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63-500: Its name comes from the old Armorica , a Gaul area between the rivers Loire and Seine . The massif is composed of metamorphic and magmatic rocks that were metamorphosed and/or deformed during the Hercynian or Variscan orogeny (400 to 280 million years ago) and the earlier Cadomian orogeny (650 to 550 million years ago). The region was uplifted when the Bay of Biscay opened during

126-576: A characteristic shared with the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands are considered culturally and historically a part of Normandy. However, they are British Crown Dependencies , and are not part of the modern French administrative region of Normandy . Although the British surrendered claims to mainland Normandy, France, and other French possessions in 1801, the monarch of the United Kingdom retains

189-604: A constant use of Old Norse during four or five generations in certain parts of Normandy. They then became the Normans – a Norman French -speaking mixture of Norsemen and indigenous Gallo-Franks. Rollo's descendant William became king of England in 1066 after defeating Harold Godwinson , the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings , at the Battle of Hastings , while retaining the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants. Aside from

252-513: A large area of this region but also of Britain" Archaeological sites along the south coast of England, notably at Hengistbury Head , show connections with Armorica as far east as the Solent . This 'prehistoric' connection of Cornwall and Brittany set the stage for the link that continued into the medieval era. Still farther East, however, the typical Continental connections of the Britannic coast were with

315-864: A sector of the Roman defence line in Gaul in Late Antiquity , the Tractus Armoricani ('Armorican Tract'). In medieval Insular Celtic languages , the Celtic term *Litauia , meaning 'Land' or 'Country' (from an original Proto-Celtic * Litauī 'Earth', lit. 'the Vast One'), came to be used to designate the Brittany Peninsula, as in Old Irish Letha , Old Welsh Litau , Old Breton Letau , or in

378-548: A spoof article in the British The Independent newspaper on April Fool's Day in 1993. The opening chapter of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce also refers to North Armorica. 48°10′00″N 1°00′00″W  /  48.1667°N 1.0000°W  / 48.1667; -1.0000 Normandy Normandy (French: Normandie ; Norman : Normaundie or Nouormandie ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with

441-410: Is Charles III and each have an appointed Lieutenant-Governor . The Bailiwick of Guernsey comprises three separate jurisdictions: Guernsey , Alderney and Sark . Administratively, Herm forms part of Guernsey . Much of Normandy is predominantly agricultural in character, with cattle breeding the most important sector (although in decline from the peak levels of the 1970s and 1980s). The bocage

504-647: Is a patchwork of small fields with high hedges, typical of western areas. Areas near the Seine (the former Upper Normandy region) contain a higher concentration of industry. Normandy is a significant cider -producing region, and also produces calvados , a distilled cider or apple brandy . Other activities of economic importance are dairy produce, flax (60% of production in France), horse breeding (including two French national stud farms), fishing, seafood, and tourism. The region contains three French nuclear power stations . There

567-559: Is also easy access to and from the UK using the ports of Cherbourg , Caen ( Ouistreham ), Le Havre and Dieppe . Jersey and Guernsey are often considered to be tax havens, due to having large financial services sectors and low tax rates. In January 2006 the population of French Normandy (including the part of Perche which lies inside the Orne département but excluding the Channel Islands )

630-564: Is regardless still sometimes informally referred to by the title "Duke of Normandy". The historical Duchy of Normandy was a formerly independent duchy occupying the lower Seine area, the Pays de Caux and the region to the west through the Pays d'Auge as far as the Cotentin Peninsula and Channel Islands. Western Normandy belongs to the Armorican Massif , while most of the region lies in

693-408: Is roughly similar to the historical Duchy of Normandy, which includes small areas now part of the departments of Mayenne and Sarthe . The Channel Islands (French: Îles Anglo-Normandes ) are also historically part of Normandy; they cover 194 square kilometres (75 sq mi) and comprise two bailiwicks : Guernsey and Jersey , which are British Crown Dependencies. Normandy's name comes from

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756-622: The British Isles , and often turned the women into frilla , a Scandinavian tradition which became known as more Danico , medieval Latin meaning "Danish marriage". The first counts of Rouen and the dukes of Normandy had concubines too. While very little archeological excavations about the Vikings were done in Normandy, the Norman toponymy retains a large Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian heritage, due to

819-621: The Cretaceous period . The Cantabrian Mountains and the Armorican Massif were then rift shoulders of the Bay of Biscay. The competent old rocks of the Armorican Massif have been eroded to a plateaulike peneplain . The highest summit, the Mont des Avaloirs ( Mayenne département), is just 417 m (1,368 ft) above sea level. The western part of the Armorican Massif (which covers Brittany) are

882-608: The Eburovices and Cenomani ), the Parisii , Tricasses , Andicavi , Viducasses , Bodiocasses , Veneti , Coriosvelites , Diablinti , Rhedones , Turones , and the Atseui . Trade between Armorica and Britain, described by Diodorus Siculus and implied by Pliny was long-established. Because, even after the campaign of Publius Crassus in 56 BC, continued resistance to Roman rule in Armorica

945-582: The French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), there was an economic revival that included the mechanization of textile manufacturing and the introduction of the first trains. Also, with seaside tourism in the 19th century came the advent of the first beach resorts. During the Second World War, following the armistice of 22 June 1940 , continental Normandy was part of

1008-556: The German occupied zone of France . The Channel Islands were occupied by German forces between 30 June 1940 and 9 May 1945. The town of Dieppe was the site of the unsuccessful Dieppe Raid by Allied forces. The Allies coordinated a massive build-up of troops and supplies to support a large-scale invasion of Normandy in the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord . German forces dug into fortified emplacements above

1071-545: The Mississippi Delta were opened up to establish Canada and Louisiana . Colonists from Normandy were among the most active in New France , comprising Acadia , Canada, and Louisiana. Honfleur and Le Havre were two of the principal slave trade ports of France. Although agriculture remained important, industries such as weaving, metallurgy, sugar refining, ceramics, and shipbuilding were introduced and developed. In

1134-631: The Monts d'Arrée . During the Neoproterozoic , older parts of the Armorican Massif formed the northern margin of the paleocontinent Gondwana . During the Paleozoic era , the Armorican Massif was part of the microcontinent Armorica , which probably also included terranes found in the Vosges , Black Forest and Bohemian Massif further east. Armorica rifted off the northern margin of Gondwana somewhere during

1197-664: The Ordovician or Silurian periods to move northward and collide with Laurussia during the Hercynian orogeny. The oldest rocks of the massif are Neoproterozoic sediments of the Brioverian Supergroup which were deformed and metamorphosed during the Cadomian orogeny. These are overlain by lower Paleozoic ( Cambrian to Devonian ) (meta-)sediments. The whole sequence was deformed, metamorphosed and intruded by felsic magmas during

1260-647: The Paris Basin . France's oldest rocks are exposed in Jobourg, on the Cotentin peninsula. The region is bounded to the north and west by the English Channel . There are granite cliffs in the west and limestone cliffs in the east. There are also long stretches of beach in the centre of the region. The bocage typical of the western areas caused problems for the invading forces in the Battle of Normandy . A notable feature of

1323-664: The Wars of Religion . When many Norman towns ( Alençon , Rouen, Caen , Coutances , Bayeux ) joined the Protestant Reformation , battles ensued throughout the province. In the Channel Islands, a period of Calvinism following the Reformation was suppressed when Anglicanism was imposed following the Stuart Restoration . Samuel de Champlain left the port of Honfleur in 1604 and founded Acadia . Four years later, he founded

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1386-674: The regional elections in December 2015 . The Regional Council has 102 members who are elected under a system of proportional representation . The executive consists of a president and vice-presidents. Hervé Morin from the Centre party was elected president of the council in January 2016. The Channel Islands are not part of French territory, but are instead British Crown Dependencies . They are self-governing, each having its own parliament, government and legal system. The head of state of both territories

1449-653: The "founder saints" of Brittany. The linguistic origins of Breton are clear: it is a Brythonic language descended from the Celtic British language , like Welsh and Cornish one of the Insular Celtic languages , brought by these migrating Britons. Still, questions of the relations between the Celtic cultures of Britain— Cornish and Welsh —and Celtic Breton are far from settled. Martin Henig (2003) suggests that in Armorica as in sub-Roman Britain : There

1512-569: The 1780s, the economic crisis and the crisis of the Ancien Régime struck Normandy as well as other parts of the nation, leading to the French Revolution . Bad harvests, technical progress and the effects of the Eden Agreement signed in 1786 affected employment and the economy of the province. Normans laboured under a heavy fiscal burden. In 1790, the five departments of Normandy replaced

1575-400: The Channel Islands and England. Jersey and Guernsey use three leopards in their national symbols. The leopards represents the strength and courage Normandy has towards the neighbouring provinces. The unofficial anthem of the region is the song " Ma Normandie ". The Norman language, including its insular variations Jèrriais and Guernésiais , is a regional language , spoken by a minority of

1638-710: The City of Québec. From then onwards, Normans engaged in a policy of expansion in North America. They continued the exploration of the New World: René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle travelled in the area of the Great Lakes , then on the Mississippi River . Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and his brother Lemoyne de Bienville founded Louisiana , Biloxi , Mobile and New Orleans. Territories located between Québec and

1701-453: The Frankish mainland from the island, largely legendary for him, of Brittia . These settlers, whether refugees or not, made the presence felt of their coherent groups in the naming of the westernmost, Atlantic-facing provinces of Armorica, Cornouaille (" Cornwall ") and Domnonea (" Devon "). These settlements are associated with leaders like Saints Samson of Dol and Pol Aurelian , among

1764-612: The Gaulish origin of the name, that is perfectly correct and logical, as Aremorica is not a country name but a word that describes a type of geographical region, one that is by the sea. Pliny lists the following Celtic tribes as living in the area: the Aedui and Carnuteni as having treaties with Rome ; the Meldi and Secusiani as having some measure of independence; and the Boii , Senones , Aulerci (both

1827-857: The Great Count progressively claimed territories in southern Italy until founding the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130. They also carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor and the Holy Land . The 14th-century explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands in 1404. He received the title King of the Canary Islands from Pope Innocent VII but recognized Henry III of Castile as his overlord, who had provided him with military and financial aid during

1890-731: The Hercynian orogeny, comparable to the Moldanubian Zone of southern Germany and central Europe. Late Hercynian granitoid bodies were intruded along the South Armorican Shear Zone. The northern parts of the Armorican Massif have less intrusive rocks, although a small zone in the northwest of Brittany ( Léon Zone ) forms an exception. 48°N 3°W  /  48°N 3°W  / 48; -3 Armorica In ancient times, Armorica or Aremorica ( Gaulish : Aremorica ; Breton : Arvorig [arˈvoːrik] ; French : Armorique [aʁmɔʁik] )

1953-446: The Hercynian orogeny. The massif is cut in three by two major late Hercynian southeast-northwest striking shear zones (the North and South Armorican Shear Zones ). The divisions are simply called the North , Central and South Armorican Zones . Generally the north was less deformed during the Hercynian orogeny than the south. The South Armorican Zone is considered part of the core of

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2016-588: The Latinized form Letavia . In Breton , which belongs to the Brythonic branch of the Insular Celtic languages, along with Welsh and Cornish , "on [the] sea" is war vor (Welsh ar fôr , "f" being voiced and pronounced like English "v"), but the older form arvor is used to refer to the coastal regions of Brittany, in contrast to argoad ( ar "on/at", coad "forest" [Welsh ar goed or coed "trees"]) for

2079-593: The Visigothic King Theodoric I clashed violently with the Hunnic alliance commanded by King Attila the Hun . Jordanes lists Aëtius' allies as including Armoricans and other Celtic or German tribes (Getica 36.191). The "Armorican" peninsula came to be settled with Britons from Britain during the poorly documented period of the 5th–7th centuries. Even in distant Byzantium Procopius heard tales of migrations to

2142-509: The area between the rivers Somme and Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis . Vikings started to raid along the river Seine during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, the principal route by which they entered the kingdom. After attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges , they took advantage of

2205-496: The area during this period and Rouen already had a metropolitan bishop by the 4th century. The ecclesiastical province of Rouen was based on the frame of the Roman Lugdunensis Secunda , whose limits corresponded almost exactly to the future duchy of Normandy. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, followed by dispersed settlements mainly in the Pays de Bray , Pays de Caux and Vexin . As early as 487,

2268-475: The beaches. Caen , Cherbourg , Carentan , Falaise and other Norman towns endured many casualties in the Battle of Normandy , which continued until the closing of the so-called Falaise gap between Chambois and Mont Ormel . The liberation of Le Havre followed. This was a significant turning point in the war in western Europe and led to the restoration of the French Republic. The remainder of Normandy

2331-413: The conquest of England and the subsequent invasions of Wales and Ireland, the Normans expanded into other areas. Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville , Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the conquest of southern Italy and the Crusades . The Drengot lineage, de Hauteville's sons William Iron Arm , Drogo , and Humphrey , Robert Guiscard and Roger

2394-440: The conquest. In 1204, during the reign of John, King of England , mainland Normandy was captured from the English by the forces of Philip II of France , ending some 293 years of relative Norman independence from the French crown. Insular Normandy (the Channel Islands) remained under control of the English, though still attached to the ecclesiastical province of Rouen. In the 1259 Treaty of Paris , Henry III of England recognized

2457-404: The former province. On 13 July 1793, the Norman Charlotte Corday assassinated Jean-Paul Marat . The Normans reacted little to the many political upheavals which characterized the 19th century. Overall, they warily accepted the changes of régime ( First French Empire , Bourbon Restoration , July Monarchy , French Second Republic , Second French Empire , French Third Republic ). Following

2520-476: The historical Duchy of Normandy . Normandy comprises mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular Normandy (mostly the British Channel Islands ). It covers 30,627 square kilometres (11,825 sq mi). Its population in 2017 was 3,499,280. The inhabitants of Normandy are known as Normans ; the region is the historic homeland of the Norman language . Large settlements include Rouen , Caen , Le Havre and Cherbourg . The cultural region of Normandy

2583-428: The inland regions. The cognate modern usages suggest that the Romans first contacted coastal people in the inland region and assumed that the regional name Aremorica referred to the whole area, both coastal and inland. Pliny the Elder , in his Natural History (4.17.105), claims that Armorica was the older name for Aquitania and states Armorica's southern boundary extended to the Pyrenees . Taking into account

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2646-399: The landscape is created by the meanders of the Seine as it approaches its estuary. The highest point is the Signal d'Écouves (417 m), in the Armorican Massif. Normandy is sparsely forested: 12.8% of the territory is wooded, compared to a French average of 23.6%, although the proportion varies between the departments. Eure has the most cover, at 21%, while Manche has the least, at 4%,

2709-473: The late 3rd century AD, Germanic raids devastated "Lugdunensis Secunda", as the modern area of Normandy was known at the time. The Romans built a system of coastal defences known as Saxon Shore on both sides of the English Channel. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates that finally settled mainly in the Bessin region. Modern archeology reveals their presence in different Merovingian cemeteries excavated east of Caen. Christianity also began to enter

2772-404: The legitimacy of the French possession of mainland Normandy. His successors, however, often fought to regain control of their ancient fiefdom. The Charte aux Normands granted by Louis X of France in 1315 (and later re-confirmed in 1339) – like the analogous Magna Carta granted in England in the aftermath of 1204 – guaranteed the liberties and privileges of the province of Normandy. Normandy

2835-674: The limit between them) was achieved by the usual methods: Roman roads and a policy of urbanisation. Classicists mention many Gallo-Roman villas and archeology found their traces in the past 30 years. In the Late Roman Empire a new province was created and called Lugdunensis Secunda , it sketched the later ecclesiastical province of Rouen , with the Metropolis civitas Rotomagensium ( Rouen ), Civitas Baiocassium ( Augustodorum , Bayeux), Civitas Abrincatum ( Ingena , Avranches), Civitas Ebroicorum ( Mediolanum , Évreux), Civitas Saiorum (Sées), Civitas Lexoviorum ( Noviomagus , Lisieux / Lieuvin) and Civitas Constantia (Coutances). In

2898-437: The lower Seine valley instead. Archaeology has not yet been as enlightening in Iron-Age Armorica as the coinage, which has been surveyed by Philip de Jersey . Under the Roman Empire , Armorica was administered as part of the province of Gallia Lugdunensis , which had its capital in Lugdunum , (modern day Lyon ). When the Roman provinces were reorganized in the 4th century, Armorica ( Tractus Armoricanus et Nervicanus )

2961-482: The metropolitan area) and formerly the capital of Lower Normandy; Le Havre (296,773 in the metropolitan area); and Cherbourg (117,855 in the metropolitan area). The traditional provincial flag of Normandy , gules, two leopards passant or , is used in the region and its predecessors. The three-leopard version (known in the Norman language as les treis cats , "the three cats") is used by some associations and individuals, especially those who support cultural links with

3024-456: The name Armorica fell out of use in the area. With western Armorica having already evolved into Brittany , the east was recast from a Frankish viewpoint as the Breton March under a Frankish margrave . The home village of the fictional comic-book hero Asterix was located in Armorica during the Roman Republic ; there, "indomitable Gauls" hold out against Rome. The unnamed village was reported as having been discovered by archaeologists in

3087-429: The power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagne 's empire to take Northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Viking leader Hrólfr , known in Medieval Latin as Rollo . Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks , Charles the Simple , through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte . In exchange for his homage and fealty , Rollo legally gained

3150-438: The region in prehistoric times. Normandy also has many megalithic monuments . Celts (also known as Belgae and Gauls ) have populated Normandy since at least the Bronze Age . When Julius Caesar invaded Gaul (58–50 BC), there were nine different Celtic tribes living in this part of Gaul. The Romanisation of this region partly included in the Gallia Celtica and in the Gallia Belgica (the Seine being more or less

3213-417: The region were called Aremorici ( sing. Aremoricos ), formed with the stem are-mori - extended by the determinative suffix - cos . It is glossed by the Latin antemarini in Endlicher's Glossary . The Slavs use a similar formation, Po-mor-jane ('those in front of the sea'), to designate the inhabitants of Pomerania . The Latin adjective Armoricani was an administrative term designating in particular

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3276-439: The same." According to C. E. V. Nixon , the collapse of Roman power and the depredations of the Visigoths led Armorica to act "like a magnet to peasants, coloni , slaves and the hard-pressed" who deserted other Roman territories, further weakening them. Vikings settled in the Cotentin peninsula and the lower Seine around Rouen in the ninth and early tenth centuries and, as these regions came to be known as Normandy ,

3339-474: The settlement of the territory by Vikings (" Northmen ") starting in the 9th century, and confirmed by treaty in the 10th century between King Charles III of France and the Viking jarl Rollo . For almost 150 years following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by having the same person reign as both Duke of Normandy and King of England . Archaeological finds, such as cave paintings , prove that humans were present in

3402-444: The surrender of French possessions in 1801, and the belief that the rights of succession to that title are subject to Salic Law which excludes inheritance through female heirs. Rivers in Normandy include: And many coastal rivers: The modern region of Normandy was created by the territorial reform of French Regions in 2014 by the merger of Lower Normandy , and Upper Normandy . The new region took effect on 1 January 2016, after

3465-471: The territory that he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking (" Norseman ") origins. The descendants of Rollo and his followers created an aristocracy that step by step adopted the local Gallo-Romance language , intermarried with the area's native Gallo-Frankish inhabitants, and adopted Christianity. Nevertheless, the first generations of Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian settlers brought slaves, mainly from

3528-420: The title Duke of Normandy in respect to the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands (except for Chausey ) remain Crown Dependencies of the British Crown in the present era. Thus the Loyal Toast in the Channel Islands is Le Roi, notre Duc ("The King, our Duke"). The British monarch is understood to not be the Duke with regards to mainland Normandy described herein, by virtue of the Treaty of Paris of 1259 ,

3591-520: Was a fair amount of creation of identity in the migration period . We know that the mixed, but largely British and Frankish population of Kent repackaged themselves as ' Jutes ', and the largely British populations in the lands east of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall) seem to have ended up as 'West Saxons'. In western Armorica, the small élite which managed to impose an identity on the population happened to be British rather than 'Gallo-Roman' in origin, so they became Bretons. The process may have been essentially

3654-447: Was a region of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula , and much of historical Normandy . The name Armorica is a Latinized form of the Gaulish toponym Aremorica , which literally means 'place in front of the sea'. It is formed with the prefix are - ('in front of') attached to - mori - ('sea') and the feminine suffix -(i)cā , denoting the localization (or provenance). The inhabitants of

3717-423: Was devastated by various civil wars and the Hundred Years' War . Between 1419 and 1450, the English controlled all of Normandy apart from Mont-Saint-Michel , and made Rouen the seat of their power in France. Normandy ultimately saw its population decline by three quarters as a result of the various conflicts which took place in the region during the late Middle Ages. Afterwards, prosperity returned to Normandy until

3780-438: Was estimated at 3,260,000 with an average population density of 109 inhabitants per km , just under the French national average, but rising to 147 for Upper Normandy . The population of the Channel Islands is estimated around 174,000 (2021). The main cities (population given from the 1999 census) are Rouen (518,316 in the metropolitan area), the capital since 2016 of the province and formerly of Upper Normandy; Caen (420,000 in

3843-403: Was liberated by Allied forces only on 9 May 1945 at the end of the war, when the Channel Island occupation effectively ended. Despite the renunciation of the Duke of Normandy title by Henry III of England in the 1259 Treaty of Paris , and the extinction of the duchy itself in modern-day, republican France, in the Channel Islands the monarch of the United Kingdom (whether a king or queen)

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3906-421: Was placed under the second and third divisions of Lugdunensis. After the legions retreated from Britannia (407 AD) the local elite there expelled the civilian magistrates in the following year; Armorica too rebelled in the 430s and again in the 440s, throwing out the ruling officials, as the Romano-Britons had done. At the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451 a Roman coalition led by General Flavius Aetius and

3969-410: Was still being supported by Celtic aristocrats in Britain . Julius Caesar led two invasions of Britain, in 55 BC, and again in 54 BC, in response. Some hint of the complicated cultural web that bound Armorica and the Britanniae (the "Britains" of Pliny) is given by Caesar when he describes Diviciacus of the Suessiones as "the most powerful ruler in the whole of Gaul, who had control not only over

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