sought their fortunes and carved new kingdoms in southern Italy and Sicily and in the
Holy Land. In the long view, however, it was the conquest of England that had the
greatest impact on the duchy, placing Normandy at the center of the rivalry between the
kings of England and France for the rest of the Middle Ages.
The initial stages of Norman settlement in France are obscure. According to Norman
tradition, the Viking leader Rollo met King Charles III the Simple at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte
in 911 to accept baptism, perform homage, and be-come the first duke of Normandy. This
version of the duchy’s foundation is shrouded in legend. A charter dated 918 indicates
that the king granted to Rollo and his men only some unspecified territory around Rouen,
most likely hoping to pacify Rollo’s band and to use them as a bulwark against rival
French lords and other Viking groups. Grants in 924 and in 933 gave royal sanction to
Norman expansion west to the Vire River and then to the sea, but royal concession meant
little in this period: the Viking counts of Rouen had to extend their authority gradually
over the territory that would become Normandy through an interplay of alliances and
force. The new duchy that took shape in the 11th century enjoyed important strategic and
commercial advantages, controlling the lower Seine, the gateway to Paris, and facing the
English Channel, with easy access to the political and economic world of the northern
seas.
The newcomers adopted the French language and religion; they intermarried with the
French and with other Scandinavian settlers. Rollo’s son and successor, William
Longsword, entered the treacherous world of Frankish
politics, performing homage to three successive kings and taking sides in the petty wars
of territorial lords. Expansion and assimilation received a setback when he was
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