[3] Charles' reign was marked by internal and external strife, caused primarily by the constant plundering of Norman raiders on the northern French coast.

These attacks had intensified as the aggressors, no longer content to pillage the coastline, had moved their attentions to cities and towns along the rivers.

Powerless to resist the invasion of the Normans, Charles III paid for their departure with money, despite having military superiority.

[7] According to legend and her hagiography, she was put to the ordeal by fire, which she passed successfully; in practice, the commission founded by the Pope to handle the requested annulment and charges reported that she was in fact a virgin.

[8] Protected by her family, she then withdrew to Andlau Abbey, which she had founded on her ancestral lands in 880, and where her niece Rotrod was abbess.

[4] An alternative legend recounts that Richardis found the mother bear grieving over her dead cub in the forest.

Richardis was later canonised and remains translated in November 1049 by Pope Leo IX to a more impressive tomb in the newly rebuilt abbey church.