Siege Of Chartres (911)

The Battle of Chartres

The Siege of Chartres was part of the Viking incursions. In 858, Norsemen raided and burned down the Burgundian city of Chartres (now in the Eure-et-Loir-like city, going close to the river.

In 911, Rollo led the Danes in another siege of the city. Richard, Duke of Burgundy, split his forces into three corps, the first being made up of Aquitanians, to defend it. According to legend, Bishop Gantelme exposed the Virgin's tunic on the ramparts and led a mob of peasants to charge, and the Norsemen fled as a result.

The West Frankish cavalry led by King Charles the Simple, which had arrived, now pursued the Norsemen. Short on time to be able to board his army onto his ships due to the rapid approach of the cavalry, Rollo and his men decided to make a defensive wall by slaughtering the livestock from his ships. The Frankish charge was halted as their horses were intimidated by the sight and smell of the livestock corpses.

It is at this moment, the Battle of Chartres, that a Carolingian king capitulated to a Danish warlord because he could not defeat him in battle; however, Charles, in fact, got the upper hand insofar as Rollo peacefully accepted becoming his vassal, which left Rollo protecting French lands (Normandy) against further Viking raids.

Danes Raiding Francia

The Danish incursions into Francia started in n 820 CE, thirteen Viking ships reached the shore in Francia, the site of the first Viking raid. France was a rich nation compared to Denmark and Norway. It had lush pastures and plenty of wealth across the countryside. Christianity and its churches were extremely wealthy and so churches across France has gold and silver decorating religions items. These items where heavily coveted by the Danes because they could be hacked and chopped into money pieces. Francia was weak and ripe for the taking by raiders. When Francia was united nothing could challenge this, Nation. Now that the nation is divided up into petty kingdoms the land is vulnerable to attack. Viking raids were frequent and devastating, they even made it all the way to Paris in 845.

Rollo

In 876 Rollo invaded Normandy and started attacking all around France. He wanted the wealth that France had to grow his own wealth and power. He pillaged, looted, raped, and caused destruction against France and her people. Many were slaughtered and this led King Charles the Simple to send an army to oppose Rollo. Charles the simple is a descendent of Charlemagne and his family has built France into a powerful and wealthy nation. When Charlemagne died, he gave his land to his son Louis I, and Louis inherited the title from his father. Louis I had a similar idea with his children and gave them all an equal share of his kingdom when he died. This constant division of lands leads us to Charles the Bald and his siblings. Lots of in-fighting and so this left Francia a dying beast that attacked raiders such as the Vikings. One of these petty kingdoms was run by Charles the simple and he no longer had to worry about these raids because Rollo was now defending him from them.  Charles could not have Rollo looting and killing wherever he went, and he was worried about the Danes continuing to attack. The two forces fought and eventually Rollo was defeated, and this defeat was at the fort of Chartres.

Rollo was a very powerful Dane and after years of raiding and making himself wealthy he became a powerful foe against the King of France. Charles the simple created a treaty that would bring peace to France. It also gave Rollo a large swath of land. This swath of land is Normandy and now Charles has a very powerful ally that will guard the northern part of is nation. Rollo being a great warrior would protect his new lands with his life and now Charles has nothing to worry about on his northern front. These long-term conflicts were across Frankia and many of its towns and villages were massacred. These massacres led to fear across France. Which allowed the Vikings to gain more plunder and be met with little resistance because of this fear. These terrors are now over that Charles has given Rollo Land.

The Franks, unable to attack, decided to instead open negotiations with Rollo. The Danes had been formidable enough to persuade Charles the Simple that they might become valuable allies. And thus the battle ended, as both sides began formulating the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte.

Padovanino's 1618 depiction of the Siege.

In 1618 the Italian painter Padovanino painted a version of the event which now hangs in the Pinacoteca di Brera.

Rollo had an agreement formed between Charles the Simple and the Vikings directly after the battle. The date of the battle is hard to pin down because of authors unreliability for the information. Dudo has a history of Rollo and embellishes many of the tales. The battle is confirmed however by the Annals of Ste. Colobe of Sens. This article has given the date of 20 July 911.7. In 911 Rollo received Upper Normandy between the Epte and the sea.

Notes

Further reading

Sources

Bachrach, Bernard S, Clifford J Rogers, and Kelly DeVries. 2002. ''Journal of Medieval Military History''. Boydell Press.

Benjamin, Roy. 2012. ''). “Northmen . . . Norman . . . Noman: Conquest and Effacement in Finnegans Wake.”'' Joyce Studies Annual. JSTOR 26288777. Project MUSE 516516..

Coupland, Simon. 2003. ''“the Vikings on the Continent in Myth and History''. Vol. 2. History 88. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24427035..

Davy, Gilduin. 2020. ''“Pro Tutela Regni: Revisiting a Royal Diploma from 918 on the Birth of Normandy and the First ‘Ducal’ Laws.”'' Early medieval Europe 28.1.

deGorog, Ralph P. 1961. “A Note on Scandinavian Influence in Normandy and in Finland.” ''Modern Language Notes'' 76 (8): 840. https://doi.org/10.2307/3039963.

Douglas, D.C. n.d. ''“Rollo of Normandy”.'' The English Historical Review. Accessed November 1, 2022. doi:10.1093/ehr/LVII.CCXXVIII.417. JSTOR 554369..

Eley, Penny. n.d. ''“History and Romance in the ‘Chronique Des Ducs de Normandie’”. Medium Ævum''. Medium Ævum. . doi:10.2307/43630128. JSTOR 43630128. Gale A55114842 ProQuest 194186827..

Harkel, Letty ten. 2006. ''The Vikings and the Natives: Ethnic Identity in England and Normandy C. 1000 AD''. The Medieval Chronicle. JSTOR 45375843..

HENRICH FICHTSNAU. 1964. ''THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE the AGE of CHARLEMAGNE''.

Innes, Matthew. 1997. ''“Charlemagne’s Will: Piety, Politics and the Imperial Succession.”'' Vol. 112, no. The English Historical Review.

McCormick, Michael. 2011. ''Michael J. Charlemagne’s Survey of the Holy Land: Wealth, Personnel, and Buildings of a Mediterranean Church between Antiquity and the Middle Ages.'' Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

Robinson, Holly K., and Lucien Musset. 1998. “Review of Nordica et Normannica: Receuil d’Études Sur La Scandinavie Ancienne et Médiévale, Les Expéditions Des Vikings et La Fondation de La Normandie.” ''Scandinavian Studies'' 70 (3): 403–5. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40920071.

Skipwith, Peyton. (1925) 2020. ''The Frieze, with Its Violent Scenes, Was Deemed Unsuitable''. Apollo (London. 1925) 191.683 (2020):

Turner, Danielle. 2017a. ''The Viking Sieges of Paris''. Medieval Warfare. JSTOR 48578078..

———. 2017b. ''The Viking Sieges of Paris: BRILLIANT WARFARE or PRAGMATIC DECISION?”''. Y. Vol. 1. Medieval Warfare.

William, William. 2017. ''Laying Waste to Everything"''. Medieval Warfare. JSTOR 48578076..

KENT, J. P. C. “CHARLES THE GREAT OR CHARLES THE BALD.” ''The Numismatic Chronicle (1966-)'' 8 (1968): 173–76. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42666551.

Woods, Andrew R. “From Charlemagne to the Commercial Revolution (c.800–1150).” In ''Money and Coinage in the Middle Ages'', edited by Rory Naismith, 93–121. Brill, 2018. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctv2gjww65.9.

Wood, Ian. “The Distribution and Redistribution of Church Wealth.” In ''The Christian Economy of the Early Medieval West: Towards a Temple Society'', 51–78. Punctum Books, 2022. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2gjx0p9.6.

Lewis, Stephen M. “Salt and the Earliest Scandinavian Raids in France: Was There a Connection?” ''Viking and Medieval Scandinavia'' 12 (2016): 103–36. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48501799.

McNair, Fraser. “Vikings and Bretons? The Language of Factional Politics in Late Carolingian Brittany.” ''Viking and Medieval Scandinavia'' 11 (2015): 183–202. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48501916.

Bachrach, Bernard S. “Charlemagne and the Carolingian General Staff.” ''The Journal of Military History'' 66, no. 2 (2002): 313–57. https://doi.org/10.2307/3093063.

Garipzanov, Ildar H. “Carolingian Coins in Ninth-Century Scandinavia: A Norwegian Perspective.” ''Viking and Medieval Scandinavia'' 1 (2005): 43–71. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45020155.

Holmes, Robert. “Men of Iron: The Carolingian Army AD 742-814.” ''Medieval Warfare'' 5, no. 2 (2015): 35–40. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48578434.

Kramer, Rutger. “Framing the Carolingian Reforms: The Early Years of Louis the Pious.” In ''Rethinking Authority in the Carolingian Empire'', 31–58. Amsterdam University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvd1c74c.6.

Sullivan, Richard E. “The Carolingian Age: Reflections on Its Place in the History of the Middle Ages.” ''Speculum'' 64, no. 2 (1989): 267–306. https://doi.org/10.2307/2851941.

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* {{cite journal , last1=Benjamin , first1=Roy , title=Northmen . . . Norman . . . Noman: Conquest and Effacement in Finnegans Wake , journal=Joyce Studies Annual , date=2012 , pages=242–260 , id={{Project MUSE, 516516 , jstor=26288777

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