obtaining a guarantee of her privileges. The conquest of Normandy by the French was not, however, recognized officially till the treaty of Paris (1259).
Normandy enjoyed a time of comparative prosperity under French rule, up to the time of the Hundred Years’ War. The institution of the Estates of Normandy even assured her a sort of independence. In 1329 the duchy of Normandy was revived in favour of John, son of King Philip VI.
Owing to her geographical position, Normandy suffered heavily during the Hundred Years’ War. In 1346 Edward III., at the instance of Godefroi d’Harcourt lord of Saint-Sauveur, invaded Normandy, landing at Saint-Vast-la-Hougue (July 12); and arriving at Caen on the 25th of July, he laid waste the country as far as Poissy. After the accession of John II. (1350), Normandy was again separated from the crown and given as an appanage to the dauphin Charles. The treaty of London (1359) stipulated for its cession to England, but the provisions of the treaty were modified by those of the treaty of Brétigny (1360), and it remained in the possession of France.
John II. died in 1364, and was succeeded by his son Charles V. One of the chief feudatories of Normandy, Charles the Bad, grandson of Louis X. le Hutin, and a claimant to the crown of France, was in 1365, owing to his continued treachery, deprived of the countship of Longueville, and in 1378 of all his other possessions in Upper and Lower Normandy. The most striking event of the war between the French and English which took place in Normandy during the reign of Charles V. was the siege of Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, which was occupied by the English, and only surrendered after a siege of several years.
The opening years of the reign of Charles VI. (1380–1422) were disturbed by a revolt which broke out at Rouen against the aides which the royal government had tried to impose (1381); a cloth-merchant was proclaimed king of Rouen, and Charles was obliged to go in person to Rouen to put down the insurrection. In 1415 the war with England was resumed: an English army of 60,000 men landed on the 14th of August at the mouth of the Seine, took Harfleur on the 16th of September, and finally defeated the army of the king of France at Agincourt. During the following years the whole of Normandy was occupied, Rouen holding out for nearly six months (July 29, 1418–January 13, 1419), and Henry V. of England entrusted the administration of Normandy to a special council. In spite of the moderation of the duke of Bedford’s government, Normandy, ruined by the war, was in a state of great distress, and in the years following the treaty of Troyes (1420) there was a continual resistance offered to the English. This resistance became general after the expeditions of Joan of Arc and the treaty of Arras; at the end of 1435 the whole district of Caux, and in 1436 that of the Val de Vire revolted; Mont-Saint-Michel, which had never been taken by the English, continued to resist, and in order to keep guard over it the English built Granville. But Normandy was not recovered by the French till after the sack of Fougères (1449). Cotentin was reconquered by Richmond (see Arthur, duke of Brittany) and the duke of Brittany; Rouen surrendered on the 29th of October 1449. In face of these successes of the French, an English army was sent into Normandy under the leadership of Thomas Kyriel; it landed at Cherbourg and marched across Cotentin to Bayeux, 'but was met at Formigny (April 15, 1450) by the count of Clermont and utterly routed. Shortly afterwards Caen, and finally Cherbourg, capitulated.
After the French conquest, the history of Normandy is less eventful. In 1465 Normandy was given as an appanage to Charles, brother of King Louis XI., who was deprived of it in 1467. The kings of France tried to win the support of Normandy by certain favours, such as maintaining the provincial Estates and the University of Caen, founded by the kings of England, and transforming the Exchequer of Normandy into a permanent court of justice (1499) which was called the Parlement of Normandy and sat at Rouen in the famous Palais de Justice. Among the measures which contributed to the increase of the prosperity of Normandy should be noted the construction in 1752 of the Hâvre de Grace.
During the 16th century the Protestant Reformation met with some success in Normandy, where the Wars of Religion caused a certain amount of disturbance. The Reforming movement began with Pierre Bar in 1528, and the first apostle of the Reformation at Rouen was Francois Legay, called Boisnormand. In 1562 the town of Rouen was taken by the Calvinists, but retaken in the same year by the Catholics. Caen received the Reformed religion in 1531, and Alençon in 1582. In the massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s day (1572) more than 500 victims were slaughtered by the Catholics.
In spite of the success of Protestant ideas, however, the Catholic party of the League succeeded after 1588 in establishing itself in Normandy, and King Henry IV. had to conquer it by force of arms. The most famous engagements during this expedition were the victories of Henry IV. at Arques and Ivry, but he failed to take Rouen, which was defended by Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma, and only surrendered after the abjuration of the king.
The history of Normandy in the 17th and 18th centuries contains few events of note, except for a few attempts at landing made by the English during the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), in 1758 the English admiral Anson attacked Cherbourg, and in 1759 Admiral Rodney bombarded Havre. From 1790 dates the creation of the departments, when Normandy ceased to have a separate political existence, and her history becomes one with that of France.
See G. Depping, Histoire de la Normandie (2 vols., 1835); Fr. Palgrave, The History of Normandy and of England (2 vols., 1851–1857); E. A. Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England (3rd ed., 5 vols., Oxford, 1877); Joh. Steenstrup, Les Normands (1880); Louis du Bois, Itinéraire descriptif, historique et monumental des cinq départements composant la Normandie (1828); John Cotman, Architectural Antiquities of Normandy (2 vols., 1820); Léopold Delisle, Etude sur la condition des classes agricoles en Normandie (reprinted 1906), La Normandie illustrée (2 vols., 1852–1855); A. Duchesne, Historiae Normanorum scriptores antiqui (1619); E. J. Tardif, Les Coutumiers de Normandie (1881–1896); Edouard Frere, Manuel de bibliographie normande (1858–1860); Artur du Monstier, Neustria pia (1663); N. Oursel, Nouvelle Biographie normande (3 vols., 1886–1888). Publications of the learned societies of the province analysed in the Bibliographie of Robert de Lasteyrie. (R. La.)
NORMANS, the softened form of the word “Northman,” applied first to the people of Scandinavia in general, and afterwards specially to the people of Norway. In the form of “Norman” (Northmannus, Normannus, Normand) it is the name of those colonists from Scandinavia who settled themselves in Gaul, who founded Normandy, who adopted the French tongue and French manners, and who from their new home set forth on new errands of conquest, chiefly in the British Islands and in southern Italy and Sicily. From one point of view the expeditions of the Normans may be looked on as continuations of the expeditions of the Northmen. As the name is etymologically the same, so the people are by descent the same, and they are still led by the old spirit of war and adventure. But in the view of general history Normans and Northmen must be carefully distinguished. The change in the name is the sign of a thorough change, if not in the people themselves, yet in their historical position. Their national character remains largely the same; but they have adopted a new religion, a new language, a new system of law and society, new thoughts and feelings on all matters. Like as the Norman still is to the Northman, the effects of a settlement of Normans are utterly different from the effects of a settlement of Northmen. There can be no doubt that the establishment of the Norman power in England was, like the establishment of the Danish power, greatly helped by the essential kindred of Normans, Danes and English. But it was helped only silently. To all outward appearance the Norman conquest of England was an event of an altogether different character from the Danish conquest. The one was a conquest by a people whose tongue and institutions were still palpably akin to those of the English. The other was a conquest by a people whose tongue and institutions were palpably different from those of the English. The Norman settlers in England felt no community with the earlier Danish settlers in England. In
