Source: Norns - https://en.wikipedia.org
The death of Louis the Pious
In 837, Louis crowned Charles king over all of Alemannia and Burgundy and gave him a portion of his brother Louis' land. Louis the German promptly rose in revolt, and the emperor divided his realm again at Quierzy-sur-Oise, giving all of the young king of Bavaria's lands, save Bavaria itself, to Charles. Emperor Louis did not stop there, however. His devotion to Charles knew no bounds. When Pepin died in 838, Louis declared Charles the new king of Aquitaine. The nobles, however, elected Pepin's son Pepin II. When Louis threatened invasion, the third great civil war of his reign broke out. In the spring of 839, Louis the German invaded Swabia, Pepin II and his Gascon subjects fought all the way to the Loire, and the Danes returned to ravage the Frisian coast (sacking Dorestad for a second time).
Lothair, for the first time in a long time, allied with his father and pledged support at Worms in exchange for a division of the inheritance. At a final peace talk held there, Louis gave Bavaria to Louis the German and disinherited Pepin II, leaving the entire remainder of the empire to be divided roughly into an eastern part and a western. Lothair was given the choice of which partition he would inherit and he chose the eastern, including Italy, leaving the western for Charles. The emperor quickly subjugated Aquitaine and had Charles recognised by the nobles and clergy at Clermont-en-Auvergne in 840. Louis then, in a final flash of glory, rushed into Bavaria and forced the younger Louis into the Ostmark. The empire now settled as he had declared it at Worms, he returned in July to Frankfurt am Main, where he disbanded the army. The final civil war of his reign was over.
Louis fell ill soon after his final victorious campaigns and went to his summer hunting lodge on an island in the Rhine, by his palace at Ingelheim. On 20 June 840, he died, at the old age of 62, in the presence of many bishops and clerics and in the arms of his half-brother Drogo, though Charles and Judith were absent in Poitiers. Soon dispute plunged the surviving brothers into a civil war that was only settled in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun, which split the Frankish realm into three parts, to become the kernels of France and Germany, with Burgundy and the Low Countries between them. The dispute over the kingship of Aquitaine was not fully settled until 860.
Louis was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Arnould in Metz.
https://en.wikipedia.org
I have used the word town as this is the direct translation of the Danish ton- meaning settlement. A town could vary in size from a couple of houses to a walled city like Jorvik. If I had used ton it would have been confusing. There are already readers out there who think I have made mistakes because I use words like stiraps, wyrd and drekar!
The assimilation of the Norse and the Franks took place over a long period. Hrolf Ragnvaldsson aka Rollo aka Robert of Normandy is not yet born but by the time he is 64 he will have attacked Paris and become Duke of Normandy. The journey has just begun.
Barges
The Romans used barges to sail down the Seine and the Rhine. The barges used by the Franks were derived from them.
A reconstruction of a Roman Rhine barge courtesy of Wikipedia. Notice how the mast is smaller than that of a drekar.
Tower construction
Towers were made by constructing two walls with mortared dress stone and then infilling with rocks. When I visited Penrith castle in Cumbria in 2017 I saw a partly ruined tower which demonstrates this. It helps that the dressed stone was red sandstone! You can see the width of the tower. This one is 13th Century but the principle was the same in the 9th .
Viking Raid on the Seine
At some time in the 850s a huge Viking fleet sailed up the Seine to raid deep into the heart of Frankia. Some writers of the period speak of over a hundred ships. The priests who wrote of the plague that they believe the Vikings to be tended to exaggerate. I have erred on the side of caution.
Greenways
I have used the term greenways in many of my books. We still have them in England. They are the paths trodden before the Romans came. Many of them became bridleways. I have taken a couple of photographs to show my readers, especially those in the US, what they are like. This first one is in the Lake District and runs along the River Eamont. It is like the one I use in Cantwareburh. The second leads to a hillfort.
Coutances and Saint-Lô
Both towns were captured by the Vikings in the late ninth century. Saint-Lô had all of the inhabitants massacred. During the latter half of the ninth century the Vikings kept moving further up the rivers and further south. The great raid on Paris in 885 was the culmination of these raids and gradual encroachment into what became Normandy.
Rollo
I have used the name Rollo even though that is the Latinisation of Hrolf. I did so for two reasons. We all know the first Duke of Normandy as Rollo and I wanted to avoid confusion with his grandfather. I realise that I have also caused enough of a problem with Ragnvald and Ragnvald the Breton Slayer.
Rollo is generally identified with one Viking in particular – a man of high social status mentioned in Icelandic sagas, which refer to him by the Old Norse name Göngu-Hrólfr, meaning "Hrólfr the Walker". (Göngu-Hrólfr is also widely known by an Old Danish variant, Ganger-Hrolf.) The byname "Walker" is usually understood to suggest that Rollo was so physically imposing that he could not be carried by a horse and was obliged to travel on foot. Norman and other French sources do not use the name Hrólfr, and the identification of Rollo with Göngu-Hrólfr is based upon similarities between circumstances and actions ascribed to both figures.
He had children by at least three women. He abducted Popa or Poppa the daughter of the Count of Rennes. He married Gisla the daughter (probably illegitimate) of King Charles of France. He also had another child. According to the medieval Irish text, ‘An Banshencha s’ and Icelandic sources, another daughter, Cadlinar (Kaðlín; Kathleen) was born in Scotland (probably to a Scots mother) and married an Irish prince named Beollán mac Ciarmaic, later King of South Brega (Lagore). I have used the Norse name Kaðlín and made her a Scottish princess.
The headland at Streanæshalc
(The abbey is just behind the Victorian church)
The beach at Streanæshalc
You can see how narrow the river Esk is at this point, although it is low tide.
Isle of Man
The three legs of Man evolved in the late middle ages. Until then it was four legs; a swastika.
Books used in the research
British Museum - Vikings- Life and Legends
Arthur and the Saxon Wars- David Nicolle (Osprey)
Saxon, Norman and Viking Terence Wise (Osprey)
The Vikings- Ian Heath (Osprey)
Byzantine Armies 668-1118 - Ian Heath (Osprey)
Romano-Byzantine Armies 4th -9th Century - David Nicholle (Osprey)
The Walls of Constantinople AD 324-1453 - Stephen Turnbull (Osprey)
Viking Longship - Keith Durham (Osprey)
The Vikings in England- Anglo-Danish Project
The Varangian Guard- 988-1453 Raffael D’Amato
Saxon Viking and Norman- Terence Wise
The Walls of Constantinople AD 324-1453-Stephen Turnbull
Byzantine Armies- 886-1118- Ian Heath
The Age of Charlemagne-David Nicolle
The Normans- David Nicolle
Norman Knight AD 950-1204- Christopher Gravett
The Norman Conquest of the North- William A Kappelle
The Knight in History- Francis Gies
The Norman Achievement- Richard F Cassady
Knights- Constance Brittain Bouchard
Griff Hosker
June 2017
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Griff Hosker
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Brothers in Blood
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Brothers in Blood (Norman Genesis Book 7) Page 25