The Norse

The Norsemen were a medieval people which came from Scandinavia. The Norse were known for the members of their societies which engaged in coastal raids, piracy and trading: Vikings, although this term is widely used to refer to Norse as a people. It is known that early in the middle ages, the Norse began to attack and colonize surrounding lands, which came to be known as the viking age. Many factors could explain the motivations behind the start of the Viking Age, like the lack of good farmlands, overpopulation and the shortage of women. Indeed, the Norse had polygamic tendencies, the wealthier and more powerful norsemen having more wives than the average man, creating a lack of available women for the latter. The start of the Viking age also coincides with the unification of Norway into a kingdom. The aggressive actions employed by christian kingdoms in the south to convert Germanic people and the development of populous, wealthy towns all over Europe could also be a factor. Those Vikings initially came from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, but soon came to colonize surrounding regions like Ireland, Scotland, Normandy, Greenland, even going so far as Newfoundland, discovering the New World centuries before the Spanish.

The Viking Age is said to have started in 793 with the attack on the monastery of Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Northumbria, in what is now the northern part of England. The excessive amount of violence towards defenseless holy men caused outrage in England, and this attack on Lindisfarne was hence particularly remembered. The monasteries were known for being relatively unguarded, as an attack on one was considered unthinkable in the Christian world, but for the pagan Norsemen, it was a good source of riches, so raids on monasteries were not uncommon.

Although the Vikings initially raided randomly on shallow hit and runs, they gradually came to exploit inner conflicts between European kingdoms and started to expand their activities farther inland. At this point, the Vikings began to organize full fledged invasion territories in Europe, invading parts of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, establishing kingdoms and cities. In fact, much of England was invaded by the Vikings.

In France, the Viking raids went so far as Paris. The king of Francia eventually allowed a group of Vikings to keep Normandy, so long as it prevented other raiders from making their way up the Seine. The Vikings of Normandy intermingled with the French and became known as the Normans.

The influence of the Norse even made its way to the Byzantine Empire, who's emperors were known to employ them as their own personal guards, called the Varangian Guard. The Varangians were known for their loyalty, and being foreigners, had the advantage of not being biased towards the political rivalries of the local Greek politicians.

In the latter parts of the Middle Ages, the vikings all over Europe were either defeated and pushed back, or they settled down, Christianized and assimilated to the cultures of the local European.