Ancestor Spotlight · Norman maternal line
860–933
The Norse leader who founded Normandy. Granted Frankish land under the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte in 911; first ruler of the Normans and ancestor of the Norman dukes.
Editor’s Note
This page documents the founder of the Norman line and the descent that reaches him through the maternal Plantagenet chain. The medieval links are drawn from the canonical FamilySearch tree and standard scholarship; the full account is on the Plantagenet Descent page. Rollo’s dates are given as 860–933 to match the archive’s canonical record (FamilySearch LZDH-NFR); other sources place his birth somewhat earlier.
Relationship
Rollo of Normandy is the 31st-great-grandfather of John, Perry, and Patrick Long, via the Norman maternal line.
Rollo (Old Norse Hrólfr) was a Norse leader who raided and then settled the lower Seine valley in the late ninth and early tenth centuries. By the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte in 911, the West Frankish king Charles the Simple granted him the lands around Rouen in exchange for his defense of the realm and his conversion to Christianity — the territory that became the Duchy of Normandy.
Rollo is reckoned the first ruler of Normandy. From him the Norman dukes descend in an unbroken line — William Longsword, the Richards of Normandy, Robert the Magnificent, and William the Conqueror, who carried the line onto the English throne in 1066.
Rollo enters this archive through the maternal Plantagenet descent, by way of the Norman dukes and the Empress Matilda. His FamilySearch record (LZDH-NFR) carries 26 source descriptions. The full generation-by-generation chain is on the Plantagenet Descent page.
The milestone anchors of the maternal descent — named anchors, not every generation. The complete generation-by-generation chain is on the Plantagenet Descent page. Click any PID to open the FamilySearch record.
VERIFIED on Rollo’s record (LZDH-NFR, 26 FamilySearch sources). The descent to the brothers runs through the Norman dukes and the Empress Matilda into the Plantagenet line, documented generation-by-generation on the Plantagenet Descent page. As with all descents of this depth, the deepest links carry the usual scholarly caution; the named anchors, PIDs, and source counts are exact.