Normandy

Introduction

Geographical and cultural region of northwest Europe This article is about the geographical and cultural area. For the French administrative region, see Normandy (administrative region). For other uses, see Normandy (disambiguation). Geographical regionNormandy Normandie (French)Normaundie (Norman)Geographical region FlagCoat of armsInteractive map of NormandyCoordinates: 48°53′N 0°10′E / 48.88°N 0.17°E / 48.88; 0.17Country France Guernsey Jersey Capitals Caen Rouen Saint Helier Saint Peter Port French Departments and British Crown Dependencies List CalvadosEureMancheOrneSeine-MaritimeGuernseyJersey Area • Total30,627 km2 (11,825 sq mi)Population (2017) • Total3,499,280 • Density114.25/km2 (295.92/sq mi)DemonymNormanTime zonesUTC+01:00 (CET) • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)UTC+00:00 (GMT) • Summer (DST)UTC+01:00 (BST)ISO 3166 codeFR-NOR (Mainland) JE and GY (Insular) Websitewww.normandie.fr Normandy is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with 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 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 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.

History

[edit] Main article: History of Normandy Prehistory[edit] Archaeological finds, such as cave paintings, prove that humans were present in prehistoric times. Normandy also has many megalithic monuments. But it is truly only in the Bronze Age (between 2300 and 800 BC) that Normandy began to be developed. At this time, farms, field systems, and vast necropolises were established in the territory, forming an initial network of sites covering the whole of Norman land. Celtic Normandy[edit] The discovery of objects such as the Gallic helmet of Amfreville-sous-les-Monts or the iron one from the Museum of Louviers, as well as sites such as Pîtres necropolis (Eure), with its cremation urns, coiled swords and traces of chariot tombs, or the necropolis of Ifs (Calvados), dating from the end of the Hallstatt period or the beginning of the La Tène period, testify to Celtic presence in Normandy. The Celtic peoples of present-day Normandy were part of Armorica, a confederation of culturally close peoples along the shores of the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean, from the Seine estuary to that of the Loire. The testimony of Julius Caesar (in the Gallic Wars) allows us to identify the different Gallic groups occupying the region. In 56 or 57 BC, these populations gathered to resist the invasion of the Roman legions. After the Gallic defeat at the siege of Alesia, the peoples of Normandy continued the struggle for some time, but by 51 BC, all of Gaul was subdued by Rome. Roman Normandy[edit] Gallo-Roman theatre in Lillebonne The Romanisation of the region was achieved by the usual methods or Roman roads and a policy of urbanisation. Gallo-Roman villas were mentioned in ancient sources and some have been recovered through recent archeology. The countryside contained many Celtic fana temples. At Vieil-Évreux, there existed one of the most important pilgrimage centers in Europe. In the Late Roman Empire, Saxon sea raids devastated the province and Germanic tribes moved in as both invaders and as Roman soldiers. Diocletian founded the province of Lyonnaise Secunda whose borders would shape the region. Christianity also made progress with Rouen already having a metropolitan bishop by the 4th century. As part of the Roman power disintegrated, the region was cut off from Italy and became part of a culturally Roman but de facto independent state. Frankish rule[edit] The Franks defeated the culturally Roman Gauls in the Battle of Soissons in 486. The comparatively isolated west of the region saw the rise of the Neustrian kingdom and by the seventh century the whole region was integrated into the Merovingian realm. By the ninth century, Carolingian kings such as Charlemagne and Louis the Pious maintained river defenses and fleets, but the fracturing of the Frankish kingdom after the Treaty of Verdun in 843 left the Seine valley especially exposed to external attack. The Scandinavian invasions[edit] Viking raids on the Seine[edit] Normandy takes its name from the Scandinavian Viking raiders ("North men") who during the power vacuum after Charlemagne's death targeted the coasts of northern Gaul in the late eighth century. They later started raiding along the river Seine, which due to the its navigability and that of its tributaries became the principal route for entering France, particularly targeting monasteries. In 841 Rouen was attacked and temporarily abandoned, and in 845 they sailed upriver to raid Paris under a leader recorded as Ragnar. Over time, groups of Scandinavians began to overwinter in the lower Seine valley, constructing fortified encampments and establishing trading outposts with Archaeological finds indicating semi-permanent settlement before 911. The Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (911)[edit] The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Viking leader 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 the territory that he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking ("Norseman") origins. The turning point came in 911, when a major Viking host under the leadership of Rollo clashed with West Frankish forces near Chartres. Following negotiations, King Charles the Simple and Rollo concluded an agreement, known as the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. According to later tradition, the treaty granted Rollo and his followers land around the lower Seine, centered on Rouen, in return for conversion to Christianity, homage to the king, and an obligation to defend the coast against further Viking attacks. While the exact extent of the original grant is debated, it likely encompassed the Rouen region and surrounding territory. Over subsequent decades, Rollo's successors expanded this domain westward to include the Cotentin and eastward into the Pays de Caux, laying the foundations of the Duchy of Normandy. 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 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 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. Bayeux Tapestry (Scene 23): Harold II swearing oath on holy relics to William the Conqueror 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. Norman chroniclers and historical memory[edit] The earliest extended narrative of the Norman foundation is the "Historia Normannorum" of Dudo of Saint-Quentin, composed around 1015–1030 for Duke Richard I and Richard II. Dudo presents Rollo as a pious founder and constructs a genealogy linking the dukes with both Frankish royalty and heroic Scandinavian origins. Though literary and partisan, Dudo's account shaped later chronicles such as those of William of Jumièges and Orderic Vitalis, and influenced medieval and modern views of the Norman beginnings. Norman expansion[edit] A chronological map of the Norman Conquests, including England (1066–1485, not always in personal union with Normandy), Normandy (911–1204), southern Italy and Sicily (1030–1263), parts of Africa around Tripoli (1146–1158), and the Crusader state of the Principality of Antioch along with associated vassals, the Principality of Ancyra (1073–1075), the Principality of Tarragona (1129–1173), and the Kingdom of the Canary Islands Aside from 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 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 the conquest. Integration and the rise of the Norman duchy[edit] Over the tenth century the Scandinavian newcomers gradually merged with the Frankish population. Rollo's baptism and the establishment of a Norman episcopate symbolized Christianization, while intermarriage and bilingualism facilitated cultural assimilation. By the mid-eleventh century the dukes of Normandy commanded a polity that blended Scandinavian martial traditions with Frankish legal, ecclesiastical and feudal practices. Integration into France[edit] 13th to 17th centuries[edit] Joan of Arc about to be burned at the stake in the city of Rouen, painting by Jules Eugène Lenepveu 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 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 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 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 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 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. 18th century to present[edit] Although agriculture remained important, industries such as weaving, metallurgy, sugar refining, ceramics, and shipbuilding were introduced and developed. In 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 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 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. Omaha Beach during the Allied invasion of Normandy, mid-June 1944 During the Second World War, following the armistice of 22 June 1940, continental Normandy was part of 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 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 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) is regardless still sometimes informally referred to by the title "Duke of Normandy".

Culture

[edit] Flag[edit] 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 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". "Two-leopard" version, which is the main one "Three-leopard" version Nordic Cross version "Two-leopard" flag of Sark Coat of arms of the Duchy of Normandy Coat of arms of Guernsey Coat of arms of Jersey Language[edit] Main articles: Norman language and Norman toponymy The Norman language, including its insular variations Jèrriais and Guernésiais, is a regional language, spoken by a minority of the population on the continent and the islands, with a concentration in the Cotentin Peninsula in the far west (the Cotentinais dialect), and in the Pays de Caux in the East (the Cauchois dialect). Many words and place names demonstrate the Old English and Norse (Anglo-Scandinavian) influence in this Oïl language; for example, words : mauve (seagull), fifotte (starfish), hâ (catshark), mucre (humid, wet), (é)griller (slide, slip), fale (throat), etc. place-names : -bec (stream), -fleur (river), -hou (island), -tot (homestead), -dal / -dalle (valley), Hogue / Hougue (hill, mound), -lon / -londe (grove, wood), -vy / -vic (bay, cove), -mare (pond), -beuf (booth, cabin), etc. French is the only official language in continental Normandy and English is also an official language in the Channel Islands. Architecture[edit] Main article: Architecture of Normandy A Norman style construction in Deauville Architecturally, Norman cathedrals, abbeys (such as the Abbey of Bec) and castles characterise the former duchy in a way that mirrors the similar pattern of Norman architecture in England following the Norman Conquest of 1066. Domestic architecture in upper Normandy is typified by half-timbered buildings that also recall vernacular English architecture, although the farm enclosures of the more harshly landscaped Pays de Caux are a more idiosyncratic response to socio-economic and climatic imperatives. Much urban architectural heritage was destroyed during the Battle of Normandy in 1944 – post-war urban reconstruction, such as in Le Havre and Saint-Lô, could be said to demonstrate both the virtues and vices of modernist and brutalist trends of the 1950s and 1960s. Le Havre, the city rebuilt by Auguste Perret, was added to Unesco's World Heritage List in 2005. Vernacular architecture in lower Normandy takes its form from granite, the predominant local building material. The Channel Islands also share this influence – Chausey was for many years a source of quarried granite, including that used for the construction of Mont Saint-Michel. The south part of Bagnoles-de-l'Orne is filled with bourgeois villas in Belle Époque style with polychrome façades, bow windows and unique roofing. This area, built between 1886 and 1914, has an authentic "Bagnolese" style and is typical of high-society country vacation of the time. The Chapel of Saint Germanus (Chapelle Saint-Germain) at Querqueville with its trefoil floorplan incorporates elements of one of the earliest surviving places of Christian worship in the Cotentin – perhaps second only to the Gallo-Roman baptistry at Port-Bail. It is dedicated to Germanus of Normandy. Gastronomy[edit] Normande cow Parts of Normandy consist of rolling countryside typified by pasture for dairy cattle and apple orchards. A wide range of dairy products are produced and exported. Norman cheeses include Camembert, Livarot, Pont l'Évêque, Brillat-Savarin, Neufchâtel, Petit Suisse and Boursin. Normandy butter and Normandy cream are lavishly used in gastronomic specialties. Jersey and Guernsey cattle are famous cattle breeds worldwide, especially to North America. Cider from Normandy Turbot and oysters from the Cotentin Peninsula are major delicacies throughout France. Normandy is the chief oyster-cultivating, scallop-exporting, and mussel-raising region in France. Normandy is a major cider-producing region (very little wine is produced). Perry is also produced, but in less significant quantities. Apple brandy, of which the most famous variety is calvados, is also popular. The mealtime trou normand, or "Norman hole", is a pause between meal courses in which diners partake of a glassful of calvados in order to improve the appetite and make room for the next course, and this is still observed in many homes and restaurants. Pommeau is an apéritif produced by blending unfermented cider and apple brandy. Another aperitif is the kir normand, a measure of crème de cassis topped up with cider. Bénédictine is produced in Fécamp. Other regional specialities include tripes à la mode de Caen, andouilles and andouillettes, salade cauchoise, salt meadow (pré salé) lamb, seafood (mussels, scallops, lobsters, mackerel...), and teurgoule (spiced rice pudding). Normandy dishes include duckling à la rouennaise, sautéed chicken yvetois, and goose en daube. Rabbit is cooked with morels, or à la havraise (stuffed with truffled pigs' trotters). Other dishes are sheep's trotters à la rouennaise, casseroled veal, larded calf's liver braised with carrots, and veal (or turkey) in cream and mushrooms. Normandy is also noted for its pastries. Normandy turns out douillons (pears baked in pastry), craquelins, roulettes in Rouen, fouaces in Caen, fallues in Lisieux, sablés in Lisieux. It is the birthplace of brioches (especially those from Évreux and Gisors). Confectionery of the region includes Rouen apple sugar, Isigny caramels, Bayeux mint chews, Falaise berlingots, Le Havre marzipans, Argentan croquettes, and Rouen macaroons. Normandy is the native land of Taillevent, cook of the kings of France Charles V and Charles VI. He wrote the earliest French cookery book named Le Viandier. Confiture de lait was also made in Normandy around the 14th century. Literature[edit] See also: Anglo-Norman literature and Gesta Normannorum Ducum Wace presents his Roman de Rou to Henry II, illustration 1824. The dukes of Normandy commissioned and inspired epic literature to record and legitimise their rule. Wace, Orderic Vitalis and Stephen of Rouen were among those who wrote in the service of the dukes. After the division of 1204, French literature provided the model for the development of literature in Normandy. Olivier Basselin wrote of the Vaux de Vire, the origin of literary vaudeville. Notable Norman writers include Jean Marot, Rémy Belleau, Guy de Maupassant, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Gustave Flaubert, Octave Mirbeau, and Remy de Gourmont, and Alexis de Tocqueville. The Corneille brothers, Pierre and Thomas, born in Rouen, were great figures of French classical literature. David Ferrand (1591–1660) in his Muse Normande established a landmark of Norman language literature. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the workers and merchants of Rouen established a tradition of polemical and satirical literature in a form of language called the parler purin. At the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century, a new movement arose in the Channel Islands, led by writers such as George Métivier, which sparked a literary renaissance on the Norman mainland. In exile in Jersey and then Guernsey, Victor Hugo took an interest in the vernacular literature. Les Travailleurs de la mer is a well-known novel by Hugo set in the Channel Islands. The boom in insular literature in the early 19th century encouraged production especially in La Hague and around Cherbourg, where Alfred Rossel, Louis Beuve and Côtis-Capel became active. The typical medium for literary expression in Norman has traditionally been newspaper columns and almanacs. The novel Zabeth by André Louis which appeared in 1969 was the first novel published in Norman. Painting[edit] Claude Monet, Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875 Normandy has a rich tradition of painting and gave to France some of its most important artists. In the 17th century, some major French painters were Normans like Nicolas Poussin, born in Les Andelys and Jean Jouvenet. Romanticism drew painters to the Channel coasts of Normandy. Richard Parkes Bonington and J. M. W. Turner crossed the Channel from Great Britain, attracted by the light and landscapes. Théodore Géricault, a native of Rouen, was a notable figure in the Romantic movement, its famous Radeau de la Méduse being considered come the breakthrough of pictorial romanticism in France when it was officially presented at the Salon of 1819. The competing Realist tendency was represented by Jean-François Millet, a native of La Hague. The landscape painter Eugène Boudin, born in Honfleur, was a determining influence on the impressionists and was highly considered by Monet. Eugène Chigot (1860–1923), Printemps en Normandie (Springtime in Normandy) (1914/15) Robert Antoine Pinchon, Un après-midi à l'Ile aux Cerises, Rouen, oil on canvas, 50 x 61.2 cm Breaking away from the more formalised and classical themes of the early part of the 19th century, Impressionist painters preferred to paint outdoors, in natural light, and to concentrate on landscapes, towns and scenes of daily life. Leader of the movement and father of modern painting, Claude Monet is one of the best known Impressionists and a major character in Normandy's artistic heritage. His house and gardens at Giverny are one of the region's major tourist sites, much visited for their beauty and their water lilies, as well as for their importance to Monet's artistic inspiration. Normandy was at the heart of his creation, from the paintings of Rouen's cathedral to the famous depictions of the cliffs at Étretat, the beach and port at Fécamp and the sunrise at Le Havre. It was Impression, Sunrise, Monet's painting of Le Havre, that led to the movement being dubbed Impressionism. After Monet, all the main avant-garde painters of the 1870s and 1880s came to Normandy to paint its landscapes and its changing lights, concentrating along the Seine valley and the Norman coast. Landscapes and scenes of daily life were also immortalised on canvas by artists that have included : William Turner, Gustave Courbet, the Honfleur born Eugène Boudin, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte, Eugène Chigot, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. While Monet's work adorns galleries and collections all over the world, a remarkable quantity of Impressionist works can be found in galleries throughout Normandy, such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Rouen, the Musée Eugène Boudin in Honfleur or the André Malraux Museum in Le Havre. Maurice Denis, one of the leaders and theoricists of the Nabis movement in the 1890s, was a native of Granville, in the department of Manche. Marie-Thérèse Auffray, an expressionist painter and member of the French resistance during WWII, lived and painted in the village of Échauffour. The Société Normande de Peinture Moderne was founded in 1909 by Pierre Dumont, Robert Antoine Pinchon, Yvonne Barbier and Eugène Tirvert. Among members were Raoul Dufy, a native of Le Havre, Albert Marquet, Francis Picabia and Maurice Utrillo. Also in this movement were the Duchamp brothers, Jacques Villon and Marcel Duchamp, considered one of the father of modern art, also natives of Normandy. Jean Dubuffet, one of the leading French artist of the 1940s and the 1950s was born in Le Havre. Religion[edit] Rouen Cathedral Christian missionaries implanted monastic communities in the territory in the 5th and 6th centuries. Some of these missionaries came from across the Channel. The influence of Celtic Christianity can still be found in the Cotentin. By the terms of the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Rollo, a Viking pagan, accepted Christianity and was baptised. The Duchy of Normandy was therefore formally a Christian state from its foundation. The cathedrals of Normandy have exerted influence down the centuries in matters of both faith and politics. King Henry II of England did penance at the cathedral of Avranches on 21 May 1172 and was absolved from the censures incurred by the assassination of Thomas Becket. Mont Saint-Michel is a historic pilgrimage site. Normandy does not have one generally agreed patron saint, although this title has been ascribed to Saint Michael, and to Saint Ouen. Many saints have been revered in Normandy down the centuries, including: Aubert who's remembered as the founder of Mont Saint-Michel Marcouf and Laud who are important saints in Normandy Helier and Samson of Dol who are evangelizers of the Channel Islands Thomas Becket, an Anglo-Norman whose parents were from Rouen, who was the object of a considerable following in mainland Normandy following his martyrdom Joan of Arc who was martyred in Rouen, and who is especially remembered in that city Thérèse de Lisieux whose birthplace in Alençon and later home in Lisieux are a focus for religious pilgrims. Germanus of Normandy Since the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, there is no established church in mainland Normandy. In the Channel Islands, the Church of England is the established church. People[edit] See Category:People from Normandy

Normandy

From Wikipedia

Introduction

History

Geography

Politics

Economy

Demographics

Culture