A Norman individual buried in England in 1079 would carry genetic ancestry that was substantially continental European, with Scandinavian elements, because the Norman population itself had that profile.

But Flemish merchants and craftsmen were also present in England throughout the eleventh century.

Flanders, corresponding roughly to modern Belgium and parts of the Netherlands, was a major center of cloth production and trade in the medieval period.

Flemish settlers arrived in England in significant numbers, both before and after the Norman Conquest.

And Scandinavian settlers continued to arrive in England throughout the eleventh century.

The political connections of Cnut’s North Sea empire meant that movement between Scandinavia and England was common and socially facilitated.