Rorik of Dorestad - Early Life

Early Life

Harald the younger had been exiled from Denmark and had raided Frisia for several years. He had entered an alliance with Lothair I who was involved in conflict against Louis the Pious, his father. Frisia was part of Louis' lands and the raids were meant to weaken him. By 841, Louis was dead and Lothair was able to grant Harald and Rorik several parts of Friesland. His goal at the time was to establish the military presence of his loyalists in Frisia, securing it against his siblings and political rivals Louis the German and Charles the Bald. The two Norsemen used islands as a main base of operations, the seat of Rorik being the island of Wieringen, while Harald operated from the island of Walcheren, and they also ruled Dorestad at this time.

In the early 840s, Frisia seemed to attract fewer raids than in the previous decade. Viking raiders were turning their attention to West Francia and Anglo-Saxon England. In 843, Lothair, Louis and Charles signed the Treaty of Verdun, settling their territorial disputes. Lothair previously needed Rorik and Harald to defend Frisia from external threats. With the seeming elimination of such threats, the two Vikings may have outlived their usefulness to their overlord. In about 844, both "fell into disgrace". They were accused of treason and imprisoned. The chronicles of the time report doubt on the accusation. Rorik would later manage to escape. Harald probably died while a prisoner.

According to an 850 entry of the Annales Fuldenses, "Hrørek the Norseman (Latin: Roric) held the vicus Dorestad as a benefice with his brother Haraldr in the time of the Emperor Louis. After the death of the emperor and his brother he was denounced as a traitor - falsely as it is said - to Lothar, who had succeeded his father in the kingdom, and was captured and imprisoned. He escaped and became the faithful man of Louis, king of the eastern Franks. After he had stayed there for some years, living among the Saxons, who are neighbours of the Norsemen, he collected a not insubstantial force of Danes and began a career of piracy, devastating places near the northern coasts of Lothar's kingdom. And he came through the mouth of the river Rhine to Dorestad, seized and held it. Because the emperor Lothar was unable to drive him out without danger to his own men, Hrørek was received back into fealty on the advice of his counsellors and through mediators on condition that he would faithfully handle the taxes and other matters pertaining to the royal fisc, and would resist the piratical attacks of the Danes." The Annales Bertiniani also records the event: "Hrørek (Latin: Rorich), the nephew of Haraldr, who had recently defected from Lothar, raised whole armies of Norsemen with a vast number of ships and laid waste Frisia and the island of Betuwe and other places in that neighbourhood by sailing up the Rhine and the Waal. Lothar, since he could not crush him, received him into his allegiance and granted him Dorestad and other counties." The Annales Xantenses briefly report: "Hrørek the Norseman (Latin: Rorik), brother of the mentioned younger Haraldr, who was earlier dishonored by Lothar, fled, demanded Dorestad back, deceitfully inflicted much evil on the Christians."