Rollo

Rollo emerged as a Norse war leader who carved out a foothold in the lower Seine valley, joining the Vikings who besieged Paris in 885. His failed Siege of Chartres in 911 became the unlikely catalyst for the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, in which Charles the Simple granted him lands between the river Epte and the sea in exchange for ending his raiding, converting to Christianity, and defending the estuary from other Vikings. First recorded as leader of Viking settlers in a 918 charter, he reigned over Normandy until at least 928 and was succeeded by his son William Longsword. His followers intermarried with the local Frankish and Gallo-Roman population to become the Normans, whose descendants would go on to rule England, much of Ireland, Sicily, and Antioch over the next two centuries.