Joscelin, Goslin, or Gauzlin (died 16 April 886), 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. [1]
In 848 he became a monk, and entered a monastery at Reims, later he became abbot of Saint-Denis. Like most of the prelates of his time he took a prominent part in the struggle against the Northmen, by whom he and his brother Louis were taken prisoners (858), and he was released only after paying a heavy ransom (Prudentii Trecensis episcopi Annales, ann. 858). From 855 to 867 he held intermittently, and from 867 to 881 regularly, the office of chancellor to Charles the Bald and his successors. [1]
In 883 or 884 he was elected bishop of Paris, and foreseeing the dangers to which the city was to be exposed from the attacks of the Northmen, he planned and directed the strengthening of the defences, though he also relied for security on the merits of the relics of St Germain and St Genevieve. When the attack finally came (885), the defence of the city was entrusted to him and to Odo, Count of Paris, and Hugh the Abbot. [1]
The city was attacked on 26 November and the struggle for the possession of the bridge (now the Pont-au-Change) lasted for two days; but Joscelin repaired the destruction of the wooden tower overnight, and the Vikings were obliged to give up the attempt to take the city by storm. The Siege of Paris lasted for about a year longer, while the emperor Charles the Fat was in Italy. Joscelin died soon after the preliminaries of the peace had been agreed on, worn out by his exertions, or killed by a pestilence which raged in the city. He was succeeded by Askericus. [1]
The 830s decade ran from January 1, 830, to December 31, 839.
The 880s decade ran from January 1, 880, to December 31, 889.
Year 885 (DCCCLXXXV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.
Year 886 (DCCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.
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.
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.
Hugh the Great was the duke of the Franks and count of Paris. He was the most powerful magnate in France.
Lothair II was the king of Lotharingia from 855 until his death. He was the second son of Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde of Tours. He was married to Teutberga, daughter of Boso the Elder.
Charles III, also known as Charles the Fat, was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 888. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandson of Charlemagne. He was the last Carolingian emperor of legitimate birth and the last to rule a united kingdom of the Franks.
Lothair, sometimes called Lothair II, III or IV, was the penultimate Carolingian king of West Francia, reigning from 10 September 954 until his death in 986.
Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, was a Frankish jurist and theologian, as well as the friend, advisor and propagandist of Charles the Bald. He belonged to a noble family of northern Francia.
Abbo Cernuus, Abbo Parisiensis, or Abbo of Saint-Germain was a Neustrian Benedictine monk and poet of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris. He was born about the middle of the ninth century.
The siege of Edessa took place from November 28 to December 24, 1144, resulting in the fall of the capital of the crusader County of Edessa to Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo. This event was the catalyst for the Second Crusade.
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 was the forerunner of the future Kingdom of France and existed from 843 to 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. It is considered the first separate polity in French history.
The siege of Paris of 885–886 was part of a Viking raid on the Seine, in the Kingdom of the West Franks. The siege was the most important event of the reign of Charles the Fat, and a turning point in the fortunes of the Carolingian dynasty and the history of France. It also proved for the Franks the strategic importance of Paris at a time when it also was one of the largest cities in West Francia. The siege is the subject of an eyewitness account in the Latin poem Bella Parisiacae urbis of Abbo Cernuus.
Hugh the Abbot was a member of the Welf family, a son of Conrad I of Auxerre and Adelaide. After his father's death, his mother apparently married Robert the Strong, the margrave of Neustria. On Robert's death in 866, Hugh became the regent and guardian for Robert's sons, Odo and Robert.
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.
Geilo was the Bishop of Langres from 880 until his death. His episcopate coincided mostly with the emperorship of Charles the Fat and after 885 he is a leading ecclesiastical figure at the imperial court. Geilo increased the landholdings and comital rights of the diocese of Langres immensely in his short tenure, a sign of political sagacity. Geilo has been painted as a villain, an ambitious prelate trying to extend his see's temporal authority as far as it could go under the reign of weak Carolingians.
Askericus was the Bishop of Paris from 886 until his death. He replaced Bishop Joscelin when the latter died during the Siege of Paris on 16 April 886. He and Count Odo led the defences of the city after Joscelin's death.
Jocelin of Soissons was a French theologian, a philosophical opponent of Peter Abelard. He became bishop of Soissons, and is known also as a composer, with two pieces in the Codex Calixtinus. He was teaching at the Paris cathedral school in the early 1110s.
