| Richard II | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Duke of Normandy | |
| Reign | 996–1026 |
| Predecessor | Richard I |
| Successor | Richard III |
| Died | 28 August 1026 Normandy |
| Spouse |
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| Issue more... | |
| House | Normandy |
| Father | Richard I, Duke of Normandy |
| Mother | Gunnor |
Richard II (died 28 August 1026), called the Good (French: Le Bon), was the duke of Normandy from 996 until 1026.
Richard was the eldest surviving son and heir of Richard the Fearless and Gunnor. [1] He succeeded his father as the ruler of Normandy in 996. [1] During his minority, the first five years of his reign, his regent was Count Rodulf of Ivry, his uncle, who wielded the power and put down a peasant insurrection at the beginning of Richard's reign. [2]
Richard had deep religious interests and found he had much in common with King Robert II of France, who he helped militarily against the Duchy of Burgundy. [2] He forged a marriage alliance with Duke Geoffrey I of Brittany by marrying his sister Hawise to him and by his own marriage to Geoffrey's sister Judith. [2]
By 1000, Vikings had begun raiding England again, where they would subsequently cross the channel to Normandy and sell their plunder. Richard provided the Vikings with sanctuary and even welcomed them. [3] This act violated a treaty signed between his father Richard I and King Ethelred II of England, in which he agreed not to aid enemies of England following similar events of assisting the Danes. [3] As a result, Richard was forced to repel an English attack on the Cotentin Peninsula that was led by Ethelred. [4] Ethelred had given orders that Richard be captured, bound, and brought to England. [5] But the English were not prepared for the rapid response of the Norman cavalry and were utterly defeated. [3]
Richard attempted to improve relations with England through his sister Emma's marriage to King Ethelred. [4] This marriage was significant in that it later gave his grandson, William the Conqueror, the basis of his claim to the throne of England. [6] Emma with her two sons Edward and Alfred fled to Normandy, followed shortly thereafter by her husband King Ethelred. [6] Soon after the death of Ethelred, Cnut the Great forced Emma to marry him while Richard was forced to recognize the new regime as his sister was again queen. [4] Richard had contacts with Scandinavian Vikings throughout his reign and he employed Viking mercenaries. [7] Following the St Brice's Day Massacre ordered by Ethelred in 1013, King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark summoned an army to exact revenge on the English and sailed for England. He stopped in Rouen and was well received and treated courteously by Richard, who concluded an alliance with him. [3] [8]
Richard II commissioned his clerk and confessor, Dudo of Saint-Quentin, to portray his ducal ancestors as morally upright Christian leaders who built Normandy despite the treachery of their overlords and neighboring principalities. [9] It was clearly a work of propaganda designed to legitimize the Norman settlement, and while it contains numerous historically unreliable legends, with respect to the reigns of his father and grandfather, Richard I and William I, it is considered basically reliable. [10]
In 1025 and 1026 Richard confirmed gifts of his great-grandfather Rollo to Saint-Ouen at Rouen. [11] His other numerous grants to monastic houses tend to indicate the areas over which Richard had ducal control, namely Caen, the Éverecin, the Cotentin, the Pays de Caux, and Rouen. [12]
Richard II died in 1026. [1] His eldest son, Richard III, became the new duke. [1]
Richard married firstly, c.1000, Judith (982–1017), daughter of Conan I of Brittany, [13] by whom he had the following issue:
With his second wife, Poppa of Envermeu, [14] Richard had the following issue:
Rollo was a Viking who, as Count of Rouen, became the first ruler of Normandy, a region in today's northern France. He emerged as the outstanding warrior among the Norsemen who had secured a permanent foothold on Frankish soil in the valley of the lower Seine. After the Siege of Chartres in 911, Charles the Simple, the king of West Francia, granted them lands between the mouth of the Seine and what is now Rouen in exchange for Rollo agreeing to end his brigandage, swearing allegiance to him, religious conversion and a pledge to defend the Seine's estuary from Viking raiders.
Robert I of Normandy, also known as Robert the Magnificent and by other names, was a Norman noble of the House of Normandy who ruled as duke of Normandy from 1027 until his death in 1035. He was the son of Duke Richard II; the brother of Duke Richard III, against whom he unsuccessfully revolted; and the father of Duke William who became the first Norman king of England in 1066. During his reign, Robert quarrelled with the church—including his uncle Robert, archbishop of Rouen—and meddled in the disorder in Flanders. He finally reconciled with his uncle and the church, restoring some property and undertaking a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, during which he died.
Alan III of Rennes was Count of Rennes and duke of Brittany, by right of succession from 1008 to his death.
Richard I, also known as Richard the Fearless, was the count of Rouen from 942 to 996. Dudo of Saint-Quentin, whom Richard commissioned to write the "De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum", called him a dux. However, this use of the word may have been in the context of Richard's renowned leadership in war, and not as a reference to a title of nobility. Richard either introduced feudalism into Normandy or he greatly expanded it. By the end of his reign, the most important Norman landholders held their lands in feudal tenure.
Gesta Normannorum Ducum is a chronicle originally created by the monk William of Jumièges just before 1060. In 1070 William I had William of Jumièges extend the work to detail his rights to the throne of England. In later times, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, extended the volumes to include history up until Henry I.
Guy I of Ponthieu was born sometime in the mid- to late 1020s and died 13 October 1100. He succeeded his brother Enguerrand as Count of Ponthieu.
Mortemer is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
Robert of Torigni was a Norman monk, prior, abbot and twelfth-century chronicler.
William of Talou, Count of Talou (Arques) was a powerful member of the Norman ducal family who exerted his influence during the early reign of William the Conqueror Duke of Normandy.
Robert II, Archbishop of Rouen, and Count of Évreux was a powerful and influential prelate, and a family member of and supporter of five dukes of Normandy.
William of Jumièges was a contemporary of the events of 1066, and one of the earliest writers on the subject of the Norman conquest of England. He is himself a shadowy figure, only known by his dedicatory letter to William the Conqueror as a monk of Jumièges. Since he also mentions that he was an eyewitness of some events from the reign of Duke Richard III (1026-7), it seems reasonable to assume that he was born some time about the year 1000. He probably entered the monastery during the first quarter of the eleventh century and received his education from Thierry de Mathonville. According to Orderic Vitalis, William's nickname was "Calculus". The meaning behind this nickname is unknown. His death, after 1070, is unrecorded. He was a Norman writing from a Norman point of view. Although only a monk with evidently no military training, he wrote with pride in the accomplishments of his people.
William Longsword was the second ruler of Normandy, from 927 until his assassination in 942.
Rodulf of Ivry was a Norman noble, and regent of Normandy during the minority of Richard II.
John of Avranches was bishop of Avranches from 1060 to 1067, and archbishop of Rouen from 1067 to 1079. He was a Norman churchman, son of Rodulf of Ivry, and brother of Hugh of Bayeux. He appears in the Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, and may have been one of the sources William used.
Geoffrey of Brionne, also called Godfrey was Count of Eu and Brionne in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries.
Mauger was born around 1019 near Dieppe. He was the younger son of Richard II, Duke of Normandy, and his second wife, Papia of Envermeu.
Sprota was an early 10th century woman of obscure origin who became wife 'in the Viking fashion' of William I, Duke of Normandy, by her becoming mother of his successor, Duke Richard I. After the death of William, she married a wealthy landowner, Esperleng, by him having another son, Norman nobleman Rodulf of Ivry.
Ralph of Gacé, also known as Ralph the Ass-Headed, was a member of the House of Normandy who played an influential role during the minority of William the Bastard, prior to his conquest of England. Ralph was the lord of Gacé and other estates in Normandy.
Roger de Montgomery, was seigneur of Montgomery, vicomte of the Hiémois, and a member of the House of Montgomery.
Hagrold, also known as Hagroldus, Harold, and Harald, was a powerful tenth-century Viking chieftain who ruled Bayeux. He was apparently a pagan from Scandinavia, and seems to have seized power in Normandy at about the time of the death of William, Count of Rouen. His career can be interpreted in the context of aiding the Normans against the intrusion of Frankish authority, or conversely in the context of taking advantage of the Normans.
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