Rollo – Biography of Rollo

The Viking Adventurer Roll (ca. 860-ca. 932), also known as Rollón the Walker or Rodrigo I the Rich He was the founder of the line of the Dukes of Normandy. He established Viking control in the lands around the mouth of the River Seine and started what became the most powerful French duchy.

Probably born in Norway, Roll He was the son of Rognvald Eysteinsson, Jarl of Møre. Some not always reliable chronicles say that he was exiled from Norway probably around 900. Rollo became a Viking looter and for a time he was successful. He traveled to Scotland, where he married a Christian woman with whom he had a daughter; and possibly from this marriage also was born their son, later known as William Longsword, who would become his successor in Normandy.

Roll He may have then moved to Ireland, but with the decline of Norse power in Ireland, he probably followed his compatriots to France, where they might find richer opportunities for looting.

Roll he probably arrived in Gaul between 905 and 911. During these years he became famous, and many stories about him circulated in his native land: “Rolf (Rollo) was a great Viking: he was so big that no horse could support him, which is why he was called Rolf the Wayfarer since there was no mount capable of supporting his more than 140 kg and his imposing stature that exceeded 2 meters“.

The name of Roll it featured prominently in the treaty between King Charles the Simple of France and the Cikings in 911. By that famous arrangement, the Vikings were given control of the territory at the mouth of the Seine, in exchange for certain services to the king. Roll he granted himself Upper Normandy (the territory between the Epte river and the sea), he converted to Christianity, being baptized by the Archbishop of Rouen and married Gisela, one of the six daughters of the king. Rouen was the capital of the ecclesiastical province of Normandy, which the successors of Roll later they add to their original territory.

In 924 Roll he added the lands of Bessin and Maine to his holdings, and after his death, his successor, William Longsword (William Longsword), completed the construction of the duchy by adding the lands of the Cotentin and the Avranchin to his father’s acquisitions.

Converting Roll to Christianity, and the lands that the King of France granted him should not be misinterpreted. It is very likely that his Christianity was of a very limited character, and his supposed loyalty to the King of France could not be counted on. The early Norman domination of the Lower Seine Valley contributed to the disintegration of the ecclesiastical and economic institutions in that area; however, Rollo’s capable successors formed a strong and flourishing duchy in the territory that his vigorous and bloodthirsty ancestor had conquered.

In 927 Roll abdicated in favor of Guillermo Espada Larga. He probably lived a few more years and died in 932 in Rouen or in 933 in Eu. The ruins of his castle are to the south of Ålesund.