William Longsword
William Longsword | |
---|---|
Somme | |
Burial | |
Spouse | Luitgarde of Vermandois Sprota |
Issue | Richard I of Normandy |
House | Normandy |
Father | Rollo, Count of Rouen |
Mother | Poppa of Bayeux |
William Longsword (
He is sometimes referred to as a "duke of Normandy", though the title duke (dux) did not come into common usage until the 11th century.[2] Longsword was known at the time as count (Latin comes) of Rouen.[3][4] Flodoard—always detailed about titles—consistently referred to both Rollo and his son William as principes (chieftains) of the Normans.[5] There are no contemporary accounts of William's byname, 'Longsword', either; it appears first in later eleventh-century sources.[6]
Birth
William Longsword was born "overseas"
Life
William succeeded Rollo (who continued to live about five more years) in 927
In 933, William recognized King Raoul, who was struggling to assert his authority in Northern France, as King of Western Francia. In turn, Raoul gave him lordship over much of the lands of the Bretons including Avranches, the Cotentin Peninsula and the Channel Islands.[25][26][27]: lii The Bretons resisted these changes, led by Alan II, Duke of Brittany, and Count Berengar of Rennes, but this ended shortly with great slaughter and Breton castles being razed to the ground;[23]: 24 Alan fled to England and Berengar sought reconciliation.[28]
In 935, William married
The new king was not capable of controlling his Barons and, after William's brother-in-law, Herluin II, Count of Montreuil, was attacked by Flanders, William went to their assistance in 939,
In 941, a peace treaty, brokered in Rouen by King Louis IV, was signed between the Bretons and Normans, which limited Norman expansion into Breton lands.
Family
William had no children with his Christian wife, Luitgarde.[35] He fathered a son, Richard, with Sprota,[c] his wife more danico.[36] Richard, then aged 10, succeeded as Ruler of Normandy upon William's death in December 942.[35]
Notes
- ^ Neveux and other authorities believe this may have been in England, as Rollo left Neustria for several years, probably for England. See: Neveux, p. 62; Complainte sur l'assassinat de Guillaume Longue-Ėpée, duc de Normandie, poème inédit du Xe siècle, Gaston Paris; Jules Lair, Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes (1870), Volume 31, Issue 31, p. 397; Complainte de la mort de Guillaume Longue Ėpėe; and Prentout, Etude critique sur Dudon de Saint-Quentin, 178–179 [ns].
- ^ See Commentary: The origin of Poppa at: Stewart Baldwin, The Henry Project: "Poppa" for more detailed discussion and opinions.
- ^ Sprota married Esperling, a rich miller in the Pont-de-l’Arche-Louviers region. By her, he had a son, Count Rodulf of Ivry, who was one of the most trusted advisers of his half-brother, Richard I of Normandy. See Searle, p. 108 and The Normans in Europe, p. 57
References
- ^ Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 1 (Marburg, Germany: J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 79
- JSTOR 555396
- ^ David Crouch, The Normans: The History of a Dynasty, (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), p. 14.
- ^ The Normans in Europe, ed. & trans. Elisabeth van Houts (Manchester; New York: Manchester University Press, 2000), pp. 31, 41, 182
- ^ Eleanor Searle, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840–1066 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), p. 45
- ^ Crouch, David (2002). The Normans: The History of a Dynasty. London: Hambledon Continuum. p. 9.
- ^ François Neveux, A Brief History of the Normans, trans. Howard Curtis (London: Constable & Robbinson, Ltd, 2008), p. 62 & n. 111
- JSTOR 554369. Retrieved 15 May 2023 – via JSTOR.
- ISBN 0-413-31830-3 – via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 978-0-19-822204-0 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Neveux, pp. 60–61
- ^ Douglas, 'Rollo of Normandy', p. 417
- ^ Annales Rotomagenses, brillonline.com
- ^ K. S. B. Keats-Rohan (July–October 1997), "Poppa of Bayeux and Her Family", The American Genealogist, vol. 72, no. 4, p. 198
- ^ Crouch, p. 9
- ^ Vitalis, p. 67 (Citing William of Jumièges, Book II, ch. 12 [18])
- ^ Crouch, David (2002). The Normans: A History of a Dynasty. London: Hambledon Continuum. pp. 8–9.
- ^ Douglas, 'Rollo of Normandy', p. 435
- ^ The Normans in Europe, p. 41 (Citing the Planctus for William Longsword composed shortly after his murder in 942)
- ^ a b A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World, ed. Christopher Harper-Bill; Elisabeth Van Houts (Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press, 2007), p. 25
- ^ Crouch, p. 11
- ^ a b c Neveux, p. 72
- ^ a b c Duncan, Jonathan (1839). The Dukes of Normandy from the time of King Rollo to the expulsion of King John. Joseph Rickerby and Harvey & Darton.
- ^ Searle, p. 95
- ^ Pierre Riché, The Carolingians; A Family who Forged Europe, trans. Michael Idomir Allen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), pp. 252–3
- ^ The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 916–966, eds. & trans. Steven Fanning and Bernard S. Bachrach (New York; Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. xvii & notes 15b, 85
- ^ a b c d Stapleton, Thomas (1840). Magni rotuli scaccarii Normanniæ sub regibus Angliæ.
- ^ The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumieges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, ed. & trans. Elizabeth M.C. Van Houts, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), p. 79
- ^ The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumieges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, p. 81
- ^ The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 916–966, p. xxi
- ^ Searle, p. 56
- ^ a b David Nicholas, Medieval Flanders (London: Longman Group UK Limited, 1992), p. 40
- ^ The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 916–966, p. 31
- ^ The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 916–966, p. 32
- ^ a b Neveux, p. 90
- ^ The Normans in Europe, p. 47