House of Normandy, founded by Rollo in 911

(Jody Gray) covers the origins of the House of Normandy, beginning with the Viking warrior, Rollo who was granted, by Charles the Simple King of West Francia, the land that became Normandy. The Dukes of Normandy rose in power through marriage and church alliances that led to Rollo's 3rd great-grandson, William the Conqueror, becoming the 1st Norman King of England; and, an end to the Anglo-Saxon kings of England. Our Piper Family connection to the House of Normandy begins with 32nd GGF Rollo and follows a "father-to-son" lineage down to 28th GGF Robert the Magnficient; his son 28th great-uncle, William the Conqueror is the progenitor of the Norman Kings of England.

House of Normandy -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Normandy

Arms, duchy of Normandy

Country: France, England

Estates: Normandy, England, Flanders

Ethnicity: Norman, French, English

Titles: Count of Rouen; Duke of Normandy; King of England; Count of Flanders

Cadet branches: House of Devereux, Viscount Hereford; House of FitzRobert, earls of Gloucester; House of Dunstanville, earls of Cornwall

Founded: 911, by Rollo who became the 1st Count of Normandy

Disposition: 1135 *the House of Normandy became extinct before the age of heraldry.

The Norman Counts of Rouen

Rollo (911-927)

William I Longsword (927-942)

The Norman Dukes of Normandy

Richard I the Fearless (942-996)

Richard II the Good (996-1027)

 Richard III (1026-1027)

Robert I the Magnificent (1027-1035)

Adelaide aka Adeliza of Normandy

*William (1035-1066) became King of England as William the Conqueror

Norman monarchs of England and Normandy

William the Conqueror (1066-1087)

William II (1087-1100) *not Duke of Normandy

Robert II (1087-1106) *not King of England

Henry I (1100-1135) (1106-1135)

William Adelin (1120, drowned) *not King of England

Matilda (1135-1153)

Stephen (1135-1154) *non-agnatic; member of the House of Blois

Norman Counts of Flanders
William Clito (1127-1128) son of Robert Curthose, great-grandson of Baldwin V, designated by Louis VI of France

Genealogical chart of the Norman dynasty

Descendants. Rollo’s son and heir, William Longsword, and grandchild, Richard the Fearless, forged the Duchy of Normandy into West Francia’s most cohesive and formidable principality. The descendants of Rollo and his men assimilated with their maternal Frankish-Catholic culture and became known as the Normans, lending their name to the region of Normandy. Rollo is the great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror (the 1st Norman King of England). Through William, he is one of the ancestors of the present-day British royal family, as well as an ancestor of all current European monarchs and a great many claimants to abolished European thrones… According to the medieval Irish text An Banshenchas and Icelandic sources, a daughter, Cadlinar (Kaolin; Kathleen) was born in Scotland and married an Irish prince named Beollán mac Ciarmaic, later King of South Brega (Lagore). A daughter of Cadlinar and Beollán named Nithbeorg was abducted by an Icelandic Viking named Helgi Ottarsson, and became the mother of the poet Einarr Helgason and grandmother of Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir (protagonist of the Laxdœla saga). A genetic investigation into the remains of Rollo’s grandson, Richard the Fearless, and his great-grandson, Richard the Good, was announced in 2011 with the intention of discerning the origins of Rollo. 2/29/2016, Norwegian researchers opened Richard the Good’s tomb and found his lower jaw with eight teeth in it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollo Rollo, 1st Count of Normandy (911-927) b. ca. 846 d. ca. 930. Was a Viking who became the first ruler of Normandy, a region of France. He emerged as the outstanding personality among the Norsemen who had secured a permanent foothold on Frankish soil in the valley of the lower Seine. Charles the Simple, King of West Francia ceded them lands between the mouth of the Seine and what is now the city of Rouen in exchange for Rollo agreeing to end his raids and provide the Franks protection against future Viking raids. Rollo is first recorded as the leader of these Viking settlers in a charter of 918, and he continued to reign over the region of Normandy until at least 928. The offspring of Rollo and his followers became known as the Normans. After the Norman conquest of England and their conquest of southern Italy and Sicily over the following two centuries, their descendants came to rule Norman England, the Kingdom of Sicily as well as the Principality of Antioch from the 10th to 12th century, leaving behind an enduring legacy in the historical developments of Europe and the Near East. The 10th century Norman historian Dudo records that Rollo took the baptismal name Robert. A variant spelling, Roul. Origins. Born in the latter half of the 9th century. Early medieval sources claimed either Norwegian or Danish origins -at the time, interchangeable terms such as “Vikings”, “Danes”, “Northmen”, “Norwegians”).

The first historical event associated with Rollo is his leadership of Vikings who besieged Paris in 885-6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(885%E2%80%9386) A biography of Rollo, written by the cleric Dudo of Saint-Quentin in 994, claimed that Rollo was from Denmark -this text was commissioned by Rollo’s grandson, Richard I of Normandy and while Dudo likely had access to family members and/or other people with a living memory of Rollo, this fact must also be weighed against the text’s potential biases. Later historians state that he was from Norway. There may be circumstantial evidence for kinship between Rollo and his historical contemporary, Ketill Flatnose, King of the Isles – a Norse realm centered on the Western Isles of Scotland… his parentage is unverified.

Rollo, Six Dukes statue in Falaise

Biography. Dudo tells us that Rollo seized Rouen in 876. He is supported by the contemporary chronicler Flodoard, who records that Robert of the Breton March waged a campaign against the Vikings, who nearly levelled Rouen and other settlements; eventually, he conceded “certain coastal provinces” to them. According to Dudo, Rollo struck up a friendship in England with a king that Dudo calls Alstem -recently recognized as Guthrum the Danish leader whom Alfred the Great baptised with the baptismal name Athelstan, and then recognised as king of the East Angles in 880. Dudo records that when Rollo took Bayeux by force, he carried off with him the beautiful Popa or Poppa, a daughter of Berenger, Count of Rennes, took her in marriage and with her had their son and Rollo’s heir, William Longsword. The earliest record is from 918, in a charter of Charles III to an abbey, which referred to an earlier grant to “the Normans of the Seine”, namely “Rollo and his associates” for “the protection of the kingdom.” Dudo retrospectively stated that this pact took place in 911 at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In return for formal recognition of the lands he possessed, Rollo agreed to be baptised and assist the king in the defence of the realm. Rollo took the baptismal name Robert. The seal of agreement was to be marriage between Rollo and Gisla, daughter of Charles… After pledging his fealty to Charles III as part of the Treaty, Rollo divided the lands between the rivers Epte and Risle among his chieftains, and settled with a de facto capital in Rouen. Charles was overthrown by a revolt in 923, and his successor, Robert of Neustria, was killed by the Vikings in 923. His successor, Ralph, conceded the Bessin and Maine to Rollo shortly afterwards. Rollo died sometime between a final mention of him by Flodoard in 928, and 933, the year in which a third grant of land, usually identified as being the Cotentin and Avranchin areas, was made to his son and successor William Longsword.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouen_Cathedral Rouen Cathedral. Rouen, Normandy. Groundbreaking, 1030. Consecrated, 10/1/1063 in the presence of William the Conqueror. Rollo was baptized here in 915 and buried in 932. A tomb of Richard the Lionheart (his heart, his bowels were probably buried within the church of the Château of Châlus-Chabrol in the Limousin where the crossbow was fired that led to his death). His corporal remains were buried next to his father at Fontevraud Abbey… Other burials: Poppa, wife of Rollo and mother of Duke William I; William I Longsword; Matilda (Empress) of England; Henry the Young King.

Rollo's grave at the Cathedral of Rouen, Normandy

Rollo Statue in Fargo, North Dakota

http://heritagerenewal.org/stone/rollo.htm The Rollo statue north of the Sons of Norway lodge in central Fargo is a century old. It was one of five Norwegian monuments erected in Fargo in the decade following Norway's independence from Sweden in 1905, part of a resurgence in ethnic pride led locally by Dr. Herman O. Fjelde of Wahpeton. Rollo was a Norse conqueror originally known as Gange Hrolf. After plundering various northern European kingdoms for thirty years, Hrolf agreed to Frankish King Charles the Fat's offer of a duchy northwest of Paris and the king's daughter's hand in marriage in return for defending Charles's kingdom against further Norse attacks. Hrolf also agreed, at least nominally, to accept Christianity, and he was baptized under the name of Rollon (later anglicized to Rollo). The Fargo statue is one of three replicas of an 1865 work by the world-renowned artist Arsene Letellier. In response to requests from the Sons of Norway, officials from the French city of Rouen agreed to task the Norwegian Society of America with finding a suitable location for the statue. Fargo was selected over its chief rivals Eau Claire, Minneapolis, and Moorhead, Minnesota, and so some 15,000 spectators gathered outside the Great Northern Railway depot in downtown Fargo to witness the unveiling of the statue on July 12, 1912. The event was marred by a minor diplomatic incident when a University of Wisconsin professor made offensive remarks about Catholicism, incensing the French dignitaries present and souring relations between Rouen and Fargo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_I_Longsword William I Longsword, Count of Rouen (927-942) b. ca. 893 d. 12/17/942. Was the second ruler of Normandy, succeeded his father in 927. He was born “overseas” to the Viking Rollo and Poppa of Bayeux. Early in his reign, he faced a rebellion from the Normans who felt he had become to Gallicised and too soft. In 933 Longsword supported Raoul as King of Western Francia, who was struggling to assert his authority in Northern France. In turn Raoul gave him lordship over much of the lands of the Bretons including Avranches, the Cotentin Peninsula and the Channel Islands. The Bretons did not agree to these changes and resistance to the Normans was led by Alan Wrybeard, Duke of Brittany and Count Berenger of Rennes but ended shortly with great slaughter and Breton castles being razed to the ground. Allan fleeing to England and Beranger seeking reconciliation. In 935, Longsword married Luitgarde, daughter of (32nd GGF) Count Herbert II of Vermandois whose dowry have him lands of Longueville, Coudres and Illiers l’Eveque -the union was childless. Longsword contracted a marriage between his sister Adela aka Gerloc and William, Count of Poitou with the approval of Hugh the Great. In addition to supporting King Raoul, he was now a loyal ally of his father-in-law, Herbert II, both of whom his father Rollo had opposed. Jan. 936 King Raoul died and 16 yr old Louis IV, who was living in exile in England, was persuaded by a promise of loyalty by Longsword, to return and became King. The Bretons returned to recover the lands taken by the Normans, resulting in fighting in the expanded Norman lands. The new King was not capable of controlling his Barons and after Longsword’s brother-in-law, Herluin II, Count of Montreuil, was attacked by Flanders, Longsword went to their assistance in 939, (34th great-uncle)  Arnulf I, Count of Flanders retaliated by attacking Normandy. Arnulf captured the castle of Montreuil-sur-Mer expelling Herluin, who joined forces with Longsword to retake the castle. Longsword was excommunicated for his actions in attacking and destroying several estates belonging to Arnulf. In 940, pledged his loyalty to King Louis IV, in return, he was confirmed in lands that had been given to his father, Rollo. In 941 a peace treaty was signed between the Bretons and Normans, brokered in Rouen by King Louis IV which limited the Norman expansion into Breton lands. 12/17/942, at Picquigny on an island on the Somme (France) Longsword was ambushed and killed by followers of Arnulf while at a peace conference to settle their differences. He was succeeded by his illegitimate son Richard (age 10) by Sprota who was a Breton captive and his concubine.

William Longsword funerary 14th century monument at the Cathedral of Rouen, France

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_I_of_Normandy Richard I the Fearless 1st Duke of Normandy (942-996) b. 8/28/933 Fecamp Normandy, France d. 11/20/996 Fecamp Normandy, France. He commissioned Dudo of Saint-Quentin to write “On the Customs and Deeds of the First Dukes of Normandy”. Richard either introduced feudalism into Normandy or he greatly expanded it. By the end of his reign, the most important Norman landholders held their lands in feudal tenure. Richard’s mother was a Breton concubine captured in war and bound to William by a more danico marriage. Richard was about 10 yrs old when his father was killed and his mother Sprota became the wife of Esperleng, a wealthy miller. (cousin) King Louis IV of France installed Richard in his father’s office; under the influence of (uncle) Arnulf I, Count of Flanders the King took him into Frankish territory and placing him in the custody of the count of Ponthieu before the King reneged and seized the lands of the Duchy of Normandy. Louis IV then split up the Duchy, giving its lands in lower Normandy to (31st GGF) Hugh the Great. Louis IV thereafter kept Richard in close confinement at Laon, but the youth escaped from imprisonment with assistance of Osmond de Centville, Bernard de Senlis (who had been a companion of Rollo of Normandy), Ivo de Bellèsme, and Bernard the Dane (ancestor to the families of Harcourt and Beaumont). In 946, at the age of 14, Richard allied himself with the Norman and Viking leaders in France and with men sent by King Harold of Denmark. A battle was fought after which Louis IV was captured, hostages were taken and held until King Louis recognised Richard as Duke, returning Normandy to him. Richard agreed to “commend” himself to Hugh, the Count of Paris, Hugh resolved to form a permanent alliance with Richard and promised his daughter Emma, who was just a child, as a bride, the marriage would take place in 960. Louis IV working with Arnulf I, Count of Flanders persuaded Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor to attack Richard and Hugh… they were driven from the gates of Rouen, fleeing to Amiens and defeated in 947… In 954 Louis IV died and his 13 yr-old son Lothair became King. The aged Hugh appointed Richard as guardian of his 15 yr-old son, Hugh Capet (he became King of the Franks in 987, appointed by Lothair). For the last 30 yrs of his life, Richard concentrated on Normandy and participated less in Frankish politics and its petty wars… He reunited the Normans, forging the reclaimed Duchy into West Francia’s most cohesive and formidable principality. Relationships with France, England and the Church. Richard used marriage to build strong alliances. His marriage to Emma of Paris connected him directly to the House of Capet. His second wife, Gunnora, from a rival Viking group in the Cotentin, formed an alliance to that group, while her sisters formed the core group that were to provide loyal followers to him and his successors. His daughters forged valuable marriage alliances with powerful neighboring counts as well as to the king of England. Emma marrying 1st Ethelred the Unready and after his death in 1016, the invader, Cnut the Great. Her children included three English kings, Edward the Confessor, Alfred Aetheling and with Cnut, Harthacnut so completing a major link between the Duke of Normandy and the Crown of England that would add validity to the claim by the future William the Conqueror to the throne of England. Richard also built on his relationship with the church, undertaking acts of piety, restoring their lands and ensuring the great monasteries flourished in Normandy. m1 (960) Emma of Paris; daughter of Hugh the Great of France and Hedwig von Sachsen. She d. after 3/19/968 with no issue. m2 Gunnor; who had been his mistress -they had several children… Illegitimate children. Richard was known to have had several other mistresses and had children with many of them… Richard died of natural causes on 11/20/996; he was succeeded by his 33 yr-old son, Richard II as Duke of Normandy.

Feudalism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism Feudalism, a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labor. Ganshof (1944), describes a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warrior nobility, revolving around the three key concepts of lords, vassals and fiefs. Marc Bloch (1939) includes not only the obligations of the warrior nobility but also those of all three estates of the realm: the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry bound by manorialism (“feudal society”).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord Lord, is an appellation for a person or diety who has authority, control, or power over others acting like a master, a chief, or a ruler. It can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are entitled to courtesy titles. (Peerage is a legal system historically comprising hereditary titles in various countries, comprising various noble ranks.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassal Vassal or feudatory is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including land held as a tenant or fief.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fief Fief, was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable property or rights granted by an overlord to a vassal who held it it fealty (“in fee”) in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the personal ceremonies of homage and fealty. The fees were often lands or revenue-producing real property held in feudal land tenure. However, not only land but anything of value could be held in fee, including governmental office, rights of exploitation such as hunting or fishing monopolies in trade, and tax farms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_II,_Duke_of_Normandy Richard II the Good, 2nd Duke of Normandy (996-1026) b. 8/23/963 Normandy d. 8/28/1026 Normandy. Eldest son of Richard I the Fearless and Gunnora. During his minority, the 1st five years of his reign, his regent was Count Rodulf of Ivry, his uncle, who wielded the power and put down a peasant insurrection at the beginning of Richard’s reign. Richard had deep religious interests and found he had much in common with Robert II, King of the Franks, who he helped militarily against the duchy of Burgundy. Richard forged a marriage alliance with Brittany by marrying his sister Hawise to Geoffrey I, Duke of Brittany and by his own marriage to Geoffrey’s sister Judith. In 1000-1001, Richard repelled an English attack on the Cotentin Peninsula that was led by Ethelred II. Richard attempted to improve relations with England through his sister Emma of Normandy’s marriage to King Ethelred. This marriage was significant in that it later gave his grandson, William the Conqueror, the basis for his claim to the throne of England. The improved relations proved to be beneficial to Ethelred when in 1013 Sweyn Forkbeard invaded England. Emma with her two sons Edward and Alfred fled to Normandy followed shortly thereafter by her husband king Ethelred. Soon after the death of Ethelred, Cnut, King of England forced Emma to marry him while Richard was forced to recognize the new regime as his sister was again Queen. Richard employed Viking mercenaries and concluded a treaty with Sweyn Forkbeard who was en route to England. He commissioned his clerk and confessor, Dudo of Saint-Quentin, to portray his ducal ancestors as morally upright Christian leaders who built Normandy despite the treachery of their overlord and neighboring principalities. It was clearly a work of propaganda designed to legitimize the Norman settlement, and while it contains numerous historically unreliable legends, as respects to the reigns of his father, Richard I, and grandfather, William I, it is basically reliable. In 1025 and 1026 Richard confirmed gifts of his great-grandfather Rollo to Saint-Quen at Rouen. His other numerous grants to monastic houses tends to indicate the areas over which Richard had ducal control. m1 (ca 1000): Judith; daughter of Conan I of Brittany. m2: Poppa of Envermeu. Richard II died 8/28/1026, his eldest son, Richard succeeded him as Duke of Normandy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III,_Duke_of_Normandy Richard III, Duke of Normandy (1026-1027) b. 997 or 1001 d. 8/6/1027 Normandy. Jan 1027 he married Adela, usually identified as a younger daughter of Robert II of France; their marriage was childless (after his death, she married Baldwin V the Pious, Count of Flanders -they were the parents of Matilda of Flanders who married William I the Conqueror). By an unknown woman, he had two children. When he succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy his brother Robert, discontented with his province of Hiemois revolted against his brother. He laid siege to the town of Falaise, but was soon brought to heel by Richard who captured him, then released him on his oath of fealty. No sooner had Richard disbanded his army and returned to Rouen, when he died suddenly (some say suspiciously); the duchy passed to Robert I.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_I,_Duke_of_Normandy Robert I. Duke of Normandy (1027-1035) b. 6/22/1000 Normandy, France d. 7/3/1035 Nicaea. His elder brother Richard succeeded their father but soon afterwards Robert rebelled against him, was defeated and forced to swear fealty. When Richard died suddenly, there were suspicions that Robert had something to do with his death. The civil war Robert had brought against his brother was still causing instability in the duchy. Private wars raged between neighboring barons; which resulted in the rising of a new aristocracy. It was also during this time that many of the lesser nobility left Normandy to seek their fortunes in southern Italy and elsewhere. Soon after assuming the dukedom, possibly in revenge for supporting his brother against him, Robert assembled an army against his uncle, Robert, Archbishop of Rouen and Count of Evreux. A truce allowed his uncle to leave Normandy in exile but this resulted in an edict excommunicating all of Normandy which was only lifted when Archbishop Robert was allowed to return and his countship was restored. Robert also attacked another powerful churchman, his cousin Hugo III d’Ivry, Bishop of Bayeux, banishing him from Norway. Robert also seized a number of church properties belonging to the Abbey of Fecamp. Despite his domestic troubles Robert decided to intervene in the civil war in Flanders between Baldwin V, Count of Flanders and his father Baldwin IV whom the younger Baldwin had driven out of Flanders. Baldwin V, supported by King Robert II of France, his father-in-law, was persuaded to make peace with his father in 1030 when Duke Robert promised the elder Baldwin his considerable military support. Robert gave shelter to Henry I of France against his mother, Queen Constance, who favored her younger son Robert to succeed to the French throne after his father Robert II. For his help Henry I rewarded Robert with the French Vexin… Robert reinstated his uncle’s position as Archbishop of Rouen; in an attempt to reconcile his differences with the Church he restored property that he or his vassals had confiscated… Issue: by mistress, Herleva of Falaise, he was father of William the Conqueror; by her or possibly another concubine, he was father of Adelaide of Normandy, who m1: Enguerrand II, Count of Ponthieu; m2: Lambert II, Count of Lens (father of 27th GGF Walter aka Seier of Fleming by a previous relationship); m3: Odo II of Champagne. After making his illegitimate son William his heir, he set out on pilgrimage to Jerusalem; on the return journey he fell seriously ill and died at Nicaea on 7/2/1035. William, about 8 yrs old, succeeded him…
(Jody Gray) William would Conquer England in 1066 and become the 1st Norman King of England; refer to

Blog Post: Norman Kings of England, 1066-1154. Pub. 10/15/2016http://historicalandmisc.blogspot.com/2016/10/norman-kings-of-england-1066-1154.html

Blog Post: Timeline, earliest Dynasties in Europe (687-ca. 987) end of Carolingian Dynasty.

https://gray-piperfamily.blogspot.com/2017/02/timeline-earliest-dynasties-in-europe.html *Quick Links to all Related Blog Posts

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