A Snelson DataBase and Index
Includes the Snelson Coat of Arms & Armory
Person Page 803
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Isabel Snelston1
F, #20056, Deceased
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Parents
| Father | Thomas Snelston (b. about 1420) |
| Mother | Isabell Bostock (b. about 1425) |
Main Events
| User Reference Number | Isabel Snelston; 8047 |
Citations
- [S450] Visitation of Cheshire 1613
Rotrude Unknown1,2
F, #20058, Deceased
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Parents
| Father | Carloman Unknown (b. about 710, d. 17 August 754) |
Family: Gerard I Unknown
| Son | Beggo Unknown+ (d. 28 October 816) |
Main Events
| Also Known As | Rotrude Unknown was also known as Rotrude Unknown. |
| Marriage | Rotrude Unknown and Gerard I Unknown were married.2,1 |
| Death | She died Y Y, Y.1 |
| User Reference Number | She; 18709 |
| Her husband Gerard I Unknown died. | |
| Her father Carloman Unknown died on 17 August 754. |
Citations
Jane Sneston
F, #20060, Deceased
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Parents
| Father | William Snelson (b. about 1486) |
| Mother | Margery Saunders (b. 1486) |
Main Events
| User Reference Number | Jane Sneston; 4961 |
Charlemagne Unknown1,2
M, #20067, Deceased, b. 742, d. 28 January 814
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Parents
| Father | Pippin the Younger Unknown (b. 715, d. 24 September 768) |
| Mother | Berthe (Bertrade) Unknown (b. 720, d. 12 July 783) |
Family 1: Himiltrude Unknown
Family 2: Gerperga (Desiderata) Unknown
Family 3: Hildegarde Unknown (b. 758, d. 30 April 783)
| Son | Pippin (Carloman) Unknown+ (b. April 773, d. 8 July 810) |
| Son | Louis I the Pious Unknown+ (b. August 778, d. 20 June 840) |
Family 4: Gersuinda Unknown
Family 5: Madelgard Unknown
Family 6: Fastrada Unknown (d. 794)
Family 7: Luitgard Unknown (d. 800)
Family 8: Amaltrud Unknown
Family 9: Regina Unknown
Family 10: Ethelind Unknown
Main Events
| Residence | Charlemagne Unknown resided See notes.1 |
| User Reference Number | He; 18584 |
| Residence | He resided (Research):Charlemagne's birthday was believed to be April 2, 742; however several factors led to reconsideration of this traditional date. First, the year 742 was calculated from his age given at death, rather than attestation within primary sources. Another date is given in the Annales Petarienses, April 1, 747. In that year, April 1 is Easter. The birth of an Emperor on Easter is a coincidence likely to provoke comment, but there is no such comment documented in 747, leading some to suspect that the Easter birthday was a pious fiction concocted as a way of honoring the Emperor. Other commentators weighing the primary records have suggested that the birth was one year later, 748. At present, it is impossible to be certain of the date of the birth of Charlemagne. The best guesses include April 1, 747, after April 15, 747, or April 1, 748, in Herstal (where his father was born), a city close to Liège, in Belgium, the region from which both the Meroving and Caroling families originate. He went to live in his father's villa in Jupille when he was around 7, which caused Jupille to be listed as possible place of birth in almost every history book. Other cities have been suggested, including, Prüm, Düren, or Aachen.1 |
| Note | Event Memos from GEDCOM Import... Residence Charlemagne (742 or 747 - 28 January 814) (also Charles the Great; from Latin, Carolus Magnus) was the King of the Franks (768 - 814) who conquered Italy and took the Iron Crown of Lombardy in 774 and, on a visit to Rome in 800, was crowned Imperator Romanorum - Emperor of the Romans - by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, presaging the revival of the Roman imperial tradition in the West in the form of the Holy Roman Empire. By his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define Western Europe and the Middle Ages. His rule is also associated with the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of the arts and education in the West. The son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, he succeeded his father and co-ruled with his brother Carloman until the latter's death in 771. Charlemagne continued the policy of his father towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in Italy, and waging war on the Saracens who menaced his realm from Spain. It was during one of these campaigns that he experienced the worst defeat of his life at Roncesvalles (778). He also campaigned against the pagans to his east, especially the Saxons, and by subjecting them and converting them, laid the foundations of Germany. He ended as the first ruler of a united Western Europe since the fall of Rome. The Franks, originally a pagan, barbarian, Germanic people who migrated over the River Rhine in the late fifth century into a crumbling Roman Empire, were, by the early eighth century, the rulers of Gaul and a good portion of central Europe east of the Rhine and followers of the Catholic faith. However, their ancient dynasty of kings, the Merovingians, had gradually declined into a state of powerlessness, for which they have been dubbed rois fainéants, do-nothing kings. Practically all government powers of any consequence were exercised by their chief officer, the mayor of the palace or major domus. In 687 Pippin the Middle, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the strife between various kings and their mayors with his victory at Tertry and practically became the sole governor of the entire Frankish kingdom. Pippin himself was the grandson of two most important figures of the Austrasian Kingdom, Saint Arnulf of Metz and Pippin of Landen. Pippin the Middle was eventually succeeded by his illegitimate son Charles, later also called Martel (the Hammer). After 737, Charles governed the Franks without a king on the throne but desisted from calling himself King. Charles was succeeded by his sons Carloman and Pippin, the father of Charlemagne. To curb separatism in the periphery of the realm, the brothers placed Childeric III on the throne, who was to be the last Merovingian king. After Carloman resigned his office, Pippin had Childeric III deposed with the Pope's approval. In 751, Pippin was elected and anointed King of the Franks and in 754, Pope Stephen II again anointed him and his young sons. Thus was the Merovingian dynasty replaced by the Carolingian dynasty, named after Pippin's father Charles Martel and its most famous member Charlemagne. Pippin's sons, Charlemagne and Carloman, immediately became joint heirs to the great realm which already covered most of western and central Europe. Under the new dynasty, the Frankish kingdom spread to encompass an area including most of Western Europe. The division of that kingdom formed France and Germany; and the religious, political, and artistic evolutions originating from a centrally-positioned Francia made a defining imprint on the whole of Western Europe. The foundations of Europe—as more than a geographic entity—were laid in the Dark Ages, largely out of the Frankish Empire. Charlemagne's personal appearance is not known from any contemporary portrait, but it is known rather famously from a good description by Einhard, author of the biographical Vita Caroli Magni. He is well known to have been tall, stately, and fair-haired, with disproportionately thick neck. His skeleton was measured during the 18th century and his height was determined to be 193 cm (6 ft 4 in ). Charlemagne wore the traditional, inconspicuous, and distinctly non-aristocratic costume of the Frankish people. In general he despised ostentatious apparel and usually dressed as the common people. He spoke the Germanic language of the Franks of his day, which should be called Old Frankish. Apart from his native language he also spoke some Latin and understood a bit of Greek. Much of what is known of Charlemagne's life comes from his biographer, Einhard, who wrote a Vita Caroli Magni (or Vita Karoli Magni), the Life of Charlemagne. Charlemagne was the eldest child of Pippin the Short (714 – 24 September 768, reigned from 751) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (720 – 12 July 783), daughter of Caribert of Laon and Bertrada of Cologne. On the death of Pippin, the kingdom of the Franks was divided—following tradition—between Charlemagne and Carloman. Charles took the outer parts of the kingdom, bordering on the sea, namely Neustria, western Aquitaine, and the northern parts of Austrasia, while Carloman retained the inner parts: southern Austrasia, Septimania, eastern Aquitaine, Burgundy, Provence, and Swabia, lands bordering on Italy. The first event of his reign was the rising of the Aquitainians and Gascons, in 769, in that territory split between the two kings. Pippin had killed in war the last duke of Aquitaine, Waifer. Now, one Hunold led the Aquitainians as far north as Angoulême. Charlemagne met Carloman, but Carloman refused to participate and returned to Burgundy. Charlemagne went on the warpath, leading an army to Bordeaux, where he set up a camp at Fronsac. Hunold was forced to flee to the court of Duke Lupus II of Gascony. Lupus, fearing Charlemagne, turned Hunold over in exchange for peace. He was put in a monastery. Aquitaine was finally fully subdued by the Franks. The brothers maintained lukewarm relations with the assistance of their mother Bertrada, but Charlemagne signed a treaty with Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria and married Gerperga, daughter of King Desiderius of the Lombards, in order to surround Carloman with his own allies. However, Charlemagne soon repudiated his wife and quickly married another, a Swabian named Hildegard. The repudiated Gerperga returned to her father's court at Pavia. The Lombard's wrath was now aroused and he would gladly have allied with Carloman to defeat Charles. But before war could break out, Carloman died on 5 December 771. Carloman's wife Gerberga (often confused by contemporary historians with Charlemagne's former wife) fled to Desiderius' court with her sons for protection. Charlemagne was a devout Catholic who maintained a close relationship with the papacy throughout his life. In 772, when Pope Hadrian I was threatened by invaders, the king rushed to Rome to provide assistance. At the succession of Pope Hadrian I in 772, he demanded the return of certain cities in the former exarchate of Ravenna as in accordance with a promise of Desiderius' succession. Desiderius instead took over certain papal cities and invaded the Pentapolis, heading for Rome. Hadrian sent embassies to Charlemagne in Autumn requesting he enforce the policies of his father, Pippin. Desiderius sent his own embassies denying the pope's charges. The embassies both met at Thionville and Charlemagne upheld the pope's side. Charlemagne promptly demanded what the pope had demanded and Desiderius promptly swore never to comply. The invasion was not short in coming. Charlemagne and his uncle Bernard crossed the Alps in 773 and chased the Lombards back to Pavia, which they then besieged. The siege lasted until the spring of 774, when Charlemagne visited the pope in Rome. There he confirmed his father's grants of land, with some later chronicles claiming - falsely - that he also expanded them, granting Tuscany, Emilia, Venice, and Corsica. The pope granted him the title patrician. He then returned to Pavia, where the Lombards were on the verge of surrendering. In return for their lives, the Lombards surrendered and opened the gates in early summer. There was still instability, however, in Italy. In 776, Dukes Hrodgaud of Friuli and Gisulf of Spoleto rebelled. Charlemagne whisked back from Saxony and defeated the duke of Friuli in battle. The duke was slain. The duke of Spoleto signed a treaty. Their co-conspirator, Arechis, was not subdued and Adelchis, their candidate in Byzantium, never left that city. Northern Italy was now faithfully his. Charlemagne was engaged in almost constant battle throughout his reign, with his legendary sword Joyeuse in hand. After thirty years of war and eighteen battles - the Saxon Wars - he conquered Saxonia and proceeded to convert the conquered to Roman Catholicism, using force where necessary. The Saxons were divided into four subgroups in four regions. Nearest to Austrasia was Westphalia and furthest away was Eastphalia. In between these two kingdoms was that of Engria and north of these three, at the base of the Jutland peninsula, was Nordalbingia. In his first campaign, Charlemagne forced the Engrians in 773 to submit and cut down the pagan holy pillar Irminsul near Paderborn. The campaign was cut short by his first expedition to Italy. He returned in the year 775, marching through Westphalia and conquering the Saxon fort of Sigiburg. He then crossed Engria, where he defeated the Saxons again. Finally, in Eastphalia, he defeated a Saxon force, and its leader Hessi converted to Christianity. He returned through Westphalia, leaving encampments at Sigiburg and Eresburg, which had, up until then, been important Saxon bastions. All Saxony but Nordalbingia was under his control, but Saxon resistance had not ended. Following his campaign in Italy subjugating the dukes of Friuli and Spoleto, Charlemagne returned very rapidly to Saxony in 776, where a rebellion had destroyed his fortress at Eresburg. The Saxons were once again brought to heel, but their main leader, duke Widukind, managed to escape to Denmark, home of his wife. Charlemagne built a new camp at Karlstadt. In 777, he called a national diet at Paderborn to integrate Saxony fully into the Frankish kingdom. Many Saxons were baptised. In the summer of 779, he again invaded Saxony and reconquered Eastphalia, Engria, and Westphalia. At a diet near Lippe, he divided the land into missionary districts and himself assisted in several mass baptisms (780). He then returned to Italy and, for the first time, there was no immediate Saxon revolt. From 780 to 782, the land had peace. He returned in 782 to Saxony and instituted a code of law and appointed counts, both Saxon and Frank. The laws were draconian on religious issues, and the native traditional religion was gravely threatened. This stirred a renewal of the old conflict. That year, in autumn, Widukind returned and led a new revolt, which resulted in several assaults on the church. In response, at Verden in Lower Saxony, Charlemagne allegedly ordered the beheading of 4,500 Saxons who had been caught practising paganism after converting to Christianity, known as the Bloody Verdict of Verden or Massacre of Verden. The massacre, which modern research has not been able to confirm, triggered two years of renewed bloody warfare (783-785). During this war the Frisians were also finally subdued and a large part of their fleet was burned. The war ended with Widukind accepting baptism. Thereafter, the Saxons maintained the peace for seven years, but in 792 the Westphalians once again rose against their conquerors. The Eastphalians and Nordalbingians joined them in 793, but the insurrection did not catch on and was put down by 794. An Engrian rebellion followed in 796, but Charlemagne's personal presence and the presence of loyal Christian Saxons and Slavs quickly crushed it. The last insurrection of the independence-minded people occurred in 804, more than thirty years after Charlemagne's first campaign against them. This time, the most unruly of them, the Nordalbingians, found themselves effectively disempowered from rebellion. In 778, he led the Neustrian army across the Western Pyrenees into Spain, while the Austrasians, Lombards, and Burgundians passed over the Eastern Pyrenees. The armies met at Zaragoza and received the homage of Soloman ibn al-Arabi and Kasmin ibn Yusuf, the foreign rulers. Zaragoza did not fall soon enough for Charles, however. Indeed, Charlemagne was facing the toughest battle of his career and, in fear of losing, he decided to retreat and head home. He could not trust the Moors, nor the Basques, whom he had subdued by conquering Pamplona. He turned to leave Iberia, but as he was passing through the Pass of Roncesvalles one of the most famous events of his long reign occurred. The Basques fell on his rearguard and baggage train, utterly destroying it. The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, less a battle than a mere skirmish, left many famous dead: among which were the seneschal Eggihard, the count of the palace Anselm, and the warden of the Breton March, Roland, inspiring the subsequent creation of the Song of Roland (Chanson de Roland). Thus ended the Spanish campaign in complete disaster. During the first peace of any substantial length (780–782), Charles began to appoint his sons to positions of authority within the realm, in the tradition of the kings and mayors of the past. In 780, he had disinherited his eldest son, Pippin the Hunchback, because the young man had joined a rebellion against him. Pippin had been duped into joining a rebellion of nobles who pretended to despise Charles' treatment of Himiltrude, Pippin's mother, in 770. Charles baptised his son Carloman as Pippin to keep the name alive in the dynasty. In 781, he made his oldest three sons each kings. The eldest, Charles, received the kingdom of Neustria, containing the regions of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. The second eldest, Pippin, was made king of Italy, taking the Iron Crown which his father had first worn in 774. His third eldest son, Louis, became king of Aquitaine. He tried to make his sons a true Neustrian, Italian, and Aquitainian and he gave their regents some control of their subkingdoms, but real power was always in his hands, though he intended each to inherit their realm some day. The sons fought many wars on behalf of their father when they came of age. Charles was mostly preoccupied with the Bretons, whose border he shared and who insurrected on at least two occasions and were easily put down, but he was also sent against the Saxons on multiple occasions. In 805 and 806, he was sent into the Böhmerwald (modern Bohemia) to deal with the Slavs living there (Czechs). He subjected them to Frankish authority and devastated the valley of the Elbe, forcing a tribute on them. Pippin had to hold the Avar and Beneventan borders, but also fought the Slavs to his north. He was uniquely poised to fight the Byzantine Empire when finally that conflict arose after Charlemagne's imperial coronation and a Venetian rebellion. Finally, Louis was in charge of the Spanish March and also went to southern Italy to fight the duke of Benevento on at least one occasion. He took Barcelona in a great siege in the year 797. It is difficult to understand Charlemagne's attitude toward his daughters. None of them contracted a sacramental marriage. This may have been an attempt to control the number of potential alliances. Charlemagne certainly refused to believe the stories (mostly true) of their wild behaviour. After his death the surviving daughters entered or were forced to enter nunneries by their own brother, the pious Louis. At least one of them, Bertha, had a recognised relationship, if not a marriage, with Angilbert, a member of Charlemagne's court circle. In 787, Charlemagne directed his attention towards Benevento, where Arechis was reigning independently. He besieged Salerno and Arechis submitted to vassalage. However, with his death in 792, Benevento again proclaimed independence under his son Grimoald III. Grimoald was attacked by armies of Charles' or his sons' many times, but Charlemagne himself never returned to the Mezzogiorno and Grimoald never was forced to surrender to Frankish suzerainty. In 788, Charlemagne turned his attention to Bavaria. He claimed Tassilo was an unfit ruler on account of his oath-breaking. The charges were trumped up, but Tassilo was deposed anyway and put in the monastery of Jumièges. In 794, he was made to renounce any claim to Bavaria for himself and his family (the Agilolfings) at the synod of Frankfurt. Bavaria was subdivided into Frankish counties, like Saxony. In 789, in recognition of his new pagan neighbours, the Slavs, Charlemagne marched an Austrasian-Saxon army across the Elbe into Abotrite territory. The Slavs immediately submitted under their leader Witzin. He then accepted the surrender of the Wiltzes under Dragovit and demanded many hostages and the permission to send, unmolested, missionaries into the pagan region. The army marched to the Baltic before turning around and marching to the Rhine with much booty and no harassment. The tributary Slavs became loyal allies. In 795, the peace broken by the Saxons, the Abotrites and Wiltzes rose in arms with their new master against the Saxons. Witzin died in battle and Charlemagne avenged him by harrying the Eastphalians on the Elbe. Thrasuco, his successor, led his men to conquest over the Nordalbingians and handed their leaders over to Charlemagne, who greatly honoured him. The Abotrites remained loyal until Charles' death and fought later against the Danes. In 788, the Avars, a pagan Asian horde which had settled down in what is today Hungary (Einhard called them Huns), invaded Friuli and Bavaria. Charles was preoccupied until 790 with other things, but in that year, he marched down the Danube into their territory and ravaged it to the Raab. Then, a Lombard army under Pippin marched into the Drava valley and ravaged Pannonia. The campaigns would have continued if the Saxons had not revolted again in 792, breaking seven years of peace. For the next two years, Charles was occupied with the Slavs against the Saxons. Pippin and Duke Eric of Friuli continued, however, to assault the Avars' ring-shaped strongholds. The great Ring of the Avars, their capital fortress, was taken twice. The booty was sent to Charlemagne at his capital, Aachen, and redistributed to all his followers and even to foreign rulers, including King Offa of Mercia. Soon the Avar tuduns had thrown in the towel and travelled to Aachen to subject themselves to Charlemagne as vassals and Christians. This Charlemagne accepted and sent one native chief, baptised Abraham, back to Avaria with the ancient title of khagan. Abraham kept his people in line, but in 800 the Bulgarians under Krum had swept the Avar state away. In the 10th century, the Magyars settled the Pannonian plain and presented a new threat to Charlemagne's descendants. Charlemagne also directed his attention to the Slavs to the south of the Avar khaganate: the Carantanians and Slovenes. These people were subdued by the Lombards and Bavarii and made tributaries, but never incorporated into the Frankish state. The conquest of Italy brought Charlemagne in contact with the Saracens who, at the time, controlled the Mediterranean. Pippin, his son, was much occupied with Saracens in Italy. Charlemagne conquered Corsica and Sardinia at an unknown date and in 799 the Balearic Islands. The islands were often attacked by Saracen pirates, but the counts of Genoa and Tuscany (Boniface) kept them at bay with large fleets until the end of Charlemagne's reign. In Hispania, the struggle against the Moors continued unabated throughout the latter half of his reign. His son Louis was in charge of the Spanish border. In 785, his men captured Gerona permanently and extended Frankish control into the Catalan littoral for the duration of Charlemagne's reign (and much longer, it remained nominally Frankish until the Treaty of Corbeil in 1258). The Muslim chiefs in the northeast of Spain were constantly revolting against Cordoban authority and they often turned to the Franks for help. The Frankish border was slowly extended until 795, when Gerona, Cardona, Ausona, and Urgel were united into the new Spanish March, within the old duchy of Septimania. In 797, Barcelona, the greatest city of the region, fell to the Franks when Zeid, its governor, rebelled against Córdoba and, failing, handed it to them. The Umayyad authority recaptured it in 799. However, Louis of Aquitaine marched the entire army of his kingdom over the Pyrenees and besieged it for two years, wintering there from 800 to 801, when it capitulated. The Franks continued to press forwards against the emir. They took Tarragona in 809 and Tortosa in 811. The last conquest brought them to the mouth of the Ebro and gave them raiding access to Valencia, prompting the Emir al-Hakam I to recognise their conquests in 812. Matters of Charlemagne's reign came to a head in late 800. In 799, Pope Leo III had been mistreated by the Romans, who tried to put out his eyes and tear out his tongue. He was deposed and put in a monastery. Charlemagne refused to recognise the deposition. He travelled to Rome in November 800 and held a council on December 1. On December 23, Leo swore an oath of innocence. At Mass, on Christmas Day (December 25), the pope crowned Charlemagne Imperator Romanorum (emperor of the Romans) in Saint Peter's Basilica. The Byzantines, however, still held several territories in Italy: Venice (what was left of the exarchate of Ravenna), Reggio (Calabria, the toe), Brindisi (Apulia, the heel), and Naples (the Ducatus Neapolitanus). These regions remained outside of Frankish hands until 804, when the Venetians, torn by infighting, transferred their allegiance to the Iron Crown of Pippin, Charles' son. The Pax Nicephori ended. Nicephorus ravaged the coasts with a fleet and the only instance of war between Constantinople and Aachen, as it was, began. It lasted until 810, when the pro-Byzantine party in Venice gave their city back to the emperor in Byzantium and the two emperors of Europe made peace. Charlemagne received the Istrian peninsula and in 812 Emperor Michael I Rhangabes recognised his title. After the conquest of Nordalbingia, the Frankish frontier was brought into contact with Scandinavia. The pagan Danes, 'a race almost unknown to his ancestors, but destined to be only too well known to his sons' as Charles Oman eloquently described them, inhabiting the Jutland peninsula had heard many stories from Widukind and his allies who had taken refuge with them about the dangers of the Franks and the fury which their Christian king could direct against pagan neighbours. In 808, the king of the Danes, Godfred, built the vast Danevirke across the isthmus of Schleswig. This defence, last employed in the Danish-Prussian War of 1864, was at its beginning a 30 km long earthenwork rampart. The Danevirke protected Danish land and gave Godfred the opportunity to harass Frisia and Flanders with pirate raids. He also subdued the Frank-allied Wiltzes and fought the Abotrites. He invaded Frisia and joked of visiting Aachen, but was murdered before he could do any more, either by a Frankish assassin or by one of his own men. Godfred was succeeded by his nephew Hemming, and he concluded a peace with Charlemagne in late 811. In 813, Charlemagne called Louis, his only surviving legitimate son, to his court. There he crowned him as his heir and sent him back to Aquitaine. He then spent the autumn hunting before returning to Aachen on 1 November. In January, he fell ill. He took to his bed on the 22 January and he died January twenty-eighth. When Charlemagne died in 814, he was buried in his own Cathedral at Aachen. He was succeeded by his only son then surviving, Louis the Pious. His empire lasted only another generation in its entirety; its division, according to custom, between Louis's own sons after their father's death laid the foundation for the modern states of France and Germany. A part of Charlemagne's success as warrior and administrator can be traced to his admiration for learning. His reign and the era it ushered in are often referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance because of the flowering of scholarship, literature, art, and architecture which characterise it. Charlemagne, brought into contact with the culture and learning of other countries (especially Visigothic Spain, Anglo-Saxon England and Lombard Italy) due to his vast conquests, greatly increased the provision of monastic schools and scriptoria (centres for book-copying) in Francia. Most of the surviving works of classical Latin were copied and preserved by Carolingian scholars. Indeed, the earliest manuscripts available for many ancient texts are Carolingian. It is almost certain that a text which survived to the Carolingian age survives still. Charlemagne engaged in many reforms of Frankish governance, but he continued also in many traditional practices, such as the division of the kingdom among sons, to name but the most obvious one. In the first year of his reign, Charlemagne went to Aachen (in French, Aix-la-Chapelle) for the first time. He began to build a palace twenty years later (788). The palace chapel, constructed in 796, later became Aachen Cathedral. Charlemagne spent most winters between 800 and his death (814) at Aachen, which he made the joint capital with Rome, in order to enjoy the hot springs. Charlemagne organised his empire into 350 counties, each led by an appointed count. Counts served as judges, administrators, and enforcers of capitularies. To enforce loyalty, he set up the system of missi dominici, meaning 'envoys of the lord'. In this system, one representative of the church and one representative of the emperor would head to the different counties every year and report back to Charlemagne on their status. The imperial coronation of Charlemagne was an act of utmost importance in European history. With Charlemagne's coronation, therefore, 'the Roman Empire remained, so far as either of them [Charlemagne and Leo] were concerned, one and indivisible, with Charles as its Emperor', though there can have been 'little doubt that the coronation, with all that it implied, would be furiously contested in Constantinople. The title of emperor remained in his family for years to come, however, as brothers fought over who had the supremacy in the Frankish state. The papacy itself never forgot the title nor abandoned the right to bestow it. When the family of Charles ceased to produce worthy heirs, the pope gladly crowned whichever Italian magnate could best protect him from his local enemies. This devolution led, as could have been expected, to the dormancy of the title for almost forty years (924-962). Finally, in 962, in a radically different Europe from Charlemagne's, a new Roman Emperor was crowned in Rome by a grateful pope. This emperor, Otto the Great, brought the title into the hands the kings of Germany for almost a millennium, for it was to become the Holy Roman Empire, a true imperial successor to Charles, if not Augustus. In 806, Charlemagne first made provision for the traditional division of the empire on his death. For Charles the Younger he designated the imperial title, Austrasia and Neustria, Saxony, Burgundy, and Thuringia. To Pippin he gave Italy, Bavaria, and Swabia. Louis received Aquitaine, the Spanish March, and Provence. This division may have worked, but it was never to be tested. Pippin died in 810 and Charles in 811. Charlemagne redrew the map of Europe by giving all to Louis, save the Iron Crown, which went to Pippin's (illegitimate) son Bernard. There was no mention of the imperial title, however, which has led to the suggestion that Charlemagne regarded the title as an honorary achievement which held no hereditary significance. It is frequently claimed by genealogists that all people with European ancestry alive today are probably descended from Charlemagne. However, only a small percentage can actually prove descent from him. Charlemagne's marriage and relationship politics and ethics did, however, result in a fairly large number of descendants, all of whom had far better life expectancies than is usually the case for children in that time period. They were married into houses of nobility and as a result of intermarriages many people of noble descent can indeed trace their ancestry back to Charlemagne. He is without a doubt an ancestor of every royal family of Europe. His first wife was Himiltrude, married in 766. The marriage was never formally annulled. By her he had: * Pippin the Hunchback (767-813) His second wife was Gerperga (often erroneously called Desiderata or Desideria), daughter of Desiderius, king of the Lombards, married in 768, annulled in 771. His third wife was Hildegard of Savoy (757/8 - 783/4), married 771, died 784. By her he had: * Charles the Younger (772/3 - 811), king of Neustria from 781 * Adelaide (773/4 - 774) * Carloman, baptised Pippin (773 or 777 - 810), king of Italy from 781 * Rotrude (or Hruodrud) (777 - 810) * Louis (778 - 840), twin of Lothair, king of Aquitaine from 781 and emperor and king of the Franks from 814 * Lothair (778 - 779/80), twin of Louis * Bertha (779 - 823) * Gisela (781 - 808) * Hildegarde (782 - 783) His fourth wife was Fastrada, married 784, died 794. By her he had: * Theodrada (b.784), abbess of Argenteuil * Hiltrude (b.787) His fifth and favourite wife was Luitgard, married 794, died 800 childless. His first known concubine was Gersuinda. By her he had: * Adaltrude (b.774) His second known concubine was Madelgard. By her he had: * Ruodhaid (775 - 810), abbess of Faremoutiers His third known concubine was Amaltrud of Vienne. By her he had: * Alpaida (b.794) His fourth known concubine was Regina. By her he had: * Drogo (801 - 855), bishop of Metz from 823 * Hugh (802 - 844), archchancellor of the Empire His fifth known concubine was Ethelind. By her he had: * Theodoric (b.807.) |
| His wife Regina Unknown died. | |
| His wife Amaltrud Unknown died. | |
| His wife Madelgard Unknown died. | |
| His wife Gersuinda Unknown died. | |
| His wife Gerperga (Desiderata) Unknown died. | |
| His wife Himiltrude Unknown died. | |
| His wife Ethelind Unknown died. | |
| Birth | He was born in 742.2,1 |
| Marriage | Charlemagne Unknown and Himiltrude Unknown were married in 766.3,1 |
| Marriage | Charlemagne Unknown and Gerperga (Desiderata) Unknown were married in 768.3,1 |
| His father Pippin the Younger Unknown died on 24 September 768. | |
| Marriage | Charlemagne Unknown and Hildegarde Unknown were married in 771.2,1 |
| His son Pippin (Carloman) Unknown was born in April 773 in Aachen, Rhineland, Prussia. | |
| Marriage | Charlemagne Unknown and Gersuinda Unknown were married in 774 Unknown GEDCOM info: Partner Unknown GEDCOM info: Concubin Unknown GEDCOM info: had a child with Unknown GEDCOM info: Partner Unknown GEDCOM info: Concubin Unknown GEDCOM info: had a child with.3,1 |
| Marriage | Charlemagne Unknown and Madelgard Unknown were married in 775 Unknown GEDCOM info: Partner Unknown GEDCOM info: Concubin Unknown GEDCOM info: had a child with Unknown GEDCOM info: Partner Unknown GEDCOM info: Concubin Unknown GEDCOM info: had a child with.3,1 |
| His son Louis I the Pious Unknown was born in August 778 in France. | |
| His wife Hildegarde Unknown died on 30 April 783 in France. | |
| His mother Berthe (Bertrade) Unknown died on 12 July 783. | |
| Marriage | Charlemagne Unknown and Fastrada Unknown were married in 784.3,1 |
| Marriage | Charlemagne Unknown and Amaltrud Unknown were married in 794 Unknown GEDCOM info: Partner Unknown GEDCOM info: Concubin Unknown GEDCOM info: had a child with Unknown GEDCOM info: Partner Unknown GEDCOM info: Concubin Unknown GEDCOM info: had a child with.3,1 |
| Marriage | Charlemagne Unknown and Luitgard Unknown were married in 794.3,1 |
| His wife Fastrada Unknown died in 794. | |
| His wife Luitgard Unknown died in 800. | |
| Marriage | Charlemagne Unknown and Regina Unknown were married in 801 Unknown GEDCOM info: Partner Unknown GEDCOM info: Concubin Unknown GEDCOM info: had children with Unknown GEDCOM info: Partner Unknown GEDCOM info: Concubin Unknown GEDCOM info: had children with.3,1 |
| Marriage | Charlemagne Unknown and Ethelind Unknown were married in 807.3,1 |
| His son Pippin (Carloman) Unknown died on 8 July 810 in Milan, Italy. | |
| Death | Charlemagne Unknown died on 28 January 814, at age ~72, in Aix la Chapelle, Prussia.2,1 |
Citations
Veronica Grace Benyon
F, #20068, Deceased, b. about 1908
| Consanguinity | 2nd cousin 1 time removed of Adrian John Snelson |
Parents
| Father | Timothy Benyon (b. about May 1876, d. 12 May 1943) |
| Mother | Elizabeth Ann Kirk (b. about 1879) |
| Person References | Anne Jones George Benyon 1783-1850 |
Main Events
| User Reference Number | Veronica Grace Benyon; 23712 |
| Birth | She was born about 1908 in Walsall, Staffordshire. |
| Her father Timothy Benyon died on 12 May 1943 in Walsall, Staffordshire, England. |