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176-576: Archaeologically, the Gauls were bearers of the La Tène culture during the 5th to 1st centuries BC. This material culture was found not only in all of Gaul but also as far east as modern-day southern Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. Warbands led by the Gaul Brennos sacked the city of Rome in 387 BC, becoming the only time Rome was conquered by a foreign enemy in 800 years. However, Gallia Cisalpina

352-573: A siege of Gergovia , a fortified town in the center of Gaul. Caesar's alliances with many Gallic clans broke. Even the Aedui, their most faithful supporters, threw in their lot with the Arverni but the ever-loyal Remi (best known for its cavalry) and Lingones sent troops to support Caesar. The Germani of the Ubii also sent cavalry, which Caesar equipped with Remi horses. Caesar captured Vercingetorix in

528-712: A Christian stronghold until the fall of Famagusta in 1571. Between 1402 and 1405, the expedition led by the Norman noble Jean de Bethencourt and the Poitevine Gadifer de la Salle conquered the Canarian islands of Lanzarote , Fuerteventura and El Hierro off the Atlantic coast of Africa. Their troops were gathered in Normandy, Gascony and were later reinforced by Castilian colonists. Bethencourt took

704-577: A Roman character sarcastically suggests that he and his partner "chalk our faces so that Gaul may claim us as her own" in the midst of a rant outlining the problems with his partner's plan of using blackface to impersonate Aethiopians . This suggests that Gauls were thought of on average to be much paler than Romans. Jordanes describes the physical attributes of the Gauls as including "reddish hair and large loose-jointed bodies." All over Gaul, archeology has uncovered many pre-Roman gold mines (at least 200 in

880-400: A Roman province by the time of Caesar, Latin was the language spoken since at least the previous century. Gaulish is paraphyletically grouped with Celtiberian , Lepontic , and Galatian as Continental Celtic . Lepontic and Galatian are sometimes considered dialects of Gaulish. The exact time of the final extinction of Gaulish is unknown, but it is estimated to be around or shortly after

1056-654: A battle in which the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Galatians. Although the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated, and continued to demand tribute from the Hellenistic states of Anatolia to avoid war. Four thousand Galatians were hired as mercenaries by the Ptolemaic Egyptian king Ptolemy II Philadelphus in 270 BC. According to Pausanias , soon after arrival

1232-428: A certain number of years, probably after spending time in an afterlife, and noted they buried grave goods with the dead. Gallic religious ceremonies were overseen by priests known as druids , who also served as judges, teachers, and lore-keepers. There is evidence that the Gauls sacrificed animals , almost always livestock . An example is the sanctuary at Gournay-sur-Aronde . It appears some were offered wholly to

1408-678: A combination of Roman and Celtic practice, with Celtic deities such as Cobannus and Epona subjected to interpretatio romana . The imperial cult and Eastern mystery religions also gained a following. Eventually, after it became the official religion of the Empire and paganism became suppressed, Christianity won out in the twilight days of the Western Roman Empire (while the Christianized Eastern Roman Empire lasted another thousand years, until

1584-437: A father god, who was often a god of the tribe and of the dead ( Toutatis probably being one name for him); and a mother goddess who was associated with the land, earth and fertility ( Matrona probably being one name for her). The mother goddess could also take the form of a war goddess as protectress of her tribe and its land. There also seems to have been a male celestial god—identified with Taranis —associated with thunder,

1760-516: A form of excommunication from the assembly of worshippers, which in ancient Gaul meant a separation from secular society as well. Thus the Druids were an important part of Gallic society. The nearly complete and mysterious disappearance of the Celtic language from most of the territorial lands of ancient Gaul, with the exception of Brittany, can be attributed to the fact that Celtic druids refused to allow

1936-470: A gradual decline of Gallic power during the 2nd century BC. The Romans eventually conquered Gaul in the Gallic Wars (58–50 BC), making it a Roman province , which brought about the hybrid Gallo-Roman culture . The Gauls were made up of many tribes ( toutās ), many of whom built large fortified settlements called oppida (such as Bibracte ), and minted their own coins . Gaul was never united under

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2112-642: A hostage, beginning a series of arguments as to whether the Scottish Crown owed allegiance to the King of England. Normans went into Scotland, building castles and founding noble families that would provide some future kings, such as Robert the Bruce , as well as founding a considerable number of the Scottish clans . King David I of Scotland , whose elder brother Alexander I had married Sybilla of Normandy ,

2288-648: A key strategic position on the maritime lanes to the Holy Land, whose occupation by the Christians could not continue without support from the sea. Shortly after the conquest, Cyprus was sold to the Knights Templar and it was subsequently acquired, in 1192, by Guy de Lusignan and became a stable feudal kingdom . It was only in 1489 that the Venetians acquired full control of the island, which remained

2464-742: A long period of slow conquest during which almost all of Wales was at some point subject to Norman interference. Norman words, such as baron ( barwn ), first entered Welsh at that time. The legendary religious zeal of the Normans was exercised in religious wars long before the First Crusade carved out a Norman principality in Antioch . They were major foreign combatants in the Reconquista in Iberia . In 1018, Roger de Tosny travelled to

2640-492: A planned operation, the conquest had much more permanent results than initially expected. In April 1191, Richard the Lion-hearted left Messina with a large fleet in order to reach Acre . But a storm dispersed the fleet. After some searching, it was discovered that the boat carrying his sister and his fiancée Berengaria was anchored on the south coast of Cyprus, together with the wrecks of several other ships, including

2816-598: A population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia . The Norse settlements in West Francia followed a series of raids on the French northern coast mainly from what is now Denmark, although some also sailed from Norway and Sweden. These settlements were finally legitimized when Rollo , a Scandinavian Viking leader, agreed to swear fealty to King Charles III of West Francia following

2992-399: A race skillful in flattery, given to the study of eloquence, so that the very boys were orators, a race altogether unbridled unless held firmly down by the yoke of justice. They were enduring of toil, hunger, and cold whenever fortune laid it on them, given to hunting and hawking, delighting in the pleasure of horses, and of all the weapons and garb of war. In the course of the 10th century,

3168-851: A role in founding the Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II after briefly conquering southern Italy and Malta from the Saracens and Byzantines , and an expedition on behalf of their duke, William the Conqueror , led to the Norman conquest of England at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Norman and Anglo-Norman forces contributed to the Iberian Reconquista from the early eleventh to the mid-thirteenth centuries. Norman cultural and military influence spread from these new European centres to

3344-490: A role in gender shifts of words in Early French, whereby the gender would shift to match the gender of the corresponding Gaulish word with the same meaning. Like other Celtic peoples, the Gauls had a polytheistic religion . Evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology and Greco-Roman accounts. Some deities were venerated only in one region, but others were more widely known. The Gauls seem to have had

3520-628: A single ruler or government, but the Gallic tribes were capable of uniting their armies in large-scale military operations , such as those led by Brennus and Vercingetorix . They followed an ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids . The Gauls produced the Coligny calendar . The ethnonym Galli is generally derived from a Celtic root * gal - 'power, ability' (cf. Old Breton gal 'power, ability', Irish gal 'bravery, courage'). Brittonic reflexes give evidence of an n-stem * gal-n- , with

3696-557: A substantial number of Anglo-Normans, was invited by the count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer IV , to participate in the siege of Tortosa (1148) . Again the Normans were rewarded with lands in the newly conquered frontier city. Between 1135 and 1160, the Norman Kingdom of Sicily conquered and kept as vassals several cities on the Ifriqiya coast, corresponding to Tunisia and parts of Algeria and Libya today. They were lost to

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3872-556: A term stemming from the Gallic ethnonym Volcae that came to designate more generally Celtic and Romance speakers in medieval Germanic languages (e.g. Welsh , Waals , Vlachs ). Gaulish culture developed over the first millennium BC. The Urnfield culture ( c.  1300 –750 BC) represents the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European-speaking people . The spread of iron working led to

4048-512: A third attack in 1185, when a large Norman army invaded Dyrrachium , owing to the betrayal of high Byzantine officials. Some time later, Dyrrachium—one of the most important naval bases of the Adriatic —fell again to Byzantine hands. The Normans were in contact with England from an early date. Not only were their original Viking brethren still ravaging the English coasts, they occupied most of

4224-403: Is blond, and not only naturally so, but they make it their practice to increase the distinguishing color by which nature has given it. For they are always washing their hair in limewater, and they pull it back from their forehead to the top of the head and back to the nape of the neck... Some of them shave their beards, but others let it grow a little; and the nobles shave their cheeks, but they let

4400-577: Is derived ultimately from the name of the Volcae . Also unrelated, in spite of superficial similarity, is the name Gael . The Irish word gall did originally mean "a Gaul", i.e. an inhabitant of Gaul, but its meaning was later widened to "foreigner", to describe the Vikings , and later still the Normans . The dichotomic words gael and gall are sometimes used together for contrast, for instance in

4576-739: Is mostly geometric and linear, and is best seen on fine metalwork finds from graves. Animals, with waterfowl a particular favorite, are often included as part of ornamentation, more often than humans. Commonly found objects include weapons, in latter periods often with hilts terminating in curving forks ("antenna hilts"), and jewelry, which include fibulae , often with a row of disks hanging down on chains, armlets, and some torcs . Though these are most often found in bronze, some examples, likely belonging to chieftains or other preeminent figures, are made of gold. Decorated situlae and bronze belt plates show influence from Greek and Etruscan figurative traditions. Many of these characteristics were continued into

4752-413: Is no certainty concerning the origin of the druids, but it is clear that they vehemently guarded the secrets of their order and held sway over the people of Gaul. Indeed, they claimed the right to determine questions of war and peace, and thereby held an "international" status. In addition, the Druids monitored the religion of ordinary Gauls and were in charge of educating the aristocracy. They also practiced

4928-462: Is now Switzerland , northern Italy , Austria , southern Germany , Bohemia , Moravia , Slovakia and Hungary . A major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain in the Bronze Age, during the 500-year period from 1300 to 800 BC. The newcomers were genetically most closely related to ancient individuals from Gaul. The authors describe this as a "plausible vector for

5104-595: The Aedui , Helvetii and others, had enjoyed stable political alliances with Rome. They imported Mediterranean wine on an industrial scale, evidenced by large finds of wine vessels in digs all over Gaul, the largest and most famous of which being the one discovered in Vix Grave , which stands 1.63 m (5′ 4″) high. Gallic art corresponds to two archaeological material cultures : the Hallstatt culture (c. 1200–450 BC) and

5280-755: The Aquitani in the southwest, the southeast being already colonized by the Romans. While some scholars believe the Belgae north of the Somme were a mixture of Celtic and Germanic elements, their ethnic affiliations have not been definitively resolved. In addition to the Gauls, there were other peoples living in Gaul, such as the Greeks and Phoenicians who had established outposts such as Massilia (present-day Marseille ) along

5456-584: The Battle of Alesia , which ended the majority of Gallic resistance to Rome. As many as a million people (probably 1 in 5 of the Gauls) died, another million were enslaved , 300 clans were subjugated and 800 cities were destroyed during the Gallic Wars. The entire population of the city of Avaricum (Bourges) (40,000 in all) were slaughtered. Before Julius Caesar's campaign against the Helvetii (Switzerland),

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5632-471: The Carolingian dynasty from the days of Charlemagne in the 9th century. By intermarrying with the local aristocracy and adopting the growing feudal doctrines of the rest of France, the Normans would progressively work these principles into a functional hierarchical system in their own duchy , and later export it to Norman dominated England . As the proliferation of aristocratic families throughout

5808-779: The Channel Islands and parts of mainland Normandy, as well as the historical Anglo-Norman language in England. Old Norman was also an important language of the Principality of Antioch during Crusader rule in the Levant . Old Norman and Anglo-Norman literature was quite extensive during the Middle Ages, with records existing from notable Norman poets such as Wace , who was born on the island of Jersey and raised in mainland Normandy. The customary law of Normandy

5984-777: The Crusader states of the Near East, where their prince Bohemond I founded the Principality of Antioch in the Levant , to Scotland and Wales in Great Britain, to Ireland, and to the coasts of north Africa and the Canary Islands . The legacy of the Normans persists today through the regional languages and dialects of France, England, Spain, Quebec and Sicily, and also through the various cultural, judicial, and political arrangements they introduced in their conquered territories. The English name "Normans" comes from

6160-762: The Drengot family . A group of Normans with at least five brothers from the Drengot family fought the Byzantines in Apulia under the command of Melus of Bari . Between 1016 and 1024, in a fragmented political context, the County of Ariano  [ it ] was founded by another group of Norman knights headed by Gilbert Buatère and hired by Melus of Bari. Defeated at Cannae , Melus of Bari escaped to Bamberg , Germany , where he died in 1022. The county, which replaced

6336-672: The Franks in AD 486. While the Gauls shifted from a primarily Celtic culture during Late Antiquity , becoming amalgamated into a Gallo-Roman culture , Gallia remained the conventional name of the territory throughout the Early Middle Ages , until it acquired a new identity as the Capetian Kingdom of France in the high medieval period. Gallia remains a name of France in modern Greek (Γαλλία) and modern Latin (besides

6512-550: The French words Normans / Normanz , plural of Normant , modern French normand , which is itself borrowed from Old Low Franconian Nortmann "Northman" or directly from Old Norse Norðmaðr , Latinized variously as Nortmannus , Normannus , or Nordmannus (recorded in Medieval Latin , 9th century) to mean "Norseman, Viking ". The 11th century Benedictine monk and historian , Goffredo Malaterra , characterised

6688-569: The French Revolution imposed the modern departmental system . Though the tribes were moderately stable political entities, Gaul as a whole tended to be politically divided, there being virtually no unity among the various tribes. Only during particularly trying times, such as the invasion of Caesar, could the Gauls unite under a single leader like Vercingetorix . Even then, however, the faction lines were clear. The Romans divided Gaul broadly into Provincia (the conquered area around

6864-843: The Germanic Cimbri and Teutones in the Cimbrian War , where they defeated and killed a Roman consul at Burdigala in 107 BC, and later became prominent among the rebelling gladiators in the Third Servile War . The Gauls were finally conquered by Julius Caesar in the 50s BC despite a rebellion by the Arvernian chieftain Vercingetorix . During the Roman period the Gauls became assimilated into Gallo-Roman culture and by expanding Germanic tribes . During

7040-621: The Greek coalition army at Thermopylae , but helped by the Heracleans they followed the mountain path around Thermopylae to encircle the Greek army in the same way that the Persian army had done at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, but this time defeating the whole of the Greek army. After passing Thermopylae, the Gauls headed for the rich treasury at Delphi , where they were defeated by

7216-430: The Greek , Phoenician , and Etruscan civilizations . This culture spread out in a number of early centers along the Seine , the Middle Rhine and the upper Elbe . By the late 5th century BC, La Tène influence spread rapidly across the entire territory of Gaul. The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC) not only in France but also what

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7392-412: The Hallstatt culture in the 8th century BC; the Proto-Celtic language is often thought to have been spoken around this time. The Hallstatt culture evolved into La Tène culture in around the 5th century BC. The Greek and Etruscan civilizations and colonies began to influence the Gauls, especially in the Mediterranean area. Gauls under Brennus invaded Rome circa 390 BC. By the 5th century BC,

7568-461: The La Tène culture (c. 450–1 BC). Each of these eras has a characteristic style, and while there is much overlap between them, the two styles recognizably differ. From the late Hallstatt onwards and certainly through the entirety of La Tène, Gaulish art is reckoned to be the beginning of what is called Celtic art today. After the end of the La Tène and from the beginning of Roman rule, Gaulish art evolved into Gallo-Roman art . Hallstatt decoration

7744-409: The Latin of the Romans . The Norman language (Norman French) was forged by the adoption of the indigenous langue d'oïl branch of Romance by a Norse-speaking ruling class, and it developed into the French regional languages that survive today. The new Norman rulers were culturally and ethnically distinct from the old French aristocracy , most of whom traced their lineage to the Franks of

7920-420: The Mithridatic Wars , in which they supported Rome. In the settlement of 64 BC, Galatia became a client state of the Roman empire, the old constitution disappeared, and three chiefs (wrongly styled "tetrarchs") were appointed, one for each tribe. But this arrangement soon gave way before the ambition of one of these tetrarchs, Deiotarus , a contemporary of Cicero and Julius Caesar , who made himself master of

8096-423: The Norse language of the earlier Anglo-Norse settlers and the Latin used by the church) in the development of Middle English , which, in turn, evolved into Modern English . The Normans had a profound effect on Irish culture and history after their invasion at Bannow Bay in 1169. Initially, the Normans maintained a distinct culture and ethnicity. Yet, with time, they came to be subsumed into Irish culture to

8272-509: The Old Frankish *Walholant (via a Latinized form *Walula ), literally the "Land of the Foreigners/Romans". *Walho- is a reflex of the Proto-Germanic * walhaz , "foreigner, Romanized person", an exonym applied by Germanic speakers to Celts and Latin-speaking people indiscriminately. It is cognate with the names Wales , Cornwall , Wallonia , and Wallachia . The Germanic w- is regularly rendered as gu- / g- in French (cf. guerre "war", garder "ward", Guillaume "William"), and

8448-625: The crisis of the third century , there was briefly a breakaway Gallic Empire founded by the Batavian general Postumus . First-century BC Roman poet Virgil wrote that the Gauls were light-haired, and golden their garb: Golden is their hair and golden their garb. They are resplendant in their striped cloaks and their milk white necks are circled in gold. First-century BC Greek historian Diodorus Siculus described them as tall, generally heavily built, very light-skinned, and light-haired, with long hair and mustaches: The Gauls are tall of body, with rippling muscles, and white of skin, and their hair

8624-411: The crusade , and offering his daughter in marriage to the person named by Richard. But Isaac changed his mind and tried to escape. Richard then proceeded to conquer the whole island, his troops being led by Guy de Lusignan. Isaac surrendered and was confined with silver chains, because Richard had promised that he would not place him in irons. By 1 June, Richard had conquered the whole island. His exploit

8800-428: The crusader states in the Levant . One of the great geographical treatises of the Middle Ages , the " Tabula Rogeriana ", was written by al-Idrisi for King Roger II of Sicily, and entitled " Kitab Rudjdjar " (" The Book of Roger "). The Normans began appearing in the military confrontations between Christians and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula since the early eleventh century. The first Norman who appears in

8976-675: The prefix Fitz- include Fitzgerald , FitzGibbons (Gibbons) as well as Fitzmaurice . Families bearing such surnames as Barry ( de Barra ) and De Búrca ( Burke ) are also of Norman extraction. One of the claimants of the English throne opposing William the Conqueror , Edgar Atheling , eventually fled to Scotland. King Malcolm III of Scotland married Edgar's sister Margaret , and came into opposition to William who had already disputed Scotland's southern borders. William invaded Scotland in 1072, riding as far as Abernethy where he met up with his fleet of ships. Malcolm submitted, paid homage to William and surrendered his son Duncan as

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9152-547: The regular development * galn - > gall - (cf. Middle Welsh gallu , Middle Breton gallout 'to be able', Cornish gallos 'power'). The ethnic names Galátai and Gallitae , as well as Gaulish personal names such as Gallus or Gallius , are also related. The modern French gaillard ('brave, vigorous, healthy') stems from the Gallo-Latin noun * galia - or *gallia- ('power, strength'). Linguist Václav Blažek has argued that Irish gall ('foreigner') and Welsh gâl ('enemy, hostile') may be later adaptations of

9328-405: The siege of Chartres in 911. The intermixing in Normandy produced an ethnic and cultural "Norman" identity in the first half of the 10th century, an identity which continued to evolve over the centuries. The Normans adopted the culture and language of the French, while they continued the martial tradition of their Viking ancestors as mercenaries and adventurers. In the 11th century, Normans from

9504-476: The Île-de-France , which were considered "Frankish". Earlier Viking settlers had begun arriving in the 880s, but were divided between colonies in the east ( Roumois and Pays de Caux ) around the low Seine valley and in the west in the Cotentin Peninsula , and were separated by traditional pagii , where the population remained about the same with almost no foreign settlers. Rollo's contingents from Scandinavia who raided and ultimately settled Normandy and parts of

9680-438: The 12th-century book Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib . As adjectives, English has the two variants: Gaulish and Gallic . The two adjectives are used synonymously, as "pertaining to Gaul or the Gauls", although the Celtic language group once spoken in Gaul is predominantly known as Gaulish . There is little written information concerning the peoples that inhabited the regions of Gaul, save what can be gleaned from coins. Therefore,

9856-424: The 2nd century that the powerful Greek colony of Massilia had to appeal to the Roman Republic for defense against them. The Romans intervened in southern Gaul in 125 BC, and conquered the area eventually known as Gallia Narbonensis by 121 BC. In 58 BC, Julius Caesar launched the Gallic Wars and had conquered the whole of Gaul by 51 BC. He noted that the Gauls (Celtae) were one of the three primary peoples in

10032-468: The 4th and 3rd centuries BC, the Gauls expanded into Northern Italy ( Cisalpine Gaul ), leading to the Roman–Gallic wars , and into the Balkans , leading to war with the Greeks . These latter Gauls eventually settled in Anatolia (contemporary Turkey ), becoming known as Galatians . After the end of the First Punic War , the rising Roman Republic increasingly put pressure on the Gallic sphere of influence . The Battle of Telamon (225 BC) heralded

10208-421: The 5th century BC as bearers of La Tène culture north and west of the Alps . By the 4th century BC, they were spread over much of what is now France , Belgium , Switzerland , Southern Germany , Austria , and the Czech Republic , by virtue of controlling the trade routes along the river systems of the Rhône , Seine , Rhine , and Danube . They reached the peak of their power in the 3rd century BC. During

10384-434: The Almohads. Soon after the Normans began to enter Italy, they entered the Byzantine Empire and then Armenia , fighting against the Pechenegs , the Bulgarians , and especially the Seljuk Turks . Norman mercenaries were first encouraged to come to the south by the Lombards to act against the Byzantines, but they soon fought in Byzantine service in Sicily. They were prominent alongside Varangian and Lombard contingents in

10560-467: The Armenian vassal-states of Sassoun and Taron in far eastern Anatolia . Later, many took up service with the Armenian state further south in Cilicia and the Taurus Mountains . A Norman named Oursel led a force of "Franks" into the upper Euphrates valley in northern Syria . From 1073 to 1074, 8,000 of the 20,000 troops of the Armenian general Philaretus Brachamius were Normans—formerly of Oursel—led by Raimbaud . They even lent their ethnicity to

10736-424: The Belgae; it borders, too, on the side of the Sequani and the Helvetii, upon the river Rhine , and stretches toward the north. The Belgae rises from the extreme frontier of Gaul, extend to the lower part of the river Rhine; and look toward the north and the rising sun. Aquitania extends from the Garonne to the Pyrenees and to that part of the Atlantic ( Bay of Biscay ) which is near Spain : it looks between

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10912-415: The Byzantine duke of Antioch , Isaac Komnenos . In the 1060s, Robert Crispin led the Normans of Edessa against the Turks. Roussel de Bailleul even tried to carve out an independent state in Asia Minor with support from the local population in 1073, but he was stopped in 1075 by the Byzantine general and future emperor Alexius Komnenos . Some Normans joined Turkish forces to aid in the destruction of

11088-445: The Celtic oral literature or traditional wisdom to be committed to the written letter. Gauls The Gauls ( Latin : Galli ; Ancient Greek : Γαλάται , Galátai ) were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul ( Gallia ). They spoke Gaulish , a continental Celtic language . The Gauls emerged around

11264-469: The Celts plotted “to seize Egypt”, and so Ptolemy marooned them on a deserted island in the Nile River . Galatians also participated at the victory at Raphia in 217 BC under Ptolemy IV Philopator , and continued to serve as mercenaries for the Ptolemaic dynasty until its demise in 30 BC. They sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax , who reigned in Asia Minor . Hierax tried to defeat king Attalus I of Pergamum (241–197 BC), but instead,

11440-468: The Confessor had set up the aforementioned Ralph as Earl of Hereford and charged him with defending the Marches and warring with the Welsh. In these original ventures, the Normans failed to make any headway into Wales. After the Conquest, however, the Marches came completely under the dominance of William's most trusted Norman barons, including Bernard de Neufmarché , Roger of Montgomery in Shropshire and Hugh Lupus in Cheshire . These Normans began

11616-434: The Ebro Valley to aid Alfonso I of Aragon in his campaigns of conquest. Robert Burdet managed to acquire the position of Alcide of Tudela by 1123 and later that of Prince of the city Tarragona in 1129. The conquest of Cyprus by the Anglo-Norman forces of the Third Crusade opened a new chapter in the history of the island, which would be under Western European domination for the following 380 years. Although not part of

11792-483: The Ebro frontier. By 1129 Robert Burdet had been granted a semi-independent principality in the city of Tarragona by the then Archbishop of this see, Oleguer Bonestruga. Several others of Rotrou's Norman followers were rewarded with lands in the Ebro valley by King Alfonso I of Aragon for their services. With the rising popularity of the sea route to the Holy Land, Norman and Anglo-Norman crusaders also started to be encouraged locally by Iberian prelates to participate in

11968-568: The English sovereign ceded his claim to the Duchy, except for the Channel Islands . In the present day, the Channel Islands (the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey ) are considered to be officially the last remnants of the Duchy of Normandy, and are not part of the United Kingdom but are instead self-governing Crown Dependencies . The Normans are noted both for their culture, such as their unique Romanesque architecture and musical traditions, and for their significant military accomplishments and innovations. Norman adventurers played

12144-408: The European Atlantic coast included Danes , Norwegians , Norse–Gaels , Orkney Vikings , possibly Swedes , and Anglo-Danes from the English Danelaw territory which earlier came under Norse control in the late 9th century. The descendants of Vikings replaced the Norse religion and Old Norse language with Catholicism ( Christianity ) and the Langue d'oil of the local people, descending from

12320-518: The Frankish land they settled, with their Old Norman dialect becoming known as Norman, Normaund or Norman French , an important literary language which is still spoken today in parts of mainland Normandy ( Cotentinais and Cauchois dialects) and the nearby Channel Islands ( Jèrriais and Guernésiais ). The Duchy of Normandy , which arose from the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte , was a great fief of medieval France. The Norman dukes exercised independent control of their holdings in Normandy, while at

12496-409: The Frankish or Gallic population among whom they lived". Between 1066 and 1204, as a result of the Norman conquest of England , most of the kings of England were also dukes of Normandy . In 1204, Philip II of France seized mainland Normandy by force of arms, having earlier declared the Duchy of Normandy to be forfeit to him. It remained a disputed territory until the Treaty of Paris of 1259 , when

12672-511: The Franks to the north and east, and in the northwest to the lower valley of the Loire , where Gallo-Roman culture interfaced with Frankish culture in a city like Tours and in the person of that Gallo-Roman bishop confronted with Merovingian royals, Gregory of Tours . The Druids were not the only political force in Gaul, however, and the early political system was complex, if ultimately fatal to

12848-582: The French kingdom limited the prospects of most heirs, young knights were encouraged to seek land and riches beyond their homeland, with Normandy becoming a major source of such adventurers. Many Normans of Italy, France and England eventually served as avid Crusaders soldiers under the Italo-Norman prince Bohemund I of Antioch and the Angevin-Norman king Richard the Lion-Heart , one of

13024-592: The Gallic tongue". Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French. The Vulgar Latin in the region of Gallia took on a distinctly local character, some of which is attested in graffiti, which evolved into the Gallo-Romance dialects which include French and its closest relatives. The influence of substrate languages may be seen in graffiti showing sound changes that matched changes that had earlier occurred in

13200-495: The Gauls believed they all descended from a god of the dead and underworld, whom he likened to Dīs Pater . Some deities were seen as threefold , like the Three Mothers . According to Miranda Aldhouse-Green , the Celts were also animists , believing that every part of the natural world had a spirit. Greco-Roman writers say the Gauls believed in reincarnation . Diodorus says they believed souls were reincarnated after

13376-614: The Gauls from the Aquitani; the rivers Marne and Seine separate them from the Belgae. Of all these, the Belgae are the bravest, because they are furthest from the civilisation and refinement of (our) Province, and merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind; and they are the nearest to the Germani, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war; for which reason

13552-476: The Gauls occupy, takes its beginning at the river Rhone; it is bounded by the river Garonne, the ocean, and the territories of the Belgae; it borders, too, on the side of the Sequani and the Helvetii, upon the river Rhine, and stretches toward the north. The Belgae rises from the extreme frontier of Gaul, extend to the lower part of the river Rhine; and look toward the north and the rising sun. Aquitania extends from

13728-539: The Gauls raided the Greek mainland twice. At the end of the second expedition, the Gallic raiders had been repelled by the coalition armies of the various Greek city-states and were forced to retreat to Illyria and Thrace , but the Greeks were forced to grant safe passage to the Gauls who then made their way to Asia Minor and settled in Central Anatolia . The Gallic area of settlement in Asia Minor

13904-406: The Gauls tribes, perhaps with Germanic elements. Julius Caesar , in his book, Commentarii de Bello Gallico , comments: All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, whereas those who in their own language are called Celts and in ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates

14080-497: The Gauls unite under a single leader like Vercingetorix. Even then, however, the faction lines were clear. The Romans divided Gaul broadly into Provincia (the conquered area around the Mediterranean), and the northern Gallia Comata ("free Gaul" or "long-haired Gaul"). Caesar divided the people of Gallia Comata into three broad groups: the Aquitani ; Galli (who in their own language were called Celtae ); and Belgae . In

14256-573: The Gauls was identified by Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico with the Roman god Dis Pater . Perhaps the most intriguing facet of Gallic religion is the practice of the Druids . The druids presided over human or animal sacrifices that were made in wooded groves or crude temples. They also appear to have held the responsibility for preserving the annual agricultural calendar and instigating seasonal festivals which corresponded to key points of

14432-591: The Great 's conquest of the isle. When Edward the Confessor finally returned from his father's refuge in 1041, at the invitation of his half-brother Harthacnut , he brought with him a Norman-educated mind. He also brought many Norman counsellors and fighters, some of whom established an English cavalry force. This concept never really took root, but it is a typical example of Edward's attitude. He appointed Robert of Jumièges Archbishop of Canterbury and made Ralph

14608-644: The Hellenized cities united under Attalus's banner, and his armies inflicted a severe defeat upon the Galatians at the Battle of the Caecus River in 241 BC. After this defeat, the Galatians continued to be a serious threat to the states of Asia Minor. In fact, they continued to be a threat even after their defeat by Gnaeus Manlius Vulso in the Galatian War (189 BC). Galatia declined and at times fell under Pontic ascendancy. They were finally freed by

14784-548: The Helvetians had numbered 263,000, but afterwards only 100,000 remained, most of whom Caesar took as slaves . After Gaul was absorbed as Gallia , a set of Roman provinces, its inhabitants gradually adopted aspects of Roman culture and assimilated, resulting in the distinct Gallo-Roman culture . Citizenship was granted to all in 212 by the Constitutio Antoniniana . From the third to 5th centuries, Gaul

14960-468: The Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valour, as they contend with the Germani in almost daily battles, when they either repel them from their own territories, or themselves wage war on their frontiers. One part of these, which it has been said that the Gauls occupy, takes its beginning at the river Rhône ; it is bounded by the river Garonne , the Atlantic Ocean , and the territories of

15136-657: The Iberian Peninsula to carve out a state for himself from Moorish lands, but failed. In 1064, during the War of Barbastro , William of Montreuil , Roger Crispin and probably Walter Guiffard led an army under the papal hanner which took a huge booty as they captured the city from its Andelusi rulers. Later a group of Normans led by certain William (some have suggested this was William the Carpenter ) participated in

15312-700: The Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture ( c.  12th to 8th centuries BC) out of which the early iron-working Hallstatt culture (7th to 6th centuries BC) would develop. By 500 BC, there is strong Hallstatt influence throughout most of France (except for the Alps and the extreme north-west). Out of this Hallstatt background, the La Tène culture arose during the 7th and 6th century BC, presumably representing an early form of Continental Celtic culture and likely under Mediterranean influence from

15488-567: The Lion . The Norman-derived feudal system was applied in varying degrees to most of Scotland. Scottish families of the names Bruce , Gray , Ramsay, Fraser, Rose, Ogilvie, Montgomery, Sinclair, Pollock, Burnard, Douglas and Gordon to name but a few, and including the later royal House of Stewart , can all be traced back to Norman ancestry. Even before the Norman Conquest of England, the Normans had come into contact with Wales . Edward

15664-583: The Mediterranean coast. Also, along the southeastern French Mediterranean coast, the Ligures had merged with the Celts to form a Celto- Ligurian culture. In the 2nd century BC Mediterranean Gaul had an extensive urban fabric and was prosperous. Archeologists know of cities in northern Gaul including the Biturigian capital of Avaricum ( Bourges ), Cenabum ( Orléans ), Autricum ( Chartres ) and

15840-477: The Mediterranean), and the northern Gallia Comata ("free Gaul" or "wooded Gaul"). Caesar divided the people of Gaulia Comata into three broad groups: the Aquitani ; Galli (who in their own language were called Celtae ); and Belgae . In the modern sense, Gallic tribes are defined linguistically, as speakers of Gaulish. While the Aquitani were probably Vascons , the Belgae would thus probably be counted among

16016-735: The Muslims, under the leadership of the famous Robert Guiscard , a Hauteville, and his younger brother Roger the Great Count . Roger's son, Roger II of Sicily , was crowned king in 1130 (exactly one century after Rainulf was "crowned" count) by Antipope Anacletus II . The Kingdom of Sicily lasted until 1194, when it was transferred to the House of Hohenstaufen through marriage. The Normans left their legacy in many castles, such as William Iron Arm 's citadel at Squillace , and cathedrals, such as Roger II's Cappella Palatina at Palermo , which dot

16192-521: The Norman conquest of England in 1066, the Normans continued to participate in ventures in the peninsula. After the Frankish conquest of the Holy Land during the First Crusade, the Normans began to be encouraged to participate in ventures of conquest in the northeast of the peninsula. The most significant example of this was the incursion of Rotrou II of Perche and Robert Burdet in the 1120s in

16368-426: The Normans thus: Specially marked by cunning, despising their own inheritance in the hope of winning a greater, eager after both gain and dominion, given to imitation of all kinds, holding a certain mean between lavishness and greediness, that is, perhaps uniting, as they certainly did, these two seemingly opposite qualities. Their chief men were specially lavish through their desire of good report. They were, moreover,

16544-523: The Normans, dissatisfied by the heavy taxes the Byzantines had imposed upon them. With their help, the Normans secured the Arbanon passes and opened their way to Dibra. The lack of supplies, disease and Byzantine resistance forced Bohemond to retreat from his campaign and sign a peace treaty with the Byzantines in the city of Deabolis. The further decline of Byzantine state-of-affairs paved the road to

16720-601: The Petraliphae were descended from a Pierre d'Aulps, and that group of Albanian clans known as the Maniakates were descended from Normans who served under George Maniaces in the Sicilian expedition of 1038. Robert Guiscard , another Norman adventurer previously elevated to the dignity of count of Apulia as the result of his military successes, ultimately drove the Byzantines out of southern Italy. Having obtained

16896-697: The Portuguese incursions into the western areas of the Peninsula. The first of these incursions occurred when a fleet of these Crusaders was invited by the Portuguese king Afonso I Henriques to conquer the city of Lisbon in 1142. Although this Siege of Lisbon (1142) was a failure it created a precedent for their involvement in Portugal. So in 1147 when another group of Norman and other groups of crusaders from Northern Europe arrived in Porto on their way to join

17072-663: The Prince's request. William of Apulia tells that, in 1016, Norman pilgrims to the shrine of the Archangel Michael at Monte Gargano were met by Melus of Bari , a Lombard nobleman and rebel, who persuaded them to return with more warriors to help throw off the Byzantine rule, which they did. The two most prominent Norman families to arrive in the Mediterranean were descendants of Tancred of Hauteville and

17248-540: The Pyrenees), suggesting they were very rich, also evidenced by large finds of gold coins and artifacts. Also there existed highly developed population centers, called oppida by Caesar, such as Bibracte , Gergovia , Avaricum , Alesia , Bibrax , Manching and others. Modern archeology strongly suggests that the countries of Gaul were quite civilized and very wealthy. Most had contact with Roman merchants and some, particularly those that were governed by Republics such as

17424-460: The Romans called them (singular: pagus ; the French word pays , "country", comes from this term) were organized into larger super-tribal groups that the Romans called civitates . These administrative groupings would be taken over by the Romans in their system of local control, and these civitates would also be the basis of France's eventual division into ecclesiastical bishoprics and dioceses , which would remain in place—with slight changes—until

17600-524: The Romans, the internal division between the Gallic tribes guaranteed an easy victory for Caesar, and Vercingetorix 's attempt to unite the Gauls against Roman invasion came too late. After the annexation of Gaul, a mixed Gallo-Roman culture began to emerge. After more than a century of warfare , the Cisalpine Gauls were subdued by the Romans in the early 2nd century BC. The Transalpine Gauls continued to thrive for another century, and joined

17776-557: The Sicilian campaign of George Maniaces in 1038–40. There is debate whether the Normans in Greek service actually were from Norman Italy, and it now seems likely only a few came from there. It is also unknown how many of the "Franks", as the Byzantines called them, were Normans and not other Frenchmen. One of the first Norman mercenaries to serve as a Byzantine general was Hervé in the 1050s. By then, however, there were already Norman mercenaries serving as far away as Trebizond and Georgia . They were based at Malatya and Edessa , under

17952-612: The Timid Earl of Hereford . On 14 October 1066, William the Conqueror gained a decisive victory at the Battle of Hastings , which led to the conquest of England three years later; this can be seen on the Bayeux tapestry . The invading Normans and their descendants largely replaced the Anglo-Saxons as the ruling class of England. The nobility of England were part of a single Norman culture and many had lands on both sides of

18128-474: The alternatives Francia and Francogallia ). The Greek and Latin names Galatia (first attested by Timaeus of Tauromenium in the 4th century BC) and Gallia are ultimately derived from a Celtic ethnic term or clan Gal(a)-to- . The Galli of Gallia Celtica were reported to refer to themselves as Celtae by Caesar. Hellenistic etymology connected the name of the Galatians (Γαλάται, Galátai ) to

18304-469: The area, along with the Aquitanians and the Belgae . Caesar's motivation for the invasion seems to have been his need for gold to pay off his debts and for a successful military expedition to boost his political career. The people of Gaul could provide him with both. So much gold was looted from Gaul that after the war the price of gold fell by as much as 20%. While they were militarily just as brave as

18480-414: The basis of France's eventual division into ecclesiastical bishoprics and dioceses , which would remain in place—with slight changes—until the French Revolution . Although the clans were moderately stable political entities, Gaul as a whole tended to be politically divided, there being virtually no unity among the various clans. Only during particularly trying times, such as the invasion of Caesar, could

18656-583: The battle, the Venetian fleet had secured a victory in the coast surrounding the city. Forced to retreat, Alexios ceded the city of Dyrrachium to the Count of the Tent (or Byzantine provincial administrators) mobilizing from Arbanon (i.e., ἐξ Ἀρβάνων ὁρμωμένω Κομισκόρτη; the term Κομισκόρτη is short for κόμης της κόρτης meaning "Count of the Tent"). The city's garrison resisted until February 1082, when Dyrrachium

18832-440: The channel. Early Norman kings of England, as Dukes of Normandy, owed homage to the King of France for their land on the continent. They considered England to be their most important holding (it brought with it the title of King—an important status symbol). Eventually, the Normans merged with the natives, combining languages and traditions, so much so that Marjorie Chibnall says "writers still referred to Normans and English; but

19008-427: The complicated brew of influences include Scythian art as well as that of the Greeks and Etruscans, among others. The Achaemenid occupation of Thrace and Macedonia around 500 BC is a factor of uncertain importance. Gaulish society was dominated by the druid priestly class. The druids were not the only political force, however, and the early political system was complex. The fundamental unit of Gallic politics

19184-686: The conquered tribes. As a direct result of these conquests, Rome now controlled an area extending from the Pyrenees to the lower Rhône river, and in the east up the Rhône valley to Lake Geneva . By 121 BC Romans had conquered the Mediterranean region called Provincia (later named Gallia Narbonensis ). This conquest upset the ascendancy of the Gaulish Arverni peoples. The Roman proconsul and general Julius Caesar led his army into Gaul in 58 BC, ostensibly to assist Rome's Gaullish allies against

19360-639: The consent of Pope Gregory VII and acting as his vassal, Robert continued his campaign conquering the Balkan peninsula as a foothold for western feudal lords and the Catholic Church. After allying himself with Croatia and the Catholic cities of Dalmatia, in 1081 he led an army of 30,000 men in 300 ships landing on the southern shores of Albania , capturing Valona , Kanina , Jericho ( Orikumi ), and reaching Butrint after numerous pillages. They joined

19536-418: The council. The regional ethnic groups, or pagi as the Romans called them (singular: pagus ; the French word pays , "region" [a more accurate translation is 'country'], comes from this term), were organized into larger multi-clan groups, which the Romans called civitates . These administrative groupings would be taken over by the Romans in their system of local control, and these civitates would also be

19712-523: The crusading forces of the Second Crusade , the Bishop of Porto and later Afonso Henriques according to De expugnatione Lyxbonensi convinced them to help with the siege of Lisbon . This time the city was captured and according to the arrangement agreed upon with the Portuguese monarch many of them settled in the newly sacked city. The following year the remainder of the crusading fleet, including

19888-527: The death of Robert. A few years after the First Crusade , in 1107, the Normans under the command of Bohemond, Robert's son, landed in Valona and besieged Dyrrachium using the most sophisticated military equipment of the time, but to no avail. Meanwhile, they occupied Petrela , the citadel of Mili at the banks of the river Deabolis , Gllavenica (Ballsh), Kanina and Jericho. This time, the Albanians sided with

20064-521: The duchy conquered England and southern Italy . The Norman dynasty had a major political, cultural and military impact on medieval Europe and the Near East . The Normans were historically famed for their martial spirit, and eventually for their Catholic piety as adherents of the Catholic orthodoxy of the Romance community. The original Norse settlers adopted the Gallo-Romance language of

20240-437: The early history of the Gauls is predominantly a matter of archaeology, and the relationships between their material culture , genetic relationships (the study of which has been aided, in recent years, through the field of archaeogenetics ) and linguistic divisions rarely coincide. Before the rapid spread of the La Tène culture in the 5th to 4th centuries BC, the territory of eastern and southern France already participated in

20416-593: The ethnic name Galli that were introduced to the British Isles during the 1st millennium AD. According to Caesar (mid-1st c. BC), the Gauls of the province of Gallia Celtica called themselves Celtae in their own language, and were called Galli in Latin. Romans indeed used the ethnic name Galli as a synonym for Celtae . The English Gaul does not come from Latin Galli but from Germanic * Walhaz ,

20592-465: The excavated site of Bibracte near Autun in Saône-et-Loire, along with a number of hill forts (or oppida ) used in times of war. The prosperity of Mediterranean Gaul encouraged Rome to respond to pleas for assistance from the inhabitants of Massilia , who found themselves under attack by a coalition of Ligures and Gauls. The Romans intervened in Gaul in 154 BC and again in 125 BC. Whereas on

20768-459: The failed siege of Tudela of 1087. In 1096, Crusaders passing by the siege of Amalfi were joined by Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred with an army of Italo-Normans. Bohemond was the de facto leader of the Crusade during its passage through Asia Minor . After the successful Siege of Antioch in 1097, Bohemond began carving out an independent principality around that city. Tancred

20944-663: The first Duke of Normandy and Count of Rouen. The area corresponded to the northern part of present-day Upper Normandy down to the river Seine , but the Duchy would eventually extend west beyond the Seine. The territory was roughly equivalent to the old province of Rouen , and reproduced the old Roman Empire 's administrative structure of Gallia Lugdunensis II (part of the former Gallia Lugdunensis in Gaul ). Before Rollo's arrival, Normandy's populations did not differ from Picardy or

21120-575: The first Gallic invasion of Greece (279 BC), they defeated the Macedonians and killed the Macedonian king Ptolemy Keraunos . They then focused on looting the rich Macedonian countryside, but avoided the heavily fortified cities. The Macedonian general Sosthenes assembled an army, defeated Bolgius and repelled the invading Gauls. In the second Gaulish invasion of Greece (278 BC), the Gauls, led by Brennos , suffered heavy losses while facing

21296-635: The first occasion they came and went, on the second they stayed. In 122 BC Domitius Ahenobarbus managed to defeat the Allobroges (allies of the Salluvii ), while in the ensuing year Quintus Fabius Maximus "destroyed" an army of the Arverni led by their king Bituitus , who had come to the aid of the Allobroges. Rome allowed Massilia to keep its lands, but added to its own territories the lands of

21472-409: The fleet that had previously conquered Corfu and attacked Dyrrachium from land and sea, devastating everything along the way. Under these harsh circumstances, the locals accepted the call of Emperor Alexios I Comnenos to join forces with the Byzantines against the Normans. The Byzantine forces could not take part in the ensuing battle because it had started before their arrival. Immediately before

21648-618: The former Frankish kingdom of Neustria . The treaty offered Rollo and his men the French coastal lands along the English Channel between the river Epte and the Atlantic Ocean coast in exchange for their protection against further Viking incursions. As well as promising to protect the area of Rouen from Viking invasion, Rollo swore not to invade further Frankish lands himself, accepted baptism and conversion to Christianity and swore fealty to King Charles III. Robert I of France stood as godfather during Rollo's baptism. He became

21824-402: The gods (by burying or burning), while some were shared between gods and humans (part eaten and part offered). There is also some evidence that the Gauls sacrificed humans , and some Greco-Roman sources claim the Gauls sacrificed criminals by burning them in a wicker man . Normans The Normans ( Norman : Normaunds ; French : Normands ; Latin : Nortmanni/Normanni ) were

22000-529: The historic diphthong au is the regular outcome of al before a following consonant (cf. cheval ~ chevaux ). French Gaule or Gaulle cannot be derived from Latin Gallia , since g would become j before a (cf. gamba > jambe ), and the diphthong au would be unexplained; the regular outcome of Latin Gallia is Jaille in French, which is found in several western place names, such as, La Jaille-Yvon and Saint-Mars-la-Jaille . Proto-Germanic *walha

22176-452: The important ports opposite England across the English Channel . This relationship eventually produced closer ties of blood through the marriage of Emma , sister of Duke Richard II of Normandy , and King Ethelred II of England . Because of this, Ethelred fled to Normandy in 1013, when he was forced from his kingdom by Sweyn Forkbeard . His stay in Normandy (until 1016) influenced him and his sons by Emma, who stayed in Normandy after Cnut

22352-621: The indigenous languages, especially Gaulish. The Vulgar Latin in the north of Gaul evolved into the langues d'oïl and Franco-Provencal , while the dialects in the south evolved into the modern Occitan and Catalan tongues. Other languages held to be "Gallo-Romance" include the Gallo-Italic languages and the Rhaeto-Romance languages . Following Frankish victories at Soissons (AD 486) , Vouillé (AD 507) and Autun (AD 532) , Gaul (except for Brittany and Septimania ) came under

22528-609: The inhabitants of Caledonia have reddish hair and large loose-jointed bodies. They [the Britons] are like the Gauls and the Spaniards, according as they are opposite either nation. Hence some have supposed that from these lands the island received its inhabitants. Tacitus noted the Caledonians had "red hair and large limbs" which he felt pointed to a "Germanic origin." In the novel Satyricon by Roman courtier Gaius Petronius ,

22704-667: The initially destructive incursions of Norse war bands going upstream into the rivers of France penetrated further into interior Europe , and evolved into more permanent encampments that included local French women and personal property. From 885 to 886, Odo of Paris (Eudes de Paris) succeeded in defending Paris against Viking raiders (one of the leaders was Sigfred ) with his fighting skills, fortification of Paris and tactical shrewdness. In 911, Robert I of France , brother of Odo, again defeated another band of Viking warriors in Chartres with his well-trained horsemen. This victory paved

22880-428: The invasion of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453); a small but notable Jewish presence also became established. The Gaulish language is thought to have survived into the 6th century in France, despite considerable Romanization of the local material culture. The last record of spoken Gaulish deemed to be plausibly credible concerned the destruction by Christians of a pagan shrine in Auvergne "called Vasso Galatae in

23056-735: The landscape and give a distinct architectural flavor to accompany its unique history. Institutionally, the Normans combined the administrative machinery of the Byzantines, Arabs, and Lombards with their own conceptions of feudal law and order to forge a unique government. Under this state, there was great religious freedom, and alongside the Norman nobles existed a meritocratic bureaucracy of Jews, Muslims and Christians, both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox . The Kingdom of Sicily thus became characterized by Norman, Byzantine, Greek, Arab, Lombard and "native" Sicilian populations living in harmony, and its Norman rulers fostered plans of establishing an empire that would have encompassed Fatimid Egypt as well as

23232-410: The local Gallo-Romance -speaking population, with the two communities converging to the point that the original Norsemen largely assimilated and adopted the local dialect of Old French while contributing some elements from the Old Norse language. This Norse-influenced dialect which then arose was known as Old Norman , and it is the ancestor of both the modern Norman language still spoken today in

23408-426: The lunar-solar calendar. The religious practices of druids were syncretic and borrowed from earlier pagan traditions, with probably indo-European roots. Julius Caesar mentions in his Gallic Wars that those Celts who wanted to make a close study of druidism went to Britain to do so. In a little over a century later, Gnaeus Julius Agricola mentions Roman armies attacking a large druid sanctuary in Anglesey in Wales. There

23584-632: The middle of the 1st millennium. Gaulish may have survived in some regions as the mid to late 6th century in France. Despite considerable Romanization of the local material culture, the Gaulish language is held to have survived and had coexisted with spoken Latin during the centuries of Roman rule of Gaul. Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish played a role in shaping the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French, with effects including loanwords and calques , sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, as well as in conjugation and word order. Recent work in computational simulation suggests that Gaulish played

23760-401: The migrating Helvetii . With the help of various Gallic clans (e.g., the Aedui ) he managed to conquer nearly all of Gaul. While their military was just as strong as the Romans', the internal division between the Gallic tribes guaranteed an easy victory for Caesar, and Vercingetorix 's attempt to unite the Gauls against Roman invasion came too late. Julius Caesar was checked by Vercingetorix at

23936-400: The mind; and they are the nearest to the Germans, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war; for which reason the Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valor, as they contend with the Germans in almost daily battles, when they either repel them from their own territories, or themselves wage war on their frontiers. One part of these, which it has been said that

24112-449: The modern sense, Gaulish peoples are defined linguistically, as speakers of dialects of the Gaulish language. While the Aquitani were probably Vascons , the Belgae would thus probably be a mixture of Celtic and Germanic elements. Julius Caesar, in his book, The Gallic Wars , wrote All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in our Gauls,

24288-564: The more famous and illustrious Kings of England. Opportunistic bands of Normans successfully established a foothold in southern Italy . Probably as the result of returning pilgrims' stories, the Normans entered southern Italy as warriors in 1017 at the latest. In 999, according to Amatus of Montecassino , Norman pilgrims returning from Jerusalem called in at the port of Salerno when a Muslim attack occurred. The Normans fought so valiantly that Prince Guaimar III begged them to stay, but they refused and instead offered to tell others back home of

24464-475: The mustache grow until it covers the mouth. Jordanes , in his Origins and Deeds of the Goths , indirectly describes the Gauls as light-haired and large-bodied by comparing them to Caledonians , as a contrast to the Spaniards, whom he compared to the Silures . He speculates based on this comparison that the Britons originated from different peoples, including Gauls and Spaniards. The Silures have swarthy features and are usually born with curly black hair, but

24640-498: The name of their castle: Afranji, meaning "Franks". The known trade between Amalfi and Antioch and between Bari and Tarsus may be related to the presence of Italo-Normans in those cities while Amalfi and Bari were under Norman rule in Italy. Several families of Byzantine Greece were of Norman mercenary origin during the period of the Comnenian Restoration , when Byzantine emperors were seeking out western European warriors. The Raoulii were descended from an Italo-Norman named Raoul,

24816-419: The narrative sources was Roger I of Tosny who according to Ademar of Chabannes and the later Chronicle of St Pierre le Vif went to aid the Barcelonese in a series of raids against the Andalusi Muslims c.  1018 . Later in the eleventh century, other Norman adventurers such as Robert Crispin and Walter Giffard participated in the probably papal organised siege of Barbastro of 1064. Even after

24992-431: The other two tetrarchies and was finally recognized by the Romans as 'king' of Galatia . The Galatian language continued to be spoken in central Anatolia until the 6th century. In the Second Punic War , the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal used Gallic mercenaries in his invasion of Italy. They played a part in some of his most spectacular victories, including the battle of Cannae . The Gauls were so prosperous by

25168-494: The point that it has been said that they became " more Irish than the Irish themselves ". The Normans settled mostly in an area in the east of Ireland , later known as the Pale , and also built many fine castles and settlements, including Trim Castle and Dublin Castle . The cultures intermixed, borrowing from each other's language, culture and outlook. Norman surnames still exist today. Names such as French , (De) Roche , Devereux , D'Arcy and Lacy are particularly common in

25344-447: The pre-existing chamberlainship, is considered to be the first political body established by the Normans in the south of Italy. Then Rainulf Drengot , from the same family, received the county of Aversa from Duke Sergius IV of Naples in 1030. The Hauteville family achieved princely rank by proclaiming Prince Guaimar IV of Salerno "Duke of Apulia and Calabria ". He promptly awarded their elected leader, William Iron Arm , with

25520-419: The public events and cultural responsibilities of urban life in the res publica and the sometimes luxurious life of the self-sufficient rural villa system, took longer to collapse in the Gallo-Roman regions, where the Visigoths largely inherited the status quo in the early 5th century. Gallo-Roman language persisted in the northeast into the Silva Carbonaria that formed an effective cultural barrier, with

25696-434: The re-assembled Greek army. This led to a series of retreats of the Gauls, with devastating losses, all the way up to Macedonia and then out of the Greek mainland. The major part of the Gaul army was defeated in the process, and those Gauls survived were forced to flee from Greece. The Gallic leader Brennos was seriously injured at Delphi and committed suicide there. (He is not to be confused with another Gaulish leader bearing

25872-407: The river Garonne to the Pyrenaean mountains and to that part of the ocean which is near Spain: it looks between the setting of the sun, and the north star. The Gauls practiced a form of animism , ascribing human characteristics to lakes, streams, mountains, and other natural features and granting them a quasi-divine status. Also, worship of animals was not uncommon; the animal most sacred to the Gauls

26048-441: The rule of the Merovingians , the first kings of France . Gallo-Roman culture, the Romanized culture of Gaul under the rule of the Roman Empire, persisted particularly in the areas of Gallia Narbonensis that developed into Occitania , Gallia Cisalpina and to a lesser degree, Aquitania . The formerly Romanized north of Gaul, once it had been occupied by the Franks, developed into Merovingian culture instead. Roman life, centered on

26224-445: The same name who had sacked Rome a century earlier (390 BC). In 278 BC, Gaulish settlers in the Balkans were invited by Nicomedes I of Bithynia to help him in a dynastic struggle against his brother. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the same number of women and children, divided into three tribes, Trocmi , Tolistobogii and Tectosages . They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I (275 BC), in

26400-498: The same time being vassals owing fealty to the King of France, and under Richard I of Normandy (byname "Richard sans Peur" meaning "Richard the Fearless") the duchy was forged into a cohesive and formidable principality in feudal tenure. By the end of his reign in 996, the descendants of the Norse settlers "had become not only Christians but in all essentials Frenchmen. They had adopted the French language, French legal ideas, and French social customs, and had practically merged with

26576-409: The setting of the sun, and the north star.    — Julius Caesar , Commentarii de Bello Gallico , Book I, chapter 1 Gaulish or Gallic is the name given to the Celtic language spoken in Gaul before Latin took over. According to Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War , it was one of three languages in Gaul, the others being Aquitanian and Belgic . In Gallia Transalpina ,

26752-422: The society as a whole. The fundamental unit of Gallic politics was the clan, which itself consisted of one or more of what Caesar called pagi . Each clan had a council of elders, and initially a king. Later, the executive was an annually-elected magistrate. Among the Aedui, a clan of Gaul, the executive held the title of Vergobret , a position much like a king, but his powers were held in check by rules laid down by

26928-412: The southeast of Ireland, especially in the southern part of Wexford County, where the first Norman settlements were established. Other Norman names, such as Furlong , predominate there. Another common Norman-Irish name was Morell (Murrell), derived from the French Norman name Morel . Names beginning with Fitz- (from the Norman for "son") usually indicate Norman ancestry. Hiberno -Norman surnames with

27104-441: The spread of early Celtic languages into Britain". The major source of early information on the Celts of Gaul was Poseidonios of Apamea , whose writings were quoted by Timagenes , Julius Caesar , the Sicilian Greek Diodorus Siculus , and the Greek geographer Strabo . In the 4th and early 3rd century BC, Gallic clan confederations expanded far beyond the territory of what would become Roman Gaul (which defines usage of

27280-577: The succeeding La Tène style. La Tène metalwork in bronze, iron and gold, developing technologically out of the Hallstatt culture, is stylistically characterized by "classical vegetable and foliage motifs such as leafy palmette forms, vines, tendrils and lotus flowers together with spirals, S-scrolls, lyre and trumpet shapes". Such decoration may be found on fine bronze vessels, helmets and shields, horse trappings, and elite jewelry, especially torcs and fibulae. Early on, La Tène style adapted ornamental motifs from foreign cultures into something distinctly new;

27456-411: The supposedly "milk-white" skin (γάλα, gála "milk") of the Gauls. Modern researchers say it is related to Welsh gallu , Cornish : galloes , "capacity, power", thus meaning "powerful people". Despite its superficial similarity, the normal English translation of Gallia since the Middle Ages, Gaul , has a different origin than the Latin term. It stems from the French Gaule , itself deriving from

27632-405: The term "Gaul" today), into Pannonia, Illyria, northern Italy, Transylvania and even Asia Minor. By the 2nd century BC, the Romans described Gallia Transalpina as distinct from Gallia Cisalpina . In his Gallic Wars , Julius Caesar distinguishes among three ethnic groups in Gaul: the Belgae in the north (roughly between the Rhine and the Seine), the Celtae in the center and in Armorica , and

27808-489: The terms no longer meant the same as in the immediate aftermath of 1066." In the course of the Hundred Years' War , the Norman aristocracy often identified themselves as English. The Anglo-Norman language became distinct from the French spoken in Paris, something that was the subject of some humour by Geoffrey Chaucer . The Anglo-Norman language was eventually absorbed into the Anglo-Saxon language of their subjects (see Old English ) and influenced it, helping (along with

27984-406: The third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the Gauls from the Aquitani; the Marne and the Seine separate them from the Belgae. Of all these, the Belgae are the bravest, because they are furthest from the civilization and refinement of [our] Province, and merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate

28160-446: The title of King of the Canary Islands , as vassal to Henry III of Castile . In 1418, Jean's nephew Maciot de Bethencourt sold the rights to the islands to Enrique Pérez de Guzmán, 2nd Count de Niebla . When Norse Vikings from Scandinavia arrived in the then-province of Neustria and settled the land that became known as Normandy, they originally spoke Old Norse , a North Germanic language . Over time, they came to live among

28336-437: The title of count in his capital of Melfi . The Drengot family thereafter attained the principality of Capua , and Emperor Henry III legally ennobled the Hauteville leader, Drogo , as " dux et magister Italiae comesque Normannorum totius Apuliae et Calabriae " (" Duke and Master of Italy and Count of the Normans of all Apulia and Calabria ") in 1047. From these bases, the Normans eventually captured Sicily and Malta from

28512-618: The treasure ship. Survivors of the wrecks had been taken prisoner by the island's despot Isaac Komnenos . On 1 May 1191, Richard's fleet arrived in the port of Limassol on Cyprus. He ordered Isaac to release the prisoners and the treasure. Isaac refused, so Richard landed his troops and took Limassol. Various princes of the Holy Land arrived in Limassol at the same time, in particular Guy de Lusignan . All declared their support for Richard provided that he support Guy against his rival Conrad of Montferrat . The local barons abandoned Isaac, who considered making peace with Richard, joining him on

28688-431: The tribes later called Gauls had migrated from Central France to the Mediterranean coast. Gallic invaders settled the Po Valley in the 4th century BC, defeated Roman forces in a battle under Brennus in 390 BC, and raided Italy as far south as Sicily . In the early 3rd century BC, the Gauls attempted an eastward expansion , toward the Balkan peninsula. At that time, it was a Greek province. The Gauls' intent

28864-411: The way for Rollo 's baptism and settlement in Normandy . The Duchy of Normandy , which began in 911 as a fiefdom , was established by the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between King Charles III (Charles the Simple) (879–929, ruled 893–929) of West Francia and the famed Viking ruler Rollo also known as Gaange Rolf ( c.  846 – c.  929 ), from Scandinavia , and was situated in

29040-401: The wheel, and the bull. There were gods of skill and craft, such as the pan-regional god Lugus , and the smith god Gobannos . Gallic healing deities were often associated with sacred springs , such as Sirona and Borvo . Other pan-regional deities include the horned god Cernunnos , the horse and fertility goddess Epona , Ogmios , Sucellos and his companion Nantosuelta . Caesar says

29216-411: Was betrayed to the Normans by the Venetian and Amalfitan merchants who had settled there. The Normans were now free to penetrate into the hinterland; they took Ioannina and some minor cities in southwestern Macedonia and Thessaly before appearing at the gates of Thessalonica. Dissension among the high ranks coerced the Normans to retreat to Italy. They lost Dyrrachium, Valona, and Butrint in 1085, after

29392-412: Was called Galatia ; there they created widespread havoc. They were checked through the use of war elephants and skirmishers by the Greek Seleucid king Antiochus I in 275 BC, after which they served as mercenaries across the whole Hellenistic Eastern Mediterranean , including Ptolemaic Egypt , where they, under Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC), attempted to seize control of the kingdom. In

29568-414: Was conquered by the Romans in 204 BC and Gallia Narbonensis in 123 BC. Gaul was invaded after 120 BC by the Cimbri and the Teutons , who were in turn defeated by the Romans by 103 BC. Julius Caesar finally subdued the largest part of Gaul in his campaigns of 58 to 51 BC. Roman control of Gaul lasted for five centuries, until the last Roman rump state , the Domain of Soissons , fell to

29744-437: Was exposed to raids by the Franks . The Gallic Empire , consisting of the provinces of Gaul, Britannia , and Hispania , including the peaceful Baetica in the south, broke away from Rome from 260 to 273. In addition to the large number of natives, Gallia also became home to some Roman citizens from elsewhere and also in-migrating Germanic and Scythian tribes such as the Alans . The religious practices of inhabitants became

29920-456: Was held on 12 May 1191 at the Chapel of St. George and it was attended by Richard's sister Joan , whom he had brought from Sicily . The marriage was celebrated with great pomp and splendor. Among other grand ceremonies was a double coronation: Richard caused himself to be crowned King of Cyprus , and Berengaria Queen of England and Queen of Cyprus as well. The rapid Anglo-Norman conquest proved more important than it seemed. The island occupied

30096-462: Was instrumental in introducing Normans and Norman culture to Scotland , part of the process some scholars call the " Davidian Revolution ". Having spent time at the court of Henry I of England (married to David's sister Maud of Scotland ), and needing them to wrestle the kingdom from his half-brother Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair , David had to reward many with lands. The process was continued under David's successors, most intensely of all under William

30272-419: Was instrumental in the conquest of Jerusalem and he worked for the expansion of the Crusader kingdom in Transjordan and the region of Galilee . . After the First Crusade to the Levant, the Normans continued with their involvement in Iberia as well as other areas of the Mediterranean. Among them was Rotrou of Perche and his followers Robert Burdet and William Giffard who joined multiple expeditions into

30448-446: Was the boar which can be found on many Gallic military standards, much like the Roman eagle . Their system of gods and goddesses was loose, there being certain deities which virtually every Gallic person worshipped, as well as clan and household gods. Many of the major gods were related to Greek gods; the primary god worshipped at the time of the arrival of Caesar was Teutates , the Gallic equivalent of Mercury . The "ancestor god" of

30624-405: Was the tribe, which itself consisted of one or more of what Caesar called "pagi" . Each tribe had a council of elders, and initially a king. Later, the executive was an annually-elected magistrate. Among the Aedui tribe the executive held the title of " Vergobret ", a position much like a king, but its powers were held in check by rules laid down by the council. The tribal groups, or pagi as

30800-445: Was to reach and loot the rich Greek city-states of the Greek mainland. However, the Greeks exterminated the majority of the Gallic army, and the few survivors were forced to flee. Many Gauls were recorded as serving in the armies of Carthage during the Punic Wars . One of the leading rebel leaders of the Mercenary War , Autaritus , was of Gallic origin. During the Balkan expedition, led by Cerethrios , Brennos and Bolgios ,

30976-457: Was well publicized and contributed to his reputation; he also derived significant financial gains from the conquest of the island. Richard left for Acre on 5 June, with his allies. Before his departure, he named two of his Norman generals, Richard de Camville and Robert de Thornham , as governors of Cyprus. While in Limassol, Richard the Lion-Heart married Berengaria of Navarre , first-born daughter of King Sancho VI of Navarre . The wedding

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