Normandy was a duchy in the North-West of what later became France under the Ancien Régime which lasted until the later part of the 18th century. Initially populated by Celtic tribes in the West and Belgic tribes in the North East, it was conquered in AD 98 by the Romans and integrated into the province of Gallia Lugdunensis by Augustus. In the 4th century, Gratian divided the province into the civitates that constitute the historical borders. After the fall of Rome in the 5th century, the Franks became the dominant ethnic group in the area and built several monasteries. Towards the end of the 9th century, Viking raids devastated the region, prompting the establishment of the Duchy of Normandy in 911. After 150 years of expansion, the borders of Normandy reached relative stability. These old borders roughly correspond to the present borders of Lower Normandy, Upper Normandy and the Channel Islands.
Mainland Normandy was integrated into the Kingdom of France in 1204. The region was badly damaged during the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion, the Normans having more converts to Protestantism than other peoples of France. In the 20th century, D-Day, the 1944 Allied invasion of Western Europe, started in Normandy. In 1956, mainland Normandy was separated into two regions, Lower Normandy and Upper Normandy, which were reunified in 2016.
Prehistory and antiquity
Prehistory Human presence in the region does not date back earlier than the end of the Lower Paleolithic (before that, this region was extremely cold). In the Middle Paleolithic, it is attested by numerous finds of lithic industry. But, in the Upper Paleolithic, the region was occupied by tundra, which was not very favorable to human life.
However, it would be inhabited again especially in Eure and Calvados, as shown by the Orival and Gouy Cave near Rouen, which, due to its cave paintings dated to the Magdalenian, with Gouy being the northernmost decorated cave in Europe. Several still-visible megaliths can be found scattered quite regularly throughout the Norman countryside,Jeannine Rouch, Mégalithes de Normandie: Pierres de légendes, OREP Edition, Caen, 2012 most of them built in a uniform style.
The Rozel Archaeological Site presents exceptional traces of footprints and handprints of Homo neanderthalensis.
Celtic Normandy Normandy began to be developed in the Bronze Age (2300 - 800 BC) with a network of farms, field systems and vast necropolises covering the whole of the area of Normandy.
More is known about Celtic Normandy due to the archeological sources being more numerous and easier to date. In the 19th century, local scholars studied archeological sites (especially those of Upper Normandy) and recorded their discoveries. They discovered objects such as the Gallic gilded helmet of Amfreville-sous-les-Monts, made in the 4th century BC, and the iron helmet currently in the Museum of Louviers. They also examined the cemetery at Pîtres (Eure), with its urns for cremated remains, coiled swords and traces of chariot tombs. These discoveries as well as sites such as Ifs (Calvados) indicate a Celtic presence in Normandy dating from the end of the Hallstatt period or the beginning of the La Tène period.
The Celtic peoples of present-day Normandy were part of Armorica, a confederation of culturally close peoples along the shores of the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean, from the Seine estuary to that of the Loire.
Belgae and Celts, known as Gauls, invaded Normandy in successive waves from the 4th to the 3rd centuries BC.
Much of our knowledge about this group comes from Julius Caesar's de Bello Gallico from his invasion of Gaul (58–50 BC). Caesar identified nine different Celtic tribes among the Belgae who occupied separate regions and lived in enclosed agrarian towns. In 57 BC, the Gauls united under Vercingetorix in an attempt to resist the onslaught of Caesar's army. Even after their defeat at Alesia, the people of Normandy continued to fight until 51 BC, the year Caesar completed his conquest of Gaul.
The testimony of Julius Caesar (in the Gallic Wars) allows us to identify the different Gallic groups occupying the region. In 56 or 57 BC, these populations gathered to resist the invasion of the Roman legions. After the Gallic defeat at the siege of Alesia, the peoples of Normandy continued the struggle for some time, but by 51 BC, all of Gaul was subdued by Rome.
Below is a list of Gallic tribes, whose territories correspond to later Normandy, and their administrative centers: Abrincates (Ingena, modern-day Avranches), Aulerci Eburovices (Mediolanum, modern-day Evreux), Baiocasses (Augustodurum, modern-day Bayeux), Calates (Juliobona > modern-day Lillebonne), Esuvii (*Uxisama > modern-day Exmes) Lexovii (Noviomagus Lexoviorum, modern-day Lisieux), Sagii (unknown name, modern-day Sées) Unelli (Cosedia, modern-day Coutances), Veliocasses (Rotomagus > modern-day Rouen), Viducasses (Aragenuae, modern-day Vieux).
Roman Normandy
Between 27 BC and 15 BC, Emperor Augustus reorganized the Gallic territories moved the Caletes and Veliocasses into the province of Gallia Lugdunensis, which had its capital at Lyon. The Romanisation of Normandy partly included in the Gallia Celtica and in the Gallia Belgica (the Seine being more or less the limit between them) was achieved by the usual methods: Roman roads and a policy of urbanisation.
Classicists mention many Gallo-Roman villas and archeology found their traces in the past 30 years, thanks in large part to finds made during construction of the A29 autoroute in Seine-Maritime. These country houses were often laid out according to two major plans. One design features a tall and slender structure with an open façade facing south; the second design is similar to Italian villas, with an organized layout around a square courtyard. The latter can be seen at the villa of Sainte-Marguerite-sur-Mer. The villas were built using local materials: flint, chalk, limestone, brick, cob and wattle and daub. The technique of half-timbering came from this period and Celtic huts. Heating of baths or certain rooms used the Roman hypocaust system, such as the suburban villa at Vieux-la-Romaine.
Agriculture in the region provided wheat and flax for linen, according to Pliny the Elder. Pliny also noted the presence of many fana - small Celtic temples with a centered, usually square plan. One example is located west of Harfleur. In antiquity the temples of Vieil-Évreux made the town one of the most important pilgrimage centers in Europe, with a forum, Roman baths, a monumental basilica, two fana, and the second largest theater in Gaul. Excavations have also revealed many terracotta statuettes of mother goddess statues in many tombs and houses in the regions, particularly Évreux.
Crises in the 3rd century and the Roman loss of Normandy
In the late 3rd century, barbarian raids devastated the province. Traces of fire and hastily buried treasures bear evidence to the degree of insecurity in Northern Gaul. Coastal settlements risked raids by Saxon pirates and became depopulated. The province became part of the system of coastal defences known as Saxon Shore on both sides of the English Channel.
The situation was so severe that the Romans recruited Germans into their armies to fight the barbarians. An entire legion of SuevesNotitia Dignitatum was garrisoned at Constantia (in the pagus Constantinus), the administrative center of the Unelli tribe. Batavi were garrisoned at Civitas Baiocasensis (Bayeux ).
During the reforms of Emperor Diocletian (285–305), the future Normandy became distinct by forming the Lugdunensis Secunda, whose borders foreshadowed the Archdiocese of Rouen and those of ducal Normandy seven centuries later: it stretched from the Couesnon to the Bresle and was bounded to the south by the upper courses of the Sarthe and the Avre. The only significant difference was that Lyonnaise Secunda included the future Vexin français, with the land of the Veliocasses then remaining undivided, and these immigrants were granted permission to settle in the Empire.
In 406 Germanic and Alan tribes began invading from the east. Toponymy suggests that the various barbarian groups had installed themselves and formed alliances and federations already at the end of the 3rd century, well before the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476.
Christianity began to enter the area: Saint Mellonius was supposedly ordained Bishop of Rouen in the mid-3rd century. Rouen already having a metropolitan bishop by the 4th century with an ecclesiastical province based on the Roman province of Lugdunensis Secunda, and in turn correspondeding closely to the future duchy of Normandy. Christianity.
Eventually in 457, Aegidius established the Domain of Soissons in the area (with its seat the town of the same name Soissons, formerly the seat of the Suessiones), independent of and cut off from the Empire but with citizens nevertheless still considering themselves Roman. His son Syagrius succeeded him in 464 and remained until the kingdom was conquered in 486. Rural villages were abandoned and the remaining "Romans" confined themselves to within urban fortifications.
Middle Ages
Frankish Normandy
The Franks defeated the culturally Roman Kingdom of Soissons in the Battle of Soissons in 486. By that time the area between the Somme and the Loire had come under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis. Frankish colonization did not occur on a massive scale, and is evidenced chiefly by cemeteries in Envermeu, Londinieres, Herouvillette, and Douvrend. The place names were chiefly Frankish at this time. The Franks also cut administration and military presence at the local levels. Large rural estates, episcopal sees such as Rouen, and fiscal centres marked Frankish authority. The Capitulary legislation and royal courts extended Frankish law and institutions into the area, though local aristocracies maintained significant autonomy.
The Christianization of the area continued with the construction of cathedrals in the principal cities and churches in minor localities. This establishment of the parishes would continue for a long time. The smaller parishes tended to be located in the plains around Caen while the rural parishes took up more space. Villagers would be buried around the local parish church up until the Carolingian era.
The Neustrian monarchy developed in the 6th century in the isolated western regions. In the 7th century the Neustrian aristocrats founded several abbeys in the valley of the Seine: Fontenelle in 649, Jumièges about 654, Pavilly, Montivilliers. These abbeys rapidly adopted the Benedictine Rule. They came to possess great quantities of land throughout France, from which they drew considerable income. They therefore became involved in political and dynastic rivalries.
By the sixth and seventh centuries the whole region was integrated into the Merovingian and later Carolingian realms. Eventually the eastern region of Normandy became a residence for Merovingian royalty.
By the ninth century, Carolingian kings such as Charlemagne and Louis the Pious maintained river defenses and fleets, but the weakening of central power after 840 created vulnerabilities. Political divisions between the heirs of Louis the Pious, as codified in the Treaty of Verdun (843), fractured the Frankish kingdom and left the Seine valley especially exposed to external attack.
Scandinavian invasions
Normandy takes its name from Nortmanni, "men of the North", the Viking invaders who menaced large parts of Europe towards the end of the first millennium in two phases (790–930, then 980–1030).