Wulfstan of Hedeby

Long before the Prussian Crusades of later centuries, Alfred the Great of England sent his emissary, Wulfstan of Hedeby, to Prussia in 890. Alfred was interested in opening up trade with other countries, and also wanted to spread Christianity. Wulfstan's trip is described in the Anglo-Saxon work "The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan." It contains the earliest English record of Old Prussian culture.

Wulfstan may have been Anglo-Saxon, or may have been from Hedeby originally, which was Danish at the time, although now in northern Germany. The account that he shared with Alfred tells of his travel from Hedeby to Truso, a Scandinavian trading port along the Amber Road. Alfred included Wulfstan's account when he translated Orosius' Histories. He names his itinerary:

Wulfstan said that he went from Haethum to Truso in seven days and nights, and that the ship was running under sail all the way. Weonodland was on his right, and Langland, Laeland, Falster, and Sconey, on his left, all which land is subject to Denmark. Then on our left we had the land of the Burgundians, who have a king to themselves. Then, after the land of the Burgundians, we had on our left the lands that have been called from the earliest times Blekingey, and Meore, and Eowland, and Gotland, all which territory is subject to the Sweons; and Weonodland (the land of the Wends) was all the way on our right, as far as the Vistula estuary.

Wulfstan was the first to use the word "Prussian" to describe the people he met, although they were also known as "Aesti." He describes their social structure as having rulers (cyning), nobles (ricostan), paupers (unspedigan), and slaves (þeowan).

Wulfstan also reported their funeral customs:

The Aesti have the following custom: when someone dies, their body lies unburnt in their house for a month or sometimes two; kings and nobles lie even longer, proportionally to their affluence […] While the deceased is lying in the house, the family and friends drink and celebrate until he or she is burnt.

The Aesti have the custom that every deceased person, irrespective of their social position, is burnt. If they do not burn a part of the body, they have to offer great propitiatory prayers and sacrifices.

But enough about Prussia for now. What about the reference above to the Amber Road? Was it something like the Silk Road? Let's find out tomorrow.

The Prussian Crusade

The Prussians of the 13th century (and before) inhabited a region on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, speaking what is called Old Prussian and worshipping pagan deities. Peter of Duisburg, a Teutonic Knight who flourished in the late-13th/early-14th century, wrote in a history of Prussia:

Because they did not know God, therefore, in their error, they worshipped every creature as divine, namely the sun, moon and stars, thunder, birds, even four-legged animals, even the toad. They also had forests, fields and bodies of water, which they held so sacred that they neither chopped wood nor dared to cultivate fields or fish in them. [Chronicon terrae Prussiae III,5 ,53]

This did not suit their Christian neighbors, and several campaigns were undertaken to convert the region. Pope Innocent IV declared, in October 1243, that Prussia was divided into four dioceses (of Culm, Pomesania, Ermeland, and Samland). This was premature, since Prussia had not yet been subdued and converted. Around this time, the major force attempting that conversion was the Teutonic Knights.

The Knights had campaigned from 1238 to 1240. Earlier, in 1233, the Knights and an army of 10,000 made inroads into Prussian territory, building fortresses. Their later campaign, however, had less success: they were slaughtered trying to lay siege to a Prussian fortress. A larger contingent of Knights then arrived at the fortress. The leader of the fortress, worried that they would be overtaken by the Knights, suggested to his people that they should surrender and convert, but his own people killed him. The fortress was captured by the Knights and strengthened to become one of their strongholds. A Prussian attempt to retake the fortress failed.

In 1254, a major Crusade that included King Ottokar II of Bohemia and Rudolph I of Hapsburg contained an army of 60,000 men. They made great progress, conquering lands and building castles, and even cities. Modern Kaliningrad was founded by this Crusade as Königsberg ("King's Mountain"), named in honor of King Ottokar.

Significant Prussian uprisings took place between 1260 and 1274, forcing the Christian occupiers to seek reinforcements from Europe. Crusaders made progress only through killing tribal leaders and forcing conversion on pain of death. Prussians fled to Lithuania or Sudovia; those who stayed lost rights and became serfs.

Attempts to convert Prussians had been attempted centuries earlier, from places as far removed as England, which I'll talk about tomorrow.

Rudolph I

The Second Council of Lyon decided the ending the Interregnum was best done by selecting Rudolph I as King of Germany (and therefore Holy Roman Emperor. The position had been vacant for nearly two decades since there was no individual with sufficient power and backing to rise above other claimants.

Rudolph was born 1 May 1218 to the Hapsburgs, son of Count Albert IV of Habsburg and Hedwig of Kyburg. Albert died when Rudolph was 21, and Rudolph inherited large estates. His power was considered potentially threatening to others around him, and in 1242 Hugh of Tuffenstein antagonized him. Rudolph invaded Hugh's domain, bribed his sentinels, captured Hugh's castle, and killed Hugh.

In 1245, Rudolph married Gertrude of Hohenburg (daughter of the Count of Hohenburg), by whose dowry he received several castles and lands. Over time he received other grants of land from Conrad IV, King of Germany (until 1254).

Rudolph fell afoul of Pope Innocent IV when he invaded the suburbs of Basle and burned down a nunnery in a conflict against the bishop of Basel. Innocent excommunicated him, after which he joined the Prussian Crusade of 1254 with King Ottokar II of Bohemia as penance. (The city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) was founded at that time in Ottokar's honor.)

Ottokar had been excommunicated by Innocent IV himself prior to this. As a second son, he had originally been intended for an ecclesiastical career, but the death of his older brother Vladislaus made him the heir of his father, Wenceslaus I. He had been persuaded before he was even king to rebel against Wenceslaus, even expelling him from Prague Castle temporarily. Father and son were eventually reconciled, and Ottokar became king at his father's death in 1253.

During the Interregnum, Ottokar continued to exercise ambition and did his best to take over other areas, occupying an area of northwest Bohemia, fighting and defeating Hungarians, and making deals to take over other lands. 

When it came to electing a new King of Germany/Holy Roman Emperor, the Second Council of Lyons considered Ottokar to be too violent and unpredictable, compared to Rudolph. (Another claimant, Alfonso X of Castile, had never set foot in Germany.) The pope also never considered ottar to be a legitimate heir to the throne of Bohemia. So Rudolph got the title, and Ottokat was confined to Bohemia.

Rudolph and Ottokar were on the same page at least once, however, during that Prussian crusade. Why there was a Prussian Crusade will be a topic for tomorrow.

The Interregnum

There was more than one period of time called an Interregnum ("between reigns") when a ruler for a specific area was lacking. The Holy Roman Empire had two, one of which was called the Great Interregnum because it was more than a generation (924 - 962 CE). We're going to talk about the adjective-less Interregnum mentioned yesterday, when the Second Council of Lyons appointed Rudolf I to be King of the Romans. To understand the importance of Rudolf's appointment, however, we have to go back before him, to Richard of Cornwall.

Richard of Cornwall (1209 - 2 April 1272) was the second son of King John. When Richard was eight years old, he was made High Sheriff of Berkshire; eight years later he was Count of Poitou, and also made Count of Cornwall as a birthday present from his older brother, King Henry III. As seemed to happen often in English royal families, relatives rebelled against the king, and Richard rebelled three times against Henry.

Skipping a bit (quite a bit, like three wives, rebellions, building a castle at Tintagel, a Crusade, and several legitimate and illegitimate children), we come to 1257, when four of the seven German Electoral Princes (those who had the privilege of choosing the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire) chose him to be King of Germany (see a 1341 illustration of the seven above). There was opposition: three of the electors voted for Alfonso X of Castile (a successful and respected ruler, but one who had never set foot in Germany), who was also supported by King Louis IX "the Saint" of France and Pope Alexander IV. Louis and Alexander were eventually won over by Richard's sister-in-law, Eleanor of Provence, and by Eleanor's sister, Richard's second wife. She was Sanchia of Provence, daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence, and Beatrice of Savoy. Sanchia's and Eleanor's sister Margaret was married to Louis IX.

One of the seven electors was Ottokar II of Bohemia, who voted for Richard, changed his support to Alfonso, then changed his vote to Richard after being bribed, giving Richard the majority. In all, the position cost Richard 28,000 marks to gain support of the four electors needed for a simple majority.

Richard treated the position as honorary. King of Germany at this point was equivalent to Holy Roman Emperor, and also called "King of the Romans." Richard only made four brief visits to Germany, spending most of his time in England, supporting his brother Henry in the Second Barons War. At the Battle of Lewes, he hid in a windmill, but was discovered and imprisoned until September 1265.

In December 1271 he had a stroke that paralyzed his right side and cost him the ability to speak. He died on 2 April 1272 and was buried next to Sanchia at Hailes Abbey, which he founded.

The powerful families in and around Germany had spread and splintered, and no powerful and obvious candidates for King of the Romans stood out. Ottokar II of Bohemia sought the position, as did Rudolf I of Habsburg, but neither prevailed for almost 20 years, until the Second Council of Lyon selected Rudolf.

Tomorrow we'll see if we can figure out why Rudolf was chosen over Ottokar. It will be Christmas Day, but the quest for knowledge doesn't take a holiday.

Second Council of Lyon

When the East-West Schism was over 200 years old, Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Paleologos (1224 - 1282) asked Pope Gregory X to help reunite the two churches. The result was the Second Council of Lyon, the 14th time the Roman Catholic Church had called an ecumenical council. It was convened on 31 March 1272, and brought together 300 bishops, 60 abbots, and over a thousand other prelates or their representatives. (Even more showed up who were not on the invitation list, and they were asked to depart since it would be impossible to accommodate them all.)

Michael VIII sent an ambassador with members of the Greek Orthodox clergy and representatives of Abaqa Khan, current ruler of the Mongols whom Edward I of England had reached out to a few years earlier in order to promote an alliance. James I of Aragon attended, as did Bonaventure (seen here speaking in front of Pope Gregory by a 17th century Spanish painter, Zurbaran). Thomas Aquinas was invited, but died along the way. Other countries represented were Bohemia, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, and a few others.

Meeting for six sessions between May and July, they discussed the conquest of the Holy Land and the unification of the Eastern and Western churches. Some other concerns were paying for a Crusade, excommunication of pirates and those who protected or traded with them (because they interfere with traveling to the Holy Land), and indulgences for those willing to go on Crusade.

The Council confirmed Rudolf I (1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291) as Holy Roman Emperor, ending a 20-year Interregnum.

The ambassador from Abaqa Khan reported that the relations with Europe begun under his father, Hulagu, continued, and that Latin Christians were exempt from taxes in exchange for prayers for the Khan. Hulagu also had committed to returning Jerusalem to the Franks, and Abaqa intended to continue his father's commands.

One of Gregory's "successes" was getting the Eastern Church's representatives to accept the West's addition of Filioque ("and the Son") to the Nicene Creed. This did not satisfy the bishops back home, however. Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople resigned in protest, and after Emperor Michael VIII died, his son and successor Andronicus II rejected the change.

Also, Gregory's hope for a new Crusade petered out after his death in 1276; the taxes gathered were re-distributed in Italy.

Now, about that Interregnum mentioned above...what was the problem? I'll explain that tomorrow.

Purgatory

One of the differences in doctrine between the Western Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches that developed after the start of the East-West Schism was the idea of Purgatory.

When I was much younger, occasionally, when I would complain about the difficulty of a task I was given, I would be told by an adult that, by enduring, "Your time in Purgatory will be short."

From the Latin verb purgo ("to clean, cleanse"), the word "purgatory" starts to be used in the second half of the 12th century to refer to the need for imperfect souls to be cleansed in order to enter Heaven, and gives rise to the idea of a place where this happens. 2 Maccabees 12:46 says "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." This suggests that the souls of the dead need further purification that they did not receive in life.

The Second Council of Lyon in 1274 defined its teaching on Purgatory, though didn't state that it was a place:

Because if they die truly repentant in charity before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for (sins) committed and omitted, their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorical or purifying punishments…. And to relieve punishments of this kind, the offerings of the living faithful are of advantage to these, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, alms, and other duties of piety, which have customarily been performed by the faithful for the other faithful according to the regulations of the Church. [line 856]

...and just so we cover all the bases about Heaven and Hell:

However, the souls of those who after having received holy baptism have incurred no stain of sin whatever, ... are received immediately into heaven. [line 857]

The souls of those who die in mortal sin or with original sin only, however, immediately descend to hell, yet to be punished with different punishments. [line 858] 

The dogma of Purgatory was re-affirmed in the Councils of Florence (1443) and Trent (1545-63). People can die in a state of grace but their souls still need some cleansing, and their time in Purgatory could be shortened by the prayers of the living.

Dante of course dedicates a third of the Divine Comedy to Purgatorio, in which we find people constantly praying to work their way into Heaven. His Purgatory (and others) is described as a place of purification, not punishment. (There are depictions, however, of Purgatory as a "mini Hell" where fire and torment are the cleansing method.)

The Orthodox Church rejected the notion of a third location where the souls of the dead could go, but the need for purgation is still part of Orthodox theology. In this case, the imperfect soul goes to Hell, but the prayers of the living can help purify them so that they transition to Heaven. (This is the "punchline" to The Great Divorce by C.S.Lewis: anyone can leave the bleakness of Hell and travel to Heaven, but they have to be prepared to change internally and understand their imperfections.)

Now, about the Second Council of Lyon: a lot of events were connected to it, and it has cropped up before in this blog. I want to pull the separate threads together tomorrow.

The East-West Schism

Pope Leo IX's actions in 1054 (through his delegate Cardinal Humbert, actually) were the catalyst for the great East-West Schism between the Western and Eastern churches, but only because differences had been building for a long time.

Some of the difficulties between the two rose from cultural differences. The West was influenced by Roman law, while the East had Greek philosophy at its base, leading to much more vigorous intellectual debate about dogma and doctrine and misunderstandings between them and the West.

Also, the West considered itself superior from the start as the seat of Peter, and so did not discuss things with its Eastern counterpart before making changes like adding the phrase "and from the Son" to the Nicene Creed, established at the First Council of Constantinople in 381. This phrase, Filioque in Latin, created a huge controversy over whether the Son of God was co-equal with the Father as a source of the Holy Spirit. The 879–880 Council of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox, as opposed to the Fourth Council of Constantinople Roman that took place a decade earlier) rejected the phrase Filioque.

The Eastern Church also believed in what is now called eucharistic ecclesiology (or more recently holographic ecclesiology), the idea that each bishop is the successor of St. Peter, equal to all other bishops, and the head of his own diocese, and that all these churches constituted the whole Church. The Roman West followed universal ecclesiology, a more "feudal" system in which all bishops were beholden to the hierarchy above them, leading up to the pope. The Orthodox Church does not accept the idea of papal authority being supreme, believing in a more collaborative or collegial relationship between all dioceses.

Although the Fourth Council mentioned above affirmed the value of images of god and saints for veneration, the Eastern policy earlier had promoted iconoclasm, based on Moses' 3rd Commandment against "graven images." The West had never been opposed to such things, but there was a strong current against it in the East, which drew a line between veneration ("respect"), and worship of an image.

With these in the background, we come to Patriarch Michael I Cerularius, who adds to the differences his objection to the use of unleavened bread in the West for the Eucharist. The Eastern argument is that yeast causes bread to rise and that is a better symbol for the Resurrection. The West uses unleavened bread because that is what Jesus would have used at the Last Supper, being a Seder.

These were already points of contention in 1054, so when Pope Leo IX tried to tell Patriarch Michael to fall in line because the Donation of Constantine said he should, the East had had enough.

Of course, differences continued to be created, as both sides did their best to understand the world. One of them that started to appear a century after the East-West Schism started was the idea of Purgatory. I'll talk about that next time.

Pope Leo vs. the East

When Byzantine Patriarch Michael I Cerularius made known to Pope Leo IX what he considered erroneous practices on the part of the Roman Church, Leo retaliated by reminding Michael that Leo "owned" him, Constantinople, and the Byzantine Empire. His argument for this was the Donation of Constantine.

The Donation (an action represented in the illustration) was an alleged decree from Roman Emperor Constantine I in the 4th century, offering to Pope Sylvester control over all the major dioceses and all the lands of the empire, both East and West. This was proven to be a forgery in the 15th century by the scholar Lorenzo Valla. Leo had no reason to think the Donation was a forgery, however; in fact, he had plenty of motivation to believe it was authentic.

Anyway, in 1054 Leo wrote to Michael, assuring him that the Donation was not a hoax and Michael had better accept that the pope in Rome was the only rightful head of the Church. Not trusting Michael to fall in line, Leo sent Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida to Constantinople to lay out the proper way forward for the Eastern Church.

Humbert was actually "in the thick" of this issue. Humbert was in Apulia in 1053, where he received a letter from the Byzantine Archbishop Leo of Ohrid that listed Patriarch Michael's complaints about Western Roman Church practices. It was partially this letter that caused Leo to invoke the Donation.

Humbert arrived in Constantinople in spring of 1054 and received a warm welcome from Emperor Constantine X. Michael was much colder, however, but the papal delegation and Byzantine clergy met several times, discussing religious issues with no real progress or compromise being made. During Mass on 16 July Humbert placed a papal bull on the high altar of the Hagia Sophia, excommunicating Michael and his supporters. Michael, in turn, gathered his clerics and four days later excommunicated Humbert and his entourage.

The papal bull is considered by many historians to be invalid, because Humbert delivered it even though Leo had died in on 19 April. Still, the events of 1054 brought to a head the doctrinal differences between east and west and guaranteed the East-West Schism, the official break between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

This Schism had been building for many years, and we will look at a timeline of the conflicts that made it inevitable next time.

Pope Leo IX

So many medieval popes were Italian (and maybe French) that it is unusual to find one with a German name, but France and Germany were essentially once West Francia and East Francia, and Bruno von Egisheim-Dagsburg (1002 - 1054) was actually born in what is modern Alsace, France. A child of privilege, his father was Count Hugh IV of Nordgau (a cousin of the future Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad II). Bruno was the fourth of eight children, and the third son, so was not expected to succeed his father.

He was therefore handed off at the age of five to Berthold, bishop of Toul, who established a school for the sons of nobility. At the age of 15, Bruno became a canon at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Toul. In 1024, his father's cousin Conrad became Emperor, and Bruno was chosen to serve in the imperial chapel. Two years later, the then-bishop of Toul died and Bruno took over the diocese, managing it for the next two decades.

During that time he exerted his influence to reform and raise the moral standards of monasteries and the regular clergy in his diocese. He favored spreading Cluniac rules. When Pope Damasus II died in 1048, the emperor and Roman delegates at an assembly in Worms agreed that he should become pope. Bruno anted instead to travel to Rome and have a proper election. He arrived in Rome wearing pilgrim garb in early 1049, where he was duly elected and took the name Leo IX.

He immediately called a synod for that Easter. At the synod, he demanded celibacy for all clergy down to the rank of subdeacon, and said simony, the practice of selling church positions, had to stop. He traveled to Mainz to meet with Italian, French, and German clergy to declare his positions. At another Easter synod in 1051 he discussed the potential re-ordination of those priests who had been defrocked because their positions had originally been purchased through simony. These decisions all seemed to be sensible.

Leo's real challenge was with the Eastern Church. The Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael I Cerularius, criticized some of the positions of the Roman/Latin Church, particularly fasting the day before Sunday Mass and the use of unleavened bread. Michael's letter was addressed to Leo as "brother" instead of "father."

Leo's response was to remind that Michael that the pope "owned" the entire Byzantine Church. Leo did not make this idea up on his own; he had documentation to "prove" it! Why he thought that will be explained tomorrow.

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.