The good, the bad and the downright ugly of Medieval History
Before we get into the nitty gritty of this particular topic, I would like to apologise for my somewhat extended absence! I've been busy doing nothing as they say. So while I do my best to get back into writing more bits for this blog, please accept this as something of an apology as we … Continue reading Theobald of Bec: Morality and Divided Loyalties
The twenty-two-year period that this post looks at were, I think it safe to say, not only years of extreme difficulty and hardship for William and Normandy, but perhaps years that while we cannot say for certain they shaped him completely, they must have helped forge him into the Conqueror of popular imagination: a hard … Continue reading The Survival of Duke William II in Normandy: 1035-57
‘This Hrolf was so big that no horse could carry him, which is why he was given the name Göngu-Hrolf. The earls of Rouen and the kings of England are descended from him.’ Orkneyinga Saga So in my last post (How do you solve a problem like Rollo?) I wrote a few very brief introductions to … Continue reading Rollo, first Count of Rouen: A saga of sorts
For this post I thought I would do something a little different: examine just a few of the issues surrounding three of the sources you will come across if you do any amount of digging into the Norman past, and why despite the prolific amount written about him, we can say nearly nothing about Rollo … Continue reading How do you solve a problem like Rollo?
