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Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte

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Kingdom of France in the late 10th century; the Duchy of Normandy is marked Duché de Normandie, and the royal domain is blue.

The treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (911) is the foundational document of the Duchy of Normandy, establishing Rollo, a Norse warlord and Viking leader, as the first Duke of Normandy in exchange for his loyalty to Charles III, the king of West Francia, following the Siege of Chartres. This treaty included a land grant of farmable coastal land from Charles the Simple to Rollo in return for his fealty and protection against other Viking groups that had been regularly bombarding the northern coastline[1]. This treaty effectively changed how mainland Europe knew to resolve ongoing bombardments from the Vikings[2].

History Before the Treaty

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Carolingian Ascension

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Vikings have been raiding and plundering French lands since the ages of Charlemagne. King after king among the Carolingian dynasty have tried but ultimately failed to stop these Viking incursions throughout the dynasties reign. Upon Louis the Pious death, his son Charles II the Bald takes over. Charles II had immediately been thrust into a war against his brother Lothair. Lothair, who was the emperor at the time, ordered his Danish vassal to raid and plunder specific sites in Charles’ kingdom[3]. Eventually, the Vikings became accustomed to easily obtained riches and could not be controlled resulting in them plundering whatever they wanted to, at any time they want. It got to a point where the Vikings had more of a say than the Danish King himself on where and when to raid. They hit modern day Normandy and Brittany in devastating fashion. The most important raid that occurred during his reign was when the famous Viking Ragnar attacked Paris. Charles tried to stop this plundering by force but, like his family before him, was not successful. He then opted for an approach to pay the Vikings off, but this only made the Vikings thirstier for plunder.

After Charles II the Bald passed away in 877, there were 6 more rulers that had to deal with the Vikings up to the Treaty of Saint Claire sur Epte, with the last being Charles the Simple. The five rulers before him; Louis the Stammerer, Louis III, Carloman II, Odo of Paris, and Charles the Fat, had not done anything more significant than their predecessors to thwart these Vikings. Throughout the times of these six kings, the counts and dukes under the kingdom in West Frankia started to fortify their own lands heavily to counter these Viking attacks. Eventually, the Vikings raids would become much harder to accomplish as these smaller feudal lords protected their land well. Nonetheless, it has still been hundreds of years of Viking invasion and permanent settlements were bound to happen. In one case, a Viking leader named Rollo, who brought thousands of Vikings to raid, plunder, and settle had enacted a permanent settlement along the Seine River in the year 900[3]. Just two years before this in 898, a new king is crowned by the name of Charles the Simple. Although a bit worrisome, the permanent Viking settlement was relatively peaceful and did not pose a real threat to Charles. It was until 911 when raiding resumed from Rollo that caused the real concern of the Viking threat again, but this time things were different. Charles and Rollo would face each other in battle near Chartres resulting in a close Viking defeat[3]. Though weakened, the Vikings were still a formidable force, which resulted in a very unusual proposal by King Charles. Charles proposed that Rollo be baptized and granted land from the Seine River to the sea, along with protecting the kingdom from further Viking raids. This treaty would go on to be known as the famous Treaty of Saint Clair Sur-Epte.

Rollo's Exile from Dacia

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As a young man, Rollo grew up in the Scandinavian region where him and his brother Gurim would become fighters. The story goes that Rollo and Gurim were having disagreements with the king of Dacia and gathers up a group of men to confront the King of Dacia. Rollo makes a call to these men by saying that they must grow into becoming great men and that they need to imitate their fathers and grandfathers. He also says that the King is trying to step over them and attack the monarchy that they need to be ready and fight them and keep them at away from the land that the King rules over like enemies[1]. From that point on Rollo, Gurim, and the men under them went to war with the King of Dacia. The war between the King and his men and Rollo, Gurim, and their men last over a year in which the King sends a message of Peace to Rollo in which he says that we should not be at war with each other and that we should be able to hold each other with high regard and respect[1]. The King says that we should allow the republic to be at rest so that he can hold what he believes is his and what his father fought for to keep. Rollo and his men like the sound of this idea so they agree to meet with the King for some sort of peace conference where they would exchange gifts and create an alliance[1]. The King of Dacia breaks that agreement, and he sets up and attack on Rollo and his men to happen at night when they arrive. The ambush lead Rollo and his men to fall back into the local town near the King where they regroup and fight back[1]. Rollo lost many men including his brother during the attack that after the attack from the King, he gathers what men he can went to the island of Scania with six boats.6

From Sieging to Settling

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Starting from primitive tribes that formed small bands for hunting and food gathering. The Vikings evolved over time into a large group of roving bandits that sailed the coast of Europe and at the expense of the society in which they faced, gained substantial rewards from the act of plundering. 20 While sailing through Frankish territory, it reached many notable cities during the height of their large-scale pillaging including Paris in 845 and 88519. The outcome of Viking invasion ended in the often case of bribery on behalf of the Franks with valuables such as silver. The Vikings also sailed to Rouen, and eventually Chartes which was led by the first Duke of Normandy, Rollo. Over time, demand for the loot gained from the plunders increased among the Viking tribes and this caused many to settle to ward off other Vikings as well as increase profits. On top of this, there was concern for overpopulation, political persecution, and conquest incentives that drove up the number of Viking migrants out of their native land.

The Treaty

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Rollo in June 911 unsuccessfully laid siege to Chartres. He was defeated in battle on 20 July 911.[4] In the aftermath of this conflict, Charles the Simple decided to negotiate a treaty with Rollo.

The Viking warlord Rollo laid siege on Chartres before Charles the Simple offered to make a peace deal. The proceedings were rocky; Rollo was originally offered Flanders, a stoney section of West-Frankia along the northern coast[5]. Rollo denied this offer advocating for arable land. Charles’ changed quickly and Rollo became the first Duke of the land east of the Epte river while still being along the northern coast, which was far more farmable than Flanders. This land later became known as Normandy.

Charles the Simple did not draw the short stick in this treaty. Rather, he benefited from having an alliance with Rollo, a successful warlord. King Charles gave this land to Rollo under the assumption that Rollo would become baptized and fend off other Vikings who had been continually battering the northern coastline of West Frankia[6]; allowing Charles to focus on the conflicts that he was facing with nobles. While Charles was able to keep peace with the nobles for a while, he was only able to set back his deposition –not avoid it entirely –which occurred in 923[6].

Formation of Normandy

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With Norse bands of settlers, composed of non-aristocratic lineages, there came multiple communities formed and a new political ethos that was not Frankish. The Norsemen ("Northmen") came to be known as Normans in French.[7] This identity formation was partly possible because the Norse were adapting indigenous culture, speaking French, renouncing paganism and converting to Christianity[8], and intermarrying with the local population.[9]

The territory covered by the treaty corresponds to the northern part of today's Upper Normandy down to the Seine, but the territory of the Vikings would eventually extend west beyond the Seine to form the Duchy of Normandy, so named because of the Norsemen who ruled it. The treaty allowed these new settlements, but not all Vikings were welcome. With the death of Alan I, King of Brittany, another group of Vikings occupying Brittany faced their own dispute. Around 937, Alan I's grandson Alan II returned from England to expel those Vikings from Brittany in a war that concluded in 939. During this period the Cotentin Peninsula was lost by Brittany and gained by Normandy.

There would be a convergence between Franks and Normans within a few generations. Political marriages played an important role in cultivating alliances and cohesion; wives were often called "peace weavers". Charles the Simple created an alliance and a grant of rights to those Vikings seeking to settle in 918. While the Normans did adapt, adopt, and assimilate to Christianity, they did not necessarily adopt indigenous administration: "The creation of Norman power between first settlement and the mid-eleventh century is not primarily of assimilation to Carolingian forms, as those appear in the capitualaries".[5] Rather, the Normans "adhered longer than the Franks around them – to older forms of social organization" that the Franks were abandoning.

The Normans came close to being absorbed into a lower social strata in Frankish society had not a renewed wave of Viking raids occurred in the 960s. Over time, the frontiers of the duchy, based in kinship, expanded to the west.[10] "By the mid-eleventh century the descendants of the settlers formed the most disciplined and cooperative warrior society in Europe, capable of a communal effort in the conquest and subjugation of England that other regional political entities were incapable of."[11] The Duchy of Normandy achieved success under Duke Richard I, who forged valuable marriage alliances through his children: his son and heir Richard II married Judith of Brittany; one daughter Emma became Queen of England, Denmark and Norway through her marriages to Æthelred the Unready (1002–1016) and Cnut the Great (1017–1035); another daughter Hawise married Geoffrey I, Duke of Brittany; a third daughter Maud married Odo II, Count of Blois.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Internet History Sourcebooks: Medieval Sourcebook". sourcebooks.fordham.edu. Retrieved 2024-12-10.
  2. ^ Coupland, Simon (2003). "From Poachers to Gamekeepers: Scandinavian Warlords and Carolingian Kings". Early Medieval Europe: 85–114.
  3. ^ a b c Hjardar, Kim (2016). Vikings at War [Vikings at War] (1st ed.). Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishers. pp. 296–335. ISBN 9781612004549.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  4. ^ Francois Neveux. A Brief History of The Normans. Constable and Robinson. 2006; p. 62.
  5. ^ a b Bradbury, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840–1066: Model and evidences, p. 1
  6. ^ a b Auger, Barbara (2018). "The Making of Normandy as a Northmen Land: Mythological Cultivation and Coastal Way-Finding". Visions of North in Premodern Europe.
  7. ^ Crouch, Normans, pp. 15–16
  8. ^ Bates, Normandy Before 1066, p. 12
  9. ^ Bates, Normandy Before 1066, pp. 20–21
  10. ^ Hallam and Everard, Capetian France, p. 53
  11. ^ Bradbury, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840–1066: Model and evidences, pp. 7–8