The politics of being N orman in the reign of R ichard the F earless, D uke of N ormandy (r. 942–996)

In 966, by the end of the reign of its third duke, R ichard I , N ormandy had overcome the crises that had beset it in the middle of the century. Much of this success came from the coherence of its ruling group, which expressed itself partly in terms of ‘ N orman’ identity. This article uses D udo's history of the dukes and R ichard's charters to argue that ‘ N orman’ as a political identity was a deliberate creation of the court of R ichard I in the 960s, following the perceived failure of his and his father's policies of assimilation into F rankish culture.