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VIKINGS! VIKINGS! VIKINGS!

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Norwegian Vikings between 786-820AD began raiding - using three ships "from the north" - down the east and west coasts of Britain, to the Dorset coast. This apparently was in the time of the Wessex King Brihtric (786-802) (on whom we can find little information).

A Norwegian Viking party arrived at England's Lindisfarne Monastery in 793AD, accompanied it was said by high winds, lightning and fiery dragons in the sky, on Holy Island, off the Northumbrian Coast. These events have been widely regarded as a beginning of "Viking Age", but it does not seem to be recorded if English Christians were worried, if they heard about it, by a Moslem invasion of Southern France in 792AD.

In coming seasons, by 794AD came another Viking raid on England, to a Northumbrian monastery, possible at Jarrow, but it was thwarted. (Dixon, Barbarian Europe, p. 117.) In 795 came Viking raids on the English west cost, at Iona, an island off the Irish coast. The first recorded notice of a Viking attack on Ireland was at Lambey by 795AD. Norsemen - probably Norwegians - had sailed south from Skye in Scotland.


Vikings had begun moving south, raiding, from C8th to C10th. They were some of the best shipbuilders and sailors in the world; their war ships had 30 oarsmen and about 90 crew, The Vikings were called Danes in England and Varangians in Russia. Two prompts for Viking expansionism to Germany, the Low Countries, France and Spain had seen population growth and efforts by Harold I of Norway to subjugate the Vikings, who were raiding northern France by 843AD. Vikings attack Ireland from the Eighth Century till 1014.

Here it is useful to consider the old lines of Scottish kings. The lineages of many of the old "kings" of many areas of western Europe are misty and frustrating - the lineages of the early rulers of Portugal and north-western Spain, the Vikings, Normandy, Scotland, Wessex, Wales and Ireland are all partly-legendary, as are those of the West Goths (Visigoths), and the kings/rulers of post-Roman Italy. Yet island-based links between Scots and Vikings have been proved archaeologically.

Perhaps, sailing down from the north, the Viking-mariners decided to catch Scotland in a pincer movement on its west and east? The MacAlpins seemed to grow out of an even earlier line of Scots/Picts, the "Kings of Argyll", surnamed Dalriada/Dalraida. Both the Dalriada and Macalpin lines-of legend share similar male first names, while the word "Argyll" suggests western mainland Scotland. About eastern Scotland arose an apparent link between a Macalpin woman and Olaf. This was probably Viking Olaf (died 871), seemingly the same Olaf who was husband of Aud The Deepminded who is associated with the early settlement of Iceland. Some two-three generations after Aud and Olaf, a Scot named Duncansby married a grand-daughter of Aud. Meantime, a Viking surname, Thorfinn, appeared in the Viking-Orkneys area, strong enough to become the Earls/Jarls of Caithness, and their line married to Stuart. Later, a Viking named Hlodir Skullsplitter married an Irishwoman named "Cerball". Skullsplitter's son Sigurd II (died 1014), Earl Orkney, married Olith (Argyll, Fergus) MacAlpin, daughter of Malcolm II Fergus-Duncansby (died 1034 at Glamis).

Little of this is satisfactory information, but this multiculturalism of Picts and other locals, Vikings and Irish, formed the basis of later Scottish aristocracy - where the name Stuart became prominent. However, the Thorfinns died out by 1214.

And oddly enough, regarding Rollo/Rolf The Ganger De Conteville, it does seem from comparison of a variety of data sources, that the surname Thorfinn (re Scotland) is the same as De Conteville, re Normandy. If so, the story may be that the Jarls of More/Maer of Norway stemmed from Vikings of Sweden. The Vikings of Rolf the Ganger's father, Rognvald the Wise Earl More-Maer, squabbled with the Vikings of Limerick who had gone to the Isle of Man. Rognvald the Wise was "a leading noble" loyal to Harold Fairhair, the King of Norway/ Rognvald had founded the power of the More-Maer family controlling part of coastal Norway.
See Slocombe on William the Conqueror, p. 11. Gardner, Bloodlines of the Holy Grail, p. 427. H. R. Lyon, Vikings in Britain, p. 50, p. 109, and the English Complete Peerage for Caithness.

The name Thorfinn seems to have died in Scotland itself by about 1214, though if a name found in England's main register of its aristocracy, The Complete Peerage is not misleading, the name Thorfinn may have been simply replaced by a more Scots-sounding name, "Strathearn". The Earls/Jarls of Orkney (originating as Thorfinn) were numbered to 39, to about 1333, and the name "Strathearn" died out with their line. But in any case, due to intermarriages the earldom of Caithness was then taken up by the surname Sinclair - St. Clair.


While in 796AD, Charlemagne of France destroyed the Asiatic Avars on the Middle Danube. Circa 800AD-900AD was the Magyar colonisation of the Middle Danube Plain, led by Arpad, a semi-legendary leader. The Magyars had crossed from the Urals of Russia and defeated the existing Slav tribes of the area. There must have been much violence in a world that seemed wide, even if this world had climate problems and so food-supply problems. About 800AD, seven Magyar tribes contributed 20,000 men to a Khazar army (from Turkey), and in 836 a Magyar army allied with the Bulgars, attacking a Byzantine fleet near the mouth of the Danube River. In ensuing decades the Magyars took control of large areas of southern Russia, raiding Slav settlements for booty and slaves. In 862 they raided the eastern Frankish Empire.


Vulnerability of the French coasts

Presumably since they lacked the tradition or the resources, the occupiers of France seem to have taken few steps to monitor or protect their long coastline, or the entries to their two major rivers, the Seine to the north and the Loire to the middle-south of their coast. By about 798AD, Norwegian Vikings were attacking "the coasts of Aquitaine, France".
Paris and the Seine River lay in a rich agricultural basin, Paris being located at a place easily forded, by an Island, the Ile de la Cite, a fortified town of the Gallic tribe the Parisii, called Lutetia. A new Roman city grew, watered from an aqueduct. In the Fifth Century, the Franks became masters of Paris, and Clovis later mastered Southern France and then made Paris his capital to be closer to the south. In the Third Century arrived both barbarian invasions and Christianity. Paris became more a church city (St Genevieve had "assisted" during invasions from the Huns) and a market town surrounded by agriculture, as well as an intellectual and commercial centre.

The Merovingian kings lived in a walled-palace on the island, although Paris lost importance during the Carolingian period.

Norman invasions made havoc of Paris, first from 837AD; invaders besieged Paris in 885 and in 886, when the island was re-fortified. In 911 the Normans succeeded in having the limit of their settlement fixed at 20 leagues from the walled-off island. Paris developed a feudal system, but the city did not find itself with merchant guilds and river traders till the Eleventh Century. So grew Porte de Paris, populated with the usual traders and money-changers. As Paris grew, commerce concentrated on the right bank, the university (begun from about 1200-1208) was on the left bank. Notre Dame Cathedral was begun in 1163. By the Fourteenth Century, Paris was France's largest city with an estimated population of around 290,000. viking3.jpg - 13118 Bytes

One of the early terms for coastal France, presumably a resource-rich area, was "Aquitaine". But how far this area extended, and who ruled it as centuries passed, are not exactly clear.

Southern France was naturally dominated geographically by the Pyrenees, running roughly east-west, forming a border between Gaul and Spain (the Iberian Peninsula). To the west of the western end of the Pyrenees, on the Atlantic, is the Spanish port, Bilbao, which produced the man who named the Pacific Ocean. To the north of the Pyrenees, in the middle of that part of France, is a major city, Toulouse, which has to its east, Narbonne and to its west, San Sebastian. Moving north on the edge of the Bay of Biscay, the traveller encounters Bayonne, Bordeaux, Rochfort, Las Rochelle, Nantes, Lorient, and then Brest, the Channel Islands, Cherbourg, Le Havre and Seine Maritime, Dieppe, Amiens inland, Boulogne, and then in the Netherlands, Antwerp. This is an immense maritime territory with a rich hinterland.

Bordeaux became a wine-growing area with the use of a large port formed by the basin of the Garonne, producing also brandy, fruit, chemicals, timber. Its ships went to the cod grounds of Newfoundland and Iceland. The area had been settled since the Bronze Age due to dry soil of the Medoc, and it had old connections especially to Spain and Britain. Bordeaux became capital of the Roman Aquitania Secunda, but suffered from the Roman departure and did not recover did the Tenth Century. With the Guienne it belonged to the English from 1154 to 1453 (when the English lost the battle of Castillon).

Gascony got its name from the Basques/Vascones, settlers from Iberia during the period 561-602, who crossed the Pyrenees and invaded Aquitania Tertia, renaming it Vasconia. In 778 at Roncessvalles and in 824 the Basques inflicted a defeat on the Franks which made possible the birth of the kingdom of Navarre.

By 850 or later, the Vascones/Basques had to deal with the Carolingians, who placed Frankish dukes in the region. At which point to C10th, the area's history falls into obscurity, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. And as the reader will note from the genealogical material already placed in this article, there seems to be little historical/genealogical information on the nobles local to the area, "Aquitaine - Gascony"...

The Vascones' language is now regarded as Basque, and the Basques are unique in their blood-groups in the history of Western European settlement. Basques may be people from areas on either side south/north of the Pyrenees by the Atlantic. They call themselves Euskaldunak, ("those who speak the Basque tongue"), or Euzkadi (country of the Basques"). They speak "an ancient and forbidden" language, Euskera, which has no linguistic relative. The are the only surviving pre-Indo-European people in Europe, and known early by the Romans, they have been cod fishermen sailing to Greenland, pioneers in the spice trade between Europe and the Americas. They sold hot-peppers to Europe and became large-scale manufacturers of chocolate. They have no nation, (living in both France and Spain), and answer to no borders.
Euskera is one of the world's most mysterious languages, an "isolate", unrelated to the Indo-European languages surrounding it. Some scholars think it is related to the languages of the Caucasus, or from a non-Arab language of North Africa. Some believe it developed in isolation. It has difficult grammar, syntax and pronunciation. Consideration of Euskera is a role for the Euskaltzaindia, Royal Academy of the Basque Language. Prof. Larry Trask tackled associated problems, such as the prehistory and evolution of the language, and was impatient with amateurs who wanted to link Basque to "Minoan, Tibetan, Isthmus Zapotec or Martian". Trask's works include: Towards a History of The Basque Language (1995) and The History of Basque. (1996). (From an obituary April 204 of Prof. Larry Trask, linguistics scholar and expert on Euskera, the Basque language, 1944-2004.)

In Spain a Basque province was Navarre, another was Biscay. One name they seem to adhere to as Basques/Vascones of Spain was Pamplona. After their period of Roman occupation the Basques had to fight the Visigoths of Toledo and the Franks also.
See Mark Kurlanksy, The Basque History of the World. Jonathan Cape, 1999-2000.

Flood-prone, the Loire Valley, bearing France's longest river, became heavily agricultural. A Benedictine Abbey appeared in the Ninth Century, priory churches appeared in the Eleventh Century. viking3.jpg - 13118 Bytes

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To find greater clarity regarding "Aquitaine", here, it will be necessary to re-examine what happened with the region once the Vikings arrived.
Chronologically, we find that Aquitaine was ruled by... (1) By 852, Pippin had been imprisoned by Charles the Bald, who later gave the Aquitanians his own son Charles as their king. When this Charles died in 866, his brother Louis the Stammerer succeeded to the kingdom of Aquitaine, and when in 877 Louis became King of the Franks, Aquitaine was united to the Frankish crown. However, for about 40 years, the authority of the Kings of Aquitaine was weakened, to the advantage of the counts of Poitiers, and a new history began from 889. In 889, Ranulf II (Ramnulphus or Renoul), Count Poitiers from 867, assumed the title of Duke of Aquitanians. This Ranulf died in 890 and his death interrupted the Poitevin succession. Ranulf's bastard son Ebles II Mauzer was deprived of the countship from 893-902, and had to cede the ducal title to his protector, William the Pious, Count Auvergne (886-918), William I of Aquitaine, who was succeeded by his nephew, William II. When William II died, Ebles II Mauzer and his son William III Towhead (William I as Count Poitiers, 935-967), began to assert themselves against Raymund III of Toulouse, who also claimed the duchy of Aquitaine. However, Willliam IV (Strongarm) (967-994), son of William III, secured the ducal title for the Poitevin dynasty.

Being a maritime people, the Vikings cannot have failed to notice the major river mouths of the French coast. Or the mouth of the Thames across the channel. Encyclopedia Britannica says that: Aquitaine is a region of south-western France, its name taken from the medieval duchy of Aquitaine, derived from the Aquitania of the Romans. In the time of Julius Caesar, Aquitania was the part of Gaul lying between the Pyrenees and the Garonne (the later area, Gascony).
In the classic feudal period, Gascony included the countships of Armagnac, Bigorre, Fezensac, Pardiac, and some viscountships including Bearn, Lomagne, Dax, Juliac, Soule, Marsan, Tartas, Loubard and Maremne; and seigneuries such as Albert. During the 100 years' war, Gascony became a battlefield for England/France. French seized the Gascony duchy, but Edward III recovered it aided by the rivalry of the houses Foix versus Armagnac.

Britannica continues: The indigenous people were a race(s) distinct from the Celts. (See Basques). The Emperor Augustus with his policy of denationalization created a "great province" of Aquitania (extending north to near the Loire River) ) with those people's territory and all Gaul south of the Loire River and west of the Allier. In the Third Century AD this province was sub-divided into three parts - with a capital at Bourges, the eastern part, called Aquitania Prima. Then with a capital at Bordeaux, Aquitania Secunda, between Prima and the Garonne. Thirdly came Aquitania Tertia, or Novempopulana, between the Garonne and the Pyrenees, with a capital at Eauze. The area "absorbed Roman civilization", but once the Romans left, the controlling of "Aquitaine" remained a turbulent business...


Raids on Aquitaine

In 799AD came further Viking raids on France's Aquitaine coast. Between 800-810AD: the King of the Danes and an affront to the Franks was Godfred, taken to be the first Danish king. By 800AD, Charles the Great was crowned emperor in the Basilica of St Peter's, Rome, by Pope Leo III, on Christmas Day. Was this a sign that the barbarians had been tamed? Meanwhile, about 800AD, Norwegian Vikings began to penetrate the Orkneys coastal area of Scotland, bothering the Picts. However, the Norwegians penetrated only to the mainland areas of Caithness and Ross, as shows in the history of the Earls of Caithness. About 800, Vikings also bothered the Christian Celts of the Isle of Man, landing on the north of the island. Later the Vikings established a system of government on the Isle of Man, the Tynwald.

By 814AD with the death of Charlemagne, his kingdom is broken up. The Vikings evidently found France enticing... for by about 820AD a fleet came from "Nordmannia". More Viking attacks came on the coast of Flanders and at the mouth of the Seine River, but they were driven off successfully. Then came a lull in Viking activity - it is not known why... was it because the Vikings were laying a grander plan? Earlier raids had been conducted by Norwegians. Now the Danes were becoming interested. viking3.jpg - 13118 Bytes

The Viking Hemming Hafldansson of Jutland died in 837AD. He was son of Halfdan Sigfrid of Jutland and an unnamed mother. Hemming's lineage stretched back unbroken to Odin/Wodin of the Asgarders, but the line seems to have stalled with Hemming's grandson. Hemming does not seem to have been an "expansionist", and he does not seem to be associated with events noted below.

In 834AD following the surrender of Louis of France to Lothar, and Louis' subsequent imprisonment, a fleet of Danish Vikings sailed up the Rhine River and sacked the trading centre of Dorestad. For the next 40 years, Frisia was under Viking control and Dorestad lost its role as a trading centre. The first Danish Viking raids were against the larger trading centres of other people. In 834 came a raid of Frisia. (Source: Annals of St Bertin's).

In 835AD, Danish Vikings devastated Sheppey on the north coast of Kent, England, which was under the hegemony of Egbert, King of Wessex (an area stretching from Cornwall to Kent). Egbert seems to have redirected Viking attacks to the coasts of France. Vikings also attacked a monastery at Noirmoutier. (Treatments have been based on the work of a monk there, Ermentarius).

Following another lull, in 841AD came more Viking moves on Ireland. Norwegian Vikings fortified a base for their ships at Ath Cliath (The Black Pool, Dubh Linn), on the Liffey River - Dublin. Perhaps following a civil war between the sons of Louis of France, and maybe due to the use of Scandinavian mercenaries by both sides, the Vikings sent a fleet up the Seine River and sacked Rouen. In 842, a Viking fleet sacked the usefully-trading port of Quentavic near Boulogne. The same year, Norwegian Vikings visited the Loire Valley area.

In 843AD in Scotland, King Kenneth McAlpin brought the Picts and Scots into a political union, sometimes known as Scotland, known more often by the Roman name of Albany. In 843AD the Vikings moved again on France; sending a fleet to attack Nantes on the Loire River. Ominously in 843, these Vikings established their first permanent fortified base from which they could terrorise the French coast, at Noirmoutier, an island at the mouth of the Loire River. This was, as a Frankish historian noted, "as if they meant to stay forever".

In 845AD, a Viking fleet of up to 600 ships was sent by King Horek to burn Hamburg. (Though oddly, Horek is not named in the legendary or factual lists of Viking kings.) This same year, a Viking fleet of up to 120 ships sails up the Seine River, commanded by Ragnar, perhaps a relative of the Friesian chiefs and of the Danish royal family, past Rouen, taking captives, pillaging monasteries and towns on either of the river banks. On Easter Day, 845 they sacked Paris, taking away booty plus various protection-money from King Louis (danegeld), a tribute given them to basically go away. This Danish Viking, Ragnar was probably the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok (Ragnar Hairy-Breeks 755-862-866, died in Northumbria). Lodbrok's line stretches back only to his great-grandfather, as is the case with his wife Aslaug Sigurdsdottir. Lodbrok was father of Ivar the Boneless, King of Dublin, and Sigurd Snake-in-Eye (d. 873) vikingb.jpg - 13118 Bytes

Once, confronted by Charles the Bald, Ragnar hanged 111 prisoners in front of the Frankish army. Charles the Bald paid him protection money - 7000 pounds of silver - to depart. Later, Viking fleets sailed up the Gironde and Garonne to ravage Aquitaine and Bordeaux. Spain and Portugal were attacked. The Vikings made an attack on Seville on the River Guadalquivir, but lost a thousand in battle and had 400 taken prisoner and hanged. In 845 a notable Viking pagan, Thorgils, was captured by his enemies and drowned. Just who repelled the Vikings is not made clear, the newcomer-Moors on the Iberian peninsula, or people settled earlier there before the Moors arrived. (Which question will move these articles on to consider "the Counts of Barcelona".)
In 845AD: Islam was a truce with the Byzantine empress, Theodora. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907., pp. 32ff.)


The Counts of Barcelona

In 846AD, a fleet of "Moslem pirates" seized Ostia, then besieged and sacked Rome. St Peter's and St Paul's were sacked. and the old Carolingian power in Italy seemed defeated.

Circa 848AD: As part of the story of the Counts of Barcelona... Sunifred (Borell), a Count of Barcelona, rebelled against the rulers of Septimania (Southern France-North-eastern Spain) - Septimania being led by Bernard Plantvelue, a relative of Charlemagne. Sunifred, who became a Count Barcelona after the killing in 844 of Bernard (Plantvelue), in 848-849 was killed in a counter-attack by a Duke of Aquitaine. Sunifred was then succeeded as Count Barcelona by his son Wilfrid I. (Quifre "The Hairy").
Item from Historians' History of the World. London, 1907., Vol 8, pp. 32ff. In 898AD died Wilfrid I, Count Barcelona, regarded as "the patron saint" of the spirit of Catalan independence. (In 899AD in England died the Wessexer, Alfred the Great.)

In Spain in 852 died Abd ar- Rahman, succeeded by his son Muhammed I. However, Christian monarchs retained control of Castile and Navarre; revolts continued in many areas against the Moors. In 852AD, Moslem forces suppressed serious revolt in Armenia.


In 850AD meantime came the probable beginning of Viking settlement in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, probably with violence. One of their noted later leaders seems to have been Thorffin the Mighty, who inherited an Orkney earldom at the age of five, in 1014; he died in 1064. He extended his power deeper into Scotland

By 850AD, what seemed clearer was a worrying trend, of "the settling Viking" moving from France to England, when Vikings wintered in Thanet in England. While during "the 9th Century", Swedish Vikings of the Rus people sail down the Volga River to the land they called Russia. Soon, Viking "merchant-princes" founded the first Russian states at Kiev and Novgorod. (One historians' view is: that the movements of the Vikings were "the last great folk movement of Europe".)

(Circa 850AD: Pope Leo IV declared that any Christian dying in battle for the defence of the Church would receive a heavenly reward. (Runciman, The First Crusade). This more or less established the spiritual justification for later Christian military action against Moslem incursions.) Circa 850AD arises also a "probable date" for the building of a medium-sized ship, the Viking "Gokstad ship", later found in a funerary mound containing a dead king (plus slaughtered animals) in Norway in 1880, near Sandefjord on the western side of Oslo Fjord..

In 853AD, the Irish found the arrival in Dublin of a Norwegian prince, King Olaf, who founded a kingdom based on the coasts but bothered little with the hinterland.


The Icelanders...

About now we find that the Norwegian Vikings stemming from Olav were reaching into Scotland, one of them marrying one of the MacAlpin women... General maritime history finds that before 860AD, Irish monk-mariners were said to sail to Iceland before it was settled by Vikings from 860AD (Here see Njal's Saga - also a variety of legends of Vikings "discovering" parts of Canadian North America) By about 860, the Viking Norwegian Floki Vilgeroarson took livestock with him to Iceland, which had earlier been visited by a Norwegian king called Naddod and a Swede called Garoar Svafarsson.

Floki went first to the Shetlands, and lost a daughter drowned in an accident. Then to the Faroes ("sheep islands"), where another daughter was married. Legend has it that Irish monks had been on the Faroes for one hundred years. It is 400km from the Faroes to Iceland, where Floki landed on the west coast, only to be disgusted by the climate, so he returned to Norway. Other settlers later followed. By legend they were avoiding the power plays of King Harald Finehair. By legend, the first settler on Iceland was Ingolf Arnarson, from western Norway, needing a new start, which he found at Reykjavik ("Steamy Bay"). He had a brother-in-law, Hjorleif. The settlement period is dated 870-930AD.


By 855AD, more Vikings were wanting to settle in England, as they wintered on the Isle of Sheppey near London. Also in 855AD came a major Viking attack on Wales which failed, in the time of the Danish leader Gorm (d.855). The successful Welsh leader was Rhodri Mawr, prince of Gwynedd, (844-878).

Two years later - 857AD - Paris, perhaps merely a bastion set on the Isle de Paris, was sacked by Vikings (possibly led by a son of Ragnar, Bjorn Ironside and his friend Hastein.) A Viking plan then arose to sack Rome, possibly via Moorish Spain? Or via the Straits of Gibraltar? Viking activity included the plunder of Algericas, taking Negro slaves/prisoners for Ireland, then attacking Balearics, Narbonne, and sailing up the Rhone, along the French Coast,up the Ligurian River of Northern Italy, and possibly sacking Pisa. By mistake, the Vikings sacked Luna, or Luni, north of Rome, so they massacred on in petulance. They possibly proceeded as far east as Alexandria? Moorish ships were waiting for them once they returned past Gibraltar. But Vikings anyway returned to the Loire River of France by 862. viking3.jpg - 13118 Bytes

Simultaneously - in 859AD - 62 Viking ships (up to 2000 men) sail from the Loire to harrass the Spanish coast. They had no success there, so they tried the North African coast, then wintered on the Rhone River and ravaged as far as Arles. They then sailed along the shores of Italy, where they evidently met the fleets of the Saracens unsuccessfully, as when in 861 the Vikings returned to Loire, so that the 859 expedition had only 22 ships left. At this time the Saracen fleets were engaging the Franks in Italy and the Mediterranean remained a Saracen sea. The Vikings returned their attention to England - while some of their outlaws also looked to Iceland.

In 860AD a Norwegian Viking named Floki Vilgerdarson and two freemen, Thorolf and Herjolf, and a Hebridean, Faxi, sailed to Iceland. Norwegians in the 870s went en masse to Iceland, and found earlier-settled Irish Christian hermits there who left rather than abide life with heathens. By 930AD, over 20,000 Norwegians had gone to Iceland, till all arable land was occupied. A latecomer was Thorveld and his son Eric the Red, exiled because of "some killings". They settled at Hornstrandir, fishing and sealing, and heard from an Icelander, Gunnbjorn Ulfkrakason, of the discovery of new land. Eric married but soon committed new killings, so he was exiled for three years. He sailed due west, to Greenland. Later was discovered, Labrador, and Newfoundland/Vinland.
J. H. Parry, (Consultant), Reader's Digest Discovery: The World's Great Explorers: Their Triumphs and Tragedies. Sydney, Reader's Digest, 1978.


We find some notable figures. Olaf Viking-The White, King of Dublin (died 871) was husband of Aud the Deep-minded, a woman who was a highly-respected figure. Aud was daughter of Ketil-Flatnose, Ruler of the Hebrides. Also of the Viking-The White family was Thorstein, who died about 870AD.

Descendants of King of Dublin, Olaf VIKING-THE WHITE HTW-148908
1. King Dublin, Ruler of the Hebrides, Olaf VIKING-THE WHITE, The White-148908 (c.856;d.871) sp: Aud (Flatnose) DEEPMINDED The Deepminded-67221
2. VIKING-THE WHITE Thorstein The Red-107051 (d.870) sp: Miss ICELAND-157760
3. VIKING-THE WHITE Mord Fiddle Chieftain-78496 sp: Miss VIKING-146930
4. VIKING-THE WHITE Unm-77936 sp: Valgard THE GREY-119726
5. Mord Valgardsson THE GREY-134710 sp: VIKING-THE WHITE Thorkatla-138557 sp: Miss NOTKNOWN-96386
3. VIKING-THE WHITE Groa-149284 sp: Duncan Earl of Duncansbay DUNCANSBAY of Scotland-26569
4. Grelaug Grelauga Grelaug DUNCANSBAY-16425 sp: Thorfinn I THORFINN Skullsplitter-4033 (c.950;d.963)
5. Hlodvir Skullsplitter Hlodve THORFINN Skull-Cleaver-144101 sp: Edna Ethne CERBALL Irish-137416
6. Sigurd II Earl1 Orkney THORFINN The First-148094 (d.1014) sp: Olith (Argyll) (Fergus) MACALPIN-137401
7. Torf Einar Earl2 Orkney Thorfinn II THORFINN Turf-Einar-106553 (c.1014;d.1056) sp: Ingibjorg (Three sons) of Orkney ARNASON wife1-153615
8. Erlend Earl Caithness Jarl Orkney THORFINN-155519 sp: Thora THORA Miss-67000
9. Magnus Earl Caithness Jarl Orkney THORFINN St Magnus-140245 (c.1180;d.1116) 9. Paul Earl Caithness Jarl Orkney THORFINN-159200
8. Paul Earl Caithness Jarl Orkney THORFINN co-ruler-144911 sp: TNOTKNOWN Miss-136947
9. Hakon Haco Earl Caithness THORFINN Jarl Orkney-38334 sp: TNOTKNOWN Miss-149338
10. Margaret Orkney THORFINN wife2-87730 sp: Madach Earl1 Atholl Canmore STUART Of Melmare-42250 (c.1115;m.1133;d.1152) sp: Erlend Ugni Jarl Orkney THORFINN-103903 (d.1156)
3. VIKING-THE WHITE Thorgerd-129867 sp: Mr ICELAND-135843 4. Hoskuld ICELAND-102155 3. VIKING-THE WHITE Sigfus-114711 sp: Miss NOTKNOWN-96287 4. VIKING-THE WHITE Ketil-89940 sp: Thorgerd NJAL-85600 4. VIKING-THE WHITE Thrain-104810 sp: Thorgerd HALLGERD-152241 4. VIKING-THE WHITE Sigmund-68082 4. VIKING-THE WHITE Steinvor-102457 sp: Lyting ICELAND-70850
4. VIKING-THE WHITE Thorkel-122507 4. VIKING-THE WHITE Sigurd-130292 4. VIKING-THE WHITE Lambi-95607 4. VIKING-THE WHITE Mord-122504 4. VIKING-THE WHITE Rannveig-85650 sp: Hamund HAMUNDARSON-120417
5. Gunnar HAMUNDARSON-152457 sp: Hallgerd NOTKNOWN-122506 5. Hjort HAMUNDARSON-115845 5. Arngunn HAMUNDARSON-102783 sp: Hroar Tongue-Priest SVARFARSSON-88809 6. Hamund HAMUNDARSON The Halt-97483 sp: Miss ICELAND-78839
7. Leidolf HAMUNDARSON The Strong-94478
5. Kollskeg HAMUNDARSON-122505
sp: MACALPIN Miss-26141


NB: In 866AD and later: The family of Hugues, Count Paris, intermarried with the Hohenstaufers of Germany/Bavaria (see Luidolf died 866AD, Duke Savoy). Gisela Hohenstaufer married Stephen I of Hungary, king of Hungary, Saint Stephen (969-1038); that Gisela, daughter of Duke of Bavaria, Henry the Wrangler (died 995). About this time, the Carolingians lived to the south of Viking influence, while in Burgundy, France, some notable names were: Brabant, Welf/Guelf (the predecessors of the later Hanoverian Guelfs of England), Merovingians, Charlemagne, the Kings of Wessex in England (see Alfred the Great died 899). And in France, the Capetians, and the Counts of Flanders, such as Baldwin, Count VIII of Flanders. viking3.jpg - 13118 Bytes

In 865AD began a fresh new Viking campaign to take England and/or Wales, regarded as "a main onslaught". (The harsh coasts of Wales served to protect its people from Viking landings.) A large body of Vikings, "the great army", occupied East Anglia, evidently peacefully, and were supplied with horses. They were possibly reinforced in 866 by Vikings from the Seine Valley, France. These Vikings moved north and occupied York. It seems these invasions were led by three Viking brothers, Halfdan of the Wide Embrace, Ubbi and Ivar the Boneless, the latter becoming better-known in Ireland. They were sons of Ragnar, perhaps the Ragnar who attacked Paris in 845? The brothers rode into York on 1 November, 866, in the middle of a local civil war - and since they held power there, it is no surprise to find that later, there was continued contact between Viking-Dublin and Viking-York.

In 866AD a Viking "army" of only 400 men ravaged northern France and destroyed a Frankish army led by a marquis and three regional counts; while in 866-867, Vikings further attempted to dominate Northumbria in England.

In 867AD, now occupying York in the north, Vikings moved south into Mercia and fortified Nottingham. York in time rose to a population of 30,000 and became the largest trading city in Britain - which suggests the Vikings did have some astuteness as merchants. In 868AD, Vikings again descended on York. In 869AD, Vikings returned to East Anglia and ravaged the kingdom of the king, Edmund, killing Edmund on 20 November, Edmund later being regarded as a saint. Later they moved south to London and imposed the Danegeld tribute. They had moved north of there to Cambridge by 875.

In 870AD, one of the Vikings based at York, Ivar the Boneless Ragnarsson, went with Vikings from Ireland to attack Dumbarton, the fortress of Strathclyde in Scotland. Ivar then went to Dublin, to become king of the Vikings there, where he died in 873.


870AD: The Vikings "discover" Ireland:

From 870AD to 1262 the Viking-Icelanders maintained the existence of a free state. During 870-930, Celtic people (often Irish) were used for servile labour on Iceland.
1880: Discovery at Gokstad, Norway, of a marvellous Viking ship. On the west side of Oslo fjord, 50 miles from Oslo, under a funerary mound. A sailing boat, nearly 80 feet long, 17.5 feet at the widest point, built of oak with a decking of pine. The keel was of a 60-foot long piece of single timber, suitable for shallow water moving; the hull was clinker style. This ship weighed 8.5 tons, 10 tons when fully laden. A replica was built in 1892 and sailed to New York is less than a month in April 1893, Capt Magnus Anderson. The replica made speeds of more than ten knots with unsophisticated rigging.


In 871AD, possibly using a base at Reading in Southern England, the Danish Vikings led by their king Guthorn took their "Great Summer Army" into East Anglia, prior to an assault on the Wessexer King Alfred. They took their danegeld protection money and retired to London. From 871-878, the Viking hold on East Anglia became tighter, partly due to resistance. In 872 the Northumbrians revolted against the Danes, which revolt the Danes suppressed in 873AD.

The year 874AD is one date given for the beginning of the settlement of Iceland, led by Ingolfur Arnarson, a Norwegian outlaw. Also in 874AD in England, a Danish army moved to Repton and drove out the Mercian king, Burgred, to install a puppet named Ceolwulf. The broader Danish plan was to divide England into two, north and south of the Humber River, under Guthorm and Halfdan of the Wide Embrace.

In 875AD, Vikings chose to move from the London area to Cambridge, perhaps to consolidate a mid-England base given their plan mentioned above. In 876 they launched a surprise attack on Wessex, aided by Vikings from Ireland. They confronted Alfred the Great, were bottled up, but in 877 they overran Wessex. So in 876AD, the Viking king Guthrom advanced from Cambridge to Wessex. viking3.jpg - 13118 Bytes

In 877AD Halfdan of the Wide Embrace visited Ireland to assist his brother there, Ivar, but was killed in a sea-battle off Ireland. In 878AD, some of the Vikings now disarrayed around the London area returned to the coasts of France and they ravaged Flanders for eight years. Their army in 885 returned to England and besieged Rochester, only to be beaten by Alfred, so they returned to France. Later they attacked Paris. In 878, Guthorm (Guthrum) in England made his third assault on Wessex. One result was the creation of five Danish boroughs - Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and Stamford. Ubbi had meantime brought a fleet of 23 ships from Wales. The Wessex King Alfred The Great operated as a guerrilla leader, sometimes harrassing Danes who had turned soldier-settlers-farmers. The Danes finally surrendered at Edington.

Though in 879AD, some of Guthorm's Vikings began to settle East Anglia systematically. By 879, Guthorm himself had settled down and become a Christian king (he died in 890) who took the name of Athelstan. (From 880AD, after the death of Healfden, a notable Viking leader in England was Guthfrith.)

Again greedy for France, in about 885AD up to 700 Danish-Viking ships cruised up the Seine River, to confront king Charles the Fat. During 886-887AD, Paris successfully defended itself against Viking attacks. This was followed by Arnulf's victory at the Battle of the River Dyle near Louvain in 891. In England, Alfred occupied London and attempted to control the Thames estuary against Viking piracy.

NB re other areas: 890AD: In Spain was the defeat of Omar b. Hafsan, who had control of an independent area in Andalusia. Serious risings occurred in Elvira and Seville. In Hungary... In 889 the Magyars under their leader Arpad, evidently fleeing the Turkic steppe race known as the Pechenegs (or Patzinaks), landed in the middle of a war between Byzantium and Bulgaria. The Byzantines bribed them to attack the Bulgars, which they did with initial success. But the Bulgarian Kijnaz (king) Symeon made an alliance with the Pechenegs, who drove the Magyars up the Danube valley into the region now known as Hungary. This area was nominally under Frankish rule, but had been sparsely populated since Charlemagne's destruction of the Avar state in 803 and the Magyars were able to move in virtually unopposed. Frankish Emperor Arnulf even found them useful in subduing a rebellious vassal. But once in place the Magyars were impossible to get rid of. They defeated several attempts to bring them to heel, and eventually wrested the region from Frankish control. The territory they now owned - the Danube basin - was surrounded by the Transylvanian and Carpathian mountain ranges but had access eastward to Bulgarian and Byzantine territories, and westward to Italy and the rest of Europe. Mountain-protected, they now had a virtual fortress from which they could raid east, west and south with almost total impunity. viking3.jpg - 13118 Bytes

The year 890AD (in the days of King Harold Finehair) is given as a probable date (872?) for the Battle of Hafrsfjord, Norway, a central event regarding the future of the throne of Norway and for Norway's trading wealth. (Some scholars see the settlement of Iceland as one outcome.)

In 891AD, the Scandinavian kings Sigfred and Godfred were killed on the River Dyle (Louvain, France), one victory for the East Frankish/German realm. Vikings earlier disappointed in England (those failing to take the London area) were also beaten by Emperor Arnulf, son of Louis the German.

England was hit again. Between September 891-September 892AD, some 250 Danish-Viking ships sailed with horses from Boulogne and landed at the estuary of the River Lympne in south-east Kent. Alfred's defenses were incomplete. Danish reinforcements under Haesten camped at Milton in north-east Kent. The Danes had a complex plan to take the Thames River estuary from the English, but by 896 the plan failed despite Danish incursions into Wales from the English north, south-west of the origins of the Thames. It seems that a major figure of this quite long-lasting Viking army was Rollo (a giant of man, so large that no horse could carry him, so he was a "Ganger", or, a walker?)

Gongu-Hrolf, Rolf the Ganger, "according to Icelandic tradition" was the son of Earl Rognvald of More and of the Orkneys, (Rognvald the Wise) and a brother of Earl Turf-Einar, an early Norse earl of Orkney. It was presumably this Rolf the Ganger who later by 911 laid siege to Chartres in France, failing but still meeting Charles III to discuss issues. Later, Rollo became the founder of the Duchy of Normandy. The "family surname" would become De Conteville.

Vikings had begun moving south, raiding, from the Eighth to the Tenth Century. They were some of the best shipbuilders and sailors in the world; their war ships had 30 oarsmen and about 90 crew. They were called Danes in England and Varangians in Russia. Two prompts for Viking expansionism to Germany, the Low Countries, France and Spain had been population growth and efforts by Harold I of Norway to subjugate the Vikings, who had been raiding northern France from 843AD. Vikings attacked Ireland from the Eighth Century till 1014.

In 892AD in France, a Viking army short of supplies retired to Boulogne on the coast and then went to England, to attack South Kent and the Thames estuary, only to be repelled by King Alfred's army. By 896 this disappointed army broke up and settled in East Anglia and Northumbria. The Viking losers here evidently later got ships and returned to the Seine River area - and it is evidently this Viking host which later took over Normandy. It is possible that one of this army was Rolf the Ganger, (Rollo, Hrolf) the huge man who became the progenitor of the Norman family, the De Conteville, who conquered England in 1066. These seem to be have been a Norwegian Vikings family - and so in 1066, England was conquered by a Norwegian descendant by way of Normandy - William de Conteville the bastard, and the Conqueror, the most successful explorer of the misty grand plan the Vikings had been trying to exercise.

There is little information on the marriages of the sons of Jarl Rognvald I of More, The Wise, but Jarl Rognvald Eysteinsson The Wise (died c.890) was son of Jarl Rognvald Eystein Glumar Ivarsson, the son of Ivar (De Conteville, for want of another surname), Jarl Norway Oplaendinge, an Uplander, son of Hlf. Ivar's wife is unknown.

Rognvald Eystein Glumar Ivarsson married Aseda (born c. 812). Rognvald I died c. 890 married Hilda Ragnhild Rognhild Hrolfsdottir, in about 853, Rollo being one of her several sons. Rollo/Rolf the Ganger (854-927) married a woman of Normandy, Poppa, daughter of Berenger de Senlis de Rennes (died c.930). Some confusions set into De Conteville genealogy since no one seems to have paid close attention to all the female descendants of Rolf/Rollo the Ganger, till the advent of the Internet.

Across generations, several de Conteville women named Emma seem to go missing, while various illegitimate sons of the later Dukes of Normandy provide confusions. Also, with respect to various minor northern French aristocracy after 930, one occasionally finds an apparent surname, de Senlis, which sometimes seems to link to Poppa's father Berenger, and sometimes not, it remains hard to say, and this also becomes confusing.


In Hungary by 896AD, only two years after Svatopluk the Great's death, Magyar tribes crossed into the territory now known as Slovakia for the first time. As the Great Moravian Empire crumbled, the Magyars slowly but surely forged deeper into Slovakian territory, until finally at the Battle of Bratislava, in 907, the Great Moravian Empire was defeated once and for all. It would be the last time that Slovaks ruled their lands for more than a Millennium.

Circa 895AD, some of Onogurs people withdraw from their Khazar overlordship and migrate to the south to found a Bulgarian homeland on the lower Danube. Another group of the remaining Onogurs drifted towards the Volga, while the rest formed a tribal alliance under Khazar overlordship. As time went on, they began to use the name of the strongest tribe in the alliance - the Megyer tribe - as a generic term for the whole group. This is the origin of the name Magyar, and of Magyarország - the name for a Hungarian and for Hungary in their own language today. The word applied to them in foreign languages (Hungarus, Hongrois, Hungarian, Ungar, etc.) derives from the term Onogur. Accounts of the Magyar migration differ in various sources. All we know for sure is that they were forced by the attack of the Pechegens to move west to the land between the Don and the Dnieper. Fleeing from this region after another sweeping offensive in or around 895-896, they entered the Carpathian Basin, familiar to them from their earlier raiding expeditions. At the time of the Magyar Conquest, the area was inhabited mostly by Slavic ethnic groups; and Great Moravia, situated on the northern part of the Carpathian Basin, had been in a state of disintegration since the death of Prince Svatopluk. The military power of the Pannonian Slav principality in the west did not represent notable strength. The rule of the Bulgars, extending over the Great Plain and Transylvania, was not consolidated. Under these circumstances, the Magyars were able to overrun the whole areas without difficulty. The military leader of the conquering tribes was Árpád, and after the founding of the state, his descendants became the rulers of the country - Arpad.

By 898-899AD in Hungary, the emperor Arnulf could make use of the Magyars to raid Italy, but on their return they swept through Bavaria, a Frankish possession, returning home laden with loot. There are 33 raids on record between 898 and 955, ranging through Italy, Germany, France and Burgundy, and even reaching the Atlantic coast and crossing the Pyrenees into Spain. By 900AD, the king of Greater Moravia (in Czech lands), was destroyed by Magyar invasions, and Slovakia was taken over.



Historians say, circa 900AD, the Viking raids ended The Golden Age of the Celts in Ireland. There was a counter-attack. In 902AD, Cearbhall the native king of Leinster attacked and sacked Viking-controlled Dublin on the Liffey River, Ireland...

The Vikings in Russia

And we now turn to the Vikings who went to Russia...

In 907AD, by Viking legend, Oleg, a Great Prince of Kiev, Russia, is said to have sailed down the Dneiper River with a huge fleet and over the Black Sea. The defenders of Constantinople are said to have tried to stop him by placing heavy chains across the Bosporus, but Oleg's men dragged their boats ashore, put them on rollers, and took them past any obstacles. The result was a trade treaty with Constantinople, which the Vikings called, "Great City", Mikligarour. Later, Vikings sold their services as mercenaries. There arose the Viking Varangian Guard for the Byzantine Emperor.

An interesting story arises, dated about 922AD: Vikings and a tale of human sacrifice: A Viking chieftain's funeral in the depths of Russia, was witnessed by an Arab diplomat, Ibn Fadlan. One of the outstanding Vikings had died and was given a ship-burial. His family asked his young women and men slaves, "Who among you will die with him?" A volunteer is found. The day for cremation arrived, the ship was set by the river. An old woman appeared, The Angel of Death, she who will kill the slave-girl who volunteered. The dead man was carried into a tent on the ship. The slave girl went from one tent to another and had sexual intercourse with the master of each tent. They each told her, "Tell your lord that I did this out of love for him." Later she was taken to the ship, removed the two bracelets she wore and gave them to the Angel of Death. Men came with shields and staves, to make noise as the girl is killed, The Angel of Death and the girl having entered the tent on the ship. The slave girl was laid at her master's feet. The old woman looped a cord around her neck and gave the ends to two men. Then she drew a dagger and knifed the girl between the ribs, as she was garrotted. The closest relative of the dead man, who is now naked, then came forward and took a piece of lighted wood, which he used to torch the wood beneath the cremation ship. So the master and his slave girl entered paradise.
(Any such story about Vikings visiting Russia, however, does not necessarily tend to prove or disprove claims that "the Russian state" was created by Vikings settling in Russia, nor that local Slavs were merely influenced by Viking visitors. Such questions remain much in dispute with scholars.)
From Magnus Magnusson, Viking Expansion Westwards. New York, H. Z. Walck, 1973.

In France by 910AD, Count William I of Aquitaine was establishing the Abbey of Cluny. Later, by 1000AD, "Cluniac views" tended to be seen as the reforming conscience of Christendom, well-regarded by the Papacy, and also by the rival Anjou and De Conteville dynasties in Northern France. Cluniac views promoted pilgrimages, firstly to shrines in Spain, later to Jerusalem. In 997 the Count of Verdun made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The religious and cultural consequences can be seen as extraordinary.

In 911-912AD, Danish Vikings made more successful incursions into what was to become the Duchy of Normandy, Northern France. A major figure was Rollo (Gongu-Hrolf), probable leader, an ex-exile to the Hebrides, son of the Earl/Jarl of More, Rognvald, earlier mentioned.
Lyon, Vikings in Britain, p. 69.

By 911, Charles the Simple, king of France (or, parts of France), recognised the influence of the Vikings in his region (Did he hope or assume that settling Vikings would fend off later Viking raiders?). Rollo (Rolf the Ganger), who had led an attack on Chartres, accepted a grant of land he already controlled in fact. Rollo also grasped the differences between the Frankish feudal system and the Norse systems of organisation. He evidently came to the admire the Frankish system more - it was less violent, more civilized, and probably proposed a more reliable sense or progress (or less loss), than the Viking habit of plundering and exacting danegeld. Certainly, woodworkers turning to building-with-stone proposed a greater hope of stability for the future, and anything like this would have been in great contrast to the above story of a Viking dying by a Russian river.

In 914AD, possibly as a more confident outcome of their settlement of Normandy, a Viking squad from Brittany led by two earls, Ohter and Hroald, ravaged the Welsh coast and into the Rye Valley. They captured the Bishop of Llandaff, Cyfeiliog.

In 915AD Pope John X cooperated with a court at Constantinople to drive Moslems from a castle at Garigliano. In 941 the Byzantines joined forces with Hugh of Provence to attack a Moslem stronghold. (Moslems for example had sacked Rome in 846.)

In 916AD, the Fatimite (of Egypt) and Aglabite factions in Sicily enabled Latins and Italians in alliance with Byzantines to drive Saracens out of Italy. In 917AD, Akhmed, Aglabite emire of Sicily, was defeated at sea. Egyptian Fatimites would control Sicily. They attacked Liguria and took Genoa. In 917 Sicily fell to the Saracens, "an Arabic race" based at Palermo.
Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 43-46.

Between 917-918AD was more conflict between Vikings and English, at Derby. The English enjoyed a victory at Tempsford. In 924AD in Hungary, Henry the Fowler, after being defeated by the Magyars in 924, copied their light cavalry and was thus able to defeat them in his turn in 933.
From 947AD in Hungary, Germany under Otto I (the Great) began to expand into Hungary's sphere of influence, re-taking Bavaria, invading western Hungarian settlements, subduing the Czechs and in 951, conquering Italy, where Otto had himself crowned King in place of the Magyar vassal, Berengar II.

By 924-933 the Vikings controlled the area about Rouen, and later was established the Duchy of Normandy (province of the Northmen Normenn). This meant the rise of The Normans, who had used to build with wood, but now built with stone. Soon they did something the French had not. They took steps to block further enemy shipping, and fortified bridges to block the river routes used by the Vikings. By the Treaty with King Charles of St Clair-sur-Epte, the Normans would have Rouen, Lisieux, Evereux and all lands between the Bresle and the Epte - and they become Christians.

By 926AD in England, according to the custom of giving women in marriage to enemies, Athelstan of Wessex gave one of his sisters to the Viking Sygtrygg, successor as ruler of York to Rognvald. Sygtrygg however died in 927, when his son by an earlier marriage, Olaf Sigtrygsson, supported by his uncle Guthfrith, the Norse king of Dublin, tried to claim his inheritance by force. Athelstan promptly razed York and ranged his own influence north to Scotland.

In 927AD following the expulsion of Vikings from York arose Guthfrith, whose son Olaf Guthfrithsson later led a Scandinavian coalition against England. (This Olaf had a brother Raegnald Guthfrithsson and a cousin Olaf Sihtricson, 949-952).


By 930AD the Viking population of Iceland and their slaves was about 3000-4000 families. Most of the Icelanders are from the western fjords of Norway, though transported Celts were about 15 per cent of Iceland's population. And in 930AD in Iceland was the sitting of the world's first democratic parliament, the Althing.

Circa 930AD: Hungary: In the first half of the Tenth Century, during the decades following their conquests, raiding expeditions of Magyar mounted warriors subjected all Europe to a constant state of terror. In time, however, they began to feel the effects of Western counter-strategy. It is hard not to see intelligent Vikings taking notice of this and the expansionism of the Islamic world as well. By 930AD the army of the Byzantine Emperors included Scandinavian/Viking mercenaries. Later arose "a special Norse regiment", The Varangian Guard. Some such soldiers visited Jerusalem as a kind of Christian pilgrimage.

Most famous of the Varangians was Harald Hardrada, referred to below. Some pilgrims from Scandinavia itself made a round trip, by sea in through the Straits of Gibraltar, returning home from the Holy Land through Russia. It is hard then not to see Vikings as not keeping in touch - for some of them were in fact circling Europe, and presumably they were picking up news, views, information and assessments of the activities and systems of other peoples. No other people in the world at the time were ranging as far as they were by both sea from Scandinavia round through the Mediterranean to Constantinople and via the major European rivers as well.

In 934AD in England, Olaf Guthfrithsson, son of Guthfrit expelled from York in 927, succeeded to leadership of the Dublin Vikings. He raised an army against Athelstan and was joined by King Constantine of the Scots. The Battle of Brunanburh followed, which Athelstan won. Out of the chaos strode the Icelandic warrior-poet, Egil Skallagrimsson, and from a Norwegian point of view, an outlaw, subject of Egil's Saga by Snorri Sturluson. Egil was an enemy of Eric Bloodaxe. Bloodaxe was of Swedish-Jutlander stock and killed seven-eight of his own brothers, except for the later king of Norway, Haakon I (died 960), who had been reared at the Wessexer court of Athlestan. Once again, such rivalries were an indication of both the violence of the Viking way of life, and the wide-rangingness of Vikings from Iceland, to Dublin, to northern England, back to home bases in Scandinavia.

It is thought that for about 942AD, possibly the reason that Wales suffered less from Viking raids is due to defence by Welsh king Hywel Dda, Hywel The Good of the Pembrokeshire area. Whereas in England in 945AD, King Edmund ceded all of Cumbria to King Malcolm I of Scotland, a great-great-grandson of Kenneth McAlpin, in return for assistance and support by land and by sea.

And Circa 950AD in Denmark was the first formation of a Danish State, and so former Viking raiders become more ambitious for conquest.

By 955AD in Hungary, when the Magyars invaded Bavaria in 955, the armoured cavalry of Otto the Great, Holy Roman Emperor, checked their advance, and a decisive battle at Lechfeld annihilated the Magyar assailants. Although the Magyars launched further attacks on Byzantium following this devastating defeat, it became clear that they had arrived at a decisive historic cross-road. Two alternatives confronted them: either they settled down to form a State and adjust themselves to the people of Europe, or else the same fate would befall them as that of the other nomadic peoples who had been annihilated in previous centuries. It is hard not to see the Vikings brooding on a similar lesson.

From 955AD, Slovakia saw fifty years of battles and skirmishing between the nomadic Magyars and the neighboring Franks, which finally came to an end in 955 when the Frankish King, Otto I, completely destroyed the Magyar army. This heavy defeat forced the Magyars to give up their nomadic lifestyle of attacking and pillaging towns, and settle down. Over the next three centuries the Magyars slowly but surely integrated themselves into the lands of the former Great Moravia, adopting many of the Slovaks customs, as well as Christianity. (From a website)

And, regarded as a triumph in Europe, in 962AD in Germany, Otto the Great, son of Henry (The Fowler) was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope (as a kind of spiritually-true successor to Charlemagne?)


Aristocracy:

Nevertheless, by 968AD, Vikings were bothering Portugal. Between 968 and 1000-1100AD, before and after William the Conqueror moved into England, ruling families had already set up a remarkably "quilting" over European countrysides. The Honhenstaufers of Germany had linked with the Guelf (Welf) family, plus "Tuscany" and "Italy", also "Poland". The French Capetians had intermarried with the Pamplonas of Spain, and the Normans, De Conteville, plus the House of Anjou (Angevines). Also intermarrying with the dominant Capetians were other notable houses of France, Flanders, Hainault, Aquitaine, Burgundy, Vermandoise, and via links with Hohenstaufers, with the rulers of Kiev (in Russia) and Sweden - Vikings. Capets also had links with Guelf and the Wessex kings of England. The name Anjou later helped provide the English Plantagenets. To the east of Germany, to the north of the Byzantines at Constantinople, were troublesome people not yet Christianized, who moved each other about, producing instability in a region which would remain troublesome for many centuries.

Between 968AD-1000AD, the Vikings trying Spain and Portugal had found the Moors fierce enemies, as the Moors used "Greek fire" (naptha) against them, via catapults from small ships. Half-naked Viking oarsmen have little means of fending off Greek fire, and went home beaten.

In Portugal, Ramiro III Leon (ruling 968-985), King Castile, was accepted by the Barons as King at a time when the Counts of Castile were influential. About the time he succeeded to his throne, the Vikings led by Gundered in 968 appeared in Galicia. (Ramiro III Leon succeeded at age five after his father Sancho Abarca had retained his throne with the aid of Moslems.) Sancho's wife, Ramiro's mother, was Urraca, of the influential line of the Pamplonas of Spain; a grand-daughter of Queen Toda of Navarre. Then came Alfonso V "The Noble", died 1027, who tried to expand central Portugal. The Pamplonas gained further influence. Lines crossed, and Alfonso V married daughter, Sancia/Sancha, heiress of Leon, who married to Ferdinand (died 1065), Fernando I, of the Pamplona line.
1064AD: Capture of Barbastro by the Duke of Aquitaine. Ferdinand I of Castile advances to Coimbra. In 1063 was a seizure of Maine by William of Normandy.

Christianity spread. In Hungary in 973, Geza I and all his household were baptised and a formal peace was concluded with emperor Otto I. Geza's only son, Vajk, was baptised Istvan (Stephen) and went on to be canonised a saint. Geza enlisted Bavarians to serve as his bodyguards and settled large estates on them. The adoption of Christianity allowed the development of a pilgrim's route down the Danube River and through the Balkans to Constantinople, then the Holy Land. Of course, a "pilgrim's route" can also be a trade route, which many peoples must have noticed.

By 976AD, Otto III made Leopold of Babenberg the new ruler of Austria, so stabilising Austria's progress. In 978AD in England was the accession to the throne of Aethelred the Unready (The Ill-advised); he being only ten-years-old. England would have forty more years of harrassment from Vikings till the time of Knut (Canute), king of Denmark. Earlier had been the murder in Dorset of Aethelred's older half-brother, Edward, son of King Edgar (died 975). It is thought by some that Queen Aelfthryth had instigated Edward's murder for reasons of dynastic succession.

In 979AD was made the Settlement of Isle of Man, supposedly on 5 July. The actual Settlement seems to have been quite earlier. Olaf Cuaran (945-980AD) of Dublin and his sons and a Scandinavian dynasty were part responsible for the Settlement, and the island perhaps became a base for raiding Viking ships.


Above it is noted that Denmark became a "State" in 850AD. It seems a crucial year. About 850, Vikings were migrating to Iceland, settling on the Outer Hebrides, and Vikings were militarily uncertain about concentrating on England or France. In 853 in Norway was established a coastal-fringing kingdom which avoided the challenge of influencing its hinterland. So, circa 950AD, who were the earliest, more influential Vikings?

For Sweden - We find for 950AD, Olav I Sprakaleg of Sweden -
Descendants of the King of Norway, The Hunting King, SPRAKALEG -165208
1. King Norway, The Hunting King SPRAKALEG Gudrod-165208 sp: AGDIR Asa-165209
2. King of Norway SPRAKALEG Halfden The Black-165204 sp: RINGERINA Ragnhild-165205
3. King Norway SPRAKALEG Harald Fairhair-165202 sp: NOTKNOWN Miss-165203
4. King Norway SPRAKALEG Hakon The Good-165200 sp: NOTKNOWN Miss-165201
5. SPRAKALEG Tryggvi Olafson-83976 sp: VIKING Astrid-4796
6. Vikings of Sweden SPRAKALEG Olav I-142554 (b.950) sp: Haraldsdottir DENMARK-VIKING Thyra-135449 (c.950)
7. SPRAKALEG Eilaf-170307 (b.966) 7. Jarl of Denmark SPRAKALEG Ulf Thhorkilsson-170308 7. Thorgilsson SPRAKALEG Gytha de Kent-170309


By 980AD, the Viking raids on England were seeming shorter, sharper, more aggressive, better-organised, and made mainly for booty, not settlement. In 980, Southampton was ravaged, the Isle of Thanet sacked and Cheshire overrun. (Various earlier raids may have been conducted by Vikings made restless by the rule of Harald Blue-Tooth in Denmark?) In Ireland in 980, Olaf Cuaran of Dublin found his sons defeated at the Battle of Tara. He died on the Isle of Iona and was succeeded by his son, "Iron Knee", Gluniarainn. Another son of Olaf was Sihtric of the Silken Beard, who was Viking king in the time of the Irish hero, Brian Boru (who was born in 941).

Vikings and a Massacre: Ireland and Dublin, Discovery in Kilkenny, Southern Ireland, of Viking artefacts circa 1000AD, of coins and jewellery, particularly, button made of fine-woven silver wire. Artefacts found at site of a massacre and to be displayed in Dublin. (As reported in Australia in world press on 15 January 2000)

In 1000AD, Vikings raided England for tribute and ravaged various areas. Families might sell themselves into slavery, or be sold into slavery. Some English views were that such raids were the outcome of predictions in the Book of Revelation, or the result of the wrath of God. The end of the world might be nigh, since as many thought, the world would end anyway 1000 years after either the birth or death of Jesus.

In 982AD, the year Greenland was discovered and colonised by Vikings, the English areas of Dorset and Portland suffered from Viking raids and London was burned down. (In 983AD: Otto III was king of Germany.) In 983-985AD was the conversion to Christianity of Stephen of Hungary. (He became king of Hungary in 996AD.) In the Islamic world, 985-986AD, al-Mansur conquered and sacked Barcelona, a port of eastern Spain.

By 987AD, the notable Capet family of France had domains in the Middle Seine area, including Paris; an assembly of nobles elected Hugh Capet as king of France (king of the Franks; the title king at this time did not confer extra power or revenue). In 987AD in Russia, Vladimir, Grand Duke of Kiev became a Christian in the context of Viking influences over his area. He was regarded as a saint after he died in 1015AD.

In 988AD, Vikings raided parts of Wales. Wales suffered variously in 968, 971, 972, 980, 987, with Anglesey often the target. In 989AD in France, the Papacy fond itself promoting the beginning of the Movement for The Peace of God. In 989AD, at the The Council of Charroux, the bishops of Aquitaine (aware of the extent of feudal squabbling) suggested that the Church should be able to guarantee "that the poor can live in peace". (Runciman, The First Crusade.)

Might such a suggestion later involve the Church in military adventurism? By 1000AD, William "the Great", Duke of Guienne, expanded on this idea at The Council of Poitiers, which he had convened. It was no accident at the time that church properties were also not safe from military action. By 1016, the French nobility had subscribed to a peace movement, wanting a guarantee that peasants and clerics, their crops and animals, would not be interfered with. The other side of the coin here was demonstrated when it began to be promoted that arms could be taken up legitimately against anyone breaking such a peace code. From notions of The Peace of God reigning in Western society, which was supported by William the Conqueror by 1042, arose an idea that "he who slays a Christian sheds the blood of Christ".

In sum, the later response of the Papacy was to direct the obviously aggressive tendencies of Christians into warfare against the Heathen, when Moslem power could spring into France from Spain, when Moslem civilisation was often seen as superior to Western ways, when Arabic shipping or piracy made Western trade insecure in the Mediterranean. In short, the Westerners or Europeans were less well-organised than Arabic/Moslem societies.

In 991AD arose a Treaty of Amity between Aethelred of England and the "Viking", Duke Richard II De Conteville of Normandy. (In 1000, in defiance of this treaty, Normandy housed the Danish army.) This had no effect on Vikings from north of Normandy, for in 991AD, a major warfleet of 93 Viking ships arrived in the Thames estuary commanded by Olaf Tryggvason (Anlaf), earlier a "Baltic pirate" who aspired to the throne of Norway. Folkestone was attacked, Ipswich was overrun, a battle was fought at Ipswich/Maldon in Essex. The Essexman Byrhtnoth was defeated. The Danes took a danegeld payment from King Aethelred but did not leave England. Aethelred set a naval trap for them in 992, assembling all English ships at London to attack Vikings at sea, but this plan was betrayed by an earldorman of East Anglia, Aelfric. Later in revenge, Aethelred had Aelfric's son blinded.
H. R. Lyon, Vikings in Britain, p. 84. Note: Olaf was king of Norway 995-1000. 995AD: Islam: Aleppo was taken from Mohammedans by emperor Basil. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907., Vol. 8, pp. 32ff.) 996AD: Islam: Spain: Moorish capture of city of Leon. Al-Masnur now takes Compostella. In Africa, Al-Mansur's generals have victories in Mauretania. Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff. 996AD: Otto III becomes Emperor. Robert II Capet (The Pious) is (associate) King of France. In 997AD in Hungary, the first steps towards consolidation were undertaken by King Stephen's father, Géza (972-997), the last Magyar prince, who called in feudal knights and missionaries from the west to help break the resistance of his people which was impending the spread of the new faith and checking the transformations taking place within the country. By 1000AD: The Byzantine Emperors, (Comnena/Comnenus) were coping badly with Arabs and Turks. From Venice, Doge Pietro I Orseolo travelled on his triumphal Dalmation cruise.

In 993AD, Danes sacked Bamborough and ravaged both sides of England's Humber River. During 994AD came the forcible conversion to Christianity of the Vikings-ruled Orkneys. In 994 the crowned king of Denmark, Svein Forkbeard, the usurping son of Harald Blue-Tooth, arrived in England with a raiding fleet of 94 ships. London was attacked, but it won. The Vikings ravaged the south-east coast. By now, the Vikings were far more professionally organised. Then in 997AD, the English West Country was raided by Viking, notably about Tavistock. Later, Dorset and Hampshire were attacked, and the Danes had created a useful base on the Isle of Wight.

But in Ireland, the Irish hero Brian Boru took Dublin from the Vikings (from Sihtric). Boru by 1005 was regarded as "Emperor of the Irish".

By 1000AD, Kiev had become the Viking capital of Russia. Venice shared the slave trade with the rather piratical Dalmations and the Narentans. Venice was rising as a maritime republic, built on water, commerce, and freedom. From about 550AD, the Venetians had been "a separate people", mainly boatmen and bargemen, working on the lagoons, rivers and canals of the mainland of northern Italy. From about 10000AD they became sea-going, trading and fighting in various parts of the Mediterranean, and sailing from the English Channel to the rivers of Southern Russia. Venice later benefited enormously from rendering assistance to the Crusading Movement, more so once "Constantinople" was regained. While other notable Italian city-states fell victim to royal jealousy, and/or family jealousies, Venice remained a free republic, self-governing, led by The Doge of the day.

Also in 1000AD: Leif Ericsson's Norse/Viking fleet reached North America. New urban communities began from 1000AD in Northern Europe, coinciding with Christianization and creating buildings of stone, not wood. Still, it was unusual for a medieval town to extend more than a kilometre from its centre.
Died circa 1000AD: Explorer Thorvald Ericsson. Vikings had sailed west and settled Newfoundland, including Thorvald Ericsson, brother of Lief.


England revolts against the Vikings

1010AD: Vikings: Another would-be king of Norway, Olaf Haraldsson, Olaf the Stout, later St. Olaf, attacked London and pulled down London Bridge. Hence the nursery rhyme, "London Bridge is falling down".

By 1002AD the Danes/Vikings were goading the English beyond endurance with their danegeld taxes, although the English King Aethelred had married Emma De Conteville, sister of a Duke of Normandy. Aethelred ordered a massacre of Danes in November, on St Brice's Day, a Saturday, when Danes customarily bathed. Some women had their breasts cut off, others were buried alive in the ground. Children were dashed to pieces against posts and stones. King Svein Forkbeard suspected that his own sister had been victim of massacre and so he planned more attacks.
In other areas: By 1002AD, Henry II was king of Germany and in Spain by 1002AD was a fracture of the Caliphate of Cordoba into "a score of petty kingdoms". 1002AD: From France, Count Fulk Nerra, Fulk Anjou "The Terrible", known for his crimes of violence as he expanded his territory, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to expiate his sins. He later made two more pilgrimages. During 1002-1005AD came the conquest of Burgundy by Robert (The Pious) of France. In the Moslem world in 1003AD, Antibes was sacked from pirates from Africa, who attack Pisa in Italy in 1005 and 1016, and attacked Narbonne, north of Barcelona, in 1020.

Between 1003-1013AD, Danes under King Sweyn I (Forkbeard), and his son Canute-Knut , conquered England. In 1004AD, Svein Forkbeard was probably behind the Vikings who burned Norwich and Thetford in England. In 1007AD, the Danes again raised the price of the danegeld in England. Fierce raids were made in 1006-1007.

From about 1009AD, Viking colonists try to colonize the inland of Newfoundland, with Thorfinn Karlsefni, (the party included the daughter of Eric the Red, Freydis). But they were beaten off by Indians.
J. H. Parry, (Consultant), Reader's Digest Discovery: The World's Great Explorers: Their Triumphs and Tragedies. Sydney, Reader's Digest, 1978.

In 1011AD, Vikings with aid from Swedish mercenaries took Canterbury and ransomed the archbishop Aelfheah. Despite a large payment, the Vikings had him killed during a drunken orgy. The men of some 45 Danish ships under Thorkel the Tall thought this was too much and went across to the English side. In 1013AD, the Danish King Svein Forkbeard and his son Knut (Canute) sailed with a large fleet to invade England. Svein could not take London, but he did take Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria. Svein Forkbeard was now effectively king of England, as Aethelred and his family fled to Normandy; but Svein died on 3 February 1014. Cnut returned to Denmark to regroup.

By 1014AD, Vikings from the Orkneys were fighting at Clontarf in Ireland. In Norway, King Olaf was Christianizing Norway, often with great violence. Those resisting might be killed on the spot, maimed or mutilated, or blinded. Or driven from homes with land confiscated and families taken hostage. In Ireland on 23 April, 1014 was the Battle of Clontarf, in which men's motives were swirling and difficult to discern; Vikings are involved. Brian Boru, his son and grandson were killed.

In 1015AD, Cnut sailed again for England with 200 ships and a large army, to be unsuccessfully resisted by the son of Aethelred, Edmund Ironside, who died on 30 November 1016, leaving Cnut king of England. The West Saxons were forced into submission.
While unexpectedly in Southern Italy, new opportunities were going to open up for Vikings, or rather, Normans... between 1016AD-1090AD: In Southern Italy, loose groups of Normans from France began operate in bands, sometimes as banditti, with a mind to oust Moslems settlers from the peninsula. (Finally there were Norman raids from Italy on Byzantine territory.) In 1016AD, Norman pilgrims from France, returning from Jerusalem, aided the Prince of Salerno in Italy and the Duke of Apulia against "the Saracens". The name was... De Hauteville.
1060AD: Normans fight the Arabs 1060 to 1090 in Italy. In 1063 the Normans had some success against Arabs under a papal banner. From 1060 was the beginning of the Norman conquest of the Moslems in Sicily. Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.

By 1016AD in Italy, the Pisans began to try to conquer the Moors of Sardinia at the behest of Pope Benedict VIII.

Between 1014-1020AD, the king of Navarre, Sancho III The Great, began to plan a counter-attack against Moslem power in Spain. A league of Christian princes was coordinated, and the nobles of Leon and Castile were interested, as was Sancho-William, Duke of Gascony. In 1018, when Moslems threatened Countess Erselinde of Barcelona, Roger of Tosni, from Normandy, went to her assistance. The anti-Moslem tendency here melded with Cluniac influences. Raymond-Berengar I of Barcelona began to try to push the Moors southward.

While in 1019AD in Denmark, King Harald died and Cnut returned from England to Denmark to claim the throne of his brother. In 1020AD, Brian Boru in Ireland defeated the Vikings at Clontarf in Ireland, there followed a Celtic revival. In 1022AD was a Christian heretical uprising at Orleans, France. In 1023AD came a meeting between Robert the Pious and Henry II. In 1024AD, Conrad II became king of Germany and in 1027AD he became emperor. During 1026-1027AD, about 700 Christian pilgrims visited Jerusalem, one being Richard, Abbot of St Vannes of Verdun.

In the Viking world of 1028AD, King Cnut of Denmark drove King Olaf Haraldsson of Norway from his throne, and then became king of England, Denmark and Norway (Knut died in 1035AD.) In 1030AD died the said Olaf Haraldsson, who became a saint after his death in battle at Stiklestad. St. Olaf's half-brother was the wealthy Harald Hardrada, who has benefited from his service as captain of the Viking Varangian Guard at Constantinople. There seem to be many reasons why the Vikings should have been well informed about turbulent events in various parts of the world.

From 1031AD in Moorish Spain, the Caliphate became so disorganised that independent states or emirates arose. The fall of the Omayyad dynasty broke the last links of unity. Emirates arise at Saragossa, Toledo, Valencia, Badajoz, Cordova, Seville and Granada. Christian states seized opportunities to reconquer Spain, aided by the Spanish hero, El Cid.
Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff. Toledo as a province of Spain was mountainous, of 5925 square miles, watered by the Targus River. It produced metals, textiles, wine, charcoal and timber and was noted for sword manufacture. Very old, Toledo may have been a Carthaginian trading station. Its highest grounds had once sited a Roman fort, it was Christianized early. Church councils were held there in 396, 400, 589. The Third Church Council was called by King Reccared in 589 once he converted from Arianism and there arose a unification of Visigothic Spain. Toledo became a centre of the theological battle between Arianism and Spanish Catholicism. The 11th Toledo council of 675 was quite important, theologically. The area was known as Toledo to Visigothic Spain, as Toletum to the Visigoths, and as Tolaitola to the Moors as part of Caliphate of Cordova. By 1085, El Cid and Alphonso of Leon and Castile had retaken Toledo, which for a time served as a capital, though the capital was later moved to Madrid.

In 1031AD, Henry I became king of Franks. In 1035AD, Fulk the Count of Anjou, (Fulk Nerra), made a second pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and he made another pilgrimage in 1039. In 1035, due to death of his father, William the Bastard (De Conteville), later William the Conqueror of England, inherited the Duchy of Normandy. In time he had to fend off attacks on his life due to his claims to inheritance. Also in 1035AD in France appeared the family Lusignan, who were destined to provide notable Crusaders in the Holy Land and also to do well in Norman England with their descendants in England. Also about 1035AD, (Runciman on The First Crusade), Duke Richard III of Normandy led a large pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

In 1035AD died King Knut (Canute) of England, emperor of England and Denmark, Norway. He was buried at Winchester - whereupon his empire began to fall apart. By 1042, England was ruled by Edward the Confessor. In many ways, Viking activities and any of their impacts were tending to become outmanouvered by influences arising from the spread of Christianization. By 1038AD in Hungary, the task of implementing the change to Christianity was carried out by (Saint) Stephen I (997-1038) who defeated the forces of the rebellious tribal aristocracy, and was crowned with a crown received from the Pope. Stephen replaced ancient tribal structures with the newly-founded Hungarian State. His counties became organizational units of the state to be ruled by governors appointed by the king.
1038AD: Islam, Mohammedans regained Edessa. Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907., pp. 32ff. In 1038AD appeared The Ghuzz, a nomadic tribe from the steppe of the Aral Sea who had recently converted to Islam. Recently too, a condittiere led by the Turk, Mahmud of Ghazna, had helped to destroy the Samanid Empire. The Ghuzz' dominant tribe were the Seljuks, who in 1038 settled in Khorassan and Khorezm. Seljuks later raided as far as Armenia.

In 1039AD, Henry III became king of Germany, about which time Kiev in Russia was subject to Viking influences, Anna of Kiev (1036-1076AD) married Henry I Capet (1031-1108), King of France. This was one of the most successful (or ambitious?) of any marriages made by well-born women of Viking descent. (1040AD was the year Macbeth killed King Duncan and took the Scottish throne.)


By 1040AD, the sons of Tancred De Hauteville, a petty Norman baron from Normandy, France, seized the town of Melfi in the Apulian Hills, Italy, to found a principality. The Byzantine authorities paid little attention to this, but the western Emperor, Henry III, supported the De Hautevilles as he was eager to gain influence in the area. By 1052AD, the De Hautevilles have won the Lombard areas, forcing the Byzantines to the Apulian coast and the tip of Calabria, influencing the western Italian cities and striking northward to Rome. A nervous Pope organised an attack on the Normans, and was beaten. The De Hautevilles had arrived, with the eldest Robert Guiscard, ("The Crafty", "The Weasel") recognised in 1059 as Duke of Apulia and Calabria. Robert's younger brother Roger then began to oust the Arabs from Sicily. In general, the De Hautevilles, supremos of the Normans in Southern Italy, seem to have had a surprisingly good grasp of using maritime power. Italian ships begin to do better as trade transports, and there also arose some ecclesiastical rivalry between Rome and Constantinople. Meantime, Turkish peoples were becoming restive, and expansive.
By 1054AD a split had occurred between Rome and Constantinople, schism between the Western and Eastern Christian churches. Some 300 Christian pilgrims about now were expelled from Jerusalem by Saracens.

From 1060-1090AD, Normans in Italy/Sicily fought the Arabs to clear them out. In 1063 the Normans had some success against Arabs under a papal banner. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.) 1057AD: There appear in Southern Italy, the petty-baron, Norman-Viking family the De Hautevilles, led by their "patriarch" Tancred. The family decides to oust Moslems from the peninsula, in a a kind of crusade before the Crusades that comes to the attention of the Papacy in Rome. (In 1053AD: Italy, had been a defeat of Papal forces by the Normans (de Hautevilles) at Civitatem, Italy.

In 1039AD, an aristocrat with a troubled conscience, who has killed an archbishop, Count Thierry III of Holland, went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In 1060AD, Count Conrad of Luxemburg went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, "an aristocrat with a troubled conscience". That year, 1060AD: Philip I was King of Franks.

In 1044AD, the year that Touraine in France was now held by the Count of Anjou, began the period now known as "The Little Ice Age".

1046AD: Imperial Coronation of Henry III and Agnes, daughter of William V of Aquitaine. Norman conquests in Italy are recognised as valid by Henry III.


In 1052AD in Ireland, the Vikings found themselves expelled from Dublin, though they later returned. By 1054, their "Norman brother", the later William the Conqueror of England, had suffered since 1047 seven years of strife, fending off rebellious barons, fending off external attacks, before he could establish his own authority.


The origins of William the Conqueror's name - De Conteville - are difficult to establish. Follows merely an impression of the possibilities...

Descendants of Halfdan the VIKING-146907
1. VIKING HALFDAN-146907 sp: NOTKNOWN Miss-59056
2. VIKING Eysteinn I HALFDANSSON-94779 (b.736) sp: NOTKNOWN Miss-72301
3. (Progenitor) De Conteville EYSTEINSSON Halfdan Huitbein-130407 (b.762;d.800) sp: NOTKNOWN Hlf-120636 (b.767)
4. Jarl Norway, Oplaendinge DE CONTEVILLE Ivar-128402 (b.788) sp: UNKNOWN Miss-111228
5. Jarl More DE CONTEVILLE Rognvald Eystein Glumara Ivarsson-56460 (b.800) sp: ROGNVALSSON Aseda-31530 (b.812)
6. The Wise, Jarl of More DE CONTEVILLE Rognvald I Eysteinsson-31529 (b.830;d.890) sp: Countess More, Hrolfsdotter VIKING Hilda Ragnhild Rognhild-90216 (b.857;m.853)
7. Duke Normandy DE CONTEVILLE Rollo-40944 (b.854;d.927) sp: Duchess Normandy, Ctss de Valois BAYEAUX Poppa-124306 (b.872;m.891)
8. Duke Normandy, Longsword DE CONTEVILLE William I-155067 (b.876;d.942) sp: De Bretagne BRITTANY Sporte Sprote-136758 (b.878)
9. Duke3 Normandy, The Fearless DE CONTEVILLE Richard I-128275 (b.933;d.996) sp: Duchess de Crepon, of Denmark DENMARK-CREPON Gonnor-98121 (b.936;d.1031)
10. Duke4 Normandy, The Good DE CONTEVILLE Richard II-153536 (b.962;d.1025) sp: Princess Brittany BRITTANY Judith wife2-132049 (b.956;m.1000;d.1017) sp: Princess Denmark SPRAKALEG Estrith Estrid Margaet Svensdatter-144441 (b.997) sp: Papia ENVERMEU -79210 10. DE CONTEVILLE Emma Aelgifu-31216 10. Archbishop Rouen DE CONTEVILLE Robert-34315 (c.999;d.1037) sp: NOTKNOWN Herlue-167024 (b.970) 10. Count Brienne, Count Eu DE CONTEVILLE-BRIENNE Godfrey-142454 (b.953;d.1015) sp: NOTKNOWN Miss problem (?)-6683 10. Count d'Exmes and Lezc DE CONTEVILLE-EU William-108047 (d.1054) sp: Lenzline HARCOURT -47019 10. DE CONTEVILLE Matilda Mahaud of Normandy-168803 (b.974;d.1017) sp: Count Champagne CAPET Odo II Eudes I-58732 (b.983;d.1037) sp: CAPET Emma no issue-50539 (d.962) 10. Emma DE CONTEVILLE -23180 (b.980;d.1052) sp: King England, Denmark, King Norway SPRAKALEG Knut Cnut TG-159058 (b.994;d.1035) sp: The Unready WESSEX Aethelred II-131639 (b.968;m.1002;d.1016) 10. Count Arques, Count Eu DE CONTEVILLE William Illegit-137260 (c.990;d.1053) 10. DE CONTEVILLE Hadwisa Hawisa Hawise-30584 sp: Duke Brittany, Count Rennes BRITTANY Geoffrey I-17765 (c.992;d.1008) 10. Robert Archbishop of Rouen DE CONTEVILLE-145107 10. ?? DE CONTEVILLE Duke5 Normandy-147087 (c.1210) sp: de Vermandois CAPET Leutgarde-167548 (b.920;d.978)
9. DE CONTEVILLE Hildegarde-167549 sp: MONTMORENCY Bouchard I-167550
10. MONTMORENCY Bouchard II The Bearded-167555 sp: NOTKNOWN Miss-167556
8. Princess Normandy DE CONTEVILLE Adele Gerloc-157278 (b.917;d.962) sp: Count Poitiers, Duke1 Aquitaine, Duke II Aquitaine, Towhead POITIERS W I I-132184 (b.915;d.963)
9. Princess of Aquitaine, Poitiers-De Conteville POITIERS Adelaide de Poitou-97167 (b.952;d.1004) sp: King France Hugh CAPET-104647 (b.938;m.968;d.996)
10. King France, The Pious CAPET Robert II-107517 (b.970;d.1031) sp: Queen France, of Provence ST GILLES Constance-78782 (b.974;m.1003;d.1032) sp: Bertha (Welf) GUELF-117177 (c.950;m.996) sp: Of Italy, Of Ivrea, repudiated BURGUNDY-IVREA Rosele Suzanna R-83359 (b.945;d.1003) 10. Princess France CAPET Adwige Avoise-135454 (b.972;d.1013) sp: Count Hainault HAINAULT Rainer Reginar Reginar IV-126603 (b.950;d.1049) sp: Hugues III Count Dasbourg DASBOURG-14393 10. Alice Princess CAPET of France-75877 10. Gisele Princess CAPET of France-74087 (b.970;d.1031) 10. CAPET Elvira-51127 (b.991) sp: King Leon, The Noble LEON Alfonso Alfonso V-89422 (b.989;d.1027)
8. DE CONTEVILLE Robert-110599 (b.895)
7. Hallad ROGNVALDSSON-122412 (b.856) 7. Einar ROGNVALDSSON-123682 (b.858) 7. Iceland settler Hrollager ROGNVALDSSON-74724 (b.860) 7. Thordis ROGNVALDSSON-129797 (b.862) 7. Ivar ROGNVALDSSON-128830 (b.864) 7. THORER ROGNVALDSSON-124897 (b.868) sp: NORWAY Alof Aarbord Yngling-119251
8. ROGNVALDSSON Bergljot Thoresdatter-119465 sp: Jarl HAKONSSON Sigurd-92486
6. Sigurd EYSTEINSSON-87456 (b.832) 6. Malahule EYSTEINSSON-123481 (b.834)
2. VIKING Gudrod HALFDANSSON-147231 (b.738) sp: Gudrod Halfdansson MRS.-130632 (b.743)
3. Olaf GUDRODSSON-150821 (b.770) sp: Olaf Gudrodsson MRS.-139266 (b.775)
4. OLAFSSON Rognvald-90964 (b.790;d.790) sp: Miss VIKING -92593 (b.795)
5. ROGNVALSSON Aseda-31530 (b.812) sp: Jarl More DE CONTEVILLE Rognvald Eystein Glumara Ivarsson-56460 (b.800) 6. The Wise, Jarl of More DE CONTEVILLE Rognvald I Eysteinsson-31529
(b.830;d.890)
6. Sigurd EYSTEINSSON-87456 (b.832) 6. Malahule EYSTEINSSON-123481 (b.834)


And now a surprise arises with Viking descendancies, since some Viking blood joined with the most notable bloodlines producing Europe's aristocracy. If we look for an early date for the "Vikings of Kiev", we will meet with Ryrik of Kiev (830-879), whose descendancies were something as follows... Note the appearance of the name De Hauteville!

Descendants of Duke Novgorod, Ryurik/Rurik of Kiev
1. Duke Novgorod, (father problem?) Ryurik Rurik of Kiev -89342 (b.830;d.879) sp: Grand Duchess Novgorod, Efenda Edvina of Novgordo (b.850;m.876)
2. Grand Duke Igor of Kiev -145049 (b.877;d.945) sp: Grand Duchess Kiev, Olga, Saint Olga of Russia -66117 (b.881;m.903;d.969)
3. Grand Kieven, Grand Duke Kiev, Svyatoslav I of Kiev -103239 (b.931;d.972) sp: Malusha Lubech (Luchech) -69214 (b.944)
4. Grand Duke Kiev, The Great, Vladimir I of Kiev -4285 (b.960;d.1015) sp: Princess Polotsk (a Greek), Rogneda Rogneida Polotsk -70642 (b.956;d.1015)
5. Grand Duke, Yaroslav I of Kiev, Mudri The Wise-115908 (b.980;d.1054) sp: Princess Sweden, Obotrites, Olafsdatter, Ingrid Ingergerda Olafsdottir of Sweden -98048 (b.1000;d.1050)
6. Queen of France, Anna Agnesa Yaroslavna of Kiev -151745 (b.1036;d.1076) sp: King of France, Henry I Capet -141143 (b.1031;m.1050;d.1060)
7. King of France, The Fair, Philip Philippe Fair Capet -88181 (b.1052;d.1108) sp: Miss Notknown (Lover)
8. Crusader, (Illegit, widow) Cecilia Capet of France-149891 sp: Count Tripoli, Pontius Pons Pontus St Gilles -123239 (b.1077;d.1137)
9. Count Tripoli, Crusader, Raymond I St Gilles -133139 (d.1150) sp: Le Bourg, Hodernia de Bourg -80017 (d.1150)
10. Melesinde St Gilles -107404 10. Count Tripoli, Raymond III St Gilles -77264 (d.1187) sp: Lady Tiberias, Princess of Galillee, Eschiva de Bures (no issue) -91568 (c.1158;m.1174) sp: Of Toron, of Armenia, BAGATRID-HETHOUMIA Alice-144136 (d.1234)
9. Agnes St Gilles -101617 sp: Mazoir of Marqab, Reynald II Notknown -93006 sp: Tancred De Hauteville of Antioch-125704 (b.1076;d.1112) sp: Countess Holland, Countess Anjou, wife2, Bertrada of Hainault -127429 (b.1054;m.1095;d.1093)
8. King of France, The Fat, Louis VI Capet -83410 (b.1077;d.1137) sp: de Rochefort, Lucienne Rochefort -98913 (b.1086;m.1104;d.1137)
9. Isabelle Capet - 8600 (b.1105;d.1175) sp: Sn de Chaumont, William Vermandois -8602 sp: Queen of France, Alix Adela Adelaide Savoy -30377 (b.1092;m.1115;d.1154) 9. King of France, Crusader, Louis VII Capet-156971 (b.1119;d.1180) sp: Constance Of Castile Alfonsez Capet, wife2-56566 (b.1140;m.1154;d.1160)
10. Margaret Marguerite Capet (no issue) -31533 (d.1183) sp: King of England, Henry III Anjou-Plantagenet -16238 (c.1154;d.1183) sp: King of Hungary, Bela III Arpad -3840 (b.1148;d.1196) 10. Princess of France Alice I Capet-125703 (b.1154) 10. Adelaide Capet -167355 (b.1154) sp: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Princess, Eleanor De Conteville -153584 (b.1122;m.1137;d.1204) 10. Countess, Mary Marie Capet (Repudiated) -157960 (b.1145;d.1198) sp: Crusader, Count Champagne, Henry I Capet -96419 (b.1127;m.1164;d.1191) 10. Margaret Capet -167353 10. Adelicia Alice Capet -167354 sp: Countess Champagne, Adela Alix Capet -84928 (b.1140;m.1160;d.1206)
10. King of France, Philippe Augustus Philip II Capet -61408 (b.1165;d.1223) sp: Countess Artois of Flanders FLANDERS-HAINAULT Isabella wife1-68126 (b.1170;d.1190) sp: Meran, Andechs, Agnes Meranie (Lover)-17682 (b.1180;m.1196;d.1201) sp: Princess of Denmark, wife3, Ingeborg Valdemarsdottir of Denmark -38908 (b.1175;d.1226)
10. Alix Princess France (two husbands) Capet (data problem) -137703 (b.1170;d.1221) sp: William III Guillaume (Ponthieu) Clermont -89281 (b.1170;d.1221) 10. Agnes-Anna Capet, wife2-128074 (c.1180) sp: Alexius II Comnena of Byzantium-77642 (b.1168;m.1180;d.1183) sp: (Greek) Theodore Branas -71637 10. Of France, Alice Alice II Alix Capet -58402 (b.1151;d.1195) sp: Count Blois, Theobald V Capet -82487
9. Co-regent of France, Philippe Capet -124493 (b.1115;d.1131) sp: Miss Notknown -146767 9. Emperor Constantinople, Peter II Capet-88135 (b.1125;d.1182) sp: Of Hungary, Violante Yolande Jolan Arpad -1218 (b.1219;d.1251) sp: de Joinville, Dame de Courtenay, Isabelle Courtenay E-117632 (b.1127;m.1168;d.1205)
10. Emperor Constantinople, Count Courtenay, Peter II Pierre II Capet -71327 (b.1155;d.1183) sp: FCNWON FLANDERS-HAINAULT Yolande-5739 (b.1155;m.1193;d.1219) sp: Countess Nevers, wife1, Agnes of Nevers -53272 (d.1192) 10. Tochter Capet -82003 10. Emperor Constantinople, King of Rumania, Robert Capet, -127726 (c.1221;d.1228) sp: Marie I, Maria I Ibelin, wife1 -161914 10. Robert Capet, De Courtenay, Flanders-157955 (d.1242) sp: Mary de Reviers -17770 (d.1244) 10. Viscountess Thiern, Clementia Clemence Capet-76113 10. Philippe De Courtenay, Philip Capet -86487 10. John (De Courtenay) Capet -28498 10. Constance (De Courtenay) Capet -77159 10. Robert Capet -51468 10. William I Capet-126818 10. Miss Capet -126821 sp: de la Marche, Eudes of Marche -93189 10. Countess, Alix Alice Capet, De Courtenay-83921 (b.1160;d.1218) sp: Count Joigny, Guillaume I Joigny -42056 sp: Count Angouleme, Count Ademar, de Valance POITIERS-ST GILLES Aymar III A-73423 sp: Count Angouleme TAILLEFER-ANGOULESME Aymer-168066 (b.1160;d.1218) sp: William V Poitiers, Taillefer-169162 (b.1180;d.1218) 10. Dame de Placy-sur-Armancon, Eustache Capet -156936 (d.1235) sp: Sn de Ramerupt, William Brienne -84334 (d.1200) sp: Prince Achaia, Crusader, William I Champlitte -117585 (c.1205;d.1208) sp: de Champagne, Count Sancerre, William 1 of Champagne -73559 10. Constance Capet -123647 10. Isabelle Capet -127636
9. Of Toulouse, Princess of France, Constance Capet -106282 (b.1124;d.1151) sp: Raymond V ST GILLES Count Toulouse-155582 (b.1134;m.1154;d.1194)
10. Raymond VI spouse problem ST GILLES Count Toulouse-103975 (b.1194;d.1222) sp: Eleanor Borrel, Of Provence-104914 (b.1182;d.1226) sp: Of England ANJOU-PLANTAGENET Joanna-140013 (b.1165;d.1199) 10. (spouse problem), Taillefer de Toulouse ST GILLES Alberich-161086 (b.1160;d.1183) sp: Cntss Viennois, Beatrice Capet -47786 (c.1162;d.1228) sp: de Albon, Dauphine, Beatrix Capet -167371 (b.1161;d.1228) 10. Comte, Alphonse-Jordan I St Gilles -167351 10. Baldwin Baudoin St Gilles -167356 (b.1165;d.1212) 10. Adelheid St Gilles -167357 sp: Huntington, Count Boulogne, Eustace IV Capet -72243 (b.1126;d.1153)
9. Bishop Paris, Philip II Capet -154029 (c.133;d.1161) 9. Count Dreux, Le Grand, Robert I Capet -59677 (c.1137;d.1184) sp: de Baudemont, Agnes Baudemont -30398 (d.1210)
10. de Dreux, Alix Capet -144742 (b.1156;d.1217) sp: Crusader, Sn Coucy, Raoul I Coucy -30560 (b.1134;m.1155;d.1191) 10. Crusader, Count Dreux, Robert II Capet -141289 (b.1154;d.1218) sp: Wife2, Yolande Coucy -36737 (m.1184;d.1222) sp: Miss Notknown (problem) -144348 sp: von Burgund, Montpensier, Mathilde Bourgogne -129159 10. Bishop Orleans Henry Capet -81155 10. Bishop of Beauvais Philip Capet - 96061 10. Alice Capet -72033 10. de Dreux, Isabelle Capet -69688 sp: Sn de Broyes, Hughes III Broyes -117659 (c.1145) 10. Died Young, Simon Capet -167358 (b.1142;d.1144) 10. Pierre Capet-167360 10. William Capet -167361 10. Jean Capet -167362 10. Mamilie Capet -167363 10. Marguerite Capet -167364 sp: Wife1, Braine, Dame de Baudement, Agnes Garlande -148178 sp: d'Evreux, wife3, Harvise Fitzwalter Salisbury -155176 (b.1127) 10. Dreux, Adelheid Capet -167359
9. Bishop Rouen Rheims, Archbishop, Henry Capet -67227 (c.1122;d.1175) 9. Hugues Capet -167350
8. Constance Capet -156456 sp: Count Champagne, Hugh I Capet, Count Troyes -33348 (c.1093;d.1125) sp: Prince Antioch DE HAUTEVILLE Bohemond I Crusader Guiscard-122387 (b.1056;m.1106;d.1111)
9. Duke Aquitaine DE HAUTEVILLE Bohemond Bohemond II-5437 (b.1118;d.1130) sp: Le Bourg, Alice de Bourg -33879 (b.1100)
10. Of Antioch DE HAUTEVILLE Constance Guiscard-65446 (b.1127;d.1163) sp: Duke Aquitaine, Prince Antioch POITIERS Raymond of Antioch-145399 (c.1100;d.1149) sp: Crusader, Prince Antioch CHATILLON Reynald Renaud de Chatillon-71572 (b.1124;d.1187)
10. Alice II DE HAUTEVILLE-66964
9. Of Antioch, John DE HAUTEVILLE-154699 sp: Bertrade Montfort -17846 (b.1059;m.1092;d.1116)
8. Philippe Capet -129944 8. Floris Capet -125585 8. Cecile Capet -147995 8. Eustachia Capet -170710
7. Duke Burgundy, Prince France, Robert Capet -63239 (c.1008;d.1060) 7. Adelaide Capet -6618 sp: Count Flanders, Hainault, Regent France, The Pious FLANDERS Baldwin V-82390 (b.1012;d.1067) 7. Count Vermandois CAPET Hugh The Great Of Vermandois-90398 (b.1006;d.1064) sp: Countess Vermandois, Valois CAROLINGIAN Adelaide-108491 (b.1050;m.1064;d.1120)
8. de Vermandois, Countess Meulan, Isabel Elizabeth Capet -126989 (b.1081;d.1131) sp: Earl2 Surrey, William De Warrene, Earl De Warrene - 27751 (b.1081;d.1138)
9. Crusader, Earl3 Surrey, William Warrene -129006 (b.1119;d.1147) sp: Wife2 TALVAS-CLERMONT Ela Ela II Ala Adela-97223 (d.1174)
10. Isabel De Warrene-88219 (d.1203) sp: (parent problem), Earl Surrey, Count Boulogne WARRENE William de-38339 (b.1132;d.1156) sp: Earl5 Surrey, Illegit, Hamelin ANJOU-PLANTAGENET -33316 (b.1130;m.1164;d.1202)
9. Adelina WARRENE Ada De Warrene-111148 (b.1120;d.1178) sp: King Scotland, Earl Huntingdon, Henry Stuart (Canmore)-26391 (b.1114;d.1152)
10. Princess of Scotland, Ada Stuart -100082 (b.1146;d.1204) sp: Earl Ross Count Holland HAINAULT Florence III-110382 (b.1141;m.1162;d.1190) 10. Malcolm IV "The Maiden" of Scotland STUART King-58754 (b.1141;d.1165) sp: Ermengarde De Beaumont Emmengarde BEAUMONT-26414 (d.1233) 10. William "The Lion" of Scotland STUART King-59144 (b.1143;d.1214) sp: Ermengarde De Beaumont Emmengarde BEAUMONT-26414 (m.1186;d.1233) sp: Miss Notnknown, Lover-160237 10. David Earl3 Huntingdon (Canmore) STUART King-26393 (c.1170;d.1219) sp: Maud Matilda De Kevelioc -58736 10. Princess of Scotland, of Huntingdon, Margaret Stuart -160295 (d.1171) sp: Earl Richmond, Count Brittany, Conan IV Britanny -91371 (m.1160;d.1178) sp: Earl Hereford, Humphrey IV Bohun -115252 (d.1220)
9. Gundred De Warrene -161563 sp: Earl2 Warwick, Roger De Beaumont, De Newburgh-111639 (b.1102;d.1153)
10. Earl Warwick William Beaumont, De Newburgh-138780 (d.1184) 10. Earl4 Warwick, Waleran Beaumont, De Newburgh-124252 (d.1204) sp: Wife1, Alice Harcourt -64288 sp: Margaret De Bohun, wife2-96104 sp: William De Lancaster -141285 (b.1115;d.1170)
9. Ralph Warrene -167209 (b.1115) 9. Reginald Warrene -167210 (b.1113) sp: WIRMGAY Alice-167211 sp: MPELDBDM BEAUMONT Robert II de Bellomont-130017 (b.1040;m.1118;d.1118)
9. WDBEWBCM BEAUMONT Galeran IV-132843 (b.1104;d.1166) sp: Princess of England, Maud-151110 (m.1141)
10. Count Meulan, Robert De Beaumont-132289 (d.1207) sp: Miss Notknown -161826 10. Isabel Beaumont -101408 sp: Agnes Montfort -34920 (b.1122;d.1187) 10. Viscount, Roger de Beaumont -66461 (b.1150) sp: Isabel Elizabeth Aubergenville -66468 (m.1173) 10. de Meulan, Isabelle Beaumont -129155 (d.1220) sp: Sire de Mayenne, Geoffrey Juhael III Mayenne -30671 (d.1169) sp: Sire de Craon, Maurice III Craon-12669 (d.1196) 10. Marie Beaumont -120930 10. de Meulan, Amicie Beaumont -12373 10. Crusader, Count Meulan, Poitiers. (The last) Robert Beaumont -130364 (b.1140;d.1207) sp: Maud Fitzroy of Cornwall, de Dunstanville PLANTAGENET Maud-124682 (b.1143) 10. Meullent, Amalrich I Beaumont -166999 10. Valeran Beaumont -167001 10. Rudolf Beaumont -167003 10. Etienne Beaumont -167060
9. Aubrey Aubree Beaumont -24501 9. Earl Bedford, Hugh Beaumont -78977 9. (spouse problems), Isabel Elizabeth De Beaumont-150772 (c.1172;d.1172) sp: Gilbert Clare, Unm -78008 (d.1152) sp: Earl1 Pembroke, Strongbow, Gilbert Clare-Fitzrichard -17776 (b.1100;d.1147)
10. Earl2 Pembroke CLARE-FITZRICHARD Richard Strongbow-160353 (b.1130;d.1176) sp: MACMURROUGH Eva (Oife) Eve Aolfe-99110 (m.1171) 10. Agnes CLARE-FITZRICHARD -165833 (b.1112) 10. Basilia CLARE-FITZRICHARD -165834 10. Baldwin CLARE-FITZRICHARD -68136 (b.1114) sp: de Clare, Strongbow FITZRICHARD Gilbert De Conteville Clare-136682 (d.1152) 10. Earl Pembroke, de Clare FITZRICHARD Richard Strongbow-127382 (c.1149;d.1176) sp: MONTMORENCY Hervey-70807
9. Earl2 Leicester, Viceroy England, Robert de Beaumont -161286 (b.1104;d.1168) sp: Of Britanny, De Gael Gauder Countess DE WAYER Amicia Amice-148541 (b.1108)
10. Sir, Earl3 Leicester, Robert Beaumont -108166 (b.1121;d.1190) sp: GRENTMESNIL Pernell Petronilla-70137 (b.1134;d.1212) 10. Countess Huntingdon, Isabel Elizabeth De Beaumont-39344 (b.1121;d.1188) sp: De Senlis Simon Earl3 Huntingdon DE ST LIZ Earl Huntingdon-18557 (c.1136;d.1153) sp: Gervase Paynel -168299
9. Amicade Beaumont -113287 9. Adeline Beaumont -91768
8. Vermandois, Maud Matilda Capet -82491 (b.1071;d.1080) sp: BEAUGENCY Raoul I Rene-75433 (b.1082;m.1111;d.1130)
9. Agnes BEAUGENCY-126595 (b.1112) sp: Crusader, Sire de Coucy, Enguerrand II Coucy -81873 (b.1110;m.1132;d.1148)
10. Crusader, Sn Coucy, Raoul I Coucy -30560 (b.1134;d.1191) sp: Flanders, wife1, Hennegan FLANDERS-HAINAULT Agnes-72440 (b.1140;d.1172) sp: de Dreux, Alix Capet-144742 (b.1156;m.1155;d.1217) 10. Enguerrand Coucy -166627
9. Alix Beaugency -166263 (c.1075) sp: Gauthier IV Walter Mayenne -166262
10. Countess Turrenne, Mathilde Mayenne -8310 sp: Duke Bourgogne, The Pacific MONTEPELLIER Eudes Hughes II Borel-38916
9. Hilegarde Beaugency -166265
8. Ralph Raoul I Ralph I Capet, Count Vermandois-105209 (b.1073;d.1152) sp: de Blois, Eleonore Capet -134274 (b.1104;d.1141)
9. Count Vermandois, Ralph II Capet -140014 9. (Vermandois), Miss Capet -89307 sp: Count Flanders, Philip of Flanders -26945 9. Hugh de Vermandois Capet -140975
8. Constance Capet, Of Verm-65654 8. Simon Capet, Of Verm-98971 8. Beatrix Capet, Of Verm-83496 8. Elizabeth Capet, Of Verm-80873 8. Mahaut Capet, Of Verm-126289 8. William Capet, Of Verm-90472 8. Henry Capet, Lord Chaumont-79474 8. Lord Chaumont, Henry Capet -139087 8. Burgundy, Agnes Capet -54647 sp: Marchese de Savona, Bonifacio, Boniface, Boniface I Savona -62229 (d.1130)
9. Sibel Savona -34825 sp: Lord Montpellier MONTPELLIER William VI-19693 (b.1100;d.1162)
10. Duke Montpellier MONTPELLIER William VII-102244 (b.1130;d.1192) sp: Countess Turrenne MONTPELLIER Mahaut Mathilde-154173 (b.1120)
7. Emma Capet -150416 7. Countess Vermandois, Adelaide Capet -133721 (b.1050;d.1120) sp: Of Vermandois, Hugh Capet -55855 (b.1050;d.1102)
8. Count Vermandois, Raoul Capet -138952 sp: Count Crepy, Count Valois, Raoul Valois -133041
6. Grand Kiev, GD of Chernigov, Ysevold Ysevold I of Kiev -75329 (b.1030;d.1093) sp: Princess Byzantine, Maria-84325 (b.1032;d.1067)
7. Grand Duke Kiev, Vladmir II, Monomakh, Kiev -112158 (b.1053;d.1125) sp: Gytha Godwin -16292 (b.1053;d.1125)
8. Anna Yanka Ysevolodovna of Kiev -75725 8. Grand Duke Kiev, Mstislav I of Kiev -129792 (b.1076;d.1132) 8. Yarapolk II of Kiev -129048 (d.1139) 8. Prince Kiev, Yyacheslav of Kiev -128361 (d.1154) 8. Maria of Kiev -97551 (d.1146)
8. Prince Rostov, Isjaslav of Kiev -79528 (d.1096) 8. Georgy Dolgoruky of Kiev -144900 8. Grand Duke Kiev, Czar Russia, Mstislav-Harold I of Kiev -135693 sp: Gytha (parents unknown) -136958
9. Queen Hungary, Euphrosyne of Kiev -138114 (b.1130;d.1186) sp: King Hungary, Geza II Arpad -146979 (b.1130;d.1161)
10. King Hungary, Bela III of Arpad -3840 (b.1148;d.1196) sp: Margaret Marguerite Capet (no issue) -31533 (d.1183) sp: De Chatillon, of Antioch. CHATILLON Agnes Anna-5040 (b.1154;d.1184) sp: Wife1, Maria Comnena -135412 10. King Hungary, Stephen III Arpad -155986 (c.1161;d.1172) sp: Wife1, repudiated, Halicz Notknown Von Halicz -161014 sp: Agnes of Austria -138209 (b.1154;d.1182) 10. Princess Hungary, Margit Arpad -133834
9. Izyaslav of Kiev -144731 (d.1154)
7. Prince Novgorod, Grand Duke Kiev, Swjatapolk II of Kiev -90870 (b.1050;d.1113) sp: Princess of Kumans, Elena Tugorovna Kuman - 72106
8. Wife1, Sbislava of Kiev -99290 sp: Boleslav III, King Poland MIESZKO-PIAST Boleslaus Boleslaus III-154894 (b.1085;d.1138)
9. King, exiled MIESZKO-PIAST Wladislaw II-168809 sp: Princess Byzantine Empire, Barbara of Byzantium -166576
7. Anna Yanka Vsevolodovna of Kiev -169963 (b.1113)
6. Princess Hungary, Anastasia Agmunda Yaroslavna of Kiev -165521 (b.1023;d.1074) sp: Of Hungary, Andrew Andras I Arpad -165522 (b.1001;m.1037;d.1060) 6. Grand Prince Kiev, Izyaslav I Dmitrij Yaroslav of Kiev -165541 (b.1025;d.1078) sp: Princess PIAST-POLAND Gertruda-165542 (b.1020;m.1043;d.1107) 6. Prince Novgorod, Wladimir Yarolsavovitch of Kiev -166592 (b.1020;d.1051) sp: von Stade, Oda Stade -166599 (m.1043)
7. Prince de Tmutarakan, Rostislav Kiev -166602 (b.1045;d.1067)
6. Princess of Norway, Elisabeth Yaroslavovna Kiev -166593 (b.1022;d.1070) sp: King of Norway, Harald Hardrada, Viking of Norway -140857 (b.1010;d.1066)
7. King of Norway, Magnus II, Barefoot, of Norway-169972 (b.1069) 7. King of Norway, Olaf III, The Quiet, of Norway -169973
6. Prince Kiev, Isiaslav Yaroslavovitch Izvasiav of Kiev -166603 (b.1024;d.1078) sp: Princess de Monomachus de Pologne PIAST-MIESZKO Gertrude Micslasovna DM-15588 (b.1020;d.1107)
7. Grand Prince of Kiev, Turovsky, Sviatopolk II Mikhail Isiaslavovitch of Kiev -166607
6. Prince Polotsky of Kiev, Isiaslav Vladimirovitch of Kiev -170176 (b.978;d.1011) sp: Miss Notknown
7. Prince Polotsky, Briatchislav Isiaslavovitch of Kiev -170178
6. Grand Prince Kiev, Sviatoslavv I-II Nicolai of Kiev -170180 (b.1024;d.1076) sp: Countess DITHMARSCHEN Killikiya-166038 (b.1031;m.1046)
7. Grand Prince de Tchernigovl, Oleg Mikhail of Kiev -166035 sp: MESSALONISSA Theotano-166036
8. Grand Prince Kiev, Vsevolod II of Kiev -170186 sp: MSTISLAVNA Maria de kiev-170194
9. Grand Prince Kiev, Sviatoslav III Kiev -170190 sp: Maria Vasilkovna Polotsk -170187
10. Sviatoslav of Kiev -170199 (d.1194) sp: Maria Vasilkovna Polotsk-170187 10. Grand Prince Kiev, Vsevolod IV Tchermny of Kiev -170193 sp: Maria Casimirovna of Poland -170197 (b.1164;m.1179)
6. Prince, Svyatopolk Yaroslavich of Kiev -170449 (b.1027;d.1076) sp: Countess DITHMARSCHEN Killikiya-166038 (b.1031)
5. Prince Okaianyi, Sviatopolk Vlaadimirovitch of Kiev -166587 (b.977;d.1019) sp: Princess of Poland, Miss Piast-Poland -166588
6. Prince Polotsky, Briatchislav Isiaslavovitch of Kiev -166591
5. Prince Kasny de Tmutorokan, Mstislav Wladimiovitch of Kiev -166594 5. Roi de Pologne, Kazimir of Kiev -166595 sp: PIAST-POLAND Marie Dobrogneva de Pologne-166596 (b.989) 5. Premislava of Kiev -169981 (b.980) sp: Prince, Laszlo Szar -170451 5. Vsevelod of Kiev -169982 (b.983;d.1015) sp: Estrid Svensdottir of Denmark -170452 5. Vladimirovna of Kiev -169983 5. Maria Dobrogevna of Kiev -170179 (b.989) sp: Princess Byzantine, Anna Porphyrogenitus - 103612 (b.963;d.1011) 5. Princess Kiev, Dobronegra of Kiev -170104 (b.1011;d.1087) sp: Odnowiciel Casimir the Restorer PIAST-MIESZKO Casimir Kazimierz I Karol-156738 (b.1015;d.1058)
6. Ladislas Herman PIAST-MIESZKO Wladislaw Herman I-77856 (b.1043;d.1102) sp: Of Bohemia, Judith Judyta Premsyl -88582 (b.1056;d.1086)
7. Boleslav III, King Poland MIESZKO-PIAST Boleslaus Boleslaus III-154894 (b.1085;d.1138) sp: von Berg, Salome Salomea Berg -120034
8. The Elder, King of Poland MIESZKO-PIAST Miecislaw Miezszko III-54589 (b.1126;d.1202) sp: Of Hungary, Elizabeth Arpad - 64204 (b.1128;d.1153)
9. MIESZKO-PIAST Ludmilla-81926 (d.1223) sp: Duke Upper Lorraine, Friedrich I Frederick Lorraine -77611 (m.1160;d.1204)
10. Duke Lorraine, Ferry II Frederick II Lorraine -143716 (c.1206;d.1231) sp: de Bar-le-Duc, Agnes Thomasette of Bar - 86648 (m.1188;d.1226)
9. Conrad of Mazovia MIESZKO-PIAST Konrad I-123231 (c.1241;d.1243) 9. MIESZKO-PIAST Elzbieta-107803 (b.1152;d.1209) sp: Duke Bohemia PREMSYL-BOHEMIA Sobieslaw II-159775 (d.1180) sp: Of Neiderlausitiz, Konrad Landsberg -138326 (d.1210)
10. of Niederlausitiz, Mathilde Landsberg -126328 sp: Margrave Brandenburg, Albrecht II Brandenburg -53681 sp: Albrecht II Brandenburg -7708 (b.1174;d.1220)
9. MIESZKO-PIAST Judyta-78685 sp: Duke Saxony, von Anhalt, Bernard III Anhalt -78686 (d.1212)
10. Saxony, Heinrich I Anhalt -156498 (b.1170;d.1250) sp: Of Thuringia, Irmgard Raspe -158946 (d.1244) 10. Duke Saxony, Albrecht Anhalt -139583 (d.1260) sp: Wife1, Agnes of Austria -160505 (b.1206;d.1226) sp: Wife2, RASPE-THURINGIA Agnes-161131 sp: Wife3, BRUNSWICK-LUENEBERG Helene-74737 (b.1223;d.1273)
9. Of Poland, MIESZKO-PIAST Elisabeth-168749 (c.1150) sp: Duke Presmyl, Sobeslaw II Premsyl -168751 (c.1173;d.1209) 9. MIESZKO-PIAST Odo-168759 (d.1194) sp: Wyszeskawa of Galicia -168760 (d.1194) sp: Eudoxia of Kiev -122028 (d.1155) 9. MIESZKO-PIAST Odon-128205 sp: HALICZ-HAUCZ Wjatcheslawa-124996
10. Of ielkopoiska MIESZKO-PIAST Wladyslaw Odonic-89060 sp: Of Pomerania, Jadwiga Hedwig of Pomerania -71609 (d.1249)
8. MIESZKO-PIAST Judyta-137410 (c.1171;d.1175) sp: Margrave Brandenburg, Otto I Brandenburg -161362 (c.1170;d.1184) 8. MIESZKO-PIAST Wladislaw II-47265 sp: Of Austria, Agnes - Austria-Habsburg -45728
9. Princess Poland MIESZKO-PIAST Richeza-88291 sp: Raymond Berengar Berengar III BOREL Count Provence-88376 (c.1162;d.1166)
8. MIESZKO-PIAST Ryksa-115847 (b.1116;d.1155) sp: Prince Novgorod KIEV-NOVGOROD Valdimir-86941
9. Of Polotsk KIEV-NOVGOROD Sophie-22505 sp: King Sweden, Sverker I, The Elder, Kolsson of Sweden -166606 (b.1100;d.1156) 9. Boleslaw Sverkersson of Sweden -170408 9. Sik Sune Sverkersson of Sweden -170409 9. Kol Sverkersoon of Sweden -170410 sp: Magnus Nielsson of Denmark -170424 (b.1106) 9. King of Denmark, Knud III Magnusson of Denmark -154893
8. Duke Krakow, King of Poland, The Just MIESZKO-PIAST Casimir Casimir II-148701 (c.1177;d.1194) sp: Of Novgorod, Helena of Kiev -117545 (d.1194)
9. The White MIESZKO-PIAST Leszek Bialy-100827 (c.1202;d.1227) sp: Of Luck, Gryzmistawa Luck -72705
10. The Chaste MIESZKO-PIAST Boleslaw V-37413 (c.1243;d.1279) sp: Kinga Arpad -98442 (b.1224;d.1292) 10. MIESZKO-PIAST Salomea-69663 sp: King of Hungary, Koloman Arpad -84925 (b.1095;d.1116)
8. MIESZKO-PIAST Pribislawa-168783 sp: Ratibor I of Pomerania (d.1136) sp: Wife1, Sbislava of Kiev 8. King, exiled MIESZKO-PIAST Wladislaw II-168809 sp: Of Franconia, Of France, Adelheid-166605
7. PIAST-MIESZKO Miss, daughter of Wladislaw I-52657 sp: Prince Vladimir-Volhynsk VLADIMIR-VOLHYNSK Jaroslav I-116019
7. PIAST-MIESZKO Adeljda-8605 sp: Margrave Nordgau, Diepold III Nordgau sp: Of Franconia, Judith-Maria Austria
6. The Bold, King of Poland, Boleslaw II Mieszko -94822 (b.1042;d.1079) sp: Miss Poland 6. Swietostawa Mieszko -76601 sp: King of Bohemia, Vratislav (b.1007;d.1055)
4. Terepolok of Kiev sp: Princess Polotsk (a Greek), Rogneda Rogneida Polotsk (b.956;d.1015) sp: Predislava of Bulgaria


Ends the series of files on Vikings so far... (-Ed)




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