Richardis of Swabia

Richardis of Swabia (c.840 - c.895) was the daughter of a count. That and her reputation for piety made her a suitable choice to marry Charles the Fat, a son of Louis the German, in 862.

Over the next 20 years, her own status was elevated when Charles (almost through no actions of his own) became King of West Francia, King of Italy, King of East Francia, and finally Emperor of the Carolingian Empire in 881, when Richardis was crowned empress along with her husband. Charles was not very effective—he was just in the right place at the right time. He was traveling frequently to Italy and fumbling dealing with internal and external strife.

We know little about Richardis' life during this time. We do know that they had no children, which is a problem for rulers who want to leave their kingdoms to their offspring. The common solution to this for a ruler is to divorce the wife and marry again. Charles seemed to decide the best way to do this in 887 was to accuse Richardis of adultery with Charles' archchancellor, Bishop Liutward of Vercelli.

Richardis was subjected to Trial by Ordeal, which despite the 15th century depiction above, was usually having the defendant hold a piece of red-hot iron, then examining their hands for damage. She passed the ordeal. The pope put together a commission to handle Charles' request for annulment. An examination of Richardis by the commission concluded that she was still a virgin.

In 880, she had founded Andlau Abbey on her ancestral lands in northeast France, 20 kilometers north of where Charles had built his new palace in Selestat. She retired there now under the abbess Rotrud, her niece. She died on 18 September 880.

Then the legends began, of a virtuous wife harried by a mad husband. She finally agrees to go through ordeal by fire, being tied to a stake above a fire. Despite wearing a simple shirt covered in wax and being barefoot (see illustration), she survives with no marks on her. Afterward, she leaves her husband and wanders in the woods. An angel appears to her and tells her to found a convent where a bear indicates. This becomes Andlau Abbey. (Of course, Andlau was founded years earlier than the ordeal.)

The bear became part of her iconography. The nuns at Andlau kept a live bear on the grounds, and gave free lodging to bear-keepers. She is sometimes pictured with a bear. She was canonized by Pope Leo IX in 1049, the patron saint of protection against fire.

And speaking of Pope Leo IX...his reign was very consequential, and he is responsible for the final break between the Western Roman and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Let's talk about him next.

Charles and Succession

Although Charles the Fat seemed to have solved the problem of Viking attacks by converting Godfrid and bribing Sigfred to leave, the problem with "Danegeld" is that they always come back for more. Sigfred sailed a fleet up the Seine in 885 and besieged Paris while Charles was in Italy (he was King of Italy after all).

Sigfred wanted another bribe. The Count of Paris, Odo, managed to sneak some men past the siege and get word to Charles, but Charles refused to authorize payment. In 886, disease started sweeping through Paris, and Odo himself snuck out to beg Charles for help.

Charles finally brought an army and surrounded the besiegers, but not to attack them: to try to get them to give up. When they finally left the following spring, it was with 700 pounds (in weight, not the unit of currency) of silver.

Charles had got married in 862 to the very devout Richardis of Swabia, who had been crowned empress with him in 881. Unfortunately for the succession, they had no children. Charles had one known illegitimate son, Bernard (c.870 - 891), whom he tried to name his successor. His bishops opposed this, but Charles got the support of Pope Adrian III, who intended to travel to an assembly in October 885 to eliminate the opposing bishops. Unfortunately, the pope died along the way. Charles tried again with Pope Stephen V, but the pope would not travel to meet with Charles, which was a sufficient warning to give up on Bernard. (Bernard would later become the focus of unsuccessful attempts to take over Alemannia.) Defeated, Charles ultimately adopted Louis the Blind as his heir when Louis' mother, Ermengard of Italy, brought her very young son to Charles for protection.

Over the next two years, Charles' support among his people wavered and collapsed. Many more qualified adults were upset that they were not chosen as his successor, and his wife abandoned him after he accused her of an affair. In November of 887 Arnulf of Carinthia started a rebellion in West Francia. One week later East Francia turned against Charles. He quickly fell out of power and requested merely some estates in Swabia to live out his days. He died on 13 January 888 at Donaueschingen at the southwest border of Germany. The empire that had come together under him would never be restored. He was the last Carolingian emperor.

As for his wife, Richardis, his accusation turned into a trial by fire for her, and ultimately she achieved a title he would never receive. I'll tell you that story tomorrow.

Charles the Fat's Growing Empire

When Pope John VIII was threatened by Guy II Duke of Spoleto, who invaded the Papal States in 880, he looked for help from the King of Italy. Unfortunately for the pope, the King of Italy was Charles the Fat, who was not particularly effective. John even crowned Charles as emperor of the Carolingian Empire in February of 881, but Charles still left the Papal States to their own devices. 

The pope continued to write to Charles, asking for help which never came. In February 882, Charles convened a council in Ravenna where Guy and his nicer uncle, Guy of Camerino, the pope, and Charles made peace with a promise to restore the papal lands. A letter in March from the pope to Charles let it be known that the promise to restore land was broken. Fortunately for the pope, Guy died not long after, and was succeeded by his uncle, Guy of Camerino, who was happy to restore the papal lands. (Guy would later become Holy Roman Emperor Guy III.)

Charles was more focused on his own concerns, like building a new palace in Alsace. Aachen was the center of Carolingian power and culture since the time of Charlemagne, but Sélestat in Alsace was closer to the center of Carolingian domains by Charles' time. He also may have asked Notker the Stammerer to write the biography of Charlemagne, the Gesta Karoli Magna ("Deeds of Charles the Great"), since the work is dedicated to Charles, and Notker was known to advise him occasionally.

Not long before, in England, Alfred the Great had defeated the Great Heathen Army in 878, and the survivors had fled to the Low Countries where they became a problem for Charles the Fat's brother, Louis the Younger. He had some success fighting them, but died on 20 January 882, leaving his throne to Charles. This brought the entirety of the East Frankish kingdom, which had been split after the Treaty of Verdun, together again. (It is interesting that Verdun was necessary because three brothers could not get along, while Charles and his two brothers under similar circumstances were able to support each other a generation later with none of the hostility.)

Charles was not entirely useless when it came to enemies. Vikings were a problem for the continent as well as England, and he met with Viking leaders Godfrid and Sigfred after they were besieged by a combined military force all of East Francia. Godfrid converted to Christianity and married Gisela, daughter of Lothair II of Lotharingia. Sigfred was paid off to leave (see illustration). Godfrid was later ambushed and killed  by Charles for fear of him relapsing and attacking again.

In December 884, Carloman II of West Francia (France) died, and the throne was offered to Charles, who accepted. He now was king of West Francia, East Francia, Aquitaine, Alemannia, Italy, and Emperor of the Carolingian Empire.

But then, Sigfred returned in 885, sailing a fleet up the Seine to attack Paris, and things went poorly. I'll explain next time.

Charles the Fat

First thing first: no one called him "the Fat" in his lifetime that we know of; it certainly wasn't in any contemporary records. That epithet was first used by an anonymous chronicler in the 12th century, the author of a collection of dates and facts about medieval German monarchs ("Kings of the Romans") and their Carolingian predecessors from 741 to 1142 CE. Anyway, the epithet "Fat" has influenced his portrayal in modern times, but the example of a 14th century image shown here indicates that the original epithet of "le Gros" might have indicated "Great" instead of "Fat."

His father was Louis the German, the first king of East Francia and a grandson of Charlemagne; he was called "the German" when East Francia became known later as the Kingdom of Germany.

When Charles was young, something happened to him that had him raving and foaming at the mouth. Fearing demonic possession, he was taken up to the altar at church to exorcise him. This incident (related by Notker the Stammerer) frightened him and he became very pious ever after, described as:

… a very Christian prince, fearing God, with all his heart keeping His commandments, very devoutly obeying the orders of the Church, generous in alms-giving, practicing unceasingly prayer and song, always intent upon celebrating the praises of God.

He frequently fell ill, and some attribute the demonic incident and his later troubles to epilepsy.

In 859, when he was 20 years old, he was made Count of the Breisgau (southwest Germany). A few years later, his brother Carloman revolted against their father, followed by their other brother, Louis the Younger; Charles decided to join them in revolt. They were successful, and their father divided his lands, giving the Duchy of Swabia to Charles.

After Louis the German's death in 876, the three brothers did something that may be unique in the annals of medieval rulers: they got along. Each ruled his territory and did not try to expand his borders at the expense of his siblings. A year later, Louis the German's brother, Charles the Bald, died, and the title King of Italy went to Carloman by prior agreement. In 879, a stroke incapacitated Carloman, who offered Bavaria to Louis and Italy to Charles.

Charles was then King of Italy, and spent all his time there.

As King of Italy, there were expectations now that he was not able to meet. One was when the pope requested help against an invader. I'll tell you that story next time.

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.

Louis the Blind

When King Boso of Provence died on 11 January 887, the only heir of his was the seven-year-old Louis III. Boso had ruled Provence, Upper Burgundy, and French Burgundy, but the last two had been taken over by Rudolph I of Burgundy and Richard the Justiciar, respectively, leaving Louis with a much smaller territory. Louis' mother, Ermengard, was appointed his regent, with help from Richard the Justiciar.

Needing more support, Ermengard took Louis to the court of Charles the Fat, her first cousin once-removed, a great-grandson of Charlemagne, and emperor of the Carolingian Empire at the time. Charles recognized Louis as the rightful ruler after his father, adopted him as his own son, and promised Louis and Ermengard his protection. 

Less than a year later, Charles was dead. Ermengard brought Louis to his successor, Arnulf of Carinthia, who had succeeded his uncle Charles. She wanted to make sure the child Louis would be protected in his birthright. She also requested help from Pope Stephen V.

In August 890, a council of bishops and noble vassals proclaimed Louis the rightful king of Arles, Provence, and Lower Burgundy (below the Rhine Valley). They were inspired to do so by the recommendation of the pope and by Charles the Fat's long-ago support.

In 896, now 16 years old, Louis waged war on Saracen pirates who had been raiding the coast of Provence since 889. In 900, hje was asked to come with military support to Italy where he overthrew King Berengar I of Italy. Louis went to Pavia and was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy. He then descended to Rome where Pope Benedict IV crowned him Emperor of Italy. (He was, after all, the grandson of Louis II, former emperor, through Ermengard.) Unfortunately, Berengar returned and defeated Louis' armies, forcing him out of Italy, making him promise that he would never return to Italy.

In 899, a plan to unite with the Byzantine empire to fight Saracens led to Louis being betrothed to Anna of Constantinople, daughter of Emperor Leo the Wise and his second wife, Zoe. A letter of the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos mentions Leo's daughter being allied with a Frankish prince. There is no evidence that the two ever met, and certainly no wedding took place. Louis did father a son, Charles-Constantine, but no mother is named in any documents. The second half of the name does suggest, however, that the son (who later became Count of Vienne) was a uniting of the two empires. On the other hand, no contemporary Byzantine chroniclers make any mention of a marriage of an emperor's daughter.

In 905 he made another attempt (with local Italian support) to oust Berengar. He succeeded, again, but only temporarily. Going to Verona, he was ambushed by Berengar loyalists and captured. For breaking his oath and returning to Italy, Berengar had Louis blinded.

I have left out a part of Louis III's younger days, because I'm saving it for tomorrow, when I'm going to tell you about Richard the Justiciar, who was mentioned above and who was terrible to Louis.

Charles the (Not) Simple

Charles the Simple

Charles III, called "the Simple" (from Latin Carolus Simplex) was a King of Francia (what we think of today as France) and Lotharingia (what we think of today as the Rhineland, western Switzerland, and the Low Countries).

He was born 17 September 879, the third son of Louis the Stammerer (son of Charles the Bald) and Adelaide of Paris. His father died before Charles was born, and Charles might have succeeded him as king, but his cousin Charles the Fat was put on the throne by the nobility. When Charles the Fat was deposed in 887—he was increasingly seen as spineless after paying off the Vikings and showing little inclination to military solutions—the nobility again skipped over Charles in favor of Odo of Paris. Eventually, however, a faction within Francia decided that Charles the Simple should be made the rightful ruler; he was crowned king in 893, but only assumed the throne once Odo died in 898.

Charles negotiated with the Vikings whom Charles the Fat had paid off. In exchange for peace, he granted them lands on the continent. Their leader, Rollo, was baptized and married Charles' daughter, Gisela. Their heirs became the Dukes of Normandy, leading eventually to William the Conqueror.

Charles himself married (for the second time) to Eadgifu, a daughter of the English King Edward the Elder. Their son was the future King Louis IV of France.

The initial opposition to Charles was not due to the nickname. Although we translate Carolus Simplex as "Charles the Simple," the adjective has become...umm..."simplified" over time. When attached to Charles, it did not mean he was unintelligent; rather, that he was straightforward and direct, acting without subterfuge or guile.

But this quality did not endear him to everyone. Not everyone appreciated giving territory to the Vikings, or some of his other decisions. Odo's brother Robert became the fiscal point for revolt in 922, and Charles had to flee. Returning with a Norman army, he was defeated on 15 June 923, captured and imprisoned, where he died on 7 October 929. Eadgifu fled to England when the revolt took place, but her son Louis would return to become king of France in 936.

A Collection of Notkers

Notker Balbulus (the Stammerer)

Yesterday's post on cheese included an anecdote about Charlemagne, attributed to Notker the Stammerer. One would think that "Notker" was an unusual name in any day and age, but it turns out to have been very popular—especially at the Abbey of St. Gall. Ekkehard IV (c.980-1056), a monk of St. Gall, continued a chronicle that had been begun by others. Through the Casus sancti Galli (Doings of Saint Gall), we learn about the history of its inhabitants.

Notker the Stammerer (c.840-912) was called "delicate of body but not of mind, stuttering of tongue but not of intellect, pushing boldly forward in things Divine, a vessel of the Holy Spirit without equal in his time" by Ekkehard. He was a prolific writer, but the work he is most known for is a collection of anecdotes about Charlemagne that has been called a "mass of legend, saga, invention and reckless blundering." Supposedly, Notker wrote De Carolo Magno (Concerning Charles the Great) in honor of a visit to St. Gall by Charlemagne's great-grandson, Charles the Fat.* It is riddled with errors, such as when it claims that the Venerable Bede (672-735) devoted a book of his Ecclesiastical History to King Pepin the Short (714-768), who did not become a king until 752; when Bede died, Pepin's grandfather, Charles Martel, was king.

Notker Labeo ("the Thick-Lipped") was a nephew of the Ekkehard clan. He lived from c.950-1022 and had a reputation in the monastery as a voracious reader. He took up translating various philosophical texts into German, for which he was later called Notker Teutonicus ("the German"). When he died, he asked that he be buried in the same clothing he had always worn, to hide the fact that he wore a heavy chain around himself to mortify the flesh.

Notker Physicus, who died in 975, was called thus (according to the Catholic Encyclopedia) because of his very strict discipline. His knowledge of medicine is praised by Ekkehard, and he is probably the same Notker who was called Notarius (notable) who was known at the court of Emperor Otto I for his skill in medicine.

There was a Notker who was a nephew of Notker Physicus, of whom we know little except that he became Abbot of St. Gall in 971 and died 15 December 975. He was considered exceptionally pious.

Yet another Notker (c.940-1008) was the provost of St. Gall and became the Bishop of Liège. He established schools that became famous and drew numerous students. He is responsible for architectural projects, such as St. John's in Liège, designed after the Aachen Cathedral.


*Charles was the son of Louis the German, the son of Louis the Pious.