To follow on my previous post, from which the central importance of women in the construction of the Norman State should be adduced, and to strip away from the account of the Norman chroniclers (propagandists) obvious untruth:

THE PIVOTAL ROLE OF NORMAN MATRIARCHS

1. Ivar exosus (cruel). His nickname, ‘beinlauss’, is wrongly interpreted as ‘boneless’, reflecting a misunderstanding of the written source of exosus, which was abbreviated to exos (boneless), hence stories invented to explain this strange epithet. “Exosus accords well with Adam of Bremen’s description of Ivarr as crudelissimusis” (J. de Vries, ‘Die westnordische Tradition der Sage von Ragnar Lodbrok’. Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie 53, 257-302, 1928).
1.1. Guthfrith Ivarsson – alias Godfried, “Duke of Frisia” and ruler in Dublin (883), vassal of the Emperor Charles III., after that ruler sued for peace, giving Godfrey most of Frisia to rule. Charles also gave him Gisela (865-908), illegitimate dau. of King Lothair II. (839-869), as his wife. The exploits of Godfried are ‘transferred’ to Rollo by Dudo.
1.1.1. Bernard the Dane. (Beorn) ‘Of the blood royal of Saxony’. Lothair II had had one son and three daughters, all by Waldrada, and all of whom were declared illegitimate
1.2. Sitric, founder of Limerick; its historian, Ferrar, says, “According to a manuscript in the editor’s possession, the Danes got possession of Limerick in the year 855”.
1.2.1. Ragnall. “The identity between the Ragnall of the Irish Sea and Ragnald of northern Britain is no longer in doubt” (Downham, Viking Kings, p. 94). The annalist Flodoard mentioned a Viking named Ragenold, like Rollo, called princeps Nortmannorum, leader of the Loire Vikings, who were regarded as a menace, especially to Brittany. He is noted as being a man of Rollo, who attended the coronation of Rollo’s son, William Longsword, in 931, and was probably of Rollo’s family” (A. Hugo, France Historique, p. 416, 1837). “In 924, Ragenold, although he had accepted a grant of lands within the borders of France, laid waste the country of Duke Hugh” (Reginald Lane Poole, The English Historical Review, p. 16, 1911). I suggest that he was William Longsword’s father-in-law.
1.2.1. Sprotta (Scand. Sprottr), concubine of William Longsword, described as ‘nobilissima‘ (Frodoard, 933, MGH SS III, p. 381). She was not a Breton. Eric Christiansen’s (History of the Normans, note 234, p. 199, 1998), explains that in 934 William Longsword was given Breton lands by King Ralph as a bulwark against the Vikings to the west of them. These Vikings were led by Ragnall, and Sprotta was likely allianced with William as a peace-weaving exercise, giving William an uncontested (by Ragnall) claim to the Cotentin and Avranchin. The loire Vikings held sway in Brittany between 919 and 936.
1.2.1.1. Richard I., m. Gunnor, his former concubine. Gunnora, d. bef. Jan. 5, 1031. Professor Eleanor Searle (‘Facts and Patterns in heroic poetry’, 1984) wrote of the besieged colonists being reinforced by a new wave of Norsemen in the 960’s, and Richard (‘dux pyratorum’) took as a wife Gunnor, the daughter of one of their leaders, in a ‘peace-weaving’ marriage.
1.2.1.1.1. Richard, ‘the Great Prince’, bur. Fécamp.
1.2.1.1.2. Godfrey (by a concubine).
1.2.1.1.2.1. Gilbert de Brionne, overlord of Gilbert Crispin I.
1.2.2. Harald of Bayeux, “noted ally of Rollo’s family, who came to hold land between Bayeux and Coutances, possibly connected to the family of the Duchess Gunnor, and the person called on for assistance by Bernard the Dane when the Scandinavian colonists came under attack by Frankish forces” (Hudson, Viking Pirates, p. 65, 2005).

1.2.1. Sprotta, m. (2) Asperlenc.
1.2.1.1. Rodolph d’Ivri, born ca. 943.
1.2.1.1.1. Hugh d’Ivri. Hugh gave Celloville, that is Serlos villa (Seine-Maritime, cant. de Boos), and Sahurs (Seine-Maritime, cant. Grand-Couronne) to St Amand. (See Pierre Bauduin, ‘La première Normandie’, p. 206, 2004). The territorty of Boos was formerly held by Gosselin, vicecomes of Rouen, and likely to have been Hugh’s uncle
1.2.1.1.2. Emma d’Ivri, Abbess of St Amand.
1.2.1.1.3. Emmenie d’Ivri (she and siblings born ca. 970) m. Richard de Beaufour.
1.2.1.1.3.1. … de Beaufour, m. Gilbert de Brionne.
1.2.1.1.3.1.1. Baldwin FitzGilbert, raised by Emma d’ivri at Rouen, probably his aunt; donated to St Amand in memory of his mother.
1.2.1.1.3.2. … de Beaufour, m. Erchembald, vicecomes of Rouen. Vicecomes. Erchembald, on entering La Trinité du Mont, gave to the house his meadow in Sahurs, and all that he held by hereditary right in Celloville. (RADN, no. 82, 1030-1035). I suggest that ‘hereditary right’ related to a gift by Hugh d’Ivri to a niece, wife of Erchembald; that is, hereditary right in its wider context.
1.2.1.1.3.2.1. Gilbert Crispin I., m. Gunnor de Conteville, dau. of Osmund de Conteville and a sister of Osborn, dapifer (aunt of William FitzOsbern*). Gilbert was wounded on the night of Osbern’s murder, and he later made a gift to La Trinite du Monte in Osbern’s memory, a gift witnessed and approved of by Emma (Receuil, ed. Fauroux, no. 82).
1.2.1.1.3.2.1.1. Gilbert Crispin II.
1.2.1.1.3.2.1.1.1. Robert d’ Armentieres, held under Gilbert de Gand in 1086.
1.2.1.1.3.2.1.2. William Crispin, m. Eve de Montfort L’Aumary.
1.2.1.1.3.2.1.3. Robert Crispin, the exiled mercenary.
1.2.1.1.3.2.1.4. Hesilia Crispin, m. William Malet (Monasticon 3. 405).
1.2.1.1.3.2.1.4.1. Robert Malet, held possessions in Collavilla, near Harfleur, Seine-Inf.; from which Gilbert Crispin II. and his br. William were also titled Collavill.
1.2.1.1.3.3. … de Beaufour, m. Hugh de Montfort.
1.2.1.1.3.3.1. Alice de Montfort-sur-Risle, m. Gilbert de Gand. By a second wife, Hugh de Montfort-sur-Risle, was the father of Adeline de Montfort-sur-Risle, who married William of Breteuil, eldest son of *William FitzOsbern.
1.2. A uterine sister of Richard I., one of the ‘plures filia’, from which ‘sprang many families of noble birth’; (i.e.of the ducal clan).
1.2.1. Emmeline, m. Gosselin (vicecomes of Rouen – i.e. sheriff of that vicinity), the founder of the monasteries of the Holy Trinity of the Mount (1030), and of St. Amand, both near Rouen.
1.2.1.1. Godfrid, vicecomes d’ Arques (perhaps a br. of Gosselin), m. a dau. of Avelina (sister of Gunnor, wife of Richard I.) and Osbern de Bolbec. Richard I’s illigitimate son, Godfrey, being the father of Gilbert de Brionne, patron of Gilbert Crispin I.

What is needed is to peer into the fog with sceptisism and replace it with what might most reasonably be the case.

It is not reasonable to ignore the role of all women in Norman empire building. The term ‘concubine’ is used in Norman mythology by historians who were monks, who sought to glorify that which their church sanctioned (marriage), denigrating that which was not.

copyright m stanhope 2019

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