The New Murrey and Blue blog

Very few people realise there was once another medieval Richard III who was, in fact, a distant relative of the more famous one.

The ‘other Richard III’ was born in around 997 and for a very brief time was Duke of Normandy, ruling the Duchy for a single year. His father was Richard II of Normandy and his mother Judith, daughter of Conan I of Brittany. Richard II was noted for helping the Vikings who had been raiding England, which did not please King Ethelred II as it was in violation of an agreed treaty. Richard tried to make amends by marrying his sister Emma into Anglo-Saxon royalty; known as Elfgifu (Elf Gift) in England, she became the mother of Edward the Confessor.

Richard III was the eldest of six children. On his father’s behalf, he led a large force to rescue an imprisoned relative, Reginald of Burgundy from the dungeons of Bishop Hugh of Chalon. Later that year, Richard’s father died and he became Duke of Normandy. His accession to the dukedom was swiftly followed by a marriage to Adela, a daughter of King Robert II of France, early in 1027.

Richard’s brief marriage produced no children, but he had two illegitimate ones by unknown mother(s)–Alice, who later married a Viscount, and Nicholas, who became a monk.

Richard’s tenure as Duke was shockingly short. His younger brother Robert, displeased with what he had inherited from their father, rebelled against him, and laid siege to the town of Falaise. Richard soon quelled the rebellion and forced Robert to swear an oath of fealty, but shortly after he dissolved his army, he became ill and died on August 9, 1027, aged only around thirty. Some suspected the death was not natural and that the jealous Robert had a hand in it.

Robert I, who is sometimes called ‘the Magnificent’ and sometimes ‘the Devil,’ then ruled an increasingly troubled and violent Normandy.

Like his older brother, Robert had no legitimate children…but he did have an illegitimate son by a woman called Herleva, said to be a tanner’s daughter (although this is now disputed; it is more likely Herleva’s father was an embalmer or apothecary.)

He called this son born on the wrong side of the blanket William, and in a few years this bastard son would change English history forever….

Picture. Public domain. Richard III of Normandy with his brother Robert looking on in a rather unfriendly fashion!