The Normans
The Norman Invasion and Conquest of England
In the year 1066, the Saxon-Dane rulers of England were overthrown and replaced by new invaders.... The Normans
By the end of the year, the old king was gone and the fate of the country was changed for ever.
History of the Normans
Continuing the on-going history of the British Isles, this site looks at the effects and changes brought in by the Norman invasion.
When William defeated Harold in AD 1066, the future of the Isles took a major change. For hundreds of years to come, it would be embroiled in wars in Europe and the Holy Lands. Civil unrest would be rife and the once proud traditions of the Saxons would be ground under the stone of a network of castles that covered the country. However, there is much more to the new rule than this gloomy picture paints! The Normans brought a whole new society which made the country what it is today.
Norman Life
The Normans had an interesting mix of cultures. Historically, they were a combination of viking settlers who had married into the local Frankish cultures and as a result their society was a conglomerate of the two.
As befits their descendancy from the vikings, the Normans were a warlike culture and prized mounted soldiers. The Norman cavalry were to form the basis for medieval Knights and what we now look at as "Chivalry" stems from the Norman codes of conduct on the battlefield.
The Normans were more than just mobile killing machines (although they excelled at this), and with their invasion of England they brought in some fantasic examples of architecture and style. As they were devout folowers of the medieval Christian church, the best examples of Norman style can be found in the churches and chapels that still exist all over the country...<Read More>...
Norman Warfare
The Normans brought with them a wholly new form of warfare. The Saxons and, before them, the Celts had largely depended on armies of "brave warriors" who would band together to fight the enemy. Often battles were resolved through one on one fights between clan heroes. (Very similar to classical era Greeks).
The Normans had a warfare style that evolved from their Norse roots and was heavily influenced by the European wars of the 9th and 10th centuries AD and the Frankish kings like Charlemagne.
This resulted in the Norman armies being very organised and disciplined. The mainstay of the army was the heavy foot soldier, although the nobles and leaders were always mounted on powerful horses. During the middle-medieval period the status symbol of horses became firmly rooted and even today people think of owning a horse as being something the "rich" do
In addition to the new forms of combat, the Normans brought with them a brand new way of defending territory. The Saxons were from a culture of mobile raiders and as such tended to not rely on heavy defensive structures as we think of them today. Most Saxon strongholds were hill forts similar to the ones the Celts used, or where they had taken over an old Roman fortification the Saxons would shore up the walls and reuse it. In the mainstream of Saxon culture, it was wrong to attack the settlements where people lived (raids, however, were common place) and battles were always fought in open ground.
This changed with the arrival of the Normans. They brought with them the massive stone structures we still see today. Norman castles were a stamp of authority as much as a defensive structure and the conquerors spent little time building hundreds of them accross the country...< More Soon >...
Search the Norman History Site
If you cant find what you are looking for here, you can search either this site or the whole internet - just enter your search terms and press "Google Search". If you want to look over this site's contents then check out our Norman History Site Map.
Sorry
There is currently a fault with the search for this site. We hope to have it back online soon.
RSS Feed