Daily Medieval

First thing first: no one called him "the Fat" in his lifetime that we know of; it certainly wasn't in any contemporary record...

Long before a unified France, there were minor nobles always looking to expand into their neighbors' territories.  In 9th century Wester...

Charlemagne's son and successor as emperor, Louis the Pious , had several children. Several of them were with his first wife, Ermengarde...

John VIII was a Roman who, as a young man, witnessed the 846 CE raid against Rome by Muslims. According to the Liber Pontificalis  ("Bo...

I believe and confess that omnipotent and unchangeable God foreknew and predestined saint angels and elect men to eternal life gratis and th...

Ermentrude and Charles Let us call this the story of a marriage, and a coincidence. Charles the Bald (823 - 877), a grandson of Charlem...

Charles the Simple Charles III, called "the Simple" (from Latin Carolus Simplex ) was a King of Francia (what we think of tod...

Nithard, as Abbot of St. Riquier Charlemagne, looking around for suitable political marriages, chose a likely source of a bride for his ...

Yesterday's post on St. Anthony's Fire mentioned the Annales Xantenses , the Annals of Xanten covering 790-873. The manuscript was...

Uzés was founded around an early Roman aqueduct Back here I mentioned that Bernard of Septimania married a woman named Dhuoda, whom he ...

Lothair, rebel with a cause After Louis the Pious dealt with an insurrection by his three sons (see yesterday's post ), Bernard of S...

Coronation of Louis the Pious, by Jean Fouquet (1455) Yesterday's post about William of Gellone didn't mention his family at al...

In the history of medieval Christianity, there are stories of entire countries converting all at once. The tale of St. Rémy (c.437-533) is o...