Charles the Bald (French:Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known asCharlesII of West Francia, was a 9th-century king ofWest Francia (843–77),King of Italy (875–77) and emperor of theCarolingian Empire (875–77).[1] After a series of civil wars during the reign of his father,Louis the Pious, Charles succeeded, by theTreaty of Verdun (843), in acquiring the western third of the empire. He was a grandson ofCharlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife,Judith.[2]
Kingdoms of Charles the Bald (orange) and other Carolingians in 876
He was born on 13 June 823 inFrankfurt,[3] when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their ownregna, or subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made byLouis the Pious to assign Charles a subkingdom, firstAlemannia and then the country between theMeuse and thePyrenees (in 832, after the rising ofPepinI of Aquitaine) were unsuccessful. The numerous reconciliations with the rebelliousLothair and Pepin, as well as their brotherLouis the German,King of Bavaria, made Charles's share inAquitaine and Italy only temporary, but his father did not give up and made Charles the heir of the entire land which was onceGaul. At adiet inAachen in 837, Louis the Pious bade the nobles do homage to Charles as his heir.[4] Pepin of Aquitaine died in 838, whereupon Charles at last received that kingdom,[4] which angered Pepin's heirs and the Aquitainian nobles.[5]
The death of the emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist the pretensions of the new Emperor LothairI, and the two allies defeated Lothair at theBattle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye on 25 June 841.[6] In the following year, the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebratedOaths of Strasbourg. The war was brought to an end by theTreaty of Verdun in August 843. The settlement gave Charles the Bald the kingdom of the West Franks, which he had been governing until then, and which practically corresponded with what is now France, as far as theMeuse, theSaône, and theRhône, with the addition of theSpanish March as far as theEbro. Louis received the eastern part of theCarolingian Empire, known then asEast Francia and later as Germany. Lothair retained the imperial title and theKingdom of Italy. He also received the central regions fromFlanders through theRhineland andBurgundy as king ofMiddle Francia.[7]
Shortly after Verdun, Charles went on to an unsuccessful campaign against Brittany, on the return from which he signed theTreaty of Coulaines with his nobility and clergy.[8] After that, the first years of his reign, up to the death of LothairI in 855, were comparatively peaceful. During these years the three brothers continued the system of "confraternal government", meeting repeatedly with one another, atKoblenz (848), atMeerssen (851), and atAttigny (854). In 858, Louis the German, invited by disaffected nobles eager to oust Charles, invaded the West Frankish kingdom. Charles was so unpopular that he was unable to summon an army, and he fled toBurgundy. He was saved only by the support of the bishops, who refused to crown Louis the German king, and by the fidelity of theWelfs, who were related to his mother, Judith. In 860, he in his turn tried to seize the kingdom of his nephew,Charles of Provence, but was repulsed.[9] On the death of his nephewLothairII in 869, Charles tried to seize Lothair's dominions by having himself consecrated as King ofLotharingia atMetz, but he was compelled to open negotiations when Louis found support among Lothair's former vassals. Lotharingia was partitioned between Charles and Louis in the resultingtreaty (870).[10]
Besides these family disputes, Charles had to struggle against repeated rebellions in Aquitaine and against theBretons. Led by their chiefsNomenoë andErispoë, who defeated the king at theBattle of Ballon (845) and theBattle of Jengland (851), the Bretons were successful in obtaining ade facto independence. Charles also fought against theVikings, who devastated the country of the north, the valleys of theSeine andLoire, and even up to the borders of Aquitaine. At the Vikings' successfulsiege and sack of Paris in 845 and several times thereafter Charles was forced to purchase their retreat at a heavy price.[9] Charles led various expeditions against the invaders and, by theEdict of Pistres of 864, made the army more mobile by providing for acavalry element, the predecessor of the Frenchchivalry so famous during the next 600 years. By the same edict, he ordered fortified bridges to be put up at all rivers to block the Viking incursions. Two of these bridges at Paris saved the city during itssiege of 885–886. Charles engaged in diplomacy with theEmirate of Cordoba, receiving camels fromEmir MuhammadI in 865.[11] From the 860s, the palace ofCompiègne became an increasingly important centre for Charles and he founded a monastery there in 876.[12] In the tenth century Compiègne was known as 'Carlopolis' because of its association with Charles.[13]
In 871–872, Charles sent two letters toPope HadrianII where he made a defence of royal sovereignty in the face of intrusive actions by the papacy into state affairs.[14]
Apparition of Charles the Bald after his death and burial in Saint Denis
In 875, after the death of the EmperorLouisII (son of his half-brother Lothair), Charles the Bald, supported byPope JohnVIII, traveled to Italy, receiving the royal crown atPavia and the imperial insignia in Rome on 25 December.[15][9] As emperor, Charles combined the mottoes that had been used by his grandfather and father into a single formula:renovatio imperii Romaniet Francorum, "renewal of the empire of the Romans and Franks". These words appeared on hisseal.[16]
Louis the German, also a candidate for the succession of LouisII, revenged himself by invading and devastating Charles's domains, and Charles had to return hastily toWest Francia. After the death of Louis the German (28 August 876), Charles in his turn attempted to seize Louis's kingdom, but was decisively beaten at theBattle of Andernach on 8 October 876.[15][9]
In the meantime, Pope JohnVIII, menaced by theSaracens, was urging Charles to come to his defence in Italy. Charles again crossed theAlps, but this expedition was received with little enthusiasm by the nobles, and even by his regent inLombardy,Boso, and they refused to join his army. At the same timeCarloman, son of Louis the German, entered northern Italy. Charles, ill and in great distress, started on his way back to Gaul, but died while crossing the pass ofMont Cenis atBrides-les-Bains, on 6 October 877.[17][18][9]
According to the Annals of St-Bertin, Charles was hastily buried at the abbey ofNantua,Burgundy, because the bearers were unable to withstand the stench of his decaying body. A few years later, his remains were transferred to theAbbey of Saint-Denis where he had long wished to be buried,[19] in aporphyry tub[20] which may be the same one known as "Dagobert's tub" (cuve de Dagobert), now in theLouvre.[21] It was recorded that there was a memorial brass there that was melted down at the Revolution.
Charles was succeeded by his son,Louis. Charles was a prince of education and letters, a friend of the church, and conscious of the support he could find in the episcopate against his unruly nobles, for he chose his councillors from among the higher clergy, as in the case ofGuenelon of Sens, who betrayed him, and ofHincmar of Reims.[9]
It has been suggested that Charles's nickname was used ironically and not descriptively; he was not in fact bald but rather was extremely hairy.[22]An alternative or additional interpretation is based on Charles's initial lack of aregnum. "Bald" would in this case be a tongue-in-cheek reference to his landlessness at an age at which his brothers already had been sub-kings for some years.[23]
Contemporary depictions of his person, such as in hisBible of 845, on his seal of 847 (as king) and on his seal of 875 (as emperor), show him with a full head of hair, as does theequestrian statuette (c. 870), which is thought to depict him.
TheGenealogy of Frankish Kings, a text from Fontanelle dating from possibly as early as 869, names him asKarolusCalvus ("Charles the Bald"),and he is given the same name in the late tenth century byRichier of Reims andAdhemar of Chabannes.[24]
^Lohrmann, Dietrich (1976). "Trois Palais Royaux de la Vallée de l'Oise d'après les travaux des érudits mauristes: Compiègne, Choisy-au-Bac et Quierzy".Francia.4:124–129.
Dutton, Paul E. (2008).Charlemagne's Mustache. Palgrave Macmillan.[ISBN missing]
LaVoy, Hailey (2015). "Hirmindrut Sculdarissa: A Ninth-Century Woman's Original Letter and its Implications".The Journal of Medieval Latin.25:29–50.doi:10.1484/J.JML.5.109439.
Lebe, Reinhard (2003).War Karl der Kahle wirklich kahl? Historische Beinamen und was dahintersteckt. Dt. Taschenbuch-Verlag.
Riche, Pierre (1983).The Carolingians: The Family who forged Europe. University of Pennsylvania Press.
West-Harling, Veronica (2018). "The Roman Past in the Consciousness of the Roman Elites in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries". In Walter Pohl; Clemens Gantner; Cinzia Grifoni; Marianne Pollheimer-Mohaupt (eds.).Transformations of Romanness: Early Medieval Regions and Identities. De Gruyter. pp. 173–194.doi:10.1515/9783110598384-013.hdl:10278/3702393.ISBN978-3110598384.S2CID242056088.
Legend: → ≡ "father of", · ≡ "brother of" Begga, the daughter of Pepin I, married Ansegisel, the son of Arnulf of Metz, and was the mother of Pepin II.
