“We have believed the Normans’ view of themselves for too long”

David Musgrove: To quote from your introduction, “This book is concerned chiefly with the Normans’ explosive rise to power, their establishment in Normandy, and their 11th-century conquests.” Can you briefly chart that story for us?

Judith Green: The Duchy of Normandy originated with a group of Vikings led by a man called Rou or Rollo. They were granted land in the Seine Valley by Charles the Simple, king of the west Franks, in the year 911. This was originally part of Charlemagne’s empire; he had been king of the Franks, king of the Lombards and the first emperor of what became known as the Holy Roman Empire, ruling over a huge swathe of territory in Europe. But after his death in 814, over time Charlemagne’s territory was divided into the lands of the west Franks (from whom came the kingdom of France), the east Franks (from whom came the Germans and the kingdom of Germany) and Middle Frankia.

In the 10th century, there was a bitter power struggle in northern France. The Normans made a strategic decision to ally with the people who became the Capetian kings of France. That helped them to stabilise their position. The Normans were jockeying with Bretons, other Viking groups and Franks, but Rollo and his descendants fought off those others. So a strong, cohesive duchy emerged in Normandy by around the year 1000.

Also around that time, Norman mercenaries and pilgrims began to be recorded in Italy. Then, by the middle of the