Rollo: The Dark Age Warrior Who Became King Of Normandy | Land Of Warriors

more than 1,000 years ago a new Menace appeared in Western Europe a Viking Warrior thirsty for gold his name was R he had a certain Charisma he clearly was intelligent he was a born leader of men at the head of his band of pirates he roamed the Seas plundered the countryside and Unleashed a wave of Terror on the population there's the kind of gangster period where you have this image of biker gangs that appear and attack and then disappear again his victims could find no way to stop the Viking hordes until a surprising political twist instead of having to fight me again and again you could hire me to protect the regions which are constantly being attacked by Vikings turned a pirate Chief into the founder of an Empire he was the only one to go on to found a lasting Dynasty and not any Dynasty this is the incredible story of the birth of Normandy land of the [Music] northmen in 843 at the Treaty of Verdan the carolingian empire was divided into three kingdoms by by Louis the pus Charlemagne's son France doesn't yet exist it's called West Francia and it corresponds to 2/3 of the current France its people are known as the Franks its Northwest region is called anria its capital is Paris it is blessed with miles of Coastline with two Great Rivers the sen and the lir and with green forests and fertile soil it's a part of this region that will become nor Normandy and it owes its birth to a stranger a viking from the north his name is R he was known as R The Walker because he was too tall to ride any horse that he was so Larger than Life so instead he just had to walk and he his stride was so great I think this is probably a little bit of an exaggeration but he certainly had a Charisma even at a younge age in a little less than three decades this bloodthirsty pirate will become the first master of Normandy and he'll make it one of the most powerful duchies of the Frankish Kingdom his extraordinary achievement is the culmination of a century of conflict it all began at the end of the 8th Century in northern Europe in Scandinavia Norwegian Danish or Swedish the Scandinavians lead harsh lives in cold unforgiving lands they are all pagans worshiping several Gods some live off the sea others are Hunters loggers or craftsmen but first and foremost they're peaceful Traders they trade local products like animal skins and reindeer antlers as well as luxury items like jewelry and gold there were some natural resources in Scandinavia which could be traded abroad for example Furs uh iron uh walrus Ivory as well could be acquired there and trade it further on to to the rest of Europe their success in Commerce puts them in increasing cont with their neighbors to the South these rich territories become an obvious temptation soon the merchant scales will be replaced with swords and axes those Merchants are now turning into scavengers and before long into proper professional looters it's basically about how do we get easy money so this is why we group all those activities the trading and the rating in the same package of Maritime expansion it's it feels a bit opportunistic for more than a century these young adventurous Vikings the Norse word for pirates will plunder all of Europe from north to south and from east to west [Music] their main targets are religious buildings monasteries and [Music] churches they choose these because they are both essentially unguarded uh just by old monks or or or young boys and they are very wealthy because as a sign of piety of course uh Lots of lavish donations have been given to the church uh and so this is like winning the lottery for the Vikings a successful Viking raid always employs the same winning tactics speed and surprise you have these groups small units that are incredibly mobile and very quick to be able to kind of adopt their tactics and to change their location so they have a much greater flexibility than say A large group of infantry or a land a land arm Army which is much slower to move around much slower to transport and reliant on fixed bases in terms of supplies and equipment and so [Music] on they arrive they pillage they take all the precious objects gold silver and jewelry especially gems and they leave immediately their arms full of treasure it is this kind of very quick hit and run what they tend to call it over here is the kind of gangster period where you have this image of biker gangs that appear and attack and then disappear again and before they leave the Vikings Set Fire to the monasteries to terrorize the whole area often they slaughter any monks who tried to flee people are horrified by this sacrilege by attacking sacred places the Pagan Pirates gain a reputation as barbarians they describe them as as wolves as uh Marauders as pirates as heathens who have come only to destroy as unthinking brutes Savage men of the north and when you think that the Christian church have been incredibly strong in Europe and in France for quite a long time that this image of this kind of pagan horde descending from the North in their ships with these dragon heads and the violence of it that they kind of just erupt almost onto the the political scene I think that would have struck an awful lot of fear into the hearts of people the Vikings are waging psychological warfare this brutality means that their next targets will already be terrified and [Music] submissive there's a persistent image that the Vikings have been sent uh by God to punish the sins of the Franks he has sent the northmen from the north um to punish us West Francia is particularly hard hit It suffers waves of violent rage and attacks there seems to be no way of stopping them most of your enemies in this period in the 9th century or at your Frontiers that they may come over the frontier to attack you you know where they live you can go over and attack them the problem with the Vikings is they come out of nowhere they attack you and then they disappear to Nowhere again their expeditions only last 3 or 4 days the Vikings fill their trunks with looted treasure then return home to melt down all that gold with no standing army the king of West France Charles the bald can't lay a finger on them with the Empire divided there's no Frankish power strong enough to stop them this game of cat and mouse lasts for more than a century but in the mid 9th century the Expeditions take on a whole new dimension gone are the little bands of Vikings now real armadas of hundreds of boats start going further and further Inland and plundering entire cities they're sometimes made up of several thousand men and have a leader at their head soon R will be one of them the man of the north who will forever Mark the history of France his Origins back in Scandinavia remain obscure he was born around 855 probably in Norway a small local Lord in his homeland he was stripped of his inheritance and had to go into [Music] Exile he goes plundering in the north of Norway and there he's brought to Justice and banished so he has to leave he spends some time in England then appears on the coast of nria to begin with he only has a small band of Vikings but the future Normandy now becomes his favorite prey [Music] Normandy has a couple of advantages um for the Vikings you have easy access to it because it has a large Coastline uh it is relatively wealthy the local rulers don't yet have the authority to resist the Vikings so it is kind of the worst of all combinations or the best of all combinations for the Vikings it's wealthy and weak it was just like a gold mine basically for them lots of opportunities for plundering he starts by devastating the Region's coasts since all the treasure has long been stolen by previous looters he has two options left the first is to demand that the local authorities pay a heavy Ransom just to make him go away after all that's what Vikings do what they were counting on at this point was to avoid actually fighting but just using their reputation and the force of persuation of having a viking Army besieging a city to ask for the payment of some kind of tribute so they're making a threat asking for money for actually leaving without destroying anything R's other option is to go even further sailing Inland up the rivers he's quite capable of this since he and his men possess a formidable War Machine their ships they were able to get basically anywhere where you had water they were sailing up rivers to attack towns they were sailing along the coasts so it's the kind of ship that can travel both over open ocean but is also suitable for navigation on rivers and and inland waterways and it's a really really versatile ship type these dra cars as they are called are entirely unique the Viking ship is an achievement an exceptional innovation without which there would have never been any Viking raids it truly is the weapon of the Vikings success Giants of the sea they measure up to 100 ft long and 15 ft wide and can reach a speed of up to 10 knots the Viking long ships could cover about 100 nautical miles in a day uh at top speeds a uh an army if it had access to a good Roman Road could March maybe 10 miles 15 m a day so the Vikings were just faster than everyone else they are both unique and Innovative the basic system is clinker Built construction that is the upper external planks overlap the lower planks downward like the tiles of a roof a technique that makes the infrastructure both lightweight and strong a mast of more than 40 ft High and a square sail allows them to catch the wind if not they can use the ores the hole is supported by a keel that's all in one piece and only a few inches deep so the boats have flat bottoms a vital asset they could navigate on shallow water so they didn't need it much water to be able to move more their ships in comparison to other types of ships which would need civil meters of water to be able to more so that means they could basically Mo the ship on a beach or very close by which meant that they could get very close to their point of destination they're also sturdy Oak frames and pine rigging were strong but flexible Viking ship Builders took great care in their Construction [Music] what they would go out and look for in the forest there is to find branches that grew in the particular shape of the piece that they needed because again they preserved the the strength of the fibers then so they're not taking a straight tree and then cutting out a piece shaped like this that they would find a branch that had grown with that natural curve and all in all the kind of man hours involved in building that it ended up in around 50,000 man hours it can sound like quite a high estimate but that's just the ship itself That's not including the time that would have been needed to spin the wool to make the sail to go out into the forest and gather materials for lime bass to make the rigging to dig up all of the iron ore to make the ships rivers and so on so it's an incredibly timeconsuming process as these Viking ships surge Inland the Franks scramble to fortify their Rivers it's the only way to stop the Vikings Advance One River is particular ly strategic the sen which crosses nria from one end to the other since 841 the river's Valley has been infested with Vikings what attracts them is the same the Bay of the S which allows them with their ships to go up into the heart of France so about 12 miles out of Ruan spanning the river the Franks build a fortified Bridge the p Bridge it's a Monumental Dam it has a span of over 500 yard and takes 10 years to build armored Towers called castellum Stand at either end protecting the entrances to the bridge and Sheltering the garrisons defending it they are made of stone the bridge itself is made of wood but rests on a stone base it consists of a total of 22 archers that can be closed by Harrows metal sliding grids intended to block the passage of Viking ships these bridges are operating almost a little bit like um castles do in a later period as potential strong points secure points which you can continue to hold on to that either will prevent passage ideally of the Vikings coming in or even if they do get in make it difficult for them to then get back out and become a thorn in their side potentially behind their lines for the first time a bridge is built on a river to stop the maritime traffic it is really an adequate answer to this technique of Viking [Music] rids in 885 this new defense is put to the test Rolo is part of a Viking Armada sailing up up the sin its objective is to go and plunder the rich province of burgundy on its way the Armada will encounter many obstacles including Paris which has fortified bridges of its own but first it must get past the Petra bridge and the Frankish Army that defends [Music] it the soldiers would be in the Fort they could they could cross the the bridges and fire down at the Viking boats and any attempt to capture the bridge you'd have to capture the fortresses on either end first or at least on one end first and that was very difficult to do you needed Siege equipment and generally speaking the Vikings are not bringing Siege equipment for obvious reasons on their ships as they're sailing up Rivers a great Danish leader called sigfried raised this Army of over 10,000 Vikings divided into contingents they each answer to a subchief r is one of them and he has a plan to crush the Frankish defense R had developed an original technique to wipe this Frank Force out it was quite likely that he'd find himself outnumbered so he built a camp this Camp is just half a mile from the bridge all around it R has a deep ditch dug with ramp parts of Earth but he leaves a huge entrance that's like an open door it's an invitation he wants to lure the Franks into the camp in close quarters they won't be able to use their Cavalry or organize pitched battles fast faced with a well constituted and well-trained Frankish Army the Vikings are not a professional Army of infantrymen nor of Horsemen they are still more or less Backpackers so they will use all the weapons they can use to avoid facing the Franks in Pitch battles cunning is the Viking's best weapon and Ros works perfectly he hides the number of men he has he they pretend to be asleep as well he has them all lie down in the center and the poor Frankish leader rides in thinking he's he's caught the Vikings he can smash them only to have them all pop up and Route the Franks it's a fatal mistake the Franks have to take on R's men in hand-to-hand combat and at that the Vikings are formidable most of the Franks are massacred the Vikings still have to take the bridge but the guards knowing what Carnage there's been in the camp are terrified they hardly put up any resistance the Vikings have no trouble getting close enough to set fire to the bridge this obstacle has cost the Vikings 4 months but they've made it through they're another step closer to burgundy but first they'll have to face another obstacle and a bigger one Paris historians aren't sure but r May well have been part of that Adventure too the 24th of November 885 with horror parisians spy the largest Viking Fleet ever seen on the sen approaching the city the Frankish sources give 30 to 40,000 Viking solders soldiers probably dealing with about 20,000 but that's still a really significant Army at the time Paris is just one Island today's IL de surrounded by a Gallow Roman wall lined with turrets it is the largest city in the Kingdom with a population of many thousands to obtain the right of passage through Paris the Vikings first go down the Diplomatic route there's a meeting between sigfried the leader of the entire Viking Army and the highest Authority in the city Golan the bishop of Paris the IDE again was to avoid fighting as much as possible using simply the threat as a way of of getting the payment but the bishop doesn't play along abber Goan said no you shall not go up our bridges will prevent you but hearing that Sig freed the very next day decides to cross the barrier by force it's quite a challenge over the last 40 years Paris has had to withstand three Viking attacks the city has had to fortify itself the island is connected to its Left Bank by the PTI and to its right Bank by the gon both are built on the same m model as the pet Bridge with a system of arches and Harrows Two Towers guard the bridges their entrances are protected by solid wooden doors their first floor is ringed with openings for The Archers while at the top a wooden balcony called a UR allows the Defenders to throw projectiles at the attackers while protecting them from enemy [Music] arrows just 2 days after their arrival the Vikings are ready to launch their assault but where can they attack such a highly fortified City they spot a breach in the defenses on the tower that closes off the entrance to the Grand p on the right Bank the H at the top is unfinished the Vikings fire a hail of arrows and projectiles at the Defenders there but the parisians retaliate and although there are only 200 men they accomplished Quite a feat they managed to beat back the Vikings on the first day and then work frantically through the night to construct an extra wooden story on top of the stone tower this is uh clearly working with the strength of desperation um trying to add extra fortification to the tower defending the bridge the next day the fighting resumes with even more savagery determined to overcome the tower the Vikings make a ram to batter down its wooden door the Vikings cut down a they find a very large tree somewhere nearby and they cut it down and they make a a battering ram and the parisians are shooting arrows uh and attempting to light the Viking ships on fire as the Vikings are trying to light the French defenses on fire but this is repulsed in a rather clever way by the Franks who they they pour hot wax and Pitch down the Vikings lift up their Shields kind of in the old Roman tetsudo formation but the pitch and wax seep in between uh kind of burning them alive the fighting lasts for 3 Days even though they're outnumbered the parisians don't give up main source for this is a poem by a monk at sanjan Dee named [ __ ] who um uh describes some of these people having almost action movie like lines um at points so iales of San Shand de pre abos say managed to spit seven Vikings on one Spear and then shout down to the kitchen um order for a kebab um or the 9th century version of that um but again the the second day of attacks on the tower fails for three days there will be attacks burning ships attacks with Rams against the bridge to get past the towers and the bridges pillars it's a [Music] failure and that's when seek freed blocked decides to lay Siege on Paris so it's reluctantly that he besieges Paris last there it's a perfectly organized battle by the Vikings who built Rams Siege instruments who have put ships with flaming bundles in the river so they've got a really sophisticated attack system on the other hand the Franks have also refined their Weaponry by installing a trebuchet at the top of the tower that will do some damage for almost a year the Viking attacks continue at a frantic Pace they cannot break the Frankish resistance but the defender morale is weakening they appeal to the Frankish Emperor for Aid October 886 the new emperor Charles the fat approaches Paris along with a sizable Army the emperor sets up on the hill of uh manm marra and has his chance to destroy the Vikings but shockingly instead of destroying them he offers them a deal not only does he let them through the bridges to go off and plunder burgundy he pays them a huge sum to go on their way the deal comes as a bombshell parisians have fought for nothing the people of Paris are of course outraged by this seeming cowardice what is Charles the fat doing he has his chance to destroy the Vikings and instead he pays them off in this humiliating humiliating uh payment they faced down a a the most serious Viking invasion in history in in what is now France and won with 200 men uh and the price they paid was a tax they had to pay the Vikings anyway it seems completely contradictory to allow Vikings to penetrate further into the country but at this time the king of the burundians was in conflict with uh Charles the fat so it could very well be that Charles saw there an opportunity to get someone else to do the dirty job for him as the Vikings set off to plunder burgundy R takes his Destiny in hand his success during this time makes his name now his goal is to become a First Rate Commander a man of influence feared by those in power for the next 26 years even if his career is poorly documented R will do everything to achieve that goal his first step to position himself as the great leader of the Vikings he has all the qualities required for that role he's in the prime of his fighting life he is a clearly a successful leader because he has a group of other Vikings who who are serving with him he was in some senses a apparently a born leader of men for the next decade he leads an army to plunder England then he probably returns to France to lay waste to The Valleys of the L the Yun the Son and the gun Rivers R brings the land of the Franks to its knees but he's still just a looter a pirate a thug without a Homeland all that is about to change around 898 he's preparing to loot the city of ruon in nria but this time something changes the man from the north has become so threatening that the powers that be are ready to negotiate their agreement becomes known as The Pact of and seeing another band arriving with Rolo the Archbishop took the initiative to go up to Rolo and say to him I protect the inhabitants of Ruan there is nothing more to plunder the city has been completely ruined so I propose that you become the protector of the city and R was smart enough to accept and he thus had a certain legitimacy to remain in the ru area and pretty much make it his base I think this is a recognition of kind of the weakness of the carolingian rule uh and the effectiveness in in Rolo if if he has spent the previous 10 years or so raiding in the country side he would be well known as someone who could get things done as a protector uh of the area R is now a true leader but he still lacks legitimacy gets that through his marriage to a Frankish woman the daughter of a prince her name is POA for Rolo it's an alliance that will open the gates of power Papa gives him kind of an entree into the the minor aristocracy of the area so he can present himself as as not quite as alien as that Viking over there what this little vignette does tell us is the uh the the work that Rolo is doing even at this stage in his career to kind of build a legitimate foundation for what later will become uh the dutchi of Normandy the people of Ruan may have accepted Rolo and his men but the rest of the Franks have not strangely enough it's only after suffering a terrible defeat that they'll get it the battle takes place at chat a town 60 Mi South Paris it is one of the decisive battles of the Middle Ages a little known event but one that will change the course of history in July 911 r at the head of an impressive Army is about to launch a violent attack on the city in order to plunder it during the siege of the city of sh an army made up of nrian under the orders of the Duke of nria and the Duke of burgundy appears with a large number of battalions the fighting is ferocious Rolo fights a desperate battle and almost overcomes the nrian and Burgundian [Music] [Applause] forces once more the Vikings have Victory within their reach but [Music] suddenly an unexpected event occurs that will turn the course of the [Music] battle the bishop of the city brought forth this very precious relique the tunic that uh the Virgin Mary presumably had been wearing while giving birth to Christ but he brings this this very holy Relic uh on top of the walls uh to protect the city and show that the protection of the virgins on the city in a Christian medieval context relics were extremely powerful things they were able to perform miracles for the Believers this is an extremely strong experience that's quite likely uh that the inhabitants of the city felt that they were um support by the Virgin Mary herself um in at King the Vikings they're then able to go out and they do battle and defeat R and his men decisively so they actually go out and break The Siege um uh thanks to this miraculous intervention by the Blessed Virgin as the tide turns R sees that he can't win and flees for his [Applause] [Music] life he's thought to have lost more than 6,800 men that day it's a disaster for the Vikings but the battle's not over yet a group of pagans have escaped the massacre and managed to take refuge north of the city at the top of a hill the part of R's army goes up this hill of Liv and is surrounded by Frankish forces who seem overwhelmingly powerful the the Vikings don't think there's any way to stop them at this point they're the ones who are cornered well they're trapped they are surrounded by the Enemy No Escape seems possible once again they will use cunning and take a wild risk during the night one of them must sneak through the Frankish camp and when he gets to the other side blow the bugle to make it seem like R has returned and that allegedly worked uh to the effect that the Franks did get scare and also left which meant that in the meantime the Viking Group which had been retreating on the hill had the possibility to escape and find Rolo again while some of R's Army survives he is still the big Lo loser of the battle of shra however a few weeks later he will be solemnly enthroned as the official master of a new territory Normandy the fact is that the Battle of chart after two long centuries of conflict between the Vikings and the Franks has left both sides exhausted the Vikings are exhausted by so many years of pillaging and fighting the Franks are exhausted by so many years of fierce resistance everyone Longs for peace for the first time what once seemed Unthinkable is coming to pass Franks and Vikings will join forces and from this political marriage Normandy will be born [Music] Charles the simple the new king of the Franks accompanied by Archbishop Fon of Ruan offers r a deal he says you can settle here you can have Ruan you can have the coastline of Normandy in exchange for defending it against uh other Viking incursions Charles he's not a war leader he's not an effective leader he knows that he is on the verge of losing his throne because of his ineffectiveness against the Vikings this is a kind of arrangement which is setting a thief To Catch a Thief it's been done previously and often is actually quite successful because the Vikings are themselves the experts in Naval Warfare in this kind of Smash and grab raiding so who better to protect your Coastline from Vikings than Vikings Rolo he's getting older he's probably in his 50s and he's been out Viking for a long time and it's he wants to settle down he's deep contact with Normandy he no longer wants to be a Wandering uh fighter he wants to settle down and enjoy the benefits of his wealth and and Prestige and this is exactly what's offered him if he accepts the deal R will become the official ruler of all the lands in the dioses of Ruan EV and Liu R is aware that this proposal concerns both himself and his companions so he convenes the Council of Viking Chiefs they all want peace Vikings tell Rolo listen if we're given the land in which we have been living for 20 years which is Rich fertile land with lots of forests Wild wild animals that we can kill fish in all the rivers and an opening to the Sea this land is Paradise to us so we have to accept it Rolo really thought that he had become someone powerful enough uh and threatening enough to be officially recognized not just being given payments in money uh but actually being given territory and Title by the Frankish King um that's a major achievement R decides to accept the deal it seems the die is [Music] cast Autumn 911 in nria in the little village of s Clair Sur on the banks of the river EPT an unlikely encounter is arranged between the Frankish King Charles the simple and R the leader of the Vikings everyone's sword is at the ready it's quite common for armies in the Middle Ages to meet at rivers or foreign powers to do so because they can be on either side which makes it secure if they don't trust each other fully it acknowledges often an implicit degree of equality between the sides the two leaders will conclude a historic treaty but R suddenly comes up with a dramatic twist [Music] he wants more land in addition to the territories already proposed by the king R demands all the territory from EPT to the Coast Turf that had not yet been devastated by the Vikings initially Charles is not very pleased with this he initially tries to buy Rolo off he says why don't you have Flanders instead for example or Britany but Ros says no EPT to the sea or nothing at all and eventually Charles caves [Music] in by reaching out to the Open Hands of the king R king of the Pirates takes the official title of count of ruong this is normand's birth certificate the land of the north men is born but how will the Vikings be able to rule over a Frankish duche in Europe the Vikings have founded many principalities but only Normandy will manage to endure for no less than three centuries the key is R's willingness to adapt to his new [Music] land a lifelong Pagan he agrees to abandon his own religion and be baptized he even receives a new Christian name [Music] Robert if he wants to keep his lands permanently and be obeyed by his Christian subjects he must convert to the Christian faith and become a Frank like all Franks otherwise he'll be rejected one day and the King of France will come to take back his land Rolo has the intelligence to understand that this is indeed the solution if he wants to stay in [Music] Normandy the way that you Proclaim loyalties in the Frankish world is through Oaths and Oaths are by their very nature Christian so if you can't swear a Christian oath because you're not a Christian then how can you be trusted to keep a packed um how can you be trusted to be loyal R demands that all his men be baptized as well their conversion may not be sincere but it is politically astute the key Point here is that you're settling these men on your land you're integrating them into your political structures you need them to be at least culturally vaguely aligned with you and you're hoping that this brings them into the for because one of the problems with Vikings is that they're playing by different social and religious rules between 2 and 3,000 Vikings are said to have settled in Normandy a small figure compared to the indigenous population of 350,000 this occupation of the land by R and his men is more an integration than a colonization language Customs Traditions the Vikings abandon their identity it's the price they pay to run the territory in peace R knows this better than anyone he was arriving there as someone who already knew the place very well he already also knew the Frankish aristocracy he had met them on the battlefield many times and he also knew how how they worked what was the mechanisms of uh being part of the Frankish Elite the Vikings are also quick to marry Frankish women intermarriage helped a lot because it it Blends the populations and Vikings were always very pragmatic and so they tended to adopt Customs that they thought were effective and kind of just release their own Customs that were not quite as effective and so relatively quickly they become absorbed into the local population through this in just a few years Normandy under will know exceptional development and will find peace and security [Music] there'll be no more Viking Expeditions up the sen R becomes an almost Mythic figure one Legend tells of how he hung gold rings from a tree in a forest for 3 years confident that no one would dare steal them [Music] until his death in around 932 he further expands his territories granted new lands from a grateful Frankish King his conquests paved the way for a long line of Dukes to inherit the duche one after the other his descendants would devote themselves to transforming Normandy into one of the most prosperous and dynamic principalities in the whole [Music] Kingdom but even that couldn't compare with the feat his great great great grandson William the Conqueror would accomplish a century and a half later to make the duy a leading player on the international scene te [Music]

Channel: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries

Views: 212,385

Keywords: history documentary, medieval history documentary, middle ages, medieval history, the middle ages, the dark ages

Id: R4aI0Z1wAjE

Length: 50min 1sec (3001 seconds)

Published: Wed May 08 2024