Origins The first
Viking attack up the
Seine river took place in 820. By 911, the area had been raided many times and there were even small Viking settlements on the lower Seine. The text of the
Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte has not survived. It is only known through the historian
Dudo of Saint-Quentin, who was writing a century after the event. The exact date of the treaty is unknown, but it was likely in the autumn of 911. By the agreement,
Charles III, king of the
West Franks, granted to the Viking leader
Rollo some lands along the lower Seine that were apparently already under
Danish control. Whether Rollo himself was a Dane or a
Norwegian is not known. For his part, Rollo agreed to defend the territory from other Vikings and that he and his men would convert to
Christianity. Rollo's decision to convert and come to terms with the Franks came in the aftermath of his defeat at the
battle of Chartres by
Richard of Burgundy and Robert of Neustria (the future
Robert I of France) earlier in 911. The territory ceded to Rollo comprised the
pagi of the
Caux,
Évrecin,
Roumois and
Talou. This was territory formerly known as 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. The Norman polity had to contend with the Frankish and Breton systems of power that already existed in Normandy. In the early 10th century, Normandy was not a political or monetary unit. According to many academics, "the formation of a new aristocracy, monastic reform, episcopal revival, written bureaucracy, saints’ cults – with necessarily different timelines" were as important if not more than the ducal narrative espoused by Dudo. The formation of the Norman state also coincided with the creation of an origin myth for the Norman ducal family through Dudo, such as Rollo being compared to a "good pagan" like the Trojan hero Aeneas. Through this narrative, the Normans were assimilated closer to the Frankish core as they moved away from their pagan Scandinavian origins.
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. 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. But in 911, Normandy was not a political nor monetary unit. Frankish culture remained dominant and according to some scholars, 10th century Normandy was characterized by a diverse Scandinavian population interacting with the "local Frankish matrix" that existed in the region. In the end, the Normans stressed assimilation with the local population.
Norman rule , founder of the fiefdom of Normandy, standing in
Falaise, Calvados, birthplace of his descendant
William the Conqueror, the
Duke of Normandy who became
King of England Starting with
Rollo, Normandy was ruled by an enduring and long-lived Viking dynasty. Illegitimacy was not a bar to succession and three of the first six rulers of Normandy were illegitimate sons of concubines. Rollo's successor, William Longsword, managed in expanding his domain and came into conflict with
Arnulf of Flanders, who had him assassinated in 942. This led to a crisis in Normandy, with a minor succeeding as
Richard I, and also led to a temporary revival of
Norse paganism in Normandy. Richard I's son,
Richard II, was the first to be styled
duke of Normandy, the ducal title becoming established between 987 and 1006. 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. Scholarly churchmen were brought into Normandy from the Rhineland, and they built and endowed monasteries and supported monastic schools, thus helping to integrate distant territories into a wider framework. 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. 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. Serfdom was outlawed around 1100. 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
de jure French vassals. The Duchy remained part of the Angevin Empire until 1204, when
Philip II of France conquered the continental lands of the Duchy, which became part of the royal domain. 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
Château de Rouen, as a symbol of royal power. After the absorption of the mainland portion of the Duchy into the royal domain of France, the Duchy, now confined to the Channel Islands, continued to exist under the English Crown until it was split around 1290 into the Bailiwicks of
Guernsey and
Jersey by
Otto de Grandson, who was Lord of the Channel Islands since his appointment in 1277 by
Edward I of England.
French appanage Although within the royal demesne, Normandy retained some specificity.
Norman law continued to serve as the basis for court 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 judgment 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.
Philip VI made
Jean, his eldest son and heir to his throne, the Duke of Normandy. In turn, Jean II appointed his heir,
Charles. In 1465,
Louis XI was forced by the
League of the Public Weal to cede the duchy to his eighteen-year-old brother,
Charles de Valois. 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. In 1469, therefore, Louis XI convinced his brother under duress to exchange Normandy for the
Duchy of Guyenne (Aquitaine). Finally, at the request of the cowed
Estates of Normandy and to signify that the duchy would not be ceded again, at a session of the
Norman Exchequer on 9 November 1469 the ducal ring was placed on an anvil and smashed.
Philippe de Commynes expressed what was probably a common Norman thought of the time: "It has always seemed good to the Normans and still does that their great duchy really should require a duke" (
A tousjours bien semblé aux Normands et faict encores que si grand duchié comme la leur requiert bien un duc).
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.
Modern usage In the
Channel Islands, the
British monarch is known informally as the "Duke of Normandy", irrespective of whether or not the holder is male (as in the case of Queen
Elizabeth II who was known by this title). The Channel Islands are the last remaining part of the former Duchy of Normandy to remain under the rule of the British monarch. Although the English monarchy relinquished claims to continental Normandy and other French claims in 1259 (in the
Treaty of Paris), the Channel Islands (except for
Chausey under French sovereignty) remain Crown dependencies of the British throne. In the islanders' loyal toast, they say, "The Duke of Normandy, our King", or "The King, our Duke", "''L'Rouai, nouotre Duc
" or "L'Roué, note Du
" in Norman (Jèrriais and Guernésiais respectively), or "Le Roi, notre Duc''" in
Standard French, rather than simply "The King", as is the practice in the United Kingdom. The title 'Duke of Normandy' is not used in formal government publications, and, as a matter of Channel Islands law, does not exist. ==Rulers==