In early medieval France, the age of the Vikings began slightly later than in Britain,

with the first recorded pirates arriving off the coast of Aquitaine in 799.

It also ended earlier than in Britain, with most invaders being driven off by the 940s.

This is by no means to say that the French got off lightly, however.

It was on French soil during that brutal 150-year period, encapsulating the entire 9th century, that some of the largest and most

intense of all Viking incursions took place, including at least three large-scale sieges

of Paris, and attacks on nearly every other major population centre and trading community in West Francia.

The Viking Age burned brightly in what is now France,

and though it is usually said to have ended by the 940s,

peace was only achieved by a French king giving away a large chunk of land to a group of particularly dangerous invaders.

Though ridiculed at the time, this decision ultimately proved to be the most effective strategy of all in combating the Norsemen.

In just a few decades, the Franco-Scanadian descendants of those invaders of the

early 10th century would adopt Christianity. Within two generations, they were speaking French,

and perhaps most ominously for their future opponents from Northern Britain to the eastern

shores of the Mediterranean,

they adopted Frankish customs, in particular heavy cavalry and castle building.

It was within this precariously placed frontier society, consisting at first of little more than a few determined invaders, ruling with an iron fist over a subject population, that the next, and even more brutal phase of Northern European warriors would eventually be forged. These warriors were destined

to become the most effective fighting force in all of Europe, the masters of lands from Italy to

Palestine, and the conquerors of England. The age of the Normans was about to begin.

This is as much the story of those descendants of Norsemen as it is of their founding father,

a larger-than-life character and one of the most successful Vikings

in history. The warlord from an obscure background became ancestor to every monarch in Europe.

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