# The Normans in Europe, 911–1185

36 places, from Rouen to Antioch. Each place carries an evidence grade: A — found on the ground, B — recorded at the time, C — legend or disputed.

## Normandy
- **Rouen** (911, A) — In 911 King Charles the Simple grants Rollo the city of Rouen and its county. From that Viking river-town grows the Duchy of Normandy.
- **Saint-Clair-sur-Epte** (911, C) — Tradition names this village as the 911 treaty site. No contemporary source names the place; Rollo's homage comes from Dudo, a century later.
- **Mont-Saint-Michel** (966, A) — Duke Richard I settles Benedictines here in 966. The Romanesque abbey church rises over the rock in the 11th century and still stands.
- **Fécamp** (1001, A) — Richard II builds a ducal palace and abbey (1001) at Fécamp, the dynasty's pantheon. Excavation and abbey fabric keep the dukes' trace.
- **Hauteville-la-Guichard** (1035, C) — Tradition sends Tancred of Hauteville's sons from this Cotentin village to Italy. From them spring two dynasties: Apulia and Sicily.
- **Val-ès-Dunes** (1047, B) — In 1047 the young William, aided by the King of France, crushes his rebel barons. From that day he is Normandy's undisputed master.
- **Bayeux** (1077, A) — The Bayeux Tapestry (some 70 m of embroidered linen, 1070s) tells the conquest of England scene by scene. Ordered by Bishop Odo, it is kept here.
- **Tinchebray** (1106, B) — In 1106 Henry I of England defeats and captures his brother Robert, Duke of Normandy. Both shores of the Channel fall under one hand again.

## England and Ireland
- **Pevensey** (1066, B) — On 28 September 1066 William's fleet lands at Pevensey, inside the Roman fort's walls. No one waits for him: Harold is at York, fresh from beating the Norwegians.
- **Hastings** (1066, B) — On 14 October 1066 Harold's army falls on the hill at Battle, and the king dies in the fight. The conquest starts here, but England takes years of campaigning to subdue.
- **Westminster** (1066, B) — On Christmas Day 1066 William is crowned in Edward the Confessor's abbey. Outside, the Norman guards set houses alight at the cheering, mistaking it for revolt.
- **Chepstow** (1067, A) — From 1067 William fitzOsbern builds at Chepstow, on the Wye, the oldest Norman stone castle in Wales. The Great Tower still stands.
- **York** (1069–1070, B) — After the northern revolt (1069) William harries the land between York and Durham: burnt villages, ruined harvests. Domesday Book (1086) still lists many manors as “waste”.
- **Canterbury** (1070, B) — In 1070 Lanfranc, a Lombard jurist come by way of Normandy, becomes Archbishop of Canterbury. He rebuilds the cathedral and binds the English Church to Rome.
- **Durham** (1072–1093, A) — A castle from 1072, a cathedral begun in 1093: Durham guards the northern frontier. Its ribbed vaults are among the first in Europe.
- **Tower of London** (1078, A) — The White Tower, begun about 1078, is the conquest's stone seal: a Norman keep over 30 m tall, visible from across the city.
- **Dublin** (1170, B) — In 1170 Richard de Clare (Strongbow) takes Dublin for the Norman cause. From this Irish bridgehead grows Anglo-Norman lordship of the island.

## Southern Italy and Sicily
- **Aversa** (1030, B) — In 1030 Rainulf Drengot receives Aversa and founds the first Norman county in Italy. Mercenaries become lords with charters.
- **Melfi** (1041–1059, B) — Taken in 1041, Melfi becomes the Norman capital: here they divide the conquests (1043), and in 1059 Pope Nicholas II enfeoffs Robert Guiscard with Apulia and Calabria.
- **Civitate** (1053, B) — On 18 June 1053 a few thousand Normans crush Pope Leo IX's army, and the pope is taken prisoner. Defeat opens the road to the Melfi settlement (1059).
- **Bari** (1068–1071, B) — After a three-year siege Bari falls in April 1071. With it ends Byzantine rule in Italy, more than five centuries old.
- **Palermo** (1072, B) — In January 1072 Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger enter Palermo. Sicily's conquest takes two more decades; the emirate's capital becomes the county's.
- **Salerno** (1076, B) — In December 1076 Salerno, the last Lombard principality, surrenders to Guiscard after a grinding siege. The mainland south is now Norman.
- **Rome** (1084, B) — In May 1084 Guiscard comes to free Pope Gregory VII from the emperor — and his army sacks Rome for three days. The pope leaves under Norman guard and dies at Salerno.
- **Cefalù** (1131, A) — Roger II begins Cefalù cathedral in 1131, with Christ Pantocrator in Byzantine mosaic above the altar. Three worlds — Latin, Greek, Arab — in one church.
- **Naples** (1139–1140, B) — In 1139–1140 Naples, the last independent city of the south, submits to Roger II. All southern Italy stands under the Palermo crown.
- **Monreale** (1174, A) — William II builds Monreale cathedral from 1174: 6,000 m² of mosaics on gold. The apogee and, unknowingly, the testament of Norman Sicily.

## The East and the Mediterranean
- **Dyrrhachium (Durrës)** (1081, B) — On 18 October 1081 Guiscard crushes Emperor Alexios I beneath the walls of Durrës. Anna Komnene, the emperor's daughter, describes the Normans with fear and admiration.
- **Corfu** (1084, B) — In autumn 1084 Guiscard takes revenge at sea: his fleet crushes the Venetian-Byzantine squadron off Corfu and retakes the island. His last victory — he dies on Cephalonia in July 1085.
- **Malta** (1091, B) — In 1091 Count Roger I lands on Malta and takes it from the Muslims. The island enters Norman Sicily's orbit, where it stays for centuries.
- **Constantinople** (1097, B) — In spring 1097 Bohemond of Taranto, Guiscard's son, swears fealty to Emperor Alexios. The son of the man who beat the emperor at Durrës becomes his vassal — on paper.
- **Nicaea** (1097, B) — In June 1097 the crusaders — Bohemond's Normans among them — take Nicaea. The crusade's first victory, and the last at which Byzantines and crusaders fight together.
- **Antioch** (1098, B) — On 3 June 1098 Bohemond enters Antioch by treachery and never hands it to the emperor. The Principality of Antioch lives 170 years — the farthest Norman state.
- **Lisbon** (1147, B) — In 1147 an Anglo-Norman crusader fleet, bound for the Holy Land, helps King Afonso take Lisbon. Their chaplain left an account from inside the siege.
- **Mahdia** (1148, B) — In 1148 Roger II's admiral George of Antioch takes Mahdia. A string of African ports follows: the Normans' “kingdom of Africa” lasts a decade.
- **Thessalonica** (1185, B) — In August 1185 William II of Sicily's army sacks Thessalonica, Byzantium's second city. Archbishop Eustathios describes the plundering as an eyewitness.

## Images
- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the Parker manuscript at Cambridge — the same chronicle that records Harold's fall in 1066. Shown: the genealogical preface. (Parker Chronicle (9th c.), Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 173; public domain (PD-Art), via Wikimedia Commons)
- The Bayeux Tapestry (c. 1070): Normans leading horses out of the ships — “HIC EXEUNT CABALLI DE NAVIBUS”. (Bayeux Tapestry (11th c.); photograph by Universite de Caen Normandie / CNRS / ENSICAEN, 2017; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
- Bohemond's mausoleum at Canosa, where the Prince of Antioch was buried in 1111 — 1898 engraving. (Bohemond's mausoleum, Canosa (1898 engraving); Giuseppe Barberis; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
- The Cappella Palatina in Palermo, chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily: Byzantine mosaics beneath an Arab muqarnas ceiling. (Fintan Corrigan of http://friendly-hotels.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
- Cefalù Cathedral, Roger II's foundation (1131) — two Norman towers beneath the rock. (Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
- The nave of Durham Cathedral, raised after 1072 under the Norman bishops — among England's first great vaults. (Rob Farrow, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
- Roger II receives the crown from Christ's hand — mosaic in the Martorana, Palermo, c. 1143. (Nero Reising, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
- Christ Pantocrator dominates the nave of Monreale Cathedral (1174) — the largest mosaic cycle of Norman Sicily. (Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
- Rollo's tomb effigy in Rouen Cathedral — a later memorial, not a lifetime portrait. (Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
- Portal of the Basilica of San Nicola in Bari, raised under the Normans after 1087 for the relics of Saint Nicholas. (Portal, Basilica of San Nicola, Bari; Bernard Gagnon; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
- The walls of Constantinople, which Bohemond saw in 1097 when he swore fealty to the emperor. (Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
- The White Tower of London, begun by William the Conqueror c. 1078 — the cornerstone of Norman power in England. (White Tower, Tower of London; SkyRose18; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

---
mariuscomper.uk/normanzii-in-europa/