Normandy - Moments in history

Normandy has a colourful history and from my reading to date and visits to some of the main attractions this part of France has been influenced by Scandinavians and the English predominantly , and Germans for a short time during the second world war . It has been destroyed and rebuilt several times . The french have really only just reclaimed it since the end of the second world war 1944.

Early beginnings go back to the Celts and Romans but the main creators were the Vikings (Rollo from Norway being made the first Duke of Normandy) . William the Conqueror , not a very nice man by all accounts but he did have some redeemable qualities: he was reported to be a faithful loyal man to his wife Matilda who he left to run Normandy whilst he conquered England ) and cried for days when she died. We will dismiss fact that he was a control freak with puritanical disdain for food and drink , unstoppable craving for wealth and power and his acts of cruelty. ( chopping the hands and feet of people if the insulted his mother( ref from book) . His desire to have the Throne of England which he succeed in obtaining after the battle of Hastings in 1066. When he died ( 1087) the squabbling between the English and the Normans continued .

1204 there was the union of Normandy and France . The french finally ousted the Duke and Normandy was lost to Philippe Auguste.

Many years of war ensued and eventually the French with the help of Joan of Arc secured permanent control over Normandy (1450) and it became part of the french Crown ( 1468) .

Religion played its part as it does in history and war. There were then the Wars of Religion between the Protestants ( Hugenots as they were known in France) and the Catholic church.
Discontent continued even under the French during the revolution and after the storming of the Bastille. The Normands generally supported the revolution but did not support the execution of the King. They supported the Girondins( middle class faction from the southwest of France ). Tensions between these and the Jacobins( supporting the Royalists predominantly) eventually lead to Jean Paul Maret a radical revolutionary being killed in the bath by 25 year old Charlotte Corday. She was later sold to the English tried and killed by guillotine for her pains .(Thought to be practicing witchcraft and spells)

Normandy in the 19th Century .Napoleon was declared Emperor in 1804. Political turmoil followed, tariffs removed and riots broke out in protest , grand Architectural schemes, new railways, tourism developed along Normandy's coastline and the impressionist painters set up their easels along Normandy's beaches - Eugene Boudin and later Claude Monet

The second world war ;1940 the German occupation of Normandy

1944 D-Day . The allies reclaim Normandy .

Modern Normandy has recovered , rebuilding it towns and cities and developing new infrastructures . Today it is predominantly an agricultural region - cereal production , cheese, apples and cider production, and tourism, as well as investing in some new industries ( nuclear power Le Hague )