The Vikings sailed their longships throughout the known world between the ninth and eleventh centuries, establishing both a fearsome reputation and a number of colonies. Their conquest of territory in France, however, became a pivotal event in both Scandinavian and European history, for it turned a raiding, seafaring population into a land-based military society affecting Europe and the Middle East.
As long as Charlemagne ruled the Holy Roman Empire, his military prowess kept the Norsemen at bay. After his death, however, his sons had little success in stopping Viking raids. The Vikings captured Paris in 849, holding it 45 until Charles the Bald ransomed the city. They returned in 885 with 700 ships and 30,000 men, and besieged Paris for 13 months; again they left after receiving a ransom of 700 pounds of silver. Duke Odo and Charles the Simple protected the area around Paris and acted as something of a buffer for the inland provinces, but they did little to actively defend anything other than their own neighborhoods.
Charles the Simple of Paris finally attempted to assuage the Vikings with land of their own, which could then be a buffer between the European interior and the defenseless coastline. In 911 the Treaty of St.-Clair-sur-Epte ceded land at the mouth of the Seine and the city of Rouen to Hrolf (or Rollo), leader of a group of Danish Vikings. Over the next few decades, the Norsemen stretched their borders eastward and westward along the coast, though how much was through conquest and how much through cession by Frankish leaders remains the subject of some debate. Over the next century and a half, Scandinavian and Frankish cultures mixed, with the conquered exerting a mighty influence on the conquerors.
As more emigrants moved to this territory, the Norsemen became Normans and the province Normandy, with French becoming the predominant language. As part of the 911 treaty, the Vikings accepted Christianity. In time, the Norse religions were completely replaced, and the converts became militantly Christian. In viewing the construction of buildings dating from this period, some of the oldest are monasteries and churches because the new Christians set about repairing what their pagan fathers had looted. The Normans soon embraced Christianity with a fervor, not only rebuilding but joining the monasteries in large numbers. When Norman soldiers went out into the world, they went as soldiers of God, often with papal blessing or cooperation.
The sailors soon forsook the ship for the horse; they maintained their warlike heritage, but transformed their naval prowess into cavalry power. The Normans slipped easily into the feudal system of Frankish Europe, and one of the prerequisites of nobility was leadership in battle. The Normans perfected the heavy cavalry of knighthood and developed the code of chivalry surrounding it. This development dominated the military tactics of Europe for three centuries and often ran roughshod over the lightly armed soldiers of Islam and Constantinople.
