Medieval and Manuscripts

Duchy of Normandy

The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between King Charles III of West Francia and the Viking leader Rollo. The duchy was named for its inhabitants, the Normans. From 1066 until 1204, as a result of the Norman Conquest of England, the dukes of Normandy were usually also kings of England, the only exceptions being Dukes Robert Curthose (1087–1106), Geoffrey Plantagenet (1144–1150), and Henry II (1150–1152), who became king of England in 1154. In 1202, Philip II of France declared Normandy forfeit to him and seized it by force of arms in 1204 (with the exception of the Channel Islands). It remained disputed territory until 1259, when the English sovereign ceded his claim to mainland Normandy which was absorbed into the French royal domain. In the Kingdom of France, the duchy was occasionally set apart as an appanage to be ruled by a member of the royal family. After 1469, however, it was permanently united to the royal domain, although the title was occasionally conferred as an honorific upon junior members of the royal family. The last French duke of Normandy in this sense was Louis-Charles, duke from 1785 to 1792. The title "Duke of Normandy" continues to be used in an informal manner in the Channel Islands (insular Normandy), to refer to the monarch of the United Kingdom. There is no definite end as to when the Duchy of Normandy (with its remnants in the Channel Islands) as a vassal of the English monarch became 'part' of the United Kingdom, with history blending the link between the two gradually. In official documents in Guernsey, the British monarch is entitled "Duke of Normandy", while in official documents in Jersey, the British monarch is ambiguously titled Sovereign. As such, although no form of the Duchy or its structure exists, there has never been a formal end to the "duke's" rule over the islands.

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See also

• ▸Crusader art
• ▸Antonio Molina (composer)
• ▸Doubting Thomas

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.