Death of Carloman I, King of the Franks:- (Charlemagne’s Younger Brother).

Death of Carloman I, King of the Franks:-
(Charlemagne’s Younger Brother).

Today is the anniversary of the death of Carloman I, King of the Franks, on 4th December 771, at the very early age of twenty. His death, in Samoussy (Picardy) is recorded in the official and revised Royal Frankish Annals, the Annals of Moselle and the Earlier Metz Annals.

Carloman was born in June 751, the second surviving son of Pippin the Short, King of the Franks and Bertrada of Laon. He had an elder brother Charles, the future Charlemagne and a younger sister, Gisela, the future Abbess of Chelles.

Carloman’s father, Pippin, was a son of Charles Martel and Mayor of the Palace but had become King of the Franks in 751 following the deposition of the last Merovingian king Childeric III, in March of that year.

As is usually the case in the early medieval period almost nothing is known of the early life or upbringing of even the sons of kings, and Carloman is no exception. He is first mentioned in the Frankish annals when, on 6th January 754, Pope Stephen II anointed Pippin king for the second time; Charles, then aged about seven, and Carloman, then aged about two and a half were also anointed “with holy chrism by the hands of the most blessed lord Pope Stephen” in the Basilica of St. Denis, Paris. The next mention of Carloman comes in the year 757, when he was present at an assembly of the Franks in Compiègne, when Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria, swore an oath of loyalty to Pippin and his two sons. In 768 Carloman was present when King Pippin received the submission of the Aquitanian leaders.

Later that year (768) Pippin became ill and at an assembly of the Frankish “nobility and bishops” he divided his kingdom between his two sons, making “Charles, the elder, king over the Austrasians (and possibly Neustria), while the younger, Carloman, was given the kingdom of Burgundy, Provence, Septimania, Alsace and Alemannia. Aquitaine ……. he divided between them”. Pippin died on 24th September 768, aged approximately fifty-four. Some days later “they received consecration by the Church, and were raised to the thrones by their great men, Charles at Noyon and Carloman at Soissons”. Carloman was then seventeen and Charles twenty-one (assuming a birth year of 747).

We have no way of knowing how each brother felt about his particular inheritance but it is possible that both were unhappy and dissatisfied with their father’s arrangements. Pippin had ruled jointly with his brother, another Carloman, as Mayors of the Palace following the death of their father, Charles Martel in 741. In August 747, Carloman had resigned as Mayor of the Palace, was tonsured by Pope Zachery in Rome and became a monk in the monastery of Monte Cassino, where he remained until his death in 754, leaving Pippin as sole ruler. Perhaps both Carloman and Charles each wished that the other would disappear.

The relationship between the brothers was tense from the start of their reigns and they may always have been rivals. It is possible that Charlemagne had a much stronger personality and over-shadowed Carloman and also at 6’2” or so, he may have been more physically imposing than his younger brother. Their relationship eventually broke down completely, the breaking point being a campaign in Aquitaine in 769. Aquitaine, which they had jointly inherited, although conquered by Pippin, remained very unsettled and was in a renewed state of rebellion which Charles was intent on suppressing. Charles and Carloman met at Duasdives (modern Monconteur-de- Poitou) where, according to the RFA (Royal Frankish Annals) “Carloman left abruptly to return to Francia” – in other words, he withdrew from Aquitaine. What happened, or what was the cause of what must have been a serious disagreement is unknown, presumably differences in relation to governing Aquitaine. In the event, Charles was victorious, without any assistance from his brother.

The historian, P D King, has argued that Carloman may have been plotting against Charles, even before their accession; another historian, Rosamond McKitterick, says that Carloman may have wished to undermine his brother’s position “perhaps because he feared for his own”. But why should Carloman fear for his own position unless he feared his brother? The possibility that Carloman may have had at least some cause to fear for his position is hinted at in the Letter of Cathwulf where the death of his younger brother is described as being one of several “blessings” for Charlemagne [i].

In 770 the Annals of Petau tell of the birth of a son, Pippin, to Carloman and also that the Lady Bertrada – his mother – “went to Italy”. Before going to Italy Bertrada met with Carloman in Seltz “in the cause of peace”. It appears that in 770, an alliance was devised to encircle Carloman, the principal architect of which seems to have been his mother, Bertrada. Those ranged against Carloman were his brother, Charles, his first cousin Tassilo, Duke of Bavaria and Desiderius, King of the Lombards. In pursuit of this initiative, Bertrada arranged a marriage between Charles and a daughter of Desiderius – another one of whose daughters was married to Tassilo. This initiative was received with horror by the papacy, then in conflict with the Lombard king and the threat of this alliance may have been what tempted Carloman to consider intervention in Italian politics, which were extremely complex. The accession of Pope Stephen III in 768 had been marked by attempts by rival factions to install antipopes and this dispute was still ongoing at the time of Bertrada’s journey to Italy in 770. According to the Book of the Popes it was feared that “Carloman, king of the Franks, is ready with his armies to come to Rome and take the pontiff prisoner” – (this is an extremely complicated series of events which can only be touched upon on this post). But all the plans for the alliance unravelled the following year, 771, when Charles repudiated his Lombard bride, sending her back to Italy and marrying Hildegard of Vinzgau.

However, on 4th December 771, aged 20, Carloman suddenly and unexpectedly died at the villa of Samoussy (Picardy). Carloman’s death may have been caused by a severe nosebleed, although the actual cause is unknown. As a nosebleed is more likely to be a symptom of something else than an actual cause of death in itself, it is possible that Carloman could have had some underlying health issue, perhaps even an old injury to the head. Although this event was convenient for Charles, it was not suggested by any source that Carloman’s death was anything other than natural – apart from the comment in Cathwulf’s letter, mentioned above, where the death is described as being among several “blessings” for Charles. In any event the secular and religious leaders of Carloman’s kingdoms met with Charles and decided to accept his rule. With the death of Carloman the entire Frankish realm was now in Charles’ hands.

Carloman had a wife named Gerberga, about whom very little is known, and was also the father of two infant sons. According to Pope’s Stephen III’s letter of summer 770 Gerberga was “a beautiful Frankish woman” whose marriage to Carloman had been arranged by King Pippin. It is likely that Gerberga assumed that when Carloman died their son Pippin then aged two would inherit his kingdom, which would have to be ruled by a regent during his minority. There had been several regents for minor kings during the Merovingian era; however, such reigns could only succeed when conditions were more stable than those pertaining at the time of Carloman’s death. It seems clear that there was no or almost no support for a two-year-old king when his uncle was available. In 8th-century Francia inheritances were not clear cut and the claims of a son did not trump claims of a brother or uncle.

Following Carloman’s death, Gerberga and their two young sons and “a few Franks” as the Royal Frankish Annals puts it, – including some of Carloman’s principal advisers – fled Francia and were given refuge by Desiderius, King of the Lombards, at Pavia. So, at King Desiderius’s court were not only his own repudiated daughter but Carloman’s wife and her two sons. When Gerberga and her children arrived at his court Desiderius started a campaign to have the boys anointed, as he declared that they were the lawful heirs of Carloman; he even set out for Rome with his own son, taking Carloman and Gerberga’s sons with them, in an attempt to force the Pope to anoint them. In the event he did not reach Rome, but turned back when faced with a threat of excommunication.

It is at least possible, likely even, that one of the reasons for Charlemagne’s decision to invade Italy in 773 was prompted by the threat posed to his position by King Desiderius’s support for the claims of his nephews. After a long campaign and a lengthy siege, the Lombard Kingdom fell in June 774; King Desiderius, his wife and daughter, along with “all the treasure of his palace” surrendered to Charlemagne – his son escaped to Constantinople. But the most important captives to surrender to Charlemagne must have been Carloman’s wife, Gerberga, and his two young nephews. It is known that Desiderius, his wife and daughter (presumably Charlemagne’s repudiated bride) were incarcerated in various Carolingian religious houses, but there is only silence on the fate of Gerberga and her young sons, then about four and three years old. It is assumed that Charlemagne also had them tonsured but their fate is unknown.

In many respects it could be argued that the most important thing about Carloman was the chain of events caused by his premature death. What sort of king he would have become, had be lived longer will forever be unknown. What is the case is that most of the available sources are unanimously hostile to Carloman; however, these were almost all written many years after his death, in the reign of Charlemagne. Even his own mother, Queen Bertrada, seemed to favour his elder brother.

Following his death Carloman was buried in Reims but re-interred in the Basilica of St. Denis in Paris in the 13th-century.

HG1

[i]: Cathwulf was a monk of St. Denis and supporter of Charlemagne, once thought to have been Irish, he is now believed to have been Anglo-Saxon. The letter is discussed in detail in Story, below.

Background:
1. Charlemagne: Translated Sources, P.D. King, Univ of Lancaster Press, 1987.
2. Royal Frankish Annals & Revised, translated by B. Scholz as “Carolingian Chronicles” Univ of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1972.
3. Life of Charlemagne by Einhard: translated by David Ganz, Penguin Classics London, 2008.
4. Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar with Continuations, translated by J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd. Edinburgh, 1960.
5. Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificialis), translated by Raymond Davis, Univ of Liverpool Press, 1992.

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