Haloise de Guines

F, (say 942 - )
FatherCount Sigfred (s 922 - )
MotherElstrude (s 924 - )
Birth*say 942 Haloise was born say 942. 
Marriage*say 980 She married Crispin de Bec say 980. 

Family

Crispin de Bec (say 940 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Count Sigfred

M, (say 922 - )
Birth*say 922 Sigfred was born say 922. 
Marriage*say 941 He married Elstrude say 941. 

Family

Elstrude (say 924 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Elstrude

F, (say 924 - )
FatherKing Arnulf the Great (s 900 - 27 Mar 965)
MotherAlice of Vermandois (s 902 - )
Birth*say 924 Elstrude was born say 924. 
Marriage*say 941 She married Count Sigfred say 941. 

Family

Count Sigfred (say 922 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

King Arnulf the Great

M, (say 900 - 27 March 965)
FatherKing Baldwin the Bald, Count of Flanders (c 863 - )
MotherElfrida (s 868 - 7 Jun 929)
Birth*say 900 Arnulf was born say 900. 
Marriage*say 922 He married Alice of Vermandois say 922. 
Death*27 March 965 He died on 27 March 965. 
Biography* Arnulf I, byname ARNULF THE GREAT, or THE ELDER, French ARNOUL LE GRAND, or LE VIEUX, Dutch ARNULF DE GROTE, or DE OUDE (b. c. 900--d. March 27, 965), count of Flanders (918-958, 962-965) and son of Baldwin II. On his father's death in 918, the inherited lands were divided between Arnulf and his brother Adolf, but the latter survived only a short time, and Arnulf succeeded to the whole inheritance. His reign was filled with warfare against the Norsemen, and he took an active part in the struggles in Lorraine between the emperor Otto I and Hugh Capet. In 958 Arnulf placed the government in the hands of his son Baldwin ( Baldwin III), and the young man, though his reign was a very short one, did a great deal for the commercial and industrial progress of the country, establishing the first weavers and fullers at Ghent and instituting yearly fairs at Ypres, Bruges, and other places. On Baldwin III's death in 962 the old count, Arnulf I, resumed control and spent the few remaining years of his life in securing the succession of his grandson Arnulf II the Younger (reigned 965-988). Source: "Arnulf I" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998]. 

Family

Alice of Vermandois (say 902 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

King Baldwin the Bald, Count of Flanders

M, (circa 863 - )
FatherKing Baldwin Iron-Arm of Flanders (s 840 - )
MotherPrincess Judith (s 843 - )
Birth*circa 863 Baldwin was born circa 863.1 
Marriage*after 893 He married Elfrida after 893.1 
Biography* Baldwin II, byname BALDWIN THE BALD, French BAUDOUIN LE CHAUVE, Dutch BOUDEWIJN DE KALE (d. 918), second ruler of Flanders, who, from his stronghold at Bruges, maintained, as his father Baldwin I before him, a vigorous defense of his lands against the incursions of the Norsemen. On his mother's side a descendant of Charlemagne, he strengthened the dynastic importance of his family by marrying Aelfthryth, daughter of Alfred the Great, of Wessex, Eng. Source: "Baldwin II" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998]. 

Family

Elfrida (say 868 - 7 June 929)
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Citations

  1. Brian C. Tompsett, compiler, e-mail address, Directory of Royal Genealogical Data, 31 Jan 2004.
    http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/royal/

King Baldwin Iron-Arm of Flanders

M, (say 840 - )
Birth*say 840 Baldwin was born say 840. 
Marriage*862 He married Princess Judith in 862.1 
Biography* Baldwin I, byname BALDWIN IRON-ARM, French BAUDOUIN BRAS-DE-FER, Dutch BOUDEWIJN DE IJZERE ARM (d. 879), the first ruler of Flanders. A daring warrior under Charles II the Bald of France, he fell in love with the King's daughter Judith, the youthful widow of two English kings, married her (862), and fled with his bride to Lorraine. Charles, though at first angry, was at last conciliated, and made his son-in-law margrave (Marchio Flandriae) of Flanders (864), which he held as a hereditary fief. The Norsemen were at this time continually devastating the coastlands, and Baldwin was entrusted with this outlying borderland in order to defend it. He was the first of a line of strong rulers, who early in the 10th century exchanged the title of margrave for that of count. Source: "Baldwin I" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998]. 

Family

Princess Judith (say 843 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Citations

  1. Brian C. Tompsett, compiler, e-mail address, Directory of Royal Genealogical Data, 31 Jan 2004.
    http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/royal/

Princess Judith

F, (say 843 - )
FatherCharles the Bald, Emperor of the West (13 Jun 823 - 6 Oct 877)
MotherErmentrude (s 822 - )
Birth*say 843 Judith was born say 843. 
Marriage*862 She married King Baldwin Iron-Arm of Flanders in 862.1 

Family

King Baldwin Iron-Arm of Flanders (say 840 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Citations

  1. Brian C. Tompsett, compiler, e-mail address, Directory of Royal Genealogical Data, 31 Jan 2004.
    http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/royal/

Bertha

F, (say 716 - )
Birth*say 716 Bertha was born say 716. 
Marriage* She married King Pepin the Short

Family

King Pepin the Short (circa 714 - 24 September 768)
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Hildegard

F, (758 - 30 April 783)
Birth*758 Hildegard was born in 758. 
Marriage*circa 771 She married Charlemagne Emperor of The West circa 771. 
Death*30 April 783 She died on 30 April 783. 

Family

Charlemagne Emperor of The West (2 April 742 - 28 January 814)
Children
Last Edited8 February 2011

Begga

F, (say 605 - before 675)
FatherPepin the Elder (580 - )
Birth*say 605 Begga was born say 605. 
Marriage* She married Ansegisel
Death*before 675 She died before 675. 

Family

Ansegisel (say 605 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

King Pepin the Short

M, (circa 714 - 24 September 768)
FatherMayor Charles Martel (688 - 22 Oct 741)
Birth*circa 714 Pepin was born circa 714. 
Marriage* He married Bertha
Death*24 September 768 He died at Saint-Denis, Neustria, France, on 24 September 768. 
Biography* Pepin III, byname PEPIN THE SHORT, French PÉPIN LE BREF, German PIPPIN DER KURZE (b. c. 714--d. Sept. 24, 768, Saint-Denis, Neustria [now in France]), the first king of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty and the father of Charlemagne. A son of Charles Martel, Pepin became sole de facto ruler of the Franks in 747 and then, on the deposition of Childeric III in 751, king of the Franks. He was the first Frankish king to be anointed--first by St. Boniface and later (754) by Pope Stephen II. For years the Merovingian kings had been unable to prevent power from slipping from their hands into those of the counts and other magnates. The kings were gradually eclipsed by the mayors of the palace, whose status developed from that of officer of the household to regent or viceroy. Among the mayors, a rich family descended from Pepin of Landen (Pepin I) held a position of especial importance. When Charles Martel, the scion of that family, died in 741, he left two sons: the elder, Carloman, mayor of Austrasia, Alemannia, and Thuringia, and Pepin III, mayor of Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence. No king had ruled over all the Franks since 737, but to maintain the fiction of Merovingian sovereignty, the two mayors gave the crown to Childeric III in 743. Charles had had a third son, however-- Grifo, who had been born to him by a Bavarian woman of high rank, probably his mistress. In 741, when his two brothers were declared mayors of the Franks, Grifo rebelled. He led a number of revolts in subsequent years and was several times imprisoned. In 753 he was killed amid the Alpine passes on his way to join the Lombards, at this time enemies of the Franks as well as of the papacy. Numerous other rebellions broke out. In 742 men of the Aquitaine and Alemannia were in revolt; in 743 Odilo, duke of Bavaria, led his men into battle; in 744 the Saxons rebelled, in 745 Aquitaine, and in 746 Alemannia, both the latter for the second time. In 747, when Carloman decided to enter monastic life at Rome, a step he had been considering for years, Pepin became sole ruler of the Franks. But Pepin was ambitious to govern his people as king, not merely as mayor. Like his father, he had courage and resolution; unlike his father, he had a strong desire to unite the papacy with the Frankish realm. In 750 he sent two envoys to Pope Zacharias with a letter asking: "Is it wise to have kings who hold no power of control?" The pope answered: "It is better to have a king able to govern. By apostolic authority I bid that you be crowned King of the Franks." Childeric III was deposed and sent to a monastery, and Pepin was anointed as king at Soissons in November 751 by Archbishop Boniface and other prelates. The pope was in need of aid. Aistulf, king of the Lombards, had seized Ravenna with its lands, known as the exarchate. Soon, Lombard troops marched south, surrounded Rome, and prepared to lay siege to its walls. So matters stood when in 752 Zacharias died and Stephen II became pope. In November 753 Pope Stephen made his way over the stormy mountain passes to Frankish territory. He remained in France until the summer of 754, staying at the abbey of Saint-Denis, Paris. There he himself anointed Pepin and his sons, Charles and Carloman, as king and heirs of the crown. The pope returned to Italy accompanied by Pepin and his army. A fierce battle was fought in the Alps against Aistulf and the Lombards. The Lombard king fled back to his capital, Pavia; Pepin and his men plundered the land around Pavia until Aistulf promised to restore to papal possession Ravenna and all the Roman properties claimed by the pope. Aistulf broke his word. Again and again Pope Stephen wrote to Pepin of his difficulties. In 756 the Frankish king once more entered Italy. Aistulf was once more constrained to make promises, but the same year he died--of a fall from his horse--and in April 757 a new king, Desiderius, became ruler of the Lombards. That year Stephen II also died, and Paul I was elected pope. He, too, constantly wrote to Pepin asking for help. But the King of the Franks had other concerns. He had to put down revolts in Saxony in 748 and 753 and a rising in Bavaria in 749. He was continually marching against rebellious Aquitaine. In 768 Pepin died at Saint-Denis, on his way back from one of his Aquitainian expeditions. Pepin is remembered not only as the first of the Carolingians but also as a strong supporter of the Roman Church. The papal claims to territory in Italy originated with Pepin's campaigns against Aistulf and the latter's pledge to return the Roman territories. His letters also show him calling for archbishoprics in Frankish territory, promoting synods of clergy and layfolk, and as deeply interested in theology. Source: "Pepin III" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998]. 

Family

Bertha (say 716 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Elfrida

F, (say 868 - 7 June 929)
FatherKing Alfred the Great, of England (849 - 28 Oct 899)
MotherEalhswyth of the Gainai (s 850 - 5 Dec 905)
Name Variation She was also known as Æfthryth. 
Birth*say 868 Elfrida was born say 868. 
Marriage*after 893 She married King Baldwin the Bald, Count of Flanders after 893.1 
Death*7 June 929 She died at Flanders on 7 June 929.1 
Burial*after 7 June 929 Her body was interred after 7 June 929 at St. Peter's Abbey, Ghent, Belgium.1 

Family

King Baldwin the Bald, Count of Flanders (circa 863 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Citations

  1. Brian C. Tompsett, compiler, e-mail address, Directory of Royal Genealogical Data, 31 Jan 2004.
    http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/royal/

Alice of Vermandois

F, (say 902 - )
FatherCount Herbert II of Vermandois (s 872 - )
MotherAdela (s 874 - )
Birth*say 902 Alice was born say 902. 
Marriage*say 922 She married King Arnulf the Great say 922. 

Family

King Arnulf the Great (say 900 - 27 March 965)
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Saint Arnulf of Metz

M, (say 580 - circa 18 July 640)
Birth*say 580 Arnulf was born at Nancy, France, say 580. 
Marriage* He married Doda
Death*circa 18 July 640 He died at Remiremont, France, circa 18 July 640. 
Biography* Arnulf OF METZ, SAINT, French SAINT ARNOUL DE METZ (b. c. 580, near Nancy [France]--d. July 18, 640?, Remiremont; feast day August 16 or 19), bishop of Metz and, with Pepin I, the earliest known ancestor of Charlemagne. A Frankish noble, Arnulf gave distinguished service at the Austrasian court under Theudebert II (595-612). In 613, however, with Pepin, he led the aristocratic opposition to Brunhild that led to her downfall and to the reunification of Frankish lands under Chlotar II. About the same year, he became bishop. From 623, again with Pepin, now mayor of the Austrasian palace, Arnulf was adviser to Dagobert I, before retiring (629?) to become a hermit. Arnulf's son Ansegisel married Pepin's daughter Begga; the son of this marriage, Pepin II, was Charlemagne's great-grandfather. Source: "Arnulf OF METZ, SAINT" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998].
.
The following is from from saints.catholic.org/images/20pix.gif
.
St. Arnulf d.c. 640 Feastday: July 18
.
Bishop and member of the court of the Frankish king Theodebert II of
Austrasia, sometimes called Arnuiph or Arnulf of Metz. A noble, Arnulf
married Doda, and their son was Ansegisel. Ansegisel married Beggia, the daughter of Pepin of Landen, starting the Carolingian dynasty of France. Doda became a nun, and Arnulf made plans to enter a monastery but was named the bishop of Nletz around 616. He continued his court services, making Clotaire of Neustria the king of Austrasia. He also served as counselor to Dagobert, King Clotaire's son. In 626, Arnulf retired to a hermitage at Remiremont, France.

 

Family

Doda (say 580 - )
Child
Last Edited1 January 2012

Charles the Bald, Emperor of the West

M, (13 June 823 - 6 October 877)
FatherLouis the Pious, Emperor of the West (778 - 20 Jun 840)
MotherJudith (s 780 - )
Birth*13 June 823 Charles was born on 13 June 823. 
Marriage*843 He married Ermentrude in 843. 
Death*6 October 877 He died on 6 October 877 at age 54. 
Biography* Charles II, byname CHARLES THE BALD, French CHARLES LE CHAUVE, German KARL DER KAHLE (b. June 13, 823--d. Oct. 6, 877, Brides-les-Bain, Fr.), king of France (i.e., Francis Occidentalis, the West Frankish kingdom) from 843 to 877 and Western emperor from 875 to 877. (He is reckoned as Charles II both of the Holy Roman Empire and of France.) Son of the emperor Louis I the Pious and his second wife, Judith, Charles was the unwitting cause of violent discord when, in 829, he was granted lands by his father; Louis's action precipitated a series of civil wars, lasting until 838, in which the three sons of his first marriage, Lothair I, Louis (the German), and Pepin, strove to maintain or to increase the rights that they had been guaranteed by the succession settlement of 817, the Ordinatio imperii. Pepin died in 838, but after the death of Louis I in 840 the civil war resumed and continued until Louis the German joined with Charles to force Lothair to accept the Treaty of Verdun in 843, by which Charles received all the lands west of a line roughly following the Scheldt, the Meuse, the Saône, the eastern mountains of the Massif Central, and the lower reaches of the Rhône, and Louis the German and Lothair received respectively the lands of the East Franks (Germany) and the middle kingdom, lying between the other two. Until 864 Charles's political situation was precarious because few vassals were loyal to him. His lands suffered from raids by Northmen, who left only after receiving bribes; he was defeated by the Bretons and, in 858, faced an invasion by Louis the German. Yet he succeeded in gaining control of Aquitaine after the capture of Pepin's son in 864; and, by the Treaty of Meersen (870) with Louis the German, he received western Lorraine. When Lothair's son, the emperor Louis II, died in 875, Charles went to Italy and was crowned emperor on December 25 by Pope John VIII. In 876, after the death of Louis the German, Charles invaded Louis's possessions but was defeated at Andernach by Louis's son, Louis the Younger. Charles's death in the next year occurred when another son of Louis the German, Carloman, was marching against him and when his own major vassals were in revolt. During Charles's reign some of the splendours of the Carolingian renaissance were revived, and his close collaboration with the church enhanced his prestige and authority. Source: "Charles II" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998]. 

Family

Ermentrude (say 822 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Ermentrude

F, (say 822 - )
Birth*say 822 Ermentrude was born say 822. 
Marriage*843 She married Charles the Bald, Emperor of the West in 843. 

Family

Charles the Bald, Emperor of the West (13 June 823 - 6 October 877)
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Louis the Pious, Emperor of the West

M, (778 - 20 June 840)
FatherCharlemagne Emperor of The West (2 Apr 742 - 28 Jan 814)
MotherHildegard (758 - 30 Apr 783)
Birth*778 Louis was born at Chasseneuil, near Poitiers, Aquitaine, in 778. 
Marriage*say 800 He married Judith say 800. 
Death*20 June 840 He died at Petersaue, Germany, on 20 June 840. 
Biography* Louis I, byname LOUIS THE PIOUS, or THE DEBONAIR, French LOUIS LE PIEUX, or LE DÉBONNAIRE, German LUDWIG DER FROMME (b. 778, Chasseneuil, near Poitiers, Aquitaine--d. June 20, 840, Petersaue, Ger.), son of the Frankish ruler Charlemagne; he was crowned as co-emperor in 813 and became emperor in 814 on his father's death. Twice deprived of his authority by his sons (Lothair, Pepin, Louis, and Charles), he recovered it each time (830 and 834), but at his death the Carolingian empire was in disarray. Louis was the fifth child of Charlemagne's second wife, Hildegard the Swabian. From 781 until 814 Louis ruled Aquitaine with some success, though largely through counsellors. When Charlemagne died at Aachen in 814 and was succeeded by Louis, by then his only surviving legitimate son, Louis was well experienced in warfare; he was 36, married to Irmengard of Hesbaye, and was the father of three young sons, Lothair, Pepin, and Louis (Louis the German); he had inherited vast lands, which seemed to be under reasonable control; there was no other claimant to the throne; and on Sept. 11, 813, shortly before his father's death, Louis had been crowned in Aachen as heir and co-emperor. Louis' first task was to carry out the terms of Charlemagne's will. According to the Frankish chronicler Einhard, Louis did this with great scrupulousness, although other contemporary sources tell a different story. Louis next began to allocate parts of the empire to the various members of his family, and here began the difficulties and disasters that were to beset him for the remainder of his life. In August 814 he made Lothair and Pepin nominal kings of Bavaria and Aquitaine. He also confirmed Bernard, the son of his dead brother Pepin, as king of Italy, which position Charlemagne had allowed him to inherit in 813. But when Bernard revolted in 817, Louis had him blinded, and he died as a result of it. Louis sent his sisters and half sisters to nunneries and later put his three illegitimate half brothers--Drogo, Hugo, and Theodoric--into monasteries. At the assembly of Aachen in July 817, he confirmed Pepin in the possession of Aquitaine and gave Bavaria to Louis the German; Lothair he made his co-emperor and heir. Charlemagne had been in his 70s and within a few months of death before naming his heir, and for Louis to give such premature expectations to a youth of 22 was to ask for trouble. Moreover, Louis did not anticipate that he would become father of another child: the empress Irmengard died in 818; and four months later Louis married Judith of Bavaria, who, in June 823, bore him a son, Charles (Charles the Bald), to whom the Emperor gave Alemannia in 829. Backed by his two brothers, Lothair rose in revolt and deposed his father. The assembly of Nijmegen in October 830, however, restored Louis to the throne; and, the following February, at the assembly of Aachen, in a second partition, Lothair was given Italy. In 832 Louis took Aquitaine away from Pepin and gave it to Charles. The three brothers revolted a second time, with the support of Pope Gregory IV, and at a meeting near Sigolsheim, in Alsace, once more deposed their father. In March 834 Louis was again restored to the throne and made peace with Pepin and with Louis the German. Later in 834, Lothair rose again, but alone, and had to retreat into Italy. Encouraged by his success, Louis made over more territories to his son Charles at the assemblies of Aachen and Nijmegen (837-838)--a move the three brothers accepted but with bad grace. In 839 Louis the German revolted but was driven back into Bavaria. Meanwhile, Pepin had died (December 838), and, at the assembly of Worms (May 30, 839), a fourth partition was made, the empire being divided between Lothair and Charles, with Bavaria left in the hands of Louis the German. Toward the end of 839 Louis the German marched his troops for the last time against his father, who once more drove him back. The Emperor called an assembly at Worms on July 1, 840. Before it could meet, however, Louis the Pious died at Petersaue, an island in the Rhine near Ingelheim. He was 62 and had ruled for nearly 27 years. He was buried in the Church of St. Arnulf in Metz by Bishop Drogo, his half brother. The empire he had inherited in peace, Louis left in disarray. He had engaged in no serious external conflict, although the Danes and others had continued to make inroads into the empire. From 829 his four sons had been a constant source of disruption; the quarrels among Lothair, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald were to continue for decades after his death. In many ways Louis seems to have been an estimable person. He was presumably given the epithet the Pious because of his devoutness, his liberality to the church, his interest in ecclesiastical affairs, and the good education he had received. Contemporary historians vary little in their judgment: the Astronomer of Limousin stresses his continued courage in the face of adversity; Thegan, bishop of Trier, gives a long and admiring description of his person, his talents, his Christian charity, his devoutness, and his skill as a hunter; and the poem of Ermoldus Nigellus is full of adulation. Like his father, Charlemagne, Louis the Pious is depicted in several of the chansons de geste of the 12th century, notably the Chanson de Guillaume, the Couronnement de Louis, and the Charroi de Nîmes: he appears as a kindly ruler but a weak and vacillating one. Source: "Louis I" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998]. 

Family

Judith (say 780 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Judith

F, (say 780 - )
Birth*say 780 Judith was born say 780. 
Marriage*say 800 She married Louis the Pious, Emperor of the West say 800. 

Family

Louis the Pious, Emperor of the West (778 - 20 June 840)
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Mayor Charles Martel

M, (688 - 22 October 741)
FatherPepin Mayor of Herstal (c 635 - 16 Dec 714)
MotherMistress of Pepin (s 637 - )
Birth*688 Charles was born in 688. 
Death*22 October 741 He died at Quierzy-sur-Oise, France, on 22 October 741. 
Biography* Charles MARTEL, Latin CAROLUS MARTELLUS, German KARL MARTELL (b. c. 688--d. Oct. 22, 741, Quierzy-sur-Oise, France), mayor of the palace of Austrasia (the eastern part of the Frankish kingdom) from 715 to 741. He reunited and ruled the entire Frankish realm and stemmed the Muslim invasion at Poitiers in 732. His byname, Martel, means "the hammer." Charles was the illegitimate son of Pepin of Herstal, the mayor of the palace of Austrasia. By this period the Merovingian kings of the Frankish realm were rulers in name only. The burden of rule lay upon the mayors of the palace, who governed Austrasia, the eastern part of the Frankish kingdom, and Neustria, its western portion. Neustria bitterly resented its conquest and annexation in 687 by Pepin, who, acting in the name of the king, had reorganized and reunified the Frankish realm. The assassination of Pepin's only surviving legitimate son in 714 was followed a few months later by the death of Pepin himself. Pepin left as heirs three grandsons, and until they came of age, Plectrude, Pepin's widow, was to hold power. As an illegitimate son, Charles Martel was entirely neglected in the will. But he was young, strong, and determined, and an intense struggle for power at once broke out in the Frankish kingdom. Both Charles and Plectrude faced rebellion throughout the Frankish kingdom when Pepin's will was made known. The king, Chilperic II, was in the power of Ragenfrid, mayor of the palace of Neustria, who joined forces with the Frisians in Holland in order to eliminate Charles. Plectrude imprisoned Charles and tried to govern in the name of her grandchildren, but Charles escaped, gathered an army, and defeated the Neustrians in battles at Amblève near Liège (716) and at Vincy near Cambrai (717). His success made resistance by Plectrude and the Austrasians useless; they submitted, and by 719 Charles alone governed the Franks as mayor. Assured of Austrasia, Charles now attacked Neustria itself, finally subduing it in 724. This freed Charles to deal with hostile elements elsewhere. He attacked Aquitaine, whose ruler, Eudes (Odo), had been an ally of Ragenfrid, but Charles did not gain effective control of southern France until late in his reign. He also conducted long campaigns, some as late as the 730s, against the Frisians, Saxons, and Bavarians, whose brigandage endangered the eastern frontiers of his kingdom. In order to consolidate his military gains, Charles supported St. Boniface and other missionaries in their efforts to convert the German tribes on the eastern frontier to Christianity. Ever since their arrival in Spain from Africa in 711, the Muslims had raided Frankish territory, threatening Gaul and on one occasion (725) reaching Burgundy and sacking Autun. In 732 'Abd ar-Rahman, the governor of Córdoba, marched into Bordeaux and defeated Eudes. The Muslims then proceeded north across Aquitaine to the city of Poitiers. Eudes appealed to Charles for assistance, and Charles' cavalry managed to turn back the Muslim onslaught at the Battle of Poitiers. The battle itself may have been only a series of small engagements, but after it there were no more great Muslim invasions of Frankish territory. In 733 Charles began his campaigns to force Burgundy to yield to his rule. In 735 word arrived that Eudes was dead, and Charles marched rapidly across the Loire River in order to make his power felt around Bordeaux. By 739 he had completely subdued the petty chieftains of Burgundy, and he continued to fend off Muslim advances into Gaul during the decade. Charles' health began to fail in the late 730s, and in 741 he retired to his palace at Quierzy-sur-Oise, where he died soon after. Before his death he divided the Merovingian kingdom between his two legitimate sons, Pepin and Carloman. He continued to maintain the fiction of Merovingian rule, refraining from transferring the royal title to his own dynasty. Source: "Charles MARTEL" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998]. 

Family

Child
Last Edited1 January 2012

Ansegisel

M, (say 605 - )
FatherSaint Arnulf of Metz (s 580 - c 18 Jul 640)
MotherDoda (s 580 - )
Birth*say 605 Ansegisel was born say 605. 
Marriage* He married Begga

Family

Begga (say 605 - before 675)
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Charlemagne Emperor of The West

M, (2 April 742 - 28 January 814)
FatherKing Pepin the Short (c 714 - 24 Sep 768)
MotherBertha (s 716 - )
Birth*2 April 742 Charlemagne was born on 2 April 742. 
Marriage*circa 771 He married Hildegard circa 771. 
Biography* Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus, Charles the Great) as king of the Franks (768-814) conquered the Lombard kingdom in Italy, subdued the Saxons, annexed Bavaria to his kingdom, fought campaigns in Spain and Hungary, and, with the exception of the Kingdom of Asturias in Spain, southern Italy, and the British Isles, united in one superstate practically all the Christian lands of western Europe. In 800 he assumed the title of emperor. (He is reckoned as Charles I of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as Charles I of France.) Besides expanding its political power, he also brought about a cultural renaissance in his empire. Although this imperium survived its founder by only one generation, the medieval kingdoms of France and Germany derived all their constitutional traditions from Charles's monarchy. Throughout medieval Europe, the person of Charles was considered the prototype of a Christian king and emperor. Early Years. Charles was born probably in 742 (on April 2), the elder son of Pepin III, also called Pepin the Short. Pepin and his older brother, Carloman, had just jointly assumed the government of the Frankish kingdom as maior domus, or "mayor of the palace." The dynasty, later called Carolingian after Charlemagne, had originated in the Meuse-Moselle region on the borders of modern France, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands. In the course of a few generations, it had, as mayors of the palace to the Merovingians, gained control of the entire Frankish kingdom. Charlemagne's grandfather, Charles Martel, reconstituted a realm that had been on the point of breaking up, and, without infringing on the royal prerogatives of the otherwise powerless Merovingians, he had in effect bequeathed the empire to his sons, Pepin and Carloman, like a family inheritance. Charles grew to manhood while his father was engaged in acquiring sole sovereignty and the kingship. On Carloman's retirement to a monastery, Pepin eliminated the latter's sons from the government. Having thus prepared the way,he had himself proclaimed king in 751, after dethroning the Merovingians. An oracular response by Pope Zacharias furnished the ecclesiastical approbation for thus shunting aside the former reigning house, which had been held sacred. Zacharias' successor, Stephen II, arrived in the Frankish kingdom during the winter of 753-754, in order to seek help against the Lombards who were attacking Rome. As the reigning monarch's oldest son, Charles, then about 12 years of age, travelled ahead to welcome the Pope, who anointed him king, along with his father and his brother Carloman, thus sanctioning the new dynasty. The political alliance between the Franks and the Pope against the Lombards was affirmed on the same occasion. When his father subdued Aquitaine (France south of the Loire) in a series of yearly campaigns beginning in 760, reasserting the integrity of the Frankish kingdom all the way to the Pyrenees, Charles repeatedly accompanied the army. These youthful experiences probably contributed to the formation of Charles's character and to the formulation of his aims. He shared with his father an unbending will to power, a readiness to fight resolutely against external enemies and to increase his domains, and the determination to rule by himself even if it meant usurping the rights of close relatives. Charles early acknowledged the close connection between temporal power and the church; he had a high regard for the church and the king's duty to spread the Christian faith and, while asserting royal suzerainty over the church, considered himself accountable to God for the Christians entrusted to him. King of the Franks. In accordance with old Frankish custom, the kingdom was divided on Pepin's death in 768 between his two sons. It was not long, however, before a strong rivalry sprang up between the brothers: with his mother's support, Charles concluded, with the Lombard king Desiderius, whose daughter he married, and with his cousin Duke Tassilo of Bavaria, alliances directed against Carloman. On Carloman's sudden death in 771, Charles was able to make himself sole ruler of the kingdom, unopposed by his young nephews, whose rights he ignored. When Carloman's widow with her children and a few remaining supporters had fled to the Lombard court, and King Desiderius, breaking his alliance with Charles, put pressure on the Pope to anoint Carloman's sons as Frankish kings, Charles was forced to come to the aid of Pope Adrian I. He marched on the Lombard capital, Pavia, and after its fall made himself king of the Lombards. His brother's sons, who had fallen into his hands, disappeared. While the siege of Pavia was still in progress, Charles journeyed to Rome, where he celebrated Easter 774 with the Pope and reiterated, in St. Peter's Basilica, his father's promise to transfer to papal rule large sections of Italy. But he actually enlarged the Pope's lands only slightly, assuming for himself the sovereignty over the entire Lombard kingdom. Charles had fought the pagan Saxons, in what is now Lower Saxony and Westphalia, in retribution for their attacks on the lower Rhine region, as early as 772, before the first Italian campaign. From 775 on, however, it was his goal to subdue the whole Saxon tribe, converting it to Christianity and integrating it into his kingdom. This aim appeared to have been realized after several campaigns culminating in declarations of allegiance by the Saxon nobility and mass baptisms performed in 775-777. A diet held in 777 in Paderborn sealed the submission of the Saxons. Among those attending the diet had been some Arab emissaries from northern Spain who sought Charles's aid in their uprising against the Umayyad amir of Córdoba. In the summer of 778 Charles advanced into Spain and laid siege to Saragossa, without, however, being able to take the city. Retreating across the Pyrenees, the Frankish army was badly mauled by the Basques. Roland, warden of the Breton march, who died on this occasion, was later immortalized in legend and poetry. This defeat marks the end of the first period of Charles's rule, the period of vigorous expansion. Within a decade he had become the sole ruler of the Franks, conquered the Lombard kingdom, visited Rome, subdued the Saxons, invaded Spain. Henceforth he was concerned with defending and safeguarding his quickly won gains (which were to be extended only on the right bank of the Rhine), while consolidating the state internally and protecting cultural life and the rule of law. Not long after Charles's defeat in Spain, the Saxons rose up once more. The war against them became the longest and most cruel war fought by the Franks. In Charles's eyes, the resistance of this people that had undergone baptism and signed a treaty of allegiance amounted to political high treason and religious apostasy. These offenses called for severe punishment, and 4,500 Saxons were reported to have been executed en masse in 782. New outbreaks occurred after 792, and the last Saxons were not vanquished until 804. Between 772 and 804, Charles took the field against the Saxons no fewer than 18 times. In the end he carried out his aim of not only subjecting them to his rule but also incorporating them fully into his empire. Given the indissoluble tie between temporal power and the Christian faith, this meant they had to be converted. But the violent methods by which this missionary task was carried out had been unknown to the earlier Middle Ages, and the sanguinary punishment meted out to those who broke canon law or continued to engage in pagan practices called forth criticism in Charles's own circle, for example by Alcuin, his adviser and head of his palace school. When, in 788, Charles deposed his cousin Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria, who had acknowledged the Frankish kings as feudal lords, he in effect deprived of its independence the last of the German tribes beyond the Rhine. The Bavarians, who had long been Christians, were now directly integrated into the empire. The West Germanic tribes of the Alemanni, Bavarians, Saxons, and Thuringians thus found themselves for the first time gathered intoone political unit. Charles's conquests on the right bank of the Rhine were, however, not limited to the Germanic tribes. Making Ratisbon (Regensburg), the residence of the Bavarian dukes, his base, he conducted several campaigns, partly under his own command, against the Avar kingdom (in modern Hungary and Upper Austria). The remaining Avar principalities and the newly founded Slav states of the Danubian region drifted into a loose dependence on the Franks, whose sovereignty they more or less acknowledged. The gigantic expansion of the Frankish state, raising it far above the tribal states of the early Middle Ages, entailed qualitative as well as quantitative changes. Yet the idea of bestowing on Charles the Roman title of emperor arose only at a very late stage and out of a specific political constellation. While the Eastern, or Byzantine, Empire laid claim to universal recognition, the popes, constitutionally still subjects of Byzantium, were opposed to the iconoclastic religious policies of the Eastern emperors. Moreover, under the protection of Charles, Pope Adrian sought to erect an autonomous domain over central Italy, the more so as the Byzantines, abandoning for all practical purposes Rome and Ravenna, were asserting their rule only in Sicily and the southernmost edge of Italy. The papacy's desire for independence found a significant expression in the Donation of Constantine, a forgery dating probably from the first few years of Adrian's reign and purporting to legitimize these papal aims in the name of the first Christian emperor, Constantine I the Great. Charles paid a second visit to Rome in 781, when he had the Pope crown his young sons Pepin and Louis as kings of the Lombards and Aquitanians and gained de facto recognition of his Italian position from the Byzantine empress Irene, the mother of Constantine VI. The entente that existed between Charles and Byzantium came to an end after a Frankish attack on southern Italy in 787. Emperor of the West. In the end, local Roman conflicts brought about the clarification of the city's constitutional position. In May 799, Pope Leo III was waylaid in Rome by personal enemies. He took refuge at the court of Charles, who had him conducted back to the city and who in November 800 came to Rome himself, where he was received with imperial honours. Before Charles and a synod, Pope Leo cleared himself under oath of the charges made by his enemies. During Christmas mass in St. Peter's, the Romans acclaimed Charles emperor, whereupon the Pope crowned and perhaps anointed him. The imperial title was by nature a Roman dignity. While the acclamation represented the juridically conclusive act, it was the coronation at the hands of the Pope that, though of no constitutional importance, was to acquire for the Franks great significance. The Pope had been determined to make Charles emperor, deciding to a large extent the outward form; yet Charles was surely not surprised by these events. His famous statement quoted by one of his favourites, the Frankish historian Einhard, that he would not have set foot in church that Christmas if he had known the Pope's intention, implies a criticism of the ceremony initiated by the Pope, as well as a formal expression of humility. The crowning had been preceded by negotiations. While Charles's imperial rank was legally substantiated by the fact of his dominion over the western part of the old Roman Empire, the desire to counteract the petticoat rule of the empress Irene (who had dethroned and blinded her son in 797) also played a role. Residing in Rome four months and pronouncing sentence on the Pope's enemies as rebels guilty of lese majesty, Charles grasped the imperial reins with a firm hand. Likewise, after his return to Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), he promulgated laws in full consciousness of his rank as emperor. Byzantium braced itself for the usurper's attack, but Charles merely wished to see his new rank and his dominion over Rome recognized in negotiations; he gained his point in 812 when the emperor Michael I acknowledged him as emperor, though not as emperor of the Romans. While the imperial title did not bring Charles any additional powers, his control of Rome was now legitimized, and the estrangement of the papacy from Byzantium and its rapprochement with the Franks, a major historical event that had been initiated in 754, was rendered incontrovertible. A significant result of this development was the tradition to which Charles's assumption of the imperial title and function gave rise: all medieval concepts of empire and all the bonds between the constitutional traditions of the Franks and the later Holy Roman Empire with the Roman Empire founded by Augustus were based on the precedent of Charles's imperial title and position. Court and Administration. The creation of the empire was chiefly legitimized by Charles's efforts to raise its cultural level internally. When Charles came to power, the Frankish kingdom's cultural, administrative, and legal institutions were still relatively undeveloped. The Frankish king, for example, possessed no permanent residence. In the summer months he travelled about, deciding political issues and dispensing justice in assemblies of spiritual and temporal lords; above all, summer was the season for military campaigns. During the winter, from Christmas to Easter and sometimes longer, the king lived and held court at one of the imperial palaces. Charles especially favoured those situated in the Frankish heartland: only rarely did he spend the winter in one of the newly won territories, in encampment in Saxony, in Ratisbon, or in Rome. Not until 794 did Aachen, which the aging monarch liked because of its warm springs, become the court's abode, indeed almost a residence, during every winter and often even in summer. Here Charles built, partially with materials imported from Rome and Ravenna, the court church that is still standing, as well as the palace whose walls were incorporated into the 14th-century city hall. Charles's court consisted of his family, of the clergy in his personal service, who were called the king's capella, and of temporal officials, among them the count palatine, the seneschal, and the master of the royal household. These men were occasionally joined, on an informal basis, by other spiritual or temporal men of rank who spent some time in the ruler's presence. For Charles had the ambition to make his court the intellectual, as well as the political and administrative, centre of the realm and accordingly summoned prominent scholars from all parts of the empire and even from abroad. Among these the most important were Einhard and Alcuin. With the help of these and other literary men, Charles established a court library containing the works of the Church Fathers and those of ancient authors, and he founded a court academy for the education of young Frankish knights. Last but not least, he himself took part with his family and the learned and lay members of his entourage in a cultivated social life that afforded him entertainment no less than instruction. His mother tongue was an OldHigh German idiom, besides which he presumably understood the Old French dialect spoken by many Franks; as a grown man, he also learned Latin and some Greek, had historical and theological writings, including St. Augustine's City of God, read aloud to him, and acquired a rudimentary knowledge of mathematics and astronomy. The court's cultural interests, however, extended beyond the intellectual gratification of a small circle, such as the exchange of verses and letters. Efforts were also made to raise the level of religious observance, morality, and the process of justice throughout the empire. The clearest and most famous instance of this was the Epistula de litteris colendis, dating presumably from 784 to 785 and compiled in Charles's name by Alcuin. Its main argument lies in the assertion that the right faith--indeed, every right thought--must be clothed in the appropriate form and language, lest it be falsified; hence, the prescription of intensive study of Latin language and literature for all monastic and cathedral schools. The spiritual and literary movement called the " Carolingian renaissance" had many centres, especially in the empire's monasteries; but it cannot be evaluated without reference to Charles's court and to his endeavour to call on the best minds of the whole world, setting them to work in the education of the clergy and, in the final instance, of the whole people. The court's theological knowledge and intellectual self-confidence are reflected in the Libri Carolini, a comprehensive treatise written about 791 in Charles's name and directed against the Council of Nicaea (787), at which Greeks and papal plenipotentiaries had countenanced the practice of iconolatry; at the same time, the Libri Carolini did not spare the iconoclasts. Through this court, Charles ruled and administered his empire and dispensed justice. Once or twice a year at least, the court and the chief magistrates and nobles from all parts of the empire joined in a general assembly held either in the Frankish heartland or inone of the conquered territories. It is indicative of the unique structure of the Carolingian Empire that one cannot draw clear distinctions between an assembly of the armed forces, a constitutional assembly of the nobility, and a church synod: juridical, military, and ecclesiastical affairs were invariably discussed at one and the same time by the representatives of the nobility and the clergy. Above them all towered the figure of Charlemagne. On the local level the ruler was represented in every region by counts and bishops. Liaison between these personages and the court was maintained through royal messengers who travelled about at Charles's command, usually in pairs made up of a civil servant and a clerical dignitary. Royal commands did not have to be written out, although Charles's decrees (capitularies) increasingly came to be recorded in writing, at first rather imprecisely, in the last two decades of his reign; the forms coined by the "renaissance" gained ground only with time. Charles respected the traditional rights of the various peoples and tribes under his dominion as a matter of principle, and, after he became emperor, he had many of them recorded. The capitularies served partly as complements to tribal laws, partly as regulations applying to the most disparate aspects of public and private life, and in part also as specific instructions issued to royal messengers, counts, bishops, and others. Punitive decrees against highwaymen, dispositions concerning military levies, orders for the people to take an oath of allegiance to the emperor or to teach all Christians to recite the Lord's Prayer, are found intermingled in the capitularies with jurisdictional dispositions and regulations about the internal organization of monasteries; temporal and spiritual problems are rarely treated separately. Taken as a whole, the legal documents of Charles's reign bear witness to a great concern, born of profound moral and religious convictions, with the administration of justice and with public enlightenment, but they also show discrepancies between the ideal and reality. Limitations of His Rule. Charles's organization of the empire was, however, not without its defects and limitations. The sovereign's power was restricted only by theoretical principles of law and custom, not by institutions or countervailing forces. Significantly, the records report little about opposition movements and conspiracies, which, in fact, did exist. A rebellion that Thuringian counts launched against Charles in 786 can perhaps be explained as ethnic opposition to the centralism of the Franks. More ominous was an aristocratic conspiracy that in 792 attempted to place on the throne the hunchback Pepin, Charles's only son from his first marriage, which was later declared invalid; yet here, too, the political concepts and motives remain unknown. These events and, more clearly still, the history of the empire under Charles's successor, Louis, show the extent to which the political system had been designed for one person on whose outstanding abilities everything depended and with whose disappearance it threatened to collapse. Their self-confidence enhanced by Charles's educational policy, the clergy could not accept for all time his theocracy without opposing it with their own political and religious principles. The temporal nobility that had built the empire with the Carolingians could be firmly tied to the dynasty only as long as new conquests held out the prospect of new spoils and fiefs; if these failed to materialize, there remained only the care of one's properties in the different regions and the hope of gaining advantages from party strife. External expansion, however, could not advance substantially beyond the borders reached by 800; in fact, economic and technical resources were insufficient to hold together and administer what had already been won and to defend it against foreign enemies. Charles's empire lacked the means by which the Romans had preserved theirs: a money economy, a paid civil service, a standing army, a properly maintained network of roads and communications, a navy for coastal defense. Already in Charles's lifetime, the coasts were being threatened by the Normans. In 806 Charles planned a division of the empire between his sons, but after the death of the elder two he crowned Louis of Aquitaine his coemperor and sole successor at Aachen in 813. It was only a few months later that Charles himself died there on January 28, 814. Personality and Influence. Charlemagne's posthumous fame shone the more brightly as the following generations were unable to preserve the empire's internal peace, its unity, and its international position. Even after the Carolingian dynasty had become extinct, political tradition in the East Frankish (German) kingdom and empire, as well as in the West Frankish (French) kingdom, drew sustenance from the example set by Charlemagne. Under Otto I, Aachen became the city in which the rulers of Germany were crowned, and, at Frederick I Barbarossa's request, the antipope Paschal III canonized Charlemagne in 1165. In France the Capetians, beginning with Philip II Augustus, revived the traditions that had grown up around Charlemagne. The controversial question whether the Germans or the French were the true successors of Charlemagne was kept alive through the Middle Ages and into modern times. Napoleon called himself Charlemagne's successor; after the end of World War II, discussions of a united, Christian, "occidental" Europe invoked his model. Hand in hand with these political traditions went those in popular legend and poetry, culminating in the Roland epics. Nor did Charlemagne's fame stop at the boundaries of what was once his empire; some Slavic languages derived their term for "king" from his name (Czech král, Polish król, etc.) Charles left no biographical document; his personality can be constructed only from his deeds and the reports left by contemporaries. This is how Einhard, who lived at the court from about 795 on, described Charlemagne's character and appearance in his famous Vita Karoli Magni: "He had a broad and strong body of unusual height, but well-proportioned; for his height measured seven times his feet. His skull was round, the eyes were lively and rather large, the nose of more than average length, the hair gray but full, the face friendly and cheerful. Seated or standing, he thus made a dignified and stately impression even though he had a thick, short neck and a belly that protruded somewhat; but this was hidden by the good proportions of the rest of his figure. He strode with firm step and held himself like a man; he spoke with a higher voice than one would have expected of someone of his build. He enjoyed good health except for being repeatedly plagued by fevers four years before his death. Toward the end he dragged one foot." The strength of Charlemagne's personality was evidently rooted in the unbroken conviction of being at one with the divine will. Without inward contradiction, he was able to combine personal piety with enjoyment of life, a religious sense of missionwith a strong will to power, rough manners with a striving for intellectual growth, and intransigence against his enemies with rectitude. In his politically conditioned religiosity, the empire and the church grew into an institutional and spiritual unit. Although his empire survived him by only one generation, it contributed decisively to the eventual reconstitution, in the mind of a western Europe fragmented since the end of the Roman Empire, of a common intellectual, religious, and political inheritance on which later centuries could draw. Charlemagne did not create this inheritance single-handedly, but one would be hard put to imagine it without him. One of the poets at his court called him rex pater Europae--"King father of Europe." In truth, there is no other man who similarly left his mark on European history during the centuries of the Middle Ages. Source: "Charlemagne" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998]. 
Death*28 January 814 He died on 28 January 814 at age 71. 

Family

Hildegard (758 - 30 April 783)
Children
Last Edited26 April 2015

Pepin the Elder

M, (580 - )
Birth*580 Pepin was born in 580. 
Biography* Pepin I, byname PEPIN OF LANDEN, or PEPIN THE ELDER, French PÉPIN DE LANDEN, or PÉPIN LE VIEUX (d. c. 640), councillor of the Merovingian king Chlotar II and mayor of the palace in Austrasia. Through the marriage of his daughter Begga with Ansegisel, son of Arnulf (d. 641; bishop of Metz), Pepin was the founder of the Carolingian dynasty. Deprived of his mayoralty at the accession (629) of Dagobert I, he regained power in Austrasia after that king's death (January 639) but did not long survive to enjoy it. Source: "Pepin I" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998]. 

Family

Child
  • Begga+ (say 605 - before 675)
Last Edited8 February 2011

Count Herbert II of Vermandois

M, (say 872 - )
FatherCount Herbert I of Vermandois (s 850 - )
MotherBertha de Morvois (s 845 - )
Birth*say 872 Herbert was born say 872. 
Marriage*say 892 He married Adela say 892. 

Family

Adela (say 874 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Adela

F, (say 874 - )
Birth*say 874 Adela was born say 874. 
Marriage*say 892 She married Count Herbert II of Vermandois say 892. 

Family

Count Herbert II of Vermandois (say 872 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Count Herbert I of Vermandois

M, (say 850 - )
FatherCount Pepin II of Peronne (817 - a 845)
Birth*say 850 Herbert was born say 850. 
Marriage*say 865 He married Bertha de Morvois say 865. 

Family

Bertha de Morvois (say 845 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Bertha de Morvois

F, (say 845 - )
Birth*say 845 Bertha was born say 845. 
Marriage*say 865 She married Count Herbert I of Vermandois say 865. 

Family

Count Herbert I of Vermandois (say 850 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Count Pepin II of Peronne

M, (817 - after 845)
FatherKing Bernard of Italy (797 - 17 Aug 818)
MotherCunigunde (s 797 - )
Birth*817 Pepin was born in 817. 
Death*after 845 He died after 845. 
Biography* Pepin II, the son of Pepin I of Aquitaine, he gained the throne about 845, after defeating the emperor Charles II the Bald in 844. War soon broke out again, however, and Charles slowly advanced through Aquitaine. Pepin took refuge with Sancho, duke of the Gascons, but in 852 was handed over to Charles, tonsured, and relegated to a monastery. Escaping in 854, he renewed the struggle, but in 859 the Aquitanians began to abandon him. Thereafter he became a wanderer, sometimes joining Viking raiders, with a band of whom he attacked Toulouse in 864. Captured soon afterward, he died during imprisonment at Senlis. Source: "Pepin II" Britannica Online. [Accessed 15 February 1998]. 

Family

Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

King Bernard of Italy

M, (797 - 17 August 818)
FatherKing Pepin of Italy (Apr 773 - 8 Jul 810)
MotherBertha of Toulouse (s 775 - )
Birth*797 Bernard was born in 797. 
Marriage* He married Cunigunde
Death*17 August 818 He died on 17 August 818. 
Biography* Louis I confirmed Bernard, the son of his dead brother Pepin, as king of Italy, which position Charlemagne had allowed him to inherit in 813. But when Bernard revolted in 817, Louis had him blinded, and he died as a result of it. Louis sent his sisters and half sisters to nunneries and later put his three illegitimate half brothers--Drogo, Hugo, and Theodoric--into monasteries. Source: "Louis I" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998]. 

Family

Cunigunde (say 797 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

King Pepin of Italy

M, (April 773 - 8 July 810)
FatherCharlemagne Emperor of The West (2 Apr 742 - 28 Jan 814)
MotherHildegard (758 - 30 Apr 783)
Birth*April 773 Pepin was born in April 773. 
Marriage*795 He married Bertha of Toulouse in 795. 
Death*8 July 810 He died on 8 July 810 at age 37. 
Biography* King of Italy (781-810) and second son of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne. Given the title of king of Italy in 781, Pepin took part in campaigns against Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria from 787 and led an army against the Avars in 796. His Venetian campaign (809-810) enabled Charlemagne later to come to favourable terms with the Byzantine Empire. As early as 806 Charlemagne, in planning the division of his lands, had decided that on his death Pepin should inherit Italy, Bavaria, and the territory of the Alemanni, but Pepin predeceased his father by four years. Source: "Pepin" Britannica Online. [Accessed 10 February 1998]. 

Family

Bertha of Toulouse (say 775 - )
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Cunigunde

F, (say 797 - )
Birth*say 797 Cunigunde was born say 797. 
Marriage* She married King Bernard of Italy

Family

King Bernard of Italy (797 - 17 August 818)
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

Bertha of Toulouse

F, (say 775 - )
Birth*say 775 Bertha was born say 775. 
Marriage*795 She married King Pepin of Italy in 795. 

Family

King Pepin of Italy (April 773 - 8 July 810)
Child
Last Edited8 February 2011

John Culpeper the Merchant1,2

M, (circa 1606 - circa 1674)
FatherJohn Culpeper of Astwood in Feckenham, co. Worcs. (1565 - c 16 Dec 1635)
MotherUrsula Woodcock (b 27 Jan 1566 - b 2 Jun 1612)
Name-AltSpell This surname is sometimes spelled Colepeper. 
Name-AltSpell This surname is sometimes spelled Culpepper. 
Name Variation He was also known as John Culpeper baptized at Harrietsham. 
Birth*circa 1606 John was born circa 1606. 
Baptism26 October 1606 He was baptized at Harrietsham, co. Kent, England, on 26 October 1606.  
(1) Birthsay 1631  
(4) Will14 December 1635 He is mentioned in the will of John Culpeper of Astwood in Feckenham, co. Worcs. on 14 December 1635.3 
(3) Research note He is referenced in a research note for Thomas Culpeper of Barbados.4 
(1) Birthsay 1637  
(6) Will30 January 1644 He is mentioned in the will of Sir Alexander Culpeper of Greenway Court, Knight on 30 January 1644.5,6 
(2) Research note He is referenced in a research note for Peter Culpeper of Barbados.4 
Miscellaneous*1662/63 A Boston lawsuit—Ford and Gibbs v. Wood—centered on a trade dispute in 1662 and 1663 involving John Culpepper, who was described in court records as a merchant and part-owner of the ketch William. Traders John Ford and Robert Gibbs sued Captain Edward Wood of the William, for refusing to deliver their goods from the William to the barque Francis, and complaining that John Culpepper had "abused" Gibbs’ servant when he tried to take possession of the goods. Captain Wood’s defense was that he had received a letter from Boston in September 1662, purportedly from Ford and another man, instructing him to give the goods to "their friend" John Culpepper, who was traveling on the William, and then to follow Culpepper’s orders about the disposition of the goods. Wood also produced written instructions signed by Culpepper at Manhattan in May 1663, to sail from Manhattan to Boston and deliver the goods to a man named John Freake. Wood emphasized repeatedly that he was obliged to follow Culpepper’s orders "in all things." These court records did not indicate John Culpepper’s place of residence.7 
Death*circa 1674 He died at Virginia circa 1674.8 
Biography* John Culpeper, born in 1606, could be the ancestor of most American Culpeppers, but this is far from proven. Little is known about him for certain. Other than this John, and his brother Thomas Culpeper of the Middle Temple, there are no known Culpepers with ties to Virginia, old enough to have been the father of the first Henry Culpeper of Lower Norfolk Co., VA. From the research of Fairfax Harrison3, we know that although John was trained as a lawyer, he took up the career of a merchant instead, and that he was involved in trade between England and the American colonies. And so hereafter, I'll refer to him as John Culpeper the Merchant.

John the Merchant may have been the John Culpepper who served for a time as the sheriff of Northampton County, VA, and who died there in 1674. It at least seems likely that he was the John who appears in records in Isle of Wight and Northampton Counties beginning in the 1640's. So it might be logical to assume that he was the John Culpeper in records there in the 1670's as well.

Some, however, think that John the Merchant (born 1606) would have been too old to have served as Clerk of Court, and Sheriff of Northampton County in the early 1670's. By that time he would have been in his mid-60's. These researchers think it more likely that these later Northampton records refer to John Culpeper son of Thomas & Katherine, born 1633, who would have been almost 40 years old in the early 1670's. This John is also thought to have lived in Virginia. Like John the Merchant, few surviving records document his life.

There is no record that John, the sheriff of Northampton, left any descendants, as none are mentioned in his 1674 estate. Also, his one known land grant escheated (was returned by default) to the state of Virginia some 20 years after his death.

Those who think that John the Merchant was the one who died in 1674 offer various logical reasons why his land might have escheated back to Virginia, even though they think he did indeed leave descendants.

Others suggest that the 1674 estate was that of John Culpeper son of Thomas & Katherine, and that John the Merchant died somewhere else, perhaps even in Barbados or in England. Further research is needed to clarify these issues. It should be noted that early records in many southern Virginia counties have been lost. Had these records survived, they might have greatly expanded our knowledge of the various early John Culpepers in Virginia.

In addition to John Culpeper the Merchant, and John Culpeper the son of Thomas and Katherine, there was also a third contemporaneous John, John Culpeper of Albemarle NC, aka "the Rebel," probably born in the 1640's. This third John also seems to have been a merchant, and may possibly have been the son of John the Merchant.

It is difficult to sort out which of the various surviving records in early NC, Virginia, and New England, might pertain to each of these Johns, and no attempt will be made to do so, at this time, in this article.

Merchants in colonial America left few records which have survived until today, and our knowledge of John Culpeper the Merchant suffers as a result. But from what little we do know, it seems possible that John the Merchant and his sons may have worked as a agents, or "factors" in colonial trade. The following description of this sort of work is excerpted from Perry of London by Jacob M. Price, page 30:

     "There were hardly any towns in the seventeenth century Chesapeake except the ‘capitals' of Jamestown and St. Mary's City, and they were places of little commercial importance. Early trading ventures to the Chesapeake had often been entrusted to captains and supercargoes who could travel about and seek out business where settlers were to be found. The practice, however, was inefficient in its utilization of ship time and by mid-century had largely yielded to the factor system. The English merchant desiring to trade to the Chesapeake would either by himself or as part of an ad hoc syndicate or ‘adventure' send out an agent, usually known as a factor, who would sell goods and buy tobacco on the account of his principals, the metropolitan merchants, and receive in return a salary or a commission of ten percent (five percent for selling the trading goods and five percent for buying tobacco). The factor normally rented a room from a planter at a place convenient for keeping his goods; most of his time, however, was spent traveling about, meeting planters, arranging sales and purchases, and related details. He might be at his "store" as seldom as one day a week. Most of the factors appear to have remained in the colony only a few months... or at most a few years. But some settled permanently. As members of this last group accumulated capital of their own, they became the peddlers, country traders and even merchants of the colony...."

John Culpeper the Merchant's work may have taken him to Barbados, Virginia, Maryland, New England, and perhaps elsewhere. Much research remains to be done in order to construct a more accurate and complete picture of John's life and activities.

The following account of John Culpeper, the Merchant is taken from The Proprietors of the Northern Neck, Chapters of Culpeper Genealogy by Fairfax Harrison3:

     "He was baptised in Harrietsham, October 26, 1606, as ‘Johannes, filius Johannis Culpeper, arm;' and on May 7, 1621, was admitted 'specially' to the Middle Temple as ‘Mr. John, second son of John Culpeper of Astwood, Worc. esq.' (Hopwood, ii, 662). He did not pursue the law, but before 1633 had embarked in the Virginia trade, being recorded that year as part owner, with his elder brother, of a new ship, the Thomas and John, which was equipped with ordnance from the public stores in order to voyage to Virginia (Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1633-34, p. 223, and Hotten, Original Lists, p. 83). He was named in his father's will (1635) as 'my son John C;' on his father's MI. in Hollingbourne as 'Johannem' the third child; and in the will of Sir Alexander as 'my nephew John C. her (i. e., Cicely's) brother.'

     "His legacy under his father's will was a 'rent charge of £30, payable by Sir John [afterwards first Lord] Culpeper during my said son John's life.' When, in 1651, the Commonwealth was hearing claims upon the forfeited estate of Lord Culpeper, a John C. appeared and, describing himself as a merchant who had been 'beyond seas' during the Troubles, asserted his title to this rent charge, claiming that since 1645 he had received only £75 (Cal. Com. Compounding, 1643-60. v, 3277). That this was John there can be no doubt."

There is some evidence that this or some John was the father of Henry Culpepper, of Norfolk County, VA. Henry Culpepper appears in records of Lancaster County, VA prior to his arrival in Norfolk County, and a John Culpepper can be placed in Lancaster County about the same time. However, neither John nor Henry Colepeper or Culpeper appear in early Lancaster County, VA tithable records, indicating that they were not being taxed as landowners in Lancaster County, even though Henry was described as a "planter":

     Lancaster Co VA Deeds & Wills 1654-1661, Page 173 -- The P:sents Winesseth that I HENRY COLEPEPPER, Planter, in ye County of Lancaster in Virginia doe assigne unto JOHN EDWARDS, Surgeon, in ye same County his heirs or assignes one Cow Cale being brown ye right ear a peice taken out behind & a nick in ye forepart of ye sd ear ye left ear cropt & underkeeled with a nick in ye forepart thereof & do warrant ye sd Calfe from any p:son whatsoever unto him ye sd EDWARDS or his assignes forever, as Witnes my hand this 7th
day of December 1658. Witnes LEONARD CACOTT, HEN: COLEPEPPER p sig, THO: WILLIAMSON p sig (Edwards then assigns his interest in the heifer to Leonard Cacott.)

     Lancaster Co VA Deeds & Wills 1661-1702, Page 374 -- WHEREAS there was a meeting by the Parishoners of Lancaster Parish & the Parishoners of PIEANKITANCK for to the final ordering of all difference betwixt lhe 2 Pshes: oncerning the bounds of the sd Pshes: and it was then mutually agreed for the time to come that the bounds of thc Pshers: should be & extend according to an Order of the County Court bearing date the 10th day of Sept 1657, Provided the levys due from the LADY LUNSFORDs plantacon & other plantacons for the time past be paid to the use of the sd Lancastr: Psh: & this Agreemt. not to make invallid any Order of Court for the recovery of the sd Levys. In witnes whereof I HENRY CORBYN on behalfe of the Psh of Lancastr: set to my hand & seale this l4th of Sept: 1659 This Agreemt. to take place from this day JOHN COLEPEPER, HEN: CORBYN, JOHN RYNES, CUTH: POTTER. Recognit In Cur 9d Maii 1660 et record xxd p EDWD. DALE, Cl Cur

The area of discussion at the above meeting is the part of Lancaster County across the Rappahannock River in what is now Middlesex County. Middlesex County was originally part of Lancaster County. The Pianketank River divides present Middlesex County from Mathews County. Middlesex County has excellent records, including the Christ Church Parish records, which should be checked.

Also, a John and Henry were traveling on the same ship in 1664:

     The Complete Book of Emigrants 1661-1699, by Peter Wilson Coldham, page 64, the year 1664: "10 May - 30 June. Shippers by the Defence, Mr. John Webber, bound from London for New England: Benjamin Hewling, John Newell, Humphrey Hodges, Thomas Parris, James Fassett, John Fullerton, Sir William Peake, Robert Davies, Robert Knight, John Winder, HENRY CULPEPPER, JOHN CULPEPPER. (PRO: E190/50/1,50/2)

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From Bill Rusell4, May 2000, comes the following useful summary of John Culpeper, the Merchant:

First, John was clearly a ship owner with business interests throughtout the colonies. He had been away from England for some time when he returned to protect his brothers estate in 1651. Their interests were probably more entangled than just their common ownership of the 'Thomas and John'. It would appear that they may have owned a trading company with points of presence in England, Barbados, New England, and Virginia. Indeed, John probably had sons or sons-in-law in those places to carry out their trading business. I suspect that Hannah who married Edward Frisbie and Susannah who married Francis Lindley were both daughters. Edward Frisbie was from another prominent merchant trading family in Norfolk County, VA and removed to New England. Francis Lindley ended up in New Jersey after having lived in New England. I also believe the John Culpeper "the Carolina Rebel" was a son of John the merchant.

Second, John the Merchant was also John the lawyer, a fact we sometimes overlook and which may go some ways to unraveling some of the confusion over the various Johns. John the merchant was at the Middle Temple as was his brother Thomas. More importantly, he was there at the same time as Gov. Sir William Berkeley. I believe that it was John the merchant who represented the legal interests of Frances Culpeper Stephens Berkeley before the courts in North Carolina and who attested to Berkeley's signature on the deed to Roanoke Island in New England. Who better to entrust to such a job than the Governor's wife's uncle, a lawyer who ownd a ship able to travle to North Carolina and New England on short notice and who personally knew the Governor. He makes a more logical candidate for the job than the relative young "Carolina Rebel" who had no legal training and may not have even reached North Carolina by the time in question.

Third, John the merchant had known trading interests and presence in New England and Barbados. Charleston, SC was settled originally by groups from both places and it is possible the John the Rebel was his father's representative in those areas. Culpeper's Rebellion in North Carolina - really Albemarle -, was fomented by New England merchant traders. If John the merchant handled the sale of Roanoke Island for Governor Berkeley, it is clear that the Lamb family who purchased it were friends of Sarah Mayo, John the Rebel's wife. From the records it would appear that John the Rebel arrived in Albemarle after the John Culpeper who was in court in the sale of the property, yet the later buyers were well familiar with John the Rebel's family. The Lamb family who bought Roanoke Island were also New England
merchant traders who mainained a family presence in the Albemarle region of North Carolina.

The above is partly theory based upon available records. I believe that John the merchant was the father of Hannah and Susannah of New England, Henry of Virginia, and John the Rebel. He may also have been the father of some of the Barbados Culpepers.

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It is impossible to connect Henry Culpepper of Lower Norfolk with John the Merchant through DNA evidence, since John's other plausible sons left no male descendants. And in particular, Henry Culpepper's DNA does not match the DNA of other known descendants of the Wigsell Culpepper branch of the family, such as the Culpepers of Barbados, or the Culpepers of India.9
 
(5) Biography He is referenced in a biographical note for Thomas Culpeper of the Middle Temple.10 
(3) Biography He is referenced in a biographical note for John Culpeper of Albemarle NC
(1) Biography He is referenced in a biographical note for Henry Culpeper of Lower Norfolk Co., VA.8,9 
(3) Research note He is referenced in a research note for John Culpeper of Accomack Co., VA.4 
(2) Research note18 August 2011 He is referenced in a research note for Susanna Culpeper of Connecticut

Family

Children
Last Edited16 July 2015

Citations

  1. Col. F.W.T. Attree R.E./F.S.A. & Rev. J.H.L. Booker M.A., "The Sussex Colepepers, Part I", Sussex Archaeological Collections, XLVII,47-81, (1904)http://gen.culpepper.com/historical/sussex/default.htm.
  2. E-mail written Mar 2006 to Warren Culpepper and Lew Griffin from Bob Ford, e-mail address.

    About 14 years ago, I found 35 records of a 1662-1663 lawsuit at the MA State Archives and made copies. The copies were enlarged to the extent that I had to paste the pages together. Now they are too large to copy. Also I lost the citation....
    The lawsuit involved John Ford, Robert Gibbs and John Freke (Frake), all of Boston, and Captain Edward Wood of the ship (a ketch named William.) One of the records was signed by John Culpepper in VA. I am unable to make out every word, but two of three documents containing his name are below. Notice that Culpepper sailed from Boston to VA in the first one that says:

    Order Capt Edward Wood
    ___ you having all your passengers with the necessareys aboard the Ketch William our desire is you would take first opportunity of wind and weather sayling for James River in Virginia where you are to attend the orders of our friend Mr. John Culpeper who goeth with you in the Katch delivering him what good of ours is in the Katch and likewise what freight is there due to the Katch conforming your self to his order as to the dispatch of our voyage home for New England and for all things ___ (possible "made") ___ (possible "before") you to him and desire you if possible to ___ send you to your ___ port and to return in ___ is the desire of your loving friend. (Signed) John Fford and John Ffreke

    The second says:
    Manafords(?) 10th May 1663
    Order Capt. Edward Wood
    ___ you are hereby desired to take the first opportunity of wind and weather to sail from this Port of ____ to the port of Boston in New England where you are to deliver what good are aboard the ketch William ___ ___ ___(possible "what") freight shall ___ there ___ to the Ketch in Mr. John ffrieke march to who ___ they are ___ and consigned and for ___ thins ___ you to him onley ___ to your descression and judgment for touching along the coast to ___ freight according to Mr. Fords letter to you to ___ in his ___ ___ send you to your desired port in Scfty(?) (Signed) John Culpeper.
  3. Fairfax Harrison, The Proprietors of the Northern Neck - Chapters of Culpepper Genealogy, Richmond, VA: The Old Dominion Press (Privately printed), 1926, Repository: LDS Family History Library - Salt Lake City, Call No. US/CAN Film #929429. Transcription available online at: http://gen.culpepper.com/historical/nneck/default.htm.
  4. E-mail written 1999-2011 to Culpepper Connections from William A. 'Bill' Russell, Alexandria, VA, e-mail address (Sep 2011).
  5. Fairfax Harrison, The Proprietors of the Northern Neck - Chapters of Culpepper Genealogy, Richmond, VA: The Old Dominion Press (Privately printed), 1926, Repository: LDS Family History Library - Salt Lake City, Call No. US/CAN Film #929429. Transcription available online at: http://gen.culpepper.com/historical/nneck/default.htm
    P. C. C. Rivers, 157.
    Image:http://gen.culpepper.com/archives/uk/wills/images/Alexander_of_Greenway_Court_1645-1.pdf.
  6. Public Records Office, National Archives, London.
    Image of will at: /archives/uk/wills/images/Alexander_of_Greenway_Court_1645-1.pdf.
  7. Diane Rapaport--Historical/Genealogical Consultant, Lexington, MA, e-mail address, http://www.quillpenhistorical.com
  8. Warren L. Culpepper (#1942), Former publisher of Culpepper Connections, e-mail address.
  9. Lewis W. Griffin Jr. (#47), e-mail address.
  10. Fairfax Harrison, The Proprietors of the Northern Neck - Chapters of Culpepper Genealogy, Richmond, VA: The Old Dominion Press (Privately printed), 1926, Repository: LDS Family History Library - Salt Lake City, Call No. US/CAN Film #929429. Transcription available online at: http://gen.culpepper.com/historical/nneck/default.htm
    Chapter 4: XIII Thomas Culpepper.