|
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
|