Vikings in France: Rollo and Normandy

With Francia consumed by desperation, a Viking by the name of Rollo found his way into French royalty; Normandy, and an impressive genealogy to follow, was born.

CONTENTS:
I. The Treaty of Saint-Clair
II. Rollo
III. Normandy

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I. THE TREATY OF SAINT-CLAIR:

The “Great Army” left Francia after a troublesome famine in 892. This was not the end of Viking involvement in Francia, but things definitely went better for the Franks than they had before. In the winter of 896/7, the vikings returned.¹ They were, however, met with considerably greater resistance.

Before that, however, there was a war in Francia between Count Odo and the supporters of the only remaining heir to the West Frankish branch of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles the Simple (as in the uncomplicated, or direct). This conflict was not resolved until January of 898, having begun in 892, with Charles’ victory.² The result was a cleaned up Francia; the messy politics of yesterday were replaced with a more united leadership in West Francia.

The Franks then led a series of victories against the Vikings. The lower valley of the Seine, however, remained an “irreducible Viking stronghold.”³ To deal with this, the Franks got smart. Charles the Simple offered the Viking leader of this area, Rollo, a mutually beneficial deal. In 911, Charles offered Rollo land, title, and marriage in exchange for protection against other Viking incursions. Rollo accepted this and was officially made the Count of Rouen.⁴

II. ROLLO:

“Great is the power of this leader, great his valor, and great his counsel and his wisdom; and great his labor, too, for having waged so many battles against the counts of this kingdom.”⁵

This source speaks very highly of Rollo (a bit exaggerated, of course), but not without some level of basis. Charles’ intention was to have Rollo prevent other Vikings from sailing further down the river Seine. This was done with diligence. With Rollo in this position, the Viking threat to the Seine valley permanently ended.[6] Furthermore, from Rollo comes the man who will later conquer England during the Battle of Hastings, William “the Conquer.” Here is his genealogy following his “promotion”:

III. NORMANDY:

The name “Normandy” actually comes from the term Normannia, meaning “Northman’s land.” Yet, despite having such Viking roots, French culture soon overcame them. The Scandinavians who lived in Normandy quickly adopted French ways, even to the extent of material culture and burial practices. Many place names, however, have Scandinavian roots, and Old Norse speech probably lasted into the early eleventh century. Nonetheless, Normandy became a very important place in the medieval world, taking part in many key events to come, such as the Battle of Hastings and even the Crusades.⁶

CONCLUSION:

Overall, the Vikings did not leave a very lasting impact on Francia. The overall impression of Viking incursions in Francia, although tumultuous, was that they were viewed more “as problems of local order than as threats to the continued existence of their kingdoms.”⁷ The Vikings never threatened to conquer Francia, as they did in England (coming next). The most lasting consequence of the Vikings in Francia was the formation of Normandy, which produced a famous conquerer and powerful knights for years to come.

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Footnotes

1. Richard Collins, Early Medieval Europe 300-1000, 3rd ed. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 357. ↩︎
2. Ibid. ↩︎
3. Ibid., 358. ↩︎
4. This, of course, required he give his allegiance to the king of France as well as convert to Christianity. Based on the prevail of French culture in Normandy, these conditions were probably not ignored. (See Collins, 358.) ↩︎
5. Angus A. Somerville and R. Andrew McDonald ed., The Viking Age: A Reader, 2nd Edition. (University of Toronto Press, 2014), 256. ↩︎
6. (The whole paragraph) John Haywood, The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings.(London: Penguin Books, 1995), 80. For the Crusades aspect, though, knights from Normandy conquered areas of Southern Italy prior to the official beginning of the First Crusade, launched by Pope Urban II in 1095. (See Andrew Jotischky, Crusading and the Crusader States. (repr., 2004; Rutledge, 2014), 30-8 for more.) ↩︎
7. Collins, 359. ↩︎