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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.

Etymology

It is certain that the word is derived from the base of the Germanic words for north and the Germanic base of the words for man. However, given the frequent movement of Germanic groups especially into and out of Britain in the post-classical world, it is unclear in what tongue it came to be used first. In addition, the generally accepted meaning, a person from Normandy or one of the many French speaking invaders to Britain, was used chiefly by Anglo-Norman and Old French, though it originally referred to any Scandinavian of the time.

11th century Benedictine monk and historian, Geoffrey Malaterra characterised the Normans thus: Specially marked by cunning, despising their own inheritance in the hope of winning a greater, eager after both gain and dominion, given to imitation of all kinds, holding a certain mean between lavishness and greediness, that is, perhaps uniting, as they certainly did, these two seemingly opposite qualities. Their chief men were specially lavish through their desire of good report. They were, moreover, a race skillful in flattery, given to the study of eloquence, so that the very boys were orators, a race altogether unbridled unless held firmly down by the yoke of justice. They were enduring of toil, hunger, and cold whenever fortune laid it on them, given to hunting and hawking, delighting in the pleasure of horses, and of all the weapons and garb of war."

Their quick adaptability expressed itself in the shrewd Norman willingness to take on local men of talent, to marry the high-born local women; confidently illiterate Norman masters used the literate clerks of the church for their own purposes.