Penny S: Anyone who still believes the Normans were a civilising influence has been reading the wrong histories.

Ditto for anyone who believes the Normans were French! There's a clue in the name! They were basically transplanted Vikings, backed up in their invasion by a bunch of Bretons (who were originally Brits transplanted to Armorica at the end of the Roman period). There were hardly any Frenchmen in William The Bastard's army in 1066!

(Incidentally, when and why did "a l' Armoricaine" become "a l' Americaine"?).