1. Merovech King of The Salian Franks was born about 405 and died in 458 about age 53. Other names for Merovech were Mérovée, Meroveus, Merovius, and Merowig.
General Notes: Ruled BET. 448 - 457 King of the Salian Franks 3 MEROVECH, an early king of the Salian Franks, who succeeded to Clodio in the middle of the 5th century, and soon became a legendary figure. At the great battle of Mauriac (the Catalaunian fields), in which Aetius checked the invasion of the Huns (451), there were present in the Roman army a number of Frankish foederati, and a later authority states that Merovech (Merovaeus) was their leader. Merovech was the father of Childeric I (457-481), and grandfather of Clovis.
It is not known whether Merovech was a purely mythical creation or if there is some factual basis for his existence. If he did exist, his precise ancestry is not known. Gregory of Tours writes that "some say that Merovech, the father of Childeric, was descended from Chlodio" but this is the only reference he makes to Merovech in the whole of his work. The early 8th century Liber Historiæ Francorum names "Merovechus de genere eius" as successor to Chlodio, commenting that he gave his name to the dynasty. Fredegar asserts, colourfully, that Merovech was conceived when Chlodio's wife went swimming and encountered a Quinotaur. It is possible that Merovech succeeded Chlodio as leader of the Franks in Roman Gaul. Assuming that he did enjoy some sort of leadership role over some or all of the Frankish tribes in Gaul, it seems inappropriate to attribute the title "king" to Merovech. In the first place, it is likely that his leadership was localised. In addition, Roman domination continued until the overthrow in 476 of the last Roman Emperor in the West, Romulus Augustulus, and no documentary evidence has so far been identified which suggests that there was a sub-level of Frankish administration, despite the fact that imperial authority was in decline during the later years.
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Merovech married Unknown.
The child from this marriage was:
+ 2 M i. Childeric I King of The Salian Franks was born about 436, died in 481 about age 45, and was buried in Tournai, France.
Second Generation 
2. Childeric I King of The Salian Franks (Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born about 436, died in 481 about age 45, and was buried in Tournai, France.
General Notes: CHILDERIC I (c. 437-481), king of the Salian Franks, succeeded his father, Merwech (Merovech), as king about 457. With his tribe he was established around the town of Tournai on lands which he had received as a 'foederatus' of the Romans, and for some time he kept the peace with his allies. About 463, in conjunction with the Roman general Egidius, he assisted Count Paul in attempting to check an invasion of the Saxons. Paul having perished in the struggle, Childeric defended Angers against the Saxons, recovered from them the islands they had seized at the mouth of the Loire and destroyed their forces. The Saxon chief Odoacer now agreed to serve the Romans and the two chieftains, now reconciled, intercepted a band of the Alamanni. These are all the facts known about him. The stories of his early life by the Franks, of his stay of eight years in Thuringia with King Basin and his wife (or sister) Basine, of his return when a faithful servant advised him that he could safely do so by sending to him half of a piece of gold which he had broken with him and of the arrival at Tournai of Queen Basine, whom he married, are presevered by Gregory of Tours, and have found a place in French epic poetry. After the fall of the western empire in 476 there is no doubt that Childeric regarded himself as freed from his engagements toward Rome. He died in 481 and was buried at Tournai, leaving a son Clovis, afterward king of the Franks. His tomb was discovered in 1653, when numerous precious objects, arms, jewels, coins and a ring with his name and the image of along-haired warrior, were found.
Gregory of Tours records that King Childeric's "private life was one long debauch" and that he was forced into exile in Thuringia by his subjects who chose as his replacement the Roman General Ægidius.
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Childeric married Basina of Thuringia.
Children from this marriage were:
+ 3 M i. Clovis I King of The Salian Franks was born in 465, died on 27 Nov 511 at age 46, and was buried in Saint Denis Basilica, Paris, France.
4 F ii. Lantilde . Another name for Lantilde was Landechildis.
5 F iii. Audofledis . Another name for Audofledis was Audofleda.
6 F iv. Albofledis died after 496.
Third Generation 
3. Clovis I King of The Salian Franks (Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born in 465, died on 27 Nov 511 at age 46, and was buried in Saint Denis Basilica, Paris, France. Another name for Clovis was Clovis I King Of The Franks.
General Notes: CLOVIS (Chlodovech) (c. 466-511], king of the Salian Franks, son of Childeric I, whom he succeeded in 481. At that date the Salian Franks had advanced as far as the river Somme, and the centre of their power was at Tournai. On this history of Clovis between the years 481 and 486 the records are silent. In 486 he attacked Syagrius, a Roman general who, after the fall of the western empire in 476, had carved out for himself a principality south of the Somme, and is called by Gregory of Tours "rex Romanorum." After being defeated by Clovis at the battle of Soissons, Syagrius sought refuge with the Visigothic king Alaric II, who handed him over to the conqueror. Henceforth Clovis fixed his residence at Soissons, which was in the midst of public lands, e.g., Berny-Rivière, Juvigny, etc. The episode of the vase of Soissons has a legendary character, and all that it proves is the deference shown by the pagan king to the orthodox clergy. Clovis undoubtedly extended his dominion over the whole of Belgica Secunda, of which Reims was the capital, and conquered the neighbouring cities. Little is known of the history of these conquests. It appears that St. Geneviève defended the town of Paris against Clovis for a long period, and that Verdun-sur-Meuse, after a brief stand, accepted an honourable capitulation thanks to St. Euspitius. In 491 some barbarian troops in the service of Rome, Arboruchi Thuringians, and even Roman soldiers who could not return to Rome, went over to Clovis and swelled the ranks of his army. In 493 Clovis married a Burgundian princess, Clotilda, niece of Gundobald and Godegesil, joint kings of Burgundy. This princess was a Christian, and earnestly desired the conversion of her husband. Although Clovis allowed his children to be baptized, he remained a pagan himself until the war against the Alamanni, who at the time occupied the country between the Vosges and the Rhine and the neighbourhood of Lake Constance. By pushing their incursions westward they came into collision with Clovis who marched against them and defeated them in the plain of the Rhine. The legend runs that, in the thickest of the fight, Clovis swore that he would be converted to the God of Clotilda if her God would grant him the victory. After subduing a part of the Alamanni, Clovis went to Reims, where he was baptized by St. Remigius on Christmas day 496, together with 3,000 Franks. The story of the phial of holy oil brought from heaven by a white dove for the baptism of Clovis was invented by archbishop Hincmar of Reims three centuries after the event. The baptism of Clovis was an event of very great importance. From that time the orthodox Christians in the kingdom of the Burgundians and Visigoths looked to Clovis to deliver them from their Arian kings. Clovis seems to have failed in the case of Burgundy, which was at that time torn by the rivalry between Godegesil and his brother Gundobald. Godegesil appealed for help to Clovis, who defeated Gundobald on the banks of the Ouche near Dijon, and advanced as far as Avignon (500), but had to retire without being able to retain any of his conquests. Immediately after his departure Gundobald slew Godegesil at Vienne, and seized the whole of the Burgundian kingdom. Clovis was more fortunate in his war with the Visigoths. Having completed the subjugation of the Alamanni in 506, he marched against the Visigothic king Alaric II in the following year in spite of the efforts of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, to prevent the war. After a decisive victory at Vouillé near Poitiers, in which Clovis slew Alaric with his own hand, the whole of the kingdom of the Visigoths as far as the Pyrenees was added to the Frankish empire, with the exception of Septimania, which, together with Spain, remained in possession of Alaric's grandson, Amalaric, and Provence, which was seized by Theodoric and annexed to Italy. In 508 Clovis received at Tours the insignia of the consulship from the eastern emperor, Anastasius, but the title was purely honorific. The last years of his life Clovis spent in Paris, which he made the capital of his kingdom; there he built the church of the Holy Apostles, known later as the church of Ste. Geneviève. By murdering the petty Frankish kings who reigned at Cambrai, Cologne and other residences he became the sole king of all the Frankish tribes. He died in 511. Clovis was the true founder of the Frankish monarchy. He reigned over the Salian Franks by hereditary right; over the other Frankish tribes by reason of his kinship with their kings and by the choice of the warriors, who raised him on the shield, and he governed the Gallo-Romans by right of conquest. He had the Salic law drawn up, doubtless between the years 486 and 507, and seems to have been represented in the cities by a new functionary, the 'graf.' 'comes,' or count. He owed his success in great measure to his alliance with the church. He took the property of the church under his protection and in 511 convoked a council or Orléans, the canons of which have come down to us. But while protecting the church, he maintained his authority over it. He intervened in nominating bishops, and the council of Orléans decided that no one but a priest's son could be ordained clerk without the kings order or the permission of the count.
King of the Salian Franks 481-486 King of the Franks 486-511 Clovis inherited his father's kingdom in 481, at which time he unified the Salian and Ripurian Franks. In 486 he defeated the Roman general Syagrius who ruled northern Gaul out of Soissons. By 493 he married the Burgundian princess Clotilda. In 496, after defeating the Alamanni, he was baptized, thus becoming the first Christian ruler of post-Roman Gaul. By 506 the Alamanni were subdued, and the next year Clovis finished his expansion by taking Aquitaine from the weak Visigothic king Alaric II. On Clovis' death in 511, the kingdom was split between Chlodomer (Orleans), Childebert (Paris), Chlotar (Soissons), and Theuderic (Metz).
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Noted events in his life were:
• Alt. Birth: Alt. Birth, 463.
• Alt. Death: Alt. Death, 511.
Clovis married Concubine.1 2 3 4
The child from this marriage was:
7 M i. Theoderic I King of the Franks 1 2 3 4 was born in 485, died in 533 at age 48, and was buried in Metz.
Clovis next married Saint Clotilda of Burgundy, daughter of Chilperic II King of Burgundy, about 492. Clotilda was born in 475, died on 3 Jun 545 in Tours, France at age 70, and was buried in 545 in Church Of The Holy Apostles, Paris, France. Another name for Clotilda was Chrotechilde Of Burgundy.
Noted events in her life were:
• Alt. Birth: Alt. Birth, Abt 470.
• Alt. Death: Alt. Death, 545.
Children from this marriage were:
8 F i. Theodechildis was born circa 492 and died in 576 at age 84.
9 M ii. Ingomer was born in 493 and died in 493.
10 M iii. Chlodomer King of the Franks 1 2 3 4 was born circa 495 and died on 21 Jun 524 in Vézeronce at age 29.
11 M iv. Childebert I King of The Franks was born in 497 and died on 23 Dec 558 1 2 3 4 at age 61. Another name for Childebert was I Childebert King Of Paris.1 2 3 4
+ 12 M v. Clotaire I King of The Franks was born circa 501 and died on 30 Nov 561 at age 60.
13 F vi. Clotilde was born circa 502 and died in 531 at age 29. Another name for Clotilde was Chrothieldis.
Fourth Generation 
12. Clotaire I King of The Franks (Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born circa 501 and died on 30 Nov 561 at age 60. Another name for Clotaire was Chlothachar.
General Notes: King of Soissons 511-558 King of Austrasia 555-558 King of the Franks 558-561 Son of Clovis I, King of the Franks, he inherited Soissons on his death in 511. He, with his four brothers, attacked and defeated Burgundy under the kings Sigisbert and Godomar early in his reign. With his oldest brother Theuderic I, King of Metz, he attacked the Thuringian Franks under King Hermanfrid, took the kingdom, and took his daughter Radegund. Next, with his brother Childebert I, King of Paris, Chlotar murdered his nephews who were under the care of Queen Clotilda his mother. When Theuderic died, the kingdom was up for grabs. Chlotar and Childebert each received only a small part, the most of it going to Theudebert, his son. In 555, Theudebald, who had succeeded his father Theudebert in Austrasia, died, and Austrasia passed to Chlotar. When Childebert died in 558, Paris fell to Chlotar as well, thus making him sole ruler of the Franks. When Chlotar died in 561, the kingdom was divided among his 4 living sons: Charibert (Paris), Guntram (Burgundy), Chilperic (Soissons), and Sigebert (Metz).
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Noted events in his life were:
• Alt Death: 31 Dec 561.
Clotaire married Radegund.1 2 3 4
Clotaire next married Guntheuca 1 2 3 4 about 524.
Clotaire next married Ingund.1 2 3 4 Ingund was born about 500.
Children from this marriage were:
14 M i. Childeric died before 561.
15 M ii. Gunthar was born in 517 and died after 532.
16 M iii. Charibert I King of the Franks was born about 521, died in 567 about age 46, and was buried in Paris.
17 F iv. Chlothsind was born about 523 and died before 567.
18 M v. Gontran King of the Franks 1 2 3 4 was born circa 532 and died on 28 Mar 592 1 2 3 4 at age 60.
19 M vi. Sigebert I King of Austrasia was born in 535, died in Nov 575 in Vitry, Near Arras, France at age 40, and was buried in Soissons, France.
Sigebert married Brunhilda of Austrasia, daughter of Athanagild Visigothic King of Spain, about 567.
Clotaire next married Aregund.
The child from this marriage was:
+ 20 M i. Chilperic I King of Soissons was born in 539 and died in Sep 584 near Chelles, Neustria at age 45.
Clotaire next married Chunsina.
The child from this marriage was:
Fifth Generation 
20. Chilperic I King of Soissons (Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born in 539 and died in Sep 584 near Chelles, Neustria at age 45. The cause of his death was Stabbed to death. Another name for Chilperic was I Chilperic King Of Soissonsi.
General Notes: King of Soissons 561-584 When Chlotar, King of the Franks, died in 561 he divided the kingdom among his four sons: Chilperic received Soissons. Right away, in 562, Chilperic invaded the lands of his brother King Sigebert I of Metz, thus starting the civil wars. Sigebert advanced all the way to the city of Soissons, exiled Chilperic's son Theudebert, and forced a peace treaty out of Chilperic. In 567, their brother King Charibert I of Paris died, the kingdom was partitioned among the two and their other brother King Guntram of Burgundy, and Chilperic immediately invaded Sigebert's legal share, but was defeated. Chilperic next allied with Guntram against Sigebert (who was in the midst of a war with Guntram). As hostilities mounted, Guntram swiched his alliance to Sigebert and Chilperic surrendered. The same exact thing happened the next year, 575, when Guntram again allied with Chilperic. That year, Sigebert died and left his kingdom to his son Childebert II. Chilperic banished Sigebert's wife Brunhild, took her money, and imprisoner her daughters. Chilperic then renewed hostilities with Guntram. In that year, Guntram's general Mummolus defeated Duke Desidarius, Chilperic's senior general. In 577, Guntram and Childebert made an alliance, demanding all of the lands Chilperic took from them. When the dysentery epidemic swept through Gaul in 580, Chilperic not only lost two sons but became ill himself. However, by the next year he was doing better and was able to make peace with Childebert. That year, as Chilperic had no sons of his own, he named his nephew, King Childebert II of Austrasia, his successor. A war with Guntram began and ended this year in which Duke Desidarius took many cities from the kingdom of Burgundy. In 582, Chilperic and Fredegund had another son, Theuderic, who died two years later. In 584, Chilperic was assassinated. He died at peace with his brother Guntram and at war with his nephew and alleged successor Childebert, but left a son born that very year: Chlotar.
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Chilperic married Audovera. Audovera died in 580. The cause of her death was Murdered.
Children from this marriage were:
22 M i. Theudebert died in 575.
23 M ii. Merovech died in 578.
24 M iii. Clovis died in 580. The cause of his death was Assassinated by Fredegund (his mother-in-law).
25 F iv. Basina
26 F v. Childesinde
Chilperic next married Galswintha, daughter of Athanagild Visigothic King of Spain. Galswintha was born in 540 and died in 568 at age 28. The cause of her death was Murdered at the instigation of Frédégonde.
Chilperic next married Frédégonde. Frédégonde was born in 580 and died in 597 at age 17.
Children from this marriage were:
27 M i. Chlodebert died in 580 and was buried in Soissons, France.
28 F ii. PrincessRigundis was born in 569.
29 M iii. Samson was born in 573 and died Late 577 at age 4.
30 M iv. Dagobert was born circa 579, died in 580 at age 1, and was buried in Saint Denis Basilica, Paris, France.
31 M v. Theoderic was born circa 582, was christened on 18 Apr 583, died in 584 at age 2, and was buried in Paris.
+ 32 M vi. Chlotar II King of The Franks was born Spring 584, died in Oct 629 at age 45, and was buried in Church of Saint Vincent, Paris.
Sixth Generation 
32. Chlotar II King of The Franks (Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born Spring 584, died in Oct 629 at age 45, and was buried in Church of Saint Vincent, Paris.
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Chlotar married Berthetrude.
The child from this marriage was:
+ 33 M i. Dagobert I King of the Franks was born circa 603, died on 19 Jan 639 at age 36, and was buried in Saint Denis, France.
Seventh Generation 
33. Dagobert I King of the Franks (Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born circa 603, died on 19 Jan 639 at age 36, and was buried in Saint Denis, France.
General Notes: King of Austrasia 623-632 King of the Franks 629-639 In 623, Dagobert's father, Chlotar II, King of the Franks, made him king of Austrasia to please the leading Austrasian nobles: Mayor of the Palace Pepin I and Saint Arnulf, Bishop of Metz. When Chlotar died in 629, Dagobert became sole King of the Franks, and he moved his capital from Austrasia to Paris. Later, Dagobert left the council of Pepin for a more flexible Neustrian Mayor of the Palace. In 632, he was forced to put his three-year old son Sigebert on the throne of Austrasia as the nobles were in revolt, however Pepin was not made his Mayor of the Palace. The Neustrian nobles then wished to unite with Burgundy, and so they urged Dagobert to put his son Clovis II as king of both those kingdoms, although he was only 5 years old and could be easily manipulated by the nobles. When Dagobert died in 639, the nobles of the kingdoms controlled both his sons, now puppet kings.
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Dagobert married Nanthild.
The child from this marriage was:
+ 34 M i. Clovis II King of Neustria was born in 634 and died in 637 at age 3.
Dagobert had a relationship with Ragintrudis.
Their child was:
35 M i. Sigebert III King of the Franks died in Feb 656.
Eighth Generation 
34. Clovis II King of Neustria (Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born in 634 and died in 637 at age 3.
General Notes: King of Neustria 639-657 King of Burgundy 639-657 Before King Dagobert I of the Franks died, his Neustrian and Burgundian nobles urged a union of those two kingdoms, and do when he died in 639, Clovis II became king of Neustria and Burgundy. In 656, both Grimoald, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, and his son Childebert who he had placed on the Austrasian throne, were executed. The next year, Clovis II died, leaving the kingdom to his infant son Chlotar III, really just a puppet of the powerful Neustrian and Burgundian nobles.
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Clovis married Blathild. Blathild died on 30 Jan 680 and was buried in Abbey of Chelles near Paris, France.
Children from this marriage were:
+ 36 M i. Theuderic III King of the Franks was born circa 651 and died on 2 Sep 690 at age 39.
37 M ii. Chlotar III King of Franks 1 2 3 4 was born circa 650 and died on 10 Mar 673 1 2 3 4 at age 23.
Noted events in his life were:
• Alt Death: 9 May 673.
38 M iii. Childéric II King of the Franks 1 2 3 4 died on 18 Oct 675 in Forest of Lognes, near Chelles 1 2 3 4 and was buried in Paris. The cause of his death was Murdered.
Noted events in his life were:
Ninth Generation 
36. Theuderic III King of the Franks (Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born circa 651 and died on 2 Sep 690 at age 39.
General Notes: King of Neustria 673-675 King of the Franks 675-691 In 673, the young child Theuderic III became puppet king of Neustria, and when his brother Childeric II died in 675, king of all the Franks. In 687, he and the Austrasian Mayor of the Palace were defeated by Pepin II, grandson of Pepin I. He died at a young age in 691, and was succeeded by his son Clovis III.
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Noted events in his life were:
• Alt Death: 12 Apr 691.
Theuderic married Clotilda of Heristal, daughter of Ansegisel and Saint Begga. Clotilda died circa 692. Another name for Clotilda was Chrothechildis.
Children from this marriage were:
39 M i. Clovis III King Of The Franks 1 2 3 4 was born in 678 and died in 695 1 2 3 4 at age 17.
40 M ii. Childebert III King of the Franks 1 2 3 4 died on 14 Apr 711 1 2 3 4 and was buried in Choisy-au-Bac.
+ 41 F iii. Bertha of Prüm 5 was born before 690 6 7 and died after 720.
Tenth Generation 
41. Bertha of Prüm 5 (Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born before 690 6 7 and died after 720.
General Notes: Berthe, Princess N? Married Name: de Laon. Born: before 690, daughter of Theodard N? , Berthe is presumed to have been at least 15 years of age by the time her son Charibert was born. Married before 704: Martin de Laon, son of Ansegis=Ansegisus, Duke d'Austrasie and Sainte Begge=Begga de Landen . Died: after 720 Berthe was a Merovingien princess. She founded the Abbey of Prum in 720. Also known as Bertha of Austrasia.
Possible parents and a line back to Merovech (this line has circumstantial evidence only from what I have read but still widely popular)
A weak chain in this line is Berthe the Elder (of Prüm), who is supposed to be a Merovingian princess. This is neither generally accepted, nor 100% proven. A different version is supported by Siegfried Rosch in "Caroli Magni Progenies" (1977 Degener Verlag), where she is the daughter of Pfalzgraf Hugobert, who died 697/698. But Christian Settipani makes plausible in his "Les ancêtres de Charlemagne" (ISBN 2-906483-28-1) that her father was the Merovingian king Thierry III. He gives many arguments for this hypothesis. When Berthe donated land to the abbey of Prüm, the donation document was co-signed by her son Caribert and three witnesses - which are supposed to be her relatives - with the typical Merovingian names Bernier, Rolande and Thierry. Christian Settipani also mentions this theory in La préhistoire des Capétiens, page 116.
8
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Bertha married Unknown.1 2 3 4 5 Another name for Unknown was Martin Of Laon.
The child from this marriage was:
+ 42 M i. Charibert Count of Laon 5 9 was born before 705 6 and died after 747.
Eleventh Generation 42. Charibert Count of Laon 5 9 (Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born before 705 6 and died after 747.
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
SOURCES: Charibert, Count de Laon (Rosamond, Frankish kingdom under Carolingians.) (Andre Roux: Scrolls, 191.) (Stuart, Royalty for Commoners, Page 158, Line 43). Born: before 705, son of Martin de Laon and Berthe, Princess N? , Charibert is presumed to have been at least 15 years of age by the time his daughter Berthe was born. Married before 720: Bertrade N? ). Died: after 747 Charibert was alive in the year 747.
Charibert married Bertrada of Laon.5
The child from this marriage was:
+ 43 F i. Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon 10 was born about 720 in Leon, Aisne, France,11 died on 12 Jul 783 in Choisy, Haute-Savoie, France 5 11 about age 63, and was buried in Saint Denis, France.12
Twelfth Generation 43. Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon 10 (Charibert Count of Laon42, Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born about 720 in Leon, Aisne, France,11 died on 12 Jul 783 in Choisy, Haute-Savoie, France 5 11 about age 63, and was buried in Saint Denis, France.12
General Notes: She was a Frankish Queen.
SOURCES: Berthe=Bertrada de Laon (Andre Roux: Scrolls, 191.) (Stuart, Royalty for Commoners, Page 158, Line 214-42). Married Name: Le Bref. Married Name: des Francs. Also Known As: Berthe "au Grand Pied". Born: circa 720, daughter of Charibert, Count de Laon and Bertrade N? Berthe was known as Berthe-au-grand-pied because one foot was larger than the other. Married circa 740: Pepin III, King des Francs , son of Charles Martel and Rotrude=Chrotrud, Duchesse d'Austrasie (3598); Berthe was for may years, at least since 740, the concubine of Pepin III. In 749 she convinced him to marry her. Note - in 770: The winds of history in the year 770 no longer blow from Aquitaine but from Lombardy. This Kingdom, north of a strange Italy of the time [Italy being bitten into little pieces by the aspirations of the Lombards to the North, the Byzantines and the Pope. Charles, though the "devoted defender of the Holy Church and its auxilliaries in all things" as he refers to himself, should logically and normally have followed the politics of his father with respect to Rome, and therefore to protect the papacy from its enemies, the Lombards. But he would hear none of it. Carloman casts a benign eye on the Lombards, where Didier, the ancient Duke of Tuscanny still reigned. Bertrada, the widow of Pippin, despairing at the level of hate which separated her two sons, took matters into her hands, as a strong-willed woman is sometimes wont to do when endowed with power. She visits Carloman near Seltz [in Alsace] , and secures his agreement from him. She crosses the Alps under the pretext of "worshiping in Rome the temples of the Holy Apostles" and visits Pope Stephen III. In fact, she had but one thing on her mind: To reconcile her two sons by bringing Charles closer to the Lombards, since Carloman is the friend of the ruler of Lombardy. The politics of the two brothers then would become tied to a common interest, That could be a first step. One could also marry Gisele, sister of Charles and Carloman to Didier's son. Unfortunately, Gisele is not yet nubile. In the meantime, Bertrada proposes the marriage of her son Charles with Desiree, Didier's daughter! The King of the Lombards accepts the proposal as does Charles. However, the future emperor is already attached to a young frankish woman, Himiltrude, who has born him a son and a daughter -- unfortunately, the son is hunchback. Although Himiltrude is only a concubine of the King, the Pope being furious with the developments bringing together his natural protectors, the Francs, with his natural enemies, the Lombards, calls the union of Charles to Desiree diabolical. How can the Francs, a race ".. endowed with such beautiful women ..." posibly consider a union with "...this fetid race of Lombards, the most perfidious, and odious of all races, who have never been counted in the race of civilized nations, and from whom leprosy came ..." Pope Stephen III exclaimed. Whiles Charles considers the matter, Bertrada gets Desiree and brings her to her son in Pavia. His first look at Desiree immediately caused him to miss Himiltrude. It seems that Desiree was the epitomy of ugliness. The marriage takes place anyway. Bertrada died on the fourth of the Ides of July. 8
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Bertrada married Pippin "The Younger" Martel King of the Franks,13 son of Charles Martel Mayor of the Palace, Duke of the Franks and Duchess Chrotrude of Alemania & Austrasia. Pippin was born about 715 in Jupille near Liége (Belgium), died on 24 Sep 768 in Aachen (Aix-la-chapelle), Rhineland, Germany about age 53, and was buried in Saint Denis, France. Other names for Pippin were Le Bref, Pepin, Peppin, and The Short.
The child from this marriage was:
+ 44 M i. Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans 14 15 16 was born on 2 Apr 742 near Liége, Belgium,15 16 17 died on 28 Jan 814 in Aachen, Rhineland, Germany 5 15 16 at age 71, and was buried in Aachen Cathedral.
Thirteenth Generation 
44. Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans 14 15 16 (Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon43, Charibert Count of Laon42, Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born on 2 Apr 742 near Liége, Belgium,15 16 17 died on 28 Jan 814 in Aachen, Rhineland, Germany 5 15 16 at age 71, and was buried in Aachen Cathedral.
General Notes: He began as King of the Franks and reigned from 768 to 814; but at the end he was the Holy Roman Emperor of the West and reigned from 25 Dec 800 to 814. He was also, King of the Germans. It is said that he had five (5) wives and nine (9) concubines.
Charles I; Charles "the Great" and Carolus Magnus Martel AKA
Charlemagne, Emperor Of The Holy Roman Empire, King of the Franks was king of the Franks from AD 768 to 814 and 'Emperor of the Romans' from 800 to 814. He became a key figure in the development of western Europe's medieval civilization. By his almost constant military campaigns, Charlemagne created a vast empire in the West which included much of the western part of the old Roman Empire as well as some new territory. He was the first Germanic ruler to assume the title of emperor, and the 'empire' he revived lasted in one form or another for a thousand years. Culturally and politically, he left his mark on the newly rising civilization of the West. Probably no ruler of the early Middle Ages better deserved the title of 'The Great.'
Charlemagne was the son of Pepin the Short, and the grandson of Charles Martel. From 768 to 771, Charlemagne shared Pepin's kingdom with his brother, Carloman. When Carloman died, Charlemagne became sole ruler. He took up with energy the work begun by his father and grandfather. His first step was to repress his hostile neighbors. Charlemagne gained wide acclaim for his outstanding military ability, persistence, and success. He waged more than 50 campaigns against neighboring Germanic peoples on all sides, and against the Avars, Slavs, Byzantines, and Moors.
Charlemagne's first great war was against the Lombards, a Germanic people who had invaded Italy in the late 500's. They had been a source of trouble to the popes ever since. In conquering them, Charlemagne followed Pepin's policy of friendship and cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church. This also served Charlemagne's own interests, because he became ruler of the Lombard kingdom in Italy.
The long Saxon war was the most important of Charlemagne's military ventures. The Saxons, who held the whole northwestern part of Germany, were pagans. Their defeat after 30 years of war prepared the way for the religious conversion and civilization of Germany.
By means of other wars, Charlemagne put down a rebellion in Aquitaine, added Bavaria to his kingdom, and established several border states to protect his outlying conquests. In eastern Europe, he defeated the Slavs and Avars and made possible eastward migration by the Germans.
Charlemagne had built a vast and sprawling state that shared borders with such different peoples as the Slavs, Byzantines, and Moslems. He defended the Roman Catholic Church and constantly extended its power. He was far more powerful than the imperial successors of Constantine, the first Christian emperor in the West, and he ruled a much more extensive area. Because of his great holdings, he decided to revive the Roman Empire, but as a new empire that was European and Christian in Character. The relations of the popes with the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman, emperors in Canstantinople had been breaking down since the middle 700's. An alliance between the Roman Catholic Church and the Franks, accomplished by proclaiming Charlemagne emperor, made good sense. Pope Leo III placed the imperial crown on Charlemagne's head on Christmas Day, 800. The most important effect of this act was that it revived the idea of empire in the West, an idea which caused both harm and good in succeeding centuries.
Einhard, Charlemagne's secretary and friend, described the emperor as large and strong of body, fond of active exercise, genial but dignified, and sensible and moderate in his way of life. Charlemagne clearly recognized his duties and responsibilities, and was a tireless worker. He could not reverse the long trend toward decentralized government. But he could and did control the power of the nobles and maintain a considerable degree of law and order in a troubled age. His administrative methods helped raise the standard of living.
Charlemagne's greatest contribution was his work as a patron of culture and extender of civilization. The Palace School, set up at his capital in Aachen under the leadership of the English scholar Alcuin (735-804), stimulated interest in education, philosophy, and literature. Most of the leading scholars were churchman, so this vast cultural activity greatly strengthened the church and had far-reaching and lasting results. In this way, Charlemagne, by means of his power and eminence, gave western Europe a unified culture so strong that it survived the terrible invasions and disorders of the next 200 years.
Source: 'The World Book Encyclopedia', 1968, C291-292. 'Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists ...', Frederick Lewis Weis, 1993, p cvi.
England is about to lose one of the last traces of the Emperor Charles the Great---Charlemagne---for it was he who established the system of reckoning in pounds, shillings and pence. He will also be remembered as the white-haired old king in the Song of Roland; but he was neither an economist nor the rather feckless character of the Song, being rather one of the ideal examples in European history of the man of action, a type that always spells danger.
He was born in 742 to Pepin the Short, who was Mayor of the Palace of Childeric III, the last of an ever degenerating line of Merovingian kings. In 751, with the support of the Pope, Pepin cut off Childeric's long hair, the mark of his kingship, and sent him to a monastery, arrogating to himself the royal power. He was an active ruler, imposing peace on his border-lands, and twice descending on Italy to protect the Pope from the Lombards, giving to him the duchy of Rome as his own state in the bargain.
In 768 Charlemagne and his brother Carloman succeeded to the joint rule of the Franks, but three years later Carloman died, and Charlemagne ruled supreme. He was as active as his father in defending and expanding his territories. In 773, when the Lombards were again putting pressure on the Pope, he crossed the Alps with astonishing speed and defeated the Lombards absolutely, putting their king in a monastery (now a family habit) and assuming the 'Iron' Crown of Lombardy himself.
He now began a systematic campaign to conquer the Saxons, and ten years of the most bitter fighting ensued. The Saxons discovered an able leader in Widukind, and in 782, managed to wipe out a substantial army of Franks. Charlemagne had 4,500 Saxons beheaded at Verden in retribution, and went on to celebrate 'The Nativity of Our Lord and Easter as he was wont to do,' says Einhard, his biographer. It took nearly three years to find Widukind, and he was then baptized---a clear declaration of submission; the rest of the Saxons gave little trouble in taking baptism, or obeying their new Frankish masters---they remembered Verden.
A feudal vassal of Charlemagne who should have learned a lesson from this was Duke Tassilo of Bavaria, but he preferred to behave as if he were independent of his overlord. Charlemagne gave him one chance to reform, but then found that he was plotting with his enemies, so in 788 he too was put into a monastery, and Bavaria was incorporated into the fast growing empire.
In Spain he was not so successful: he had been forced to call off his invasion in 778, for his troops were needed elsewhere, and anyway the Muslims turned out to be not as disunited as he had been told; it was in this retreat that Roland died. But in 793 the Muslims attacked over his borders, so he set up an enclave on the southern side of the Pyrenees to guard the area.
He now turned his attention to the Avars, relations of the Huns, who lived in the area of the middle Danube, and were phenomenally rich with tribute-money they had wrung from the Byzantine Emperors. Peaceful negotiations had failed to keep them from raiding Charlemagne's lands, and so he set out to conquer them. It was as hard a war as that against the Saxons, lasting from 791-9, and Charlemagne was wise to distribute the loot he gained from it to his war-weary people instead of keeping it for himself.
Since 476 there had been no Emperor in the West, and until recently the Popes had looked to the Byzantine Emperors for protection. In 800 the Pope was set upon and deposed, and Charlemagne had to go do to Rome to restore him. On Christmas Day of that year he was praying in St. Peter's when the Pope came up and crowned him as Emperor, taking him 'unawares.' Historians wrangle over the coronation of Charlemagne, and the results of their searches read like detective stories. Suffice it to say that Charlemagne must have known what was going to happen, but he was rather disturbed about the whole thing afterwards; possibly he was upset at not having the fiat of the Emperor of the East, though a woman was reigning there at the time, possibly he felt the Pope had arrogated to himself too great a part in the coronation. Certainly he kept a very healthy respect for the Byzantine Empire, though he was not a man to fear another's power: he had good relations with Haroun-al-Rashid, the Caliph of Baghdad, who sent him a white elephant, and arranged protection for pilgrims visiting Jerusalem, in the heart of Muslim territory. In a less exciting area he developed good relations also with the various Anglo-Saxons states in England; and the first commercial treaty of which we have a record in English history is a letter from Charlemagne to Offa of Mercia, then the central Anglo-Saxon state, requesting more short cloaks, but not as short as the last batch, for when one was forced by the call of nature to get off one's horse, the cloak turned out to be a very draughty affair.
Einhard's biography gives us a fine picture of Charlemagne in the prime of his life: a large pleasant looking man, with rather a weak voice, who loved all forms of exercise, but excelled in swimming. He wore the ordinary dress of his nation, objecting strongly to having to dress in Roman fashion on the two occasions Popes requested it to impress the citizens of Rome. He ate and drank moderately, but had a passion for roast meat. He loved to hear music and to listen to readings from St. Augustine's City of God; he also delighted in the old songs of his nation, which his priggish son had destroyed after his death, because they were pagan. He plainly respected learning, and loved to be surrounded by learned people, but he probably didn't get very far in his own learning; he used to keep a copy-book under his pillow (he suffered from insomnia) but he never really learned to write.
His palace at Aachen was the Versailles of the ninth century, beautiful and impressive, though it is a typically homely touch that he settled on this site because the swimming was good there, with natural hot springs to warm the water. The pictorial arts flourished under him, especially in the decoration of books, which themselves were written in the fine minuscule hand which was developed in his reign, and was to form the basis of the Renaissance italic hand. Schools were built up, modelled on the palace school, which was more of a university in that it served as a place for distinguished scholars to work, and a training ground for the sons of the nobility. Alcuin was called from England, and Peter of Pisa came, along with the best minds of the age. Monasteries built up huge libraries, and in their scriptoria multiple copies were made. By these means the riches of literature of the ancient world were preserved for the modern, and not even the destructive power of the Norsemen could entirely root out the achievement. Although the full effect of this educational revolution was not to be felt until after the death of Charlemagne, when the whole of Europe began to build great edifices of stone, and theologians and philosophers dared to reason, this was truly the Carolingian Renaissance, and owed a tremendous debt to the boundless vision and enthusiasm of Charlemagne himself.
In fact, the cultural influences of the Carolingian state were to outlast by far the state itself. Having conquered territories, Charlemagne tended to do little but install Frankish counts there, introduce his elementary form of feudalism, and then occasionally add to the legal system such laws as were necessary. He sent round groups of 'Missi Dominici' to check on the administration of the counts, and held formal assemblies each year, which provided an elementary check on what was happening all over the Empire; but it was only while his dominant personality and military might were at the head of the system that it could work---the whole Empire was ready to spring apart into fragments when this was removed. It lacked the economic organisation necessary for unity, retaining the spirit of self-sufficiency which was the hallmark of medieval regionalism.
On his death in 814, his son Louis the Pious succeeded, but on his death in 840 civil war broke out between Louis' sons, and in 843 at Verdun the Empire was divided between the three of them, one taking the western strip, one the eastern and the third taking a central strip right down from the Low Countries to half-way down Italy---Germany was to go a separate way from that of France, the Low Countries and Burgundy were to aim at separate development, and all were to have interest in what became of the Italian domains.
It is possible to place too much emphasis on the decisiveness of this treaty for the future history of Western Europe, but even so one should remember that the year before it was made when the two leaders of West and East met to make the preliminary arrangements, the one swore his oath in French and the other in German so that their followers could understand them.
The popular names for the rulers who followed in the wake of Charlemagne spell out for us the decline from greatness, Louis the Pious, Charles the Bald, Louis the Stammerer, Charles the Fat, Charles the Simple. Europe was to be divided, with disastrous results; but nonetheless people remembered the achievement of Charlemagne through the long terrible years of war and the terrible attacks from the Norsemen. They created the tradition of the Song of Roland, which was only outdone in popularity by the later re-workings of the predominantly national legends of the Germans and the Celtic lands. Perhaps it was not so bad that Arthur replaced Charlemagne in the end, for his like did not come to Europe again until the days of Napoleon. [Source: Who's Who in the Middle Ages, John Fines, Barnes & Noble Books, New York, 1995] ROYA Y 5 12 14
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Charlemagne married Himiltrude in 766. Himiltrude was born about 742.
The child from this marriage was:
45 M i. King Pippin I the Hunchback Martel of Italia & Lombardy 5 was born on 12 Apr 777 in Aachen (Aix-la-chapelle), Rhineland, Germany and died on 8 Jul 810 in Milan, Italy at age 33.
Noted events in his life were:
• Baptism: by Pope Adrian I, 12 Apr 781, Rome.
Pippin married.
Charlemagne married Gerperga in 768.
Noted events in their marriage were:
• Annulled: 771.
Charlemagne next married Hildegarde of Swabia Countess of Vinzgau,5 16 daughter of Gerold I Von Vinzgau Duke of Swabia & Count of Vinzgau and Imma, about 771 in Aachen, Rhineland, Germany.5 Hildegarde was born about 757 in Savoie,16 died on 30 Apr 783 in Aachen (Aix-la-chapelle), Rhineland, Germany 5 16 about age 26, and was buried in Metz, Fran. Other names for Hildegarde were Hildegarde von Schwaben, and Hildegarde von Vinzgau.
Children from this marriage were:
46 M i. Charles "The Younger" Martel 5 was born in 772 in Aachen, Rhineland, Germany and died on 4 Dec 811 at age 39. The cause of his death was Stroke.
+ 47 M ii. Carloman "Pepin I" King of Italy was born circa 773 and died on 8 Jul 810 at age 37.
48 F iii. Adelaide Martel 5 was born in 774 in Pavia, Italy.
49 F iv. Rotrude Martel 5 was born in 775 in Aachen, Rhineland, Germany and died on 8 Jun 810 18 at age 35. Another name for Rotrude was Hruodrud.
50 M v. Lothair Martel 5 was born in Aug 778 in Casseneuil, Lot-et-Garonne, France and died in 779-780 at age 1.
+ 51 M vi. KingLouis I "The Pious" Emperor of the West 14 19 was born about Apr 778 in Casseneuil, Leige, France,19 died on 20 Jun 840 in Ingelheim, Hesse, Germany 5 14 19 about age 62, and was buried in Abbey of Metz.
52 F vii. Bertha Martel 5 was born in 779 in Aachen, Rhineland, Germany and died in 823 at age 44.
53 F viii. Gisela Martel was born in 781 and died in 808 at age 27.
54 F ix. Hildegarde Martel 8 was born in 782 and died in 783 at age 1.
Charlemagne next married Fastrada 5 in 784. Fastrada died in 794.
Children from this marriage were:
55 F i. Theodrada Abbess of Argenteuil was born in 784.
56 F ii. Hiltrude was born in 787.
Charlemagne next married Luitgard in 794. Luitgard died in 800.
Charlemagne had a relationship with Regina.
Their children were:
57 M i. Hugh died on 14 Jun 844 in Angoulême, Aquitaine. The cause of his death was killed in battle.
Hugh married.
58 M ii. Bishop Drogo of Metz was born on 17 Jun 801, died on 8 Dec 855 in Bourgogne, Burgundy, France at age 54, and was buried in Metz, église abbatiale de Saint-Arnoul. The cause of his death was drowning.
Fourteenth Generation 47. Carloman "Pepin I" King of Italy (Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans44, Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon43, Charibert Count of Laon42, Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born circa 773 and died on 8 Jul 810 at age 37.
General Notes: Renamed Pippin or Pepin when he became king.
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Carloman had a child.
+ 59 M i. Bernard King of Italy was born in 799 in Normandy, France and died on 17 Apr 818 in Milan, Italy at age 19.
51. KingLouis I "The Pious" Emperor of the West 14 19 (Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans44, Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon43, Charibert Count of Laon42, Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born about Apr 778 in Casseneuil, Leige, France,19 died on 20 Jun 840 in Ingelheim, Hesse, Germany 5 14 19 about age 62, and was buried in Abbey of Metz. Another name for Louis was Hludowic.
General Notes: He was King of Aquitaine from 781 and in 814 he, also, became the Holy Roman Emperor of the West from 814 to 840; King of Germany; and King of France to 840.
Louis I 'The Pious', Emperor Of The Holy Roman Empire in 814 succeeded his father Charlemagne. In 817, he arranged for the succession after his death by dividing the empire among his three sons. After his first wife died, Louis married again, and a fourth son, Charles, was born. Louis redivided his empire in 829 in order to give Charles a share. The older sons resented the new division and revolted. Louis was removed from the throne in 833, but was restored the next year. The bitter struggle between his sons continued until Louis died.
The name Louis means 'famous warrier'.
Louis I, byname LOUIS THE PIOUS, or THE DEBONAIR, French LOUIS LE PIEUX, or LE DBONNAIRE, 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 NŒmes: he appears as a kindly ruler but a weak and vacillating one. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97, LOUIS I]
SOURCES:
!Called The Pious (778-840), Holy Roman emperor (814-40), king of France (814-40), king of Germany (814-40), and king of Aquitaine (781-840). He was the son of Charlemagne, king of the Franks. In 817 Louis made plans providing for the posthumous division of the Carolingian Empire among his three surviving sons, Lothair I, Holy Roman emperor, Louis II, king of Germany, and Charles II, Holy Roman emperor. His reign, however, was troubled by quarrels with his sons, who were dissatisfied with his arrangements for the succession. Louis was physically strong but was easily influenced and was unequal to administering the large empire that he inherited from his father. Note:
!In 781, at age 2, Louis I, "Le Pieux", was crowned and anointed King of Aquitaine by Pope Hadrian I, at the same time as his older brother Pepin was made King of Italy. Louis, whose twin brother had died at birth, was the third of Charlemagne's sons by his wife Hildegard. The Diviso Regni of 806 indicates that Louis was to have Aquitaine as an independent Kingdom upon his father's death. Aquitaine was in effect a March; for much of Louis' reign as sub-king he and his officials were occupied in quelling Gascon revolts and launching offensives into Spain. Unrest had never completely died out in the Pyrenees since the annexation of Aquitaine in 768, and more especially after the disastrous ambush of the Frankish vanguard in Roncesvalles in 778. In about 788, Chorso, Duke of Toulouse was captured by a Gascon named Adelric, and then released after being forced to swear an oath of allegiance to the Gascon or Basque leader. In 793, the Sarracens invaded Septimania, burned the suburbs of Narbonne and marched on Carcassonne, but in 795 Bahlul-ben-Machluc sued with Louis for peace. In 800, he successfully laid siege to Barcelona and subsequently captured Tortosa, Huesca and Pamplona and formed links with the Kingdom of the Asturias. Baptized: on 15 Apr 781; On 15 April 781, Louis was baptized by Pope Hadrian I in Rome. The next day, Easter Sunday, he was confirmed in his title of King of Aquitaine. Married in 794: Ermengarde d'Esbay, daughter of Engueran=Ingram, Count d'Esbay. Note - between 800 and 837: Louis I established monasteries in Nouaille (a cell of St. Hilaire of Poitiers), Gellone and St. Martin-de-Tours. After the death of his brothers Pepin and Charles in 810 and 811 respectively, Louis was crowned at Aachen on 13 September 813, Emperor and heir to all of Charlemagne's lands, by Charlemagne himself without any assistance nor even the presence of the Pope. All sources, Frankish as well as papal, refer to Louis as emperor from then on. Charlemagne died 5 months later. All of Louis' sisters were required to quit the palace and retire to their own estates. His cousins, the offsprings of Bernard (Pepin III's half brother) were exhiled: Louis forced Count Wala to become a monk at Corbie; Adalhard was exhiled to Noirmoutier to be held there in custody by the Abbot; Bernhard returned to Lerin and Gundrada had to retreat to St. Radegund's convent of Sainte Croix in Poitiers. Only Theodrada was left unmolested as abbess of Notre Dame at Soissons. Louis I was also known as Louis, "Le Pieux". On 27 February 814, upon learning of the death of his father, and at the age of 36 years, he left Doue-la-Fontaine, in Anjou, to go to Aix-la-Chapelle. This new emperor, enterred this capital, and poised himself in front of the tomb of Charlemagne. So oversome with grief, his forehead touched the stone floor of the church. Hence the name "Le Pieux". Since he was kind, relative to his times, he was also known as "Le Debonnaire". For himself, he preferred to adopt the title "by divine Providence, Emperor Augustus". When Pope Leo died in May of 816, Stephen IV was elected Pope, and crowned Louis the Emperor on Sunday 5 October by placing a crown on his head during mass at Rheims. He also secured the release of some Roman exhiles in Francia. This crowning was among the first attempts to integrate the Papacy into the institutional framework of the Empire. Louis, 'lest he be led astray in satisfying the natural desires of the body' married Ermengarde, daughter of Count Ingramn. Charlemagne established Doue-la-Fontaine, Chasseneuil (Louis' birthplace), Angeac and Ebreuil as royal residences to maintain Louis and his household. At an assembly in Aachen in July 817, Louis made provisions for his sons' inheritance through the "Ordinatio Imperii". In his preface he states that the unity of the empire preserved for Louis by God should not be destroyed by men. Lothar was given the title of emperor, and as co-ruler with his father at once made heir to the empire, and appointed King of Italy in the event of his father's death. Bernard, then King of Italy was not mentioned, but the implication is that Bernard would be subordinate to Lothar should Louis die. Pepin was made King of Aquitaine (plus Gascony, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Autun, Avallon and Nevers) and Louis, The German, was made King of Bavaria (plus Carinthia, Bohemia, the lands of the Avars and Slavs and the royal manors of Lauterhofen and Ingolstadt). Pepin and Louis were to meet on an annual basis with Lothar to consult and together find "measures to take in the interest of perpetual peace". They could neither start a war nor marry without the approval of their elder brother. Lothar even had the right to de-throne them after three warnings. That same year, 817, Stephen IV obtains his political independence, thus severing the tie between Rome and the Frank Empire as conceived by Charlemagne. The arrangement was neat and all contingencies covered except for the one which took place. After his first wife's (Ermengarde) death, Louis, in 819, married the beautiful Bavarian Judith, daughter of Comte Welf of Bavaria. On 13 June 823 she gave birth to a son. He was called Charles. In September, 824, forgetting his nickname "Le Debonnaire", Louis totally ravages the Bretagne which was rebelling. In 829, at the General Assembly convoked in Worms (Wurm), Louis announces that he is forging a Duchy for his son, Charles, and gives him Alamania, Alsace, Rhetia, and part of Burgundy. The Co-Emperor Lothar, disagrees and has his name removed from imperial decrees and diplomas. Toward the end of 829, the political scene gets very complicated with allegations that Judith had intimate rapports with Bernard, Count of Barcelone, and ultimately desiring the death of the three sons of Hirmingarde. In Mai of 830, in Compiegne, Lothar and Pepin of Aquitaine lead a revolt. Louis is forced to cede on every point of contention. The apanage of the young Charles is eliminated, Judith is locked up in Poitiers at the Monastery of Sainte-Radegonde. In 831, the bishops would note how she had a talent for converting men's hearts and souls, and would allow her to rejoin her husband. In 832, Pepin and Louis revolt against their father. On 24 June 833, the Army of Louis Le Pieux faces those of the rebels. The field of battle in Rothfeld would be named the Field of the Lie (Lugenfeld). The Emperor and his sons begin negotiations. The night of 29 to 30 June, it is clear that the supporters of Louis would be influenced by his three sons. On the morning of 30 June, Louis would have to surrender. It would not be until 1 October that Louis would be deposed by the Assembly led by Agobard, Archbishop of Lyon and Eblon, Archbishop of Reims. On 7 October, Judith is sent to the Monastery of Tortone, Bernard to Prum, and Louis to the Monastery of Saint-Medard-de-Soissons, where in public ceremony, he is forced to lay down his sword, stripped of royal vestments, he is made to don the coarse cloth of a penitent. In 834, Louis and Pepin, tired of being under the control of their brother Lothar, decide to free their father. On 28 February, they succeed in freeing their father and in August in Blois, Lothar swears to Louis Le Pieux, that he would never leave Italy except by his direct command. Throughout 834, the Normands -- Danes, Swedes and Norwegians -- resume their raids. On 28 February 835, the General Assembly proclaims that Louis was innocent of all previous accusations thus clearing the way for him to be re-established as Emperor on the Throne at Saint-Stephen of Metz. In 837, thanks to the intercessions of Judith, Charles "Le Chauve", receives a Kingdom composed of Frisia, between the Seine, the Meuse and the sea and in September 838, he receives the crown at Quierzy-sur-Oise. In 838, Marseille is devastated by the Sarrasins. On 30 May 839, the Empire is divided in half, with Lothar taking the East, and Charles' lands extend through Provence, Lyon, Toul and Geneva and all the lands of the West. Louis "the German", gets to keep only Bavaria. Married in 819: Judith de Baviere (3628), daughter of Welf II, Count de Baviere and Egilwich=Heilwig, Abbess de Challes ; Louis married Judith upon the death of his first wife, Ermengarde. She bore him a son named Charles in 823. It is clear that Louis was as fond of Charles as Jacob was of his Benjamin. Died: on 22 Jun 840 in Ingelheim, Germany, at age 61 In 840, while attempting to keep Louis "the German" in line, Louis "Le Pieux" is taken ill in Salz. Feeling near death, he sends Lothar his sword and the crown on the condition that he would be loyal to Judith and abide by the lands division agreed to in Worms in 839. He died on an island, near Ingelheim on 22 June. 309. Judith de Baviere (Andre Roux: Scrolls, 191.) (Stuart, Royalty for Commoners, Page 130, Line 171-40.) (Rosamond, Frankish kingdom under Carolingians, Page 136). Married Name: de France. Born: circa 800 in Altdorf, Bavaria, daughter of Welf II, Count de Baviere (3626) and Egilwich=Heilwig, Abbess de Challes . Married in 819: Louis I, King de France , son of Charlemagne, Rex Francorum et Langobardorum and Hildegard, Countess de Linzgau ; Louis married Judith upon the death of his first wife, Ermengarde. She bore him a son named Charles in 823. It is clear that Louis was as fond of Charles as Jacob was of his Benjamin. Died: on 19 Apr 843 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, Touraine, France. 5 8 12 14
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Louis married Princess Ermengrade de Hesbaye, daughter of Ingeramne de Hesbaye Duke & Count of Hesbaye, in 798. Ermengrade was born about 778 in Hesbaye, Liege, Belgium and died about 3 Oct 818 in Angers, France 5 14 about age 40.
Children from this marriage were:
+ 61 M ii. Louis II "the German" King of the East Franks 5 12 was born in 806 in Aquitaine and died on 28 Aug 876 in Frankfurt, Germany at age 70.
62 M iii. Pepin I King of Aquitaine 5 died on 13 Dec 838 in Poitiers.
63 F iv. Hrotrud Martel 5 was born in 800.
64 F v. Hildegard d'Aquitaine 21 was born about 802 and died in 847 about age 45.
+ 65 M vi. Lothair I Emperor of the West 5 22 23 was born in 795 in Alsace, France, died on 2 Mar 855 in Purem, Rheinland, Prussia 24 at age 60, and was buried in France.
Louis next married Judith Von Andech Queen of the Franks 24 in Feb 819. Judith was born about 800 in Bavaria and died on 19 Apr 843 in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France 5 about age 43. Another name for Judith was Altdorf.
Children from this marriage were:
+ 66 M i. King Charles II "The Bald" Martel of West Francia 5 14 was born on 13 Jun 823 in Frankfurt, Hessen-Nassau, died on 6 Oct 877 in Modeno or Brios France at age 54, and was buried in St. Denis, Paris, Seine, Neustria,.
67 F ii. Princess Gisela Martel (D' Italia) de France 5 was born in 820 in France and died on 1 Jul 875 at age 55. Other names for Gisela were Gisela de Francia, and Judith.
Fifteenth Generation 59. Bernard King of Italy (Carloman "Pepin I" King of Italy47, Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans44, Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon43, Charibert Count of Laon42, Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born in 799 in Normandy, France and died on 17 Apr 818 in Milan, Italy at age 19. The cause of his death was A traumatic blinding procedure.
Bernard married Cunigunda of Laon in 813.
The child from this marriage was:
+ 68 M i. Pepin of Vermandois 25 was born circa 815 and died circa 840 at age 25.
61. Louis II "the German" King of the East Franks 5 12 (King Louis I "The Pious" Emperor of the West51, Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans44, Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon43, Charibert Count of Laon42, Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born in 806 in Aquitaine and died on 28 Aug 876 in Frankfurt, Germany at age 70.
General Notes: Louis II, byname LOUIS THE GERMAN, German LUDWIG DER DEUTSCHE (b. c. 804, Aquitaine?, Fr.--d. Aug. 28, 876, Frankfurt), king of the East Franks, who ruled lands from which the German state later evolved, was the third son of the emperor Louis I. When the emperor divided his dominions between his sons in 817, Louis received Bavaria and the neighbouring lands, but did not undertake the government until 825, when he began to fight the Slavs on his eastern frontier. In 827 he married Emma, daughter of Welf I., count of Bavaria, and sister of his stepmother Judith. He interfered in the quarrels arising from Judith's efforts to secure a kingdom for her own son Charles, and the consequent struggles of Louis and his brothers with the emperor Louis I. When the elder Louis died in 840 and his eldest son Lothair claimed the whole Empire, Louis in alliance with his half-brother, king Charles the Bald, defeated Lothair at Fontenoy on June 25, 841. By the Treaty of Verdun (August 843), Charles, Lothair I, and Louis divided the western, middle, and eastern parts of the empire, respectively, between them. Louis received the bulk of the lands of the Carolingian empire lying east of the Rhine, including a district around Speyer, Worms and Mainz, Bavaria, where he made Regensburg the centre of his government, Thuringia, Franconia and Saxony.
Louis may truly be called the founder of the German kingdom, though his attempts to maintain the unity of the Empire proved futile. In 842 he crushed a rising in Saxony, compelled the Abotrites to own his authority, and undertook campaigns against the Bohemians, the Moravians, and other tribes. He did not succeed in freeing his shores from the ravages of Danish pirates. At his instance synods and assemblies were held where laws were decreed for the better government of church and state.
In 853 a group of nobles opposing Charles the Bald, then king of the West Franks, appealed to Louis for help; in 854 Louis sent his son Louis the Younger to Aquitaine, and in 858 went west himself to try to depose Charles. Treachery and desertion in his army, and the loyalty of the Aquitanian bishops to Charles, prevented success and Louis renounced his claim by a treaty signed at Coblenz on June 7, 860.
In 855 the emperor Lothair died, and was succeeded in Italy by his eldest son Louis II, and in the northern part of his kingdom [Lotharingia] by his second son, Lothair. The weakness of these kingdoms afforded opportunities for intrigue by Louis and Charles the Bald, whose interest was increased by the fact that both their nephews were without male issue. Louis support Lothair in his efforts to divorce his wife Teutberga, for which he received a promise of Alsace, but in 865 Louis and Charles renewed the peace of Coblenz, and doubtless discussed the possibility of dividing Lothair's kingdom. In 868 at Metz, they agreed definitely to a partition; but in 869, Louis was ill, and his armies were engaged with the Moravians. Although Louis the German supported Frankish Catholic missions in Moravia, he could not maintain control in that area and lost a war that led to the founding of Greater Moravia, and when Lothair died in 869, Charles the Bald accordingly seized the whole kingdom. Louis invaded Lotharingia (870), and the country was divided between Louis and Charles by the Treaty of Mersen (Meerssen), under which Louis received Friesland and an extremely large expansion of this territory west of the Rhine.
Louis in 865 and 872 divided his territories between his sons Carloman, Louis the Younger, and Charles III the Fat. Quarrels and discontent at the partitions led to revolts by Carloman in 861 and in 863; an example followed by the second son Louis, who in a further rising was joined by his brother Charles. A report that the emperor Louis II was dead lead to peace between father and sons. The emperor was not dead, however, but a prisoner; and as he was the nephew and son-in-law of Louis, that monarch hoped to secure both the imperial dignity and the Italian kingdom for his son Carloman. Meeting his daughter Engelberga, the wife of Louis II, at Trent in 872, Louis made an alliance with her against Charles the Bald, and in 874 visited Italy on the same errand. Though Louis II, who died in August 875, declared (874) in favour of Carloman, eldest son of Louis the German, as the next emperor, Chalres the Bald reached Italy before his rival and, by persuading Carloman to return, had himself crowned by Pope John VIII. Meanwhile, Louis the German unsuccessfully attempted to invade Charles's possessions in Lotharingia. Louis was again preparing for war against Charles when he died on Sept. 28, 876 at Frankfort.
He was in war and peace alike, the most competent of the descendants of Charlemagne. He obtained for his kingdom a certain degree of security against the Normans, Hungarians, Moravians and others. He lived in close alliance with the Church, to which he was very generous, and supported its missionary schemes. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97, LOUIS THE GERMAN; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 14, pp. 413-414, LOUIS II]
Louis II, King of Germany (Paul, Nouveau Larousse Universel, Page 86.) (Stuart, Royalty for Commoners, Page 131, Line 172-41.) (Andre Castelot, Histoire de La France, Tome 1, Page 369). Also Known As: Louis "Le Germanique". AKA: Louis, King de Baviere. Born: either 804 or 806, son of Louis I, King de France and Ermengarde d'Esbay, Some sources assert that Louis was born in the year 806. There also is some disagreement as to whether this Louis should be Louis I or Louis II, King of Germany. The resolution to that disagreement lies in whether one can consider Louis' father as Louis I, King of Germany. Note - between 817 and 876: King of Allemania from 817 to 876. Following a new division of the Empire in favor of Charles "Le Chauve", Louis II joined his brothers Lothaire and Pepin in a revolt against their father King Louis I, "Le Debonnaire" (also "Le Pieux") of France. When Lotaire became Emperor, Louis II joined him in a fight against Charles "Le Chauve". In 858, Louis leaves Worms and invades his brother Charles' kingdom, with the support of Aquitaine and Bretagne. He begins to distribute the lands among counts and bishops. Charles in turn seeks refuge in Bourgogne. In Reims, on 25 November 858, the conference of bishops condemns Louis for the cruelty of his troops, sending Christian against Christian, and brother against brother. On 7 June 860, the brothers are reconciled in Saint-Castor de Coblence. Meanwhile the Normands pillage Amiens, Noyon, Beauvais, the Iberian peninsula and take Pisa in Italy. In 861, they devastate Paris. Upon the death of Lotaire II, Louis II got a part of Lorraine through the Treaty of Mersen (870). Married in 827 in Bavaria: Emma de Baviere, daughter of Welf, Count de Baviere . Died: on 28 Aug 876 (Rosamond, Frankish kingdom under Carolingians, Page 180). 8 12
Louis married Emma in 827.
The child from this marriage was:
69 M i. Charles "The Fat" Holy Roman Emperor was born on 13 Jun 839 and died on 13 Jan 888 at age 48.
Noted events in his life were:
• Titles: King of East Franks, King of Italy, King of France.
65. Lothair I Emperor of the West 5 22 23 (King Louis I "The Pious" Emperor of the West51, Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans44, Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon43, Charibert Count of Laon42, Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born in 795 in Alsace, France, died on 2 Mar 855 in Purem, Rheinland, Prussia 24 at age 60, and was buried in France.
General Notes: Emperor of Germany King of Italy Event: Ruled BET 840 AND 855 Emperor of Germany Event: Ruled BET 818 AND 855 King of Italy
Holy Roman Empire Frankish Emperor
Holy Roman emperor (840-55), and eldest son of Holy Roman Emperor Louis I, the Pious, and grandson of Charlemagne. Lothair became coruler with his father in 817 and was crowned by the pope six years later. He twice conspired with his brothers in revolts against their father. In 839 Lothair received the eastern part of the empire in addition to Italy, which he had received in 822. After the death of Louis I, Lothair attempted to assert his power over his brothers, but he was defeated by them at Fontenoy, France, on June 25, 841. By the Treaty of Verdun (843), the title of Holy Roman emperor was guaranteed to Lothair, together with sovereignty over Italy, Burgundy, Alsace, Lorraine, and the Low Countries. After having divided his kingdom among his three sons, Lothair retired to a monastery. His second son, sometimes called Lothair II (circa 835-69), reigned from 855 to 869 over the kingdom of Lotharingia. 8 26
Research Notes: My information and source can be found at Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
Lothair married Ermengrade de Tours de Orleans,5 26 daughter of Hugues III "le Mefiant" Count de Tours et Haut-Alsace and Aba, on 15 Oct 821 in Thionville, Moselle, France.23 24 Ermengrade was born about 795, died on 20 Mar 856 26 about age 61, and was buried in Abbaye D'erstein, Strasbourg, Alsace, France.
Children from this marriage were:
70 M i. King Loigsech Leix Lorraine 26 was born about 827 in Alsace, Lorraine, France and died on 8 Aug 869 in Plaisance, Italy 14 about age 42. Another name for Loigsech was Lothaire II O'Morda of Loigsi.
71 M ii. Louis II "Le Jeune" Martel 26 was born in 822.
+ 72 F iii. Princess Irmengarda de Lorraine of Italy 22 23 26 was born about 830 in Alsace-Lorraine.
73 M iv. King Charles of Provence 22 was born about 828 and died on 24 Jun 863 about age 35.
74 F v. Princess Rotrud Martel of Italy 22 was born in 833.
75 F vi. Princess Gisle Martel of Italy 22 was born about 834 and died on 28 May 861 about age 27.
66. King Charles II "The Bald" Martel of West Francia 5 14 (King Louis I "The Pious" Emperor of the West51, Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans44, Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon43, Charibert Count of Laon42, Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born on 13 Jun 823 in Frankfurt, Hessen-Nassau, died on 6 Oct 877 in Modeno or Brios France at age 54, and was buried in St. Denis, Paris, Seine, Neustria,.
General Notes: Acceded: 843. Holy Roman Emperor 875. 4 6 7 _FA2: Arranged with bros. to partition Charlemagne's empire out between them. 4 6 7 _FA3: Charles received the western portion. 4 6 7 _FA4: First monarch to rule France as a separate kingdom. 4 6 7 _FA5: Victor at Treaty of Verdun in 843 against his half brother Lothar. 4 6 7 _FA6: King of West Franks, Lorraine, & Bourgogne. 14 4 6 7 Note: [large-G675.FTW]
Charles 'The Bald' King Of The Franks arranged with his two half brothers to divide the great empire of their grandfather, Charlemagne. He accomplished this by the Treaty of Verdun in 843. Charles received the western portion, thus becoming the first to rule France as a separate kingdom.
Source: 'The World Book Encyclopedia', 1968, C293 'Royalty for Commoners', Roderick W. Stuart, 1993, p 185. 'Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants', Langston & Buck, 1986, p 197
Event: Ruled BET. 875 - 877 Emperor of the West 3 Event: Ruled BET. 843 - 877 King of the West Franks 3 Event: Ruled 869 King of Burgundy 7 Event: Ruled 875 King of Italy 7 Event: Crowned 25 DEC 875 Emperor of the West; crowned by Pope John VIII at Pavia 8 Note: 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. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist the pretensions of the emperor Lothair, and the two allies conquered him in the bloody battle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye (June 25, 841). In the following year the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebrated oaths of Strasbourg. The war was brought to an end by the treaty of Verdun (Aug. 843), which gave to Charles the Bald the kingdom of the western Franks, i.e., all the lands west of a line roughly following the Scheldt, the Meuse, the Sa“ne, the eastern mountains of the Massif Central, and the lower reaches of the Rh“ne, practically corresponding with what is now France, in addition to the Spanish March as far as the Ebro. 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, and he was defeated by the Bretons. During he first years of his reign up to the death of Lothair I. (855) was continued the system of "confraternal government" of the sons of Louis the Pious, who had various meetings with one another, at Coblenz [848], at Meersen [851], and at Attigny [854].
In 858 Louis the German invaded the kingdom of Charles. In 860 he in his turn tried to seize the kingdom of his nephew, Charles of Provence, but met with a repulse. Yet he succeeded in gaining control of Aquitaine after the capture of Pepin's son in 864. On the death of Lothair II. in 869 he tried to seize his dominions, but by the treaty of Meersen [870] with Louis the German, he received western Lorraine. Besides this, Charles had to struggle against the incessant rebellions in Aquitaine, against the Bretons, who inflicted on the king the defeats of Ballon [845] and Juvardeil [851], and especially against the Normans, who devastated the country in the north of Gaul, the valleys of the Seine and Loire, and even up to the borders of Aquitaine. Charles led various expeditions against the invaders, and tried to put a barrier in their way by having fortified bridges built over all the rivers. In 875, after the death of the Lothair's son, the emperor, Louis II., Charles went to Italy and was crowned emperor on December 25 at Pavia by Pope John VIII. But Louis the German revenged himself for Charles's success by invading and devastating Charles' dominions. Charles was recalled to Gaul, and after the death of Louis the German [Aug. 28, 876], in his turn made an attempt to seize his kingdom, but at Andernach met with a shameful defeat [Oct. 8, 876] by Louis's son, Louis the Younger. In the meantime, Pope John VIII., who was menaced by the Saracens, was continually urging him to come to Italy, and Charles again crossed the Alps. At the same time while Charles' own major vassals were in revolt, Carloman, son of Louis the German, entered northern Italy and was marching against Charles. Charles started on his way back to Gaul, and died while crossing the pass of the Mont Cenis, Oct. 5 or 6, 877. During Charles's reign some of the splendors of the Carolingian renaissance were revived, and his close collaboration with the church enhanced his prestige and authority. He was succeeded by his son Louis the Stammerer. [Encyclop‘dia Britannica, 1961 ed., Vol. 5, p. 259, CHARLES II; Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97, CHARLES II] 12 14
Charles married Ermentrude d'Orléans in 842. Ermentrude died in 869.
Children from this marriage were:
+ 76 F i. DuchessHersent de Lorraine 12 28 was born in 860 in Lorraine, France and died in 932 at age 72.
77 F ii. Judith Martel was born in Oct 844.
Judith married Ethelwulf King of Wessex, son of Egbert King of Wessex and Raedburh, on 1 Oct 856. Ethelwulf was born in 795 in Aachen, died on 13 Jan 858 at age 63, and was buried in Steyning Church, Then The Old Minster, Winchester. Bones Now In Winchester Cathedral. Another name for Ethelwulf was Æþelwulf.
Judith next married Æþelbald, son of Ethelwulf King of Wessex and Osburga of Isle of Wight, after 856.
Noted events in their marriage were:
• Annulled: on the grounds of consanguinity, 860.
Judith next married Baldwin I Count of Flanders in Jan 862.
+ 78 M iii. Louis "The Stammerer" Martel was born on 1 Nov 846 and died on 10 Apr 879 at age 32.
79 M iv. Charles "The Child" Martel .
80 M v. Carloman Martel .
81 M vi. Lothar Martel .
82 F vii. Ermentrud Martel .
83 F viii. Gisela Martel .
Sixteenth Generation 68. Pepin of Vermandois 25 (Bernard King of Italy59, Carloman "Pepin I" King of Italy47, Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans44, Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon43, Charibert Count of Laon42, Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born circa 815 and died circa 840 at age 25.
Pepin married.
+ 85 M i. Herbert I of Vermandois 29 was born circa 850 and died in 907 at age 57.
72. Princess Irmengarda de Lorraine of Italy 22 23 26 (Lothair I Emperor of the West65, King Louis I "The Pious" Emperor of the West51, Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans44, Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon43, Charibert Count of Laon42, Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born about 830 in Alsace-Lorraine. Other names for Irmengarda were Ermengarde, and Helletrude.
Irmengarda married Giselbert Count de Massgau & Count de Darnau,27 son of Comte Gainfroi de Sens and Theidlindis de Blois, in 846.23 27 Giselbert was born before 840 in Moselle, Austrasia and died after 14 Jun 887.
The child from this marriage was:
+ 86 M i. Regnier I Comte de Hainault 15 26 was born in 860 in Lorraine, France and died on 19 Jan 915-0016 in Meersen, Palatine, Belgium 8 at age 55.
76. DuchessHersent de Lorraine 12 28 (King Charles II "The Bald" Martel of West Francia66, King Louis I "The Pious" Emperor of the West51, Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans44, Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de Laon43, Charibert Count of Laon42, Bertha of Prüm41, Theuderic III King of the Franks36, Clovis II King of Neustria34, Dagobert I King of the Franks33, Chlotar II King of The Franks32, Chilperic I King of Soissons20, Clotaire I King of The Franks12, Clovis I King of The Salian Franks3, Childeric I King of The Salian Franks2, Merovech King of The Salian Franks1) was born in 860 in Lorraine, France and died in 932 at age 72. Other names for Hersent were Alberade of Mons, and Hildegard ???.
General Notes: Hersente, Princesse de France. Married Name: de Hainaut. Born: before 865, daughter of Charles II, King de France and Ermentrude d'Orleans, Hersente is presumed to have been at least 10 years of age when she married Rainier I. Married before 875: Rainier I, Count de Hainaut, son of Gilbert II, Count de Lotharingie and Ermengarde, Duchesse de Lorraine ; Hersente was Rainier I's first wife. Died: in 915. 8
Hersent married Regnier I Comte de Hainault,15 son of Giselbert Count de Massgau & Count de Darnau and Princess Irmengarda de Lorraine of Italy, before 875.15 Regnier was born in 860 in Lorraine, France and died on 19 Jan 915-0016 in Meersen, Palatine, Belgium 8 at age 55.
Children from this marriage were:
+ 87 M i. Regnier II "Longneck" Count de Hainault 28 30 31 was born in 892 in Hainault, Netherlands 30 and died in 932 26 30 at age 40.
88 F ii. Sympherienne de Hainault .22 26
78. Louis "The Stammerer" Martel (King Charles II "The Bald" Martel of West Francia66, King Louis I "The Pious" Emperor of the West51, Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans44, Countess Bertrada "Broadfoot" de La
