Robert the Dane

Robert the Dane was archbishop of Rouen (989-1037) and count d' Évreux (996-1037) at the time of the first dukes of Normandy.

Wire of the duke Richard Ier of Normandy and Gunnor, it thus forms part of this powerful aristocratic group called the Richardides. His/her father entrusts very young person the archbishop's palace of Rouen to him, principal ecclesiastical seat of the Duché of Normandy. The historiographer Guillaume de Jumièges reports that the clerks opposed this decision as long as the duke refused to marry chrétiennement with his bubbled Gunnor. According to the wish of the clergy, Richard Ier of Normandy married finally Gunnor and their Robert son could become archbishop.

A few years later, perhaps just after the death of sound father in 996, Robert receives the load of the Comté of Évreux. This double function - archbishop of Rouen and count - fact of him the most powerful character of Normandy after the duke. In addition, the new duke, Richard II (996-1026), is his brother.

Robert the Dane thus cumulates a religious function and a laic function. Under count d' Évreux, it gives itself the right to marry: he marries Herlève, probably the girl of Turstin the Rich person, of which he will have several children (of which Richard and Raoul). Robert is thus a married archbishop and, in addition, father! Even if the Gregorian Réforme intervenes later to impose the celibacy, it is necessary to acknowledge that the cases of marriage among ecclesiastical dignitaries are already rare at that time. For the historian François Nephews, there is not a doubt that Robert is “an archbishop more profane than religious”. At the end of the years 1020, we know however that it begins work of enlarging of its cathedral. We as know, thanks to the excavations of the archeologist Jacques Maho, as the archbishop-count transforms his castle of Gravenchon into a true rural palate with the whole beginning of XIe century. Patron, it maintains a literary coterie around him. Dudon of Saint-Quentin and the satirist Garnier dedicates some works indeed to him.

In 1026, Robert Splendid the, the nephew of Robert, succeeds in a way discussed Richard III as a duke of Normandy. Shortly after its advent, it attacks Robert the Dane. Is this because this last plots against him? Or is this because the archbishop protests against the ground usurpations of Church which the duke practices to reward his friends? In any case, Robert must leave Rouen and be locked up with some knights in his comtale city of Évreux. The duke besieges it. After a resistance worthy of a war leader, the archbishop negotiates his departure. He leaves Normandy for France but, of his new refuge, pronounces the excommunication of the duke Robert Splendid the. It seems that this sanction makes fold the duke. It reconciles with Robert the Dane who finds his place at the ducal court thus. He becomes even the first adviser of the duchy. A position reinforced in 1035 after the death of Robert Splendid the which leaves a child like heir (the future William the Conqueror). The archbishop-count is the strong man of the duchy until his death in 1037.

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