| Notes |
- A poem written shortly after the death of William Longsword reveals he was born overseas of a Christian mother and a pagan father yet. The latter, Rollo , was not at that time the Earl of future Normandy . It was still a Viking chief who roamed the seas in search of some land to plunder.
Once Rollo installed by King Charles the Simple in Normandy (911), William became the natural heir of this land. Dudo of Saint-Quentin explains that to 927 Rollo was no longer able to govern . An assembly of Normans and Bretons elect Guillaume headed. Barely elected, he recommended to King Charles the Simple.
It is quite difficult to paint a portrait of the new Earl Norman Seine. Indeed, the story of Dudo of Saint-Quentin, our main informant, sometimes tends to hagiography. Nevertheless, it is indisputable that William was a true Christian, unlike his father. After 935, he married a Christian Liegarde, daughter of Herbert II , Count of Vermandois . Earl made various donations to the canons of Mont-Saint-Michel and restored the Abbey Jumièges in which he thought of retiring. He gets to his sister Adèle that she sends him twelve monks of the abbey of Saint-Cyprien Poitiers .
The principality of William corresponds to a consolidation of the young Normandy. Dudo present Earl as a restorer of peace and order. Much more recently, Lucien Musset describes as the "principal architect of the Norman success. It is to him that we must attribute the ultimate success of the Scandinavian graft on the Roman-franc trunk, which allowed the state founded in 911 to cross victoriously the general crisis that gripped in 940 years the Scandinavian world of West " .
William and Bretons [ edit | edit the code ]
Around 931, the Britain , occupied by the Normans of the Loire , crossed a difficult period. The Bretons revolted against the occupiers. William Long Sword (supported by the Normans of the Loire?) Invaded Britain. Leaders Breton Alain "Barbe-Torte" and Juhel Berenger of Rennes were defeated. The first fled across the Channel; the other was reconciled with the Norman.
But what are the consequences of the victory of William? Dudo of Saint-Quentin repeats at every William Long Sword was "Duke of the Normans and Bretons." Moreover, one found in Mont-Saint-Michel a piece that designates him as Duke of the Britons . These appear repeatedly in the entourage of Earl . As if Britain was now part of the land under the rule of William. Rather than a conquest, Musset suggests a protectorate of Normandy on Britain.
In 933 , William praised the king Raoul in "the land of the Britons on the shore of the sea." It is not because of Britain the sovereign had no rights in that territory. Historians usually translate this concession by the Cotentin and Avranchin , areas ceded to the Britons by Charles the Bald sixty-six years earlier ( Treaty of Compiègne ). In 933, Normandy and had almost reached its final extension.
However, Karl-Ferdinand Werner warns that we have no evidence that the second Earl of Rouen actually mastered the western border. The concession of King Raoul - formal because it did not control himself this part of Normandy - especially Guillaume invited to submit the Bretons of Cotentin and thus integrate them into his kingdom through the tribute of Earl.
The revolt of Rioulf [ edit | edit the code ]
Towards 934 , William found himself facing a revolt Normans controlled Rioulf (Herjólfr). The geographical origin of the rebellion remains uncertain. Guillaume de Jumièges speaks of "inside Normandy" . The chronicler of the twelfth century Orderic Vital writes that Rioulf had the Évrecin while Lucien Musset think the rebels Normans started from the west . Earl was accused in his Frankish origin (his mother) and his overly friendly policy Franks. Rioulf led the rebels to the walls of Rouen but William went out of the city and crushed the opponents.
The episode did not fail to be interpreted by historians. They see the revolt of Vikings settled in the west or in the middle of Normandy and little subject to the authority of Rouen jarls. In short, this event would reinforce the thesis of Normandy imperfectly controlled by the descendant of Rollo . Rioulf would be an example of one of these heads of Viking band, independent of Rouen power .
The ambush of Picquigny [ edit | edit the code ]
Miniature fifteenth century representing the meeting of Arnulf of Flanders and William Longsword on the island of Picquigny in 942 and the murder of the latter.
With Arnulf of Flanders , Vermandois Herbert II and Hugh the Great , William was part of the small group of princes who played a leading role in the northern kingdom. Sometimes allies, sometimes enemies, they supported or opposed the king.
In 935 , the Earl married Christian Liutgarde of Vermandois , daughter of Herbert II , Count of Vermandois . In 936 , according to Dudo of Saint-Quentin , the Norman support proved decisive to restore the throne of the pretender Francie Carolingian Louis d'Outremer . By cons, in 940, William took the part of the Duke of the Franks Hugh the Great and Herbert II of Vermandois against the king and Arnulf of Flanders. They attended the seat of Reims and Laon , until an agreement with Louis d'Outremer.
The recumbent figure of William Long Sword, in the ambulatory of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Rouen
The state of relations between Normandy and Flanders was changing. In 925, while Rollo was still the Earl Norman, Arnold I. had taken the fortress of Eu but 939, William and all the oath lent him the King Otto of Germany against the king of the Franks. In 938/939, Herluin , Count de Montreuil , who lost his city of Montreuil , taken by Arnulf I. , Count of Flanders (and Artois ), appealed to William Longsword . The Normans eventually intervene. According to Richer and Dudo of Saint-Quentin, the Earl of Rouen fought there personally. Montreuil was resumed in 939. Having recovered his property, went Herluin loyalty tribute to William for Ponthieu . The Normans and controlled the Picardie Maritime and thwarted in this way the expansion of the Flemish principality south.
The case of Montreuil may explain the tragic death of William 'Longsword' 942 17 December . The latter was invited by Arnulf of Flanders for an interview, engineered by key Frankish princes hostile to the rise of Normandy, on the grounds of an agreement, in a place called Picquigny . Just peace signed by the two princes, on an island in the Somme , it is treacherously murdered, presumably by Baudoin, son of the Count of Cambrai, on the orders of Arnold I..
His faithful recuperated his body. They found on him a key, key for opening a safe containing a homespun , homespun monks. His tomb is in the cathedral of Rouen .
Family and descent [ edit | edit the code ]
Parents:
Rollo , the Normans first Earl of Rouen
Popa , daughter of Berenger II of Neustria or Guy de Senlis
Women
Liegarde , daughter Herbert II , Count of Vermandois . Christian marriage, without descendants. Widow, she remarried Thibaud I of Blois, said, "The Cheater" , Count of Blois . In 974, she bequeathed Arnouville , Issou , Limay and Mantes-la-Ville to the church of Mantes-la-Jolie .
Sprota, Breton married More danico ("Danish way"), then married to Esperlenc.
Sister:
Gerloc (Adele) , wife of William Tow Head , Count of Poitou .
Children:
Richard I of Normandy
References [ change | edit the code ]
↑ appointed Viljâlmr Langaspjôt in sagas Scandinavian
↑ The Lament William Long Sword
↑ For the English historian Douglas DC Rollo was probably dead. CD Douglas, "Rollo of Normandy", The English Historical Review, Vol. 57, No. 228, October 1942, p. 434-435
↑ a , b and c Neveux 2009 , p. 98
↑ Lucien Musset, "Birth of Normandy," Michel de Boüard (ed.), History of Normandy, Privat, Toulouse, 1970, p. 109
↑ To recognize his son Richard I of Normandy , William "called to him all the Norman and Breton leaders." William of Jumièges, History of the Normans, Book III, ed. Guizot, 1826, p. 71. When William was murdered, Breton chefs Alain "Barbe-Torte" and Juhel Berenger of Rennes accompanied
↑ a , b and c Neveux 2009 , p. 87-88
↑ Karl Ferdinand Werner, "Some observations about the beginnings of the Duchy of Normandy. Private Rights and regional institutions "in Private Law and Regional Institutions. Historical studies offered to John Yver, Paris, PUF, 1976, p. 701
↑ William of Jumièges, ibid, p. 62
↑ Lucien Musset, ibid, p. 109
↑ Bauduin 2002 , p. 80
See also [ edit | edit the code ]
Descendants of Rollo
Sources [ edit | edit the code ]
Lament William Long Sword, Lair J. (ed.), Study on the life and death of William Long Sword, Paris, Picard, 1893, p. 61-68
Dudo of Saint-Quentin , De gestis Normanniae ducum seu moribus and actis primorum Normanniae ducum, J. Lair (eds.), Memoirs of the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy, Volume XXIII, 1865.
William of Jumièges , History of the Normans, Book III, ed. Guizot, 1826
References [ change | edit the code ]
Pierre Bauduin , First Normandy (tenth - eleventh century), Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2002
François Neveux , the Dukes of Normandy to the Kings x e. - xii century, Ouest-France University, Rennes, 1998
François Neveux , The Adventure of the Normans: viii - xiii century, Paris, Perrin, coll "Tempus". 2009 , 368 pp. ( ISBN 978-2-262-02981-4 )
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