William I, Duke of Normandy

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"Guillaume Longue-Épée" redirects here. For others of the same name, see William Longsword (disambiguation).
William I "Longsword"
Statue of William Longsword, part of the "Six Dukes of Normandy" series in Falaise.
Duke of Normandy
Reign 927–942
Predecessor Rollo
Successor Richard I
Spouse Luitgarde of Vermandois
Issue
Richard I of Normandy (illegitimate)
Father Rollo
Mother Poppa
Born c.900
Bayeux or Rouen
Died 17 December 942
Picquigny on the Somme
Burial Rouen Cathedral

William I Longsword (French: Guillaume Longue-Épée, Latin: Willermus Longa Spata, Old Norse: Vilhjálmr Langaspjót) (c. 900 – 942) was the second "Duke of Normandy" until his assassination.[1] The title duke (dux) was not in use at the time and has been retrospectively applied to early Norman rulers.[2][3] William was known at the time by the title count (comes) of Rouen[4] although Flodoard, always detailed about titles, consistently referred to both Rollo and his son William as princeps (chieftains) of the Norse.[5]


Contents

[edit] Birth

William was born 'overseas'[6][a] to Rollo, while he was still a pagan, and his Christian wife Poppa of Bayeux.[7][8] Dudo of Saint-Quentin in his panegyric of the Norman dukes describes Poppa as the daughter of a count Beranger, the dominant prince of that region[9]. In the 11th century Annales Rouennaises (Annals of Rouen), she is called the daughter of Guy, Count of Senlis[10], otherwise unknown to history.[b] Despite the uncertainty of her parentage she was undoubtedly a member of the Frankish aristocracy[11]. According to the William's planctus, he was baptized a Christian probably at the same time as his father[12], which Orderic Vitalis stated was in 912 and by Franco, Archbishop of Rouen[13][14]

[edit] Life

William succeeded Rollo (who was still alive) in 927[15] and, early in his reign, faced a rebellion from Normans[16] who felt he had become too Gallicised and too soft.[17] According to Orderic Vitalis, the leader was Riouf of Evreux.[17][18][19] At the time of this rebellion William sent his pregnant wife Sprota to Fécamp where their son Richard was born.[20]

In 933, William I Longsword recognized Raoul as King of Western Francia, who was struggling to assert his authority in Northern France. In turn Raoul gave him lordship over much of the lands of the Bretons including Avranches and the Cotentin.[21][22] Resistance to the Normans was led by Alan Wrybeard, Duke of Brittany and Count Berenger of Rennes but ended shortly with Alan fleeing to England and Beranger seeking reconciliation.[23]

In 935, William contracted a marriage between his sister Adela (Gerloc was her Norse name) and William, count of Poitou with the approval of Hugh the Great.[24] At the same time William married Luitgarde[1], daughter of count Herbert II of Vermandois whose dowry gave him the lands of Longueville, Coudres and Illiers l'Eveque.[19] In addition to supporting king Raoul, he was now a loyal ally of his father-in-law, Herbert II, both of whom his father Rollo had opposed.[25]

William Longsword attacked Flanders in 939 whereas Arnulf I, Count of Flanders and Louis IV, King of France retaliated by attacking Normandy. Arnulf captured the castle of Montreuil-sur-Mer expelling Herluin, Count of Ponthieu, who, along with William Longsword took it back.[26][27] For his part in attacking and destroying several estates belonging to Arnulf, William was excommunicated.[28]

The funerary monument of William Longsword in the cathedral of Rouen, France. The monument is from the XIVth century.

William met with king Louis IV in 940 and pledged loyalty for which he was confirmed in lands that had been given his father, Rollo.[29] Three years later William Longsword was ambushed and killed by followers of Arnulf on 17 December 942 at Picquigny on the Somme while at peace conference to settle their differences.[27][30]


[edit] Family

By his wife Luitgarde he had no children.[30] She married secondly, Theobald I, Count of Blois and by him had at least three children.[30]

By Sprota,[c] a Breton captive and his concubine,[31] he had a son:

[edit] References

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  1. ^ a b Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 1, Herzogs und Grafenhäuser des Heiligen Römischen Reiches Andere Europäiche Fürstenhäuser (Marburg, Germany: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 79
  2. ^ David C. Douglas, 'The Earliest Norman Counts', The English Historical Review, Vol. 61, No. 240 (May, 1946), p. 130
  3. ^ David Crouch, The Normans: The History of a Dynasty, (Hambledon Continuum, 2007), p. 14
  4. ^ The Normans in Europe, ed. & trans. Elisabeth van Houts (Manchester University Press, 2000),pp. 31, 41, 182
  5. ^ Eleanor Searle, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840-1066 (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988), p. 45
  6. ^ François Neveux, A Brief History of the Normans, trans. Howard Curtis (Constable & Robbinson, Ltd, London, 2008), p. 62
  7. ^ David C. Douglas, 'Rollo of Normandy', The English Historical Review, Vol. 57, No. 228 (Oct., 1942), p. 422
  8. ^ Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. Marjorie Chibnall, Vol. II (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993), P. 7
  9. ^ David C. Douglas, 'Rollo of Normandy', The English Historical Review, Vol. 57, No. 228, (Oct., 1942), p. 417
  10. ^ K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, 'Poppa of Bayeux and Her Family', The American Genealogist, vol. 72 (July-October 1997), p. 198
  11. ^ François Neveux, A Brief History of the Normans, trans. Howard Curtis (Constable & Robbinson, Ltd, London, 2008), pp. 60-1
  12. ^ David Crouch, The Normans: The History of a Dynasty (Hambledon Continuum Press, 2007), p. 9
  13. ^ Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, trans. Thomas Forester, Vol. I (Henry G. Bohn, New York, 1853), p. 380
  14. ^ The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, Ed. & Trans. Elizabeth M.C. Van Houts, Vol. I (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992), p. 67 (Citing William of Jumièges, Book II, ch. 12[18])
  15. ^ David C. Douglas, 'Rollo of Normandy', The English Historical Review, Vol. 57, No. 228 (Oct., 1942), p. 435
  16. ^ The Normans in Europe, ed. & trans. Elisabeth van Houts (Manchester University Press, 2000), p. 41 (Citing the Planctus for William Longsword composed shortly after his murder in 943)
  17. ^ a b A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World, ed. Christopher Harper-Bill, Elisabeth Van Houts (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2007), p. 25
  18. ^ David Crouch, The Normans: The History of a Dynasty, (Hambledon Continuum, 2007), p. 11
  19. ^ a b François Neveux. A Brief History of the Normans (Constable & Robbinson, Ltd, London, 2008), p. 72
  20. ^ Eleanor Searle, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840-1066 (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988), p. 95
  21. ^ Pierre Riché, The Carolingians; A Family who Forged Europe, trans. Michael Idomir Allen (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1993) pp. 252-3
  22. ^ The Annals of Flodoard of Reims; 916-966, ed. & trans. Steven Fanning and Bernard S. Bachrach (University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. xvii & notes 15b, 85
  23. ^ The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumieges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, Ed. & Trans. Elizabeth M.C. Van Houts, Vol. I (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992), p. 79
  24. ^ The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumieges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, Ed. & Trans. Elizabeth M.C. Van Houts, Vol. I (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992), p. 81
  25. ^ The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 916-966, ed. & trans. Steven Fanning and Bernard S. Bachrach (University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. xxi
  26. ^ Eleanor Searle, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840-1066(University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988), p.56
  27. ^ a b David Nicholas, Medieval Flanders (Longman Group UK Limited, London, 1992), p. 40
  28. ^ The Annals of Flodoard of Reims; 916-966, ed. & trans. Steven Fanning and Bernard S. Bachrach (University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. 31
  29. ^ The Annals of Flodoard of Reims; 916-966, ed. & trans. Steven Fanning and Bernard S. Bachrach (University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. 32
  30. ^ a b c d François Neveux. A Brief History of The Normans (Constable & Robbinson, Ltd, London, 2008), p. 90
  31. ^ The Normans in Europe, ed. & trans. Elisabeth van Houts (Manchester University Press, 2000), p. 47 n. 77


[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Neveux and other authorities believe this may have been in England.
  2. ^ See Commentary: The origin of Poppa at: Stewart Baldwin, The Henry Project: "Poppa" for more detailed discussion and opinions.
  3. ^ After William’s death, 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 Eleanor Searle, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840-1066 (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988), p. 108; The Normans in Europe, ed. & trans. Elisabeth van Houts (Manchester University Press, 2000), p. 57


[edit] External links



French nobility
Preceded by
Rollo		 Duke of Normandy
c. 927–942		 Succeeded by
Richard I
House of Normandy
911–1135
Arms of William the Conqueror (1066-1087).svg
House of Blois
1135–1144
House of Plantagenet
1144–1259


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