Anglo-Normans

Anglo-Normans
Examples of Anglo-Norman elite
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The Anglo-Normans (Norman: Anglo-Normaunds, Old English: Engel-Norðmandisca) were the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman Conquest, and were primarily a combination of Normans, Frenchmen, Flemings, Bretons, and Anglo-Saxons. A small number of Normans had earlier befriended future Anglo-Saxon king of England, Edward the Confessor, during his exile in his mother's homeland of Normandy in northern France. When he returned to England, some of them went with him; as such, there were Normans already settled in England prior to the conquest. Edward's successor, Harold Godwinson, was defeated by Duke William the Conqueror of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings, leading to William's accession to the English throne.

The victorious Normans formed a ruling class in England, distinct from (although inter-marrying with) the native Anglo-Saxon and Celtic populations. Over time, their language evolved from the continental Old Norman to the distinct Anglo-Norman language. Anglo-Normans quickly established control over all of England, as well as parts of Wales (the Welsh-Normans). After 1130, parts of southern and eastern Scotland came under Anglo-Norman rule (the Scots-Normans), in return for their support of David I's conquest. The Norman conquest of Ireland in 1169 saw Anglo-Normans and Welsh-Normans settle vast swaths of Ireland, becoming the Irish-Normans.

The composite expression regno Norman-Anglorum for the Anglo-Norman kingdom that comprises Normandy and England appears contemporaneously only in the Hyde Chronicle.[2]

  1. ^ The English And The Normans: Ethnic Hostility, Assimilation, and Identity 1066 - c. 1220, Oxford University Press, U.S.A. (3 Oct. 2002) p. 146
  2. ^ C. Warren Hollister, Henry I (Yale English Monarchs) 2001:15.

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