Richard II of Normandy

Disorders of the minority

With died of his/her father, the duke Richard Without-Fear in November 996, it is, seems it, still minor, which leaves the free field to a wave of political disturbances in the Norman duchy.

There is first of all a low register revolt of peasants in 996, which, according to the account of Guillaume de Jumièges, decide to train assemblies to control themselves. The count Raoul of Ivry, uncle of the duke, is sent to repress it: it is a massacre. This last makes mutilate great number of rebels, making cut the feet and the hands of the main leaders of the revolt. It is not sure that this revolt was directed against the duke.

“During the same time”, a richardide, Guillaume, half-brother of the duke named count d' Hiémois, refuse to recognize its authority. Raoul d' Ivry carries out a forwarding which leads to the capture of Guillaume. However, the vassal of the count of Hiémois remain agitated and towards 1001, one of them succeeds in making escape the prisoner but this last comes to then beseech the forgiveness of his/her half-brother. The duke accepts the reconciliation but considering the latent agitation of the county, Richard does not restore the Hiémois to him. In the place, he entrusts the county to him Have, because the count Godefroi of Have, brother of Guillaume has just died.

Just like the revolt of the peasants, these events are badly known. From where divergent historical interpretations. Some British historians place the rebellion of Guillaume later (a little before 1012-1015) and refuses with this one the title of count d' Hiémois.

Thanks to a new source, Mathieu Arnoux recently deduced that the minority of Richard is also marked by a revolt of the Norman lords against the young duke with the favor of the succession of Richard I {{er}} of Normandy. The revolt of Guillaume d' Hiémois could constitute a misadventure of it besides.

At all events, during this minority, the uncle of the duke, Raoul d' Ivry, seems to hold the reins of the duchy. Perhaps in collaboration with Gunnor. In 1001, Richard is the only Master of Normandy.

Administration of Richard II

During his thirty years of reign, the duke proceeds to an interior reorganization of the duchy. A sufficiently important work so that the historian François Neveux writes: “in 1026, Normandy was incontestably the most powerful Principauté and best managed kingdom”.

Richard is pressed on the members of his family, the Richardides. He installs some with the head of évêchés most important (Bayeux and Rouen) and of the counties. The duke is besides the first of the dynasty to set up counts. They all are placed on the frontier sectors, except for Brionne: Ivry, Évreux, Mortain, Hiémois, Have. In spite of their high origin, they were revocable and exerted only by delegation a power dismembered of that of the dukes. Towards the end of the reign, Richardides hold five évêchés counties and two. Richard installs also Viscounts in the areas without count. Their function is copied on that of the latter.

Thanks to the 25 emanated acts of the duke, one notes the existence of an embryo of court around him. Y appear as well of the Scandinavians as of the Francs. More precisely, one finds the family members ducal, some bishops then Viscounts. Let us note the presence of Dudon of Saint-Quentin, the Viscount of Cotentin Néel of Saint-Saver and Osbern.

At that time, feudality seems partially established in Normandy. There is apparently no lord of the manor. On the other hand, the revolt of 996 surely contributed to the development of report/ratio of the feudal type between peasants and lords.

In the religious field, the role of Richard is still paramount. It is really him which reimplants the Monachisme in Normandy, after the cut of the invasions Vikings. In 1001 Richard invites to Fécamp, one of its preferred residences, the Italian reformer Guillaume of Volpiano. This last agrees to raise the Abbaye of Fécamp, with twelve of its monks. The event is capital because this monastery contributes then to the restoration or the foundation of other abbeys (Saint-Taurin of Évreux, Montivillers, Bernay). The Mount-Saint-Michel accepted in 1024 for Thierry abbot a disciple of Guillaume.

The administration of Richard II, better known than that of its predecessors, reveals Normandy which already partly broke with its Scandinavian origins. Besides some exceptions, the ducal rights are for example in the Carolingian tradition. With died of Richard, it is not a doubt with the eyes of the historian Dominique Barthélemy that Normandy is a “francized country”. The incipient aristocracy mainly does not seem to go down from the companions of Rollon but constitutes immigrants. Especially, the account of the contemporary Dudon of Saint-Quentin, which tells the history of the first dukes, is read like a progressive acculturation of the chiefs of Normandy by the frank and Christian world. This detachment of the Scandinavian world is checked in the foreign policy of the duchy.

Normandy and the England

Under Richard II, the duchy is installed still a little more on the international chess-board. Papacy ties contacts followed with these Norman which, one century before, burned the monasteries and égorgeaient the monks. Especially, the businesses of England become impossible to circumvent in the diplomatic policy of Normandy.

During the minority of Richard, Viking S use, often with the ducal agreement, the west of the duchy like base camp to carry out forwardings against the Anglo-Saxon England . In reaction, about the year 1000, the Anglo-Saxon king Ethelred assembles a forwarding against the Norman duchy. Unloaded in the Cotentin, the Anglo-Saxons, however many and prepared well, are pushed back by Néel Saint-Saver, Viscount of the Cotentin, and are cut in parts. However, the duke Richard Re-weaves soon an alliance with England, in particular in 1002, when it gives his sister, the princess Emma, with king Ethelred (from this union is born later the future king Edouard the Confessor). The November 13rd 1002, under the charge of a plot, Ethelred makes massacre all the Danish Royaume of England: it is strapping it massacre of the Saint-Brice. The Danish reaction is fast: the king Sven “With-the-Bores-Fourchue” devastation his kingdom in 1003, 1004, 1006, and 1009, and ends up subjecting England. In 1013, Ethelred, Emma and their children must take the sea and take refuge at Richard.

With died of Sven (1014), the exiled king regains England but dies shortly after. The son of Sven, Cnut Large the, seizes the Emma widow, sister of Richard, then goes up on the throne of England. The wire of Ethelred remain in Normandy. One among them, Edouard, waits his hour while the duke must accept new the King d' Angleterre. But the relations between Richard II and the Cnut Dane remain tended overall.

Continental neighbors

Alliance capétienne

In the continuity of his/her father Richard I {{er}}, Richard II continues the good relationships developed with the kings capétiens. Robert the Piles goes up on the throne the same year as the accession to the capacity of the duke of Normandy. Their piety, their will of reform of the Church are common points. On several occasions, Richard II comes to assistance of his ally (and also undoubtedly friendly). It is the case in Flanders.

In 1006, Baudoin IV of Flanders seizes the town of Valencian, out of ground of Empire. A coalition is assembled soon against him, joining together the Germanic emperor Henri II, the king Robert the Piles and the Normands of the duke Richard. In spite of this coalition, forwarding is a failure.

Richard intervenes once again at the sides of the king in Burgundy. Robert the Piles feared a slip of the duchy of Burgundy towards the Empire. Supported by the Norman ones, it organizes forwardings in 1003 and 1005 which enable him to keep the hand on this territory.

Devoting their alliance, Robert the Piles and Richard meet in 1006 in Fécamp and 1024 in Rouen. In theory, the duke of Normandy is the vassal one of the king but in the facts, this hierarchical report/ratio does not have any value. Richard II acts as any independence in the kingdom and even sometimes against the interests of the king. Between 1017 and 1026, it sends for example his son Richard to fight vassal Burgundian of the king, Hugues, bishop of Auxerre and count de Châlon-sur-saône.

Fights of influence with the counts of Anjou and Blois

The competitions of influence on the Maine, the Brittany and the Drouais involve a conflict with Eudes II of Blois, count of Chartres, but also indirectly with powerful the Foulque “Nerra”.

Traditionally, the house of the counts of Rennes, supported by the Counts de Blois, is opposed to that of the counts of Nantes supported by the counts of Anjou. Attention of Eudes II of Blois having been off-set elsewhere, Geoffroi, count de Rennes and duke of Brittany research a new ally which it finds in the person of its Norman neighbor. This alliance is devoted by the marriages of Geoffroi with the princess Norman Havoise of Normandy, sister of Richard II then, before 1008, of Richard with Judith, sister of Geoffroi. With the death of this last in 1008, his wife takes the reins of Brittany while waiting for the majority of her sons. Richard can be quiet on his border of south-west. On the other hand, in south-east, the ambitions of Eudes II of Blois which has the castle close to Dreux, worries the Norman one.

Initially, Richard seeks a peaceful relation with the count of Blois while offering to him, before 1005, the hand of his sister Mathilde, with in dowry half of the Châtellenie of Dreux. However this one dies shortly after without giving children and according to the use, Richard wishes to recover this dowry, which refuses Net Eudes. Supported by Breton , Richard makes build in 1013 the fortress of Tillières to compensate for the loss of Dreux. With its allies the counts Hugues III of Maine and Galeran I {{er}} of Meulan, Eudes comes to tackle the place before its completion. This coalition is however demolished by the garrison.

It is possible that in this Richard conflict upon Scandinavian quotas calls. It is known that in 1014, the future king of Norway in person, Olav the Large, and Lacman of Sweden are indeed accommodated with Rouen before setting out again in forwarding to plunder the Western coasts of the current France until in Spain, forwarding in which takes part of Norman of the duchy.

Robert the Piles convenes with Coudres an assembly the Large ones so that the duke of Normandy and the count of Blois expose their different. Peace is finally concluded: Eudes of Blois preserves Dreux and Richard Tillières and the edges of the Avre.

Richard II dies in August 1026, after having designated his oldest son Richard like heir to the duchy and having entrusted to his second Robert the Comté of Hiémois.

Genealogy

Richard the Irascible one is the son of the duke Richard Without-Fear and Gunnor, resulting from a Scandinavian chalk-lining, married More danico

Of its Judith wife of Brittany, it a:

Richard, future duke Richard III of Normandy
Robert, future duke Robert Splendid the
Guillaume de Fécamp, Monk with Fécamp in Normandy
Adelaide (v. 1005 - 1038) wife of the count Renaud Ier of Burgundy and grandmother of the pope Calixte II
Éléonore of Normandy wife of the count Baudouin IV of Flanders
Mathilde of Normandy wife of the count Eudes II of Blois

After the death of Judith (1017), Richard contracts a union with Papie (or Papia), resulting from a family strongly established in Talou. The couple has like children:

Mauger of Rouen, archbishop of Rouen;
Guillaume, count of Arch.

(It is probable that the duke had much more concubines and the bastard ones)

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