William Longsword (, , , ; 893 – 17 December 942) was the second ruler of

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

, 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 He is sometimes referred to as a "

duke of Normandy In the Middle Ages, the duke of Normandy was the ruler of the Duchy of Normandy in north-western France. The duchy arose out of a grant of land to the Viking leader Rollo by the French king Charles the Simple in 911. In 924 and again in 933, N ...

", though the title

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

(''dux'') did not come into common usage until the 11th century. Longsword was known at the time as count (Latin ''comes'') of

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

. Flodoard—always detailed about titles—consistently referred to both

Rollo Rollo (, ''Rolloun''; ; ; – 933), also known with his epithet, Rollo "the Walker", was a Viking who, as Count of Rouen, became the first ruler of Normandy, a region in today's northern France. He was prominent among the Vikings who Siege o ...

and his son William as ''principes'' (chieftains) of the Normans. 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 s to the

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

(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.Neveux, pp. 60–61

Dudo of Saint-Quentin Dudo, or Dudon, was a Picard historian, and dean of Saint-Quentin, where he was born the 960s. He was an erudite scholar and he likely acquired his education in Liège or perhaps Laon. By 987, Dudo had become a canon at St Quentin, the abbacy of ...

in his

panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of - ' ...

of the Norman dukes describes her as the daughter of a Count Berengar, the dominant prince of that region. In the 11th-century ''Annales Rotomagenses'' (Annals of Rouen), she is called the daughter of Guy, Count of Senlis, otherwise unknown to history.See Commentary: The origin of Poppa at
Stewart Baldwin, ''The Henry Project: "Poppa"''
for more detailed discussion and opinions. According to the Longsword's planctus, William was baptized a Christian probably at the same time as his father, which

Orderic Vitalis Orderic Vitalis (; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England.Hollister ''Henry I'' p. 6 Working out of ...

stated was in 912, by Franco, Archbishop of Rouen.

Life

William succeeded Rollo (who continued to live about five more years) in 927 and, early in his reign, in 933, faced a rebellion from

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...

who felt he had become too Gallicised.''A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World'', ed. Christopher Harper-Bill; Elisabeth Van Houts (Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press, 2007), p. 25 According to

, the leader of the rebellion was Riouf of Evreux,Neveux, p. 72 who besieged William in

. Sallying forth, William won a decisive battle, proving his authority to be duke. At the time of this rebellion, William sent his pregnant wife ''more danico'', Sprota, to Fécamp where their son

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...

was born. In 933, William recognized King Raoul, who was struggling to assert his authority in Northern France, as King of Western Francia. In turn, Raoul gave him lordship over much of the lands of the

Bretons The Bretons (; or , ) are an ethnic group native to Brittany, north-western France. Originally, the demonym designated groups of Common Brittonic, Brittonic speakers who emigrated from Dumnonia, southwestern Great Britain, particularly Cornwal ...

including

Avranches Avranches (; ) is a commune in the Manche department, and the region of Normandy, northwestern France. It is a subprefecture of the department. The inhabitants are called ''Avranchinais''. History Middle Ages By the end of the Roman period, th ...

, the

Cotentin Peninsula The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its west lie the Gu ...

and the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

. 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. 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 Hugh the Great (16 June 956) was the duke of the Franks and count of Paris. He was the most powerful magnate in France. Son of King Robert I of France, Hugh was Margrave of Neustria. He played an active role in bringing King Louis IV of France ...

. In addition to supporting King Raoul, William was now a loyal ally of his father-in-law, Herbert II, both of whom his father had opposed. In January 936, Raoul 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 Montreuil-sur-Mer (; or ; ), Montreuil-on-the-Sea, is a subprefecture in the Pas-de-Calais Department in northern France. Though commonly called by this name since at least the twelfth century, it was legally known as Montreuil until 31 Decemb ...

, expelling Herluin, after which Herluin and William cooperated to retake the castle.David Nicholas, ''Medieval Flanders'' (London: Longman Group UK Limited, 1992), p. 40 William was

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the con ...

for his actions in destroying several estates belonging to Arnulf. 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.

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.Neveux, p. 90 He fathered a son,

, 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

External links

Planctus for William

{{DEFAULTSORT:William Longsword 890s births 942 deaths Burials at Rouen Cathedral Year of birth uncertain 10th-century dukes of Normandy House of Normandy 10th-century Normans Converts to Christianity from Germanic paganism Norman warriors People from West Francia