Viking Expansion - Rollo the Walker - Extra History - #2

8:45 Ragnar lothbrok has taken Paris Viking errs Harry the streets and sack the city's churches Ragnar himself enters the Cathedral clears the altar and sacrifices a man to Odin the message is clear he has nothing to fear from these Franks the Frankish king has seen what the Viking army can do days earlier they had outmaneuvered him taunting his army by hanging a hundred captured soldiers in full view he makes them an offer he will give her a ganar six thousand pounds of gold and silver a tributary bribe to leave his lands it is the first instance of what will become known as a Dane guild and it sets off an explosion the sack of Paris marks a major turning point in the Viking expansion a time when simple coastal raids became full-scale invasions but it didn't have to happen that way Scandinavians began trading with the Franks in the early 8th century but in the late 700 s a new force swept Europe Charlemagne and his Holy Roman Empire in a series of stunning campaigns the Frankish king built a state that stretched from central Italy in the south to France and Germany in the north the largest most powerful state Western Europe had seen since the fall of Rome but this aggressive expansionism also made Charlemagne a pretty bad neighbor so in 804 when Charlemagne defeated the Saxons of Northwest Germany the King of Denmark started giving him some side eye across the new uncomfortably close shared border but still the treaties held at least until Charlemagne started to build a navy to the Danes this was a major violation clearly this expansionist King was gunning for Danish territory so it was raiding time the king launched a fleet of 200 ships onto Charlemagne Shores the first major raid on Frankia Charlemagne reciprocated with his own expedition for a while it appeared a full-scale war was coming then both rulers died as the Frankish Navy dissipated tensions fell but the Danish raids continued sea Charlemagne's air seemed fine at first but after executing his nephew for rebellion he suffered a lifelong attack of conscience debasing himself in extreme acts of public penance this made him look weak and won him the nickname Louis the pious yes really these acts undercut royal power but it was his decision to divide his kingdom among his heirs a move so disastrous that we've already done an episode on it that truly broke the kingdom now what we didn't tell you in that episode though is that as those sons fought for the throne they increasingly hired Viking mercenaries to attack their brothers this was a bad idea not only did it encourage more Vikings to come to Frankia but it made the Raiders richer more powerful and familiar with the Empire's geography simultaneously the old Coast Guard system broke down as the successors fought soon the Viking fleets raided the divided Kingdom on a regular basis gorging themselves on Imperial loot and then Ragnar took Paris and Charles the bald yes really gave him the first Dane guilt giving Ragnar six thousand pounds of silver sent a signal to every Viking in Scandinavia that pillaging monasteries was for suckers they could make way more by sacking a city bedding down and then demanding a bribe to go away and over the next four decades they did just that and the Franks just kept paying them coastal areas started to depopulate Vikings sacked Paris three times in the eighth 60s in 880 they captured Charlemagne's capital of Aachen quartering horses in his Cathedral King Charles the fat yes really rewarded them with silver and an 885 Paris was under threat again the remnants of the Great heathen army defeated by Alfred and Wessex and seeking plunder elsewhere converged on the city among them was a man named Rolf a very big man in fact his men called him the Walker because he was so big he couldn't ride a horse but history remembers him by his latinized name Rollo Rollo the Walker we know very little about Rolo's early life later accounts claimed he was an ally of the first Norwegian King but he never used a title meaning he likely came from nothing however he would go on to do great things the great heathen army however would not Paris wasn't an easy mark anymore they'd erected fortified bridges the siege dragged Vikings died war bands went back home then Charles the fat showed up with his army and an offer 700 pounds of silver to skip Paris and plunder burgundy instead Rollo took it but even as he ravaged the wine country for 26 years Paris was never far from his mind in 911 he returned richer stronger more experienced but he hadn't counted on the Bishop of Chartres Chartres was supposed to be an easy sack a pit stop along the way but when Rollo arrived he found the city soldiers arrayed for battle so he gave them battle shield walls crunched men shoved and stabbed the Frankish line bent then the gate opened and the bishop emerged across in one hand a reliquary in the other and a mob of peasants at his back the wild charge overwhelmed Rollo and he withdrew to a hilltop night fell men shivered scouts said that the Frankish king was on his way with cavalry they were surrounded in the morning they would die under Frankish hooves but Rollo did not intend to wait until morning he dispatched infiltrators into the frankish camp they got in among the sleeping enemy and at a signal blew their horns sleep bewildered Frank's stumbled out of their tents informed units half armed expecting a night attack instead Rollo led his forces in the opposite direction a breakout toward the river where they'd moored their boats an evacuation they almost made it Rollo and his force reached the ship's but he could hear hoofbeats there was no time to embark the army thinking fast he ordered his men to slaughter every piece of livestock they carried with them and to make a barricade a fortress of flesh and awful the Frankish cavalry closed in Lance's glittered in the dawn they lowered their long spears the ground shook then the horses turned nostrils flaring eyes wide spooked by the smell of blood the riders whipped them on but they refused to advance it was a brilliant solution but only temporary king charles and his army had arrived and this was not the foolish Charles the fat but his much more astute cousin Charles the simple yes really but despite his name Charles was not simple in fact he knew an opportunity when he saw it paying Dane geld had nearly bankrupted the state in the half century since Ragnar captured Paris Frankish Kings had paid Vikings over a hundred and twenty thousand pounds of silver a full third of all the coins they'd minted and despite this enormous expense the raids hadn't stopped people had begun looking to their local Lords rather than the king as their greatest defender and that was ominous Charles saw another way his army had a problem fighting these quick highly mobile Vikings so why not use one Viking to fight another grant them a stake give them land to defend it had been tried before of course but the Vikings previous King selected were all young men easily seduced away from their land by the smell of plunder Rollo was in his 50s rich beyond measure his reputation made a man like that started to think about his legacy and what better legacy than land for his descendants he sent his terms to Rollo if the warlord would convert to Christianity keep peace with the crown and provide military assistance when called upon he could have land for his own the specific land of course just happened to contain the rivers Viking hers used to attack Paris seeing a clear choice between death and glory Rollo chose glory he signed the treaty there were some hiccups Rollo refused to show submission by kissing the Royal foot and after a tense exchange delegated the kiss to a subordinate the man grabbed Charles's foot and he yanked it to his lips so hard he sent the King sprawling later the mass baptism ceremony got derailed when priests discovered several Vikings running a scam getting multiple baptisms to hoard free robes could Shing but despite those hiccups Rollo proved a steady hand he kept the peace sure he harbored bands of Vikings but no more great fleets sailed up the rivers his land formed a bulwark against the Raiders a land of North men named after Northman a land called Normandy unlike previous Vikings Rollo wanted to make this work he shared his new land out among his captains and ordered fortifications built he instituted new law codes and married a Christian woman when he'd captured to smooth things over with the locals he was never fully Christian but kept up appearances and before he died he hedged his bets giving a hundred pounds of silver to the church and sacrificing a hundred prisoners to Odin yet paganism died with him within a generation the descendants of Rollo and his captains were french-speaking Christians a society that was culturally and religiously French but retained the energy and adventurism of their Viking ancestors these Normans would shape European history they take southern Italy and Sicily building Palermo into a dynamic cultural and economic hub Normans would form several major Crusader States and of course Rollo's ancestor William the Conqueror would famously invade England in 1066 in fact get this Rollo's descendants still sit on the British throne Odin save the Queen but Normandy wasn't the only Viking Kingdom so join us next time as we head north to the most successful city they would establish the Viking Kingdom of Dublin [Music]

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Views: 986,998

Rating: 4.954072 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, extra credits, extra credits history, extra history, history, history lesson, james portnow, learn history, matt krol, rob rath, study history, world history, tiffany roman, nick dewitt, vikings, viking history, viking expansion, scandinavian history, nordic history, norwegian history, iceland, greenland, rollo the walker, Ragnar Lothbrok, danegeld, normandy, founder of normandy, ragnar, great heathen army vs wessex, great heathen army

Id: IOnjG7ocZmI

Length: 11min 54sec (714 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 03 2018