Richard the Justiciar

Long before a unified France, there were minor nobles always looking to expand into their neighbors' territories.  In 9th century Western Europe, the first time the majority of land we think of as Burgundy was brought together was under one man, Richard the Justiciar (858 - 921).

Born to Bivin of Gorze, he was the brother of Boso, who married Ermengard and was the father of Louis the Blind. Richard and Boso had a sister, Richilde of Provence, who married Charles the Bald, King of West Francia.

In 875, Richard and his brother went with Charles the Bald when he was to be crowned by Pope John VIII on Christmas Day as Emperor of the Carolingian Empire. Richard was 17; Boso was about 34. Boso was named by the pope Duke and Viceroy of Italy and Duke of Provence.

When Charles died two years later, Boso asked Richard and Hugh the Abbot to manage Italy and Provence while Boso went to France. Two years after that, however, on the death of Charles the Bald's son Louis the Stammerer (King of West Francia), Boso promoted himself King (not Duke) of Provence. Richard did not support his claim, and instead decided to take over Boso's territory of Autun (and then styled himself Count of Autun). Carloman II, son and successor of Louis the Stammerer, confirmed Richard in that position, snubbing Boso.

Richard continued expanding, besieging Boso's capital of Vienne with the support of Carloman and others, including the new emperor Charles the Fat. Richard ultimately drove Boso into exile in 882 and captured Ermengard and his children. Richard called himself Duke of Burgundy (virtually creating the title). Boso never regained power, but his son Louis the Blind did succeed him (with Richard's support).

In 888, Charles the Fat died and Richard supported Duke Rudolph I as King of Upper Burgundy and married Rudolph's sister Adelaide. Of their children, Rudolph became king of Francia, Hugh the Black became Duke of Burgundy; their daughters married counts and dukes.

On his deathbed, supposedly Richard was asked by a bishop if he wanted to ask for absolution for all the bloodshed he had caused, and his response was that he saved good men by eliminating bad men, and felt no remorse whatsoever.

There have been several Charles's mentioned in this blog, with various epithets (Bald, Fat, Good, Simple, Younger), but we haven't given Charles the Fat his own entry yet. Allow me to rectify that tomorrow.

Was Ermengard Married?

King Louis II of Italy was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire. He did not have a son to succeed him, but only a single surviving daughter, Ermengard, named for her grandmother, Ermengarde of Tours. In her youth she was educated by Anastasius Bibliothecarius, the archivist/librarian.

In 869, the Carolingian and Byzantine Empires started discussing an alliance to defeat the Saracens in southern Italy. During these discussions, the notion of a stronger alliance came up, by marriage of Ermengard to Constantine, the eldest son of Emperor Basil I. Constantine had been named co-emperor with his father, and was being groomed for that position.

But now we enter highly suspect territory. To start with, we do not know the birth years of either Ermengard or Constantine. Were they old enough to truly marry? Or was this a more of a "child engagement" plan as we have seen in other political alliances through marriage? Some historians claim they were married; some claim there is no evidence for it and the plan never went beyond announcing the betrothal.

The Annales Bertiniani (Annals of Abbey of St. Bertin, covering years up to 882) referred to Ermengard in 879 as filia imperatoris Italiae et desponsata imperatori Greciae ("daughter of the emperor of Italy and engaged to the emperor of Greece"), but they also say she was engaged to Basil, so we aren't sure how accurate the writer was. Also, 879 is the year that Constantine died unexpectedly, with no chronicle suggesting that he had heirs and no suggestion that Ermengard was a widow.

In fact, by 879 she was already married to someone else, despite what other chronicles may have recorded. Some time in the first half of 876, she was married to Boso of Provence (pictured above; there are no reliable images of Ermengard). Boso (c.841 - 887) was a Frankish nobleman who, in 879, became King of Lower Burgundy and Provence.

In 878, Ermengard and Boso sheltered Pope John VIII when he had to flee Rome because of Saracens. In papal correspondence between Pope John and Ermengarde's mother, Engelberga, he mentions the good impression the couple made on him. They had three children. A daughter named Engelberga after Ermengarde's mother married William I, Duke of Aquitaine, founder of Cluny Abbey. There was another daughter of whom we are not certain, but some believe she was Guilla of Provence, who was consort first to Rudolf I of Upper Burgundy (making her possibly the mother of King Rudolf II of Burgundy) and later to Hugh of Arles, border count of Provence.

They also had a son, Louis the Blind, whose story includes a marriage link that become as confusing to historians as his mother's, if not more so. We'll check that out tomorrow, and lament how inaccurate our historical records truly are once we go back a millennium. See you then.