Berengar of Bayeux

Berengar was Lord (or Count) of Bayeux at the end of the 9th century and probably also at the beginning of the 10th century.

He married a daughter of Gurvan, Count of Rennes († 877). In 888 his brother-in-law Judicael, now his father's successor, was defeated in the battle of Questenberg by Alain the Great , Count of Vannes , while trying to achieve suzerainty in Brittany and was killed in battle.

Berengar's young son Judicael Berengar, with his father as guardian and regent, was apparently the new count in Rennes. Berengar recognized the sovereignty of Alain, who then also made himself Duke of Brittany , and received in return a peaceful reign in Rennes.

The Norman chronist Dudo von Saint-Quentin and, building on him, his successors ( Wilhelm von Jumièges († after 1070) and Ordericus Vitalis († 1142) and Robert von Torigni († 1186)) report that the Norman Jarl Rollo has conquered Bayeux , Berengar killed and his daughter Poppa robbed and made his wife (for details see the article on Poppa). Ordericus Vitalis dates the event to the year 886. This representation is contrasted with sources in which Poppa's origin is described completely differently, so that in research the connection between Poppa's and Berengar is controversial and in some cases even rejected as a fantasy.

The importance of Berengar lies on the one hand in the fact that, through his son, he is the progenitor of the Rennes family of the Dukes of Brittany ; Above all, however, if Dudo's portrayal is historical, he is one of the ancestors of the Rollonids , the family of the Dukes of Normandy and thus one of the ancestors of the kings of England , through the kidnapping of his daughter .

literature

• Detlev Schwennicke: European Family Tables Volume III.1, Table 75 New (in the appendix)