Yorkie
Regular Member
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- Ethnic group
- English with some recent Norwegian and more distant Huguenot, and dashes from the 'Celtic Fringe'.
Chris, given that in early 1066 the Holy Roman Emperor gave Duke William's embassy his nominal support for the invasion of England, there must undoubtedly have been a force of German mercenaries with the Breton-Norman army?
Also from Sicily and the many 'rival' regions of France (ie. Anjou), though I doubt if Baldwin of Flanders - inlaw to both Harold and William- was anything other than neutral?
Whether or not Baldwin of Flanders was 'neutral', there was certainly [as is relatively well-known] a Flemish contingent in 'the Great Bastard's' army. Why refer to it as Breton-Norman? There was certainly a large Breton contingent, but equally given the size of the Frankish contribution, one could refer to a Frankish-Norman army. Gascony, Picardy too were represented.
That the mainstay of Rollo's original band was Danish, including Anglo-Danes from the Danelaw is well documented by several historians such as Gwyn Jones, Michael Wood, and Johannes Brondstedt. However, there was a smaller, Norwegian contingent which apparently settled the Cotentin peninsular quite heavily. Lastly, Rollo's band also included a Norse-Gael element; Norwegians who had been in Ireland for some time.
By the time of the 1066 conquest, the 'Normans' were surely not Scandinavian on every line, as intermarriage with Frankish women etc was the norm. Many so-called 'Norman' surnames which allegedly 'came over with the Conqueror' have non-Scandinavian origins. For example...
Bellamy is Frankish
Joyce, Harvey are Breton
Roche is Flemish
Gascoigne is obviously from Gascony
The predominant element in the 'mixed bag' that was the Normans is probably Germanic. However, we should not underestimate the Celtic Breton element. I personally think that Breton settlement, particularly in north Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and East Anglia [Suffolk was at one time a 'Breton soke'] has been underestimated.