Rollon

Names and nicknames of Rollon

Rollon ( Rollon in Latin) is sometimes called Robert Ier the Rich person, Robert being the name which it accepted with his baptism. More often, it is called Rollon the Walker ( Göngu-Hrólfr in Vieux norrois), because the legend tells that no mounting forever be able to carry its imposing stature of more than two Mètre S for more than one hundred forty kilos. For others, the legend was to show Rollon as a giant since it was powerful and dreaded. On its side, Régis Boyer, professor of languages, literatures and civilization Scandinavian at the university of Paris-Sorbonne, advances that this nickname refers to its multiple voyages, with its extraordinary tour ( göngu would come in fact from göngumadr , namely the vagrant).

According to Adigard of Gautries, Hrólfr is contraction of Hróó/ulfr meaning famous/wolf .

Peregrinations of a Viking chief

The history of Rollon is rather dubious, in particular its origins. The historian Lucien Musset points out that “the success of its dynasty (Rollon is at the origin of the line of the dukes of Normandy) created around him a halation of legends”. Moreover, the sources which evoke this character are almost all late.

Certain sources (in particular Danish) tell that it would have been born with the Denmark into 845. The Icelandic Saga S of XIIIe century rather present it like a Norwegian. It is this last thesis which carries more adhesion today. These same sagas explains why Rollon is the son of a Jarl (Count) of the area of Möre, in the west of the Norway, Rognevald. The ruins of sound Château would be in the southern suburbs of Ålesund. As much of others Scandinavian, it is finally constrained to leave its country and to traverse the seas.

According to any probability, it takes the head of a band of Viking S, primarily of the Danish and some Norwegian, attacks mainly the coasts of the the North Sea and the Manche. Dudon of Saint-Quentin, historian of the beginning of XIe century, adds several details, unfortunately unverifiable: after its banishment of Norway, Rollon finds refuge near the Anglo-Saxon king. This last entrusts a small English troop to him and the Viking thus leaves with his band anglo-Scandinavian to devastate the Frise, the mouth of the the Rhine and the the Scheldt.

Dudon of Saint-Quentin places the arrival of Rollon in the frank kingdom in 876 exactly. There still, no proof makes it possible to check this assertion. Today, several historians, like Jean Renaud or Lucien Musset before him, doubt the exactitude of this date, and propose a later dating (890 - 905).

The installation of Rollon in Normandy

First contacts with Normandy

In any case, whatever the date, Rollon approach the Francia by the the Seine. He discovers an area (future Normandy) plundered regularly since 841 by his compatriots Vikings. Its band settles with the mouth of the Seine and lance various raids in the frank kingdom. Do our independent source, Dudon of Saint-Quentin, report that Rollon takes part in the head office of Paris (that of 885 - 886?), seizes the town of Bayeux shortly after and plunders the Burgundy.

The historian Pierre Bauduin defends the thesis of an early installation of Rollon in Normandy. A sufficiently long installation so that the Viking chief ties contacts with the representatives of the Carolingian capacity and the Church. Doesn't he marry (certainly force) Poppa, the girl of the count Bérenger, after the catch of Bayeux? Rollon develops surely alliances with the authorities in place in such a way that with the beginning of the year 910 he is not any more one obscure gang leader.

The Treaty of Saint-Clearly-on-Epte (911)

In 910-911, the army of Rollon fails to take Chartres; the legend claims that Gancelme, bishop of the city, would have made leave Rollon by holding up the veil the Virgin Mary . It is necessary to see especially there the joint intervention of the large aristocrats of the kingdom: Robert, Duke of the Francs, Richard the Dispenser of justice, duke of Burgundy, and Manassès, count de Dijon. It is the moment that chooses the Carolingian King Charles the Simple one to negotiate with the powerful Scandinavian chief. The negotiations lead to the Traité Saint-Clearly-on-Epte in 911. Its clauses are known for us only by the account of Dudon of Saint-Quentin. The king yields to Rollon part of the Neustrie, certainly the county of Rouen, bases future Duché of Normandy. In exchange, Rollon is committed blocking the incursions Vikings threatening the frank kingdom. It is made baptize in 912 in the Cathédrale of Rouen under the name of Robert , of the name of the Duc Robert, his godfather of baptism and ancestor of the future kings Capétiens.

Rollon, jarl of the Norman ones

Regarded by the historians as the 1st duke of Normandy and the founder of the Norman Duchy, it however does not carry the title of “duke of Normandy” but only that of “jarl of the Normands”, the French equivalent of count.

Government of Rollon

It restores peace and safety in Normandy. A legend tells that Rollon suspended during three years a ring of gold to a tree of the Forêt of Roumare without nobody daring to steal it. The jarl is pressed on the archbishop of Rouen to start again the secular Church and to restore the monastic life. The monks of Saint-Ouen of Rouen dare to return with their relics. Standardization on the religious level remains however with its first steps.

Does Rollon upset the government of the area compared to its Carolingian predecessors? Is it inspired for example Scandinavian institutions to reform its new State? The sources at our disposal do not make it possible to answer. It is necessary to await the successors of Rollon to include/understand the administration of the young duchy.

Viking chief or Christian prince?

The installation of Rollon to Rouen does not inaugurate Scandinavian colonization in current Normandy. It reinforces it. Indeed, according to Jean Renaud, of the Danes had already settled with the mouth of the Seine, without counting colonization regular and independent on the coasts of the Cotentin.

Rollon divides the ground “between its knights and from abroad” specifies Guillaume de Jumièges. Within sight of the Toponymy, the colonists are established close to the coasts and in Basse-Seine. But the country is far from to be deserted by the local population. This one had fled the confrontations, but once restored peace and the new lords installed, the life took again its normal course.

After the Treated Saint-Clearly-on-Epte, Rollon continues its forwardings of plundering or its more or less successful attempts at territorial extension. It also shows severity with regard to the men of the king as Dudon of Saint-Quentin underlines it. The anecdote which follows is described as being legendary by the historians, but it marks the rejection of any royal interference in the businesses of Rouen. Thus in 922, two knights are sent by Charles Simple the in order to make sure of the safety of his/her daughter Gisele. These two knights are not introduced to the count Rollon, and circulate without authorization in the county. When Rollon learns their existence, it makes them capture, and brings them on the place of the market of Rouen to decapitate them with the eyes of all. This episode represents for Dudon of Saint-Quentin and Guillaume de Jumièges the beginning of the degradation of the relationship between the count and king Charles.

At the time of the temporary deposition of Charles Simple the, the Norman ones of Rouen remain to him faithful. In accordance with the clauses of the treaty, no Scandinavian fleet goes up the Seine to plunder the frank kingdom. But annals specify us that in 923 Rollon and its men betrayed their oath of 911. According to Flodoard, Ragenold, chief of the Vikings of the Loire, convaint “its compatriots of Rouen” to carry out a company of plundering to Beauvais, which they did.

The chronicler insists on the number of frank prisoners, thousand on the whole, which justified the reaction of 924 of the count Herbert II of Vermandois and of the king Raoul, mandé by Hugues Large the, wire of the king Robert Ier, the predecessor of Raoul. These two characters carried out a punitive forwarding on the county of Normandy. Rollon reacts to this affront by pushing its army this time well beyond Oise. To find an exit favorable, the diplomacy took at this time there all its importance, and they were the Norman ambassadors who had the last word, since the king was constrained to pay a tribute with the Norman ones. Rollon also accepted in repair the areas of the Bessin and the Hiémois. It should not be forgotten that the population continued to pay the danegeld with the count and this until in 926. According to the Yearly of Flodoard, canon of Rheims, in 924 the jarl of Norman obtained Carolingian capacity Cinomannis and Baiocae (Mans and Bayeux), i.e. Maine and the Bessin. Lucien Musset considers improbable the concession of all the Comté of Maine and rather proposes to speak about the area of Hiémois.

In 925, Flodoard recalls in its Chronique S the course of Rollon on the franques grounds, which broke at the same time the peace of 924. With its army, it gave an opinion in the Comté of Flanders; the towns of Beauvais, Amiens, Arras and finally of Noyon in turn were plundered and set fire to. Vis-a-vis this incursion, the count Herbert and king Raoul again combined their force to plunder the county of Normandy. The army of Rollon pushed back them, but the count had to face a revolt “of people of Bessin” who refused certainly the new supervision comtale.

Franque repression did not stop therefore since a second attack prepared against the Normandy young person. Arnoul Ier of Flanders seized Bresles, and directed the whole of its forces on the fortress Norman of Have. Rollon sent reinforcements to it that Flodoard estimates at thousand men. But whatever was their number, the Francs were right of the fortress which fell under their control and ends up being burned with its occupants. It is thanks to the intervention of Hugues the Large one, that the hostilities ceased. The Norman ones accepted the terms of the agreement, and returned the grounds which they coldly had just conquered. The wire of Baudouin II the Bald person, Arnoul Ier of Flanders and Adolphe of Boulogne, took again their possessions. Raoul de Gouy and Helgaud of Ponthieu did as much of it. This defeat Norman was not cuisante, since the county of Normandy was not amputee of any territorial concession.

These confrontations on the level of the Picardy are placed in a context of collapse of the royal capacity in this area (the Carolingian Charles the Simple one is reversed by Raoul). Picardy became as from the years 920 " the ground where the appetites of the principal leaders of France of Nord" ran up; (jarl of Norman, count de Flandre, duke of the Francs and count de Vermendois). With for principal stake: the control of the littoral regions of the country. From where conflicts around the fortresses of Have and Montreuil-sur-Mer.

Dubious end of Rollon

The date and the circumstances of the death of the first jarl of Norman remain dubious. According to Richer of Rheims, Rollon the Walker dies into 925, at the time of the seat of the castle of, lead by Herbert 1st, say the Old man or the Large one, and Arnoul count de Flandres. It to lend is indeed possible since into 927, one sees his son Guillaume Long-Sword and to not him oath of fidelity for the Norman ones. However, Flodoard, in an ambiguous passage, implies that Rollon still lived into 928. Especially, according to Dudon of Saint-Quentin, the first jarl would not have been killed: he would have abdicated in favor of his son and lived then 5 years. Current historiography generally takes again this account and places the death of Rollon towards 932-933. On the other hand, the English historian David Douglas does not believe in this transitional period and believes rather in date of death around 925-927.

According to the Father Anselme, it is buried in the cathedral of Rouen, then its skin transferred to the abbey from Fécamp in second half of the 10th century, under the duke Richard Without-Fear, grandson of Rollon.

Genealogy

With regard to the ascent of Rollon, the Scandinavian sources are more prolix than the Normans sources. The Landnámabók , or delivers divisions of the grounds in Iceland, makes it possible to build the family tree of right-hand side.

If the account of Dudon of Saint-Quentin is followed, Rollon had a brother, Gurim, which found death in a battle against the king of the Danes; this before Rollon leaves its native land.

One of its “ bubbled ” most known was Poppa of Bayeux, girl of the frank count Bérenger of Bayeux, killed in person by Rollon at the time of the catch of the city, after its seat by its Vikings. After its baptism, Rollon receives an official wife, Gisele, a girl of king Charles the Simple one, old princess capétienne with more than 4 years.

His/her son Guillaume succeeds to him around 927. His/her daughter Gerloc becomes later the wife of Guillaume Head-in Étoupe, count de Poitiers and duke of Aquitaine.

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