(French: Normandie)
The Duchy of Normandy, in NW France, was one of the many regions in Europe colonised by Nordic vikings.
Viking raids on the west coast of the Frankish Empire, beginning around 840, soon progressed to outright armed invasions, with demands of ransom and tribute. Later, actual land conquests began to occur - initially with little lasting result, but by 911, a colony (with a population largely composed of Danes, and some Norwegians) had come into being around the mouth of the river Seine. The threat posed by this armed intrusion into the Empire was finally resolved when the Frankish Emperor Charles the Simple coöpted the viking settlers by creating their chief, Rollo (Hrolf) an imperial duke, and incorporating Normandy into the Empire as a duchy.
By the time of Duke William (William the Conqueror), over a century later, the Nordic population in Normandy had been integrated into the French people, and the Danish speech had become the language of the elderly. As a child, one anecdote recalls, William was taught a smidgeon of the old tongue in order to properly greet a visiting Danish nobleman.
Today, the Nordic heritage persists only in the form of Nordic name legacies in Normandy.