• General Notes

  "When in 942 William was murdered at the instigation of Count Arnulf of Flanders, his son Richard, still a minor, succeeded him. Louis IV and Hugh the Great each tried to sieze Normandy, and Louis took charge of Richard. He then ensconced himself at Rouen and Hugh took Bayeux, which still had a Scandinavian leader called Sictric. Richard escaped from his custody at Laon, retook Rouen, and called on another Viking leader, Harald of the Bassin, for help. The Normans under Richard were able to re-establish their autonomy and from 947 Richard governed in relative peace. In 965 he swore allegiance to the Carolingian king Lothar at Gisors. Richard's official marriage was to Emma, daughter of Hugh the Great; they had no children, but by his common-law wife Gunnor, a Dane, he had many. Richard II, son of Gunnor and Richard I, succeeded his father in 996, another son Robert was archbishop of Rouen from 989 to 1037 and Emma their daughter became queen of England on her marriage to Aethelred, a position she maintained after his death in 1016 by marrying Cnot (sic: Cnut/Knut...Curt). Gunnor's nephews and other relatives furthermore formed the core of the new aristocracy which developed in the course of the eleventh century. Unfortunately we know little about the internal organization and history of Normandy until the reign of Richard II, and this falls outside our period." --Rosamond McKitterick

Details of Richard I "Sans Peur" "The Fearless" ,  Duke of 's family