"The Normans: From raiders to kings" by Lars Brownworth. This book is published by Crux publishing in 2014 and has 254 pages. It's a historical nonfiction.
Towards end of 9th century Viking raiders (known as Norsemen) from Scandinavia were regularly raiding and foraging Frankish kingdom and England. Vikings were known as fearless, brute, cruel, semi civilized, pirates and invaders who worshipped Odin.
In 911 AD, Frankish king Charles offered large land in Northern France to Viking Lord Rollo, to reduce Viking raids. Thus the Norman state was founded with Normandy as it's capital. Rollo embraced Christianity and adopted to French way of life to make himself acceptable to the local population. He was a staunch supporter of Pope.
Rollo's line continued - William, Richard, Richard II, Richard III & Robert who expanded the territory governed by Normans. Robert's son William-the-conquerer, eventually became King of England and his line ruled England.
The narration then moves to the Italian adventures of Normans. Another William, a minor Lord became a Duke by expanding his empire in Southern Italy. It was furthered by his son Roger Guiscard who marched in Byzantine empire and was close to victory when he had to return to Rome because King of Germany attacked the Pope. Upon his death Bohemund, his son was deprived of inheritance. He seized the chance to join crusaders against Constantinople and carved out a state for himself but lost a lot to a misjudged war and the state remained a principality and was longest serving, though weak, Norman state.
Robert Guiscard's brother, Roger of Sicily, is known for his conquests of Muslim Sicily. He brought entire Sicily under his rule by defeating or subjugating Arab and Berber rulers and was known for tolerance towards other religions. His son Roger II conquered Southern Italy in addition to Sicily and was crowned King by the then Pope. He was the first one to apply common man's law to the warlords and barons. He was succeeded by his son William-the-bad who won many battles by not fighting them, his son was William-the-worst. He was succeeded by a man called the Monkey king and later by Frederick II, who lead and won the fifth crusade and was titled King of Jerusalem.
All this history of Normans spans about 200 years and is full of wars, truce, rebellion, pillage, looting, rapes, assassinations, exiles, excommunication, marriage alliances, politics, religious politics and ambitions. They were supporters of trade which brought prosperity. Except for Frederick II, none are mentioned to have provided patronage to art and science. They simply meant business of war.
Normans were fearless warriors and they won a number of wars despite being numerically inferior, some when they were ridiculously inferior. These victories created psychological terror in the minds of their opponents. Their knights were known as legendary fighters second to none.
Their virtue was that they preferred to blend with local populace rather than trying to impose their identity, thus making themselves easily acceptable. Their rule extended from north sea to north Africa.
From being raiders to becoming kings was a spectacular feat achieved by Normans in less than a century. Credit goes to their valor, foresight and exploitation of European politics. (German monarchy, English monarchy, Pope, Byzantine empire of Greeks, Turks and African Muslims)
Read it if you are interested in Norman history, even if you are not a history student. If you are not interested in history, better read wikipedia.
