Richard "The Fearless" Normandy, Duke of Normandy

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: 9H1J-B4T
• Initiatory (LDS): 30 Apr 1928

Richard married Emma Capet in 960. Emma (daughter of Hugh "The Great" Capet, Count of Paris and Hedwig) was born in 943 in Paris, Paris, Île-de-France, République française; died after 19 Mar 968 in République française. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Richard married Gunnora de Crepon, Duchess of Normandy about 970 in Normandie, République française. Gunnora (daughter of Herbastus de Crepon and Cyrid) was born in 950 in Normandie, République française; died in 1031 in Normandie, République française. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Maud Normandy was born about 974 in Normandie, République française; died in 1005 in Auvergny, d'Evreux, l'Eure, Haute-Normandie, République française.
2. Mauger Normandy, Count of Mortain was born in 977; died in 1032.
3. Hawise Normandy, Countess of Rennes, Duchess of Brittany was born about 977 in Normandie, République française; died on 21 Feb 1034 in Rennes, Rennes, Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne, République française.
4. Richard "The Good" Normandy, II Duke of Normandy was born in 978 in Normandie, République française; died on 28 Aug 1026 in Normandie, République française.
5. Emma Normandy was born in 985; died on 6 Mar 1052 in Winchester, Hampshire, England.
6. Robert Normandy, Archbishop of Rouen, Count of Evreux was born before 989; died in 1037.

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• FamilySearch ID: 9HRG-JDL
• Initiatory (LDS): 11 Oct 2000, LANGE

William married Sprota de Bretagne in 919 in Saint-Denis-de-Pile, Gironde, Aquitaine, République française. Sprota was born about 911 in Bretagne, République française. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LDH1-G9D
• Initiatory (LDS): 20 Sep 1938

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LZDH-NFR
• Initiatory (LDS): 10 Jun 1907

Notes:

Rollo or Gaange Rolf (Norman: Rou; Old Norse: Hrólfr; French: Rollon ; c . 860 - c. 930 AD) was a Viking who became the first ruler of Normand y , a region of France. He is sometimes called the first Duke of Normand y , but there is no record of Rollo holding or using any title. His son a n d grandson, William Longsword and Richard I, used the titles "count" (L at in comes or consul) and "prince" (princeps). His great-grandson Richar d I I was the first to officially use the title of Duke of Normandy. Hi s Scan dinavian name Rolf was extended to Gaange Rolf because he became t oo heav y as an adult for a horse to carry, therefore he had to walk ("ga a" in ol der Dano-Norwegian). Rollo emerged as the outstanding personalit y among t he Norsemen who had secured a permanent foothold on Frankish so il in th e valley of the lower Seine. Charles the Simple, the king of Wes t Francia , ceded them lands between the mouth of the Seine and what is n ow Rouen i n exchange for Rollo agreeing to end his brigandage, and provi de the Fran ks with protection against future Viking raids.

Rollo is first recorded as the leader of these Viking settlers in a char t er of 918, and he continued to reign over the region of Normandy unti l a t least 928. He was succeeded by his son, William Longsword in the Du ch y of Normandy that he had founded. The offspring of Rollo and his foll owe rs became known as the Normans. After the Norman conquest of Englan d an d their conquest of southern Italy and Sicily over the following tw o cent uries, their descendants came to rule Norman England (the House o f Norman dy), the Kingdom of Sicily (the Kings of Sicily) as well as th e Principal ity of Antioch from the 10th to 12th century, leaving behin d an endurin g legacy in the historical developments of Europe and the Ne ar East.

Name:
The name Rollo is generally presumed to be a latinisation of the Old Nor s e name Hrólfr - a theory that is supported by the rendition of Hrólf r a s Roluo in the Gesta Danorum. It is also sometimes suggested that Rol lo m ay be a Latinised version of another Norse name, Hrollaugr.

Rollo is generally identified with one Viking in particular - a man of h i gh social status mentioned in Icelandic sagas, which refer to him by t h e Old Norse name Göngu-Hrólfr, meaning "Hrólfr the Walker". (Göngu-Hról f r is also widely known by an Old Danish variant, Ganger-Hrolf.) The byn am e "Walker" is usually understood to suggest that Rollo was so physical l y imposing that he could not be carried by a horse and was obliged to t ra vel on foot. Norman and other French sources do not use the name Hrólf r , and the identification of Rollo with Göngu-Hrólfr is based upon simil ar ities between circumstances and actions ascribed to both figures .

The 10th-century Norman historian Dudo records that Rollo took the bapti s mal name Robert. A variant spelling, Rou, is used in the 12th-century N or man French verse chronicle Roman de Rou, which was compiled by Wace an d c ommissioned by King Henry II of England, a descendant of Rollo.

Origins and historiography:
Rollo was born in the mid 9th century; his place of birth is unknown. T h e earliest well-attested historical event associated with Rollo is hi s le adership of Vikings who besieged Paris in 885-886.

Perhaps the earliest known source to mention Rollo's early life is the F r ench chronicler Richer of Reims, who claims (in the 10th century) tha t Ro llo was the son of a Viking named Ketill Flatnose. In terms of onoma stics , Richer also names - without explicitly linking him to Rollo - a m an nam ed Ketill as being the leader of subsequent Viking raids (in 888) , agains t areas on the coast of West Francia, between the Seine and th e Loire .

Medieval sources contradict each other regarding whether Rollo's famil y w as Norwegian or Danish in origin. In part, this disparity may resul t fro m the indifferent and interchangeable usage in Europe, at the time , of te rms such as "Vikings", "Northmen", "Danes", "Norwegians" and so o n (in th e Medieval Latin texts Dani vel Nortmanni means "Danes or Northm en") .

A biography of Rollo, written by the cleric Dudo of Saint-Quentin in t h e late 10th Century, claimed that Rollo was from Denmark. One of Rollo ' s great-grandsons and a contemporary of Dudo was known as Robert the Da ne . However, Dudo's Historia Normannorum (or Libri III de moribus et act i s primorum Normanniae ducum) was commissioned by Rollo's grandson, Rich ar d I of Normandy and - while Dudo likely had access to family members a nd/ or other people with a living memory of Rollo - this fact must be wei ghe d against the text's potential biases, as an official biography. Acco rdin g to Dudo, an unnamed king of Denmark was antagonistic to Rollo's fa mily , including his father - an unnamed Danish nobleman - and Rollo's br othe r Gurim. Following the death of Rollo and Gurim's father, Gurim wa s kille d and Rollo was forced to leave Denmark. Dudo appears to have bee n the ma in source for William of Jumièges (after 1066) and Orderic Vital is (earl y 12th century), although both include additional details.

A Norwegian background for Rollo was first explicitly claimed by Goffre d o Malaterra (Geoffrey Malaterra), an 11th-century Benedictine monk an d hi storian, who wrote: "Rollo sailed boldly from Norway with his flee t to th e Christian coast." Likewise, the 12th-century English historia n Willia m of Malmesbury stated that Rollo was "born of noble lineage amo ng the No rwegians".

A chronicler named Benoît (probably Benoît de Sainte-More) wrote in th e m id-12th Century Chronique des ducs de Normandie that Rollo had been b or n in a town named "Fasge". This has since been variously interpreted a s r eferring to Faxe, in Sjælland (Denmark), Fauske, in Hålogaland (Norwa y) , or perhaps a more obscure settlement that has since been abandoned o r r enamed. Benoît also repeated the claim that Rollo had been persecute d b y a local ruler and had fled from there to "Scanza island", by whic h Beno ît probably means Scania (Swedish Skåne). While Faxe was physicall y muc h closer to Scania, the mountainous scenery of "Fasge", described b y Beno ît, would seem to be more like Fauske .

The claim that Rollo was the brother of a King of Norway, Harald Fineha i r was made by an anonymous 12th-century Welsh author, in The Life of Gr uf fudd ap Cynan.

Rollo was first explicitly identified with Hrólf the Walker (Norse Göngu - Hrólfr; Danish Ganger-Hrólf) by the 13th-century Icelandic sagas, Heims kr ingla and Orkneyinga Saga. Hrólf the Walker was so named because he "w a s so big that no horse could carry him". The Icelandic sources claim th a t Hrólfr was born in Møre, western Norway, in the late 9th century an d th at his parents were the Norwegian jarl Rognvald Eysteinsson ("Rognva ld th e Wise") and a noblewoman from Møre named Hildr Hrólfsdóttir. Howev er, th ese claims were made three centuries after the history commissione d by Ro llo's own grandson.

There may be circumstantial evidence for kinship between Rollo and his h i storical contemporary, Ketill Flatnose, King of the Isles - a Norse rea l m centred on the Western Isles of Scotland. If, as Richer suggested, Ro ll o's father was also named Ketill and as Dudo suggested, Rollo had a br oth er named Gurim, such names are onomastic evidence for a family connec tion : Icelandic sources name Ketill Flatnose's father as Björn Grímsson , an d "Grim" - the implied name of Ketill Flatnose's paternal grandfathe r - w as likely cognate with Gurim. In addition, both Irish and Icelandi c sourc es suggest that Rollo, as a young man, visited or lived in Scotla nd, wher e he had a daughter named Cadlinar (Kaðlín; Kathleen). Moreover , Ketill F latnose's ancestors were said to have come from Møre - Rollo' s ancestra l home in the Icelandic sources. However, Ketill was a commo n name in Nor se societies, as were names like Gurim and Grim. It is als o possible tha t the later sources were attempting to suggest an otherwis e undocumente d link between the historical figures of Rollo and Ketill F latnose, by wa y of little-known, possibly apocryphal figures like Grim , Gurim and the K etill said to be Rollo's father.

Biography:
Statue of Rollo in Rouen. There are two bronze replicas of this statue : o ne at Ålesund (Norway) and the other one at Fargo, North Dakota (Unit ed S tates)
Dudo tells us that Rollo seized Rouen in 876. He is supported by the con t emporary chronicler Flodoard, who records that Robert of the Breton Mar c h waged a campaign against the Vikings, who nearly levelled Rouen and o th er settlements; eventually, he conceded "certain coastal provinces" t o th em.

According to Dudo, Rollo struck up a friendship in England with a king t h at Dudo calls Alstem. This has puzzled many historians, but recently t h e puzzle has been resolved by recognition that this refers to Guthrum , th e Danish leader whom Alfred the Great baptised with the baptismal na me At helstan, and then recognised as king of the East Angles in 880 .

Dudo records that when Rollo took Bayeux by force, he carried off with h i m the beautiful Popa or Poppa, a daughter of Berenger, Count of Rennes , t ook her in marriage and with her had their son and Rollo's heir, Will ia m Longsword.

Rollo's grave at the Cathedral of Rouen:
There are few contemporary mentions of Rollo. The earliest record is fr o m 918, in a charter of Charles III to an abbey, which referred to an ea rl ier grant to "the Normans of the Seine", namely "Rollo and his associa tes " for "the protection of the kingdom." Dudo retrospectively stated t ha t this pact took place in 911 at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In return for f orm al recognition of the lands he possessed, Rollo agreed to be baptise d an d assist the king in the defence of the realm. Rollo took the baptis mal n ame Robert. The seal of agreement was to be marriage between Roll o and Gi sla, daughter of Charles. Dudo claims that Gisla was a legitimat e daughte r of Charles. Since Charles first married in 907, that would me an that Gi sla was at most 5 years old at the time of the treaty of 911 w hich offere d her in marriage. It has therefore been speculated that sh e could have b een an illegitimate daughter. However a diplomatic child b etrothal need n ot be doubted.

After pledging his fealty to Charles III as part of the Treaty of Saint- C lair-sur-Epte, Rollo divided the lands between the rivers Epte and Ris l e among his chieftains, and settled with a de facto capital in Rouen .

Charles was overthrown by a revolt in 923, and next king Ralph, conced e d the Bessin and Maine to Rollo shortly afterwards, the chronicler Flod oa rd tells us.

Rollo died sometime between a final mention of him by Flodoard in 928, a n d 933, the year in which a third grant of land, usually identified as b ei ng the Cotentin and Avranchin areas, was made to his son and successo r Wi lliam.

Descendants:
A genealogical chart of the Norman dynasty
Rollo's son and heir, William Longsword, and grandchild, Richard the Fea r less, forged the Duchy of Normandy into West Francia's most cohesive a n d formidable principality. The descendants of Rollo and his men assimil at ed with their maternal Frankish-Catholic culture and became known as t h e Normans, lending their name to the region of Normandy .

Rollo is the great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror, o r W illiam I of England. Through William, he is one of the ancestors of t he p resent-day British royal family, as well as an ancestor of all curre nt Eu ropean monarchs and a great many claimants to abolished European th rones .

One daughter of Rollo, Gerloc (also known as Adele), who married Willi a m III, Duke of Aquitaine, was mentioned by Dudo. According to Willia m o f Jumièges, writing in the latter half of the 11th century, Gerloc' s moth er was named Poppa.

According to the medieval Irish text An Banshenchas and Icelandic source s , another daughter, Cadlinar (Kaðlín; Kathleen) was born in Scotland (p ro bably to a Scots mother) and married an Irish prince named Beollán ma c Ci armaic, later King of South Brega (Lagore). A daughter of Cadlinar a nd Be ollán named Nithbeorg was abducted by an Icelandic Viking named Hel gi Ott arsson, and became the mother of the poet Einarr Helgason and gran dmothe r of Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir (protagonist of the Laxdœla saga) .

A genetic investigation into the remains of Rollo's grandson, Richard t h e Fearless, and his great-grandson, Richard the Good, was announced i n 20 11 with the intention of discerning the origins of the historic Viki ng le ader. On 29 February 2016 Norwegian researchers opened Richard th e Good' s tomb and found his lower jaw with eight teeth in it. Unfortunat ely, th e skeletal remains in both graves turned out to significantly pre date Rol lo and therefore are not related to him.

Rollo married Poppa de Bayeux, Duchess of Normandy in 891 in Normandie, République française. Poppa (daughter of Berenger de Bayeaux and Adalind) was born in 872 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, République française; died in 930 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, République française. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LD9C-ZGZ
• Initiatory (LDS): 16 Jan 1935

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LHXT-LR1
• Initiatory (LDS): 2 Mar 1916

Rognvald married Ragnhild Hrolfsson, Countess of More in 853. Ragnhild (daughter of Hrolf and Mrs Hrolf) was born about 837 in Orkney Islands, Scotland; died in 892 in Kongeriket Norge. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LDMB-Q59
• Initiatory (LDS): 17 Feb 1916

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: L61S-GV2
• Initiatory (LDS): 13 Oct 2009, SANTO

Berenger married Adalind in 870 in West Francia. Adalind was born about 852 in Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, République française. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FamilySearch ID: LH6P-T6J
• Initiatory (LDS): 30 Oct 2014, JRIVE