading outposts. Archaeological finds of weapon deposits, silver hoards and Scandinavian-style burials indicate semi-permanent settlement before 911.
Viking raids and foundation of the Norman state
started to raid along the river Seine during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, the principal route by which they entered the kingdom. After attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges, they took advantage of the power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagne's empire to take Northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Viking leader Hrólfr, known in Medieval Latin as Rollo. Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple, through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In exchange for his homage and fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory that he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking origins.The Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (911)
The turning point came in 911, when a major Viking host under the leadership of Rollo clashed with West Frankish forces near Chartres. Following negotiations, King Charles the Simple and Rollo concluded an agreement, known as the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. According to later tradition, the treaty granted Rollo and his followers land around the lower Seine, centered on Rouen, in return for conversion to Christianity, homage to the king, and an obligation to defend the coast against further Viking attacks.While the exact extent of the original grant is debated, it likely encompassed the Rouen region and surrounding territory. Over subsequent decades, Rollo's successors expanded this domain westward to include the Cotentin and eastward into the Pays de Caux, laying the foundations of the Duchy of Normandy.
The descendants of Rollo and his followers created an aristocracy that step by step adopted the local Gallo-Romance language, intermarried with the area's native Gallo-Frankish inhabitants, and adopted Christianity. Nevertheless, the first generations of Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian settlers brought slaves, mainly from the British Isles, and often turned the women into frilla, a Scandinavian tradition which became known as more Danico, medieval Latin meaning "Danish marriage". The first counts of Rouen and the dukes of Normandy had concubines too. While very little archeological excavations about the Vikings were done in Normandy, the Norman toponymy retains a large Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian heritage, due to a constant use of Old Norse during four or five generations in certain parts of Normandy.
They then became the Normans – a Norman French-speaking mixture of Norsemen and indigenous Gallo-Franks.
File:Bayeux Tapestry scene23 Harold sacramentum fecit Willelmo duci.jpg|thumb|Bayeux Tapestry : Harold II swearing oath on holy relics to William the Conqueror
Rollo's descendant William became king of England in 1066 after defeating Harold Godwinson, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, at the Battle of Hastings, while retaining the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants.