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Rodulf Haraldsson sometimes Rudolf, from Old Norse
Hróðulfr, was a Viking
leader who raided the British Isles
, West Francia, Frisia
, and Lotharingia
in the 860s and 870s. He was a son of Harald the Younger
and thus a nephew of Rorik of Dorestad, and a relative of both Harald Klak
and Godfrid Haraldsson
, but he was "the black sheep of the family". He was baptised, but under what circumstances is unknown. His career is obscure, but similar accounts are found in the three major series of Reichsannalen
from the period: the Annales Bertiniani
from West Francia, the Annales Fuldenses
from East Francia, and the Annales Xantenses
from Middle Francia
. He died in an unsuccessful attempt to impose a danegeld
on the locals of the Ostergo.
In 864 Rodulf led a band of mercenaries (locarii) into Lotharingia to extract a payment from Lothair II, who exacted four denarii from every mansus
(landholding) in the kingdom, as well as large number of cattle and much flour, wine, and beer. The only source to mention it is the contemporary Annales Bertiniani:
The word translated "cider" or "beer", sicera, is derived from ancient Hebrew and can refer to any alcoholic beverage
that is not wine. It has been translated sherbet. The whole amount of the cash is not recorded. Whether it was paid as a stipend
or as a tribute
is debated: Einar Joranson could not tell, but Simon Coupland has argued that locarii (plural of locarium) refers consistently in Carolingian
sources to payment for mercenary services, as opposed to tributum (defensive payment).
Twice in 872 Rodulf joined his uncle, Rorik, in paying a visit to Charles the Bald
, as recorded in the Annales Bertiniani:
Added to his possible paid military service to Lothair II, his close relations with the Frankish kings suggests he may had a fiefdom
in Frisia, perhaps having succeeded his father there in the 840s. If so, then Charles became his overlord by the Treaty of Meerssen
in 870. His major Viking activities took place, according to the annals, in West Francia and "across the water", presumably referring to the British Isles. According to the Annales Bertiniani, in the autumn of 873 Charles the Bald warned his leading vassals in the north of his kingdom to beware of Rodulf possible treachery. Janet Nelson, commenting on the Annales, speculated that Rodulf was conspiring with Charles rebellious younger son Carloman.
According to all three annals, Rodulf arrived in northern Frisia in June 873 and sent messengers to the Ostergo calling for tribute (tributa in the words of the Annales Fuldenses). The Frisians replied that they owed taxes only to their king, Louis the German
, and his sons (Carloman
, Louis
, and Charles
). A battle ensued, in which Rodulf was killed and his troops routed. The Annales Fuldenses record that a Scandinavian Christian, whom they do not name, fought on the Frisian side and provided counsel that was crucial to victory. These Annales also provide a full and detailed account of the battle.
The account of the Annales Bertiniani is more brief:
The anonymous author of the Annales Xantenses remarks acidly on his death:
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
Hróðulfr, was a Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
leader who raided the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
, West Francia, Frisia
Frisia
Frisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language group closely related to the English language...
, and Lotharingia
Lotharingia
Lotharingia was a region in northwest Europe, comprising the Low Countries, the western Rhineland, the lands today on the border between France and Germany, and what is now western Switzerland. It was born of the tripartite division in 855, of the kingdom of Middle Francia, itself formed of the...
in the 860s and 870s. He was a son of Harald the Younger
Harald the Younger
Harald the Younger was a Viking leader and a member of the Danish royal family. He has sometimes been mistakenly identified with Harald Klak, who was in fact his uncle and probable namesake...
and thus a nephew of Rorik of Dorestad, and a relative of both Harald Klak
Harald Klak
Harald 'Klak' Halfdansson was a king in Jutland around 812–814 and again from 819–827.-Family:...
and Godfrid Haraldsson
Godfrid Haraldsson
Godfrid Haraldsson was the son of the Danish king Harald Klak. In 826 he was baptized together with his parents in Mainz in the Frankish Empire, with crown prince Lothair standing as a godparent....
, but he was "the black sheep of the family". He was baptised, but under what circumstances is unknown. His career is obscure, but similar accounts are found in the three major series of Reichsannalen
Reichsannalen
The Reichsannalen are a class of annals composed anonymously in the Carolingian Empire throughout the 9th century. They first appeared under Pepin the Short in 741 and became ubiquitous at monasteries throughout the empire in the following decades...
from the period: the Annales Bertiniani
Annales Bertiniani
Annales Bertiniani, or The Annals of St. Bertin, are late Carolingian, Frankish annals that were found in the monastery of St. Bertin, after which they are named. Their account is taken to cover the period 830-82, thus continuing the Royal Frankish Annals , from which, however, it has circulated...
from West Francia, the Annales Fuldenses
Annales Fuldenses
The Annales Fuldenses or Annals of Fulda are East Frankish chronicles that cover independently the period from the last years of Louis the Pious to shortly after the end of effective Carolingian rule in East Francia with the accession of the child-king, Louis III, in 900...
from East Francia, and the Annales Xantenses
Annales Xantenses
The Annales Xantenses or Annals of Xanten are a series of annals written, probably at Lorsch for the period 832 to 852 and at Cologne for the period until 873. The Lorsch author is probably Gerward, a royal chaplain, but the continuator is unknown...
from Middle Francia
Middle Francia
Middle Francia was an ephemeral Frankish kingdom created by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, which divided the Carolingian Empire among the sons of Louis the Pious...
. He died in an unsuccessful attempt to impose a danegeld
Danegeld
The Danegeld was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the geld or gafol in eleventh-century sources; the term Danegeld did not appear until the early twelfth century...
on the locals of the Ostergo.
In 864 Rodulf led a band of mercenaries (locarii) into Lotharingia to extract a payment from Lothair II, who exacted four denarii from every mansus
Mansus
A mansus, sometimes anglicised as manse, was a unit of land assessment in medieval France, roughly equivalent of the hide. In the 9th century AD, it began to be used by Charlemagne to determine how many warriors would be provided: one for every three mansi, with smaller landholders collectively...
(landholding) in the kingdom, as well as large number of cattle and much flour, wine, and beer. The only source to mention it is the contemporary Annales Bertiniani:
Hlotharius, Hlotharii filius, de omni regno suo quattuor denarios ex omni manso colligens, summam denariorum cum multa pensione farinae atque pecorum necnon vini ac sicerae Rodulfo Normanno, Herioldi filio, ac suis locarii nomine tribuit.
Lothar, son of Lothar, raised four denarii from every manse in his whole kingdom, and handed over the sum in cash, plus a large quantity of flour and livestock and also wine and cider, to the Norseman Hróðulfr [Rodulf], son of Haraldr [Harald], and his men, all this being termed a payment for service.
The word translated "cider" or "beer", sicera, is derived from ancient Hebrew and can refer to any alcoholic beverage
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
that is not wine. It has been translated sherbet. The whole amount of the cash is not recorded. Whether it was paid as a stipend
Stipend
A stipend is a form of salary, such as for an internship or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from a wage or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work performed, instead it represents a payment that enables somebody to be exempt partly or wholly from waged or salaried...
or as a tribute
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
is debated: Einar Joranson could not tell, but Simon Coupland has argued that locarii (plural of locarium) refers consistently in Carolingian
Carolingian Renaissance
In the history of ideas the Carolingian Renaissance stands out as a period of intellectual and cultural revival in Europe occurring from the late eighth century, in the generation of Alcuin, to the 9th century, and the generation of Heiric of Auxerre, with the peak of the activities coordinated...
sources to payment for mercenary services, as opposed to tributum (defensive payment).
Twice in 872 Rodulf joined his uncle, Rorik, in paying a visit to Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
, as recorded in the Annales Bertiniani:
On 20 January he [Charles the Bald] left Compendio and went to the monastery of [name missing in surviving manuscripts] to hold talks with the Norsemen Hrørek [Rorik] and Hróðulfr [Rodulf]. . . In October he [Charles the Bald] came by boat down the MeuseMeuse RiverThe Maas or Meuse is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea...
to MaastrichtMaastrichtMaastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...
and held talks with the Norsemen Hrørek and Hróðulfr who had come up the river to meet him. He gave a gracious reception to Hrørek who had proved loyal to him, but Hróðulfr he dismissed empty-handed, because he had been plotting acts of treachery and pitching his demands too high. Charles prepared his faithful men for defense against treacherous attacks of Hróðulfr. Then he rode back by way of AttignyAttigny, ArdennesAttigny is a commune on the river Aisne in the arrondissement of Vouziers in the département of Ardennes in the Champagne-Ardenne region in northern France.-Councils of Attigny:In 765, St...
to Saint Medard's Abbey, where he spent Christmas.
Added to his possible paid military service to Lothair II, his close relations with the Frankish kings suggests he may had a fiefdom
Fiefdom
A fee was the central element of feudalism and consisted of heritable lands granted under one of several varieties of feudal tenure by an overlord to a vassal who held it in fealty in return for a form of feudal allegiance and service, usually given by the...
in Frisia, perhaps having succeeded his father there in the 840s. If so, then Charles became his overlord by the Treaty of Meerssen
Treaty of Meerssen
The Treaty of Meerssen or Mersen was a partition treaty of the Carolingian Empire concluded on 8 August 870 by the two surviving sons of Emperor Louis the Pious, King Charles the Bald of West Francia and Louis the German of East Francia, at Meerssen north of Maastricht, in the present-day...
in 870. His major Viking activities took place, according to the annals, in West Francia and "across the water", presumably referring to the British Isles. According to the Annales Bertiniani, in the autumn of 873 Charles the Bald warned his leading vassals in the north of his kingdom to beware of Rodulf possible treachery. Janet Nelson, commenting on the Annales, speculated that Rodulf was conspiring with Charles rebellious younger son Carloman.
According to all three annals, Rodulf arrived in northern Frisia in June 873 and sent messengers to the Ostergo calling for tribute (tributa in the words of the Annales Fuldenses). The Frisians replied that they owed taxes only to their king, Louis the German
Louis the German
Louis the German , also known as Louis II or Louis the Bavarian, was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye.He received the appellation 'Germanicus' shortly after his death in recognition of the fact...
, and his sons (Carloman
Carloman of Bavaria
Carloman was the eldest son of Louis the German, king of East Francia , and Hemma, daughter of the count Welf...
, Louis
Louis the Younger
Louis the Younger , sometimes Louis III, was the second eldest of the three sons of Louis the German and Emma. He succeeded his father as the King of Saxony on 28 August 876 and his elder brother Carloman as King of Bavaria from 880...
, and Charles
Charles the Fat
Charles the Fat was the King of Alemannia from 876, King of Italy from 879, western Emperor from 881, King of East Francia from 882, and King of West Francia from 884. In 887, he was deposed in East Francia, Lotharingia, and possibly Italy, where the records are not clear...
). A battle ensued, in which Rodulf was killed and his troops routed. The Annales Fuldenses record that a Scandinavian Christian, whom they do not name, fought on the Frisian side and provided counsel that was crucial to victory. These Annales also provide a full and detailed account of the battle.
The account of the Annales Bertiniani is more brief:
Meanwhile the Norseman Hróðulfr (Latin: Rodulfus), who had inflicted many evils on Charles's realm, was slain in the realm of Louis with 500 and more of his accomplices. Charles got reliable news of this as he remained in his position in AngersAngersAngers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....
.
The anonymous author of the Annales Xantenses remarks acidly on his death:
Quamvis baptizatus esset, caninam vitam digne morte finivit.
Even though he had been baptized, he ended his dog's life with a fitting death.
External links
- Luit van der Tuuk, Hróðulfr, Gjallar: Noormannen in de Lage Landen.
- Norsemen in the Low Countries: Extracts from the Annales Bertiniani
- Norsemen in the Low Countries: Extracts from the Annales Fuldenses
- Norsemen in the Low Countries: Extracts from the Annales Xantenses