Norsemen

(nõrz'měn,) NORTHΜΕΝ or NORMANS. (Hist.) The title under which were generically known the anc. Scand in avians, or people of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, but more usually confined to those corsairs whom the Saxons styled Danes. They were long the terror of N. Europe, became masters of England under their leader, Canute (q. v.), formed a league with the Saxons, and ravaged the coasts of the empire of Charlemagne, and by 885 they had conquered or plundered the whole of Holland, Flanders, W. Germany, a great part of France, and the W. coast of Spain, whence, forcing their way into the Mediterranean, they wasted the shores of Africa, Italy, and Sicily. In 912, Rollo, one of their most warlike chiefs, was given the hand of a daughter of Charles the Simple, and with her acquired that French territory afterward known as Normandy. They rapidly became civilized, but did not lose their indomitable pa ion for conquest and colonization. In 1066, England once more fell under their rule, and princes of the race afterward [s. 650]