William was Norman, with Norse ancestry

Was William the Conqueror a Viking?

He was a Norman: a French-speaking descendant of Norse settlers in Normandy.

William was a Norman rather than a Viking in the original cultural sense. The Normans descended from Norse settlers who established themselves in northern France and ruled the territory that became Normandy. Over time they adopted a form of French and developed a distinct political society. Norse ancestry explains the name and origins of the Normans without erasing the cultural change that had occurred before 1066.