NORMAN INVASION OF England

Would anyone be able to clarify whether the Norman invasion was and is
regarded as a French Invasion, or was it a Norman one ?

Denis Beauregard...

I have a book called Atlas historique. It is the French
translation of a German book published in 1964. I have the
1987 printing.

p. 126-127 The Norman

There is a map of the "Norman states", clearly implying that
they conquered some parts of land. On this map, their states
included Normandy (including Bretagne), the England kingdom
and the Apulia and Calabria Italian dukedom.

p. 138-139 France

On the map, the French territory has the crown lands, which
are very small, and the French vassals, which include the
Normandy Dukedom but also the Bretagne Dukedom and the many
more Dukedoms and Earldoms/Counties. Neigborough of France
were Navarre and Aragon, the Bourgogne or Arles kingdom
(later Provence), the Germanic Empire. Gand, Bruges and
Barcelone were in France while Arles, Avignon, Lyon, Besançon
and Bar-le-Duc were foreign lands.

I think the Englishmen are too proud and just can't accept to be
conquered by a small Viking tribe and thus their historians
have renamed the Norman to the French when describing this
invasion. It would be interesting to make a list of the
invaders and see from where they came.

Tim Powys-Lybbe...

As a matter of social history, Burke in his various compilations showed
how many people loved to have their account starting with some
affirmation that their forbears came with the Conqueror. My
interpretation of this is that these people loved to identify themselves
with the conquering horde and thus with the ruling class, to which they
thought they should belong for ever more. I have not detected much
interest in the nationality of the conquerors: in many ways they were
just another of a long line of marauding invaders, the big difference
was that they were the last.

Tim Powys-Lybbe...

They first of all invaded France then England?

Nathaniel Taylor...

At the time Normans thought of 'French' as other people, not themselves.
Orderic uses 'French' for people from the Ile de France, for example
those against whom the Normans were constantly fighting for control over
the Vexin. Even to the (limited) extent the Norman dukes and people
recognized the overlordship of the reges francorum, they still did not
think of themselves as 'French'.

Nat Taylor
http://www.nltaylor.net

Peter de Loriol