Rollo (c. 860 – c. 932), baptised
Robert, was the founder and first ruler of the
VikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
principality in what soon became known as
NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the English Channel coast of Northern France between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands.Normandy is divided between French and British...
.
The name Rollo is a Frankish-
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
name probably taken from the
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
name Hrólfr (cf. the latinization of Hrólfr into the similar
Roluo in the
Gesta DanorumGesta Danorum is a work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...
, modern Scandinavian name
RolfRolf is a male given name. It originates in the Germanic name Hrolf, itself a contraction of Hrodwulf , a conjunction of the stem words hrod + wulf .The Old Norse cognate is Hrólfr.Notable Rolfs/Hrolfs include:...
).
Historical evidence
Rollo was a
VikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
leader of contested origin. Dudo of St. Quentin, in his
De moribus et actis primorum Normannorum ducum , tells of a powerful
DanishDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
nobleman at loggerheads with the
kingA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy, a form of government in which the country or entity usually ruled or controlled by an individual who usually rules for life or until abdication...
of
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
, who had two sons, Gurim and Rollo; upon his death, Rollo was expelled and Gurim killed.
William of JumiègesWilliam of Jumièges was a contemporary of the events of 1066, and one of our earliest writers on the subject of the Norman Conquest. He is himself a "shadowy figure", only known by his dedicatory letter to King William as a monk of Jumièges...
also mentions Rollo's prehistory in his
Gesta Normannorum DucumGesta Normannorum Ducum is a chronicle originally created by the monk William of Jumièges just before 1060. In 1070 William I had William of Jumièges extend the work to detail his rights to the throne of England. In later times, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni Gesta Normannorum Ducum (Deeds...
, but states that he was from the Danish town of Fakse.
WaceWace was an Anglo-Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy , ending his career as Canon of Bayeux.His extant works include:...
, writing some 300 years after the event in his
Roman de RouRoman de Rou is a verse chronicle by Wace in Norman covering the history of the Dukes of Normandy from the time of Rollo of Normandy to the battle of Tinchebray in 1106...
, also mentions the two brothers (as
Rou and
Garin), as does the
Orkneyinga SagaThe Orkneyinga saga is a unique historical narrative of the history of the Orkney Islands, Scotland, from their capture by the Norwegian king in the ninth century onwards until about 1200....
.
NorwegianNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
and
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
ic historians identified this Rollo with a son of Rognvald Eysteinsson, Earl of
Møreis a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Sør-Trøndelag, Oppland and Sogn og Fjordane. The county administration is located in Molde, while Ålesund is the largest city.-The name:...
, in Western Norway, based on medieval Norwegian and Icelandic sagas that mention a Ganger Hrolf (Hrolf, the Walker). The oldest source of this version is the Latin Historia Norvegiae, written in Norway at the end of the 12th century. This Hrolf fell foul of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair, and became a
JarlEarl was the Anglo-Saxon form and jarl the Scandinavian form of a title meaning "chieftain" and referring especially to chieftains set to rule a territory in a king's stead...
in Normandy. The nickname of that character came from being so big that no horse could carry him.
The question of Rollo's Danish or Norwegian origins was a matter of heated dispute between Norwegian and Danish historians of the 19th and early 20th century, particularly in the run-up to Normandy's 1000-year-anniversary in 1911. Today, historians still disagree on this question, but most would now agree that a certain conclusion can never be reached.
Invasion of France
In 885, Rollo was one of the lesser leaders of the Viking fleet which
besieged ParisThe Siege of Paris of 885 to 886 was a Viking siege of Paris, then capital of the kingdom of the West Franks. It was, in hindsight, the most important event of the reign of the Emperor Charles the Fat and a turning point in the fortunes of the Carolingian dynasty and the history of France.The...
under
SigfredSigfred was the second official king of Denmark who ruled between the 780s and 790s. The precise date however remains unknown.He was the father of Gudfred, his youngest son who was his successor and who later reigned as king and ruler of Denmark. His father Ongendus was the reportedly the first...
second official king of the Danes. Legend has it that an emissary was sent by the king to find the chieftain and negotiate terms. When he asked for this information, the Vikings replied that they were all chieftains in their own right. In 886, when Sigfred retreated in return for tribute, Rollo stayed behind and was eventually bought off and sent to harry Burgundy.
Later, he returned to the
SeineThe Seine is a slow-flowing major river and commercial waterway within the regions of Île-de-France and Haute-Normandie in France and famous as a romantic backdrop in photographs of Paris, France. It is also a tourist attraction, with excursion boats offering sightseeing tours of the Rive Droite...
with his followers (known as Danes, or Norsemen). He invaded the area of northern
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
now known as
NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the English Channel coast of Northern France between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands.Normandy is divided between French and British...
.
In 911 Rollo's forces were defeated at the Battle of Chartres by the troops of King
Charles the SimpleCharles III , called the Simple or the Straightforward , was the undisputed King of France from 898 until 922 and the King of Lotharingia from 911 until 919/23...
.
In the aftermath of the battle, rather than pay Rollo to leave, as was customary,
Charles the SimpleCharles III , called the Simple or the Straightforward , was the undisputed King of France from 898 until 922 and the King of Lotharingia from 911 until 919/23...
understood that he could no longer hold back their onslaught, and decided to give Rollo the coastal lands they occupied under the condition that he defend against other raiding Vikings.
In the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (911) with King Charles, Rollo pledged
feudalFeudalism is a decentralized sociopolitical structure in which a weak monarchy attempts to control the lands of the realm through reciprocal agreements with regional leaders...
allegiance to the king, changed his name to the Frankish version, and converted to
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
, probably with the
baptismIn Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted to membership of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered.The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the...
al name Robert. In return, King Charles granted Rollo the lower
SeineThe Seine is a slow-flowing major river and commercial waterway within the regions of Île-de-France and Haute-Normandie in France and famous as a romantic backdrop in photographs of Paris, France. It is also a tourist attraction, with excursion boats offering sightseeing tours of the Rive Droite...
area (today's upper Normandy) and the titular rulership of Normandy, centred around the city of
RouenRouen is the historical capital city of Normandy, in northern France on the River Seine, and currently the capital of the Haute-Normandie region. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
. There exists some argument among historians as to whether Rollo was a "
dukeA duke is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy. The title comes from the Latin Dux Bellorum, which had the sense of "military commander" and was employed by both the Germanic peoples themselves and by the Roman authors...
" (
dux) or whether his position was equivalent to that of a "
countA count is a nobleman in European countries; his wife is a countess. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The British equivalent is an earl...
" under
CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
. According to legend, when required to kiss the foot of King Charles, as a condition of the treaty, he refused to perform so great a humiliation, and when Charles extended his foot to Rollo, Rollo ordered one of his warriors to do so in his place. His warrior then lifted Charles' foot up to his mouth causing him to fall to the ground.
Settlement
Initially, Rollo stayed true to his word of defending the shores of the Seine river in accordance to the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, but in time he and his followers had very different ideas. Rollo began to divide the land between the Epte and Risle rivers among his chieftains and settled there with a
de facto capital in Rouen. With these settlements, Rollo began to further raid other Frankish lands, now from the security of a settled homeland, rather than a mobile fleet. Eventually, however, Rollo's men intermarried with the local women, and became more settled as Frenchmen. At the time of his death, Rollo's expansion of his territory had extended as far west as the
Vire RiverThe Vire is a river in Normandy in France whose 128 km course crosses the départements of Calvados and Manche, flowing through the towns of Vire, Saint-Lô and Isigny-sur-Mer, finally flowing out into the English Channel....
.
Death
Sometime around 927, Rollo passed the
fief in NormandyThe Duchy of Normandy stems from various Danish, Hiberno-Norse, Orkney Viking and Anglo-Danish invasions of France in the 8th century...
to his son,
William LongswordWilliam I Longsword was the second Duke of Normandy from his father's death until his own assassination...
. Rollo may have lived for a few years after that, but certainly died before 933. According to the historian
AdhemarAdémar de Chabannes was an eleventh-century French monk, a historian who wrote the first annals to have been compiled in Aquitaine since Late Antiquity, a musical composer and a successful literary forger....
, 'As Rollo's death drew near, he went mad and had a hundred Christian prisoners beheaded in front of him in honour of the gods whom he had worshipped, and in the end distributed a hundred pounds of gold around the churches in honour of the true God in whose name he had accepted baptism.' Even though Rollo had converted to
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
, some of his
paganNorse paganism is a term used to describe the religious traditions which were common amongst the Germanic tribes living in Nordic countries prior to and during the Christianization of Northern Europe. Norse paganism is therefore a subset of Germanic paganism, which was practiced in the lands...
roots surfaced at the end.
Legacy
Rollo is a direct ancestor of
William the ConquerorWilliam I , better known as William the Conqueror, was Duke of Normandy from AD 1035 and King of England from late 1066 to his death. William is sometimes also referred to as "William II" in relation to his position as the second Duke of Normandy of that name...
. Through William, he is an
ancestor of the present-day British royal familyThis list shows the most senior line of direct royal lineal descent of the United Kingdom to the current monarch from William the Conqueror. Each person on the list is the son or daughter of the person above him or her on the list. There are many other more junior lines of descent of the family,...
.
The "
Clameur de HaroThe Clameur de Haro is an ancient legal injunction of restraint employed by a person that believes they are being wronged by another at that moment...
" in the
Channel IslandsThe Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
is, supposedly, an appeal to Rollo.
Depictions in fiction
Rollo is the subject of the 17th Century play
Rollo Duke of NormandyRollo Duke of Normandy, also known as The Bloody Brother, is a play written in collaboration by John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman. Scholars have disputed almost everything about the play; but it was probably written sometime in the 1612–24 era and later revised,...
written by John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman.