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in: Unknown surname, Born in 872, Died in 925,
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Poppa van Bayeux (c870-c910)

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  • Countess of Rouen

Poppa was born 872 in Haute-Normandie, France and died 925 Rouen, Haute-Normandie, France of unspecified causes. She married Rollo of Normandy (860-932) .

Poppa of Bayeux, was the wife more danico[1]'[2] of the Viking conqueror Rollo.

She was the mother of William I Longsword, Gerloc[3][4] and grandmother of Richard the Fearless, who forged the Duchy of Normandy into a great fief of medieval France.[5]

Research Notes

Disputed Parentage

Her parentage is uncertain and may have been invented after the fact to legitimize her son's lineage, as many of the fantastic genealogical claims made by Dudo were. Based on her separate more Danico status that differentiates her from Rollo's Christian wife Gisela of France, Poppa's family was unlikely to have been powerful Christian nobility who would have insisted—by force if necessary—on a legal and monogamous Christian marriage for their daughter. Poppa was likely a common woman taken from a country with which the Norse had trade contact.[6] A statue of Poppa stands at the Place de Gaulle in Bayeux.[7]

Dudo of Saint-Quentin, in his panegyric of the Norman dukes, describes her as the daughter of a "Count Berengar", the dominant prince of that region, who was captured at Bayeux by Rollo in 885 or 889, shortly after the siege of Paris.[8] This has led to speculation that she was the daughter of Berengar II of Neustria.[9][10]

There are different opinions among medieval genealogy experts about Poppa's family. Christian Settipani says her parents were Guy de Senlis and Cunegundis, the daughter of Pepin, Count of Vermandois, and sister of Herbert I, Count of Vermandois.[11] Katherine Keats-Rohan states she was the daughter of Berengar II of Neustria by Adelind, whose father was Henry, Margrave of the Franks, or Adela of Vermandois.[1]

Family & Marriage

Dudo ii, 16 (p. 39) makes Poppa the mother of William, but does not give the mother of Gerloc/Adele. Guillaume de Jumièges (GND ii, 6 (v. 1, pp. 64-5)) makes Poppa the mother of both Guillaume and Gerloc.

William I Longsword (893 – 17 December 942) was the second Duke of Normandy from his father's death until his own assassination. Little is known about his early years. He was born in Bayeux or Rouen to Rollo and his wife Poppa. All that is known of Poppa is that she was a Christian, and the daughter to Berengar of Rennes, the previous lord of Britannia Nova, which eventually became western Normandy. According to the William's planctus, he was baptised a Christian.


  • William Longsword, 2nd Duke of Normandy (893-942) - Son and heir to Norman Duchy
  • Gerloc or Adele - Daughter m. Guillaume (William) Tête d'Étoupe, count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine. See Dudo iii, 47 (pp. 69-70, which mentions the marriage but does not give her name), p. 201 (note 256, and sources cited therein, for Adele as the Christian name of Gerloc); GND ii, 13 (v. 1, pp. 68-9). Around 942, monks from Saint-Cyrien de Poitiers arrived at Jumieges. They had been sent by William’s sister Gerloc who had married William III, duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitiers.




Children


Offspring of Rollo of Normandy (860-932) and Poppa
Name Birth Death Joined with
William Longsword, 2nd Duke of Normandy (893-942) 893 17 December 942 Sprota (c898-c950)
Liutgarde de Vermandois (c920-978)
Gerloc de Normandie (c912-962) 912 Rouen, Normandy, France 14 October 962 William III of Aquitaine (c900-963)



Siblings


See Also

Bibliography

  • John Morby, Dynasties of the World: a chronological and genealogical handbook (Oxford, Oxfordshire, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1989), page 86. Hereinafter cited as Dynasties of the World.
  • Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 39. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Families.
  • Richard Glanville-Brown, online <e-mail address>, Richard Glanville-Brown (RR 2, Milton, Ontario, Canada), downloaded 17 August 2005.
  • Royal Genealogies Website (ROYAL92.GED), online Hereinafter cited as Royal Genealogies Website.
  • Marek, Miroslav. "Genealogy of the Dukes of Normandy". Genealogy.EU. http://genealogy.euweb.cz/normandy/normandy.html. 
  • D.C. Douglas, "Rollo of Normandy", English Historical Review, Vol. 57 (1942), pp. 414-436
  • Robert Helmerichs, [Rollo as Historical Figure]
  • Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdom under the Carolingians, 751-987, (Longman) 1983
  • Dudonis gesta Normannorum - Dudo of St. Quentin Gesta Normannorum Latin version at Bibliotheca Augustana
  • Dudo of St. Quentin's Gesta Normannorum - An English Translation
  • Gwyn Jones. Second edition: A History of the Vikings. Oxford University Press. (1984).
  • William W. Fitzhugh and Elizabeth Ward. Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. Smithsonian Institute Press. (2000)
  • Eric Christiansen. The Norsemen in the Viking Age. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. (2002)
  • Agnus Konstam. Historical Atlas of the Viking World. Checkmark Books. (2002)
  • Holgar Arbman. Ancient People and Places: The Vikings. Thames and Hudson. (1961)
  • Eric Oxenstierna. The Norsemen, New York Graphics Society Publishers, Ltd. (1965)

External Links

Ancestry Trees

Rollo is a direct ancestor of many notable people of history:

Contemporary Sources

There are several contemporary sources that provide information about his life. It's worth noting that none of these sources were written during Rollo's lifetime, and they may contain some inaccuracies and embellishments. Nevertheless, they provide valuable insights into Rollo's life and the historical context in which he lived:

  1. The primary source of information about Rollo is the "Gesta Normannorum Ducum" (Deeds of the Norman Dukes), written by the Norman chronicler William of Jumièges in the 11th century. William's work provides a detailed account of Rollo's life, including his early years as a Viking raider, his conquest of Normandy, and his relations with the Frankish king Charles the Simple.
  2. The "Chronicle of Fontenelle" is another contemporary source that provides information about Rollo. This chronicle was written by an anonymous monk at the abbey of Fontenelle in Normandy in the 10th century. It includes a brief account of Rollo's invasion of the region.
  3. The "Annals of Saint-Bertin" is a set of annals written by Frankish chroniclers in the 9th and 10th centuries. They provide brief mentions of Rollo's raids and battles in the region.
  4. The "Chronicle of Adémar de Chabannes" is a chronicle written in the 11th century that includes an account of Rollo's invasion of Rouen and his eventual conversion to Christianity.
  5. The "Life of Saint Philibert" is a hagiography written in the 10th century that includes a brief account of Rollo's conversion to Christianity and his donation of land to the monastery of Jumièges.

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Stewart Baldwin (2004-08-02). "Poppa, tenth century, wife of Rollo of Normandy.". http://home.earthlink.net/~henryproject/hproject/prov/poppa000.htm. Retrieved 2018-09-29. 
  2. ^ Philip Lyndon Reynolds, Marriage in the Western Church: The Christianization of Marriage during the Patristic and Early Medieval Periods (E.J. Brill, Leiden, New York, 1994), pp. 110–111
  3. ^ François Neveux, La Normandie des ducs aux rois: Xe-XIIe siècle, (Editions Ouest-France, 1998), p.125
  4. ^ David Crouch, The Normans: The History of a Dynasty, (A&C Black, 2006), p.5
  5. ^ Eleanor Searle, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840–1066 (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988), p. 89
  6. ^ François Neveux. Claire Ruelle, A brief history of the Normans: the conquests that changed the face of Europe (Robinson, 2008), p. 60-61
  7. ^ Pierre Bouet, Rollon: Le chef viking qui fonda la Normandie, (Tallandier, Paris, 2016), p.235
  8. ^ David C. Douglas, 'Rollo of Normandy', The English Historical Review, Vol. 57, No. 228 (Oct., 1942), p. 417
  9. ^ Pierre Bouet, Rollon: Le chef viking qui fonda la Normandie, (Tallandier, Paris, 2016), p. 96
  10. ^ Elisabeth van Houts. The Normans in Europe. Manchester University Press, 2000. p 30
  11. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named auto1


Footnotes (including sources)

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