The backstory begins in 876, when a band of Vikings, led by Rollo, began to settle at the mouth of the Seine. After some decades of plundering the locals, Rollo led his warriors on an abortive attack on Chartres in 911. This would lead to a settlement between the Vikings and the French king, Charles the Simple.
Rollo’s Vikings were to defend the region against other Viking’s, and in exchange he would be granted the lands of the mouth of the Seine and the title of Count of Rouen. These we know as the Normans. They established themselves in the region, married local girls, slowly assimilated by adopting the local language and religion. A year after the raid on Chartres, Rollo embraced Christianity.
More lands were granted – eventually becoming the duchy of Normandy and ruled by Rollo’s descendants. They were not always loyal vassals, growing evermore hungry for land. We know of the conquest of England by the Norman William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, in 1066.
Eventually, the Crusades would satisfy the need for conquest, but in this early part of the eleventh century it was to southern Italy and Sicily where they made their way. Long under Muslim rule, the Byzantine emperor Basil II’s reconquest had restored southern Italy to the Byzantine Empire.
