Richard II, Duke of Normandy

Richard II
Richard the Good as part of the "Six Dukes of Normandy" statue in the town square of Falaise.
Duke of Normandy
Reign 996–1026
Predecessor Richard I
Successor Richard III
Born Unknown
Normandy
Died 28 August 1026
Normandy
Spouse Judith of Brittany
possibly Poppa of Envermeu
Issue
more...		 Richard III, Duke of Normandy
Robert I, Duke of Normandy
Alice, Countess of Burgundy
Eleanor, Countess of Flanders
Mauger, Archbishop of Rouen
William, Count of Talou
House House of Normandy
Father Richard I, Duke of Normandy
Mother Gunnora

Richard II (unknown – 28 August 1026), called the Good (French: Le Bon), was the eldest son and heir of Richard I the Fearless and Gunnora.[1][2] He was a Norman nobleman of the House of Normandy. He was the paternal grandfather of William the Conqueror.

Life

Richard succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy in 996.[1] During his minority, the first five years of his reign (suggesting he was born circa 980), his regent was Count Rodulf of Ivry, his uncle, who wielded the power and put down a peasant insurrection at the beginning of Richard's reign.[3]

Richard had deep religious interests and found he had much in common with Robert II of France, who he helped militarily against the duchy of Burgundy.[3] He forged a marriage alliance with Brittany by marrying his sister Hawise to Geoffrey I, Duke of Brittany and by his own marriage to Geoffrey's sister, Judith of Brittany.[3]

In 1000-1001, Richard repelled an English attack on the Cotentin Peninsula that was led by Ethelred II of England.[4] Ethelred had given orders that Richard be captured, bound and brought to England.[5] But the English had not been prepared for the rapid response of the Norman cavalry and were defeated at the Battle of Val-de-Saire.[6]

Richard attempted to improve relations with England through his sister Emma of Normandy's marriage to King Ethelred.[4] This marriage was significant in that it later gave his grandson, William the Conqueror, the basis of his claim to the throne of England.[7] The improved relations proved to be beneficial to Ethelred when in 1013 Sweyn Forkbeard invaded England. Emma with her two sons Edward and Alfred fled to Normandy followed shortly thereafter by her husband king Ethelred.[7] Soon after the death of Ethelred, Cnut, King of England forced Emma to marry him while Richard was forced to recognize the new regime as his sister was again Queen.[4] Richard had contacts with Scandinavian Vikings throughout his reign. He employed Viking mercenaries and concluded a treaty with Sweyn Forkbeard who was en route to England.[8]

Richard II commissioned his clerk and confessor, Dudo of Saint-Quentin, to portray his ducal ancestors as morally upright Christian leaders who built Normandy despite the treachery of their overlords and neighboring principalities.[9] It was clearly a work of propaganda designed to legitimize the Norman settlement, and while it contains numerous historically unreliable legends, as respects the reigns of his father and grandfather, Richard I and William I it is basically reliable.[10]

In 1025 and 1026 Richard confirmed gifts of his great-grandfather Rollo to Saint-Ouen at Rouen.[11] His other numerous grants to monastic houses tends to indicate the areas over which Richard had ducal control, namely Caen, the Éverecin, the Cotentin, the Pays de Caux and Rouen.[12]

Richard II died 28 Aug 1026.[1] his eldest son, Richard becoming the new Duke.

Richard II (right), with the Abbot of Mont Saint-Michel (middle) and Lothair of France (left)

Marriages and children

He married firstly, c.1000, Judith (982–1017), daughter of Conan I of Brittany,[13][14] by whom he had the following issue:

Secondly he married Poppa of Envermeu, by whom he had the following issue:

Genealogy

Diagram based on the information found on Wikipedia

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Marburg, Germany: J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 79
  2. ↑ The Normans in Europe, ed. & trans. Elisabeth van Houts (Manchester University Press, 2000), pp. 56-7
  3. 1 2 3 François Neveux, A Brief History of The Normans (Constable and Robinson, 2008) p. 74
  4. 1 2 3 François Neveux, A Brief History of The Normans (Constable and Robinson, 2008) pp. 94-5
  5. ↑ Eleanor Searle, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840-1066 (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988), p. 132
  6. ↑ David Crouch, The Normans: The History of a Dynasty (Hambledon Continuum, 2007), p. 34
  7. 1 2 David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror (University of California Press,1964), p. 160
  8. ↑ The Normans in Europe, ed. & trans. Elisabeth van Houts (Manchester University Press, 2000),pp. 20-21
  9. ↑ David Crouch, The Normans: The History of a Dynasty (Hambledon Continuum, 2007), p. 32
  10. ↑ The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, Ed. & Trans. Elizabeth M.C. Van Houts, Vol. I (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992), p. xx
  11. ↑ The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, Ed. & Trans. Elizabeth M.C. Van Houts, Vol. I (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992), p. 67 n. 5
  12. ↑ Eleanor Searle, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840-1066 (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988), p. 128
  13. ↑ Detlev Schwennicke, Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten, Neue Folge, Band II (Marburg, Germany: J. A. Stargardt, 1984), Tafel 75
  14. ↑ David C. Douglas, William The Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1964), p. 15, n. 5
  15. ↑ Cassandra Potts, Monastic Revival and Regional Identity in Early Normandy, (The Boydell Press, 1997), 27.
  16. ↑ David C. Douglas, William The Conqueror (University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1964), p. 31
French nobility
Preceded by
Richard I		 Duke of Normandy
996–1026		 Succeeded by
Richard III
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