The Normans - A Dynasty that Shaped the World

This episode focuses on the creation of Normandy when Rollo, a Scandinavian, was granted control of what is known as Normandy in 911 after the break-up of Charlemagne's empire. From these beginnings, Normandy grew in power and influence, until the Norman conquest of Britain in 1066. William the Conqueror now turned his hand to controlling England and subduing Scotland.

Edward the Confessor's reign in England has been considered the "Norman Prelude". Upon his death in January 1066, the question of succession remained unresolved. Cross channel claims for the throne brought the Anglo-Saxson and Noman dynasties head to head. Within months, William the Conqueror was crowned "as God and Saints were witnesses". The Norman Prelude had given way to the Norman Era - It would last for two centuries.

By the beginning of the 11th Century, the Normans had virtually completed the process by which they transformed themselves frm a coalition of illiterate heathen barbarians into a civilised Christian State. In southern Italy the Normans found a great market for their mercenary abilities and by 1022 they had perfected the art of being on the winning side. By 1056 Robert Guiscard had become a dominant power in Southern Italy and ther reign of his nephew Roger II found a successful and thriving kingdom. The Kingdom in the Sun represented the bridge between north and south, east and west, and the Teuton, Christian and Muslim worlds, and boasted a flourishing culture that combined Byzantine, Arabic and Western elements to become that most prosperous and strongly centralised state in the mediterranean world.