General Notes

Richard I, byname RICHARD The FEARLESS, French RICHARD SANS PEUR (b. c. 932--d. 996), duke of Normandy (942-996), son of William I Longsword.

Louis IV of France took the boy-duke into his protective custody, apparently intent upon reuniting Normandy to the crown's domains; but in 945 Louis was captured by the Normans, and Richard was returned to his people. Richard withstood further Carolingian attempts to subdue his duchy and, in 987, was instrumental in securing the French crown for his brother-in-law, the Robertian Hugh Capet. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97]

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Curt Hofemann, curt_hofemann@@yahoo.com, in a post-em, wrote:

Not that you probably don't already have a ton of material on him but:

942-996: Duke of Normandy [Ref: Monarchs, Rulers, Dynasties and Kingdoms of the World by R.F. Tapsell 1983 p202]

Title of Duke, again, was not likely generally used by Richard I or his son Richard II, whose official documents style themselves "count of Rouen."  Later eleventh century documents use the term Duke - and adopted for historical record.  [Ref: William The Conqueror, The Norman Impact Upon England by David C. Douglas 1964]

'Richard I and his new settler in-laws of the 960s were the winners who lasted. In becoming so they learned (and taught) two principles of success that marked them off from the Franks. They learned the value of a strong centralizing chieftain who could at least freeze the status quo once his own local chieftains had taken what they wanted. The more successful he was, the more chiefs attached themselves to him for just this: with his warranty, backed by his chieftains, their defeated enemies could not recover by violence what had been taken from them by violence. Thus were the Norman dukes 'settlers of quarrels.' Fearlessness was the necessary quality in such a coordinating chieftain, and Richard I, who has no encomiast of his deeds, has at least this sobriquet, 'the Fearless' Those who were great fighters and the ruthlessly, selectively violent, were the great centralizers among the threatened and rapacious Norse.'  [Ref: Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840-1066 by Eleanor Searle, University of California Press, 1988 -Charlotte's Web Geneology http://www.charweb.org/gen/rjones/d0042/g0000019.htm#I238]

"RICHARD I, "the Fearless", Duke of Normandy, b. Fecamp ca. 933, named father's h. 29 May 942, d. 20 Nov. 996; m. (1) (Danish wife) Gunnor, d. 1027 or 1031, dau. of the forester of Arques, but betrothed ca. 945 & event. m. (2) 960 to Emma, d. ca. 968, dau. Hugh Capet ..., Count of Paurs.  After Emma's death, m. (Christian marriage) Gunnor to legit. their children. ... By Gunnor, Richard had [RICHARD II]." [Ref: Weis AR7:110-111]

"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." [Ref: The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians 751-987, by Rosamond McKitterick, London & NY (Longman) 1983 p238-239]

During the minority of his (William Long-Sword) successor, Duke Richard, King Louis IV -- who was making an expedition into Normandy -- was captured by the inhabitants of Rouen and handed over to Hugh the Great. From this time onwards the dukes of Normandy began to enter into relations with the dukes of France; and in 958 Duke Richard married Hugh the Great's daughter. He died in 996.  (Succeeded by Richard II.) [Ref: Gordon Fisher <gfisher@@SHENTEL.NET> message to soc.genealogy.medieval 6 Nov 1996]

One more minor item, ES II:11 indicates he was also buried at FÈcamp.

BTW,where did you get the day & month for his birth & death?  [Note: The birth date is an unsourced item I picked up on World Connect, it has at least a 1/365 chance of being right.  The death date is from AR, as the source indicates (AR refers to Moriarty's Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 10-11, 13).  JW]

Regards,
Curt