Rollo of Normandy
Also known to his biographers, chroniclers, and poets as
Rollo, Rollon, Robert, Rodulf, Ruinus, Rosso [possible connection with the de Roucestre’s
since they were also named de Rosso and de Rossey] , Rotlo and Hrolf, Granger
Rolf or Rolf the Walker, founder in about 911 of what became the duchy of
Normandy, is another of those, like Ragnar Hairy-Breeches and Ivar the
Boneless, whose prominence among their contemporaries conspired over the years
with an almost complete lack of biographical information to transform them from
ordinary mortals into dense hybrids of men, myth, and legend.
Rollo (l. c.860-c.930 CE, r. 911-927 CE) was a Viking
chieftain who became the founder and first ruler of the region of Normandy. He
converted to Christianity as part of a deal with the Frankish king Charles the
Simple (893-923 CE) in 911 CE (changing his name to Robert) and his story was
then embellished upon by later Christian writers who held him up as a role
model: a savage Viking chief who became a paragon of Christian virtue and
established law in the land. In doing so, however, they largely ignored
whatever was known of Rollo's life prior to his involvement with Charles.
If you will trust us, we will give you advice fitting and
wholesome for you and for the kingdom, so that the people, who are all too
stricken with want, may have repose. Let the land from the River Andelle to the
sea be given to the pagan peoples; and in addition, join your daughter to Rollo
in marriage. And thereby you will be able to grow mightily in power against the
peoples who resist you; for Rollo is born of the proud blood of kings and of
chiefs; he is very fair of body, a ready fighter, far-sighted in counsel,
seemly in appearance, amenable to us, a faithful friend to those to whom he
gives his word, a ferocious enemy to those whom he opposes, a constant and
amenable vassal in all things, with a
shrewd mind, such as we need.
The
principal tribes of Gauls who inhabited Normandy were the Caleti (pays de
Caux), the Bellocasses or Vellocasses (Vexin) the Eburovices (Evreux), the
Lexovii (Lizieux) the Viducasses (Vieux), the Saii (Seez), the Avrincatui (Avranches),
and the Unelli (the Cotentin).
About the year 896, Rollo, being banished from Norway by
Harold the fair-haired for his piratical excesses, equipped an armament, and
made a descent, in the first instance, upon England, from whence being expelled
by Alfred, he proceeded to the Scheldt, carrying destruction along with him ;
and eventually sailing up the Seine, he landed at Jumieges, near Rouen,
besieged Paris for four years, took Bayeux and Evreux, and so firmly
established himself in his new possessions that, all hope of expelling him
having vanished, the French king, Charles the Simple, formally ceded to him
that extensive district from the river Epte to the sea.* This event happened in
912; and from Rollo the Northman, and his followers, the country took the name
of Normandy.
By the treaty with Charles the Simple, Rollo engaged to
become a Christian, and to marry Gisla, the king's daughter.
La Ferte was assigned to a younger branch of the house of
Goumay [de Gournay] before the conquest, as appears by the foundation deed of
the priory at La Ferte , which took place whilst Robert Count of Evreux was
Archbishop of Rouen ; and other towns or vills were given as manors to other
families.
At a subsequent period, twenty-four parishes on the eastern
side of the Epte, in the Beauvoisis, were added to the territory of the Lords
of Gournay, and called " La Conqu^te Hue de Goumai," after the name
of that Lord of Goumai, who acquired these about the year 1078. These fiefs in
the Beauvoisis rendered the Lords of Goumay vassals of the Kings of France as
well as of the Dukes of Normandy ; and may account in some measure for their
frequently vacillating in their allegiance between those two powers.
Hugh, son of Eudes the Norman chieftain to whom this
territory was said to be assigned by Rollo, is reported to have been the first
to direct his attention towards making Goumay a place of strength. The ancient
records ascribe to him the erection of a citadel in the immediate vicinity of
the church of St. Hildevert, surrounded with a triple wall and fosse, and
further secured by a tower, which was called after his name. La Tour Hue, and
which continued in existence until the beginning of the seventeenth century.
About a hundred years after Philip Augustus, his great-grandson,
Philip the Bold, bestowed the town and lordship of Gournay on his youngest son
Charles of Valois, at whose death it became part of the dower of his widow,
Matilda de Chatillon. Again, in like manner on the death of Philip of Valois in
1350, it was separated from the crown, and assigned to the widowed Queen
Blanche of Navarre. By this princess it was held for forty-eight years, when it
once more reverted to her royal domains. But early in the succeeding century
the town fell, together with the rest of France, before the victorious arms of
our sovereign Henry V. ; and upon his demise it was a third time selected as a
portion of the dower of a royal widow, Katharine, daughter of the French
monarch Charles VL Her death, in 1438, restored it to England, but only to be
held for the short term of eleven years, at which time. the reverses sustained
by the English troops occasioned the expulsion of our kings from their
continental dominions.
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