NORMANDY (Fr. Normandie), formerly a province in the north of France, bordering on the English channel; now divided into the departments of Seine-Infiffieure, Eure, Orne, Calvados, and Manche. It is in general a very fertile, richly-cultivated land, resembling a garden in many districts. Its chief agricultural products are and fruits (from which cider is largely made); its fisheries and manufactures of great importance, and its horses the best in the kingdom. The inhabitants are for the most part descendants of the old Normans, and bear the stamp of their splendid ancestors. They are intelligent, strongly built, and of a noble and energetic character; warm hearted and patriotic, they produce the boldest sailors, the most skillful fishermen, agri culturists, cattle-rearers, and gardeners iu all France. In the northeastern and more level part (formerly Upper Normandy),.the principal towns are Rouen, Dieppe, Havre de-Grace, Hartleur,'Houtleur, Evreux, 'Yvetot; in the south-western and hilly part (Lower Normandy), the pnticipal towns are Caen, Falaise, Stjm, BayeuX, Coutances, Avranches, Balonne, Alencon, Cherbourg, and Mont-St-Michel.
In the time of the Romans, the country bore the name of Gallia Lugdunensis .11. Under the Frankish monarchs it formed a part of Neustria, and was first called Normandy after Charles the simple, in 912, had given it to Rolf or Rollo, the leader of a baud of Norse rovers (see NonmANs), to be held by him and his posterity as a fief of the French crown. From Rolf (baptized into Christianity under the name of Robert) and Gisela,
the daughter of Charles, sprung the latter dukes of Normandy, of whom Richard I., grandson of Rolf, vigorously maintained his authority against his liege lords, Louis IV. and Lothaire. William II., son of Robert II., became duke of Normandy in 1036; and in 1066, established a Norman dynasty on the throne of England (see WILLIA31 THE CON guERon), thereby politically uniting Normandy with the latter country. In 1077 his eldest son, Robert, wrested Normandy from hiin, but it was again united to England under Henry I. in 1105. With this monarch, Rolf's male line became extinct. Henry II., the son of Henry I.'s daughter, after the death of Stephen of Blois, obtained in 1154 the government of England and Normandy; but in the reign of his son, John Lackland, it was conquered by Philippe Auguste (1203-04). It remained a por tion of the French monarchy for more than 200 years; but after the battle of Agincourt (1415) it was reconquered by the English, who held it till 1449, when it was finally wrested from them by Charles VII: See Liquet's Historie de la Normandie (1835); Pal grave's History of Normandy and of England