General Notes

1  BIRT
2  DATE 845
ema p 365 "ROLLO, leader of Viking pirates who raided the French coast a
nd settled at the mouth of the Seine, was the first ruler of Normandy.  Ac
cording to Icelandic sagas he was of noble Norwegian ancestry.  His nam
e, Rolf Gangr, was later gallicized to Rollo.  . . ."
bk&q p. 731 "Normandy was a duchy established by HROLFUR, son of Ragna
ld I of Orkney, who was granted land by treaty by Charles the Simple of Fr
ance.  The Normans acquired the English throne by conquest in 1066 under D
uke William II, and Normandy was united with England until lost by Jo
hn in 1204."
ohme describes Viking conquest of Carolingian empire beginning on p. 99, i
ncluding, on p 103 "It was not until 911 that the Frankish king, Charles t
he Simple, legitimized the authority of these Vikings by granting the ar
ea around Rouen to the Northman Rollo, thus creating what became the duc
hy of Normandy.  The period of Viking expansion had ended and, in some are
as, the 'reconquest' began:  in Flanders, in central England under Alfred
's son Athelstan . . .
The effects of these Viking raids on northern Europe are very difficu
lt for the historian to assess.  For a long time the negative aspects we
re paramont; historians influenced by the image of bloodthirsty pirates fo
und in contemporary sources stressed the destruction of monasteries and t
he political confusion, and blamed the Vikings for the destruction of t
he Carolingian Empire and of the traditional and relatively peaceful wa
ys of Old Ireland.  More recently other historians, following Profess
or P. H. Sawyer in particular, noted the small-scale nature of Viking raid
ing and settlement.  They pointed out that monasticism was on the wa
ne in England before the Vikings; that the Carolingian Empire collapsed f
or internal structural reasons . . . Archaeologists, impressed by Scandina
vian artistic and seafaring achievements, began emphasizing the positive c
ontribution of the Vikings as craftsmen, sailors, merchants, and farmer
s.  The Jorvik Viking Centre, which displays the results of the importa
nt excavation at Coppergate in York, exemplifies this approach.  The simil
arities between the societies of raiders and victims have been pointed ou
t, which made it relatively easy for the Vikings to be assimilated or at l
east accepted as allies.  But now, perhaps, historians are swinging in t
he other direction.  . . . the excavations at Repton (Derbyshire), which h
ave revealed the careful way in which the Vikings plundered a monastery a
nd stripped it of all its precious objects.  Viking poetry, it has been ar
gued, reveals a taste for violence 'verging on the psychopathic', while t
he Vikings may have been fanatical in their paganism, sacking monasteri
es as much for ideology as for opportunism, and sacrificing their opponen
ts in a peculiarly bloody way." (see more discussion)
p 150 "France also "(in addition to Germany, which was just discussed in o
hme) "saw the rise and fall of a great dominion during this period, but th
at dominion was not that of the French king.  It had been formed large
ly to his prejudice and when it began to crumble the French crown enjoy
ed the advantage of coming to the fore at a time altogether more propitio
us for the development of a stable and enduring state.  The dominion whi
ch was to fall had its roots during the reign of Charles the Simple, wh
en that king granted Rouen and its environs to a Viking leader, ROLL
O, in order to buy off his attacks.  By the end of the tenth century Rollo
's descendants had secured extensive territories from this base and forg
ed the duchy of Normandy." (continues with William I)
FIMA xi, 24, 82-3 "The fourth principality was Normandy, and here the Nor
se invaders had managed to invade and settle.  By an early tenth-century t
reaty made at St. Clair-sur-Epte, the Frankish king granted comital powe
rs over all the occupied territory to the Viking chief (w