Normans

The Normans were a medieval people formed in northern France from Norse settlers and local populations. They established rule in England, southern Italy, and other regions through conquest and migration.

Norman conquest of England: The 1066 invasion of England by William, duke of Normandy, which ended with his coronation as king. It made England the Normans’ most enduring kingdom outside Normandy.
Battle of Hastings: The 1066 battle in which William’s forces defeated Harold Godwinson’s English army. The victory opened the way for Norman control of England.
Rollo: A Norse leader who received land in northern France from the Frankish king Charles the Simple in the early tenth century. Later tradition made him the founding ruler of Normandy.
Anglo-Normans: The Norman ruling and settler community established in England and Wales after the eleventh-century conquest. This community became the basis of Norman influence in the British Isles.
Norman conquest of southern Italy: The eleventh-century expansion by Norman leaders that created Norman rule across much of southern Italy. It established a second major Norman power center beyond northern France.
Motte-and-bailey castle: A fortification with a raised earthwork mound and an enclosed courtyard, often protected by palisades. Norman rulers used these quickly built strongholds to secure conquered territory.
Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte: An agreement, traditionally dated to 911, by which Charles the Simple granted territory to Rollo in northern France. It marks the political settlement associated with Normandy’s beginnings.
English language: A West Germanic language that developed in England and later became a global language. Norman French vocabulary entered English after the conquest and transformed its lexicon.
Kingdom of Sicily: A medieval kingdom founded in 1130 that united Sicily and much of southern Italy under Norman rule. Roger II consolidated Norman conquests into a Mediterranean kingdom.
Domesday Book: A survey of landholding and resources in much of England, compiled on William I’s orders in 1086. Its record reveals how conquest reorganized English land and taxation.

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