Hugh entered the monastery and rose to become abbot of Saint-Germain d'Auxerre. Despite his vows, he was no peaceful, contemplative monk but the epitome of the warrior-monk of his age. King Charles the Bald sent him on a military expedition to the Nivernais. One can see in this the clerical tendency to support the reigning dynasty against the great vassals. Hugh welcomed Charles when the king had to flee during an 858 invasion of Louis the German, when his vassals refused him aid and rebelled under Robert the Strong. When Robert regained favour, Hugh was exiled to Lotharingia, where he became archbishop of Cologne (864). However, he was soon called back to France.
In 866, upon Robert's death, Hugh received all the former's abbacies, including Noirmoutiers and Saint-Martin de Tours, counties, including Tours, and the margraviate between the Seine and the Loire (Neustria). The only lands the sons of Robert inherited were in Beauce and Touraine. Despite being Robert's opponent during his life, after his death Hugh became the guardian of Robert's children. Hugh was endued with great political sense and fought the Vikings vigorously. He was the archchaplain of the royal court and one of the chief ministers of the joint-kings Louis III and Carloman. Hugh tried to maintain the alliance of the related Carolingian monarchs against the Vikings. He united all the Carolingian kingdoms against the usurper Boso of Provence. He supported Charles the Fat on his succession to West Francia in 884, but he died before he could lend aid to the defence of Paris during the siege of 885–86.
Sources
MacLean, Simon. Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the end of the Carolingian Empire. Cambridge University Press: 2003.
Charles the Bald, also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), king of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a series of civil wars during the reign of his father, Louis the Pious, Charles succeeded, by the Treaty of Verdun (843), in acquiring the western third of the empire. He was a grandson of Charlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife, Judith.
Hugh Capet was the King of the Franks from 987 to 996. He is the founder and first king from the House of Capet. The son of the powerful duke Hugh the Great and his wife Hedwige of Saxony, he was elected as the successor of the last Carolingian king, Louis V. Hugh was descended from Charlemagne's sons Louis the Pious and Pepin of Italy through his mother and paternal grandmother, respectively, and was also a nephew of Otto the Great.
Charles III, called the Simple or the Straightforward, was King of West Francia from 898 until 922 and the king of Lotharingia from 911 until 919–923. He was a member of the Carolingian dynasty.
Neustria was the western part of the Kingdom of the Franks.
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The dynasty consolidated its power in the 8th century, eventually making the offices of mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum hereditary, and becoming the de facto rulers of the Franks as the real powers behind the Merovingian throne. In 751 the Merovingian dynasty which had ruled the Germanic Franks was overthrown with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy, and Pepin the Short, son of Martel, was crowned King of the Franks. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of the Romans in the West in over three centuries. His death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and decline that would eventually lead to the evolution of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
Odo was the elected King of West Francia from 888 to 898. He was the first king from the Robertian dynasty. Before assuming the kingship, Odo was the count of Paris. His reign marked the definitive separation of West Francia from the Carolingian Empire, which would never reunite.
Robert I, was the elected King of West Francia from 922 to 923. Before his election to the throne he was Count of Poitiers, Count of Paris and Marquis of Neustria and Orléans. He succeeded the overthrown Carolingian king Charles the Simple, who in 898 had succeeded Robert's brother, king Odo.
Louis III was King of West Francia from 879 until his death in 882. He succeeded his father and ruled over West Francia in tandem with his brother Carloman II. Louis controlled the northern part of West Francia (Neustria), including the capital of Paris, while Carloman controlled the southern portion (Aquitania). Louis ruled from March 880 to 5 August 882, when he died and left the rest of West Francia to his brother. His short reign was profoundly influenced by his military success, including his defeating Northern Vikings in August 881.
Robert the Strong was the father of two kings of West Francia: Odo and Robert I of France. His family is named after him and called the Robertians. In 853, he was named missus dominicus by Charles the Bald, King of West Francia. Robert the Strong was the great-grandfather of Hugh Capet and thus the ancestor of all the Capetians.
Salomon was Count of Rennes and Nantes from 852 and Duke of Brittany from 857 until his death by assassination. He used the title King of Brittany intermittently after 868. In 867, he was granted the counties of Avranches and Coutances.
The County of Auxerre is a former state of current central France, with capital in Auxerre.
Joscelin, Goslin, or Gauzlin, Bishop of Paris and defender of the city against the Northmen (885), was, according to some authorities, the son of Rorgon I, count of Maine, according to others the natural son of the emperor Louis I.
Herbert I or Heribertus I, Count of Vermandois, Count of Meaux, Count of Soissons, and lay abbot of Saint Quentin. He was a Carolingian aristocrat who played a significant role in Francia.
Bernard II was the count of Barcelona, Girona and margrave of Gothia and Septimania from 865 to 878.
In medieval history, West Francia or the Kingdom of the West Franks refers to the western part of the Frankish Empire established by Charlemagne. It represents the earliest stage of the Kingdom of France, lasting from about 840 until 987. West Francia emerged from the partition of the Carolingian Empire in 843 under the Treaty of Verdun following the death of Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious.
Henry was the leading military commander of the last years of the Carolingian Empire. He was commander-in-chief under Kings Louis the Younger and Charles the Fat. His early career was mostly restricted to East Francia, his homeland, but after Charles inherited West Francia in 884 he was increasingly active there. During his time, raids by the Vikings peaked in Francia. The sources describe at least eight separate campaigns waged by Henry against the Vikings, most of them successful.
The Marches of Neustria were two marches created in 861 by the Carolingian king of West Francia Charles the Bald that were ruled by officials appointed by the Crown, known as wardens, prefects or margraves. Originally, one March was created as a buffer against the Bretons and the other against the Norsemen, often called the Breton March and Norman March respectively.
The Robertians are the proposed Frankish family which was ancestral to the Capetian dynasty, and thus to the royal families of France and of many other countries. The Capetians appear first in the records as powerful nobles serving under the Carolingian dynasty in West Francia, which later became France. As their power increased, they came into conflict with the older royal family and attained the crown several times before the eventual start of the continuous rule of the descendants of Hugh Capet.
Conrad I the Elder was the count of several counties, most notably the Aargau and Auxerre, around Lake Constance, as well as Paris from 859 to 862/864. He was also the lay abbot of Saint-Germaine in Auxerre. Conrad's father was Welf. He was one of the early Welfs, a member of the Bavarian branch, and his sister Judith was the second wife of Louis the Pious.
Louis IV, called d'Outremer or Transmarinus, reigned as King of West Francia from 936 to 954. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, he was the only son of king Charles the Simple and his second wife Eadgifu of Wessex, daughter of King Edward the Elder of Wessex. His reign is mostly known thanks to the Annals of Flodoard and the later Historiae of Richerus.
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