Guillaume "Longue Épée" de Normandy Princeps Nortmannorum

   Other names for Guillaume were Guillaume "Longue-Épée" Princeps Nortmannorum ¹⁷⁴ and William "Longsword" of Normandy.

  General Notes:

~Weis's Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, 8th Edition, 121E:19. William, "Longsword", b. cir. 891, prob. Rouen, ca. 927 succeeded. to of Normandy, circ. 930 the Bretons rebelled, he subdued them, taking Brittany, the Channel Islands, the Contentin, and the Averanchin, killed by treacherous ambush 17 Dec 942 by servants of Theobald de Blois and Arnulf of Flanders. ¹⁶⁰

~The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians 751-987, London & NY, Longman, 1983, p 238:
"William Longsword, Rollos's son and successor, was the principal architect of Normandy's development. William had supported Louis IV and attempted to establish his protection over Brittany, gaining at least the Cotentin and Avranchin in 933... When in 942 William was murdered at the instigation of Count Arnulf of Frlanders, his son Richard, still a minor, succeeded him."

  Noted events in his life were:

• Web Reference: Guilliaume "Longue Épée" by Stewat Baldwin. ¹⁷⁴
William's place of birth was probably not on the European mainland, but possibly in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, or one of the islands held by Vikings. He was killed in a treacherous ambush by Theodore of Blois and Arnulf of Flanders.

• Web Reference: Richard III, Duke of Normandy.

• Web Reference: Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands, Guillaume I "Longuespee" comte de Normandie.
Orderic Vitalis names "Willelmum cognomento Longam-Spatam" as the son of "Rollo dux" by his wife "Berengarium comitem...Popam...filiam eius" [Orderic Vitalis (Prévost), Vol. II, Liber III, I, p. 7].

Guillaume's first wife (or concubine) was Sporta. Guillaume of Jumièges records that, after the rebel "Riulfus" was defeated at the battle of "Pratum-belli", a messenger arrived "a...Fiscannensis castri" and reported to Guillaume the birth of his son to "nobilissima puella Danico more sibi iuncta...Sprota" [Willelmi Gemmetencis Historiæ (Du Chesne, 1619), Liber III, II, p. 234]. Later Sporta married Esperieng de Pitres.

Guilliaume married Luitgardis de Vermandois, daughter of Heribert comté de Vermandois and his wife Adela (Capet). Luitgardis's second husband was Thibaut comté de Bloix.

Orderic Vitalis records that "Willelmus dux" was killed in 942 "fraude Arnulphi Flandrensis satrapæ" [Orderic Vitalis (Prévost), Vol. II, Liber III, I, p. 9]. The Annalibus Rotomagensibus record that "Willermus dux Normannorum filius Rollonis" was killed "943 XVI Kal Jan" [Annalibus Rotomagensibus 943, MGH SS XXVI, p. 498].

Guillaume married Espriotae de Bretagne. (Espriotae de Bretagne was born in 911 in Bretagne, France and died about 972.)

Guillaume next married Luitgarde de Vermandois, daughter of Herbert comte de Vermandois and Liegarde des Francs. (Luitgarde de Vermandois died after 950.)