Historical Miniatures - Normans (15mm) (Baueda)

By the end of 800 the Vikings had ravaged northern France to such an extent that there was little plunder left. In the course of the next century their raiding encampments gradually evolved into permanent settlements along the Atlantic coast. These early Viking contingents included Danes, Norwegians, Hiberno-Norse, Orkney Vikings, as well as Anglo-Danes from the English Danelaw. They settled the territory and quickly merged with the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock. In 911 a Danish Viking Army under a leader called Hrolf arrived to pillage the lower Seine Valley; his army was such a threat that Charles, King of the Franks, negotiated a treaty at St. Clair-sur-Epte. Under this treaty all the land bounded by the rivers Brestle, Epte, Avre and Dives was granted to the Danes; effectively the land they already controlled anyway. By 924 the Franks were forced to grant the Danes the districts of Bayeux, Exmes and Sees, and in 933 also the Cotenin and Avranchin. Hrolf was baptized in 912 and became known as Rollo. Within two generations he and his followers had adopted the Franks' language, religion, laws, customs, political organization and methods of warfare. They had become Franks in all but name, for they were now known as Normans, men of Normandy: the land of the Northmen.