A Norman New Year!

What happens when you cross Vikings with Romano-Celts? Well, you get one of the most successful peoples of the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries: The Normans.

The Normans were descended from Viking raiders who had been pillaging Medieval France and Britain under the command of a chief named Hrolfr, latinized Rollo. Raiding since the age of about 15, Rollo had amassed an enormous amount of wealth from raiding the French crown. The apex of his Viking career came in 885 with the siege of Paris. Shockingly the Vikings were driven off by the local frankish garrison and population. The Vikings and French then came to terms, and Rollo and his men were given the City of Rouen and surrounding territories in exchange for not attacking the French and for defending northern France against further Viking raiders. Rollo agreed to the terms and for the most part held up his end of the bargain.

Like most Vikings, Rollo was crafty and smart; he realized that for the Vikings to have a shot at having a long-term settlement in France, they would have to adopt the local culture. Rollo himself married a Breton from neighboring Brittany and encouraged his men to do the same. The Vikings married the local Romano-Celts, adopted Christianity, and learned French. The children of these Vikings and Celts would be known as Normans, Frankish for Northmen. The results of this mixing of cultures and blood were amazing: by the second generation, the Normans were pious Christians who spoke fluent French. The Normans quickly adopted the French style of armored Knights on horses and court titles/life. Though they were indeed assimilated into Romance culture and language, they were still viewed with suspicion by their French neighbors, and for a good reason, the Normans would go on the conquer England, Wales, parts of Ireland, and Southern Italy in the coming centuries. The adoption of Romano-Frankish culture had not tamed their Viking spirit of adventure or war; they truly were “a race unbridled!”


I personally like to think of myself as an amateur genealogist, nothing too serious. Anyhow, @Pishpash inspired me to look into my own family’s history earlier this year, so I gave it a shot and bought an Ancestry.com subscription and began researching the family. Initially, I was expecting my father’s family (the Cook’s) to be of Saxon or Irish descent, what I found was astonishing. My Great x30+ ancestor, William, was a Norman Knight who had moved to England before the conquest in 1066 by his brethren. He brought his wife Katherine to the island and lived in London until his death in 1070. A few people I’ve talked to think he may have been friends with the Normandy born Saxon King, Edward the Confessor who brought several his Norman friends to the island in the 1030’s and 40’s. I have no idea if this is true or not, but it certainly is possible. William is my direct male ancestor(I have his Y chromosome), but our family history gets even better: one of William’s descendants(my ancestor)married and had children with a descendent of Hugh of Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester. So it seems I get a double dose of Norman blood! Hugh, also known as the Wolf or the fat, was a powerful Norman earl who helped subjugate the Welsh border lands.

There is one more member of the family I would like to talk about, but I’ll save his story for another time.

My parents gratefully purchased this coin as a present for me for the New Year. Perhaps an ancestor held this coin!? Please post your Norman coins or stories about your ancestors.

Also, I certainly would encourage everyone to look up their family history, you don't know what's hiding in your family tree!



Here are some other notable direct ancestors of mine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cooke_(mayor)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Cooke

Now for the coin!

Richard I (the Fearless), grandson of Rollo.
AR Denier
942-996 CE
Rouen mint
1.27 grams
Here are some pics of the Normans in all their glory!




Normandy during the reign of Richard I

 

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Well that's pretty effin cool man! I've been thinking about looking up my family history before. I have a book written by a great aunt on my dads side that goes back to about 1900 Ukraine, that's all I really know about that. As for my mom's side well "were Welsh not English ffs" is bout all I got.
As for the Normans, that's a part of history I'm still lacking in but really want to read more on, currently I'm more into the bronze age collapse. One day I'll get around to it. Too much history not enough time you know. Thanks for the good read man!
Great coin too! Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year to you as well!
Welsh and Slavic(Ukraine), that's a pretty cool mix. Certainly worth looking into in the future.

 

Looking into it now. I just started a subscription. Cheers man!

 

Another brilliant write up, I learn something all the time from you. Nice coin as well.

 

Very nice! I've always loved the Normans and their history (heck, their invasions/gallivanting has been the impetuous for a lot of my research). Sadly I have no English or French Norman coins, but I do have one from Southern Italy!


Kingdom of Sicily
William II, r. 1166-1189 A.D.
Messina Mint, AE Follaro, 17.23mm x 1.7 grams
Obv.: + OPERATAT IN VRBE MESSANE outside, O / REX W / SCOVS in center (OV ligate)
Rev.: Arabic legend "al'malik / Ghulyalim / al-thani" (King William 2nd) in center, "bi-amr al-malik al-musta'izz" around edge

 

Here's a coin of a Norman in Calabria. On the obverse, Roger Bosso of Sicily on horseback, looking rather like the knight in your first pic, down to the swallow-tail shield.


ITALY, NORMANS IN CALABRIA
Roger I, AD 1072-1101
AE Trifollaro. 11.13g, 29.4mm. Mileto mint, circa 1098-1101. Travaini 160; Sambon 876; Biaggi 1583. O: ROG-E-RIVS COME-S (Count Roger), Roger, armored, on horseback left, holding banner and shield. R: + MARIA [MATER DNI] (Mary Mother of Our Lord), Virgin Mary, nimbate, enthroned right, holding the nimbate Christ Child.

 

Happy New Year, coin-gang!!

M&M => congrats on scoring yourself an early 2017 winner!!

... great coins, fellas

 

I love that coin Zumbly!

 

Nice coins posted so far, guys!
I do believe it is time for Norman memes

 

(Actually, these guys are Anglo-Saxons since they have mustaches, but the Bayeux Tapestry wouldn't be without the Normans!)

 

(Okay, there's William himself enthroned - Normans shaved the back of their Head...)

 

@FitzNigel
Was the Norman hair style typical of feudal France at the time? Or was it just popular in Normandy?

 

I'm not sure I could say - the Normans prided themselves on being different (yet still Christian and French...)

 

Each generation that you go back, you have to double the amount of ancestors--1st generation you have 2 parents, 2nd generation 4 grandparents and it keeps doubling. So by the year 1080 (circa 29th generation) you have potentially 536,870,912 ancestors. However, so does everyone else. This number is so large it doesn't make sense though. Many people used to marry cousins in antiquity. There is an anecdote in genealogy that we are all related to Charlemagne. There has been research showing that once you go back 1,000 years, we are all related. http://www.nbcnews.com/science/all-europeans-are-related-if-you-go-back-just-1-6C9826523

 

You are correct in your math.
However, William the Norman Knight is my direct male ancestor. His Y chromosome, what makes a person a male, only comes from him and his Norman and Danish male ancestors. Every male in my father's side of the family: uncles, male cousins, me, my father, grandfather, great grandfather etc etc etc has his Y chromosome and has passed it on to their son. If I have a son then I will pass my genes including my Y chromosome to him, he will get his X chromosome from his mother though. This is a bit different than "indirect" ancestors who do contribute a snippet of DNA to me/you/everyone else, but don't determine the sex of modern people.

 

Furthest I traced my family was on my father's side to a man named Osbert from Northumbria. He died shortly after the Norman invasion, perhaps William the Norman knight killed him.
Good write up and interesting family tree.

 

I watched "The Warlord" with Charleton Heston the other night on my computer.

 

Well this is certainly awkward.
Northumbria you say? He may have been killed in the Harrying of the North, a Saxon uprising against the Norman Conquerors.

 

That's a good movie.

Thanks to all that have posted coins, keep em' coming.