Almost no-one, including Louis IV himself, was as strongly invested in the peace between the king and Hugh the Great than Archbishop Artald of Rheims. Because the story of the Rheims archbishopric isn’t prominent in charter evidence, we haven’t really covered it, but it was a crucial component of the cocktail of grievances which caused the thirty-year long civil war in the mid-tenth century. It all started with the death of Archbishop Heriveus and his replacement with Archbishop Seulf. Seulf needed the help of Heribert II of Vermandois to reclaim some land, and promised that Heribert’s son could succeed him as archbishop. However, Heribert’s son Hugh was only five when Seulf died, and when Heribert began fighting Ralph of Burgundy, Ralph took Rheims and imposed Artald as archbishop. During the nadir of Louis IV’s fortunes in the 940s, Artald was also deposed and Hugh reinstated; and then when Otto the Great reimposed Louis IV as king Artald was reimposed as archbishop alongside him. The years of division at Rheims, though, meant that the community was not exactly a stable place, and Artald took various steps to purge his political opponents. His consolidation of power, however, was closely tied to his Ottonian backing, and so in 952 Artald sent Abbot Hincmar of Rheims to Otto the Great to get an immunity for his East Frankish lands.
D O1, no. 156 (9th September 952, Bothfeld)
In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity.
Otto, by concession of divine clemency king.
Let the industry of all Our followers, to wit present and future, know that Artald, archbishop of Rheims, restoring to the church of the blessed Remigius a certain abbey named Kusel, sited within the limits of Our realm, sent to the clemency of Our presence Hincmar, abbot of the same abbey of the blessed Remigius, asking and beseeching Our Clemency that because this land is contained within the rule of Our empire, We should confirm this bishop’s concession by a precept of Our authority.
Clemently assenting to his embassy, and receiving the benign petition of Our duke Conrad [the Red] on this matter, for the remedy of Our soul We restore the aforesaid abbey of Kusel to the monks serving in that holy place under the Rule of St Benedict, to wit, in its entirety with estates, lands, places, woods and all adjacencies. To wit, We renew and confirmed to be restored by a decree of Our royal authority whatever is seen to pertain to that abbey in within the Vosges and in the district of Rosselgau in the county of Bliesgau, just as is known to have been given to him – that is, to the most blessed Remigius whilst he still lived – by King Clodomir, son of the first king of the Franks Clovis, and by other kings of the Franks, indeed Our ancestors.
Whence We commanded this precept of Our corroboration on the matter to be made at the petition of the aforewritten Abbot Hincmar and the monks dwelling under his regime, through which We wish and sanction that in Our times and those of Our successors, the aforesaid goods should remain at the aforesaid place of the most holy Remigius inviolably with perpetual stability, and no-one should have licence to take away the same land, firmly conceded from the abundance of Our liberality to the aforesaid monastery in the manner written above; or usurp anything for themselves there anymore.
And that this Our authority might gain most perfect firmness forever, and be more truly believed and diligently observed by everyone, We confirmed it belove with Our own hand and We commanded it be signed by the impression of Our signet.
Sign of lord Otto, the most serene king.
Otbert the chancellor witnessed and subscribed on behalf of Archchaplain Bruno.
Given on the 5th ides of September, in the year of the Incarnation of our lord Jesus Christ 952, in the 10th indiction, in the 17th year of the reign of the most serene king Otto.
Enacted in the place Bothfeld, amen.
So far, so relatively straightforward. The church of Rheims had been concerned about these lands for some time – the historian Flodoard was involved in efforts to get them confirmed – and this diploma represented something of a triumph for the clerics. However, that there was more going on here than simply land management is shown by today’s second document:
D L4, no. 44 (27th March 953, Laon) = ARTEM no. 8 = D.Kar no.8.X
In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity.
Louis, by assent of divine clemency king of the Franks.
We wish it to be known to all of Our followers both present, to wit, and future, that the reverend Abbot Hincmar and the congregation of monks of the blessed father Remigius subordinated to him humbly asked Our Royal Highness that it might be pleased to concede and confirm by a decree of Our authority the immunities conceded by previous kings of the Franks to that sacred place concerning the goods which the church possesses by uncontested right.
Freely proffering assent to this faithful vow, chiefly out of intimate devotion to that most blessed bishop who was specially granted by God as pastor and patron of Our royal bloodline, which through God’s grace he led to the Catholic faith, conceded to do what they asked, and simultaneously decided provide this necessity: that the monks living under the pastoral solicitude of a regular abbot therein should soldier for God without the disturbance of any perturbation freely and securely in a holy way of life, and should have something from the benefice of Our largess, for which they should worthily exhort God for Us and the safety of Our sons and the prosperity of Our realm.
Therefore, as is the custom of kings and was often discerned to have been constituted by Our ancestors, We decreed by the authority of a royal command and in sanctioning established that, in the first place, the castle in which the most blessed pastor rests in body should be completely immune and established solely and freely under their rule, and that no-one should dare to exercise within the ambit of the same castle any judicial domination against their will, as preceding kings of the Franks establish in their privileges which We too renew and confirm by Our clemency; at the same time, let everything from the estate of that sacred abbey which the monks previously possessed with free firmness, or in addition that which was later added for the support of holy religion and the restoration of the place, that is, Crugny, and the estate which is called Bazancourt and as well other lands lying in divers parts, and also at the same time Kusel with everything within the Vosges and in the district of Rosselgau, in the county of Bliesgau, wholly pertaining to it, should be absolved and free from all exaction and toll and also provisioning and all exactions of revenue public and private from now and for all time.
And that We might merit to find the blessed Remigius, Our most holy patron, as a helper on the tremendous examination of the final judgement, We think it is also congruous to add that (this decree of Our corroboration having been firmly established) that in every place everywhere inside or outside the limits of Our realm the monks are discerned to have and possess anything, no-one at all, neither king nor bishop nor count nor the thoughtless daring of any person, should presume to inflict any prejudice or any violence of unworthy oppression against what is right and proper in any of the land of their rule.
We benignly request those who will succeed Us in the realm of the Franks that, for the redemption of their souls, they should take care to improve this sacred place. If they do not do this, at least let none of them (lest they offend God, the king of kings, and gain eternal perdition for themselves) have – like a reckless and rash person – any license at all to take or diminish anything from any of their property.
But that this royal decree of Our immunity and constitution might endure through times to come and might receive truer firmness of belief from everyone, We commanded it be corroborated by the present assertion of Our hand and that of all Our followers, and confirmed below by being signed with the impression of Our signet.
Odilo, notary of royal dignity, witnessed and subscribed on behalf of Archbishop Artald [of Rheims].
Enacted on the mount of Laon, on the 6th kalends of April, in the 11th indiction, in the 17th year of the reign of King Louis.
Interesting, no? We spoke in a previous week about the new operam dantes formula used for charter prologues after 949; but Louis’ diplomas for Saint-Remi don’t use this formula, and it’s evidently because they are reflections of particularly Remois concerns. Those aren’t necessarily concrete, either. As we’ve just seen, Saint-Remi had already had these lands confirmed by the king whose kingdom they actually lay in, so Louis’ act can’t have been set up for primarily material ends. Instead, an analysis of the text of the act reveals the primary concern is ideological.
We start with the rhetorical linkage of Louis’ family with the see of Rheims. The ‘family’ in question is not Louis’ Carolingian dynasty, but Frankish kingship more widely. This act makes reference to St Remigius’ conversion of the Merovingian king Clovis to Christianity, placing the see’s most important saint as the key helper of Frankish royalty. Notably, this was a largely new development. The reigning queen Gerberga seems to have been unusually attached to Remigius by c. 950, and it’s possible that she felt that way earlier; but Louis himself, and his predecessors too, did not put much rhetorical weight on Remigius’ patronage. That it shows up now, in this document, is both a cause and an effect of the way that Louis’ kingship had become tangled up in the Rheims question. This act positions Remigius, and thus Rheims, as specially important to Frankish kingship; and Frankish kingship’s help to Rheims as a special royal prerogative.
But there is more. One of the uses of eliding the Carolingians and Merovingians is that you can extend the elision further, and this takes us back to Otto’s diploma. You may have noticed that Otto’s diploma also places him in the line of the Merovingians, going back to Clovis’ son Chlodomir. This must have been planned in advance by the Rheims clergy, because the effect is a triple bind. Otto and Louis are connected in these documents by a Frankish kingship imagined as one dynastic bloodline including the Merovingians, Carolingians, and Ottonians. Having been linked together, they are in turn linked to St Remigius because he is the special patron of Frankish kings. St Remigius means the see of Rheims, in turn meaning the position of Archbishop Artald. It’s a very neat bundling together of the new West Frankish regime after 948.
Most of the time when historians look at charters, they’re looking at expressions of, or attempts to create, support amongst beneficiaries of the charters by the actors. Here we have a mirror-image, and a fascinating one: an attempt by the nominal beneficiary of these diplomas to create a support network amongst the actors!
The Historian's Sketchpad 
Interesting follow-up to the discussion last week about linking Carolingians to their Merovingian predecessors. And this time Chlodomir – one of the more overlooked Merovingians, but obviously important for Rheims.
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I think these two charters are incredibly significant for several reasons. The first is that they show the growing ideological importance of Rheims and St Remigius to Frankish kingship, which as pointed out in the post was a largely new development. Of course, there had been attempts at making this happen earlier. Hincmar did so much to promote the cult of Saint Remigius and his special importance to Frankish kingship in Charles the Bald’s reign. But here at last we’re starting to see this project really take fruit – Flodoard had of course done a lot to preserve Hincmar’s legacy, and its nicely poetic that the abbot of Saint-Remi at the time the two charters were issued in 952 was also called Hincmar. Of course, there was still some way to go, and we’ll have to wait until the Capetians for Rheims to get its monopoly on the right to crown West Frankish kings under Henry I, so that when Louis the Fat got crowned at Orleans instead in 1108 it attracted scandal and he had to be given another ceremony at Rheims. Saint Denis was of course playing a similar game, as it had been since Hilduin’s abbacy when the memory of King Dagobert I started to be manipulated with the Gesta Dagoberti, to show the special importance of Saint Denis to Frankish kingship.
It also shows, as we’ve spoken about before, that the damnatio memoriae of the Merovingians was basically over no later than the second quarter of the ninth century, and that by the tenth century Frankish kingship is now seen as a special, sacred office that has run through a chain of three different families linked together, the Merovingians, the Carolingians and now the Ottonians in East Francia, all of whom enjoy the protection of Saint Remigius but none of whom can claim a dynastic monopoly on legitimate Frankish kingship.
The third thing I’d like to add is that, both from how bishop and abbot of Rheims petitioned both the West and East Frankish kings and the sentiments expressed in Otto the Great’s charter, pan-Frankishness clearly wasn’t dead yet.
Fourthly, given that the 30 year long struggle for the archbishopric of Rheims doesn’t feature that much in West Frankish royal diplomas, wouldn’t it be fair to say that the narrative sources and the charters tell two distinct stories about West Frankish politics in this period. Because the story of West Frankish politics we get from the narrative sources is very Rheims-centred. This is perhaps unsurprising, given our two key historians for West Francia in the tenth century (Flodoard and Richer) were both from Rheims, though neither of them can really be blamed for that and neither of them were ignorant of the West Frankish kings activities in the west and south of the kingdom, even if they sometimes found the local political conditions difficult to understand. Still, its interesting that the two main different types of written sources for West Frankish political history in the tenth century present the geographical focus of politics so differently.
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