Translator: Hani Eldalees Validator: miss_ meroo
In the year 1066,
7,000 Norman infantry and knights crossed the English Channel, sailing warships.
Targeted: England, home of more than a million people.
It was a short trip but the results were huge.
Almost at the same time,
Other groups of Normans were roaming all over Europe,
They undertake adventures that will reverberate in the history of these countries.
Who were these warriors?
How did they manage to leave their influential mark in this form and force?
Our story begins more than 200 years ago,
When the Vikings began to settle on the northern shores of France
As part of a massive Scandinavian exodus across northern Europe.
The local French called these invaders the Normans,
Relative to the destination from which they came.
Charles, king of the Franks, finally did
By negotiating a peace treaty with Rollo, the leader of the Vikings in 911,
Which gave him a piece of land on the northern coast of France
Which later became known as Normandy.
The Normans demonstrated their ability to adapt to the new environment in which they settled.
Where they married French women,
They used the French language,
Soon, she began to convert from Norse paganism to Christianity.
But despite their adaptation,
However, they kept their war tradition
And the tendency for military occupation that was characteristic of their Vikings ancestors.
It didn't take long for the Norman knights to begin searching for new challenges.
The Normans' most famous achievement is their conquest of England.
In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy,
By claiming his right to the new English king, Harold Goodwinson.
Shortly after they reached England,
William and his knights engaged Harold's army near the city of Hastings.
The decisive moment in the battle
Immortalized in a 70 meter long wall rug,
Photographer Harold with an arrow in his eye, which confirmed victory for the Normans.
William crystallized his gains by undertaking his castle-building campaign
A reorganization of English society.
He deserved his nickname "William the Conqueror."
Through a huge survey of lands known as the Doomsday Book,
It may include population and property data
For every plot of land in England.
Norman French became the official language of the new royal court,
While the commoners continued to use the Anglo-Saxon language.
The two languages ​​merged over time to create the English we know today,
Although the gap between the lords and the peasants can be felt
Through binary synonyms such as beef and beef.
With the end of the 12th century,
The Normans expanded their possession to include Wales,
Scotland,
And Ireland.
Independent groups of Norman knights erected at this time
To travel to the Mediterranean,
Inspired by tales of pilgrims coming from Jerusalem.
They threw themselves there in the midst of a multitude of intertwining conflicts
Among the powers present throughout the region.
They became very important mercenaries,
And during one of those fights,
They carried out the first attack by knights armed with spears in history,
It is a destructive strategy that was quickly adopted in the wars of the Middle Ages.
Also, the Normans were an important element in the First Crusade in 1095-99,
It was a bloody conflict that led to the restoration of Christian control
In some areas of the Middle East.
But the Normans did more than fight.
As a result of their victories,
Leaders like Iron-Arm William and Robert the Duper rose up
By acquiring lands in southern Italy,
It was eventually united to form the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130.
During the reign of George II,
The kingdom has become a beacon of tolerance and multiculturalism
In a world torn by religious and civil wars.
Presence of Arab Muslim poets and scholars in the royal court
Next to the woodworkers and the Greek-Byzantine architects.
Arabic remained an official language along with Latin, Greek, and Norman French.
Global geographic information has been collected in Roger's book,
These were maps of the discovered world
The most accurate map in existence for 300 years.
The churches built in Palermo combined Latin-style architecture,
Arab Bishop,
And Byzantine domes,
All of them are decorated with stunning golden mosaics.
If the Normans were so successful, why did they no longer exist today?
This was part of their huge success in reality:
And that is that they did not only rule the societies they occupied,
But they became a part of it.
Although the Normans disappeared as a distinct group,
However, their contributions still remain.
Today, castles and cathedrals scattered all over Europe
Where English is spoken,
The Norman legacy is still alive among us.