When in 911, the Viking chief Rollo was given the territories that would make up Normandy through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, he distributed domains to his main supporters among those who had accompanied him on his expeditions against the English and the Neustrians.

[1] The Beuvron branch includes several marshal of France and lieutenant Generals of the ancien régime royal armies.

His cousin Edward Vernon, Archbishop of York, thus inherited the majority of that branch's lands and titles and took the name and heraldic shield of the English Harcourt family by royal authorisation on 15 January 1831.

[3][4] Geoffroy de Harcourt was also one of those who guarded Edward, the Black Prince at the Battle of Crécy.

[5] Also, after Philip II's conquest of Normandy in 1204, the Harcourts habitually became the head of feudal movements against the king of France.