Hello and welcome to the History of England, episode 21 of the Normans, a race unbridled.

This week we're going to introduce the Normans.

Tomorrow we're going to spend a couple of hundred years in their company, so it's as

well to know something about them.

But my advice would be that if you really want to know what the Normans were like, you

simply need to go and look at Durham Cathedral.

It completely sums them up, from the outside it's massive, impressive, brutal, and dark.

On the inside it's just the most stunning of all events, cathedrals in my humble opinion.

Now of course you've got the Cathedral's ideal partner in the castle next door, and

you can believe they work together.

If you've not been to Durham, I can hardly recommend the trip, you won't be disappointed.

The title of today's episode comes from a contemporary chronicle called Geoffrey of

Manitera.

He noted that the Normans were eager for gain and dominion, and basically just people that

were difficult to ignore.

So let's look at where they came from and how they got into this position.

As the name suggests, the Normans were originally Vikings, and their presence in Normandy

was very much part of the Viking Age.

You may remember that period of reconstruction and defence when Alfred and England had

come back from the brink and was constructing his burrows in anticipation at further attacks.

Meanwhile one of the Danish armies had left for the continent.

In an 885 they joined the larger contingent of Vikings raiding down the river Sen, led

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