Rollo (Normandie) of Normandy (abt. 842 - 931)

Husband of Gisela (Carolingian) de Normandie — married [date unknown] in Disputed

Descendants

Died 0931 at about age 89 in Rouen, Seine Inferieure, Normandie, France

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Note: Since his various proposed parentages are either disputed or fanciful, they have been removed and Rollo of Normandy is shown without parents. See Research notes section below.

Biography

Rollo (Normandie) of Normandy is Notable.

Name and Titles

Name: Rollo of Normandy

• Duke of Normandy - Rollo is often given this title, though it is likely a modern anachronism and not a title used in his time or even accurately describing his area of control.
• Count of Rouen - A title sometimes given to Rollo which more accurately describes his area of control.
• Princeps Nortmannorum (Leader of the Normans [of Rouen]) - A title preferred by Stewart Baldwin which has the advantage of being contemporary, and accurate to his area of control. It also has the advantage of being similar to the Duke of Normandy title by which he is often called. However, as explained by Baldwin, among contemporaries "it was also used to describe Ragenold, the leader of a different group of Vikings on the river Loire".

Was his real name Hrólfr? Rollo was Scandinavian, but there are many reasons to doubt this popular idea which probably developed centuries later. See the Research notes section below.

Marriages and Children

Married: 1st - Poppa. Her name is known from a single source. Dudo of St. Quentin states that she was of Frankish origins and a daughter of Count Bérenger. The exact identity of this Count Bérenger is a matter of great conjecture, but is not known with any certainty. The Planctus, which does not provide her name, states that she was a Christian, and mother by a pagan father (i.e., Rollo, whose name is also not given) of William, who was born overseas.^[1]

Married: 2nd - Gisla of France. This marriage is probably mythical. She is said to be daughter of Charles the Simple, king of France [Dudo, 46-7, 53]. However, she is unknown in the Frankish sources. The fact that Charles the Simple's kinsman Charles the Fat had a daughter also named Gisla who married a Viking (Godefridus) in the ninth century has led to the natural suspicion that this Gisla is an invention based on the earlier woman of the name. If she existed at all, there is no reason to believe that she was a mother of any of Rollo's children.

Children of Rollo of Normandy and Poppa:

Proven and documented:

1. William "Longsword" of Normandy.
2. Gerloc (or Adele). Adele was the christian name for Gerloc. She married Guillaume (William) Tête d'Étoupe, count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine.

The icelandic Landnámabók refers to a daughter of Gongu-Hrólfr named Caðlín who married a king named Beolan in Scotland. However, see Research notes concerning this.

Timeline

Dudo reported that before attacking Normandy he first attacked England and then made peace with King Athelstan, who was an lasting ally. As Douglas points out, this connection to Athelstan is chronologically impossible.

He then attacked Walcheren, which is now in the Netherlands. Like Rouen in Normandy, where he later became established, there were already vikings living there. From Walcheren he attacked the territories of the two imperial generals sent to repel him, northwards in Frisia and then south along the Scheldt river. He then fought a campaign in England to subdue rebels in the kingdom there.

As Douglas points out, there is no other confirmation of these early campaigns.

876: Dudo specifically mentions this year as the one that Rollo first arrived at the Seine river and the area of Rouen, which is downstream of Paris. This implies that Rollo lived a very long active life!

885 Siege of Paris

A minor leader of a large Viking invasion of France was named Rollo. After the rest of the Vikings withdrew, he continued harassing the French until he was bought off.

ABT 890: Invasion of Normandy

Invaded the area that became the core of the Duchy of Normandie.

AUG 911: Battle of Chartres

Rollo was narrowly defeated by Charles the Simple, leading to the Treaty of Sait Clair-sur-Epte.

911: Rollo or Hrolfr, was created Duke of Rouen.

SEP 911: Treaty of Saint Clair-sur-Epte

According to Douglas it is around 911 that Charles the Simple ceded the area around Rouen to Rollo, establishing core of the future Duchy of Normandie in exchange for Hrolf's agreement to defend France against further Norse invasion, conversion to Christianity

912: According to Dudo, this is when Rollo was baptized, assuming the name Robert.

919: Remarriage to Poppa de Bayeaux - Renne, Normandie, Neustria

933: Probably dead.

According to Baldwin he "was probably dead by 933, when his son William was mentioned as leading the Normans [Flodoard's Annals, s.a. 933: MGH SS 3, 381, van Houts (2000), 45]".

Research Notes

There are at least three proposals concerning the parentage of Rollo. The following summary is based upon that of Stewart Baldwin.^[2]

• Catillus is the only name which comes from a continental and relatively contemporary source. As explained by Baldwin: "The earliest author to attribute an explicit origin to Rollo was Richer of Reims, writing between 996 and 998, who called Rollo the son of another Viking invader of France named Catillus (presumably representing the Norse name Ketill) ["duce Rollone filio Catilli" Richer, Historia, i, 28 (vol. 1, p. 62)]. Since Richer is not generally reliable for the relevant time period, and Catillus appears to be a legendary individual with no clear identity in the contemporary sources, this account has generally been discredited, probably correctly [see Douglas (1942), 420-1]."
• Rognvaldr, jarl of Møre and his wife Ragnhildr or Hildr. As pointed out by Stewart Baldwin, "the Orkneyinga Saga (late twelfth century) [OrkS 4 (pp. 29-30)], followed by other Icelandic sources (such as the well known Heimskringla and Landnámabók), gives Rollo the name Hrólfr, and make him a son of Rognvaldr, jarl of Møre, and brother of (among others) jarl Torf-Einarr of the Orkneys [OI 1: 187]." Baldwin gives three main problems with this proposal:

1. "The discrepancies between the Norman and Icelandic sources." For example: "Among other contradictions, the Norman sources give Rollo a brother named Gurim, while the Icelandic sources give Hrólfr several brothers, none of them named Gormr (the presumed Old-Norse form for Gurim)." Baldwin also addresses the argument that the names were confused and short form names: "In fact, the Icelandic sources, in identifying Rollo with Hrólfr, son of Rognvaldr, provide Hrólfr with a brother named Hrollaugr, which seems like a more plausible Norse form for the name Rollo than Hrólfr. This Hrollaugr, said to be an early settler of Iceland, cannot be identified with Rollo of Normandy, so that the Icelandic sources are providing the founder of Normandy with a brother whose name is evidenctly [sic] Rollo, further illustrating the problems with the Icelandic account."
2. "The general unreliability of Norse sources for the early tenth century."
3. "Rollo and Hrólfr appear to be different names." The natural Latin equivalent of the name Hrólfr would be Radulfus or Rodulfus (Ralf or Rolf). The Frankish and Norman sources, who certainly knew the common name Radulph, usually refer to the founder of Normandy as Rollo.

• Göngu-Hrólfr, a legendary figure, is given at least three fathers in Icelandic sagas: Rognvaldr (based on the equation of Rollo with Hrólfr the son of the jarl of Møre), Oxna-Þórir and Sturlaugr, king of Hringeríki in Norway. In, for example, Göngu-Hrólfs Saga, Göngu-Hrólfr "becomes king of Russia in the end, and has no Norman connection".

Note that the equation of Rollo with both Göngu-Hrólfr and the son of the jarl of Møre has a serious supporter in the form of the historian David Crouch, whose position Baldwin also discusses.^[3]

A related question is whether Rollo was Danish or Norwegian. In Normandy his origin was clearly seen as Danish. Dudo of St. Quentin (writing early 11th century), is an example, though even more confusingly he believed Rollo's Danes were originally Dacians, wrongly equating them to a barbarian nation in Roman times, who lived near modern Romania. Following the death of his (unnamed) father, he said that Rollo and his brother Gurim fought against the king of Denmark and were eventually forced out. Dudo also writes of Rollo's grandson Duke Richard I as being related to the king of Denmark. Baldwin explains:

"The earliest dateable sources which attribute a Norwegian origin to Rollo are from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, principally Geoffrey Malaterra [writing ca. 1090, see van Houts (2000), 52] and William of Malmesbury [early 12th century, see WM ii, 5 (p. 125)]. A Norwegian origin for Rollo is also stated in the chronicle Chronicon de gestis Normannorum in Francia [MGH SS 1, 532-6, at 536]. Although this source used ninth century Frankish annnals as a basis, the entries regarding Rollo ("Rotlo", mistranscribed as "Rodo" in the MGH edition) were probably introduced at about the time of the manuscript's compilation in the twelfth century. See Helmerichs (2002) for a discussion of this source."

• Cawley, C. (2006). Medieval Lands v.3. fmg.ac.
• Wikipedia: Rollo
• Royal Genealogies Website (ROYAL92.GED), online ftp://ftp.cac.psu.edu/genealogy/public_html/royal/index.html. Hereinafter cited as Royal Genealogies Website.
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p10479.htm#i104786

Sources

1. ↑ The Planctus of William Longsword, a poem written shortly after the death of William Longsword.
2. ↑ Baldwin, Stewart. "Rollo "of Normandy" Princeps Nortmannorum, at The Henry Project: The Ancestors of King Henry II of England. Website. (2001-present). Accessed Feb 2020.
3. ↑ Douglas, D. C. "Rollo of Normandy." in The English Historical Review, vol. 57, no. 228, (October 1942), pp. 417–436. Available at JSTOR.

• Wikipedia: Rollo
• Wikidata: Item Q273773, en:Wikipedia

• Helmerichs, R. (2002). Rollo as Historical Figure. https://web.archive.org/web/20021013021241/http://www.mm.com/user/rob/Rollo/HistoricalRollo.html [cited by Baldwin]

• Dudo of St. Quentin:

• Dudonis gesta Normannorum - Dudo of St. Quentin Gesta Normannorum Latin version https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FfoI_dZG8d0C
• An English Translation https://books.google.be/books?id=3ueqiHfAzrMC

• Wace. Roman de Rou. [1]

• Chronicon de gestis Normannorum in Francia [MGH SS 1, 532-6]

See also:

• The Pedigree and History of the Washington Family, by Albert Welles

• Christiansen, E. (2002). The Norsemen in the Viking Age. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. (2002)

• Fitzhugh, W.W. & Ward, E. (2000). Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Smithsonian Institution Press.

• Jones, G. (2001). A History of the Vikings. Oxford University Press. Google Books.

• McKitterick, R. (1983). The Frankish Kingdom under the Carolingians, pp.751-987. Longman.

• Konstam, A. (2002). Historical Atlas of the Viking World. Checkmark Books.

• Arbman, H. (1961). Ancient People and Places: The Vikings. Thames and Hudson. (1961)

• Oxenstierna, E. (1965). The Norsemen, New York Graphics Society Publishers, Ltd.

• Rowley, Trevor, The Normans, a History of Conquest, Pegasus Books New York 2021.

• Rollo: The Viking Father of The Normans Documentary https://www.youtube.com/@PeopleProfiles