Lex Fridman Podcast · 2 min instead of 2 h 3 m · Apr 9, 2026
Rollo refused to kiss the king's foot, so a guard did it
Lars Brownworth
Historian
Lex FridmanHost · Host, Lex Fridman Podcast
Robotics and AI researcher at MIT; started the show in 2018.
About this segment
Lars tells how Rollo, newly made a vassal of the Frankish king, handled the feudal ceremony. It captures the real relationship between the Norman dukes and the French crown.
From “Vikings, Ragnar, Berserkers, Valhalla & the Warriors of the Viking Age | Lex Fridman Podcast #495”, Apr 9, 2026. Watch the full episode
“So he turns to one of his guards and says, you kissed the foot.”
Takeaways
- Rollo's treaty gave him an ambiguous title, which his heirs exploited
- The Normans styled themselves dukes and seized whatever power they wanted
- A guard lifting the king's foot shows the Norman-French balance of power
In this episode
Full episode- 1:06:26Eric the Red's Greenland pitch was history's best real estate scam5:02
- 15:27Vikings used terror and inside knowledge to pick targets2:27
42:47Rollo refused to kiss the king's foot, so a guard did it2:26
Transcript
Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.
- 42:54
a treaty yeah then he does the the good state craft and state building and then becomes i mean european yeah in one life you go through the full journey yeah yeah and then his son william long succeeded him and uh gets assassinated but he does enlarge normie so basically every ruler after rollo enlarges normandy until it it essentially becomes more powerful than the than the king um by far there's a wonderful scene when when rollo signs the treaty he becomes a liege lord of the french king and there's this great scene because rollo has to bend down and kiss the foot of the king so rollo is probably you know he's a norwegian viking he's probably i don't know six foot But Charles, this little Frank, he's probably 5'10", he's like, Rollo's towering over him.
- 43:53
And both armies are watching. There's a bunch of people who have come in from the countryside. They've heard something's going on. And this important part of this feudal ceremony, you have to kiss your Lord's foot to, you know, be in a subservient role. And Rollo says, I'm not going to do that. So he turns to one of his guards and says, you kissed the foot. And the guard's probably taller than he is.
- 44:13
So he bends down and he picks the king's foot up to his mouth, which Charles goes falling on the back. I mean, I can't think of a better example of the relationship between the Norman Dukes and the French kings. I mean, it's perfect. It's perfect. Oh God, I love the Vikings. Yeah. So as you've covered, and maybe you could speak to that a bit more, for a long time to come, Normans have influence on Europe and beyond.
- 44:39
Yeah, it's hard to overstate Normandy's impact on Europe in the Middle Ages. Of course, they'll go on to conquer England as well. But Rollo, when he signs the treaty, it's an ambiguous treaty. He's given a title which is rather ambiguous. He's not a duke. And it's not clear. He's not an earl. He's not a duke. He's just subservient to the king.