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How A Deal Between A Viking and A King Changed History Forever
The rise of the Normans
In AD 885, a group of Viking raiders sailed down the River Seine and laid siege to Paris. Paris was the cultural center of the Franks and was the heart of West Francia. Thousands of hostile northern warriors surrounded the city and demanded tribute and concessions. Despite emerging victorious, the siege lasted nearly a year and traumatized the Franks.
The beautiful Seine went from a peaceful ribbon of trade to a highway for barbarism.
The Siege of Paris rocked the Carolingian dynasty and dealt a serious blow to the early Frankish kingdoms. The Viking incursions of the 9th century put the whole realm on edge and seriously reduced any hopes that the Franks could seriously take up the mantle of Charlemagne to be a power in Europe.
When the Vikings returned yet again in 911, this time led by one of the brigands that had orchestrated the Siege of Paris years earlier, the lords of West Francia had had enough. If they could not compel the Vikings to let them be via force, they would have to deal with them diplomatically.
The Siege of Chartres & Rollo The Viking
Rollo led a band of Vikings against the city of Chartres in 911. It was a city that the Vikings had sacked previously and it had been rebuilt with greater defenses and fortifications along the Eure River. Rollo was a shrewd warlord and he had been part of the Siege of Paris 26 years earlier. He laid siege to the newly fortified city of Chartres which was close to Paris and drew out the strength of the Frankish army.
Rollo, like all Vikings of the age, had no cavalry so when the king of the Franks, Charles the Simple, arrived at the head of a mounted vanguard he decided to beat a hasty retreat back to his ships which were anchored in the river nearby.
In order to stop the horses from slaughtering his men and making it to the boats, he ordered all of the livestock that they had brought with them to be slaughtered and stacked into a pile. The sight and stench of dead animals spooked King Charles’s horses and the charge came to a halt.
