. In 1016, Norman pilgrims returning from the Holy Land disembarked at Bari, then in revolt against the Byzantine emperor. Hiring themselves out as mercenaries, first to one and then to another side in the wars waged between and among Byzantines in...

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in norther France. They were the descendants of the original Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock. Their identity...