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12 unusual facts about Normans


1184 in Ireland

It was built on an earlier Irish fortification in the territory of the O'Byrne's by the Norman Hugh de Lacy, then governor of Ireland under Henry II .

Al-Hakam II

He was chiefly pre-occupied with repulsing the last Norman attacks (966, 971), and with the struggle against the Zirids and the Fatimids in northern Morocco.

Anne Elliot

Elizabeth Bennet, for example, who has little money of her own, refuses the hand of a financially secure but unbearable young clergyman; dallies briefly with a penniless (and, as it turns out, utterly worthless) army officer; and finally marries Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, who has a great estate, a Norman-sounding name, and ₤10,000 a year.

Christian Zetlitz Bretteville

He belonged to the French Norman noble family le Normand de Bretteville, and was the son of Charles Eugene le Normand de Bretteville and Mette Christina Zetlitz.

Church of St Peter and St Paul, Kilmersdon

The Church of St Peter and St Paul in Kilmersdon, Somerset, England, dates back to the Norman period, though much of the current structure was built during the 15th and 16th centuries and restored in the Victorian era.

Clément Marot

His father, Jean Marot (c. 1463-1523), whose more correct name appears to have been des Mares, Marais or Marets, was a Norman from the Caen region and was also a poet.

Joshua Soule

Born to Joshua and Mary (Cushman) Soule at Broad Cove in Bristol (now Bremen), Maine, Soule was the fifth child in a Norman-English family.

Menzel Temime

The city was founded in the eleventh century by Moez ibn Temmime, a member of the Normans.

Nevile Wilkinson

There were two disparate heraldic traditions in Ireland at that time – the old Gaelic Irish tradition, and the Norman and Anglo-Irish traditions which were part of the European heraldic mainstream.

Ottiwell

One of the earliest recorded Ottiwells (as a personal name) was the son of Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester - a Norman.

Royal Guernsey Light Infantry

The regimental motto, Diex Aix, derives from the battle cry used by the Normans at the Battle of Hastings.

Ullage

In turn, a noun ouillage was created, which was the immediate source of our word, first recorded in Norman English about 1300, at first in the sense of the amount of liquid needed to fill a barrel up to the bung hole.


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Adalgar

Although Arnulf's victory over the Normans (891) was a relief to his diocese, and although under Louis the Child (900-911) it suffered less from Hungarian onslaughts than the districts to the south and east of it, yet the general confusion restricted Adalgar’s activity, and he was able to do very little in the northern kingdoms which were supposed to be part of his mission.

Asterix and the Normans

The book's encounter between Romans, Gauls and Normans during the age of Caesar is thus an anachronism; indeed, the Norman chief tells the Gauls that they do not want to invade their country, but their descendants will do some centuries later (they even briefly reference 1066).

Attributed arms

The reason for the triple-crown symbol is unknown, but it was associated with other pre-Norman kings, with the seal of Magnus II of Sweden, with the relics of the Three Wise Men in Cologne (which led to the three crowns in the seal of the University of Cologne), and with the grants of Edward I of England to towns which were symbolized by three crowns in the towns' arms.

Avigliano, Basilicata

Later it was expanded by the Normans and was a hunter mansion for Frederick II of Hohenstaufen and a summer residence for the Angevine kings of Naples.

Avola

However, the village near what is now Avola appeared only during the Norman or Hohenstaufen rule (12th-13th centuries).

Azymite

Within two years of Leo's death the Normans had secured the papacy and placed one of their own men on the papal throne, Pope Stephen IX.

Battle of Civitate

The Battle of Civitate (also known as Battle of Civitella del Fortore) was fought on 18 June 1053 in Southern Italy, between the Normans, led by the Count of Apulia Humphrey of Hauteville, and a Swabian-Italian-Lombard army, organised by Pope Leo IX and led on the battlefield by Gerard, Duke of Lorraine, and Rudolf, Prince of Benevento.

Battle of Montepeloso

Before the battle, the Normans and Lombards agreed on chosing Atenulf, Prince of Benevento as their new leader, while the Byzantine Catepan Michael Doukeianos was replaced by Exaugustus Boioannes.

Battle of Varaville

In the next year, 1058, William invaded King Henry's lands and recaptured the castle at Tillières, which had been lost to the Normans during William's minority.

Cerami

According to English historian Edward Gibbon, even accounting for 5 or 6 men at arms accompanying each Norman knight into battle, and even accounting for the Normans' superior martial training, the victory was either miraculous or fabulous.

Concilium

The Magnum Concilium, or Great Council, was established in the reign of the Normans.

David Horspool

His next book, published in August 2009, is The English Rebel: One Thousand Years of Trouble-making from the Normans to the Nineties - a history of rebellion from Magna Carta to Arthur Scargill.

Diocese of Rapolla

The Normans took Rapolla from the Greeks in 1042, and fortified it with works still to be seen.

Earl of Northumberland

The castle had been founded in the late 11th century by Ivo de Vesci, a Norman nobleman from Vassy, Calvados in Normandy.

Eleanor Bone

Bone was a close confidant of Gardner's initiator Dafo, and she reported that the New Forest coven was a hereditary coven that followed the old ways of the Hampshire region, and that they traced their origins to the time of the death of King William Rufus in the Norman era.

Gerace

Gerace was seat of a principality under the Normans, whose symbol was the Castle of the Hautville or Altavilla of the House of Candia.

Gerard de Furnival

Gerard de Furnival (c.1175–1219) was a Norman knight and Lord of Hallamshire (now part of Sheffield, England) and Worksop.

Gruffudd ap Cynan

Gruffudd landed on Anglesey with an Irish force, and with the assistance of troops provided by the Norman Robert of Rhuddlan first defeated and killed Cynwrig ap Rhiwallon, an ally of Trahaearn who held Llŷn, then defeated Trahaearn himself in the battle of Gwaed Erw in Meirionnydd and gained control of Gwynedd.

History of Thessaloniki

However, after the death of the emperor Manuel I Komnenos in 1180, the fortunes of the Byzantine Empire began to decline and in 1185, Norman rulers of Sicily, under the leadership of Count Baldwin and Riccardo d'Acerra, attacked and occupied the city, resulting in considerable destruction.

Huon of Bordeaux

The godfather of Huon may safely be identified with Seguin, who was count of Bordeaux under Louis the Pious in 839, and died fighting against the Normans six years later.

Icklesham

Strategically located on the River Brede, it was a prime target in the Norman invasion of 1066 (some 700 years later, evacuation plans were prepared in case of an invasion by Napoleon).

Kircubbin, County Down

John de Courcy, a Norman knight who invaded Ulster, brought Benedictines from Stoke Courcy in Somerset and Lonlay in France, for whom he founded Black Abbey (St Andrews in Ards), near Inishargy in the 1180s.

Ligugé Abbey

The invasion of the Saracens, the wars of the dukes of Aquitaine with the early Carolingians, and lastly the Norman invasion were a series of disasters that almost destroyed the monastery.

Mortimer Trail

The route is named after the Mortimer family of ruling Marcher Lords, often titled Earl of March, whose rise through successive generations from Norman times through the medieval period helped to shape the history and geography of this area of the Welsh Marches.

Mouvement Normand

They also see the people of Normandy as direct inheritors of authentic Normans and also the results of their overseas exploits, including the Norman conquest of England.

North Elmham Castle

Architectural historians now believe that though an Anglo-Saxon church made of timber did exist on the site, the stone remains are actually of a Norman chapel built after the Norman invasion.

Pentedattilo

In the 12th century it was conquered by the Normans, and, together with Capo D'Armi, Condofuri and Montebello Ionico, it became part of a baronal fief under the Abenavoli family.

Peter II of Trani

In 1077 a local presbyter, Maraldus, donated a house to the church of San Eustachio in Corato in the presence of Erberto, Goffredo, and Guarino, who witnessed the charter as "faithful vassals" (fideles) of the imperialis vestis et comitis normannorum (imperial vestes and count of the Normans).

Polizzi Generosa

The town probably developed as a population center in the late Middle Ages, growing around the castle built by the Norman Count of Sicily Roger I in 1076.

Redwood Castle

The castle was built by the Normans around 1200 AD, and was occupied by them until c.1350, when the Mac Aodhagáin (MacEgan, Egan, Keegan) were installed on the lands.

Rudolph of France

Herbert and Arnulf I of Flanders joined him this time and they took Eu, but were ambushed near Fauquembergues and the king was wounded, the Count of Ponthieu killed, and many Normans left dead on the field.

Saint Cadoc's Church

The earliest surviving part of the church dates back to just after the kingdom of Glywysing was overrun by the Normans during the twelfth century and is thought to be the work of Hywel ap Iowerth, who was also the founder of the Cistercian Llantarnam Abbey.

Sicilian revolution of 1848

Both kingdoms had previously comprised the single Kingdom of Sicily (created by the Normans in the 11th century) during the 12th and 13th centuries, and were split in two following the revolt of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282.

St Medardus and St Gildardus Church, Little Bytham

The church also has several Romanesque details dating from the Norman era, including a Priest's Door ("uncommonly ornate", according to Nikolaus Pevsner) with a finely carved tympanum; the empty circular niche in the tympanum is said to have held a relic; the birds in roundels to either side are probably eagles, as one is legendarily supposed to have sheltered Medard from the rain.

St. Werburgh's Church, Dublin

Werburgh's Church is a Church of Ireland church in Dublin, Ireland, and was built in 1178, shortly after the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the town, and named after St. Werburgh, abbess of Ely and patron saint of Chester who died in 699 AD.

Sylvester of Marsico

Sylvester (born c. 1100), count of Marsico, was a Norman nobleman of the Kingdom of Sicily.

Vimoutiers

In 1040 while battling the Normans, Alan III, Duke of Brittany died suddenly in this town; the death was thought to be caused by poisoning.