Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte
The Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte was signed on July 11, 911 between the French King Charles III. and Rollo , the Jarl of the Normans , closed. This contract, which has not been received in writing, is the birth act of Normandy .
Charles III ceded in this agreement - in view of an imminent conquest of the Normans in Neustria - the area between the Epte and the Oise with the exception of the Vexin français to Rollo. These were the counties and dioceses of Rouen , Évreux and Lisieux , which today corresponds to Haute-Normandie plus the Pays d'Auge .
Rollo was baptized, married Gisela, an illegitimate daughter of Charles, took the oath of allegiance to Karl , for which he in turn received his land as a fief , and took on the task of defending the land against attacks by other Normans.
The planned ceremony led to complications because Rollo refused to kneel in front of the king and kiss his foot. The compromise was that one of Rollo's confidants lifted the king's foot high enough that Rollo didn't have to kneel. But the king lost his balance and fell to the ground.
swell
Dudone Sancti Quintini. De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum. Lair, J. (Ed.). Caen 1865.
literature
- Hans Hattenhauer : The acceptance of the Normans into the West Franconian Empire. Saint Clair-sur-Epte AD 911 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in commission, Göttingen 1990, ISBN 3-525-86245-8 , ( reports from the meetings of the Joachim-Jungius-Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften eV, Hamburg 8, 2).