Charles III (17 September 879 – 7 October 929), calledthe Simple orthe Straightforward (from theLatinCarolus Simplex),[a] was the king ofWest Francia from 898 until 922 and theking of Lotharingia from 911 until 919–923. He was a member of theCarolingian dynasty.
Charles was the third andposthumous son of KingLouis the Stammerer by his second wifeAdelaide of Paris.[3] As a child, Charles was prevented from succeeding to the throne at the time of the death in 884 of his half-brother, kingCarloman II.[4] Instead, Frankish nobles of the realm asked his cousin, EmperorCharles the Fat, to assume the crown.[5] He was also prevented from succeeding the unpopular Charles the Fat, who was deposed in November 887 and died in January 888, although it is unknown if his overthrow was accepted or even made known inWest Francia before his death. The nobility then electedOdo, the hero of theSiege of Paris (885–886) as the new king, although there was a faction that supported claims ofGuy III of Spoleto. The young Charles was put under the protection ofRanulf II, theDuke of Aquitaine, who may have tried to claim the throne for him and in the end used the royal title himself until making peace with Odo.[citation needed]
In 893, at the age of 14, Charles was crowned by a faction opposed to the rule of Odo at theReims Cathedral, becoming monarch ofWest Francia only after the death of Odo in 898.[6]
In 911, a group ofVikings led byRollo besiegedParis andChartres. After a victory near Chartres on 26 August, Charles decided to negotiate with Rollo, resulting in theTreaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte which created theDuchy of Normandy. In return for the Vikings' loyalty, they were granted all the land between the riverEpte and the sea, as well asDuchy of Brittany, which at the time was an independent country which West Francia had unsuccessfully tried to conquer. Rollo also agreed to be baptised and to marry Charles's daughterGisela.[7]
Also in 911,Louis the Child, the last Carolingian king ofEast Francia died, and nobles ofLotharingia, who had been loyal to him, under the leadership ofReginar, Duke of Lorraine declared Charles their new king, breaking from East Francia which had elected non-CarolingianConrad I as the new king.[6] Charles had tried to win Lotharingian support for years, for instance, by marrying in April 907 a Lotharingian woman namedFrederuna,[8] and in 909 his nieceCunigunda marriedWigeric of Lotharingia. Charles defended Lotharingia against two attacks by Conrad I.[9] In 925, Lotharingia was once again seized by East Francia.[10]
Queen Frederuna died on 10 February 917 leaving six daughters and no sons[11]—and thus uncertainty as to the succession. On 7 October 919 Charles marriedEadgifu, the daughter ofEdward the Elder,King of England, who bore him a son, the future KingLouis IV of France.[12]
By this time, Charles's excessive favouritism towards a certainHagano, a petty nobleman (mediocris) and a relative of Charles's first wife Frederuna, had turned the aristocracy against him. He endowed Hagano with monasteries that were already thebenefices of other barons, alienating them. In Lotharingia, he earned the enmity of the new dukeGilbert, who in 919 declared loyalty to the new king of East FranciaHenry the Fowler.[6] Opposition to Charles in Lotharingia was not universal, however; he retained the support ofWigeric.[citation needed]
The nobles, completely exasperated with Charles's policies and especially his favouritism of Count Hagano, seized Charles in 920.[13] After negotiations byArchbishop Herveus of Reims the king was released.[13]
In 922, the Frankish nobles revolted again led byRobert of Neustria.[13] Robert, who was Odo's brother, was elected king by the rebels and crowned, while Charles had to flee to Lotharingia. On 2 July 922, Charles lost his most faithful supporter, Herveus of Reims, who had succeeded Fulk in 900. Charles returned with a Norman army in 923 but was defeated on 15 June at theBattle of Soissons by Robert, who died in the battle.[6] Charles was captured and imprisoned in a castle atPéronne under the guard ofHerbert II of Vermandois.[14] Robert's son-in-lawRudolph of Burgundy was then elected to succeed him as king.[15]
Charles died in prison on 7 October 929 and was buried at the nearby abbey ofSaint-Fursy. His son by Eadgifu would eventually be crowned in 936 asLouis IV of France.[16] In the initial aftermath of Charles's defeat, Queen Eadgifu and their children fled to England.[16]
On 6 December 884, KingCarloman II ofWest Francia died without a male heir and his half-brother, the future Charles the Simple, was just a five-year-old boy. Because of this, their cousinCharles the Fat, alreadyHoly Roman Emperor and King ofEast Francia, was invited by the nobles of the Kingdom to assume the throne. Since the beginning, the new monarch was forced to deal with constant Viking raids, with little success. After three years of incompetent government, Charles the Fat was finally deposed by theDiet of Tribur in 887.[17][full citation needed]
Faced with the growing threat of northern invaders, the local nobles again rejected the succession of Charles the Simple because he was too young, andOdo, Count of Paris (member of theRobertian dynasty) was chosen as the new King of West Francia, after successfully defendingParis against the Vikings, led byRollo. In 893, aided byArchbishop Fulk of Reims, Charles the Simple attempted to reclaim the throne, but in vain. By 897, the young prince ruled only the city ofLaon before Odo on his deathbed designated him as his successor.[citation needed]
Following the death of Odo in January 898, Charles the Simple finally assumed the title of king of West Francia. Soon the new monarch showed his ambition to conquerLotharingia, the main objective of all the monarchs of West Francia sinceCharles the Bald. Lotharingia was the cradle of the Carolingian dynasty. Charlemagne's ancestors, thePippinids were from Lotharingia (Herstal,Jupille...). After theTreaty of Verdun in 843, the Lotharingia was part ofMiddle Francia for a short time and both West and East Francia tried to gain control over it.Arnulf of Carinthia, King of East Francia prevented this by entrusting the land to his sonZwentibold in 895. Zwentibold was hated by his subjects, so Charles the Simple decided to invade in 898 after being called byCount Reginar of Hainaut. After seizingAachen and capturingCharlemagne's Palace atNijmegen, he returned to France at the request of the German bishops. A few years later, in September 911, the Lotharingian aristocracy again called on Charles the Simple after the death ofLouis the Child, the last Carolingian ruler in East Francia.[citation needed]
Charles the Simple was crowned King of Lotharingia in early November 911. However, the constant absences of the new monarch (who preferred to stay in Aachen or Thionville), quickly irritated the Lotharingian nobility (who feared for their own independence) and nobles of France, who saw this inclination as an affront.[18][full citation needed] The situation was even more complicated because, according to Flodoard, Charles the Simple refused to march against the Hungarians who threatened Lotharingia (only Archbishop Hervé de Reims was present there) and finally caused an open rebellion when he attempted to dispossess his own aunt, Abbess Rothilde (also mother-in-law ofHugh the Great), fromChelles Abbey in order to give it to his favourite,Hagano (a relative of his first wife Frederuna).[19][full citation needed]
From 920 to 922, Charles the Simple was in trouble. Although he signed theTreaty of Bonn with kingHenry the Fowler ofEast Francia on 7 November 921, he had to fight on two fronts: one againstDuke Giselbert of Lotharingia and the other against Hugh the Great, irritated by the treatment of his mother-in-law. Defeated, in June 922 Charles the Simple took refuge in Lotharingia. The nobles of West Francia declared him deposed from the throne, choosing as the new KingRobert, Count of Paris, brother of the late KingOdo and father of Hugh the Great.[20][full citation needed]
Charles the Simple returned to France to regain the throne. His army, supported by a Lotharingian army and a group of soldiers, faced King Robert's army atSoissons in June 923. According toRicherus, Robert was killed in battle by Count Fulbert[21] or according to other historians, by Charles the Simple. Despite the death of Robert, his army won the battle and Charles the Simple had to escape from the battlefield. The French nobles electedRudolph of France (Robert's son-in-law) as their new King, with his coronation taking place on 13 July 923 atSt Médard, Soissons.[citation needed]
During the summer, Charles the Simple was captured byHerbert II, Count of Vermandois, (another son-in-law of King Robert) atChâteau-Thierry; meanwhile, King Henry I of Germany took advantage of the situation to seize and add Lotharingia to his domains, after giving his daughterGerberga of Saxony in marriage to Duke Giselbert.[22][full citation needed]
After some time at Château-Thierry, the humiliated Charles the Simple was transferred in 924 toPéronne, where he died on 7 October 929 and was immediately buried in the local Monastery of Saint-Fursy. The legitimate Carolingian heir was nowLouis, but King Rudolph retained the throne and ruled until his death from illness on 15 January 936 atAuxerre, being buried in the Abbey of Sainte-Colombe ofSens.[23] The nobility then discussed who could be the next king, because Rudolph left no sons. Finally, the nobles unanimously summoned back Louis to France, thanks to the decisive support of Hugh the Great, to become their new king.[citation needed]
^His nickname "Simplex" or "the Simple" can be misleading. The Latin "simplex" was given to mean "straightforward", as in loyal or without guile. The nickname "the Simple" has stuck with him even though its meaning has been corrupted. He was not, however, generally complimented by the chroniclers. He was called Charles the Stupid by a later chronicler for an incident in 919 where he abandoned his men.[1] Besides this, he was calledstultus (fatuous),hebes (stupid),insipiens (foolish),parvus (small) andminor (inferior).[2]
^Jim Bradbury,The Capetians; Kings of France 987–1328 (New York; London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), p. 33
^John E. Morby, "The Sobriquets of Medieval European Princes",Canadian Journal of History,13:1 (1978), p. 6.
^abcdefghijklmSchwennicke, Detlev; Isenburg, Wilhelm Karl von; Freytag von Loringhoven, Frank (1984).Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der europäischen Staaten: neue Folge [European family tables: Family tables on the history of European states: new series] (in German). Vol. Bd. 2, Die ausserdeutschen Staaten: die regierenden Häuser der übrigen Staaten europas [Vol. 2, The non-German states: the ruling houses of the other European states]. Marburg: Verlag von J. A. Stargardt. Tafel 1.OCLC750595132.
^The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 9919–966, ed. & trans. Steven Fanning; Bernard S. Bachrach (Toronto:University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. xv
^Pierre Riché,The Carolingians; A Family who Forged Europe, trans. Michael Idomir Allen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), p. 216
^abcdMichel Parisse, "Lotharingia",The New Cambridge Medieval History, III: c. 900–c. 1024, ed.Timothy Reuter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 313–15.
^Ordericus Vitalis [1075 – c. 1142 CE], trans. Thomas Forester,The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, Volume 1 (London: H.G. Bohn, 1853), 379–81. More-recent discussion of critical sourcing in Leah Shopkow, "Dudo of St.-Quentin and His Patrons", in Thomas E. Burman et al.,Religion, Text, and Society in Medieval Spain and Northern Europe: Essays in Honor of J.N. Hillgarth (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2002), 307–11.ISBN9780888448163
^Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. III – Germany and the Western Empire, eds. H. M. Gwatking; J. P. Whitney, et al. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922), p. 74
^abcPierre Riché,The Carolingians; A Family who Forged Europe, trans. Michael Idomir Allen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), p. 250
^Jean Dunbabin, "West Francia: The Kingdom",The New Cambridge Medieval History, III: c. 900–c. 1024, ed.Timothy Reuter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 378–79.
^The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 9919–966, ed. & trans. Steven Fanning; Bernard S. Bachrach (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. xvi
^abThe Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 9919–966, ed. & trans. Steven Fanning; Bernard S. Bachrach (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. xvii
^Toussaint-Duplessis:Annales de Paris. Jusqu'au règne de Hugues Capet, 1753, p. 201.
^Orderic Vitalis,The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. Marjorie Chibnall, Volume II, Books III And IV (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1993), p. 9
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.
