Guest post by Cathie Dunn

Who was Poppa of Bayeux?

“Who was she?”

When you research history, you often ask yourself that question. History is, usually, about men – their wars, their politics, their influence.

Chroniclers used to share the achievements of male rulers, and their challenges, successes, and failures. We read about their marriages, their sons, and occasionally their daughters (where they made suitable marriages or founded religious houses, for example). But we rarely hear about their wives, especially earlier in the Middle Ages.

Where were the wives? Did they not contribute anything of note at all?

Historical accounts are sadly often filled with the dismissive attitudes of the chroniclers. Apparently, it must have been a rare feat that a woman achieved something great out of her own ability, and not due to the largesse, cunning, or support of her male relatives…

Yet more and more details slowly emerge of the power women yielded, and not only behind the scenes. I believe we’re only now starting to see a wider picture. One such lady is Poppa of Bayeux.

Very little is known about her. Sources aren’t even certain about her father’s origins, but it makes much sense, historically, that her father was a man of some influence in Neustria. Otherwise, an invader like Rollo (Hrólfr in my novel, Ascent) would not have considered marriage to her. He had lofty ambitions, and Poppa provided a certain legitimacy, as the daughter of a Frankish noble.

They were married ‘in more danico’ – in the Danish handfasting manner, so not in the eyes of the Church. Whether that fact mattered to her or not, is up to speculation. As a Frankish woman, she would have been a Catholic, whilst her husband was still Pagan.

We know she was around fourteen years old when they met around 886 / 889, possibly even younger, but her children were born later. Their birth dates are uncertain, though, so we won’t know how old she was when she had her first child.

At the end of the 890s, Poppa accompanied Rollo to East Anglia, as he’d fallen out with the then Frankish king. There, some sources claim, her son William was born, and possibly her daughter, Gerloc, too. 

In the early 900s, they were back in Neustria, and Rollo’s star was on the rise as he gathered control over large swathes of the region. He was always on the move, consolidating his growing power, so Poppa was left to coordinate their manor. She likely spent her time between Bayeux and of course, Rouen, the fast-growing town he chose as his seat, and where Rollo would have welcomed many Frankish nobles.

Whether he married Gisela, an apparently illegitimate daughter of King Charles of the West Franks in 911 as part of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, is debatable, as no proof of her exist. If indeed they wed, with a Church blessing, they had no children, or those would have become his heirs. It was Poppa’s son, William, who inherited Rollo’s lands and title as ‘lord of the Normands’, originally granted by Frankish kings.

I loved plotting Poppa’s life in Ascent as I envisaged it: a lady of minor nobility, loyal, quietly powerful, who plays a vital role in the foundation of what was to become the powerful House of Normandy. Poppa is the ultimate matriarch – the ancestor of dukes of Normandy and Kings of England, and beyond. 

Surely, a remarkable woman who should not have been forgotten…

Links to Ascent by Cathie Dunn on Amazon US and Amazon UK