ABSTRACT
Normandy, Brittany and Flanders emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries as regions with strong Carolingian connections, but possessing a large measure of autonomy. Land ceded to the Vikings by the Frankish King Charles the Simple between 911 and 918 formed the nucleus of the ducal state of Normandy, and was the culmination of sixty years of Viking raiding in the Frankish kingdoms. The attacks on Frisia come into a different category from those on the rest of the Frankish kingdom, for there was conflict between rival groups of Danes. The part of Neustria which became Normandy may never have been very densely settled by the Franks and remained somewhat removed from the centre of the Carolingian world. Place name evidence has yielded some clues concerning the process of settlement by the Vikings in the Normandy area. The church in Normandy had suffered badly as a result of Viking depredations from the middle of the ninth century.
