28th Great Grandfather
Richard II, Duke of Normandy
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Richard II "the Good"
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Richard the Good as part of the "Six
Dukes of Normandy" statue in the town square of Falaise.
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Reign
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996–1026
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Predecessor
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Successor
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Born
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23 August 963
Normandy |
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Died
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28 August 1026 (aged 63)
Normandy |
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Spouse
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Judith
of Brittany
(unsure if married) Poppa of Envermeu |
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Issue
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Richard III of Normandy
Robert I of Normandy and more. |
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Father
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Mother
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Richard II (23 August 963
– 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.
Life
Richard
succeeded his father as Duke of Normandy
in 996.[1] During his minority, the first five years of his reign,
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 utterly defeated.[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
(right), with the Abbot of Mont Saint-Michel (middle) and Lothair of France (left)
Marriages and children[edit]
He married
firstly, c.1000, Judith
(982–1017), daughter of Conan I of Brittany,[13][14] by whom he had the following issue:
- Richard (c. 1002/4), duke of Normandy[1]
- Alice of Normandy (c. 1003/5), married Renaud I, Count of Burgundy[1]
- Robert (c. 1005/7), duke of Normandy[1]
- William (c. 1007/9), monk at Fécamp, d. 1025, buried at Fécamp Abbey[1][15]
- Eleanor (c. 1011/3), married to Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders
- Matilda (c. 1013/5), nun at Fecamp, d. 1033. She died young and unmarried.[16]
Secondly he
married Poppa of Envermeu,
by whom he had the following issue:
- Mauger (c. 1019), Archbishop of Rouen
- William (c. 1020/5), count of Arques
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