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Rollo



The entire knowledge we have of Rollo is based on Dodo's colourful
accounts.  The title they both adopted was "Count".  in 1015 Richard
II was the first to style himself "Duke" and "Patrician".  He asserted his
right to control the church and appoint Dukes under it.
 
In 925 Rollo was defeated in the East at Ett at the place which would
become the Norman border.  His son William married a Christian, Lutegrade,
the daughter of Count Verrnadois II.  Her dowry was a frankish one and the
mint at Rouen bore not the picture of the King of France but that of the
Count, William Longsword. Very little is known about William Longsword.
 
William's murder in 942 by Arnulf of Flanders, threw the young dukedom,
really a principality, into chaos.  Richard I who succeeded William and
ruled 942-946, was an illegitimate child of his Breton mistress, whose
name is unknown.  In a twist of fate, both William and Richard had to
fight off Scandinavian warbands.  A certain Harold, rejecting Christianity,
established a independent power base at Bayeux.  The Frankish kings
attempted to reunite Normandy but failed due to internal rivalries in
France.  A concerted attack on Rouen came from Flanders and
Angou.  The Viking Legacy lived on.  The language of power remained
that of Charlamaine, the Normans by now no longer Vikings provided
the fiscal foundations of ducal powers.  They married into Frankish
society, Rollo for example married Poppa, the daughter of the Count
of Bayeux.  The Norse tongue survived longer in England than in
Normandy.  This may have been due to the similarities between the
Anglo Saxon and Norse.  The Normans, by the first half of the 11th
Century had lost their maritime ability and concentrated on the
feudal warhorse and land army.
 
 
 
Regards,
 
Sinclair