NORMANS

The Normans (Norman: Normaunds; French: Normands; 
Latin: Nortmanni/Normanni; Old Norse: Norðmaðr[citation
needed]
) are an ethnic group that arose from contact
between Norse Viking settlers of a region in France,
named Normandy after them, and
indigenous Franks and Gallo-Romans.[1][2] The settlements
in France followed a series of raids on the French coast
mainly from Denmark — although some also came
from Norway and Sweden— and gained political
legitimacy when the Viking leader Rollo agreed to
swear fealty to King Charles III of West Francia following
the Siege of Chartres in 911 AD.[3] The intermingling of
Norse settlers and native Franks and Gallo-Romans in
Normandy produced an ethnic and cultural "Norman"
identity in the first half of the 10th century, an identity
which continued to evolve over the centuries.[4]
The Norman dynasty had a major political, cultural and
military impact on medieval Europe and the Near East.[5]
[6]
 The Normans were famed for their martial spirit and
eventually for their Catholic piety, becoming exponents of
the Catholic orthodoxy of the Romance community.[3] The
original Norse settlers adopted the Gallo-Romance
language of the Frankish land they settled, their Old
Norman dialect becoming known as Norman, Normaund
or Norman French, an important literary language which is
still spoken today in parts of Normandy
(Cotentinais and Cauchois dialects) and the
nearby Channel Islands (Jèrriais and Guernésiais).
The Duchy of Normandy, which they formed by treaty with
the French crown, was a great fief of medieval France,
and under Richard I of Normandy was forged into a
cohesive and formidable principality in feudal tenure.[7]
[8]
 By the end of the reign of Richard I of Normandy in 996
(byname "Richard sans Peur" meaning Richard the
Fearless), the descendants of the Norse settlers of the
province were, according to Cambride Medieval History
(Volume 5, Chapter XV), "not only Christians but in all
essentials Frenchmen".[