William of Jumièges

Richard II sent his eldest son to fix the problem.

According to the monk William of Jumièges, the young man besieged a castle called Mimonde, stormed it, and burned it with its men, women, and children still inside.

Then he moved on Chalon and set the countryside on fire, quite literally.

Hugh, seeing he had no chance, came out carrying a horse's saddle on his shoulders and knelt in front of the young Norman to beg forgiveness.

The new duke also drove his cousin Hugh, the bishop of Bayeux, out of Normandy and helped himself to lands belonging to the Abbey of Fécamp.

Eventually he reversed course, recalled the archbishop, and restored what he'd taken.

The dead duke's family allegedly didn't fare well, and William of Jumièges says flatly that little Nicholas was cut out of his earthly inheritance and raised as a monk.

Now, as you'll see, Nicholas would go on to be wealthy enough to raise 100 heavy knights to send with William the Conqueror in 1066, so I question how harshly he was treated.

Most of the intercourse thus demonstrated was slow in development, peaceful and civilizing in character.

How came it that in the latter years of the 8th century this intercourse was suddenly strengthened and intensified while at the same time it underwent a great change both in methods and character? The traditional explanation is that given by Dudo and by William of Jumièges in their histories of the settlement of Normandy and by Saxo in his account of Danish settlements in Baltic lands in the 10th century, viz.

that the population of Scandinavia had outgrown its means of support and that enforced emigration was the result.

There may be a certain element of truth in the tradition but when it says that this excess of population was due to polygamy we have every reason to doubt it.

Then, Dudo says, he learned it wasn't Rome, and in his rage, ordered the whole province raided and razed.

60 years or so later, William of Jumieges retold it and made two additions that stuck.

He gave Hastein a young master, Bjorn Ironside, son of King Ragnar Lothbrok, whose tutor Hastein was supposed to be.

Notably, Dudo never mentions Bjorn, and no ninth century source puts any Bjorn anywhere near Hastein or his fleet.