The twelfth century Anglo-Norman author Wace claimed that bigot was an insult which the French used against the Normans, but it is unclear whether or not this is how it entered the English language.

For almost half a century it's claimed that the Cumbrians fought a guerrilla war against the Normans, attacking supply wagons, ambushing patrols and inflicting great losses upon them in terms of money, matériel and men.

The Rectors of Selsey reputedly claimed a tithe on all kegs landed there, and stories also tell of a passageway leading from the Old Rectory ( at Church Norton ) to the remains of a Mound, thought to have been built by the Normans.

William had demanded and received Harold's release, then during his stay under William's protection it is claimed, by the Normans, that Harold swore a solemn oath of loyalty to William.

His struggles for power against Godwin, Earl of Wessex, the claims of Canute's Scandinavian successors, and the ambitions of the Normans whom Edward introduced to English politics to bolster his own position caused each to vie for control Edward's reign.

When Edward died in 1066 he was succeeded by Harold Godwinson, who was defeated and killed in the same year by the Normans under William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings.

Modern historians reject the traditional view that Edward mainly employed Norman favourites, but he did have foreigners in his household, including a few Normans, who became unpopular.

Edward Gibbon's famous work Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire reports castration of defeated foes at the hands of the Normans during their invasions of Sicily and Italy.

In 1293 following a naval incident between the Normans and the English, Philip summoned Edward to the French court.

However, it should be remembered that many of Edward Bruce's opponents in Ireland were in fact Irish themselves and Irish vassals of Anglo Normans were even employed in earlier English attempts to subjugate Scotland, such as at the Battle of Falkirk.

Attractions in the town include the remains of Llandovery Castle, built in 1110 and almost immediately captured by the Welsh, changing hands between Normans and Welsh until the reign of King Edward I of England.

* Harold Godwinson riding through, having briefly chased out the Normans during the reign of Edward the Confessor.

In 1149, Manuel recovered Corfu and prepared to take the offensive against the Normans, while Roger II sent George of Antioch with a fleet of 40 ships to pillage Constantinople's suburbs.

In late 1185, he sent a fleet of 80 galleys to liberate his brother Alexius III from Acre, but it was destroyed by the Normans of Sicily.

In 1187, Alexios Branas, the victor over the Normans, was sent against the Bulgarians but turned his arms against his master, and attempted to seize Constantinople, only to be defeated and slain by Isaac's brother-in-law Conrad of Montferrat.

Maniakes was promptly sent back to Southern Italy in order to contain the advance of the Normans.

In 1639 Seguier was sent to punish the Normans for the insurrection of the Nu-Pieds, the military chief of the expedition, Gassion, being placed under his orders.

Meanwhile, when Alexius heard that the Normans were preparing to invade Byzantine territory, he sent an ambassador to the Doge of Venice, Domenico Selvo, requesting aid and offering trading rights in return.

Meanwhile, Alexius had mustered a new army and with 7, 000 Seljuk Turks sent by the Sultan, he advanced on the Normans at Larissa and defeated them.

Matilda testified that she had never taken holy vows, insisting that her parents had sent her and her sister to England for educational purposes, and her aunt Cristina had veiled her to protect her " from the lust of the Normans.

In the next year, with Venetian aid, an army accompanied by a very large fleet ( allegedly 500 warships and 1, 000 transports ) was sent to recapture Corfu and the Ionian Islands from the Normans.

On 14 October, after having marched his exhausted army all the way from Yorkshire, Harold fought the Normans at the Battle of Hastings, where England's army was defeated and Harold was killed.

" This particular line of criticism also misses the obvious parallels that existed between the story's background ( England conquered by the Normans in 1066, when they killed Saxon King Harold at Hastings, about 130 years previously ) and the prevailing situation in Scott's native Scotland ( Scotland's union with England in 1707 – about the same length of time had elapsed before Scott's writing and the resurgence in his time of Scottish nationalism evidenced by the cult of Robert Burns, the famous poet who deliberately chose to work in Scots vernacular though he was an educated man and spoke modern English eloquently ).

Although Harold attempted to surprise the Normans, William's scouts reported the English arrival to the duke.

After Harold's death, the Normans were quick to point out that in accepting the crown of England, Harold had perjured himself of this alleged oath.

Amatus of Montecassino's L ' Ystoire de li Normant (" History of the Normans "), written thirty years after the battle of Hastings, is the first report of Harold being shot in the eye with an arrow.

Although Harold repelled the Norwegian invaders, his victory was short-lived: he was defeated and killed by the Normans at Hastings less than three weeks later.

Although Harold attempted to surprise the Normans, William's scouts reported the English arrival to the duke.

It looks in some ways like a cartoon, as the story unrolls -- two combatants Anglo-Saxon English, led by Harold Godwinson, recently crowned as King of England ( before that a powerful earl ), and the Normans, led by William the Conqueror fight a battle over the control of what was then England ( 1066 CE ).

The Domesday Book recorded that it was owned by Edith the Fair ( also known as Swanneck ), the consort of King Harold, in 1066 when the Normans invaded England and killed her husband.

However, recent analysis suggests that the rulers of Gwent, who had recently fought against King Harold, may initially have been on good terms with the Normans.

The Normans, a Viking people who settled in Northern France and founded the Duchy of Normandy would have a significant impact on many parts of Europe, from the Norman conquest of England to Southern Italy and Sicily.

On 28 September 1066, William of Normandy invaded England with a force of Normans, in a campaign known as the Norman Conquest.

Stephen was also given lands in Alençon in southern Normandy by Henry, but the local Normans rebelled, seeking assistance from Fulk, the Count of Anjou.

Theobald then agreed to the Normans ' proposal that he be made king, only to find that his former support immediately ebbed away: the barons were not prepared to support the division of England and Normandy by opposing Stephen.

Godwinson was subsequently defeated within a month by another Viking descendant, William, Duke of Normandy ( Normandy had been conquered by Vikings ( Normans ) in 911 ).

The Normans were descended from Danish and Norwegian Vikings who were given feudal overlordship of areas in northern France — the Duchy of Normandy — in the 10th century.

* 1091: Normans from the Duchy of Normandy take control of Malta and surrounding islands.

* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France after being given a Duchy by the French King, conquered other lands and protected the French coast from foreign attacks.

The Norman conquest of England was the invasion and subsequent occupation of England by an army of Normans and French led by Duke William II of Normandy.

Their settlement proved successful, and the Vikings in the region became known as the " Northmen " from which " Normandy " and " Normans " are derived.

Before the Normans arrived, Anglo-Saxon governmental systems were more sophisticated than their counterparts in Normandy.

Theobald then agreed to the Normans ' proposal that he be made king, only to find that his former support immediately ebbed away: the barons were not prepared to support the division of England and Normandy by opposing Stephen.

"), attributed to monks of the English monasteries plundered by Viking raids in the 8th and 9th centuries, and entered Old French as Normands, whence the name of the Normans and of Normandy, which was settled by Norsemen in the 10th century.

After Harold's defeat at the battle of Hastings later that year, Edgar was proclaimed King of England, but when the Normans advanced on London, the Witenagemot presented Edgar to William the Conqueror who took him to Normandy before returning him to England in 1068, when Edgar, Margaret, Cristina and their mother Agatha fled north to Northumbria.

The Normans were not a homogeneous group springing exclusively from Anglo-Scandinavian stock, but mixed up with the first inhabitants who lived in the future Normandy ( romanized Gallo-Franks ).

* History of the Northmen, or Danes and Normans, from the Earliest Times to the Conquest of England by William of Normandy, which Washington Irving said “ evinced throughout the enthusiasm of an antiquarian, the liberality of a scholar, and the enlightened toleration of a citizen of the world ” ( London, 1831 ; French translation by Paul Guillot, Paris, 1844 )

His first literary efforts were as a continuator of William of Jumièges ' Gesta normannorum ducum, a broad history of the Normans and their dukes from the founding of Normandy, which Orderic carried forward into the early twelfth century.

Anjou wound up with effective control of most of the county, but the Normans did take several important strongholds on the Maine – Normandy border.

The migration of Vikings in the ninth century led to the area becoming part of the territory of the Northmen, or Normans, creating Normandy, in the early tenth century.

Another argument is that, given the links between this style of castle and the Normans, who were of Viking descent, they were in fact originally a Viking design, transported to Normandy and Angers.

Less wide-ranging were Haskins ' earlier studies of the Normans, Norman Institutions ( 1918 ), which still forms the basis of our understanding of how medieval Normandy functioned, and the more popular book The Normans in European History ( 1915 ).

The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix of the Manche département in Normandy, France, meaning " the willowlands ".