THE NORMANS At the beginning of the tenth century, the

French King, Charles the Simple, had given some land in the North of France to a Viking chief named Rollo from Scandinavia.. He hoped that by giving the Vikings their own land in France they would stop attacking France.

Normandy The land became known as Northmannia,

the land of the Northmen. It was later shortened to Normandy.� The Vikings intermarried with the French and by the year 1000, they were no longer Viking pagans, but French speaking Christians.

The Three Kings In 1066 the King of England, Edward the Confessor,

died. Unfortunately, Edward did not have any children and there wasn't a logical choice for the next king of England. Three men all claimed to be the rightful heir to the crown for different reasons.

Earl Harold Earl Harold Godwinson of England - Earl

Harold was King Edward's brother-in-law. He was also one of the most powerful men in England. He felt that he should be crowned king.

King Harald• King Harald Hardrada of Norway - Before King Edward,

England had been ruled by the Scandinavian King Cnut the Great. When Cnut died, he left England to Edward. Since Edward didn't have any children, King Hardrada thought that England should once again belong to Norway and that he should be the rightful King of England.

Duke William of Normandy

Duke William of Normandy - had a family relationship to King Edward. He also claimed that Edward had promised him the throne.

The battle of Stamford bridge The English people decided to crown Earl Harold

as king after the death of Edward the confessor. king Hardrada gathered an army and attacked

the English but king Earl’s army was stronger as they overpowered Hardrada’s army at the battle of Stamford bridge.

The battle of Hastings Meanwhile in Normandy Duke William was getting an

army whilst the English were celebrating unaware of what is going to hit them. Williams army attacked England and defeated them at the battle of Hastings. The Normans were now in charge.

Ireland in 1160s

The Wedding of Strongbow and Aoife

Motte and Bailey

The first thing that Strongbow did was build castles to provide a safe place for the Norman warriors to live in. They built motte and baily castles as shown in this diagram.

Castles

• Originally the castles were built from wood but in the later years they started using stone.

MY COAT OF ARMS