2nd Duke William I de Normandy^[1]

893 - 942  (49 years)

• Name	William I de Normandy
  Title	2nd Duke
  Nickname	Longsword
  Birth	28 Aug 893	Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France
  Gender	Male
  Married	, Normandy, France
  Death	17 Dec 942	Island Picquigny, Somme River, Normandy, France
  Person ID	I23126	Master
  Last Modified	23 Sep 2019

  
  

  Father	Rollo Rognvaldsson,   b. 846, Mære, Steinkjer, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway d. 931, Notre Dame, Rouen, Normandy, France (Age 85 years)
  Mother	Poppa De Valois,   b. 872, Evreux, Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France d. 930, , Normandy, France (Age 58 years)
  Marriage	891	Castle St Cler, Normandy, France
  Family ID	F6058	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Sprota deBreton,   b. 28 Aug 911, , Vermandois, France d. 12 Dec 940, , Vermandois, France (Age 29 years)
  Marriage	932	, Normandy, France
  Children	+ 1. Richard I Fearless Normandy,   b. 28 Aug 933, Fecamp, Normandie, France d. 20 Nov 996, Fecamp, Normandie, France (Age 63 years)
  Family ID	F6057	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	21 Jun 2019

  
  

  Family 2	Luitgarde De Vermandois,   b. 920, , Vermandois, France d. 09 Feb 978, Matemoutier Abbey, Vermandois, Normandy, France (Age 58 years)
  Marriage	935	Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France
  Family ID	F6056	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	28 Jan 2017

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 28 Aug 893 - Bayeux, Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France Married - - , Normandy, France Marriage - 932 - , Normandy, France Marriage - 935 - Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France Death - 17 Dec 942 - Island Picquigny, Somme River, Normandy, France  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  William Longsword (French: Guillaume Longue-Épée, Latin: Willermus Longa Spata, Old Norse: Vilhjálmr Langaspjót; c. 893 – 17 December 942) was the second ruler of Normandy, from 927 until his assassination in 942. He is sometimes anachronistically dubbed "Duke of Normandy", even though the title duke (dux) did not come into common usage until the 11th century. Longsword was known at the time by the title Count of Rouen. Flodoard, always detailed about titles, consistently referred to both Rollo and his son William as principes (chieftains) of the Norse. William Longsword was born "overseas" to the Viking Rollo (while he was still a pagan) and his Christian wife Poppa of Bayeux. Dudo of Saint-Quentin in his panegyric of the Norman dukes describes Poppa as the daughter of a Count Berengar, the dominant prince of that region. In the 11th-century Annales Rouennaises (Annals of Rouen), she is called the daughter of Guy, Count of Senlis, otherwise unknown to history. Despite the uncertainty of her parentage she was undoubtedly a member of the Frankish aristocracy. According to the Longsword's planctus, he was baptized a Christian probably at the same time as his father, which Orderic Vitalis stated was in 912, by Franco, Archbishop of Rouen. Willliam succeeded Rollo (who would continue to live for about another 5 years) in 927 and, early in his reign, faced a rebellion from Normans who felt he had become too Gallicised and too soft. According to Orderic Vitalis, the leader was Riouf of Evreux, who was besieging William in Rouen. Sallying forth, William won a decisive battle, proving his authority to be duke. At the time of this 933 rebellion William sent his pregnant wife by custom, Sprota, to Fécamp where their son Richard was born. In 933 William recognized Raoul as King of Western Francia, who was struggling to assert his authority in Northern France. In turn, Raoul gave him lordship over much of the lands of the Bretons including Avranches, the Cotentin Peninsula and the Channel Islands. The Bretons did not agree to these changes and resistance to the Normans was led by Alan II, Duke of Brittany, and Count Berenger of Rennes but ended shortly with great slaughter and Breton castles being razed to the ground, Alan fled to England and Beranger sought reconciliation. In 935, William married Luitgarde, daughter of Count Herbert II of Vermandois whose dowry gave him the lands of Longueville, Coudres and Illiers l'Eveque. He also contracted a marriage between his sister Adela (Gerloc was her Norse name) and William, Count of Poitou, with the approval of Hugh the Great. In addition to supporting King Raoul, he was now a loyal ally of his father-in-law, Herbert II, both of whom his father Rollo had opposed. In January 936 King Raoul died and the 16-year-old Louis IV, who was living in exile in England, was persuaded by a promise of loyalty by William, to return and became king. The Bretons returned to recover the lands taken by the Normans, resulting in fighting in the expanded Norman lands. The new king was not capable of controlling his Barons and after William's brother-in-law, Herluin II, Count of Montreuil, was attacked by Flanders, William went to their assistance in 939, Arnulf I, Count of Flanders retaliated by attacking Normandy. Arnulf captured the castle of Montreuil-sur-Mer expelling Herluin. Herluin and William cooperated to retake the castle. William was excommunicated for his actions in attacking and destroying several estates belonging to Arnulf. William pledged his loyalty to King Louis IV when they met in 940 and, in return, he was confirmed in lands that had been given to his father, Rollo. In 941 a peace treaty was signed between the Bretons and Normans, brokered in Rouen by King Louis IV which limited the Norman expansion into Breton lands. The following year, on 17 December 942 at Picquigny on an island on the Somme, William was ambushed and killed by followers of Arnulf while at a peace conference to settle their differences. William had no children with his wife Luitgarde. He fathered his son, Richard, with Sprota who was a Breton captive and his concubine. Richard, then aged 10, succeeded as Duke of Normandy upon William's death in December 942.

  
  

• Sources

  [S23] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), (Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998).