August 4, 1008: Birth of Henri I, King of the Franks

Tags

Anne of Kiev, Henri I of France, Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich III, King of the English, Kingdom of the Franks, Robert II of France, Royal Demesne of France, William I the Conqueror

Henri I (May 4, 1008 – August 4, 1060) was King of the Franks from 1031 to 1060. The royal demesne of France reached its smallest size during his reign, and for this reason he is often seen as emblematic of the weakness of the early Capetians.

The royal demesne, also known as the crown lands, crown estate, royal domain or (in French) domaine royal (from demesne) of France were the lands, fiefs and rights directly possessed by the kings of France.

While the term eventually came to refer to a territorial unit, the royal domain originally referred to the network of “castles, villages and estates, forests, towns, religious houses and bishoprics, and the rights of justice, tolls and taxes” effectively held by the king or under his domination.

In terms of territory, before the reign of Henri IV, the domaine royal did not encompass the entirety of the territory of the kingdom of France and for much of the Middle Ages significant portions of the kingdom were the direct possessions of other feudal lords.

Henri I, King of the Franks

The belief that Henri I was a weak king is not entirely agreed upon, however, as other historians regard him as a strong but realistic king, who was forced to conduct a policy mindful of the limitations of the French monarchy.

Henri I was a member of the House of Capét, Henry was born in Reims, the son of King Robért II (972–1031) and Constance of Arles (986–1034).

Constance of Arles was the daughter of Guillaume I, Count of Provence and Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou, daughter of Fulk II of Anjou. She was the sister of Count Guillaume II of Provence.

Constance was married to King Robért II, after his divorce from his second wife, Bertha of Burgundy. The marriage was stormy; Bertha’s family opposed her, and Constance was despised for importing her Provençal kinfolk and customs. Robert’s friend, Hugh of Beauvais, count palatine, tried to convince the king to repudiate her in 1007. Possibly at her request 12 knights of her kinsman Fulk Nerra then murdered Beauvais in 1008.

In the early-Capetian tradition, he was crowned King of the Franks at the Cathedral of Reims on May 14, 1027, while his father still lived. He had little influence and power until he became sole ruler on his father’s death 4 years later.

The reign of Henri I, like those of his predecessors, was marked by territorial struggles. Initially, he joined his younger brother Robért, with the support of their mother, in a revolt against his father (1025). His mother, however, supported Robért as heir to the old king, on whose death Henri was left to deal with his rebel sibling. In 1032, he placated his brother by giving him the duchy of Burgundy which his father had given him in 1016.

In an early strategic move, Henri came to the rescue of his very young nephew-in-law, the newly appointed Duke William II of Normandy (who would go on to become William I the Conqueror, King of the English), to suppress a revolt by William’s vassals.

In 1047, Henri secured the dukedom for William in their decisive victory over the vassals at the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes near Caen; however, Henri would later support the barons against William until the former’s death in 1060.

Anne of Kiev

In 1054, William married Matilda, the daughter of the count of Flanders, which Henri saw as a threat to his throne. In 1054, and again in August 1057, Henri invaded Normandy, but lost twice at the battles of Mortemer and Varaville.

Henri had three meetings with Heinrich III, Holy Roman Emperor—all at Ivois. In early 1043, he met him to discuss the marriage of the emperor with Agnes of Poitou, the daughter of Henri’s vassal.

In October 1048, the two King Henri I and Emperor Heinrich III met again and signed a treaty of friendship. The final meeting took place in May 1056 and concerned disputes over Theobald III and the County of Blois.

The debate over the duchy became so heated that Henri accused the emperor Heinrich III of breach of contract and subsequently left. In 1058, Henri was selling bishoprics and abbacies, ignoring the accusations of simony and tyranny by the Papal legate Cardinal Humbert.

In 1060, Henri rebuilt the Saint-Martin-des-Champs Priory just outside Paris. Despite the royal acquisition of a part of the County of Sens in 1055, the loss of Burgundy in 1032 meant that Henri I’s twenty-nine-year reign saw feudal power in France reach its pinnacle.

King Henri I died on August 4, 1060 in Vitry-en-Brie, France, and was interred in the Basilica of St Denis. He was succeeded by his son, Philippe I of Franks, and Henri’s queen Anne of Kiev ruled as regent. At the time of his death, he was besieging Thimert, which had been occupied by the Normans since 1058.

Marriages

Henri I was betrothed to Matilda of Franconia (c. 1027 – 1034) was a daughter of Emperor Conrad II and Gisela of Swabia from the Salian dynasty. Matilda’s elder brother was Heinrich III, Holy Roman Emperor.

At a meeting with King Henri I in Deville in Lorraine in May 1033, Conrad agreed to marry five-year-old Matilda to the twenty-five year old King Henri. However, before she could marry, she died in early 1034. Her marriage was arranged to confirm a peace compact agreed between King Henri I and Emperor Conrad II.

She was buried in Worms Cathedral.

In 1034 King Henri then married Matilda of Frisia, the daughter of Liudolf, Margrave of Frisia, and Gertrude of Egisheim.

Around 1040, Matilda of Frisia gave birth to a daughter via Caesarian section, but four years later in 1044 both she and her daughter died only weeks apart. Matilda was buried in St Denis Abbey, but her tomb is not preserved.

Casting further afield in search of a third wife, Henri married Anne of Kiev on May 19, 1051. Anne was a daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev and Prince of Novgorod, and his second wife Ingegerd Olofsdotter of Sweden. Her exact birthdate is unknown; Philippe Delorme has suggested 1027, while Andrew Gregorovich has proposed 1032, citing a mention in a Kievan chronicle of the birth of a daughter to Yaroslav in that year.

July 20, 1031: Death of Robert II, King of the Franks.

Tags

Bertha of Burgundy, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of the Franks, Pope Sylvester II, Robert II of France, Robert the Pious

From the Emperor’s Desk: in this examination of the life of Robert II, King of the Franks, I will mostly examine his three marriages.

Robert II (ca. 972 – 20 July 1031), called the Pious (French: le Pieux) or the Wise (French: le Sage), was King of the Franks from 996 to 1031, the second from the Capetian dynasty.

In contrast of his father, the exact date or birth place of Robert II is unknown, although historians advocated for the year 972 and the city of Orléans, the capital of the Robertians from the 9th century. The only son of Hugh Capet and Adelaide of Aquitaine, he was named after his heroic ancestor Robert the Strong, who died fighting the Vikings in 866. In addition to him, his parents’ marriage produced two other daughters whose parentage is confirmed by contemporary sources without any doubt: Hedwig (wife of Reginar IV, Count of Hainaut) and Gisela (wife of Hugh I, Count of Ponthieu).

Crowned Junior King in 987, he assisted his father on military matters (notably during the two sieges of Laon, in 988 and 991). His solid education, provided by Gerbert of Aurillac (the future Pope Sylvester II) in Reims, allows him to deal with religious questions of which he quickly becomes the guarantor (he heads the Council of Saint-Basle de Verzy in 991 and that of Chelles in 994). Continuing the political work of his father, after became sole ruler in 996, he managed to maintain the alliance with the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou and thus was able to contain the ambitions of Count Odo II of Blois.
Robert II distinguished himself with an extraordinarily long reign for the time.

Immediately after associated his son to the throne, Hugh Capet wanted Robert II to marry a royal princess but due the prohibition to marry people within the third degree of consanguinity, obliges him to seek in the East. He had a letter wrote by Gerbert of Aurillac asking the Byzantine Emperor Basil II the hand of one of his nieces for Robert II; however, no Byzantine response is recorded.

After this rebuffal, and under the pressure from his father (who apparently wanted to reward the Flemish help he received when he seized power in 987), Robert II had to marry with Rozala, daughter of Berengar II of Ivrea, King of Italy and widow of Arnulf II, Count of Flanders. The wedding, celebrated before 1 April 988, brings to Robert II the possession of the cities of Montreuil and Ponthieu and a possible guardianship over the County of Flanders given the still young age of Rozala’s son Baldwin IV, for whom she already acted as regent since her first husband’s death.

Upon her marriage, Rozala became in Junior-Queen consort of the Franks and took the name of Susanna; however, after about three or four years of marriage (c. 991–992), the young Robert II repudiates his wife, due to the excesive age difference between them (Rozala was almost 22 years older than him), and probably too old to have more children.
The marriage was formally annulled in late 996, following Hugh Capet’s death and Robert II’s ascension as sole King of the Franks.

Now, Robert II was determined to find a bride who would give him the much hoped-for male offspring. In early 996, probably during the military campaign against Count Odo I of Blois, he met Bertha of Burgundy, the daughter of King Conrad of Burgundy and his wife Matilda, daughter of King Louis IV of the Franks and Gerberga of Saxony (sister of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor), so was from an undisputed royal lineage. Bertha was first married to Count Odo I of Blois in about 983. They had several children, including Odo II.

Robert II and Bertha quickly became attracted to each other, despite the complete resistance of Hugh Capet (the House of Blois was the great enemy of the Capetian dynasty). However, Robert II sees in addition to his personal feelings, also a territorial gain since Bertha would bring all the Blois territories. The deaths in 996 of Odo I of Blois (March 12) and Hugh Capet (October 24) eliminated the main obstacles for a union between Robert II and Bertha.

However, two important details are opposed to this union: firstly, Robert II and Bertha are second cousins (their respective grandmothers, Hedwig and Gerberga, are sisters), and secondly, Robert II was the godfather of Theobald, one of the sons of Bertha. According to canon law, marriage is then impossible. Despite this, the two lovers began a sexual relationship and Robert II puts part of the County of Blois under his direct rule.

Robert II and Bertha quickly found complacent bishops to marry them off, which Archambaud de Sully, Archbishop of Tours, did in November/December 996, much to the chagrin of the new Pope Gregory V. To please the Holy See, Robert II annuls the sentence of the Council of Saint-Basle, frees Archbishop Arnoul and restores him to the episcopal see of Reims. Gerbert of Aurillac then had to take refuge with Emperor Otto III in 997. Despite this, the Pope ordered Robert II and Bertha to put an end to their “incestuous union”.

Finally, two councils meeting first in Pavia (February 997) then in Rome (summer 998) condemn them to do penance for seven years, and in the event of non-separation, they would be struck with excommunication. Moreover, at the end of three years of union, there are no living descendants: Bertha gave birth only one stillborn son, in 999. That year, the accession of Gerbert of Aurillac to the Papacy under the name of Sylvester II does not change anything. Following a synod, the new Pope accepted the condemnation of the King of the Franks whose “perfidy” he had suffered. Finally, the seven years of penance are completed around 1003.

Despite the threat of excommunication, Robert II and Bertha refused to submit until September 1001, when they finally became separated. The inability of Bertha to produce further offspring after her stillbirth would be probably one of the main reasons for this. Robert II, in need of male heirs, decided to remarry one more time.

After September 1001 and certainly before August 25, 1003, Robert II contracted his third and last marriage, this time with a distant princess he had never met to avoid any close relationship, the 17-years-old Constance, daughter of Count William I of Arles and Provence and his wife Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou. The new Queen’s parents were prestigious in their own right: Count William I was nicknamed “the Liberator” (le Libérateur) thanks to his victories against the Saracens, whom definitely expelled from the Fraxinet fortress in 972, and Countess Adelaide-Blanche was notorious by her several marriages (in the third one, she was briefly Queen of Aquitaine and junior Queen of the West Franks as the wife of King Louis V, whom she abandoned) and also she was the paternal aunt of Count Fulk III of Anjou, so thanks to his new marriage, Robert II could restore the alliance with the House of Ingelger.

But Constance would be a royal consort who does not make the King happy. The Queen’s personality gives rise to unfavorable comments on the part of the chroniclers: “vain, greedy, arrogant, vindictive”; these misogynist remarks, made by monks, where quite exceptional especially to a Queen in the 11th century. The only positive point is that Constance gives birth a large number of offspring. Six children born from her marriage to Robert II are recorded.

The conflict that lead to an attempt to annull this third union all started at the beginning of the year 1008, a day when the King and his faithful Count palatine Hugh of Beauvais were hunting in the forest of Orléans. Suddenly, twelve armed men appear and throw themselves on Hugh before killing him under the eyes of the king. The crime was ordered by Count Fulk III of Anjou and with all probability supported by the Queen.

Robert II, exasperated by his wife after six or seven years of marriage (c. 1009–1010), goes personally to Rome accompanied by Angilramme (a monk from Saint-Riquier) and Bertha de Burgundy. His plan was, of course, to obtain from Pope Sergius IV the annulment from his marriage with Constance and remarry with Bertha, whom Robert II still loved deeply, under the grounds of Constance’s participation in the murder of Hugh of Beauvais.

Odorannus, a Benedictine monk from the Abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif in Sens, explains in his writings that, that during her husband’s journey to Rome, Constance withdrew in distress to her dominions at Theil. According to him, Saint Savinian would have appeared to him and secured that the royal marriage would be preserved; three days later, Robert II was back, definitively abandoning Bertha.

At Constance’s urging, her eldest son Hugh Magnus was crowned co-king alongside his father in 1017. But later Hugh demanded his parents share power with him, and rebelled against his father in 1025. Constance, however, on learning of her son’s rebellion was furious with him, rebuking him at every turn. At some point Hugh was reconciled with his parents but shortly thereafter died, probably about age eighteen. The royal couple was devastated; there was concern for the queen’s mental health due to the violence of her grief.

Robert and Constance quarrelled over which of their surviving sons should inherit the throne; Robert favored their second son Henry, while Constance favored their third son, Robert. Despite his mother’s protests and her support by several bishops, Henry was crowned in 1027. Constance, however, was not graceful when she didn’t get her way. The ailing Fulbert, bishop of Chartres told a colleague that he could attend the ceremony “if he traveled slowly to Reims—but he was too frightened of the queen to go at all”.

Constance encouraged her sons to rebel, and they began attacking and pillaging the towns and castles belonging to their father. Her son Robert attacked Burgundy, the duchy he had been promised but had never received, and Henri seized Dreux. At last King Robert II agreed to their demands and peace was made which lasted until the king’s death.

Robert II died on July 20, 1031 and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son as King Henri I of the Franks.

Constance died after passing out following a coughing fit on July 28, 1032 and was buried beside her husband Robert at Saint-Denis Basilica.

His 35-year-long reign was marked by his attempts to expand the royal domain by any means, especially by his long struggle to gain the Duchy of Burgundy (which ended in 1014 with his victory) after the death in 1002 without male descendants of his paternal uncle Duke Henri I, after a war against Otto-William of Ivrea, Henri I’s stepson and adopted by him as his heir. His policies earned him many enemies, including three of his sons.

Robert II’s life is presented as a model to follow, made of innumerable pious donations to various religious establishments, of charity towards the poor and above all of gestures considered sacred, such as the healing of certain lepers: Robert II is the first sovereign considered to be the first “miracle worker”.

The real reconstruction of his action in the Kingdom of the Franks is very difficult to pinpoint as the sources are flattering towards him (hagiographic conception of Helgaud). On the contrary, this was considered by some later historians that Robert II’s reign was a continuation of a decline that began under the last Carolingians; in reality, the charters of the first third of the 11th century rather show a slow adjustment of structures in time. In any case, Robert II, Capetian follower of Carolingian values, remains a great character in the 11th century.

September 18….These dates in History.

Tags

Carl XV of Sweden-Norway, Eleanor of Portugal, George I of Great Britain, Harald III of Norway, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Denmark, Kingdom of Norway, Kingdom of the Franks, Marie of France, Philip II of France

Events

1066 – Norwegian king Harald III Hardrada lands with Tostig Godwinson at the mouth of the Humber River and begins his invasion of England.

1137 – Eric III succeeds to the throne of Denmark. (c. 1120 – 27 August 1146) was the King of Denmark from 1137 until 1146. He was the grandson of Eric I of Denmark and the nephew of Eric II of Denmark, whom he succeeded on the throne. He abdicated in 1146, as the first and only Danish monarch to do so voluntarily. His succession led to a period of civil war between Sweyn III, Canute V, and Waldemar I.

1180 – Philippe II August becomes King of France at the age of fifteen. It was during Philippe II’s reign that the title of the monarch changed from King of the Franks to King of France.

1714 – King George I arrives in Great Britain after becoming king on August 1 after the death of Queen Anne.

1872 – King Oscar II accedes to the throne of Sweden–Norway.

Births

1344 – Marie of France (September 18, 1344 – October 11, 1404) was the sixth child and second daughter of Jean II of France and Bonne of Bohemia. In 1364, Marie married Robert I, Duke of Bar.

1424 – birth of Eleanor of Portugal (September 18, 1434 – September 3,1467) was Empress of the Holy Roman Empire. A Portuguese infanta (princess), daughter of King Edward of Portugal and his wife Eleanor of Aragon, she was the consort of Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III and the mother of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I.

1765 – Pope Gregory XVI (September 18, 1765 – June 1, 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from February 2, 1831 to his death in 1846.

1786 – Christian VIII of Denmark, was the king of Denmark from 1839 to 1848 and, as Christian Frederik, King of Norway in 1814.

Deaths

1137 – Eric II, king of Denmark was king of Denmark between 1134 and 1137. Eric was an illegitimate son of Eric I of Denmark, who ruled Denmark from 1095 to 1103. Eric the Memorable rebelled against his uncle Niels of Denmark, and was declared king in 1134.

1180 – Louis VII, King of the Franks. (1120 – September 18, 1180), called the Younger or the Young was King of the Franks from 1137 to 1180. He was the son and successor of King Louis VI (hence the epithet “le Jeune”) and married Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe.

1361 – Ludwig V, duke of Bavaria (b. 1315) called the Brandenburger (May 1315 – 18 September 1361), a member of the House of Wittelsbach, ruled as Margrave of Brandenburg from 1323 to 1351 and as Duke of Bavaria from 1347 until his death. From 1342 he also was co-ruling Count of Tyrol by his marriage with the Meinhardiner countess Margaret.

1675 – Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine (April 5, 1604 –September 18, 1675, Allenbach) was Duke of Lorraine from 1624 until his death in 1675, with a brief interruption in 1634, when he abdicated under French pressure in favor of his younger brother, Nicholas François.

1872 – Carl XV of Sweden (b. 1826) Carl XV of Sweden was also Carl IV of Norway (May 3, 1826 – September 18, 1872). Though known as King Carl XV in Sweden (and also on contemporary Norwegian coins), he was actually the ninth Swedish king by that name, as his predecessor Carl IX (reigned 1604–1611) had adopted a numeral according to a fictitious history of Sweden.

March 21, 1152: Annulment of the marriage of Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine

Tags

Annulment, Conrad III of Germany, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Géza II of Hungary, Henry II of England, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of the Franks, Louis VII of France

Louis VII (1120 – September 18, 1180), called the Younger or the Young was King of the Franks from 1137 to 1180. He was the son and successor of King Louis VI, hence his nickname, and married Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe. The marriage temporarily extended the Capetian lands to the Pyrenees, but was annulled in 1152 after no male heir was produced.

Louis was born in 1120 in Paris, the second son of Louis VI, King of the Franks and Adelaide of Maurienne. The early education of Prince Louis anticipated an ecclesiastical career. As a result, he became well-learned and exceptionally devout, but his life course changed decisively after the accidental death of his older brother Philippe in 1131, when he unexpectedly became the heir to the throne of France. In October 1131, his father had him anointed and crowned by Pope Innocent II in Reims Cathedral.

Louis VII, King of the Franks

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 – April 1, 1204) was queen consort of France (1137–1152) and England (1154–1189) and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right (1137–1204). As a member of the Ramnulfids (House of Poitiers) rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of Guillém X Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and Dangereuse de l’Isle Bouchard, who was Guillém IX’s longtime mistress as well as Eleanor’s maternal grandmother. Her parents’ marriage had been arranged by Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather Guillém IX.

Following the death of Duke Guillém X of Aquitaine, Louis VI moved quickly to have his son married to Eleanor of Aquitaine, who had inherited William’s territory, on July 25, 1137. In this way, Louis VI sought to add the large, sprawling territory of the duchy of Aquitaine to his family’s holdings in France. On August 1, 1137, shortly after the marriage, Louis VI died, and Louis VII became king. The pairing of the monkish Louis and the high-spirited Eleanor was doomed to failure; she reportedly once declared that she had thought to marry a king, only to find she had married a monk. Louis VII and Eleanor had two daughters, Marie and Alix.

In June 1147, in fulfillment of his vow to mount the Second Crusade, Louis VII and his queen set out from the Basilica of St Denis, first stopping in Metz on the overland route to Syria. Soon they arrived in the Kingdom of Hungary, where they were welcomed by the king Géza II of Hungary, who was already waiting with King Conrad III of Germany.

Louis VII and his army finally reached the Holy Land in 1148. His queen Eleanor supported her uncle, Raymond of Antioch, and prevailed upon Louis to help Antioch against Aleppo. But Louis VII’s interest lay in Jerusalem, and so he slipped out of Antioch in secret. He united with King Conrad III of Germany and King Baldwin III of Jerusalem to lay siege to Damascus; this ended in disaster and the project was abandoned. Louis VII decided to leave the Holy Land, despite the protests of Eleanor, who still wanted to help her doomed uncle Raymond. Louis VII and the French army returned home in 1149.

Eleanor, Queen of the Franks, Queen of the English, Duchess of Aquitaine

The expedition to the Holy Land came at a great cost to the royal treasury and military. It also precipitated a conflict with Eleanor that led to the annulment of their marriage. Perhaps the marriage to Eleanor might have continued if the royal couple had produced a male heir, but this had not occurred. The Council of Beaugency found an exit clause, declaring that Louis VII and Eleanor were too closely related for their marriage to be legal, thus the marriage was annulled on March 21, 1152.

The pretext of kinship was the basis for annulment, but in fact, it owed more to the state of hostility between Louis and Eleanor, with a decreasing likelihood that their marriage would produce a male heir to the throne of France. On May 18, 1152, Eleanor married the Count of Anjou, the future King Henry II of England. She gave him the duchy of Aquitaine and bore him three daughters and five sons.

In 1154, Louis VII married Constance of Castile, daughter of Alfonso VII of León and Castile and Berengaria of Barcelona. She also failed to supply him with a son and heir, bearing only two daughters, Margaret and Alys. The official reason for her husband’s annulment from Eleanor of Aquitaine had been that he was too close a relative of Eleanor for the marriage to be legal by Church standards; however, he was even more closely related to Constance. Constance died giving birth to her second child.

Louis VII was devastated when Constance died in childbirth on October 4, 1160. As he was desperate for a son, he married Adela of Champagne just 5 weeks later. Adela of Champagne was the third child and first daughter of Theobald II, Count of Champagne and Matilda of Carinthia, and had nine brothers and sisters. Adela’s coronation was held the same day. She went on to give birth to Louis VII’s only male heir, Philippe II of France and Agnes, a Byzantine Empress by marriage to Alexios II Komnenos and Andronikos I Komnenos.

History of the French Dynastic Disputes. Part I.

Tags

House of Bourbon, House of Capet, House of Valois, King of France, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of the Franks, Louis XIV, Louis XVI of France

The succession to the French throne has a fascinating history. While all the thrones to each European monarchies are governed by laws and statutes, the laws governing the French monarchy are complex and have lead to their interpretation that borderlines religious fundamentalism. Because of these rules and the unstable, at times, nature of hereditary succession this lead to dynastic disputes. In this series I will examine these disputes in depth.

French dynastic disputes refer to a set of disputes in the history of France regarding the person who should inherit the crown.
Four such disputes had been identified:

* The Hundred Years War, which originated from a dynastic dispute (English claims to the French throne),
* Henri IV of France’s succession, particularly the period between 1589-1594, marked by the refusal to set the Protestant Henry of Navarre to the throne,
* Competition raging since 1830 between the Bourbons and the Orleans,
* Action Bonapartist.
At the moment, there are three main groups who claim the crown:
* The Bourbons
* The Orleans
* The Bonapartes, although Prince Charles Napoleon, “Head of the Imperial House of France” does not claim the restoration of the Empire, some groups are considering this and support the Bonapartist party, sometimes for him, sometimes for his eldest son, Prince Jean-Christophe Napoleon.

The Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom of France
To better understand three of the four dynastic disputes regarding the succession to the French throne, it is necessary to have an understanding of the ancient constitution of the Capetian monarchy. The fundamental laws of the Kingdom of France referred to certain fixed rules that the French public law has placed above the sovereign will. They were the unwritten laws which were invoked during the ages when serious difficulties arose: in them can be seen the foundation of the monarchy. Their origin coincides with the development of the House of Hugh Capet; they are related to that house, they existed as long as it reigned, and when the old French monarchy disappeared, they disappeared with it.

Crown of King Louis XV of France and Navarre.

German History Part III: Decline of the Merovingian Dynasty and the rise of the Carolingian Dynasty.

Tags

Carolingian Dynasty, Charles Martel, Childeric III, Francia, German History, Kingdom of the Franks, Mayor of the Palace, Merovingian Dynasty, Pepin of Herstal, Pepin the Short, Pope Zachary

At the death Clovis I in 511, his realm was divided among his four sons, Theuderic I, Chlodomir, Childebert I, and Chlotar I. Despite the frequently bloody competition between the brothers, they managed among them to extend Frankish rule over Thuringia in approximately 531 and Burgundy in 534 and to gain sway over, if not possession of, Septimania on the Mediterranean coast, Bavaria, and the lands of the Saxons to the north. By 558 Chlotar I was the last surviving son of Clovis I, and until his death in 561 the Frankish realm was once again united.

In 561 the realm was again divided between brothers—Charibert I, Guntram, Sigebert, and Chilperic I—and again family strife and intrigue ensued, particularly between Chilperic and his wife, Fredegund, in the northwest of Gaul and Sigebert and his wife, Brunhild, in the northeast. Dynastic struggles and increasing pressures exerted on the realm by neighbouring peoples Bretons and Gascons in the west, Lombards in the southeast, Avars in the east prompted a reorganization of the Frankish kingdoms.

Several eastern regions were merged into the kingdom of Austrasia, with its capital at Metz; in the west Neustria emerged, with its capital first at Soissons and later at Paris; to the south was the enlarged kingdom of Burgundy, with its capital at Chalon-sur-Saône. Overall Frankish unity was again achieved in 613, when Chlotar II, son of Chilperic I and king of Neustria, inherited the other two kingdoms as well. On the death of Chlotar’s son Dagobert I in 639, the realm was divided yet again, but by that time the kings of the two regions, Neustria and Burgundy on the one hand and Austrasia on the other, had been forced to yield much of their power to household officials known as Mayors of the Palace.

Under the Merovingian dynasty, the Mayor of the Palace was the manager of the household of the Frankish king. The office existed from the sixth century, and during the seventh it evolved into the “power behind the throne” in the northeastern kingdom of Austrasia.

The Mayor of the Palace held and wielded the real and effective power to make decisions affecting the kingdom, while the kings had been reduced to performing merely ceremonial functions, which made them little more than figureheads. The office may be compared to that of a prime minister, all of which have similarly been the real powers behind some ceremonial monarchs.

In Austrasia, the mayoral office became hereditary in the family of the Pippinids. In 687, after victory over the western kingdom of Neustria, the Austrasian mayor, Pippin of Herstal, took the title Duke of the Franks to signify his augmented rule.

Charles Martel (c. 688 – October 22, 741) was a son of the Frankish statesman Pepin of Herstal and Pepin’s mistress, a noblewoman named Alpaida. As Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, Charles Martel was the de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death. Charles successfully asserted his claims to power as successor to his father as the power behind the throne in Frankish politics. Continuing and building on his father’s work, he restored centralized government in Francia and began the series of military campaigns that re-established the Franks as the undisputed masters of all Gaul. Much attention has been paid to his success in defeating an Arab raid in Aquitaine at the Battle of Tours. Alongside his military endeavours, Charles has been traditionally credited with a seminal role in the development of the Frankish system of feudalism. Charles Martel, ceased bothering with the façade of a king, and the last four years of his reign (743–47) were an interregnum.

The Carolingian dynasty takes its name from Carolus, the Latinised name of Charles Martel. The name “Carolingian” (Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German word karling or kerling, meaning “descendant of Charles” cf. MHG kerlinc) or “the family of Charles.”

Pepin III the Short‬ (c. 714 – September 24, 768) was the younger son of Charles Martel and his wife Rotrude. Pepin’s upbringing was distinguished by the ecclesiastical education he had received from the monks of St. Denis. Succeeding his father as the Mayor of the Palace in 741, Pepin reigned over Francia jointly with his elder brother Carloman. Pepin ruled in Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence, while his older brother Carloman established himself in Austrasia, Alemannia and Thuringia. The brothers were active in suppressing revolts led by the Bavarians, Aquitanians, Saxons, and the Alemanni in the early years of their reign. In 743, they ended the Frankish interregnum by choosing Childeric III, who was to be the last Merovingian monarch, as figurehead king of the Franks.

Being well disposed towards the church and Papacy on account of their ecclesiastical upbringing, Pepin and Carloman continued their father’s work in supporting Saint Boniface in reforming the Frankish church, and evangelising the Saxons. After Carloman, who was an intensely pious man, retired to religious life in 747, Pepin became the sole ruler of the Franks. He suppressed a revolt led by his half-brother Grifo, and succeeded in becoming the undisputed master of all Francia. Giving up pretense, Pepin then forced Childeric into a monastery and had himself proclaimed King of the Franks with support of Pope Zachary in 751. The decision was not supported by all members of the Carolingian family and Pepin had to put down a revolt led by Carloman’s son, Drogo, and again by Grifo.

German History Part II: Kingdom of the Franks.

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Carolingians, Charlemagne, Childeric I, Clovis I, Franks, Gaul, Historiography, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of the Franks, Merovingians, Pope Leo III, Roman Empire

I first began the examination of German history a few weeks ago with the post on the accession of Heinrich I The Fowler as King of East Francia. I’d like to continue to differentiate the the history of the Kingdom of the Franks and it’s transition to what became the Holy Roman Empire. Monarchy has always been an evolving concept and institution. This evolution also includes the development of Nation-states.

When viewing the past these transitions can often be overlooked or glossed over. This is a byproduct of historiography. Historiography is the study of the methods of historiansin developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. Historiography was more recently defined as “the study of the way history has been and is written – the history of historical writing”, which means that, “When you study ‘historiography’ you do not study the events of the past directly, but the changing interpretations of those events in the works of individual historians.”

Kingdom of the Franks

One aspect of historiography is to project onto the past terms and descriptions from a modern standpoint instead of what was contemporary for their times. One example of this is the Holy Roman Empire. It is often mentioned that Charlemagne is reckoned as the first Holy Roman Emperor when he was crowned on Christmas Day 800AD by Pope Leo III. Indeed, Charlemagne is reckoned Holy Roman Emperor Charles I despite the fact that at the time he was considered to have been restoring the old Roman Empire and that his state, the Carolingian Empire, (again, a more modern label) was actually a precursor of the Holy Roman Empire.

In this seven part series I will wade through the various transitions of German (and French) history as we observe the development of the Frankish Kingdom and it’s transition into the Holy Roman Empire. Today I will examine the Frankish people and the origin of the Kingdom of the Franks.

The Franks (Latin: Franci or gens Francorum) were a collection of Germanic peoples, whose name was first mentioned in 3rd century Roman sources, associated with tribes on the Lower and Middle Rhine, on the edge of the Roman Empire. Later the term was associated with later Romanized Germanic dynasties within the collapsing Roman Empire, who eventually commanded the whole region between the rivers Loire and Rhine.

The core Frankish territories inside the former Western Roman Empire were close to the Rhine and Maas rivers in the north. Frankish peoples inside Rome’s frontier on the Rhine river were the Salian Franks who from their first appearance were permitted to live in Roman territory, and the Ripuarian or Rhineland Franks who, after many attempts, eventually conquered the Roman frontier city of Cologne and took control of the left bank of the Rhine. Later, in a period of factional conflict in the 450s and 460s, Childeric I, a Frank, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in Roman Gaul (roughly modern France). Childeric and his son Clovis I faced competition from the Roman Aegidius as competitor for the “kingship” of the Franks associated with the Roman Loire forces.

This new type of kingship represented the start of the Merovingian dynasty, which succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, as well as establishing its leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on the Rhine frontier.

Clovis I, King of the Franks

The Merovingian dynasty was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as “Kings of the Franks” in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gaulish Romans under their rule. They conquered most of Gaul, defeating the Visigoths (507) and the Burgundians (534), and also extended their rule into Raetia (537). In Germania, the Alemanni, Bavarii and Saxons accepted their lordship. The Merovingian realm was the largest and most powerful of the states of western Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

The term “Merovingian” comes from medieval Latin Merovingi or Merohingi (“sons of Merovech”), an alteration of an unattested Frankish form, akin to their dynasty’s Old English name Merewīowing, with the final -ing being a typical Germanic patronymic suffix. The name derives from the possibly legendary King Merovech. Unlike the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies, the Merovingians never claimed descent from a god, nor is there evidence that they were regarded as sacred.
The Merovingians’ long hair distinguished them among the Franks, who commonly cut their hair short.

Contemporaries sometimes referred to them as the “long-haired kings” (Latin reges criniti). A Merovingian whose hair was cut could not rule and a rival could be removed from the succession by being tonsured and sent to a monastery. The Merovingians also used a distinct name stock. One of their names, Clovis, evolved into Louis and remained common among French royalty down to the 19th century.

As mentioned previously the first known Merovingian king was Childeric I (died 481). His son Clovis I (died 511) converted to Christianity, united the Franks and conquered most of Gaul. The Merovingians treated their kingdom as single yet divisible. Clovis’s four sons divided the kingdom between them and it remained divided—with the exception of four short periods (558–61, 613–23, 629–34, 673–75)—down to 679. After that it was only divided again once (717–18). The main divisions of the kingdom were Austrasia, Neustria, Burgundy and Aquitaine.

Who was the last King of the Franks? Who was the first King of France? Part Deux

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Charles the Bald, Charles the Simple, Hugh Capet, Kingdom of France, Kingdom of the Franks, Louis II The German, Louis Philippe, Louis the Pious, Louis XIV of France, Louis XVI of France

We had last discussed the the first two kingdoms of the three that were created when the Empire of Louis I The Pious was divided in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun.

That leads us to West Francia which was the land under the control of Charles the Bald. It is the forerunner of modern France. It was divided into the following great fiefs: Aquitaine, Brittany, Burgundy, Catalonia, Flanders, Gascony, Gothia, the Île-de-France, and Toulouse. The Capitian dynasty came to rule the Île-de-France as Duke of the Île-de-France. The fact that these territories were fiefs of the Kingdom instead of sovereign sub-kingdoms of their own helped West Francia become a unified kingdom…eventually.

As with the Merovingians the Carolingians also began to falter with weak rulers that were not up to the task of ruling. In 888 Odo, Count of Paris and Duke of the Île-de-France, was elected king temporarily supplanting the Carolingian Dynasty. The Carolingians were restored next year under Charles III the Simple in West Francia, and ruled until 987, when the last Frankish king of that dynasty, Louis V, died. Hugh Capét Count of Paris and Duke of the Île-de-France was then elected king of West Francia and his direct descendants would rule until 1792 when King Louis XVI of France and Navarre was deposed. The monarchy was restored in 1814 and the last Capetian king of France, Louis-Philippe, was deposed in 1848.

That is a lot of history to cover! So who just was the last King of the Franks and the first King of France? Well, like Wessex and England this is up for debate! When did the Kingdom of the Franks end and the Kingdom of France come into existence? It is difficult to tell by the titles of the monarchs. The Latin term Francorum Rex (sometimes the title took the form of Rex Francorum) was the official Latin title of the “King of the Franks” from the founding of the kingdom in 496 and remained as such even after after the accession of the Carolingian and Capetian Dynasties. This title was used in official documents until French replaced Latin as the formal language of legal documents, and this title remained used on coins until the 18th century. However, it was King Philippe II “Augustus” changed the official title in 1990 to the form Franciae Rex (“King of France”) was also used.

Even though the title King of the Franks lasted until it was changed by King Philippe II in 1190, and remained on coins until the 1700s, there seem to be two choices of who was the last King of the Franks and the first King of France. Many historians cite the treaty of Verdun of 843 and the creation of West Francia as the end of the old Frankish Kingdom and the birth of the Kingdom of France. That would make Louis I, the Pious the last King of the Franks and his son Charles I The Bald as the first King of France. If you support the election of Hugh Capét, Count of Paris and Duke of the Île-de-France as King of France in 987 (as many historians also do) then Louis V would be the last King of the Franks.

My choice is for Louis I, the Pious as the last King of the Franks and his son Charles I The Bald as the first King of France via the Treaty of Verdun in 843. Why? By the time of that treaty was established there were already cultural shifts between France and Germany, the domain of Louis II, the German. As time went on these differences were solidified and by the time Hugh Capét was elected King, that which we see as French culture had already taken shape.

Royal Numbering ~ France

Tags

Charlemagne, France, French Kings, History, Kingdom of the Franks, Louis XIV, Royal numbering

The next country I will examine in the usage of ordinal numbers for is monarchs is France. As my previous blog post demonstrated all monarchies, France included, developed over time. This includes the usage of ordinal numbers to differentiate monarchs of the same name within a given territory.

The modern Kingdom of France evolved out of the old Kingdom of the Franks. Similar to England where Anglo-Saxon names fell into disuse in France the old Frankish names such as Childeric, Dagobert and Thierry also gave way to more modern Christian based names. All of the numbering of the French kings follow the numbering that began with the Carolingian Dynasty. There is not any real discrepancy in the numbers except with the name Charles.

In 768 Charlemagne became co-king of the Franks along with his brother Carloman. However, Charlemagne was technically not his real name. It is an Anglicized version of his given name plus his sobriquet. His name was simply Charles. To history and even his contemporaries he was known as Charles the Great (Latin: Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus) It is the Latin form of his name and sobriquet that have been Anglicized and passed down to posterity.

There were a few successor to Charlemagne, reckoned Charles I of France, that also held the name Charles and similarly were known by their name along with their sobriquet. Adding to the confusion was the fact that titles and territories were in a constant state of flux. Here is a list of the Carolingian kings/emperors with their titles and sobriquet’s.

Charles the Bald, King of West Francia, 840-877, Holy Roman Emperor, 875-877

Charles the Fat, King of East Francia, 882-887. King of West Francia 884-887, Holy Roman Emperor, 881-887.

Charles the Simple, King of West Francia, 898-922.

In some lists of the kings of France both Charles the Fat and Charles the Simple are listed as Charles III. I have also seen some lists where Charles the Bald is listed as Charles I of France and Charlemagne is listed as Charlemagne instead of Charles the Great without an ordinal. The lists where Charles the Bald is listed as Charles I, Charles the Fat is listed as Charles II. There are some lists that omit Charles the Fat entirely. After Charles III the Simple there would not be another king of France by that name until 1322 a full 400 years! Even then Charles IV was known by his sobriquet as Charles the Fair.

In the end all of these mistakes are difficult to reconcile and I have just come to accept that the numbering for the name of Charles is simply off by one.

Part II will be posted tomorrow.