Origin and history of the montgomerys

O R I G I N A N D HISTORY
OF THE
MONTGOMERYS
Comtes de
Montgomery, Ponthieu,
Alençon and La Marche
Earls of
Arundel, Chichester, Shrewsbury,
Montgomery, Pembroke, Lancaster,
Mercia, Eglinton and Mountalexander
Princes de Bellême
Marquis de
Montgomery de Lorges
By
B. G. DE M O N T G O M E R Y

JAMES DAVID MONTGOMERY'S SEAL
As reconstructed by the College of Arms, London

C O N T E N T S
ORIGIN OF THE NORDIC RACE . . . . i
THE SUEVIC DYNASTIES . . . . . . 1 2
INGVAR'S LINE OF YLVINGS . . . . . - 2 4
ROLLO'S AND GORMERIC'S DESCENDANTS . . . - 3 °
MONTGOMERYS OF NORMANDY . . . . - 3 4
MONTGOMERYS, COUNTS OF PONTHIEU . . 78
MONTGOMERYS, COUNTS OF A L E N Ç O N . . . . 8 0
MONTGOMERYS, COUNTS OF L A MARCHE . . . 81
SETTLEMENTS OF ENTAIL AND THE NAME OF MONTGOMERY . . 82
ENGLISH MONTGOMERYS . . . • - 8 4
A N C I E N T IRISH B R A N C H . . • . 1 0 0
MONTGOÎ 'ERYS, EARLS OF E G L I N T O N . . . . 1 0 1
MONTGOMERYS OF SWEDEN, ELDER HOUSE . . . 119
MONTGOMERYS OF GREENFIELD, M E I K L E D R E G H O R N AND S T A N E 129
MONTGOMERYS OF LAINSHAW . . . • 13°
AMERICAN BRANCHES . . . . • • 132
MONTGOMERYS OF FRANCE . . . . • • 134
MONTGOMERYS, BARONETS OF THE HALL . . . • 135
MONTGOMERYS OF BRIGEND AND OF SMITHTOUN . . . 137
MONTGOMERYS, LAIRDS OF BRAIDSTONE . . . . 138
VISCOUNTS MONTGOMERY OF GREAT ARDES . . . . 1 4 0
EARLS OF MOUNTALEXANDER . • • • 15°
MONTGOMERYS OF BLESSINGBOURNE . . . . • i57
MONTGOMERYS OF GREYABBEY . . . • J
75
MONTGOMERYS OF BLACKHOUSE AND CREBOY . . . 177
MONTGOMERYS OF HESSILHEID . . . • • i79
V

vi HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERYS
PAO»
MONTGOMERYS OF MOVILLE • .181
MONTGOMERYS OF BEAULIEU . . . . . 208
BARONETS MONTGOMERY OF SKELMORLY . . . . 226
MONTGOMERYS OF GIFFEN 228
BARONETS GRAHAM-MONTGOMERY OF STANHOPE . 230
COMTES AND MARQUIS DE MONTGOMERY DE LORGES . . 232
MONTGOMERYS OF SCOTSTOUN . 278
MONTGOMERY-CEDERHIELMS, YOUNGER HOUSE OF SWEDEN . . 280
INDEX 284

P R E F A C E
H
ISTORY begins where archaeology leaves off. Separating
these two fields of human knowledge, however, is a wide
borderland—the land of sagas and folklore. Here the
historian never feels on really safe ground and is inclined to reject
everything that is not absolutely palpable, while the archaeologist
is all too prone to let the sagas get the better of his imagination
and wanders off into fantastic speculation. And yet, it is just
in this borderland—while prudently dealing with sagas and folk-
lore, chronicles and annals—that archaeology has to be linked
up with historical research. Only by doing this is it possible to
carry the history of a nation or of a royal house back to its remotest
origin.
The period of the sagas in Scandinavia is shrouded in mystery.
Here we can only grope our way along by comparing the Edda
poetry, Beowulf, Langfedgetal, the Icelandic sagas and Snorre with
the Danish, Icelandic, Saxon, French and German chronicles and
with the works of French and German historians of the time.
All these sources, however, must be treated with the utmost
caution. They are generally a mixture of fact and fancy and the
borderline between the two is hard to distinguish. But at the
same time we must be grateful for all the facts of real value they
do give us. To be critical of these sources to the point of com-
pletely refusing to acknowledge their value in historical research
would be a grave mistake. Such a hypercritical attitude would
not only display a questionable sense of judgment but also disclose
the fact that the critic himself is uncritical of his own criticism.
Generally speaking, it is not difficult to criticize. But to
reconstruct, to infuse life into the little one knows of those ancient
days, when memorials were carved in stone and history handed
down by word of mouth from father to son, is quite another matter.
To do this one has to sift carefully the written material, separating
the wheat from the chaff.
ix

H I S T O R Y O F T H E M O N T G O M E R Y S
When deducing the truth from the sagas and from the in-
complete and often obscure chronicles of the monks one must
tread warily, and it is by no means an easy task to reassemble the
true and probable facts so that they form a complete picture of
the historical development.
In England and France the saga period was shorter and also
better known than in Scandinavia because of the monkish chron-
icles. Offshoots of the higher culture of these countries reached
Scandinavia, and an observant investigator, by drawing com-
parisons with conditions in these countries, can arrive at certain
conclusions regarding the historical development in the North
The subject dealt with in the following pages falls partly within
this obscure period; for the Montgomerys are sprung from the
same roots as the Scandinavian kings, whose history in turn is
known to us chiefly through the sagas and folklore.
The fortunes of early Scandinavian kings and dynasties are a
much favoured subject with Scandinavian historians of the Middle
Ages and during the beginning of the modern era. Generally,
however, they were far too uncritical in their judgment of historical
relationships to be able to draw as true a picture of the period as is
desired. Very often sagas were confused with reality; dynasties
were established with the help of a lively imagination; often, too,
schedules of kings and royal pedigrees were reckoned as one and
the same thing, i.e. kings were accepted as sons of their pre-
decessors, even in cases where they had achieved power through
conquest or marriage. Patriotism, and particularly local patriot-
ism, often played a decisive role when relating historical incident
to certain countries or areas, while the connection between the
history of Scandinavia and that of other countries was completely
overlooked. The similarities between Scandinavian, Saxon and
German heroic sagas were noted, yet no attempts were made to
draw any conclusions from this remarkable fact. Even the im-
portant role played by hereditary claims in the history of the Vikings
was passed over, and it was never realized that the Ulvunga kings

HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERYS xi
in Håtuna and Lejre were the principal kings in Scandinavia, to
whom not only the minor kings (Fylkes-kings) in Sweden, Denmark
and Norway paid homage, but also the Stol-kings (' Chair-kings ')
of Upsala.
In the opening chapters I have sought to make this point clear
and to show how the descendants of the Asar, the powerful
Ulvungar or Uffingas, led the historical development of Europe
for nearly a thousand years. From the sagas it is possible to
follow this family through the Middle Ages right down to the
present day.
As far as I am aware, only two branches of this family can
trace their ancestry on the paternal side back to the Ulvungar—
the Montgomerys and the Harcourts. Not only ancient tradition
and statements in the Germanic genealogical records, kept in the
Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, serve to confirm their descent
from the Ulvungar, but also clear circumstantial evidence.
In studying the history of the Montgomery family, I have not
confined myself to the genealogical side, but have also dealt with
the subject in a wider sense—as a matter of history—many person-
alities of this family having played notable and at times decisive
roles in the countries in which they have lived and worked. It is
only natural that in such an old tree there are some decayed
branches, but the odd thing is that it is still capable of pushing
out new shoots.
The oldest branch of the family, the Norman line, died out
on the paternal side at the beginning of the thirteenth century,
but the Scottish branch was more resistant. It is still alive and
has sent its members to many parts of the world. From Scotland
one branch emigrated to France at the beginning of the fifteenth
century, where it came into possession of the domains and feudal
rights of the extinct French line. Later the main Scottish branch
spread to Ireland and Sweden during the seventeenth century, and
to America at the beginning of the eighteenth century. A younger
branch settled in Sweden about 1720. The second line in France

died out in 1731, but was replaced at the beginning of the
nineteenth century by another branch which emigrated from
America.
The wide dispersion of the family has naturally increased the
difficulties of research, which has been done partly by corre-
spondence, partly by the aid of paid research workers. For my
own part, I have concentrated on the most important archives:
Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, British Museum and Record
Office in London, Register House in Edinburgh, Riksarkivet and
Krigsarkivet in Stockholm.
The principal collections examined are:
French: Généalogies d'Allemagne, cabinets des titres; Collec-
tion Baluze; manuscrits nouveau-latins; manuscrits français;
manuscrits du fonds Godefroy; Trésor des Chartes; manuscrits
de la Bibliothèque impériale; Archives de Saône-et-Loire;
Archives de la Côte-d'Or; manuscrits Clairambault.
English: State Papers, Domestic and Foreign; Close Rolls;
Fine Rolls; Hundred Rolls; Patent Rolls; Acts of the Privy
Council; Feudal Aids; Exchequer Rolls; Rotuli Normanniae;
Rymer's Foedera; Patronymica Britannica; Ancient Deeds;
Ancient Charters; Chronicles of the White Rose of York;
Issue Rolls of the Exchequer; Parliamentary Writs; Papal
Petitions; Carew Manuscripts; Harleian Manuscripts; Pepys
Collection.
Scottish: State Papers of Scotland; Exchequer Rolls of Scot-
land; Registers of Sasines, Testaments and Services of Heirs;
Acts of Parliament; Military Reports of Scotland; Register of
the Privy Council of Scotland; Registrum Secreti Sigilli;
Registrum Magni Sigilli.
Irish: State Papers; Cartulary of St. Mary's Abbey; Calendar
of Documents; Inquisitions; Charters; Letters.
Dutch: Muster Rolls of Dutch General Staff.
Swedish: Riksregistraturet; Rantekammarboken; Axel Oxen-
stiernas Brev och Koncept; Stegeborgssamlingen; Förteckningar

HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERYS
på vårvat krigsfolk i Pommern 1630-48; Hinterpommerische
Journal; Sköldebrevsamlingen; Letters and pedigrees in the
Montgomery archives.
.The most important sources for studying the origin of the
Norsemen are: Pytheas, in Pliny's Historia Naturalis, 300 B.C.;
Caesar, De Bello Gallico, about 50 B.C.; Tacitus, Germania, about
A.D. 100; Ptolemy, Geographice hyphegis, A.D. 150; Eutropius,
Breviarium Historiae Romanae, A.D. 370; Ammianus Marcellinus,
Rerum Gestarum, A.D. 380 ; Orosius, Historiarum Adversus Paganos,
libri vu, A.D. 420; Jordanes, De Rebus Geticis, A.D. 500; Gregory
of Tours, Historia Francorum, end of the sixth century A.D.;
Procopius, Histories, end of the sixth century A.D.
The history of the Suevic kings is dealt with in the following
sagas, early historical works and chronicles:
Beowulf, end of the eighth century; the Edda poetry, end of
the ninth century; Widukind, Res Gestae Saxonicae, end of the
tenth century; Amoine, Historia Francorum, end of the tenth
century; Dudo de St. Quentin, De Moribus et Actis Primorum
Normanniae Ducum, beginning of the eleventh century; Adam
of Bremen, Gesta Hamburgensis and De Situ Daniae, end of the
eleventh century; William of Jumièges, Gesta Normannorum
Ducum, end of the eleventh century; William of Malmesbury,
Gesta Regum Anglorum; Rerum Gallicarum Scriptores, beginning
of the twelfth century; Ordericus Vitalis, Historia Ecclesiastica,
twelfth century; Wace, Roman de Rou, twelfth century; Lang-
fedgetal, twelfth century; Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Dannorum,
beginning of the thirteenth century; Snorre Sturleson, Konun-
gasagor, beginning of the thirteenth century; Annales Bertiniani;
Annales Fuldensis; Annales Danici Bartoliniani; Annals of Ireland;
Annals of Ulster; Annals of Inishowen; Annales Cambriae; Annals
of the Four Masters; Annales Xantenses; Petrus Olaus, Minoritae
Roskildensis Annales Rerum Dannicarum; Florence of Worcester,
Chronicon Saxonicum; Chronicles of Man; Chronicon Scotorum;
Cornelli Hamsfortii Series Regum Daniae; Anonymi Roskildensis

xiv HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERYS
Chronicum Danicum; De Ecclesia Bremensi Vetus Scriptum;
Chronologia Rerum Septrionalium; Brut y Tywysogion; Einhard
Vita Caroli Magni Imperatoris; Vita Sancti Anscharii, Sancto
Remberto conscripta; Vita Sancti Willehadi, Anschario conscripta;
Series Runica Regum Daniae, prima; Series Runica Regum
Daniae, altera; Muratori, Antiquitates Italicae Medii Aevi.
Modern textbooks in this field are very numerous and space
does not permit a list of all the works, from early and later times,
which deal with the history of the Suevic kings. Among the more
important historians who have dealt with different aspects of this
subject the following may be mentioned: Bugge, Collingwood,
Depping, Dozy, Duchesnes, Du Motey, Dümmler, Fahlbeck,
Favre, Freeman, Geijer, Herzberg, Lair, Liebermann, Lindqvist,
Mabille, Montelius, Nerman, Rydberg, Steenstrup, Stevenson,
Storm, Strinnholm, Suhm, Tegnér, Vogel, Weibull, Wenck,
Worsaae. One of the most important books dealing with this
subject is A. O. Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History,
London, 1922, which covers a much wider field than the title
suggests.
A number of works on the Montgomery family have been
published previously, the most notable of which is: William
Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, Earls of Eglinton, Edin-
burgh, 1859. What makes Fraser's book particularly valuable
is the fact that it contains a number of original documents relating
to the family, which have been preserved in Scotland. The book
deals with the main Scottish branch of the family, and also with
the Seton branch.
Another work of considerable historical value is The Mont-
gomery Manuscripts, compiled by William Montgomery of Rose-
mount about 1700. A printed edition was published by George
Hill in Belfast in 1869. The book deals principally with those
branches of the family which settled in Ireland at the beginning
of the seventeenth century, particularly Viscounts Montgomery
of Great Ardes, and the Earls of Mountalexander.

The Broomlands Manuscript, written by Hugh Montgomery of
Broomlands about 1760, has only been published in part. The
information it contains about the earlier history of the family is
valuable, as it is believed to be based on copies of family papers
which were destroyed when Eglinton Castle was burnt down in
1528. It is not altogether reliable.
Among other valuable works relating to the Montgomery
family may be mentioned:
William Anderson, A Genealogical Account of the Family of
Montgomery, formerly of Brigend, Edinburgh, 1859.
John Anderson, Montgomerie, Earl of Eglinton, in the Scots
Peerage, Edinburgh, 1906. The author is very critical of Fraser 's
Memorials, but his criticism is not always well founded.
E. G. S. Reilly, A Genealogical History of the Family of Mont-
gomery, printed for private distribution in 1842.
John Hamilton Montgomery, Genealogy of the Family of
Montgomery, compiled from various authorities—remains in
manuscript.
Thomas Harrison Montgomery, A Genealogical History of the
Family of Montgomery, Philadelphia, 1863.
James Paterson, History of the County of Ayr, Edinburgh, 1847;
Account of the Families and Parishes of Ayrshire, Edinburgh, 1863 ;
History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton, Edinburgh, 1863-64.
William Robertson, Ayrshire and its Historic Families, Ayr,
1908.
Du Motey, Origine de la Normandie, Paris, 1920; and Robert II
de Bellême, Paris, 1923.
Amédée Boudin, Généalogie de la Maison de Montgomery,
Histoire Généalogique du Musée des Croisades, Paris, 1858
(unreliable).
Léon Marlet, Le Comte de Montgomery, Paris, 1890.
D. E. Montgomery, Bidrag till Âtten Montgomerys Historia,
Personhistorisk Tidskrift, 1913, and his article 'Montgomery' in
Svenska Adelns Attartavlor, edited by Elgenstierna.

HISTORY OF T H E M O N T G O M E R Y S
I wish to make grateful acknowledgment to all those who have
assisted me by offering useful suggestions or kindly answering my
letters regarding particular branches of the family. I owe a special
debt of gratitude to kinsmen, near and distant, who have lent me
family papers or biographical notes.
B. G. DE MONTGOMERY

ORIGIN OF THE NORDIC RACE
D
URING the nineteenth century German anthropologists
and ethnologists generally held that the races of Europe
had sprung from the very countries where they were to be
found in greatest numbers. This meant breaking with the earlier
theory, that the Indo-European or Caucasian group of races first
developed in the highlands of Iran, from whence it spread in
stages over the European continent. Modern scientific research
seems to favour a return to this older theory, with the reserva-
tion always that in certain countries there is left a stratum of
palaeolithic man from the Glacial Age.
All trace of settlements in Scandinavia, Finland, Russia and
northern Germany was completely defaced by the inland-ice, and
it was only when the ice gradually melted that the fauna and
human life spread to these areas. The extreme south of Sweden
was laid bare some 15,000 years ago and the melting—as far north
as Jamtland—of the mighty crust of ice, which was in places
nearly 3000 feet deep, took more than 5000 years. Theoretically
it is possible that man settled in Scandinavia as soon as Scania was
inhabitable—at the time when there was still land connection with
Denmark—but the archaeologists seem to favour the opinion that
the earliest immigration began about 6000 years ago. At this time
there were no Goths in Europe. Very likely the first settlers in
Scandinavia belonged to the Cro-Magnon race. This long-skulled
and large-limbed race of giants—one of the races that lived in the
south of Europe during the Glacial Age—has left clear traces both
in Scania and other parts of Sweden. It was a magnificent sub-
stratum upon which the Nordic race was built.
Swedish archaeologists generally do not believe that Sweden
was ever inhabited by Celts. For my own part I am perfectly
convinced that the Celts, on their westward wandering, also over-
flowed Scandinavia and remained there for a considerable length
of time. In fact, this is in my opinion the second layer of the
A

2 H I S T O R Y O F T H E M O N T G O M E R Y S
Nordic race. The Greek word Keltos, which means 'the well-
bred,' has given this race its name. In the Indo-European group
of races they were the nearest relations of the Goths, whom they
excelled as well in appearance and deportment as in craftsmanship.
One needs only to glance at the many beautiful works of art from
the Bronze Age which have been excavated in Sweden to under-
stand that they are of Celtic and not of Gothic origin.
The Celts were the first to leave the racial home in the highlands
of Iran, and they were soon followed by the Goths. In the
European countries where they settled they became the ruling
upper class. The subjected classes belonged either to the short-
skulled Alpine race or to the long-skulled Aurignac and Cro-
Magnon races, which lived in Europe in the Palaeolithic Age.
During the Bronze Age Celts ánd Goths were certainly much
closer connected than their descendants are to-day, both in appear-
ance and language. It must have been difficult at that time to
distinguish them from each other. They were both tall, blond and
blue-eyed. The eyes of the Celts were lighter blue, almost steel-
grey. It was only by mixture with the Iberic and Alpine races
that the Celts turned dark. The Celtic language has also been
strongly influenced by the language of these races and was every
century carried farther away from the tongue of the Goths.
The theory brought forward by Professor A. Bugge, that the
Cimbri, à large tribe that left Jutland in 120 B.c. and struggled
against the Romans, was of Celtic origin and of the same strain
as the Cymric population of Wales, has not been generally accepted
by ethnologists. But I am convinced that this theory is correct.
The reason why the Cimbri have been called a Teutonic tribe
was no doubt the difficulty of distinguishing between Celts and
Goths. It was probably for the same reason that Tacitus questioned
whether the Caledonians in Scotland did not belong to the Ger-
manic race. They were no doubt Celts but belonged to a tribe
*"hieh had not by that time been mixed with the Iberic people,
in i consequently much more resembled the Goths. The Cimbri

O R I G I N O F T H E N O R D I C R A C E 3
of Jutland probably belonged to some of those Celtic tribes which
lived in Scandinavia long before the arrival of the Goths, and
Jutland was called after them the Cimbric peninsula. According
to Roman historians they were gigantic and had thunder-like voices.
It does not seem unlikely that the Cimbri had been mixed with
some of the Cro-Magnon tribes, which were the earliest inhabitants
of Jutland. The chief of the Cimbri had the Celtic name Bojorix,
while the leader of the Teutons had the Gothic-sounding name
of Teutobuch. The Cimbri were defeated by Marius at Verona
in ioi B.c. and the whole tribe was completely dispersed. Whether
the remnants of this tribe fled to Wales or the Cimbri of that
country came by sea straight from Jutland is not known.
In the middle of the fourth century B.c. the Greek explorer
Pytheas of Massilia made a journey to Britannia and Scandinavia.
His diary has not been preserved, but Polybius, Strabo and Pliny
have seen to it that fragments of this most important document
have reached posterity.
In the Historia Naturalis Pliny describes the land of the
Guttons according to Pytheas—as it seems he had never been
there himself. The coast of this country, from which the Romans
got their amber, was low and marshy, some 6000 stades long. This
was obviously the coast of Prussia and Pomerania. It had the
Celtic name of Mentonoon (Menntonnman is the Cimbric name
for a marshy land which at times is under water).
On the authority of Tacitus we know that the Gotins were a
people of Celtic origin, and the fact that the country of Guttons
bore a Celtic name seems to indicate that they were also a Celtic
tribe, or at any rate a people mixed with Celts. It is quite possible
that both Guttons and Gotins were a Celto-Gothic product, the
Gothic strain being stronger in the Guttons, the Celtic stronger
in the Gotins. In any case, it must have been very difficult at the
time of Tacitus—owing to the proximity of these races both in
language and appearance—to tell with certainty whether a people
was preponderantly Gothic or Celtic.

Celtic tribes seem to have spread as far north as Esthonia, for
Tacitus has made the important observation that the people of
Esthonia 'have the same habits and appearance as the Sueves,
but a language that more resembles the British.' There has always
been intimate communication between Esthonia, Gottland and the
Swedish coastal countries, and it seems likely that at the time of
Tacitus the inhabitants of Esthonia were closely related to the
Celto-Gothic Guttons of Gottland and Ostro-Gothia. It seems
reasonable to conclude that this population mixed with the Fenni
in Finland, where one sometimes meets as good-featured men and
women as in Scotland and Ireland. Fenni no doubt belongs to
the same root as the Irish Sinn Fein.
The time of the first Gothic immigration into Scandinavia is
not known with certainty. It seems probable that it took place
in stages and that the Celts who had previously settled in Scan-
dinavia were gradually merged into this new race. Yet even
nowadays there are people in Norway, Jamtland, Darlecarlia and
Gottland of purely Celtic type.
The newcomers also mixed with the still older race of Scan-
dinavia. In the Nordic sagas, which speak about giants and the
giant-people, we see them not only as mythological beings but also
as men of flesh and blood. It often happened that a Gothic man
entered into marriage with a giantess. These broad-shouldered,
heavy forms belonged with certainty to the Cro-Magnon race,
which handed over to the Gothic people both weight and gigantic
strength. The skeleton of a woman from the Stone Age measuring
183 centimetres in length, which is 24 cm. above the Swedish
average for that period, was recently found during excavations
at Va near Kristianstad.
The Celtic empire reached its maximum extension by the middle
of the fourth century B.c. It covered Gaul, Spain, Britain, northern
Italy, parts of Germany, parts of Scandinavia and the Baltic states.
In all probability there were also Goths in Scandinavia by that
time. As early as 513 B.c. when the Persian king Darius Hystaspes

ORIGIN OF THE NORDIC RACE 5
launched his great campaign against the Scythians, the Thracians,
a people noted for valour and culture, were called the Getae. Greek
and Roman writers later on refer to the same people as Goths.
To the west of them, round the affluents of the Danube, lived
another Gothic tribe, the Daci.
The Getae (Anglo-Saxon geatas or eatas) were the ancestors
of the Jutes, while the Daci have given Denmark her name. In
his book on Caracalla, Spartianus has definitely declared that Gothi
and Getae were the same people. This opinion is also expressed
by Procopius, and Orosius writes about A.D. 400: 'Getae illi,
qui nunc Gothi.' The Romans also referred to the Daci as
Goths.
The Gothic tribes penetrated through Denmark into Scan-
dinavia or travelled in their ships down the Vistula to the Baltic,
which they crossed. At a later period a small stream flowed in
the opposite direction, and it is this secondary movement of the
Gothic people which made many historians and anthropologists
believe that this people originally came from the North.
Jordanes' Getica, written in the sixth century A.D., describes
a Gothic emigration from Scanza (Scandinavia) to the south of
Europe. This gave rise to the theory that Scandinavia was the
earliest home of the Gothic people and, in fact, the very cradle of
Europe. The sagas of Snorre pointed in the opposite direction,
but Swedish historians in the seventeenth century, being all too
anxious to glorify their great new power, gave preference to the
testimony of Jordanes.
The theory that Scandinavia was the original home of the
Gothic people found many supporters and was embodied in the
voluminous work Atland, published by Olaus Rudbeck the elder
about 1700. This rag-gatherer of human knowledge presented
his book with such a magnificence that people bowed in admiration
of so learned and brilliant a scholar. Intelligent men like Örnhielm
and Hadorph, Dahlin and Atterbom tried in vain to disperse the
phantom. The 'patriotic' theory of Rudbeck has triumphed in

6 HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERYS
Sweden ever since, and a new edition of this 'giant-book' is just
being published.
When reading up the facts about the Gothic people it is im-
possible to understand how historians of the Rudbeck type, who
make the Goths a product of the snowy North, have ever found
ready listeners for their ideas. The great people which ruled over
Thrace five hundred years before Christ, conquered the whole
south of Russia and later overthrew the Celtic empires in Gaul
and Spain, had certainly not sprung into being from the little
expeditions described in Jordanes' Getica. It is not only probable,
but absolutely certain, that the big movements went in the
opposite direction. The emigrations of little groups of Goths
from the scantily populated Sweden were occasional and
secondary events without any influence on the big developments
in Europe.
From Caesar we know that the Svessiones, a tribe of Gothic
descent, had conquered Belgium before the great contest between
Caesar and Ariovistus. 'Most Belgians,' he writes, 'are descended
from the Germans and have in olden times crossed the Rhine.
They settled in Gaul as it was a fertile country and drove away the
Gauls which previously inhabited these parts. They were the
only people who, when Gaul was devastated in the times of our
fathers, prevented the Teutones and Cimbri from crossing their
borders. . . . In our time they had a king named Divitiacus, the
most powerful ruler in the whole of Gallia, who governed not
only these provinces but also Britain.'
Caesar has thus informed us that the Svessiones ruled not only
over Belgium but also over Britain, before the Romans arrived,
and that they had settled in Gaul before the country was invaded
by the Cimbri and Teutones, i.e. before 100 BX.
The Svessiones of Caesar and the Sviones of Tacitus are probably
the same people and identical with the Suear, the leading Gothic
people in Sweden. This tribe belonged to the Suebic or Suevic
group of Gothic tribes. Suebia or Suevia was the name Tacitus

gave to Scandinavia, a country 'divided by one long unbroken
mountain ridge.'
Ariovistus, who was defeated by Caesar in 53 B.C., was the
chief of the Sueves. It was probably after this event that they
turned northward and invaded first Denmark, where they settled
side by side with the Jutes, and later Scandinavia. Hengist and
Horsa, who invaded Britain in A.D. 455, were Sueves. Their
homeland was Schleswig, and their grandfather Vitta or Vecta is
described in Beowulf as a Suevic chief. He was the son of the
Saxon chief called Woden.
Caesar has given the following characteristics of the Sueves:
'They are the biggest and most warlike of the Germanic nations.
. . . Merchants are allowed to visit them, more because they wish
to sell what they have captured in the wars than to export anything.
They do not even import horses which the Gauls much love and
procure at considerable cost. They use their own horses, which
are ill-bred and clumsy, but by daily practice they make them
support the hardest work. . . . The import of wines is not allowed,
since they believe that men thereby lose their strength and become
incapable of supporting hardships. . . . They spend the whole of
their life hunting or in warlike practices. From childhood they
are accustomed to perseverance. Those who remain in a state
of continence are highly praised, as this is considered to increase
stature and to harden the nerves.'
It is interesting to note that the Asa-cult had not developed
among the Sueves in Caesar's time. Among the gods they counted
only those whose favours theyenjoyed—Sun, Fire and Moon. From
this we can infer that Ariovistus was never deified, like Woden.
In the Germania, written about 150 years later, Tacitus makes
it clear that the Asa-cult had not even then been accepted by the
Sueves. Among the gods they worshipped in the first instance
Mercury (in Greek, Hermes; in the Saxon pedigrees, Heremod;
in the Nordic pedigrees, Heremotre), to whom on certain days
of the year they sacrificed human beings.

The cult described by Tacitus reminds one in many ways of the
Asa-cult, but the names of Woden and Thor never appear, which
proves that these gods came into being at a later time. According
to his various pedigrees, Woden was descended in the ninth
generation from Heremotre.
In Konungasagor Snorre has written the story of Woden. This
story has been told from father to son generation after generation,
and by learned men and scalds to the kings. It is impossible now
to determine the exact elements of truth in Snorre's relation, but
to dismiss it as a myth would certainly be a mistake. Even if it
only contains a core of truth it is valuable as a clue when looking
for the origin of the early Nordic and Saxon kings. In this
connection it may be mentioned that the Swedish state has guarded
this tradition. The preface of Svea Rikes Lag (The Laws of
Sweden) clearly states that the first royal house of Sweden came
into the kingdom from Asia.
Snorre tells us that Woden and his hosts came from a strong-
hold called Asgaard situated east of Tanaqvisl (the river Don).
Woden was chief of the Asar and leader of the worship and sacri-
fice. He owned large domains in Turkey. It should be noted that
all pedigrees of Woden trace back to the kings of Troy. Woden
is said to have fled before the Romans and wandered right across
Europe. He established his rule over Saxony, where he left some
of his sons, proceeded to Denmark and settled at Odense in
Funen. He later on crossed to Sweden and eventually settled at
Fornsigtuna on the lake of Malar, where he had his place of
sacrifice.
The story of Woden must be seen against the background of
the general developments in Europe. When the Goths, many
centuries earlier, emigrated from their original home in the high-
lands of Iran they had apparently left their Deity behind. Woden
and his Asar belonged to the oldest and most famous of all Gothic
families, and wherever they appeared they were offered hospitality
by the Gothic tribes and accepted as their natural leaders. It is

Snorre's opinion that Woden fled before the Romans. It seems
more likely, however, that it was the westward march of the Huns
that compelled Woden and his hosts to look for a safer abode.
'As Woden was a prognostic and a magician,' so Snorre tells us,
'he knew that his descendants would live in the northern half of
the world.'
From the Saxon sons of Woden are sprung the royal houses
of Denmark, Sweden, France, Wessex and Northumberland.
Woden belonged to the Suevic group of Goths, but it seems more
likely that the Semnones were his tribe, and not the Sviones,
which settled in Sweden long before his time. According to
Tacitus, the Semnones were the most noble of all the Gothic
tribes and were charged with the sacrificial service for the tribes.
It was typical for the Semnones to settle in a village community
of one hundred (hundrade), vide Erlinghundra, Fjårdhundra,
Lyhundra, Långhundra, Nårlinghundra, Seminghundra and Sju-
hundra, the names of communities in Upland where Woden
settled down. The same communities are also to be found among
Franks and Anglo-Saxons. In England the 'hundred' is a division
of the county.
As we shall see in the following chapter, Woden must have
arrived in Denmark some time at the beginning of the fourth
century A.D. Danish archaeologists have proved that at that time
a foreign invasion of Denmark took place, and the archaeological
finds seem to indicate that the invaders had been in close contact
with the Romans. It seems more probable that the invaders
were Gothic tribes trying to escape from the advancing Slavs,
than Slavs themselves, who as a rule destroyed everything in
their way.
The Frankish historians were unanimously of the opinion that
their own royal house, the Merovings, were descended from
Danish kings, and through them from the kings of Troy. As we
have seen, Snorre mentioned that Woden had large domains in
Turkey (Tyrkland). Tacitus had already called attention to some

i o H I S T O R Y O F T H E M O N T G O M E R Y S
sepulchral mounds and monuments with Greek inscriptions at
Augsburg (Asciburg). This gave rise to the idea that the town of
Augsburg was the very place that Snorre called Asgaard. A more
natural explanation seems to be that this monument was raised in
commemoration of Asgaard in Russia by some Gothic tribes who
had been in contact with Greek civilization in Thrace. Another
possible solution is that Tacitus took Runic letters for the Greek
alphabet, to which they bear a certain resemblance.
The intercourse between the Gothic tribes and the Huns,
which is very evident from the Edda poetry, has made some people
think that they were closely related. A Danish ethnologist has
even gone so far as to assign his own people to the Huns. That
this theory, if one can speak at all of a theory in this connection,
is absurd appears from the fact that the Huns were a Turkish tribe
and thus semi-Mongolian. When Woden had properties in
Turkey the country was not populated by Turks but by Troyans.
That makes the whole difference.
On the other hand, the stories of Huns and Hunaland in the
Edda and other Nordic sagas clearly prove that Huns and Goths
were to some extent intermingled. Both Ostro-Goths, Visi-Goths
and Alans were at times under Hunnish dominion, and, as we
have already stated, it was probably the pressure exercised by the
Huns that drove Woden from Asgaard. The Nordic tradition
about a passage of arms with Romans certainly originated from the
times of Ariovistus and Caesar, when the Gothic tribes were
expelled from Gaul.
In the fifth century A.D. the Visi-Goths wandered into Europe,
plundered Rome and conquered Gaul and Spain. It is interesting
to note that in the battle of the Catalaunian Fields in 451, when the
Roman general Aëtius defeated the Huns under Attila, the Visi-
Goths and the Franks fought on the Roman side, whereas the
Ostro-Goths, who were then under Attila's dominion, took his
side m the battle. After this event, however, they freed themselves
from the Huns, and in 493 their king, Theoderic the Great,

O R I G I N O F T H E N O R D I C R A C E n
conquered Rome, where the Ostro-Goths remained in power for
a period of fifty years.
The first Viking raids began in the sixth century, but it was
only when the Gothic tribes in Scandinavia had increased suffi-
ciently in numbers and strength, in the ninth and tenth centuries,
that they became a real plague to western Europe.
When reading a relation of these raids one easily gets the
impression that they aimed at nothing but plunder and destruction.
This opinion, however, is somewhat one-sided. It is quite true
that the raids of the Vikings were both cruel and voracious, but
we must not forget that they were often out for conquest and laid
under their rule great countries, which they afterwards adminis-
tered with skill and sagacity.
Claims of inheritance often played an important role in these
raids. Nordic descendants of dethroned kings in Gaul and
Britain returned to demand the soil of their ancestors or com-
pensation for it, and in many cases they were successful. We shall
see in the following chapter how extremely interwoven the royal
houses of Scandinavia, France and England were, and here is to
be found the chief explanation of the great wars and Viking raids
of the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries.

T H E S U E V I C D Y N A S T I E S
T
HE Suevic kings, descended from the Suevic or Saxon
Woden, are in England known under the name of Ylvings
or Uffingas. In Sweden they were called Ulvungar,
Ylvingar or Ynglingar, the last being a distortion for which
Tjodulf of Hvin and Snorre are responsible. In Germany
they were called Völfungen or Vôlsungen, and in Beowulf, Vylfings.
In Denmark the Ulvungar were often mistaken for Sköldungar
or Skilvingar (in Beowulf, Scyldings), descended from earlier
Gothic kings.
The name is derived from U f f e , Ulf or Völf, a king in Jutland,
who was a lineal descendant of the Saxon Woden. Some historians
have given his name as Völsung, but this shows complete ignorance
of the way in which the Gothic words were formed. The termina-
tion ung means descendant of. Thus the name of the king was
Völf and the name of his descendants Völfungen.
Ynglingatal, the royal pedigree drawn up by Tjodulf of Hvin
and quoted by Snorre, is an omnium gatherum of invented and
real names. The same may be said of all other Nordic pedigrees,
whether they trace back to Woden or through him and the royal
trees of Troy to Japhet, Noah and Adam. The reason of this
confusion is first of all that Woden has been placed too far back in
time—about 300 years—the gap being filled by invented kings.
The series : Fridleif, Fridfrode, Fridleif, Havarr and Frode seems
very much artificial; also the sequence: Yngve Frej, Fjolner,
Svegder, Vanland, Visbur, Domald, Domar, Dyggve and Dag.
These kings are certainly nothing but a fiction, produced by the
scald with the intention of connecting later generations with a
Woden who lived at the time of Christ.
The Anglo-Saxon pedigrees are, notwithstanding many de-
ficiencies, far more reliable. By comparing these pedigrees with
historical facts and dates given in contemporary Saxon and French
chronicles it is possible also to produce a pedigree for the Nordic
12

THE SUEVIC DYNASTIES 13
kings which satisfies reasonable demands for probability and
reliability.
On the one hand, we have to fix the approximate time for
Woden's arrival in Scandinavia. On the other hand, we must
always keep in mind that not only Scandinavia but also the whole
of western Europe became the dominion of Woden's descendants.
They conquered all the countries of this large territory and guarded
through intermarriage the interests of the divine dynasties. Every
royal house descended fromWoden had claims of inheritance on one
or several of these countries, and often the Ulvungar sat as superior
kings in countries ruled over by local kings of less famous dynasties.
The ancient Danish dynasties in Jutland, Funen, Lolland and
Zeeland did not descend from Woden, but possibly from some of
his ancestors far back in time. The Danish Sköldungar, Scyldings or
Skilvings had as their ancestor Sköld, Sceldwea or Scealdne, who
according to Saxon chronicles lived nine generations earlier than
Woden. He was the son of Heremotre, who, at the time of Tacitus,
was worshipped as a god and may be considered as the elder Woden.
The intimate connection between the Nordic and the West
European dynasties has been noticed by Professor E. G. Geijer
in Svea Rikes Havder.
'But the Nordic stories about Woden also make him and his
Asar from the Black Sea come through Russia to the lands of
Saxon and Frank before they turned to Scandinavia, and that
the ancient sagas of those nations are closely related to our own
can be proved by mutual testimonies. Here in the north we
traced the royal pedigree of the Franks from Woden, and the story
of his descendants, the Völsungar, was a favourite theme of the
ancient Nordic sagas. But the descent of the kings was almost
everywhere in the ancient sagas equally that of the people, and the
Franks were considered, according to their own attestation, as
descendants of the Danish and Nordic people. With the Saxons
there is the same tradition. Ynglingasagan and the Edda tell us
that their kings as well were descended from Woden, and the

Saxon chronicles from heathen times, which are better preserved
than those of the Franks, who became Christians earlier, give even
stronger evidence to this effect, for to Woden the Saxon kings
themselves traced their descent, and this Saxon Woden was no
doubt identical with the Nordic Woden.'
Thus Geijer clearly recognized that there was a close connec-
tion between the saga-woven annals of the Nordic and West
European countries, and in the following chapter we shall see that
this unanimity was so strong that in many cases the same kings
ruled both in Scandinavia, Gaul and Britain.
According to Saxon chronicles, Woden had two sons : Beldaeg
(Nordic, Balldr or Balder) and Vegdegg or Vecta (Nordic,Vetta,Vitta
orVidar). The formerwas ancestor of the kings of Wessex, and to him
Asser traced the tree of King Alfred. From Vegdegg were descended
the Frankish kings, the Suevic chiefs Hengist and Horsa,who led the
Saxon invasion of England in 455, and the Swedish kings.
Gregory of Tours, who lived in the sixth century, has
translated the answer of the Frankish king Clodvig to his wife
when she urged him to become a Christian: 'Your god cannot
be proved to belong to the strain of gods.' Clodvig was obviously
quite convinced that he himself was descended from the gods,
while Gregory was sufficiently unprejudiced to point out that
the gods of Clodvig were only human beings and magicians. The
French theory of the divine origin of kings has certainly its
explanation in the fact that they traced their descent from Woden.
That Woden was a Gothic chief, and a magician at that, appears
clearly from Snorre. It was certainly first after his death that he
was deified. O. Verelius and J. Peringskiöld have contended that
Woden during his lifetime bore the prosaic name of Sigge Frid-
leifsson, and that the town of Sigtuna was called after him. This
theory is by no means improbable, but another explanation may
be that the town was called after his descendant Sigmund, who
gave to his son Helge Hundingsbane the royal estate of Håtuna in
the neighbourhood of which the town of Fornsigtuna grew up.

T H E S U E V I C D Y N A S T I E S 15
Let us now try to determine the approximate time for Woden's
arrival in western Europe. On Catstane near Edinburgh, Sir James
Simpson has found the inscription of a Gothic chief Vetta,dated 364.
It may reasonably be inferred that this Vetta was identical with
Woden's son Vecta. This in turn leads to the conclusion that Woden
must have arrived during the latter half of the third or the first half
of the fourth century, and that in fact he must have led the invasion
of Denmark which, in the opinion of Danish archaeologists, took
place at that time. This overthrows in one stroke all the Scandinavian
pedigrees, which make Woden a contemporary of Christ, but gives
a strong support to the much shorter Saxon pedigrees.
The eldest son of Woden was Beldaeg or Balder, from whom
the kings of Wessex and Alfred the Great claimed descent. The
kings of Northumberland belonged to a younger branch of this
family. It should be noted that both the kings of East Anglia and the
kings of Kent were descended fromWoden's younger sonVegdegg or
Vecta. The following table shows the descent from Woden of the
early Saxon kings:
Beldaeg Bo Vegdegg
I I
Brond Sigear
Geuvis Vaermund Vuetgis
Elesa Uffe Hengist
Cerdic Sigmund Oeric
Creoda Tytla Octa
Cynric a son Eormenric
Ceaulin a son Ethelbert, d. 616
Cuthwine Redwald, d. 627

16 HISTORY OF T H E MONTGOMERYS
Alfred the Great was descended in the ninth generation from
Cuthwine. The descendants of Uffe, kings of East Anglia, were
called Uffingas or Uffingi, and belonged to the same family as the
Ulvungar and Ylvingar in Sweden and the Völfungen in Frankland.
The conquering chiefs Hengist and Horsa were the sons of Vaer-
mund's brother Vuetgis. They were ancestors of the kings of
Kent. To this family belonged Eormenric or Jörmunrek, who
married Svanhilda, daughter of Sigurd Fafnesbane, the most
famous of all Völfungen whose deeds were celebrated both in
Nordic and German poems.
According to Saxo's Baldersaga, Woden had a son, Bo, by a
Ruthenian princess, Rind. Bo, who in the Edda is called Vale or
Vale, avenged the death of Balder.
According to the Nordic sagas, the Frankish dynasty traced
their descent from Sigge, said to have been the son of Woden.
The Saxon chronicles, however, make Sigear the son of Vecta
and the grandson of Woden. This is probably correct. Also in
this case the Frankish kings are descended from Sigge, for Sigear
and Sigge are clearly the same man; the fact that he was the
grandson and not the son of Woden is of little importance. The
main thing is that Sigge, from whom the Nordic sagas traced the
descent of the Frankish kings, also appears in the Saxon pedigrees.
The Annales Islandorum Regii state that Faramund, the first
king of the Franks, the son of Marcomir, ruled for eleven years.
History knows the name of Marcomir from the Roman Emperor
Julian's campaign against the Batavians in 358. Gregory of
Tours also mentions Marcomir as a Chattish chief, who was
attacked in 392 by Argobast, a Roman general of Gothic descent.
According to Asser, Clodio succeeded Faramund as king of the
Franks in 430. At the death of Clodio the crown was taken over
by Merovaeus, but French historians seem to hold the opinion
that he was not the son of his predecessor. Already Gregory
of Tours had expressed doubt on this point : ' Some say that King
Merovée, who had a son Childerik, was born within his (Clodio's)

family' (Historia Francorum, ed. Guizot, p. 76). As we shall see
presently, it seems more probable that Merovaeus was the son
of Faramund.
According to an ancient Frankish tradition, a god, coming from
the sea, forced Clodio's wife, who after that bore him a son. This
boy was given the name of Merovaeus or Merovig, which means
'from the sea' (German, Meer-Weg; French, mervoie), and became
the king of the Franks after Clodio. To derive the name of the
Gothic king, as some have done, from the Latin, mereo, or from
Sanskrit, mar, seems more far-fetched.
With regard to the contention in French and Nordic chronicles
that the Merovaean kings were descended from Woden, it seems
natural to infer that at the back of the above tradition lies a Suevic
conquest of the land of the Batavians, the two peoples being fused
into one, with a Suevic king and a Suevic upper class. Faramund
would in that case be identical with Vaermund the Wise, a Suevic
king in Jutland. Chronologically this theory fits in very well,
for Vaermund was the great-grandson of Woden and must have
lived about A.D. 430. If Merovaeus was the son of Vaermund by
Clodio's wife, he was thus unquestionably of 'divine descent.'
His claim to the Frank throne was probably not based upon the
conquest of his father, but on the right of inheritance from his
mother. The Icelandic annals state that Faramund was the son
of Marcomir, probably because Merovaeus was the grandson of
Marcomir. The explanation seems to be that Clodio's wife was
the daughter of Marcomir and by his mother Merovaeus was thus
the grandson of Marcomir, the Batavian chief. This must have
been the ground upon which he eventually established his claim.
The Greek historian Priscus tells us in his Fragmenta that on
the death of Clodio there were rivals for the Frank throne. Only
Merovaeus is known by name. He applied for Roman support
of his claim, whilst the other pretender was backed by Attila.
Priscus met Merovaeus during his stay in Rome and describes him
as ' quite a young man with an abundance of long, fair hair, dropping
B

i8 H I S T O R Y O F T H E M O N T G O M E R Y S
down over his shoulders.' Thus there can be no mistake about the
fact that Merovaeus was of Nordic descent.
The Roman general Aètius also met Merovaeus in Rome and
tried to win his friendship by precious gifts. As we know, Mero-
vaeus afterwards fought side by side with Aetius in the great battle
of the Catalaunian Fields, where the power of Attila was broken
for ever. Merovaeus' rival for the throne was probably his half-
brother, the son of Clodio. After Attila's defeat Merovaeus had
nothing to fear from his brother.
The following table shows the descent of Merovaeus according
to the above analysis :
Woden
I
Vegdegg, 364
Sigear Marcomir, 358, 392
seized
Vaermund = Clodio's wife=Clodio
I IMerovaeus a son
As we have seen, this genealogy fits in well with the Frankish
tradition about the Danish descent of the Merovaean kings (vide
Ermoldus Nigellus, ninth century) and the statement of the Edda
that the Nordic kings were also kings in Frankland. The doctrine
of the divine descent of the French kings is another matter which
in this way finds its solution.
The Nordic sagas tell a great deal about the ancient kings of
Sweden and Denmark, but as there has been no determination of
time they have been vague and mysterious figures, whose existence
has been doubted. As we have mentioned already, some of them
were simply invented, but a comparison with certain historical
dates in England and France makes it possible to determine which
of them really existed and the approximate times when they lived.
In this way they have been brought back to reality.
U f f e or Ulf, the ancestor of Ulvungar, Völfungen and Uffingas,

THE SUEVIC DYNASTIES 19
was according to the Edda (Sången om Hyndla) the son of Sjöfare.
In practically all chronicles Uffe is said to have been the son of
Vaermund, while the latter must have been identical with Sjöfare.
Since Uffe was the son of Vaermund (the chronicles) and Merovaeus
was the son of Vaermund or Faramund, Uffe and Merovaeus must
have been brothers. In all probability they had different mothers.
From Merovaeus, who was probably the elder brother, was
descended the French dynasty, while Uffe was the ancestor of the
Swedish kings. The Edda gives us the key of the lineage of the
Swedish king Ottar Wendelkråka. Hyndla sings: 'You are Ottar
by Innsten begot, as Innsten was by Alf the Old, as Alf by Ulf, Ulf
by Sjöfare (Seafarer) and Sjöfare by Sven Rôde (Sweyn the Red).'
Ottar belonged to the same generation as the Frankish king
Clotar, who died in 561, while Innsten was contemporary with
Clodvig, who died in 511. Alf lived at the same time as Childeric
or Heidrec, who died in 481. According to the Edda, Heidrec
had a daughter Borgny. The Danish king Hjålprek (Chilperic)
was probably the brother of Heidrec. According to the Edda,
Hjålprec was the father of Borghild, who married the Völfung
king Sigmund of Frankland. This king was equally king in
Sweden, for he gave Håtuna, where half the king's army was kept,
to his son Helge Hundingsbane, elder brother of Sigurd Fafnesbane.
Helge also received as a gift Ringstad in Zeeland. By Borghild
Sigmund had another son called Håmund, Amund, or Anund.
This all shows how extraordinarily interwoven the Suevic
dynasties in France, Denmark and Sweden already were at this
time. A comparison with the French kings gives us the following
approximate dates for the Swedish kings:
Uffe, about 450
Alf, 490 Sigmund, 490
I I
Innsten, 520 Helge, 520
I
Ottar, 550

2o H I S T O R Y O F T H E M O N T G O M E R Y S
Helge Hundingsbane inherited his mother's Danish dominion.
Gregory of Tours tells us in Historia Francorum that a Frank
king about the year 500 fled to Denmark to seek the protection of
King Cochilaik (Hugleik, Helge). The French chronicles record
that Cochilaik devastated Flanders in 515.
Sigmund of Frankland married first Borghild, daughter of
King Hjålprek of Denmark, and secondly Hjördis, daughter of
King Öilime. On the death of Sigmund she married his brother
Alf. The Prose Edda states that Alf was the brother of Borghild,
which is a mistake. He was her brother-in-law, and from Sangen
om Hyndla we know that he was the son of Ulf.
According to the Edda, Sigmund had by his sister Signy a son
called Fjötle, in Beowulf Fitela, and in the Saxon chronicles called
Tytla or Tytili. From him was descended Redwald of East
Anglia, who was tributary king under Ethelbert of Kent, the son
of Jörmunrek and Svanhilda.
The names of the Suevic dynasties, which appear in the Edda,
in Beowulf and in the chronicles, are as follows: Skoldungar,
Skilvingar (Edda) and Scyldings (Beowulf) were the descendants of
Sköld (Nordic), Sceldwea or Scealdne (Saxon), the son of Heremod
(Saxon) or Heremotre (Nordic). From Sköld descended the ancient
kings of Denmark, and Woden, although he arrived later in
Denmark, was the male representative of the oldest branch of this
family. He was ninth in descent from Sköld. All the Suevic kings
were Scyldings, whether or not they, for the sake of distinction,
called themselves Uffingas, Merovings or any other name. In
England the Danish kings were mostly known as the Scyldings.
The main line of this family led from Beldaeg down to King Alfred.
Rodungar descended from Sigear or Sven Rôde, the son of
Vegdegg and the grandson of Woden.
Vaermundingar descended from Vaermund, the son of Sigear.
Merovings descended from Merovaeus, the son of Vaermund.
Ulvungar, Ylvingar, incorrectly Ynglingar, descended from
Uffe, Ulf or Völf, the son of Vaermund. This name was generally

THE SUEVIC DYNASTIES
applied to the royal house of Sweden, descended from Alf, the
son of Ulf.
Völfungar were also descended from Uffe, Ulf or Völf, but
the name was generally applied to Sigmund, the son of Völf, and
his sons Helge Hundingsbane and Sigurd Fafnesbane.
Uffingas descended from Uffe, but the name was generally
applied to the descendants of Tytla, the son of Sigmund and the
grandson of Uffe. To this dynasty belonged King Redwald of
East Anglia.
Both Sigmund and Helge Hundingsbane were Chief kings over
Denmark and Sweden and also ruled over parts of Frankland.
Their Nordic dominions were governed from the two strong places
Håtuna on the lake of Malar and Ringstad in Zeeland. At these
places they kept their armies and fleets (Helge Hundingsbane I, 26).
In the Langfedgetal and Ynglingatal there is no distinction
made between Ulvungar and Völfungar. Apart from the fact that
many of the kings are pure inventions, especially the early ones,
there is nothing to show that these tables are pedigrees. On the
contrary, it seems clear that when a Völfung king appears in this
list he is either placed there as a Chief king or breaks the pedigree
of the Ulvungar.
In the Ynglingatal Ulf and his son Alf are taken up as joint
kings under the names of Yngve and Alf. In the Langfedgetal
Yngve is made contemporary with his grandson Helge. Anund
in the Ynglingatal is surely identical with the Völfung Håmund,
brother of Helge. In order to make the generations fit, Anund the
Old has been given an age of 210 years. In Jörund we recognize
Jormunrek, the son-in-law of Sigurd Fafnesbane. He was probably
king in Sweden only by name. After the expulsion of Ingiald
Illråde's descendants at the beginning of the seventh century, other
less famous families than the Ulvungar got into power. About 100
years later, however, the Ulvungar returned stronger than ever,
not the descendants of Ingiald, but those of Ingvar, younger
brother of Brötanund.

We are now in a position to give the pedigree of the elder
Ulvungar. ^
Alf
I
Innsten
I
Ottar
I
Adils
.. I
Osten
Brötanund Ingvar
Ingiald Illråde
According to the sagas, Olof Tràtàlja, the son of Ingiald, was
sacrificed by his people to the gods. Snorre states that his son
Ingiald was king of Vårmland. Others hold that he settled in
England. In fact, there was a King Ingiald in England who died
in 720. If he was identical with Olofs son, the pedigree of King
Alfred should branch off at that point and go back through the
Ulvungar to Woden.
Walther Vogel writes (Die Normannen und das Frankische Reich,
p. 18): ' Svear and Göter had one king in common who had his
seat at Sigtuna.' The observation of the German historian is
correct both in respect of that time when the Völfungar ruled in
the North, and for that later period when the Ulvungar had re-
turned into power. It must be noticed, however, that many of
these Chief kings at Sigtuna ruled over dominions far beyond the
frontiers of Sweden—in Denmark, Norway, England, Frankland
and Esthonia. In Sweden their principal fastness was Håtuna,
from which the entrance to Upsala was controlled. It seems
probable that Alf and his descendants down to Ingiald Illråde
resided at Upsala, while the Volfunga kings, Sigmund, Helge and

Hårnund, stayed at Håtuna, when they returned for the summer
to the North from their expeditions in southern countries. The
later Ulvunga kings, Sigurd Ring and his descendants, resided
at Håtuna in Upland, at Ringstad in Zeeland and in Ringerike
in Norway. We now proceed to a study of this powerful line of
Ulvungar or Ylvings, the house of Ingvar.

I N G V A R ' S L I N E O F Y L V I N G S
M
ANY historians have made desperate efforts to connect
the pedigree of the Swedish King Olof Scottking, who
died in 1020, with Ingiald Illråde in order thereby to
trace his descent back to Woden. Ingiald's son Olof was supposed
to have had a son Inge, from whom Olof Scottking was descended
in the fourth generation. In order to get Ragnar Lodbrok (Lothroc
or Lothbroc) into this pedigree as well, a marriage was arranged
between Inge and Ragnar's daughter. By doing this, however,
they overlooked the not quite unimportant detail that there were
five generations between Olof Tråtalja and Ragnar. This pedigree
was in fact a very poor construction.
That famous house which has given to history Sigurd Ring,
Ragnar Lodbrok, Sigurd Snake-eye, Biorn Jarnsithe, Sweyn Fork-
beard, Canute the Great, Rollo and William the Conqueror, traced
its descent from Woden, not through Ingiald Illråde, but through
his uncle Ingvar, king of Esthonia and Ingria. His son Skira was
the father of Radbart, father of Randver, father of Sigurd Ring,
king of Sweden. Aud the Deep-minded, daughter of the Scylding
king, Ivar Wide-fathom, overlord of Sweden, Denmark, North-
umberland, parts of Norway and Saxony, married the Danish
king Roric. There is no evidence to prove the statement of the
pedigrees that Aud took Radbart for her second husband. In
fact this seems most improbable, since the Runic series definitely
says that Ring was the son of Harold Hylthetan's sister, and it is
not likely that Randver married his half-sister.
The Swedish king, Sigurd Ring, Randver's son, defeated his
uncle, Harold, in the battle of Brâvalla in Ostro-Gothia about 780,
the first phase of a long struggle for predominance between the
Ylvings, represented by Sigurd, and the Scyldings, headed by
Harold Hylthetan. In describing the battle Saxo has emphasized
this fundamental contrast by letting Woden himself appear in the
battle in the disguise of Bruno, who gave Harold the mortal
24

INGVAR'S LINE OF YLVINGS 25
wound. After this victory Sigurd Ring, an Ylving and descendant
of Woden, also became a king in Denmark. But the whole of
Denmark did not come under his sceptre, only Zeeland, Scania,
Halland, Blekinge and Viken. The rest of the country was held
by Harold, the son of Harold Hylthetan.
The struggle between Ylvings and Scyldings continued.
Harold's son Godfrid or Goder had two sons, Olof and Horic.
In 810 they attacked and killed Annulo, the son of Halfdan and the
grandson of Sigurd Ring, and conquered his part of the country.
Annulo's brothers Harold Klak and Ragnar Lodbrok or Lothbroc
then turned to the Roman Emperor for support and eventually
recovered their father's dominions. At the wish of the Emperor
they were baptized in 826, when Ragnar took the Christian name
of Raginfrid (Reginfred, Reinfrid). According to Adam of Bremen,
discord arose between the brothers and Ragnar was compelled
to leave Denmark. From his father Halfdan he had inherited
Ragnarike (Viken), and parts of Norway which once belonged
to Ivar Wide-fathom, and was, in fact, a Norwegian king (G.
Schönning, Norges Riiges Historie, Soroe, 1773, pp. 61, 445).
About 860 Ragnar conquered the Orkney Islands, from where he
and his sons organized Viking raids on a large scale. It should
be noticed that Ragnar, who moved up the Schelde in 836 and
died during this expedition, was never called Lothbroc in the
chronicles, and the Danish chief, Ragnar, who became famous for
his conquest of Paris in 845, was the brother of the Danish king
Horic. He died in 847.
During an expedition to England Ragnar Lothbroc was captured
by Ella, the King of Northumberland, and put to a cruel death in
a snake-pit. The time when this happened is not known with
certainty. Icelandic chronicles give different dates. Hamsforth
says that Ragnar was killed and succeeded by his sons Ivar and
Sigurd in 854. The Saxon chronicles are probably more reliable.
According to their version, Raghnall, the son of a Norwegian king
Halfdan, was cruelly killed by Ella in 865. The correctness of

this statement is vouched for by the fact that England was invaded
the following year by very strong forces under the command of
Danish, Norwegian and Swedish kings and earls, foremost among
whom were the sons of Ragnar. The first onset was made upon
Deira. Ella fell during the initial stages of the campaign and his
country was conquered. This was the beginning of the big
struggle which eventually led to the Danish conquest of England.
The sons of Ragnar Lothbroc were Sigfrid or Sigurd Snogeoeje
(Latin, anguis in oculo; Swedish, Ormöga), Bier Costa Ferreae or
Biorn Jarnsithe (Swedish, Björn Jàrnsida), Ivar (Benlös or Bagsaeg)
and Halvdan Ylving (Fornaldar Sögur, I, 387-8), in Swedish
Vitserk, Ingvar Ragnarson and Ubbe. The annals and chronicles
add four more sons : Aryc, Ormic, Godfrid and Rothulph. These,
however, were Ragnar's grandsons or nephews. Thus Aryc was
Eric, the son of Biorn, while Ormic was Ingvar's son Gorm or
Gormeric. Godfrid and Rothulph were the sons of Ragnar's
brother, Harold Klak.
It seems unlikely that Sigfrid, who was a great Viking chief,
ever settled down in Denmark as a king, but his son, Hardesnuth,
appears in the records as a Danish king. Biorn resided at Sigtuna
on Ansgar's first visit to that town in 829, when the Swedish king
was Anund or Onund Upsale. On his second visit the name of
the king at Sigtuna was Olof (vide pedigree, p. 29). In all prob-
ability the brother of Horic had, during Biorn's absence abroad,
been recognized as a Swedish king. Olof led several successful
expeditions to Poland and the Baltic countries. It is known that
Ansgar was sent to Olof by Horic on a special mission, probably
telling his brother of his approaching death. Horic died in 854
and Olof succeeded him. Olof was succeeded in Denmark by his
son Edmund. In Series Runica, prima we read: 'Then was
Edmunder king, Olafs son.' On his return to Denmark Biorn
was proclaimed king, and after him his son Harold. 'Then was
Biorn king, Jarnsithe. Then was Harald king, Biorn's son,' say
the runes.

Biorn's younger son, Eric, was at some time a king in Sweden,
but he was succeeded by the Scylding king Edmund's son Eric,
who got the surname Weatherhat. The latter was succeeded by
his son Biorn, the father of Eric the Victorious and the grandfather
of Olof Scottking, who was thus a Scylding and a descendant of
Harold Hylthetan.
In Denmark Horic's son Horic ruled for some time, but on
his death the crown reverted to Gorm, the son of Harold and
grandson of Biorn Jarnsithe. The runes tell us 'then was Gorm
king, the Old, Harald's son.' He was succeeded by his son Harold
Bluetooth, father of Sweyn Forkbeard, father of Canute the
Great who died in 1035.
The Scylding King Edmund or Anund had a younger brother
Guthorm who became a great ruler in England. On his arrival in
East Anglia the Ylving chiefs Ingvar and Ubbe, sons of Lothbroc,
departed (Matthew of Paris, Chronicon Majora, ed. 1857, I,
399). There was never any real friendship between the repre-
sentatives of these two dynasties in England, and they often fought
against each other in spite of the fact that they belonged to the
same nation.
The table on pp. 28-9 shows the main lines of these families:

28 HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERYS
Y L V I N G K I N G S
overlords in Scandinavia who ruled their dominions from Ringerike in
Norway, Ringstad in Zeeland, Ringsta in Ostro-Gothia, Håtuna in Upland
and Sotanes in Ragnarike.
Sigurd Ring 1
I
Halfdan
Harold Klak Ragnar Lothbroc 2
Godfrid Torny Sigfrid Biorn:
Ingvar4
d. 872
Ragnhild Hardesnuth Harold Rollo 5
d. 931
Gormeric e
Harold
Fairhair
d. 933
Gorm William William Bernardus Sihtric
the Old Longsword Danus fl. 942
d. 950 d. 942 fl. 930-50
1
Ring Kunung Haralths suster sun Hylthetans (Series Runica, prima).
- Ragnar had three more sons : Ivar Boneless, Halfdan Vidserk, Ubbe.
3
Biorn Kunung Jarnsithe, Haralth Kunung Biorns sun, Gorm Kunung hin gamle
Haralths sun (Ibid, and Runic inscription at Jellinge in Jutland).
4
Annales of Ulster.
6
and 6
Vide pp. 30-32.

S C Y L D I N G K I N G S
rulers over Jutland, the Danelaw in England and Sweden as rivals of the
Ylvings.
Harold Hylthetan
I
Harold 1
I
Godfrid
Olof3
Horic, d. 854 Ragnar, d. 847
Edmund Guthorm
(Aethelstan)
d. 890 3
Horic, d. 868
Eric Bothar
I
Gorm
á.918
Sihtric
d. 926
Biorn Godfrid Olof Quaran
Olof Eric the Victorious
Styrbiorn Olof Scottking
the Strong d. c. 1020
1
Haralth Kunung Hylthetan sun (Series Runica, prima).
* Olaf Kunung Rings Bane Goders sun (Ibid.).
3
DCCCCXIV moritur Gormo Danus in Anglia succedente filio Siderico qui
ducta Editte Tyrae sorore, genuit Olaum et Gotoricum (Hamsfortii Chrono-
logia, secunda, ad. arm.). Guthorm died in 890 (English chronicles). Gorm
Danus was killed at the battle of Tempsford in 918.

R O L L O ' S A N D G O R M E R I C ' S D E S C E N D A N T S
S
NORRE made Rollo (Hrolf the Ganger or Going Rolf) the
son of the Norwegian earl Ragnvald of More. This theory
has been much discussed by Danish and Norwegian his-
torians, and many arguments have been raised for and against it.
The Norwegians have supported Snorre, while the Danes have
asserted the opinion that Rollo was a Danish prince. There is no
doubt that in all this discussion patriotic feelings have influenced
the arguments of the contending parties, but such feelings are
particularly out of place in this connection, since Rollo was an
Ylving and his ancestors were rulers both in Denmark and Norway.
The pedigree of Rollo and Gormeric, ancestor of the Mont-
gomerys, given on p. 28 is supported by the following clear or
circumstantial evidence :
1. The statement of Dudo de St. Quentin (De Moribus et
Actis Primorum Normanniae Ducum) that Rollo was a Danish prince.
2. Dudo wrote his story some sixty years after Rollo's death
at the request of Richard I, Rollo's grandson. Snorre wrote his
saga two centuries later.
3. The inconsistency of Snorre's story. He tells us that
Ragnvald Jarl was Harold's dearest friend. It does not seem
likely, therefore, that Ragnvald's son descended on Viken as an
enemy. If Rollo raided Viken, it is far more probable that he did
this to establish his claim of inheritance or to avenge some wrong
he had suffered. As the grandson of Lothbroc he had a better
right to Viken (Ragnarike) than Harold Fairhair, whose mother
was Ragnar's granddaughter.
4. The existence of another Earl Rolf or Riulf in Normandy,
whom Snorre may have mistaken for Rollo.
5. According to Dudo, Rollo had a brother with the name of
Gorm. This prince arrived in France in the company of his uncle
Sigfrid, Ragnar's son, and of Godfrid, the son of Harold Klak.
30

ROLLO'S AND GORMERIC'S DESCENDANTS 31
He took a prominent part in the battle of Saulcourt fought on
the 3rd of August, 881 (Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Rerum
Gallicarum Scriptores, IX, 58 B) and passed to Lorraine. He used
the palace of the Emperor Otto at Aachen as stables (Adam of
Bremen) and in the treaty of Esloo he was paid off in gold and
silver ('plura millia argenti et auri' according to Chronologia
Rerum Septrionalium, Langebek, V, 127).
6. Rollo was present at the siege of Paris in 885, and according
to Dudo, Aethelstan sent Rollo presents asking him to leave the
siege and come to his assistance against his rebellious subjects.
Thus we know that Rollo was fighting in France with the sons of
Lothbroc, like his brother Gorm.
7. According to the Germanic genealogies in the Bibliothèque
Nationale in Paris (Cabinet des titres, vol. 20780), the ancestor of
the Montgomerys was Gommer, 'one of the princes who accom-
panied Duke Rollo at the conquest of Neustria in 885.' This
prince must be identical with Gorm. That he was of Danish
nationality is clear from the fact that his son Bernard (Christian
name for Biorn) was called Danus.
8. Bernardus Danus, who was thus a first cousin of William
Longsword, was regent in Normandy during Richard's minority.
9. That the Montgomerys were of Nordic descent is clear
from the fact that Gommer's lineal descendant Roger de Mont-
gomery signed himself ' ego Rogerius ex Normannis Normannus '
in the foundation charter of Troarn, 1050 (original document in
Bibliothèque Nationale, Collection Baluze, vol. 554v
).
10. Gommer had three sons : Guillam, ancestor of the Mont-
gomerys; Bernardus Danus, ancestor of the Dukes of Harcourt;
and Sihtric, a Viking chief, described as the grandson of Ingvar
Ragnarson (Annals of the Four Masters). Bernardus Danus called
Sihtric to his assistance against the King of France (vide p. 28).
11. The Danish name Gorm or Gormeric (Saxon, Eormenric)
has in Frankish been distorted into Gommer or Gommeric and

in Gaelic into Ormic, and is mentioned among the descendants
of Lothbroc (Annal. Esrom, Langebek, I, 229).
12. William the Conqueror was a descendant in the fifth
generation from Rollo, Ingvar's son. After his arrival in England
William opened Ingvar's grave (Ragnar's Saga, ch. 22).
During many generations the families of Hrolf the Ganger
and of Gormeric were closely connected. Bernard the Dane was
the chief counsellor of Rollo's son Guillam, and during the minority
of Richard I he was regent in Normandy. Bernard's grandson,
Thurold de Pont-Audemer, married Aveline, the sister of Gunnor,
wife of Richard I, and Roger de Montgomery married Josceline,
daughter of Senfrie, another sister of the Duchess. When William
the Bastard conquered England, Roger de Montgomery led the
operations, while Roger de Beaumont, the grandson of Thurold
de Pont-Audemer, was regent of Normandy.
Ever since armorial bearings came into use the Montgomerys
have carried much the same arms as the royal houses of Denmark,
France and England. The royal arms of Denmark are: or three
lions passant guardant azure, while the arms of Philip de Mont-
gomery the crusader were: azure a lion rampant or lampassé
argent. The arms of Plantagenet were : gules three lions passant
guardant; those of the Counts of Montgomery and Alençon, when
they did not use the arms of Bellême: gules a chevron ermine
between three lions passant guardant or. The Swedish Folkings,
the royal house descended on the female line from the Ylvings,
used arms similar to those of Montgomery and Plantagenet, while
the not regal branch of the Folkings used a fleur-de-lis. The arms
of Capets and Bourbons, the royal houses of France, were : azure,
three fleurs-de-lis or. Those of the Scottish Montgomerys were
the same as these in first and fourth.
All these houses were closely related. It is only natural,
therefore, that they used the same or similar arms. The Danish
house of Ylvings descended from Biorn Jarnsithe became extinct

ROLLO'S AND GORMERIC'S DESCENDANTS 33
on the death of Hardesnuth, the son of Canute the Great, in 1042.
The Norman line descended from Hrolf the Ganger died out with
Henry I in 1135, but the Ylvings descended from Lothbroc's
grandson Gormeric survived in the families of Montgomery and
Harcourt. The former remains in Scotland, Ireland, England,
Sweden, France, the United States of America and Canada; the
latter in France and England.

MONTGOMERYS OF NORMANDY
B L A S O N
Philip de Montgomery, 1096 (Ar- Shield: Azure lion rampant or
morial des Salles des Croisades, lampassé argent.
Musée de Versailles).
T
HE large domains situated within the present departe-
ments Calvados and Orne, which once formed part of
the feudal county of Montgomery, comprised nearly
150 different enfeoffments, in the first place, Saint-Germain-
de-Montgomery, Saint-Foy-de-Montgomery, La Chapelle-Haute-
Grise, Vignet and Mesle-sur-Sarthe. The greater part of these
lands was probably conquered in 885 by Gormeric, nephew and
companion-in-arms of Sigurd. After Rollo's conquest of the
country they were held as enfeoffments by Gormeric's descendants.
According to Généalogies d'Allemagne (Cabinet des titres, vol.
20780), Gormeric built the stronghold after which the family
later got its name. The MS., referring to Gommer, reads: 'fit
bastir la maison nomma de son surnom et de la situation du lieu,
qui lui escheut au departement de Normandie.'
The English historian E. A. Freeman, who personally examined
the remains of this ancient stronghold, writes (History of the Norman
Conquest, London, 1867, II, 197):
'That renowned name first belonged to a spot in the southern
part of the diocese of Lisieux, where three successive dwellings
have borne the name of the castle of Montgomery. In two of them
we at first sight see no reason for a name which bespeaks a fortress
set on a hill. On no lofty ground, on either side of a small stream,
stand the small remains of a mediaeval castle and a house of the
sixteenth century of no great pretensions. This last belongs to
times when the name of Montgomery calls up quite another
meaning from that which it bore in the days of William. But, high
above both these rose the true castle of Montgomery, the fortress
34

MONTGOMERYS OF NORMANDY 35
reared on the true Mons Gomerici, no square donjon, but a vast shell-
keep, on a mighty mound, girded by a fosse worthy of the famous
spot which it fences in. Only the faintest traces of the building
itself can be made out, but the mound and the fosse are there, to keep
up the memory of the great house to which that hill gave its name,
and which has, in so strange a way, spread its name over many
lands. For the castle of Montgomery enjoys a peculiar privilege
above all other castles in Norman geography. Other spots in
Normandy have given their names to Norman houses, and those
Norman houses have given their names to English castles and
English towns and villages. But there is only one shire in Great
Britain which has had the name of a Norman lordship impressed
upon it for ever.'
It seems doubtful whether Gormeric's son William already used
the name of Montgomery. One knows with certainty, however,
that William's grandson Roger bore the name. Of Gormeric's sons,
Bernard was the most famous, and, as we shall see, it was largely
owing to his shrewd policy that the Norman throne was saved for
Rollo's descendants.
BERNARD THE DANE
The Norman chiefs exchanged when they were christened their
heathen Nordic names for names which sounded better to Christian
ears. Thus Hrolf the Ganger took the name of Robert after
Robert, Count of Paris, who acted as sponsor at his baptism.
Equally, Bernardus Danus must have been the Christian form for
the Nordic name Biorn Danske(Latin,Bern or Berno; French,Bier).
The following biographical notes about Bernardus Danus are
based chiefly on the relation given by Dudo de St. Quentin in De
Moribus et Actis Primorum Normanniae Ducum. Even if this great
Norman historian sometimes lets his imagination play him false
his story is invaluable, written as it is by a man attached to the
court of Richard I. Hardly more than a generation younger than
Bernard, he had received first-hand information from eye-witnesses.

3 6 H I S T O R Y O F T H E M O N T G O M E R Y S
Where his relation of events is obviously wrong it has been
corrected.
The Norman Duchy was only nineteen years old when its great
founder laid his head to rest for ever. The young Duke William
was hardly equal to the occasion, swaying as a reed before the breeze
which soon grew into storm. French plans of conquest and
usurpers' intrigues made the dominion creak in every joint. A
strong hand and a wise leadership was indeed required to safeguard
the existence and development of the new state. It was in this
grave moment for his country that Bernard the Dane, Gormeric's
son, seized the reins of government, determined that the Ylving
dynasty should be protected and never renounce its superiority.
His first care was to turn the weak Duke into a hard warrior,
capable of riding out the approaching storm. William had not
inherited his father's strength and genius. Educated by monks
and accomplished in manners, he preferred the company of his
mother's family and friends in Paris to the rough-and-ready
Norman barons in his own country. These had not yet received
the Christian refinement which after another two generations
distinguished them favourably from their heathen kinsmen in the
North. Many Normans despised the Duke for his friendly attitude
towards the French, and those heathens who lived in the districts
of Besin and Cotentin and still sacrificed to the gods of their
ancestors feared that they would be deprived of the freedom they
had enjoyed in Rollo's time. Their displeasure found expression
in hostile demonstrations against the Duke.
At the head of these unruly citizens was a Norwegian jarl,
Riulf or Hrolf, probably the very man whom Snorre mistook for
Rollo. Wace calls him in the Roman de Rou Count of Cotentin.
His intention was apparently to make himself the Lord of the
country. In order to equalize the distribution of power Hrolf
demanded large territories situated east of the river Risle. The
Duke answered that he was not prepared to cede any land to Hrolf
and his men, but he would listen to their counsel in matters of

MONTGOMERYS OF NORMANDY
state interest and act in common with them against all enemies
of the country. He also promised them splendid gifts of armour
and horses. This friendly answer was interpreted by the Northmen
as a sign of weakness, and Hrolf, scenting an excuse to usurp the
power, gave his bands the order of a general advance against
Rouen. When informed about the new move of the rebels the
Duke was seized with fear, and his negotiator now offered also to
accept their demands for land. This new concession only strength-
ened the rebels in their intention of driving the Duke from the
throne. Hrolf declared that he no longer recognized the super-
iority of the Duke and advised him to remove to his friends in
France as soon as possible, else Rouen would be taken by assault,
in which case William's life would not be spared.
Fearing the worst, the Duke left the town with his counsellors
and climbed a hill, from whence he could follow the moves of the
hostile army. There his own men, all Christian soldiers, eventually
assembled and waited for the order of their lord. At this critical
moment William turned to Bernard the Dane suggesting that the
town should surrender to the rebels without resistance while he
and his party proceeded to France and asked for the assistance of
Bernard of Senlis, his kinsman. Bernard the Dane, who spoke
on behalf of the Council and the Army, declared:
'To Epte we shall follow you, but we shall not go with you
into France. I have previously together with your father fought
and killed many Franks, whose descendants are still alive and
who are not likely to look at us with gentle eyes. As for yourself,
do you prefer to lead a useless life dependent upon the grace and
charity of others to governing and defending your own country?
I and my companions-in-arms will not come with you. We would
much rather go back to our ships and return to the North, there
to look for a prince and defender worthy of governing such a
dukedom as Normandy. A man like you, who is weak as a woman
and fears death at the hands of your enemies, is no longer worthy
of ruling over us ! '

3 8 HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERYS
The words of the old Danish warrior brought the Duke to his
senses. Instead of fleeing from the enemy he decided to attack
him in the open field. At the side of Bernard the Dane he led his
men in the assault, which came as such a surprise to the rebels and
was directed with so much skill by Bernard that the hostile army,
which was vastly superior in number, was completely overthrown.
The whole rebel army was dispersed. Those who were not killed,
drowned or captured, fled for their lives. According to La Petite
Chronique de Tours, Hrolf and his son Anschetil were slain and
the enemy camp was totally destroyed.
The rumour of the victory spread like wildfire not only through
the Duchy of Normandy but also through France, and for the time
being the dynasty of Hrolf the Ganger was saved. The first to be
credited with victory was certainly Bernard the Dane, but from
that day the Duke had become a power to reckon with. Under
the influence of Bernard he developed into one of Normandy's
greatest warriors, known to history by the surname of Longsword.
At his court assembled a brilliant circle of nobles, and his name
was mentioned with reverence by all princes in Europe who were
not envious of his position.
Arnulf of Flanders was one of those who could not get over
the success of the Duke of Normandy, and at his instigation
William was stabbed by an assassin on 17th December 942. His
son Richard was then only eight years of age, and Bernard the
Dane took the reins. For ten years he was Regent of Normandy,
and once more the son of Gormeric had the privilege of saving the
Norman state.
When the news of William's death reached Hugo the Great,
Count of Paris and Duke of Burgundy, he at once raised an army
and marched towards Normandy to seize parts of the country. He
captured Evreux, but his two allies, the Counts Allan and Berenger
of Brittany, were defeated by the Normans under Bernard the
Dane. Louis VI, King of France, arrived at Rouen with the
avowed intention of securing the loyalty of the regency to their

M O N T G O M E R Y S O F N O R M A N D Y 39
feoffor. His real object was probably the reunion of Normandy
with France, if a favourable opportunity arose. During his visit
to Rouen, however, he did nothing which might disclose such a
plan. On the contrary, he behaved as a friend of the Norman
state, promised to avenge the death of William and confirmed on
oath his wish to respect the rights and possessions of Richard. He
also promised him protection against his enemies. Even Bernard
the Dane was misled by the King's benevolent and friendly
attitude and raised no objection when he proposed taking Richard
to Laon in order to give him a good education and that knowledge
of the arts of chivalry which became a prince.
Whether the King only feigned friendship, or changed his
views under the influence of his counsellors once he had the young
Duke in his power, is not known, but after his return to France he
reversed his attitude towards Normandy. He came to an under-
standing with Arnulf of Flanders, and at the Count's suggestion
he had the young Duke put into semi-captivity. Arnulf reminded
the King of all the evils the Normans had done to France for
generations and advised him to burn the heels of the Duke and to
impose heavy taxes on the Norman state. Luckily the King did
not listen to his advice, and Richard returned to Normandy.
According to an older story he was rescued by a faithful servant,
but modern historians hold that the King himself released the
Duke and sent him back to Normandy after negotiations with the
Regent.
But soon afterwards the King and Count Hugo made a pact by
which the Norman state should be divided between them. Arnulf
readily promised his support for the realization of this plan. Big
armies were raised in different parts of France, and never before
had there been a more deadly threat to the safety and liberty of the
Norman state. Now again Bernard was responsible for the safety
of his country. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, he was
determined to take no risks and sent messengers to a powerful
Danish chief who had settled at Cotentin to ask for his assistance.

4 o HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERYS
As his name was Harold (in French Aigrold), Dudo identified him
with the Danish king Harold Bluetooth. However, the chronicles
of Frodoard and of the monk Richer prove that Dudo was mistaken
on this point. Bernard also asked his brother Seitric (Sihtric) for
his support.
In order to allay suspicion Bernard sent Louis messengers
protesting friendship and loyalty. He also paid the King a personal
visit and had a heart-to-heart talk with him about the threatening
crisis. He pointed out to the King that he had a bad ally in Hugo,
his most dangerous rival in France. There was no necessity to
wage war on Normandy. The King had only to come and
take possession of it. The thought of French dominion did not
alarm the Normans : what they feared was a division of the country,
which would not only encroach upon their own dignity but also
on the rights of France. Should the King nevertheless insist upon
his plans, Bernard would go north to raise an army and then return
to fight France as Hrolf the Ganger had done. 'Then it might
well be, that the country will be neither yours nor Hugo's.'
Before his arguments and obvious threat the King yielded,
little suspecting that Bernard had already sent his messengers to
Harold. Consequently he requested Hugo to raise the siege of
Bayeux and withdraw his troops from Normandy. The Duke of
Burgundy, who feared united action between Louis and the
Normans, reluctantly complied with the King's demand.
Once Bernard had succeeded in creating a breach between
Hugo and Louis he spread the rumour all over Normandy that the
French intended to seize all big properties in the country and that
Louis had chosen Bernard's own wife for one of his men. While
the King and Count Arnulf planned the peaceful occupation of
Normandy Bernard thus prepared opinion against them, and when
Harold's fleet of 60 long-ships cast anchor at Cherbourg the Danes
were greeted by the Normans as friends, and warriors streamed
forward from all parts of the Duchy to join forces with them.
Now the situation had changed and it was no longer Louis but

Bernard the Dane who held the trumps. The French army
suffered a smarting defeat at Varaville on 13th July 945 and the
King himself was captured at Rouen where he had taken refuge.
He was handed over to Hugo the Great of Burgundy, who had
gone over to Bernard's side, and was not released until he had
guaranteed the independence of the Norman state. His sons
Lothar and Carloman and several French officials were kept by
Bernard as hostages until the peace treaty was solemnly signed.
Through this treaty Normandy was ensured the position of a
sovereign and independent state, which it had not been according
to the agreement between Charles the Simple and Hrolf the
Ganger signed at Saint-Clair-sur-Epte in 911.
Some historians have severely criticized Bernard the Dane for
his deceitful policy. We must remember, however, that Bernard
acted under very strong provocation. Assassination, treason,
violence and plundering marked the path of his enemies. Against
those who were guilty of such offences no complaint is raised,
perhaps because their wickedness is so generally known. But
Bernard was a high-minded statesman who placed the welfare of
his country before every other consideration. This is just the
reason why the critics have been so hard on him. A good man is
always more severely criticized than a bad man, when he departs
from the generally recognized code of morality.
'Right or wrong—my country' is a much disputed principle,
but seldom has its application been better justified and founded
on more unselfish motives than in the case of Bernard's hard
struggle for the life of the Norman state.
ROGER I DE MONTGOMERY
Gormeric's eldest son, William, had a son Hugo. His
son Roger de Montgomery is the first member of the family
of whom one knows with certainty that he used the surname.
The French historian, the Vicomte Du Motey, calls Roger 'one

of the most powerful Norman Barons at the end of the tenth
century.'
William the Bastard, the name of the Norman Duke before he
conquered England and gained the prouder surname of the
Conqueror, was the son of Robert II and Ariette or Herlève, the
daughter of one Fulbert, tanner of Falaise. Judging by his great
care of churches and monasteries, Roger must have been a very
religious man. No wonder, therefore, that after Robert's death
he refused to recognize William, born out of wedlock, as the
legitimate heir to the throne. He and his sons Hugo and Robert
organized the opposition against the young Duke, whose guardian
was Allan, Duke of Brittany. They struggled against heavy odds,
since the Duke's supporters were far more numerous, but Mont-
gomery defended himself with great courage and tenacity behind
the walls of his castle. Allan died at Vimoutiers during the siege,
but in the end Montgomery had to surrender. He was banished
from the country and went to France, where he was well received
by Henry I, who shared his views. Roger died in Paris about 1040.
According to the Cartulary of Troarn, his wife Josceline was still
alive in 1068.
During Roger's exile his sons remained in Normandy, continu-
ing to fight for what they considered a just cause. This struggle
eventually developed into sheer vendetta. Allan's successor as
guardian of the young Duke was Osbern de Crépon, the son of
Herfast, brother of Duchess Gunnor. He was a cousin of Richard
II and also of Roger de Montgomery's wife Josceline. In spite
of this kinship Osbern pitilessly persecuted Roger's sons, and one
of them, William, determined to capture the Duke, who lived with
Osbern in the strongly fortified castle of Vaudreuil. The guardian
watched like a hawk over his precious life, but one night William
and his confederates managed to penetrate within the castle to
the Duke's chamber. He was not there, but Osbern, whom they
found alone, was summarily strangled. Ordericus says that on
this occasion the Duke's life was saved by his uncle Gautier,

M O N T G O M E R Y S O F N O R M A N D Y 43
brother of Arlette, who had hidden him in his bed. Some days
later one of Osbern's men, Barnous de Glos, surprised William in
his quarters and killed him during his sleep. Now the vendetta
was accomplished and the way open to reconciliation between the
Duke's party and the Montgomerys.

ROGER II DE MONTGOMERY
The question whether Roger II de Montgomery, Earl of
Arundel and Shrewsbury, was the son or the grandson of the elder
Roger has been the subject of much unnecessary controversy.
With this question has been combined another : whether it was the
elder Roger or his son Hugo who was married to Josceline, niece
of Gunnor, Duchess of Normandy.
The cause of all this discussion is the following statement by
William of Jumièges (Vol. VIII, ch. 35): 'Rogerius Comes, filius
Hugonis de Monte Gomerici . . . natus est ex quadam neptium
Gunnoris comitissae, scilicet ex Joscelina filia Weviae.' Robert of
Caen, Benoit and Francisque Michel have given the same pedigree.
From his own words in the third Charter of Troarn we know,
however, that Roger II was the son of Roger L This statement
reads: 'Ego Rogerius, ex Normannis Normannus, magni autem
Rogerii filius ' (Cartulary of Troarn, fol. 1). After the discovery
of this charter the question was settled.
That Josceline was married to Roger I and mother of Roger II
is clear from the above statement when compared with the pedigree
given by Ives, Bishop of Chartres, in a letter to Henry I. He
writes : ' Gonnora et Senfria sorores fuerunt . . . ex Senfria excivit
Joscelina, ex Joscelina, Rogerius de Monte Gummeri, ex Rogerio,
Mabilia soror Roberti Bellimensis' (Migne, Patrologia latina,
CLXII, 261). This pedigree also informs us that Josceline was
the daughter of Senfrie, Gunnor's eldest sister, and not of Wevie
as stated by William of Jumièges.
Roger I had by Josceline five sons: Hugo, Robert, William,
Roger and Gilbert. William, we know with certainty, was killed
during the succession war after the death of Robert II. Hugo and
Robert probably met with the same fate. In any case, they seem
to have been dead in 1050 when Roger inherited the feudal domains.
That Hugo was older than Roger is proved by the fact that he signed

an endowment charter of Jumièges together with his father. Under
his signature was written ' Signum Hugonis filii ejus ' (Rotuli Scacc.
Normanniae, I, 73). Gilbert was poisoned in 1063 by Mabile de
Bellême (Ordericus Vitalis, II, 81, 106-7).
The first time we meet Roger II de Montgomery is during the
siege of Domfront in 1052. Geoffrey Martel, Count of Anjou,
had attacked the Duke and by means of treachery come into posses-
sion of the strongly fortified castle of Domfront. The Norman
army raised in Hiémois was commanded by Roger de Mont-
gomery, William of Breteuil, the son of Osbern, and William
of Talou, Count dArques, the son of Richard II. The Duke
decided to seize Domfront, but the garrison left by Martel put up
a strong defence and the siege was making slow progress. Mean-
while the Duke and his companions-in-arms made merry by
hawking in the Domfront grounds.
One day a report reached the Duke that the Count of Anjou
was approaching with a strong army. Now the Duke suddenly
found himself between two fires, since the strong garrison might
at any moment venture a sally. He decided immediately to raise
the siege and to attack Martel as far as possible from Domfront.
By forced marches the Norman army hastened in the direction of
the enemy, while Roger de Montgomery and William of Breteuil
were sent in advance to reconnoitre the enemy's movements.
Approaching his advanced posts they were met by an officer
followed by a horn-blower. He informed them that the Count of
Anjou intended to attack the Duke the following day, and described
the horse he would ride in the battle, his armour and arms. The
object of giving this information was apparently to inspire his
enemy with fear, but Roger simply declared that the Duke would
soon be there and intended to lead the attack himself.
Martel rose early the following morning, drank a wine-soup
and put on his armour. Hearing that the Duke's army was quite
close, he drew the conclusion that Domfront had fallen, and fearing
to meet his dangerous enemy alone he ordered retreat. This soon

4 6 HISTORY OF THE MONTGOMERYS
developed into a rout after some of his troops had been caught
in an ambush laid by the Duke. Roger de Montgomery is de-
scribed on this occasion as 'young and very brave' (William of
Malmesbury, ed. Saville, p. 96).
But Roger was also a man with a strong sense of spiritual values.
In 1050 he founded the church of Troarn. His father had made
an endowment for the support of twelve deacons, but he made
provision for twelve monks.
Roger's own domains stretched from Hiémois almost to the
sea. Besides the castles of Montgomery, Trun, Saint-Sylvin,
Thuit and Montaigu-la-Brisette he owned the town of Bernay
and the major part of the forests of Gouffern and Auge.
Through his marriage to Mabile de Bellême, the daughter and
heiress of Guillaume Talvas, Prince de Bellême, he more than
doubled his domains, which covered almost one-third of all
land in Normandy. Very probably his marriage was arranged
by the Duke out of regard to the defence of the Norman
frontier. Bellêmois had an exposed position and always received
the first blow when the Count of Anjou attacked Normandy.
Moreover, the people in Bellêmois were not altogether reliable.
In this part of the country the Duke needed an experienced warrior
who was equally a man with a strong will. Such a man was Roger,
and he was therefore chosen as husband to the richest heiress in
the Duchy. Through his marriage to Mabile de Bellême Roger
wás tied to this restless corner of Normandy after the death of
her father.
Mabile was no ordinary woman. Du Motey gives this portrait
of her: 'His future wife was a young girl, quite small, with an
exceptional ''finesse d'esprit" and full of energy. She was cheerful,
expressed herself with great ease and made her decisions boldly.
These qualities have been recognized even by a bitter slanderer
(Ordericus Vitalis), who does not hesitate to darken the picture by
calling her cruel and inclined to do evil ' (Origine de la Normandie,
Paris, 1920, p. 219). She was undoubtedly a great and fascinating

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