The Viking warrior leader Rollo, now Count Robert of Normandy

The Viking warrior leader Rollo, now Count Robert of Normandy, granted Karl Lassy and his clansmen 200 sq miles of land (128,000 acres) to be held by the Norman law of Parage; they were the Lacicu Latius estates in the county of Calvados, including Vire, as Lassy is only 20kms away, well within the land grant. On receiving their lands, Karl's descendants and extended family (now underlord), Lasse also followed the pattern of taking Frankish brides, adapting to the rules of the Catholic church to become prosperous Norman landowners. Lassy would have followed the example of his overlord and decided which part of the 128,000 acres he wanted his immediate family to farm. He then divided the remaining acres among the rest of his kinsmen and clan according to merit, anything from several thousand acres down to others receiving less than a hundred acres. On the land Lassy had chosen for himself, he would have ordered the building of the first family homestead. In the tenth century, Lassy would have modelled it on a Norse longhouse, giving way in time to a timber and daube Manor House. In 1210, King John lost Normandy to the French. The de Lacy family lost all their Lassy estates and became an English-only family from this time. Learn more about a Norse Longhouse