Rorgon I, Count of Maine

Last updated

Rorgon I or Rorico(n) I (also Rorgo or Rorich; died 16 June 839 or 840) was the first count of Maine and progenitor of the Rorgonid dynasty, which is named for him. He was count of Rennes from 819 and of Maine from 832 until his death.

Contents

Life

He was a son of lord Gauzlin I of Maine [1] and Adeltrude, both of whom are named as his parents in a charter of 839 by Rorgon I to the Abbey of Saint-Maur de Glanfeuil. [2] Between 819 and 832 Rorgon became count of Maine and at some point, possibly at the bidding of his wife Bilechilde who may have owned the property, undertook to restore the Abbey of Glanfeuil. An Abbot Ingelbert of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés allegedly assisted Rorgon and sent monks including Rorgon's brother Gausbert. [lower-alpha 1] [3] Gausbert (Gauzbert) was the name of an Abbot at St. Maur. [4]

Count Rorgon had been a retainer at the court of Charlemagne, with whose daughter Rotrude he had a sexual relationship. [5] The couple had at least one illegitimate child, Louis, Abbot of Saint-Denis, Saint-Riquier, and Saint-Wandrille, [5] who was also chancellor to his cousin Charles the Bald from 841. [4]

Rorgon became the second count of Maine in 832 when his predecessor Banzleibs was made margrave of the Saxons. He remained count of Maine until his death in 840, at which time he was succeeded by his brother Gauzbert. His own son, Rorgon II, succeeded Gauzbert in 853 and upon his death in 865 his other son Gauzfrid became count.

Marriage and issue

Rorgon married a lady named Bilechilde, [4] and had three sons and two daughters:

Rorgon and Rotrude had one illegitimate son—Louis, Abbot of Saint-Denis, Saint-Riquier, Saint-Wandrille, and Chancellor to King Charles the Bald. [6]

Notes

  1. ↑ At this point the remaining details become somewhat uncertain due to being obtained from several forged charters to this institution. For more information see: Herbert Bloch, Monte Cassino, Vol. I (Parts I and II) (1986), p. 970.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carloman I</span> King of the Franks (r. 768–771) of the Carolingian dynasty

Carloman I, German Karlmann, Karlomann, was king of the Franks from 768 until his death in 771. He was the second surviving son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon and was a younger brother of Charlemagne. His death allowed Charlemagne to take all of Francia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Childeric III</span> King of the Franks from 743 to 751; last king of the Merovingian Dynasty

Childeric III was King of the Franks from 743 until he was deposed in 751 by Pepin the Short. He was the last Frankish king from the Merovingian dynasty. Once Childeric was deposed, Pepin became king, initiating the Carolingian dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maine (province)</span> Place in France

Maine is one of the traditional provinces of France. It corresponds to the former County of Maine, whose capital was also the city of Le Mans. The area, now divided into the departments of Sarthe and Mayenne, has about 857,000 inhabitants.

The capital of Maine was Le Mans. In the thirteenth century it was annexed by France to the royal domain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hildegard (queen)</span> Frankish queen

Hildegard was a Frankish queen and the wife of Charlemagne from c. 771 until her death. Hildegard was a noblewoman of Frankish and Alemannian heritage. Through eleven years of marriage with Charlemagne, Hildegard helped share in his rule as well as having nine children with him, including the kings Charles the Younger and Pepin of Italy and the emperor Louis the Pious.

Ranulf I (820–866) was a Count of Poitiers and Duke of Aquitaine. He is the son of Gerard, Count of Auvergne. Few details are known about Ranulf I, except that he died in 866 in Aquitaine from wounds received in the Battle of Brissarthe against the Vikings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pepin I of Aquitaine</span> 9th-century Frankish king

Pepin I or Pepin I of Aquitaine was King of Aquitaine and Duke of Maine.

Herbert I or Heribertus I, Count of Vermandois, Count of Soissons, and lay abbot of Saint Quentin and Saint-Crépin. 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.

Bernard II was the count of Poitou from 840 until his death. His ancestry is uncertain. He was most likely the son of Bernard I, on the basis of onomastics. He was probably a member of the Guilhemid family. His brothers were Turpio and Emenon, counts of Angoulême and Périgord, respectively.

Gauzfrid of Maine was both Count of Maine and Margrave of the Norman March from 865 until his death. He was a son of Rorgon of Maine by his wife Bilechilde.

Louis, a Frankish churchman and a member of the Carolingian royal family, was the Abbot of Saint-Denis from 841.

Wala was a son of Bernard, son of Charles Martel, and one of the principal advisers of his cousin Charlemagne, of Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious, and of Louis's son Lothair I. He succeeded his brother Adalard as abbot of Corbie and its new daughter foundation, Corvey, in 826 or 827. His feast day is 31 August

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glanfeuil Abbey</span> Landmarked historic monastery in Maine-et-Loire, France

Glanfeuil Abbey, otherwise the Abbey of St Maurus, was a French Benedictine monastery founded in the 9th century in the village of Saint-Maur-sur-Loire, located in what is now the commune of Le Thoureil, Maine-et-Loire.

Ebroin was bishop of Poitiers from 839 to his death. He took on the administration of the county of Poitiers during a troubled period and continued to faithfully support King Charles the Bald.

Gauzbert was Count of Maine from 840 to 853. He was a member of the Rorgonide family, son of Gauzlin I of Maine, lord of Maine and Adeltrude.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint-Maur Abbey</span> Former religious institution in France, now park with historic ruins

Saint-Maur Abbey, originally called the Abbaye des Fossés, is a former abbey now subsumed in the Saint-Maur-des-Fossés suburb of Paris, France. The remains and the domain of the abbey have been transformed into a pleasure park named Parc de l'abbaye. The former abbey building has been replaced by a square at the corner of Avenue de Condé and Rue de l'Abbaye. Some ruins remain, such as the Rabelais tower, the 19th century Bourières villa and the old fortifications. The remains of the abbey have been classified as historical monuments since 13 June 1988.

Bilichild or Bilhild may refer to:

Gauzlin I of Maine was a lord of Maine in the beginning of the 9th century. He was the oldest known ancestor of the Rorgonid family. On onomastic considerations, he could be a descendant of the 8th-century Duke of Maine, Charivius.

Gauzlin II was Count of Maine from 893 to 895. He was from the Rorgonid family, the son of Gauzfrid, Count of Maine and Margrave of Neustria.

References

  1. ↑ Pierre Riché, The Carolingians; A Family who Forged Europe,Trans. Michael Idomir Allen (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1993), p. 138
  2. ↑ K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, 'Two Studies in North French Prosopography', Journal of Medieval History, Vol. 20 (1994), p. 6
  3. ↑ Herbert Bloch, Monte Cassino in the Middle Ages, Vol. I (Parts I and II) (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1986), p. 970
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Régine Le Jan, Famille et pouvoir dans le monde franc: (VIIe-Xe siècle) (Publications de la Sorbonne, Paris, 2003), p. 445
  5. 1 2 Einhard the Frank, The Life of Charlemagne, Ed. & Trans. Lewis Thorpe (The Folio Society, London, 1970), p. 60 n.*
  6. ↑ McKitterick 2008, p. 91-92.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.