EFL - Enciclopedia delle Famiglie Lombarde

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/NORTHERN%20FRANCE.htm Roucy is a comm une in the canton of Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne, arrondissement of Laon, i n the present-day French département of Aisne, north of Reims, in th e Picardie region. The castle of Roucy was built in [947/49] by Comt e Ragenold. He has been identified as the Viking raider Ragenold who i s recorded between 923 and 926. Twenty years later Comte Ragenold wa s recorded as the ally of Louis IV “d´Outremer” King of the Wes t Franks in the 940s in his struggles against the Vermandois family. H e married the king´s stepdaughter (the daughter of his wife by her fi rst marriage to Giselbert Duke of Lotharingia). The transformation fro m Viking raider into royal ally appears implausible, although the fami ly of the dukes of Normandy started out in a similar way. There are tw o difficulties with the case of Ragenold: firstly, the gap of 20 year s during which no record has been found of his activities, and secondl y his marriage, apparently his first as there is no record of an earli er marriage or of any children born to an earlier wife, when he woul d have been in his late 40s. It is possible that there were in fact tw o individuals named Ragenold, although it this hypothesis is correct t here is no indication of the origin of the second one. RAGENOLD (-aft er 926). Flodoard records in 923 that "Ragenoldus princeps Nortmannoru m" was operating “in fluvio Ligeri” [River Loire] and pillaged “ Franciam trans Isaram” [River Oise] with help from “coniunctis sib i plurimis ex Rodomo” [Rouen], that “fideles Heriberti” with “ Rodulfo privigno Rotgeri et Ingobranno comitibus” recaptured booty a nd freed prisoners, that Ragenold went “in pagum Atrabatensem” [Ar tois] where he was defeated by “comes Adelelmus” and took refuge