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Richard I of Normandy and his sons by Gunnor
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Peter Stewart
Apr 4, 2016, 9:52:11 PM4/4/16
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The Henry Project page for Richard I (http://sbaldw.home.mindspring.com/hproject/prov/richa000.htm) is in need of some amendments:
'Date of Birth: uncertain, but still a boy at the death of his father in 942.' Richard was evidently born in 931/32 - according to Orderic he was 10 years old when he succeeded his father, who was murdered in December 942 ('Willelmus dux occisus est, et Ricardus filius eius qui tunc decem annorum erat dux Normannorum factus est', Chibnall edition vol ii. p. 8; and 'Willelmis Longaspata dux Normannorum ... peremptus est et Ricardus Sprotaides filius eius qui tunc decennis erat LIV annis post patrem ducatu potitus est', Chibnall ed. vol iii. p. 80).
'Place of Birth: Unknown.' Richard was born at Fécamp according to Dudo of St Quentin ('Ricardus ... Fiscanni castri moenia ruraque genitalia sacro nativitatis suæ exordio beavit oriundus', Lair edition, p. 218). His heavily pregnant mother had been sent to Fécamp in case she needed to escape across to England from the rebellion against William led by Riulf ('Cujus matrem pater dux Willelmus ... felicissimo pignore gravidam, ac adoptivo illustrate sobolis partu expertus fecundam, transvehi fecit decenti insigniter equitatu ad Fiscannicæ sedis aulam: ut si forte Riulfus, omnium belluarum crudelissimus, Northmannicæ regionis monarchiam cum suis complicibus sibi vindicaret, ut æstimabatur, ne eam raperet, ad Anglos citius transfretaretur', ibid); a messenger with news of Richard's birth was sent from Fécamp to the battlefield, and the event coincided with the day of William's defeat of the insurgency ('Revertenti igitur Willelmo de prælio, occurrit ei miles quidam ex Fiscanno, nuntians quod esset ei filius ex conjuge dilectissima natus'; 'Die namque quo inter Willelmum ducem emeritum, Riulfumque, multifarium blasphemum et perjuram, ut recensitum est, exstitit prælium, matrona venerabilis, enixa divæ memoriæ puerum ... legatus natæ sobolis gaudium denuntians affuit', ibid).
'Children: by Gunnor: Dudo iv, 125 (p. 164) indicates that there were five sons and three daughters of this union, without listing them.' Four sons are listed, including two Roberts, and the fifth was most probably another son of Richard also named Robert who died very soon after his baptism. This child's stone coffin, only about two feet long, was discovered at Fécamp on 7 October 1710. The epitaph states that he had died while still in his christening robes, probbaly on a 1 March (the date is incomplete), see Jean Cochet, 'Épigraphe de la Seine-Inférieure, depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle', *Bulletin monumental* 21 (1855) pp. 290-291, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k310402/f290.image.
The date of death given for Robert the Dane ('Robertus Danus, d. bef. 985×989.') is incorrect. This was a misstatement by Elisabeth van Houts, she should have written that he died in or after that date range. He died on 12 August probably in or soon after 989, and he was buried at Saint-Père de Chartres, described as a boy at the time, after he had attended the second translation of the relics of St Ouen (that took place ca 985/89) with his parents and siblings ('Adfuerunt huic tam felici obsequio et digno spectaculo dux ipse egregius Ricardus cum conjuge sua Albereda nomine, et filio Roberto cognomine Dano, qui defunctus sepultus est apud sanctum Petrum Carnoti, et cum aliis filiis et filiabus ex eadem uxore', Translationes sancti Dadonis vel Audoeni episcopi, *Acta Sanctorum*, August vol iv. p. 824; 'II idus. [augusti] Robertus, puer, filius comitis Richardi', obituary of Saint-Père de Chartres, p. 193, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5905q/f226.image.r). The date of the second translation of St Ouen given by Fauroux, as cited by van Houts, is 985/89, is based on the presence of Hugo, archbishop of Rouen, Roger, bishop of Lisieux, and Fromond, abbot of Saint-Taurin d'Évreux - Hugo died in November 989, and Fauroux thought that the other two were in office from 985. However, this is uncertain as neither of them occurs in the record before their attendance at the translation ceremony. Richard Allen discussed the dating of this event in his PhD thesis, *The Norman Episcopate, 989-1110* (2009), vol i. pp. 9-12, see http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1218/. However, his conclusion that it took place ca 967/85 is flawed by circular reasoning - for the 'terminus a quo' he ignored that Richard was called 'senex' at the time, and as above he would have been only in his mid-20s ca 986; for the 'terminus ad quem' he fell into circular reasoning, taking the misstatement of Van Houts derived from Fauroux as indicating that Robert the Dane had died by 985. Some French scholars have recently started ascribing it definitely to 989, again without solid evidence - it could well have been in 988, or possibly a bit earlier, but in any case apparently towards the end of Richard I's life when he was considered old (he died in 996). The feast day of St Ouen is 24 August, and if the translation happened on this date then Robert the Dane evidently survived the occasion at least until the following 12 August. As he was still a boy when buried in Chartres, he was probably aged 14 or less when he died and therefore perhaps born ca 975.
Peter Stewart
'Date of Birth: uncertain, but still a boy at the death of his father in 942.' Richard was evidently born in 931/32 - according to Orderic he was 10 years old when he succeeded his father, who was murdered in December 942 ('Willelmus dux occisus est, et Ricardus filius eius qui tunc decem annorum erat dux Normannorum factus est', Chibnall edition vol ii. p. 8; and 'Willelmis Longaspata dux Normannorum ... peremptus est et Ricardus Sprotaides filius eius qui tunc decennis erat LIV annis post patrem ducatu potitus est', Chibnall ed. vol iii. p. 80).
'Place of Birth: Unknown.' Richard was born at Fécamp according to Dudo of St Quentin ('Ricardus ... Fiscanni castri moenia ruraque genitalia sacro nativitatis suæ exordio beavit oriundus', Lair edition, p. 218). His heavily pregnant mother had been sent to Fécamp in case she needed to escape across to England from the rebellion against William led by Riulf ('Cujus matrem pater dux Willelmus ... felicissimo pignore gravidam, ac adoptivo illustrate sobolis partu expertus fecundam, transvehi fecit decenti insigniter equitatu ad Fiscannicæ sedis aulam: ut si forte Riulfus, omnium belluarum crudelissimus, Northmannicæ regionis monarchiam cum suis complicibus sibi vindicaret, ut æstimabatur, ne eam raperet, ad Anglos citius transfretaretur', ibid); a messenger with news of Richard's birth was sent from Fécamp to the battlefield, and the event coincided with the day of William's defeat of the insurgency ('Revertenti igitur Willelmo de prælio, occurrit ei miles quidam ex Fiscanno, nuntians quod esset ei filius ex conjuge dilectissima natus'; 'Die namque quo inter Willelmum ducem emeritum, Riulfumque, multifarium blasphemum et perjuram, ut recensitum est, exstitit prælium, matrona venerabilis, enixa divæ memoriæ puerum ... legatus natæ sobolis gaudium denuntians affuit', ibid).
'Children: by Gunnor: Dudo iv, 125 (p. 164) indicates that there were five sons and three daughters of this union, without listing them.' Four sons are listed, including two Roberts, and the fifth was most probably another son of Richard also named Robert who died very soon after his baptism. This child's stone coffin, only about two feet long, was discovered at Fécamp on 7 October 1710. The epitaph states that he had died while still in his christening robes, probbaly on a 1 March (the date is incomplete), see Jean Cochet, 'Épigraphe de la Seine-Inférieure, depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle', *Bulletin monumental* 21 (1855) pp. 290-291, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k310402/f290.image.
The date of death given for Robert the Dane ('Robertus Danus, d. bef. 985×989.') is incorrect. This was a misstatement by Elisabeth van Houts, she should have written that he died in or after that date range. He died on 12 August probably in or soon after 989, and he was buried at Saint-Père de Chartres, described as a boy at the time, after he had attended the second translation of the relics of St Ouen (that took place ca 985/89) with his parents and siblings ('Adfuerunt huic tam felici obsequio et digno spectaculo dux ipse egregius Ricardus cum conjuge sua Albereda nomine, et filio Roberto cognomine Dano, qui defunctus sepultus est apud sanctum Petrum Carnoti, et cum aliis filiis et filiabus ex eadem uxore', Translationes sancti Dadonis vel Audoeni episcopi, *Acta Sanctorum*, August vol iv. p. 824; 'II idus. [augusti] Robertus, puer, filius comitis Richardi', obituary of Saint-Père de Chartres, p. 193, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5905q/f226.image.r). The date of the second translation of St Ouen given by Fauroux, as cited by van Houts, is 985/89, is based on the presence of Hugo, archbishop of Rouen, Roger, bishop of Lisieux, and Fromond, abbot of Saint-Taurin d'Évreux - Hugo died in November 989, and Fauroux thought that the other two were in office from 985. However, this is uncertain as neither of them occurs in the record before their attendance at the translation ceremony. Richard Allen discussed the dating of this event in his PhD thesis, *The Norman Episcopate, 989-1110* (2009), vol i. pp. 9-12, see http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1218/. However, his conclusion that it took place ca 967/85 is flawed by circular reasoning - for the 'terminus a quo' he ignored that Richard was called 'senex' at the time, and as above he would have been only in his mid-20s ca 986; for the 'terminus ad quem' he fell into circular reasoning, taking the misstatement of Van Houts derived from Fauroux as indicating that Robert the Dane had died by 985. Some French scholars have recently started ascribing it definitely to 989, again without solid evidence - it could well have been in 988, or possibly a bit earlier, but in any case apparently towards the end of Richard I's life when he was considered old (he died in 996). The feast day of St Ouen is 24 August, and if the translation happened on this date then Robert the Dane evidently survived the occasion at least until the following 12 August. As he was still a boy when buried in Chartres, he was probably aged 14 or less when he died and therefore perhaps born ca 975.
Peter Stewart
Peter Stewart
Apr 4, 2016, 9:58:39 PM4/4/16
to
On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at 11:52:11 AM UTC+10, Peter Stewart wrote:
> Richard was called 'senex' at the time, and as above he would have
> been only in his mid-20s ca 986
Goodness, what a hash I made of this - I should have typed:
> Richard was called 'senex' at the time, and as above he would have
> been only in his mid-20s ca 986
Richard was called 'senex' at the time, and as above he would have been only in his mid-30s ca 967.
Peter Stewart
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