William Longsword (, , , ; 893 – 17 December 942) was the second ruler of Normandy, from 927 until his assassination in 942.Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band III Teilband 1 (Marburg, Germany: J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 79

Titles He is sometimes referred to as a "duke of Normandy", though the title duke (dux) did not come into common usage until the 11th century.Douglas, David 'The Earliest Norman Counts', The English Historical Review, Vol. 61, No. 240 (May 1946), p. 130, Longsword was known at the time as count (Latin comes) of Rouen.The Normans in Europe, ed. & trans. Elisabeth van Houts (Manchester; New York: Manchester University Press, 2000), pp. 31, 41, 182 Flodoard—always detailed about titles—consistently referred to both Rollo and his son William as principes (chieftains) of the Normans.Eleanor Searle, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840–1066 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), p. 45 There are no contemporary accounts of William's byname, 'Longsword', either; it appears first in later eleventh-century sources.

Birth William Longsword was born "overseas"Neveux and other authorities believe this may have been in England, as Rollo left Neustria for several years, probably for England. See: Neveux, p. 62; Complainte sur l'assassinat de Guillaume Longue-Ėpée, duc de Normandie, poème inédit du Xe siècle, Gaston Paris; Jules Lair, Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes (1870), Volume 31, Issue 31, p. 397; Complainte de la mort de Guillaume Longue Ėpėe; and Prentout, Etude critique sur Dudon de Saint-Quentin, 178–179 [ns]. to the Viking Rollo (while he was still a pagan) and his wife more danico (a kind of non-Christian marriage), Poppa of Bayeux. Poppa's parentage is uncertain. Dudo of Saint-Quentin in his panegyric of the Norman dukes describes her as the daughter of a Count Berengar, the dominant prince of that region.Douglas, 'Rollo of Normandy', p. 417 In the 11th-century Annales Rotomagenses (Annals of Rouen), Annales Rotomagenses, brillonline.com she is called the daughter of Guy, Count of Senlis,K. S. B. Keats-Rohan (July–October 1997), "Poppa of Bayeux and Her Family", The American Genealogist, vol. 72, no. 4, p. 198 otherwise unknown to history.See Commentary: The origin of Poppa at: Stewart Baldwin, The Henry Project: "Poppa" for more detailed discussion and opinions. However she was a Christian and seems to have passed on her religious beliefs to her son. According to the Longsword's planctus, William was baptized a Christian probably at the same time as his father, which Orderic Vitalis stated was in 912, by Franco, Archbishop of Rouen.Vitalis, p. 67 (Citing William of Jumièges, Book II, ch. 12 )

Life

William succeeded Rollo (who continued to live about five more years) in 927Douglas, 'Rollo of Normandy', p. 435 and, early in his reign, in 933 or 934, faced a rebellion from NormansThe Normans in Europe, p. 41 (Citing the Planctus for William Longsword composed shortly after his murder in 942) who felt he had become too Gallicised. According to Dudo of Saint-Quentin, the leader of the rebellion was Riulf, who besieged William in Rouen. Sallying forth, William won a decisive battle, proving his authority to be duke. At the time of this rebellion, William sent his pregnant more danico wife, Sprota, to Fécamp where their son Richard was born.Searle, p. 95

In 933, William recognized King Rudolph, who was struggling to assert his authority in Northern France, as King of Western Francia. In turn, Rudolph gave him lordship over much of the lands of the Bretons including Avranches, the Cotentin Peninsula and the Channel Islands,The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 916–966, eds. & trans. Steven Fanning and Bernard S. Bachrach (New York; Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. xvii & notes 15b, 85 although in practice these were lands that were outside Carolingian power.Pierre Riché, The Carolingians; A Family who Forged Europe, trans. Michael Idomir Allen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), pp. 252–3 The Bretons resisted these changes, led by Alan II, Duke of Brittany, and Count Berengar of Rennes, but this ended shortly with great slaughter and Breton castles being razed to the ground; Alan fled to England and Berengar sought reconciliation.The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumieges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, ed. & trans. Elizabeth M.C. Van Houts, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), p. 79

In 935, William married Luitgarde, daughter of Count Herbert II of Vermandois, whose dowry gave him the lands of Longueville, Coudres and Illiers-l'Évêque. He also contracted a marriage between his sister Adela (whose Norse name was Gerloc) and William, Count of Poitou, with the approval of France's most powerful magnate, Hugh the Great.The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumieges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, p. 81 In addition to supporting King Rudolph, William was now a loyal ally of his father-in-law, Herbert II, both of whom his father had opposed.The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 916–966, p. xxi In January 936, Rudolph died and the 16-year-old Louis IV, who was living in exile in England, was persuaded by a promise of loyalty by William to return and became king. The Bretons returned from exile seeking to recover the lands taken by the Normans, resulting in fighting in the expanded Norman lands.

The new king was not capable of controlling his Barons and, after William's brother-in-law, Herluin II, Count of Montreuil, was attacked by Flanders, William went to their assistance in 939, whereupon Arnulf I, Count of Flanders retaliated by attacking Normandy. Arnulf captured the castle of Montreuil-sur-Mer, expelling Herluin, after which Herluin and William cooperated to retake the castle.Searle, p. 56David Nicholas, Medieval Flanders (London: Longman Group UK Limited, 1992), p. 40 William was excommunicated for his actions in destroying several estates belonging to Arnulf.The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 916–966, p. 31 William pledged his loyalty to King Louis IV when they met in 940 and, in return, he was confirmed in lands that had been given to his father.The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 916–966, p. 32

William started the Norman monastic revival with both a posthumous reputation among monastic chroniclers and evidence from the religious charters of abbeys in Jumièges, Saint-Ouen and Mont-Saint-Michel. He took a particular interest in Jumièges Abbey, where he invited back the community which had fled Normandy from the Vikings in 841 as well as requesting monks from Aquitaine to help rebuild the monastery. The abbey was rebuilt on a grander scale and there was a tradition in Jumièges that William wanted to be a monk there himself.

Assassination In 941, a peace treaty, brokered in Rouen by King Louis IV, was signed between the Bretons and Normans, which limited Norman expansion into Breton lands. The following year, on 17 December 942 at Picquigny on an island on the Somme, William was ambushed and killed by followers of Arnulf while at a peace conference to settle their differences.

Family William had no children with his Christian wife, Luitgarde. He fathered a son, Richard, with Sprota,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 Searle, p. 108 and The Normans in Europe, p. 57 his wife more danico.The Normans in Europe, p. 47 Richard, then aged 10, succeeded as ruler of Normandy upon William's death in December, 942.

Notes

References

Sources

External links Planctus for William Stewart Baldwin on Guillaume "Longue Épée" of Normandy