The Danish invasion of England was really a part of a great European
movement. The same Northmen who had obtained so large a part of the
island (S56) had, in the tenth century, established themselves in
France.
There they were known as Normans, a softened form of the word
"Northmen," and the district where they settled came to be called from
them Normandy. They founded a line of dukes, or princes, who were
destined, in the course of the next century, to give a new aspect to
the events of English history.