Richard II commissioned Dudo of Saint-Quentin, his clerk and priest, to write about his ancestors. He was to tell the story of the Norman dukes in a way that showed their Christian morals. He wanted them shown to be good and upright leaders who built Normandy despite the bad behavior of their Frankish neighbors. It has been called by some historians a work of propaganda. While it contains a number of stories and legends, nowhere did Dudo claim the stories to be facts. When he wrote his work on the Customs and Deeds of the First Dukes of the Normans, Dudo seems to have met his goal "to tell in the noblest style the story of a noble destiny."