Rorik of Dorestad - Questions On Loyalty

Questions On Loyalty

An 863 entry of the Annales Bertiniani reports "In January Danes sailed up the Rhine towards Cologne, after sacking the emporium called Dorestad and also a fairly large villa at which the Frisians had taken refuge, and after slaying many Frisian traders and taking captive large numbers of people. Then they reached a certain island near the fort of Neuss. Lothar came up and attacked them with his men along one bank of the Rhine and the Saxons along the other and they encamped there until about the beginning of April. The Danes therefore followed the advice of Hrørek and withdrew by the same way they had come." The entry makes clear that another group of Danish raiders had attacked Dorestad before traveling upstream to Xanten. However a rumour soon circulated that Rorik had encouraged the raiders on their expedition. Coupland dismisses the idea that Rorik could have invited a raid on his own area. He suggests the rumour was based on his method of getting rid of the invaders. Rorik could have protected his own territory by convincing the Danes to travel further up the river, effectively letting them become other rulers' problems. Coupland notes it would not be a unique case in the 9th century. The Siege of Paris from 885 to 886 under Sigfred and Rollo had not ended with mutual annihilation. Charles the Fat had simply allowed Rollo to go and plunder Burgundy.

The rumour of Rorik's apparent disloyalty induced Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims, to write two letters, one to Hunger and one to Rorik. Bishop Hunger was instructed to impose a suitable penance on Rorik if the rumour was found to be true. Hincmar also told Rorik not to shelter Baldwin I of Flanders, who had eloped with the king's daughter Judith. From these letters it becomes clear that Rorik had recently converted to Christianity and been baptized. Flodoard summarizes the content of the two letters, the first "To Bishop Hunger about the excommunication of Baldwin, who stole the widowed Judith, the daughter of the king, to become his wife, whereupon he was excommunicated by the bishop. He also admonishes Hunger, to persuade Hrørek the Norseman, who recently was converted to the Christian faith, not to receive or protect Baldwin. And also, if other Norsemen with his consent, as has been told, should have raided the kingdom after his conversion, he should be corrected with a proper punishment.", the other "To Hrørek the Norseman, who was converted to the Christian faith, so that he always might benefit the will of God and exercise his orders. As he had heard from many to do so, that nobody should persuade him acting against the Christians with advice or aid to benefit the heathens. Else it would not have been in his advantage that he had received the Christian baptism, as he himself or through others should have planned perverse or hostile affairs, and so on. As follows, it was made clear to him in an episcopal way how much danger was hidden in such a machination. He was also admonished not to receive Baldwin, who was excommunicated by the spirit of God, for which reason the holy canon was drawn up by means of episcopal authority, because he had stolen the daughter of the king to become his wife. And he should not allowed consolation nor refuge on his part whatsoever. So he and his men should not get involved in his sins and excommunication and get doomed themselves. But he should take care to present himself in a way, that he could benefit from the prayers of the saints."

Coupland finds the contents of the letters particularly revealing. Rorik had apparently been granted control over Dorestad twice and well before his conversion to Christianity in the early 860s. Hincmar and Hunger having to convince Rorik not to give refuge to a declared enemy of Charles the Bald would mean Rorik enjoyed a "measure of political independence" from the various courts of the Carolingian dynasty at the time. Coupland notes that his contemporary Sedulius Scottus calls Rorik a King (Latin:Rex). Though noting that the reference has alternatively been interpreted to mean another contemporary ruler, Rhodri the Great of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. A hagiography of Adalbert of Egmond, written in the late 10th century, mentions a miracle of the saint in the time of "Roric the barbarian king" (Latin:Roricus barbarorum rex)