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After Charles was deposed by [[Robert I of France|Robert I]], Rollo considered his oath to the King of France to be over. It started a period of expansion westwards. Negotiations with French barons ended with Rollo being given [[Le Mans]] and [[Bayeux]] and continued with the seizure of [[Bessin]] in 924. The following year saw the [[Normans]] attack [[Picardy]]. |
After Charles was deposed by [[Robert I of France|Robert I]], Rollo considered his oath to the King of France to be over. It started a period of expansion westwards. Negotiations with French barons ended with Rollo being given [[Le Mans]] and [[Bayeux]] and continued with the seizure of [[Bessin]] in 924. The following year saw the [[Normans]] attack [[Picardy]]. |
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Rollo began to divide the land between the Epte and Risle rivers among his chieftains and settled there with a ''de facto'' capital in Rouen. Eventually{{When|date=May 2011}} Rollo's men intermarried with the local women, and became more settled as Normans.{{Clarify|date=May 2011}} At the time of his death, Rollo's territory extended as far west as the [[ |
Rollo began to divide the land between the Epte and Risle rivers among his chieftains and settled there with a ''de facto'' capital in Rouen. Eventually{{When|date=May 2011}} Rollo's men intermarried with the local women, and became more settled as Normans.{{Clarify|date=May 2011}} At the time of his death, Rollo's territory extended as far west as the [[Dives River]]. |
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==Family== |
==Family== |
Revision as of 01:26, 12 February 2012
Rollo | |
---|---|
Duke of Normandy | |
Reign | 911–927 |
Predecessor | New creation |
Successor | William I |
Died | 931 Normandy |
Burial |
Rollo (c. 846 – c. 931), baptised Robert and so sometimes numbered Robert I to distinguish him from his descendants, was a Norse nobleman of Norwegian or Danish descent and founder and first ruler of the Viking principality in what soon became known as Normandy. His descendants were the Dukes of Normandy.
The name "Rollo" is a Latin translation due to the clerics from the Old Norse name Hrólfr, modern Scandinavian name Rolf (cf. the latinization of Hrólfr into the similar Roluo in the Gesta Danorum), but his popular name was Rou(f) (see Wace's Roman de Rou).[1] Sometimes his name is turned into the Frankish name Rodolf(us) or Radulf(us) and Raoul, that derives of it.[2]
Historical evidence
Rollo was a powerful Viking leader of contested origin. Dudo of St. Quentin, in his De moribus et actis primorum Normannorum ducum Template:La icon, tells of a powerful Danish nobleman at loggerheads with the king of Denmark, who had two sons, Gurim and Rollo; upon his death, Rollo was expelled and Gurim killed. William of Jumièges also mentions Rollo's prehistory in his Gesta Normannorum Ducum, but states that he was from the Danish town of Fakse. Wace, writing some 300 years after the event in his Roman de Rou, also mentions the two brothers (as Rou and Garin), as does the Orkneyinga Saga.
Norwegian and Icelandic historians identified Rollo instead with "Ganger Hrolf" (Old Norse Gǫngu Hrólfr "Hrolf, the Walker"), a son of Rognvald Eysteinsson, Earl of Møre, in Western Norway, based on medieval Norwegian and Icelandic sagas. The oldest source of this version is the Latin Historia Norvegiae, written in Norway at the end of the 12th century. This Hrolf fell foul of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair, and became a Jarl in Normandy. The nickname "the Walker" came from being so big that no horse could carry him.
The question of Rollo's Danish or Norwegian origins was a matter of heated dispute between Norwegian and Danish historians of the 19th and early 20th century, particularly in the run-up to Normandy's 1000-year-anniversary in 1911. Today, historians still disagree on this question, but most would now agree that a certain conclusion can never be reached.
The royal Viking family lineage introduced in Hversu Noregr byggðist ("How Norway was inhabited") and the Orkneyinga and Heimskringla sagas shows a line of Rollo going back to King Fornjot of Finland and Kvenland, who also ruled over Gotland. This line leading to Rollo includes Rognvald "The Wise" Eysteinsson (c. 825-892) (son of Eystein Ivarsson), who is the founder of the Earldom of Orkney in the Norse Sagas.
Raids along the Seine
In 885, Rollo was one of the lesser leaders of the Viking fleet which besieged Paris under Sigfred. Legend has it that an emissary was sent by the king to find the chieftain and negotiate terms. When he asked for this information, the Vikings replied that they were all chieftains in their own right. In 886, when Sigfred retreated in return for tribute, Rollo stayed behind and was eventually bought off and sent to harry Burgundy.
Later, he returned to the Seine with his followers (known as Danes, or Norsemen). He invaded the area of northern France now known as Normandy.
In 911 Rollo's forces launched a failed attack on Paris before laying siege to Chartres. The appeals for help of the Bishop of Chartres, Joseaume, were answered by Robert, Marquis of Neustria, Richard, Duke of Burgundy and Manasses, Count of Dijon. On 20 July 911, at the Battle of Chartres, they defeated Rollo despite the absence of many French barons and also the absence of the French King Charles the Simple.[3]
The Principality of Normandy
In the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (911) with King Charles, Rollo pledged feudal allegiance to the king, changed his name to the Frankish version, and converted to Christianity, probably with the baptismal name Robert.[4] In return, King Charles granted Rollo land between the Epte and the sea as well as Brittany and according to Dudo of St. Quentin, the hand of the King's daughter, Gisela, although this marriage and Gisela herself are unknown to Frankish sources. He was also the titular ruler of Normandy, centered around the city of Rouen. There exists some argument among historians as to whether Rollo was a "duke" (dux) or whether his position was equivalent to that of a "count" under Charlemagne.
According to legend, when required to kiss the foot of King Charles, as a condition of the treaty, he refused to perform so great a humiliation, and when Charles extended his foot to Rollo, Rollo ordered one of his warriors to do so in his place. His warrior then lifted Charles' foot up to his mouth causing the king to fall to the ground.[5]
After 911, Rollo stayed true to his word of defending the shores of the Seine river in accordance to the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, however he also continued to act like a Viking chief with attacks on Flanders.
After Charles was deposed by Robert I, Rollo considered his oath to the King of France to be over. It started a period of expansion westwards. Negotiations with French barons ended with Rollo being given Le Mans and Bayeux and continued with the seizure of Bessin in 924. The following year saw the Normans attack Picardy.
Rollo began to divide the land between the Epte and Risle rivers among his chieftains and settled there with a de facto capital in Rouen. Eventually[when?] Rollo's men intermarried with the local women, and became more settled as Normans.[clarification needed] At the time of his death, Rollo's territory extended as far west as the Dives River.
Family
Two spouses are reported for Rollo:
1. Poppa, said by chronicler Dudo of Saint-Quentin to have been a daughter of Count Berenger, captured during a raid at Bayeux. She was his mistress or wife[6] perhaps by more danico[7] They had issue:
- William Longsword, born "overseas".
- Gerloc, wife of William I of Aquitaine. Dudo fails to identify her mother, but later chronicler William of Jumieges makes this explicit.
- (perhaps) Kadlin, said by Ari the Historian to have been daughter of Ganger Hrolf, traditionally identified with Rollo. She married a Scottish King called Bjolan, and had at least a daughter called Midbjorg, she was taken captive by and married Helgi Ottarson.
2. (traditionally) Gisela of France (d. 919), the daughter of Charles III of France.
Death
Sometime around 927, Rollo passed the fief in Normandy to his son, William Longsword. Rollo may have lived for a few years after that, but certainly died before 933. According to the historian Adhemar, 'As Rollo's death drew near, he went mad and had a hundred Christian prisoners beheaded in front of him in honor of the gods whom he had worshiped,[citation needed] and in the end distributed a hundred pounds of gold around the churches in honor of the true God in whose name he had accepted baptism.' Even though Rollo had converted to Christianity, some of his prior religious roots surfaced at the end.[citation needed]
Legacy
Rollo is the great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror. Through William, he is an ancestor of the present-day British royal family, as well as an ancestor of all current European monarchs and a great many pretenders to abolished European thrones. A genetic investigation into the remains of Rollo's grandson Richard I and great-grandson Richard II has been announced, with the intention of discerning the origins of the famous Viking warrior.[8]
The "Clameur de Haro" in the Channel Islands is, supposedly, an appeal to Rollo.
Genealogy
Depictions in fiction
Rollo is the subject of the 17th century play Rollo Duke of Normandy written by John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman. He is also a minor character in the romance novel, The Reluctant Viking by Sandra Hill. His wife Poppa and his son William are also minor characters.
See also
External links
- D.C. Douglas, "Rollo of Normandy", English Historical Review, Vol. 57 (1942), pp. 414–436
- Robert Helmerichs, [Rollo as Historical Figure]
- Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdom under the Carolingians, 751-987, (Longman) 1983
- Dudonis gesta Normannorum - Dudo of St. Quentin Gesta Normannorum Latin version at Bibliotheca Augustana
- Dudo of St. Quentin's Gesta Normannorum - An English Translation
- Gwyn Jones. Second edition: A History of the Vikings. Oxford University Press. (1984).
- William W. Fitzhugh and Elizabeth Ward. Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Smithsonian Institution Press. (2000)
- Eric Christiansen. The Norsemen in the Viking Age. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. (2002)
- Agnus Konstam. Historical Atlas of the Viking World. Checkmark Books. (2002)
- Holgar Arbman. Ancient People and Places: The Vikings. Thames and Hudson. (1961)
- Eric Oxenstierna. The Norsemen, New York Graphics Society Publishers, Ltd. (1965)
- Medieval Lands on Ragnvald the Wise, the father of Ganger Hrolf, traditionally identified with Rollo, but see the following link below
- Stewart Baldwin Henry Project: "Rollo "of Normandy", on disputed parentage of Rollo
- Decendents of Rollo
References
- ^ René Lepelley, Guillaume le duc, Guillaume le roi : extraits du Roman de Rou de Wace, Centre de publications de l'Université de Caen, Caen, 1987, p. 15 and 16.
- ^ Rou is the result of a series of French regular phonetic changes from Hrólfr > Rolf > Rouf to Rou cf. Norman names in -ouf and -ou(t) : I(n)gouf and Ygout < Old Norse Ingulfr / Ingólfr (Old Danish Ingulf). The variant form Rollo is just a latinization of the root Rol(l)- + Latin suffix -o / -one-, after the Latin names in -o. cf. Cicero / Cicerone and the latinized Germanic short names in -o > -o / -on, instead of -an in Germanic cf. Bero / Beran. That is the reason why his name is Rollon in Standard French. Rollo is also known in the documents as Radulf(us) (Old Low Franconian) (or sometimes Rodulf(us)) > French Raoul, that is the French translation of Hróðulfr > Hrólfr, according to the Low Franconian variant form Radulf of Germanic Rodulf / Rudolf
- ^ Francois Neveux. A Brief History of The Normans. Constable and Robinson Ltd. 2006; p. 62
- ^ Roman de Rou, Wace
- ^ Holden, A.J. (1970). Le Roman de Rou de Wace. Paris: Éditions A.J. Picard. p.54. Lines 1147-1156
- ^ Stewart Baldwin, F.A.S.G., Henry Project:"Poppa"
- ^ Philip Lyndon Reynolds: Marriage in the Western Church: the Christianization of marriage during the Patristic and Early Medieval Periods (2001)
- ^ "Viking is 'forefather to British Royals'". Views and News from Norway. 15 June 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2011.