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Pearsall Surname Project
Number of Pearsalls By Location
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Surname
History and Genealogy
of the Pearsall Family in England
and America:
Volume I
Front Cover
Inside Front Cover
The Motive
Thanks
Illustrations
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Appendix I
Volume II
Volume III
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the Norman
exploits in France; the other the real Rollo who, after being banished
from Norway, and wandering from place to place, finally settled in
Normandy where he founded that dynasty of Norman Dukes which figures so
largely in the French history of the tenth and eleventh centuries.
The
Norman historians, including Dudo, credit all
the Norman ventures to Rollo, specially the siege of Paris. If Rollo had really been present
at the siege of Paris,
from 885 to 889, it was incredible that the fact should be unknown to
people on the spot, and yet the people on the spot did not mention the
name of Rollo as a leader of the expedition. They mentioned one leader
only, a man named Siegfried. Taking the narrative of Dudo
point by point, it will be found to be quite uncorroborated by other
evidence. At the time of this siege Rollo was in the good graces of King
Harold Fairhair in Norway, and had every reason
to believe that he would by a happy marriage, as well as by conquest,
acquire great wealth in the land of his birth. It is not until the very
end of the ninth century that Rollo can possibly appear in French History
as an emigrant from Norway.
Rollo could, of course, have been a subordinate commander under Seigfried, but even this is quite unlikely.
We
are now ready to return to Norway and take up the thread
of its history so far as it relates to Rollo. The tragic fate of Halfdan at the hands of Einar
in 894, as it became known in Norway, aroused the
resentment of Harald and his family. To recall
what has already been stated, the brothers of the murdered prince would
have immediately equipped an expedition to the isles to chastise the
cruel Einar; but Harald
reserved this vengeance for his own hand. He fitted out a fleet and set
sail for the west. Einar, who was apprised of
the king's design, fled to Caithness in Scotland.
Harald pursued him thither, but was persuaded
to forego his revenge, and to accept 'the price of blood' in the shape of
a tribute of sixty marks of gold, to be paid by the inhabitants of Caithness, who had given aid and succour
to Einar, as some accounts have it; other
accounts say the fine was levied on the inhabitants of the Orkneys. As
these poor people were unable to raise this sum, Einar
paid it for them, upon condition that they should concede to him certain
feudal rights in the country, where, it appears; he had already
established some sort of jurisdiction. Thus, by a single incident, this
expedition of Harald, designed to inflict a
signal vengeance upon Einar, became the means
of confirming and strengthening his dominion. [History of the Northmen, by Henry Wheaton, London, 1831.]
Whilst
this deadly feud still raged between the families of king Harald and Rognvald, Jarl
of Maere, the latter's son, Rollo, returned
from one of his distant sea-roving expeditions, and made himself
obnoxious, much to the resentment of the incensed king of Norway. Like
many others of the Scandinavian youth of high birth, he had become a
sea-king and roamed the seas in search of subsistence, and adventures.
Among other practices connected with piracy, Harald
had prohibited, under the severest penalties, the Strand-hug, or impressement of pro-visions, which the sea-rovers
were in the habit of exercising.
Rollo
was noted for the success with which he followed the old northern
practice of "Strand-Hug," or seizing by force from off the
sea-coast lands anything which he or his crews might want, and then going
off to sea again with the booty.
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