The integration of Normandy into the royal domain of the Kingdom of France is the process of conquering and integrating the Duchy of Normandy into the domain directly under the French crown. Normandy, created in 911, was dominated by the Duke of Normandy, vassal of the King of France. This marked the beginning of a struggle between the kings of France and the dukes, the latter paying only symbolic homage to their suzerain. In 1066, William the Conqueror, then Duke of Normandy, seized the crown of England and became more powerful than the King of France. The Angevin Empire would later represent a threat to the stability of the French kingdom, which the kings of France would endeavor to break up.
In 1202, the King of England, John Lackland, had the Duchy of Normandy confiscated by the King of France, Philip Augustus, for disobeying his orders. Following the French military conquest of the whole of Normandy, with the exception of the Channel Islands, the province came under the direct control of the French crown, which implemented the social policy of assimilating the province.
Subsequently, the kings of England made several unsuccessful attempts to regain control of the province. In 1259, the two kings signed the Treaty of Paris, under which the English crown officially renounced the province in exchange for a few fiefs in the southwest. The French conquest was definitively confirmed, and in 1315 the King of France completed the process of assimilating the Normans by granting the Charte aux Normands, which limited the sovereign's rights in the province until it was repealed during the French Revolution.
The status of the Duchy of Normandy (911–1199)
The Duchy of Normandy (911–1199)
Normandy was born in 911, when Charles the Simple, King of West Francia, ceded part of Neustria to the Viking Rollo at the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte.(fr) Claude Gauvard, La France au Moyen Âge : Du ve au xve siècle, Mercuès, Presses universitaires de France, March 2012, 570 p. (). p.107. Although Normandy may have been totally independent in its early years, as the Viking chieftain was unaware of the feudal system,(fr) Roger Jouet, ...et la Normandie devint française, Poitiers, Mazarine, January 1983, 261 p. (). p. 12. it soon became a fiefdom in which its chieftain had to pay tribute to the King of France as a vassal.(fr) Claude Gauvard, La France au Moyen Âge : Du ve au xve siècle, Mercuès, Presses universitaires de France, March 2012, 570 p. (). p.114. The feudal system meant that the Duke of Normandy behaved like the head of a quasi-sovereign state.(fr) Claude Gauvard, La France au Moyen Âge : Du ve au xve siècle, Mercuès, Presses universitaires de France, March 2012, 570 p. (). p.172. Before 1140, he never traveled to pay homage to the King of France. The huestes that the vassal owed to the king were kept very symbolic by the dukes of Normandy, who sent only a few dozen men for forty days, even though they could raise several thousand. With few exceptions, the Dukes of Normandy were rarely present at the court of the King of France, even though they were theoretically obliged to do so. Nevertheless, although the link between Normandy and France is very weak, it did exist, and the Duchy of Normandy was part of the Kingdom of France.(fr) Roger Jouet, ...et la Normandie devint française, Poitiers, Mazarine, January 1983, 261 p. (). p. 14.
On his territory, the Duke of Normandy exercised many of the rights previously exercised by the Carolingian kings, such as those over the Church, justice, and taxation. He alone had the power to build fortresses and castles, mint coins, and levy direct taxes, which were extremely rare at the time. The dukes established an efficient administration and a feudal organization that reinforced their power, rather than crumbling it,(fr) Roger Jouet, ...et la Normandie devint française, Poitiers, Mazarine, January 1983, 261 p. (). p. 16. as was the case in several other principalities in the Kingdom of France.(fr) Claude Gauvard, La France au Moyen Âge : Du ve au xve siècle, Mercuès, Presses universitaires de France, March 2012, 570 p. (). p.166. On the ground, the Duke of Normandy was represented by viscounts who controlled the judicial system to the detriment of local lords. This system made the Duke of Normandy one of the most powerful lords of the early second millennium, sometimes more powerful than his lord the King of France.
In the Angevin Empire
Under Philip I of France
In 1066, William the Conqueror seized the crown of England. From then on, the Duke of Normandy held the title of Duke of Normandy (still vassal to the King of France) as well as King of England (sovereign in his own kingdom),(fr) François Louis Ganshof, Qu'est-ce que la féodalité, Saint-Estève, Librairie Jules Tallandier, February 1998, 296 p. (). p. 251. except between 1087 and 1106.(fr) Jacqueline Monsigny, L'Extraordinaire histoire de la Normandie, Courtry, Éditions Alphée, May 2010, 355 p. (). p. 100. From then on, the kings of France gradually realized that they had to break up the Anglo-Norman Empire, which represented an immediate danger to their crown. If Philip I, King of France, could do nothing to prevent William from seizing the English crown, it was because he was only fourteen and under the guardianship of Baldwin V of Flanders, the father-in-law of the Duke of Normandy. But as soon as he came of age, he realized the danger of the Anglo-Norman Empire. He first prevented Normandy from expanding into the Duchy of Brittany with the campaign of 1076, which forced the Conqueror to lift the siege of Dol. Then, the following year, Philip I captured the French Vexin at the expense of Simon de Crépy. The French Vexin became a source of war between the Dukes of Normandy and the Kings of France. In 1087, William the Conqueror claimed it, then in 1097-1098 his son William the Red invaded.(fr) Roger Jouet, ...et la Normandie devint française, Poitiers, Mazarine, January 1983, 261 p. (). p. 21.
The King of France pursued his policy of separating Normandy from England by supporting Robert Curthose, the Conqueror's eldest son, in his fight against his father for the title of Duke of Normandy in 1077–1078.(fr) Jacqueline Monsigny, L'Extraordinaire histoire de la Normandie, Courtry, Éditions Alphée, May 2010, 355 p. (). p. 92. This policy succeeded in 1087, when the Empire was split between William the Conqueror's two sons, with Robert Curthose inheriting Normandy and William the Red the crown of England.(fr) Jacqueline Monsigny, L'Extraordinaire histoire de la Normandie, Courtry, Éditions Alphée, May 2010, 355 p. (). p. 94. In 1089, he sided with Robert Curthose in defending Normandy against attacks by William the Red. The end of his reign was less far-sighted: he did not oppose Robert's decision to entrust his duchy to his brother, the King of England, for the first crusade.(fr) Jacqueline Monsigny, L'Extraordinaire histoire de la Normandie, Courtry, Éditions Alphée, May 2010, 355 p. (). p. 99. Nor did he object, in 1106, when Henry I of England, third son of the Conqueror and who had just succeeded his brother on the throne of England, clashed with Robert Curthose, his other brother, over Normandy, leading to the reconstitution of the Anglo-Norman Empire after the battle of Tinchebray.
Under Louis VI of France
Louis VI the Fighter became King of France in 1108. He was soon confronted by Henry I of England, Duke of Normandy, who wanted to add Gisors to his possessions. War broke out, but was interrupted in 1113 by the King of France due to unrest in the royal domain.(fr) Roger Jouet, ...et la Normandie devint française, Poitiers, Mazarine, January 1983, 261 p. (). p. 22. Hostilities resumed in 1116, and the King of France unsuccessfully supported William Adelin, son of Robert Curthose, in his fight against his uncle for the title of Duke of Normandy. Two years later, Louis VI entered the French Vexin and took control as far as the Andelle, while his ally Fulk the Younger, Count of Anjou, won several battles near Alençon. Success was short-lived for the King of France, who lost his allies in turn, and was defeated at the Battle of Bremule in 1119. Pope Calixtus II was asked to mediate, and peace was restored on the basis of the status quo. However, the King of France succeeded in obtaining the tribute of William Adelin, son of Henry I of England, for Normandy,(fr) Roger Jouet, ...et la Normandie devint française, Poitiers, Mazarine, January 1983, 261 p. (). p. 23. as the latter was unwilling to bow to another king.J. F. A. Mason, "William (1103-1120)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004 (read online archive)
William Adelin died the following year in the shipwreck of the White Ship, and his death enabled William Clito to form a grand coalition against his uncle, which the King of France entered in 1122. War broke out in the French Vexin, but Henry I of England managed to convince his son-in-law Henri V of the Holy Roman Empire to attack the French king, who had to concentrate the bulk of his forces on Reims. By stopping the forces of the Holy Roman Empire, Louis VI impressed the King of England, who in turn intimidated the King of France by convincing the Germans to attack the French. This led to peace in 1124 between the kingdom of France and the Anglo-Norman Empire, which lasted thirty years, despite several occasions, notably the death of Henry I of England in 1135, when a war of succession broke out that the French king did not exploit. Similarly, in 1137, he granted Normandy to Stephen of Blois, through his son Eustace of Blois, to the detriment of Geoffrey Plantagenet, even though Stephen already controlled England.(fr) Achille Luchaire, Louis VI le Gros, annales de sa vie et de son règne (1081-1137), Alphonse Picard, 1890, 395 pp.(fr) Roger Jouet, ...et la Normandie devint française, Poitiers, Mazarine, January 1983, 261 p. (). p. 24.
Under Louis VII of France Louis VII was crowned King of France in 1137. He followed the same policy as his father, recognizing the Duchy of Normandy from Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne. It wasn't until Geoffrey Plantagenet conquered Normandy in 1144 that the King of France switched sides and invested it against the King of England. In 1152, he had his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine annulled, and two months later she remarried the future King of England, Henry II, who became Duke of Aquitaine, in addition to his titles of Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou, Maine and Touraine. Immediately afterwards, the King of France attacked Normandy in an attempt to loosen the stranglehold that Plantagenet power was beginning to exert. Henri II had no trouble repelling the French king's troops. Later, after Henry II was recognized as King of England in 1154, he supported the latter's brother Geoffrey and won Henry's homage for his continental lands. In 1159, the King of France agreed to a marriage between his daughter Margaret and the son of the King of England, Henry the Younger,(fr) Marcel Pacaut, Louis VII et son royaume, S.E.V.P.E.N. Impr. nationale, 1964 which brought the Norman Vexin to the latter's lands,Elizabeth Hallam, "Henry (1155-1183)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, May 2006 (read online archive) but Henry II immediately seized it, violating the treaty signed with the King of France. In 1169, after a diplomatic war that saw French and Anglo-Norman troops clash on the battlefield, the King of France received the tribute of Henry the Younger and the future Richard the Lionheart for the continental lands, including Normandy, but had to acknowledge the King of England's conquest of the Duchy of Brittany.
Under Philip II of France