Husband Charlemagne King of France, Holy Roman Emperor
AKA: Carolus Magnus, Charles I Holy Roman Emperor, Charles the Great
Born: 2 Apr 747 - Ingelheim, Rheinhessen, Hesse-Darmstadt, Austrasia [Belgium]
Christened:
Died: 28 Jan 813-814 - Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), Rhineland, Prussia [Germany]
Buried: - Notre Dame d'Aix-la-Chapelle, Rhineland, Prussia [Germany]
Father: Pepin III "the Short" King of the Franks (0714-0768)
Mother: Bertrada of Laon ( -0783)
Marriage: 794
Other Spouse: Hildegarde of Swabia (Abt 0758-0783) - Bef 30 Apr 771 - Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), Rhineland, Prussia (Germany)
Other Spouse: Himiltrude ( - )
Other Spouse: Desiderata ( - ) - 770
Other Spouse: Fastrade ( -0794) - 784
Noted events in his life were:
• Acceded, as Emperor of the West & King of Franks, 768
• Also Acceded, King of the Lombards & Holy Roman Emperor, 774
Wife Luitgard
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Children
Research Notes (Husband)
Source: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr, ed. by William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, Baltimore, 2008, Line 50-13 has b. 2 Apr 747, d. Aix la Chapelle, 28 Jan 813/4, King of France 768-814, crowned Holy Roman Emperor 25 Dec. 800. Source: Wikipedia - Charlemagne
Source: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr, ed. by William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall (Baltimore, 2008), line 1-29 (Edward III)
Source: familysearch.org (Kevin Bradford)
Source: familysearch.org (Kevin Bradford)
FamilySearch.org Compact Disc #94 Pin #103107 Died near Mont Cenis in the Alps on 5 or 6 October 877
King of the Franks 840-877, Emperor 25 Dec 875-877 Source: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr, ed. by William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall (Baltimore, 2008), line 148-15 (Charles II). Died near Mont Cenis in the Alps on 5 or 6 October 877
King of the Franks 840-877, Emperor 25 Dec 875-877 Source: http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3174654&id=I593872372
Source: http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3174654&id=I593879140 King of the Franks or King of Western Francia 3rd wife of Charles II "the Simple" Source: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr, ed. by William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall (Baltimore, 2008), line 148-17 (Charles III) has m. 918.
Source: Wikipedia - Isabella of France
Source: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr, ed. by William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, Baltimore, 2008, Line 50-11 (Rotrou) Source: http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3174654&id=I593872692
Also FamilySearch.org Compact Disc #94 Pin #91438
(submitted by Samuel Taylor "Sam" Geer)
From Wikipedia - Charlemagne :
Charlemagne (Latin : Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus, meaning Charles the Great) (742 /747 - 28 January 814 ) was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800 as a rival of the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople . His rule is also associated with the Carolingian Renaissance , a revival of art, religion, and culture through the medium of the Catholic Church . Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define both Western Europe and the Middle Ages . He is numbered as Charles I in the regnal lists of France , Germany , and the Holy Roman Empire .
The son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon , he succeeded his father and co-ruled with his brother Carloman I . The latter got on badly with Charlemagne, but war was prevented by the sudden death of Carloman in 771. Charlemagne continued the policy of his father towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in Italy, and waging war on the Saracens , who menaced his realm from Spain . It was during one of these campaigns that Charlemagne experienced the worst defeat of his life, at Roncesvalles (778). He also campaigned against the peoples to his east, especially the Saxons , and after a protracted war subjected them to his rule. By forcibly converting them to Christianity, he integrated them into his realm and thus paved the way for the later Ottonian dynasty .
Today he is not only regarded as the founding father of both French and German monarchies, but as the father of Europe: his empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans, and the Carolingian renaissance encouraged the formation of a common European identity..,
Date and place of birth
Charlemagne is traditionally believed to have been born on April 2 , 742; however, several factors have led to a reconsideration of this date. First, the year 742 was calculated from his age given at death, rather than from attestation in primary sources. Another date is given in the Annales Petarienses , April 1 , 747. In that year, April 1 was at Easter . The birth of an emperor at eastertime is a coincidence likely to provoke comment, but there was no such comment documented in 747, leading some to suspect that the Easter birthday was a pious fiction concocted as a way of honoring the Emperor. Other commentators weighing the primary records have suggested that his birth was one year later, in 748. At present, it is impossible to be certain of the date of the birth of Charlemagne. The best guesses include April 1 , 747, after April 15 , 747, or April 1 , 748, in Herstal (where his father was born, a city close to Liège in modern day Belgium ), the region from where both the Merovingian and Carolingian families originate. He went to live in his father's villa in Jupille when he was around seven, which caused Jupille to be listed as a possible place of birth in almost every history book. Other cities have been suggested, including, Prüm , Düren , Gauting and Aachen ...
Early life
Charlemagne was the eldest child of Pippin the Short (714 - 24 September 768, reigned from 751) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (720 - 12 July 783 ), daughter of Caribert of Laon and Bertrada of Cologne . Records name only Carloman , Gisela , and a short-lived child named Pippin as his younger siblings. The semi-mythical Redburga , wife of King Egbert of Wessex , is sometimes claimed to be his sister (or sister-in-law or niece), and the legendary material makes him Roland 's maternal uncle through a lady Bertha.
Much of what is known of Charlemagne's life comes from his biographer, Einhard , who wrote a Vita Caroli Magni (or Vita Karoli Magni), the Life of Charlemagne...
Charles and his children
During the first peace of any substantial length (780-782), Charles began to appoint his sons to positions of authority within the realm, in the tradition of the kings and mayors of the past. In 781 he made his two younger sons kings, having them crowned by the Pope. The elder of these two, Carloman , was made king of Italy , taking the Iron Crown which his father had first worn in 774, and in the same ceremony was renamed "Pippin". The younger of the two, Louis , became king of Aquitaine . He ordered Pippin and Louis to be raised in the customs of their kingdoms, and he gave their regents some control of their subkingdoms, but real power was always in his hands, though he intended each to inherit their realm some day. Nor did he tolerate insubordination in his sons: in 792, he banished his eldest, though illegitimate, son, Pippin the Hunchback , to the monastery of Prüm, because the young man had joined a rebellion against him.
The sons fought many wars on behalf of their father when they came of age. Charles was mostly preoccupied with the Bretons, whose border he shared and who insurrected on at least two occasions and were easily put down, but he was also sent against the Saxons on multiple occasions. In 805 and 806, he was sent into the Böhmerwald (modern Bohemia ) to deal with the Slavs living there (Czechs ). He subjected them to Frankish authority and devastated the valley of the Elbe, forcing a tribute on them. Pippin had to hold the Avar and Beneventan borders, but also fought the Slavs to his north. He was uniquely poised to fight the Byzantine Empire when finally that conflict arose after Charlemagne's imperial coronation and a Venetian rebellion. Finally, Louis was in charge of the Spanish March and also went to southern Italy to fight the duke of Benevento on at least one occasion. He took Barcelona in a great siege in the year 797 (see below).
Charlemagne's attitude toward his daughters has been the subject of much discussion. He kept them at home with him, and refused to allow them to contract sacramental marriages - possibly to prevent the creation of cadet branches of the family to challenge the main line, as had been the case with Tassilo of Bavaria - yet he tolerated their extramarital relationships, even rewarding their common-law husbands, and treasured the bastard grandchildren they produced for him. He also, apparently, refused to believe stories of their wild behaviour. After his death the surviving daughters were banished from the court by their brother, the pious Louis, to take up residence in the convents they had been bequeathed by their father. At least one of them, Bertha, had a recognised relationship, if not a marriage, with Angilbert , a member of Charlemagne's court circle...
Death
In 813, Charlemagne called Louis the Pious , king of Aquitaine , his only surviving legitimate son, to his court. There he crowned him with his own hands as co-emperor and sent him back to Aquitaine. He then spent the autumn hunting before returning to Aachen on 1 November . In January, he fell ill with pleurisy (Einhard 59). He took to his bed on 21 January and as Einhard tells it:
He died January twenty-eighth, the seventh day from the time that he took to his bed, at nine o'clock in the morning, after partaking of the Holy Communion , in the seventy-second year of his age and the forty-seventh of his reign.
He was buried on the day of his death, in Aachen Cathedral , although the cold weather and the nature of his illness made such a hurried burial unnecessary. A later story, told by Otho of Lomello, Count of the Palace at Aachen in the time of Otto III , would claim that he and Emperor Otto had discovered Charlemagne's tomb: the emperor, they claimed, was seated upon a throne, wearing a crown and holding a sceptre, his flesh almost entirely incorrupt. The story was proved false by Frederick I , who discovered the remains of the emperor in a sarcophagus beneath the floor of the chapel.[7]
Charlemagne's death greatly affected many of his subjects, particularly those of the literary clique who had surrounded him at Aachen...
Marriages and heirs
Charlemagne had seventeen children over the course of his life with eight of his ten known wives or concubinues.
Concubinages and illegitimate children
Bibliography
Research Notes (Wife)
Husband Charles of France, Count of Valois
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Marriage:
Wife
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Children
1 F Joan
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: William Count of Hainaut, Holland & Zeeland ( - )
Research Notes (Husband)
Husband Charles Count of Brabant
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Marriage:
Wife Itta
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Children
1 M Carolman Major Domus
Born:
Christened:
Died: 615
Buried:
Research Notes (Husband)
Research Notes (Wife)
Husband Charles "Karl" von Ingelheim - Duke of Ingelheim
Born: 772
Christened:
Died: 811
Buried:
Father: Charlemagne King of France, Holy Roman Emperor (0747-0813)
Mother: Hildegarde of Swabia (Abt 0758-0783)
Marriage:
Wife
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Children
1 M Rowland de Burgh
Born: - Ingelheim
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Research Notes (Husband)
(submitted by Samuel Taylor "Sam" Geer)
Husband Charles II "the Bald" of France and Holy Roman Emperor
AKA: Charles the Bald King of West Francia and Holy Roman Emperor
Born: 13 Jun 823 - Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany
Christened:
Died: 5 Oct 877 - Mont Cenis
Buried:
Father: Louis I Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks (0778-0840)
Mother: Judith of Bavaria (Abt 0798-0843)
Marriage: 14 Dec 842
Other Spouse: Richildis ( - )
Wife Ermentrude of Orléams
Born: Abt 830 - Orleans, Orleannais, France
Christened:
Died: 6 Oct 869
Buried:
Father: Eudes Count of Orléans (Abt 0789- )
Mother: Engeltrude ( - )
Children
1 F Judith Princess of France
AKA: Judith of Flanders
Born: Oct 844 - France
Christened:
Died: After 870
Buried:
Spouse: Æthelwulf King of Wessex and King of Kent (Bet 0795-0858)
Marr: 1 Oct 856 - Verberie-sur-Oise, France
Spouse: Æthelbald King of Wessex ( -0860)
Marr: After 13 Jan 858
Spouse: Baldwin I Count of Flanders (Abt 0836-0879)
Marr: Jan 862
2 M Louis II "the Stammerer" King of France
AKA: Louis "the Stammerer"
Born: 1 Nov 846 - France
Christened:
Died: 10 Apr 879 - Compeigne, France
Buried:
Spouse: Adelaide of Paris ( -After 0901)
Marr: Abt 868
3 M Hersent
Born: Abt 862 - France
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Death Notes (Husband)
Research Notes (Husband)
Source: http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3174654&id=I593871985
Name Suffix: Holy Roman Emperor
Also Known As: King of Lorraine
REFN: 831
King of France 843-877, King of Lorraine 869-877, crowned Holy Roman Emperor at Rome 25 December 875. In 840, Charles joined with his half-brother Louis in opposing their brother Lothair who attempted to secure the empire for himself upon the death of their father Louis.
Source: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr, ed. by William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall (Baltimore, 2008), line 148-15 has d. 6 Oct 877.
From Wikipedia - Charles the Bald - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_the_Bald:
Charles the Bald[1] (numbered Charles II of France and the Holy Roman Empire ) (French : Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 - 6 October 877 ), Holy Roman Emperor (875 -877 ) and King of West Francia (840 -877 ), was the youngest son of Emperor Louis the Pious , by his second wife Judith .
Struggle against his brothers
He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt , when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their own regna, or subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made by Louis the Pious to assign Charles a subkingdom, first Alemannia and then the country between the Meuse and the Pyrenees (in 832, after the rising of Pepin I of Aquitaine ) were unsuccessful. The numerous reconciliations with the rebellious Lothair and Pepin, as well as their brother Louis the German , King of Bavaria , made Charles's share in Aquitaine and Italy only temporary, but his father did not give up and made Charles the heir of the entire land which was once Gaul and would eventually be France. At a diet near Crémieux in 837, Louis the Pious bade the nobles do homage to Charles as his heir. This led to the final rising of his sons against him and Pepin of Aquitaine died in 838, whereupon Charles received that kingdom, finally once and for all. Pepin's son Pepin II would be a perpetual thorn in his side.
The death of the emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist the pretensions of the new emperor Lothair I, and the two allies defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenay-en-Puisaye on June 25 , 841 . In the following year, the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebrated Oaths of Strasbourg . The war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Verdun in August 843. The settlement gave Charles the Bald the kingdom of the West Franks, which he had been up till then governing and which practically corresponded with what is now France, as far as the Meuse , the Saône , and the Rhône , with the addition of the Spanish March as far as the Ebro . Louis received the eastern part of the Carolingian Empire , known as the East Francia and later Germany . Lothair retained the imperial title and the Iron Crown of Lombardy . He also received the central regions from Flanders through the Rhineland and Burgundy as king of Middle Francia .
[edit ] Reign in the West
Seal of Charles the Bald
The first years of Charles's reign, up to the death of Lothair I in 855 , were comparatively peaceful. During these years the three brothers continued the system of "confraternal government", meeting repeatedly with one another, at Koblenz (848 ), at Meerssen (851 ), and at Attigny (854 ). In 858 , Louis the German, invited by disaffected nobles eager to oust Charles, invaded the West Frankish kingdom. Charles was so unpopular that he was unable to summon an army, and he fled to Burgundy . He was saved only by the support of the bishops, who refused to crown Louis king, and by the fidelity of the Welfs , who were related to his mother, Judith. In 860 , he in his turn tried to seize the kingdom of his nephew, Charles of Provence , but was repulsed. On the death of his nephew Lothair II in 869 , Charles tried to seize Lothair's dominions, but by the Treaty of Mersen (870 ) was compelled to share them with Louis the German
Besides these family disputes, Charles had to struggle against repeated rebellions in Aquitaine and against the Bretons . Led by their chiefs Nomenoë and Erispoë , who defeated the king at Ballon (845 ) and Juvardeil (851 ), the Bretons were successful in obtaining a de facto independence. Charles also fought against the Vikings , who devastated the country of the north, the valleys of the Seine and Loire , and even up to the borders of Aquitaine. Several times Charles was forced to purchase their retreat at a heavy price. Charles led various expeditions against the invaders and, by the Edict of Pistres of 864 , made the army more mobile by providing for a cavalry element, the predecessor of the French chivalry so famous during the next 600 years. By the same edict, he ordered fortified bridges to be put up at all rivers to block the Viking incursions. Two of these bridges at Paris saved the city during its siege of 885-886 .
[edit ] Emperor
Charles the Bald in old age; picture from his Psalter
In 875 , after the death of the Emperor Louis II (son of his half-brother Lothair), Charles the Bald, supported by Pope John VIII , traveled to Italy, receiving the royal crown at Pavia and the imperial insignia in Rome on December 29 . Louis the German, also a candidate for the succession of Louis II, revenged himself by invading and devastating Charles' dominions, and Charles had to return hastily to Francia . After the death of Louis the German (28 August 876 ), Charles in his turn attempted to seize Louis's kingdom, but was decisively beaten at Andernach on October 8 , 876 . In the meantime, John VIII, menaced by the Saracens , was urging Charles to come to his defence in Italy. Charles again crossed the Alps , but this expedition was received with little enthusiasm by the nobles, and even by his regent in Lombardy , Boso , and they refused to join his army. At the same time Carloman , son of Louis the German, entered northern Italy. Charles, ill and in great distress, started on his way back to Gaul, but died while crossing the pass of Mont Cenis at Brides-les-Bain , on 6 October 877 .
According to the Annals of St-Bertin, Charles was hastily buried at the abbey of Nantua, Burgundy because the bearers were unable to withstand the stench of his decaying body. He was to have been buried in the Basilique Saint-Denis and may have been transferred there later. It was recorded that there was a memorial brass there that was melted down at the Revolution.
[edit ] Legacy
Charles was succeeded by his son, Louis . Charles seems to have been a prince of education and letters, a friend of the church, and conscious of the support he could find in the episcopate against his unruly nobles, for he chose his councillors from among the higher clergy, as in the case of Guenelon of Sens , who betrayed him, and of Hincmar of Reims .
It has been suggested that Charles was not in fact bald, but that his epithet was applied ironically - that, in fact, he was extremely hairy. In support of this idea is the fact that none of his enemies commented on what would be an easy target. However, none of the voluble members of his court comments on his being hairy; and the Genealogy of Frankish Kings, a text from Fontanell dating from possibly as early as 869, and a text without a trace of irony, names him as Karolus Caluus ("Charles the Bald"). Certainly, by the end of the 10th century, Richier of Reims and Adhemar of Chabannes refer to him in all seriousness as "Charles the Bald".[2]
[edit ] Family
Charles married Ermentrude , daughter of Odo I, Count of Orléans , in 842 . She died in 869 . In 870 , Charles married Richilde of Provence , who was descended from a noble family of Lorraine , but none of the children he had with her played a part of any importance.
With Ermentrude :
With Richilde:
[edit ] Notes
^ Charles II
^ Dutton, Paul E, Charlemagne's Mustache
Research Notes (Wife)
Source: http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3174654&id=I593871986 has b. abt 825.
Husband Charles II "the Bald" of France and Holy Roman Emperor
AKA: Charles the Bald King of West Francia and Holy Roman Emperor
Born: 13 Jun 823 - Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany
Christened:
Died: 5 Oct 877 - Mont Cenis
Buried:
Father: Louis I Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks (0778-0840)
Mother: Judith of Bavaria (Abt 0798-0843)
Marriage:
Other Spouse: Ermentrude of Orléams (Abt 0830-0869) - 14 Dec 842
Wife Richildis
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Children
Death Notes (Husband)
Research Notes (Husband)
Source: http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3174654&id=I593871985
Name Suffix: Holy Roman Emperor
Also Known As: King of Lorraine
REFN: 831
King of France 843-877, King of Lorraine 869-877, crowned Holy Roman Emperor at Rome 25 December 875. In 840, Charles joined with his half-brother Louis in opposing their brother Lothair who attempted to secure the empire for himself upon the death of their father Louis.
Source: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr, ed. by William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall (Baltimore, 2008), line 148-15 has d. 6 Oct 877.
From Wikipedia - Charles the Bald - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_the_Bald:
Charles the Bald[1] (numbered Charles II of France and the Holy Roman Empire ) (French : Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 - 6 October 877 ), Holy Roman Emperor (875 -877 ) and King of West Francia (840 -877 ), was the youngest son of Emperor Louis the Pious , by his second wife Judith .
Struggle against his brothers
He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt , when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their own regna, or subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made by Louis the Pious to assign Charles a subkingdom, first Alemannia and then the country between the Meuse and the Pyrenees (in 832, after the rising of Pepin I of Aquitaine ) were unsuccessful. The numerous reconciliations with the rebellious Lothair and Pepin, as well as their brother Louis the German , King of Bavaria , made Charles's share in Aquitaine and Italy only temporary, but his father did not give up and made Charles the heir of the entire land which was once Gaul and would eventually be France. At a diet near Crémieux in 837, Louis the Pious bade the nobles do homage to Charles as his heir. This led to the final rising of his sons against him and Pepin of Aquitaine died in 838, whereupon Charles received that kingdom, finally once and for all. Pepin's son Pepin II would be a perpetual thorn in his side.
The death of the emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist the pretensions of the new emperor Lothair I, and the two allies defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenay-en-Puisaye on June 25 , 841 . In the following year, the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebrated Oaths of Strasbourg . The war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Verdun in August 843. The settlement gave Charles the Bald the kingdom of the West Franks, which he had been up till then governing and which practically corresponded with what is now France, as far as the Meuse , the Saône , and the Rhône , with the addition of the Spanish March as far as the Ebro . Louis received the eastern part of the Carolingian Empire , known as the East Francia and later Germany . Lothair retained the imperial title and the Iron Crown of Lombardy . He also received the central regions from Flanders through the Rhineland and Burgundy as king of Middle Francia .
[edit ] Reign in the West
Seal of Charles the Bald
The first years of Charles's reign, up to the death of Lothair I in 855 , were comparatively peaceful. During these years the three brothers continued the system of "confraternal government", meeting repeatedly with one another, at Koblenz (848 ), at Meerssen (851 ), and at Attigny (854 ). In 858 , Louis the German, invited by disaffected nobles eager to oust Charles, invaded the West Frankish kingdom. Charles was so unpopular that he was unable to summon an army, and he fled to Burgundy . He was saved only by the support of the bishops, who refused to crown Louis king, and by the fidelity of the Welfs , who were related to his mother, Judith. In 860 , he in his turn tried to seize the kingdom of his nephew, Charles of Provence , but was repulsed. On the death of his nephew Lothair II in 869 , Charles tried to seize Lothair's dominions, but by the Treaty of Mersen (870 ) was compelled to share them with Louis the German
Besides these family disputes, Charles had to struggle against repeated rebellions in Aquitaine and against the Bretons . Led by their chiefs Nomenoë and Erispoë , who defeated the king at Ballon (845 ) and Juvardeil (851 ), the Bretons were successful in obtaining a de facto independence. Charles also fought against the Vikings , who devastated the country of the north, the valleys of the Seine and Loire , and even up to the borders of Aquitaine. Several times Charles was forced to purchase their retreat at a heavy price. Charles led various expeditions against the invaders and, by the Edict of Pistres of 864 , made the army more mobile by providing for a cavalry element, the predecessor of the French chivalry so famous during the next 600 years. By the same edict, he ordered fortified bridges to be put up at all rivers to block the Viking incursions. Two of these bridges at Paris saved the city during its siege of 885-886 .
[edit ] Emperor
Charles the Bald in old age; picture from his Psalter
In 875 , after the death of the Emperor Louis II (son of his half-brother Lothair), Charles the Bald, supported by Pope John VIII , traveled to Italy, receiving the royal crown at Pavia and the imperial insignia in Rome on December 29 . Louis the German, also a candidate for the succession of Louis II, revenged himself by invading and devastating Charles' dominions, and Charles had to return hastily to Francia . After the death of Louis the German (28 August 876 ), Charles in his turn attempted to seize Louis's kingdom, but was decisively beaten at Andernach on October 8 , 876 . In the meantime, John VIII, menaced by the Saracens , was urging Charles to come to his defence in Italy. Charles again crossed the Alps , but this expedition was received with little enthusiasm by the nobles, and even by his regent in Lombardy , Boso , and they refused to join his army. At the same time Carloman , son of Louis the German, entered northern Italy. Charles, ill and in great distress, started on his way back to Gaul, but died while crossing the pass of Mont Cenis at Brides-les-Bain , on 6 October 877 .
According to the Annals of St-Bertin, Charles was hastily buried at the abbey of Nantua, Burgundy because the bearers were unable to withstand the stench of his decaying body. He was to have been buried in the Basilique Saint-Denis and may have been transferred there later. It was recorded that there was a memorial brass there that was melted down at the Revolution.
[edit ] Legacy
Charles was succeeded by his son, Louis . Charles seems to have been a prince of education and letters, a friend of the church, and conscious of the support he could find in the episcopate against his unruly nobles, for he chose his councillors from among the higher clergy, as in the case of Guenelon of Sens , who betrayed him, and of Hincmar of Reims .
It has been suggested that Charles was not in fact bald, but that his epithet was applied ironically - that, in fact, he was extremely hairy. In support of this idea is the fact that none of his enemies commented on what would be an easy target. However, none of the voluble members of his court comments on his being hairy; and the Genealogy of Frankish Kings, a text from Fontanell dating from possibly as early as 869, and a text without a trace of irony, names him as Karolus Caluus ("Charles the Bald"). Certainly, by the end of the 10th century, Richier of Reims and Adhemar of Chabannes refer to him in all seriousness as "Charles the Bald".[2]
[edit ] Family
Charles married Ermentrude , daughter of Odo I, Count of Orléans , in 842 . She died in 869 . In 870 , Charles married Richilde of Provence , who was descended from a noble family of Lorraine , but none of the children he had with her played a part of any importance.
With Ermentrude :
With Richilde:
[edit ] Notes
^ Charles II
^ Dutton, Paul E, Charlemagne's Mustache
Research Notes (Wife)
Husband Charles III Holy Roman Emperor
Born: Abt 823
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Father: Louis II King of Germany (Abt 0805-0876)
Mother: Emma de Andech (Abt 0805- )
Wife
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Children
Research Notes (Husband)
Holy Roman Emperor 881-887.
Husband Charles III "the Simple" King of Western Francia
AKA: Charles III "the Straightforward" King of Western Francia, Charles the Simple King of France, Karolus Simplex King of France
Born: 17 Sep 879
Christened:
Died: 7 Oct 929 - Péronne, Somme, France
Buried:
Father: Louis II "the Stammerer" King of France (0846-0879)
Mother: Adelaide of Paris ( -After 0901)
Marriage: 7 Oct 919
Wife Ogiva of England
AKA: Edgifu, Edgiva of England
Born: 902 - Wessex, England
Christened:
Died: After 955
Buried:
Father: Edward I "the Elder" King of England (Bet 0871-0924)
Mother: Elfreda ( - )
Other Spouse: Herbert III Count of Vermandois (Abt 0955-0993) - 951
Children
1 M Louis IV d'Outre-Mer, King of the West Franks
Born: 10 Sep 920
Christened:
Died: 10 Sep 954 - Reims, Marne, Champagne, France
Buried:
Spouse: Gerberga of Saxony (0913-0984)
Marr: 939 or 940
Research Notes (Husband)
Source: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr, ed. by William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall (Baltimore, 2008), line 148-17
Source: Wikipedia - Charles the Simple
Research Notes (Wife)
Source: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr, ed. by William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall (Baltimore, 2008), Line 50-20 (Herbert III). Line 148-17 (Charles III) has d. 951
Source: Wikipedia - Edward the Elder and Eadgifu of England
From Wikipedia - Eadgifu of England :
Eadgifu (b. 902 , d. after 955 ) or Edgifu, was a daughter [1] of Edward the Elder , King of Wessex and England , and his second wife Aelffaed . She was born in Wessex .
Marriage to the French King
She was the second wife of King Charles III of France ,[1] whom she married in 919 after the death of his first wife, Frederonne ; she was mother to Louis IV of France .
Flight to England
In 922 Charles III was deposed and the next year taken prisoner by Count Herbert II of Vermandois , an ally of the present King. To protect her son's safety Eadgifu took him to England in 923 to the court of her half-brother, Athelstan of England .[2] Because of this, Louis IV of France became known as Louis d'Outremer of France. He stayed there until 936, when he was called back to France to be crowned King. Eadgifu accompanied him.
She retired to a convent in Laon. Then, in 951, she left the convent and married Herbert III, Count of Vermandois .[2]
Notes
^ a b Lappenberg, Johann ; Benjamin Thorpe, translator (1845). A History of England Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. J. Murray, pp. 88-89.
^ a b Williams, Ann ; Alfred P. Smyth, D. P. Kirby (1991). A Biographical Dictionary of Dark Age Britain: England, Scotland, and Wales. Routledge, p. 112. ISBN 1852640472 .
References
Notes (Marriage)
Husband Charles IV of France
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Father: Philip IV King of France (1268-1314)
Mother: Jeanne of Navarre (1272-1305)
Wife
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Children
Research Notes (Husband)
Husband Charles Martel King of the Franks
AKA: Charles "the Hammer" King of the Franks
Born: 676 - Herstal, Liege, Austrasia [Belgium]
Christened:
Died: 22 Oct 741 - Ciersy Sur Oise, France
Buried: - Monastery of St. Denis, Paris, Seine, France
Father: Pepin II of Heristal, Duke of Austrasia (Abt 0635-0714)
Mother: Alphaida ( - )
Marriage:
Other Spouse: Rotrude of Treves (0690-0724)
Wife Swanachild
AKA: Swanhilde
Born: Abt 691 - Bavaria, Germany
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Father: Tassilo II of Bavaria ( -Abt 0719)
Mother: Imma ( -Abt 0750)
Father:
Mother: Imma ( -Abt 0750)
Children
Research Notes (Husband)
FamilySearch.org Compact Disc #94 Pin #91488 (submitted by Samuel Taylor "Sam" Geer) has spouse Swanachild (mother of Pepin III).
Source: familysearch.org (Kevin Bradford) has spouse Bathrude.
From http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3174654&id=I593871722:
"Charles is particularly remembered in history for winning the battle of Tours in 732. The battle, near Poitiers on 11 October, ended the invasion of a 90,000 man Moorish [Saracen] army led by the Yemenite Abd ar-Rahman. The Moors had crossed the Pyrenees by 720 when they captured Narbonne. After sacking and burning Bordeaux, they defeated an army under Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine (RIN # 4056). Attracted by its riches, the Moors marched on Tours, but were defeated by Charles (afterwards called Charles the Hammer) then 44 years of age. Abd ar-Rahman is killed and the invaders retreated across the Pyrenees to Spain where they will not be driven from until 1492. In 735, Charles conquered Burgundy, adding its lands to the Kingdom of the Franks.
"!The People's Chronology; 65"
Research Notes (Wife)
This source gives Swanhilde's parents as Grimaldo II (b. abt 665 in Bavaria) and Viltrude (b. abt 667)