Excerpts from the “History Of Our King’s Ancestors: 770 A.D. – 1453 A.D.”
Chapter II: The Deposed and The Count who would live on
(810 A.D. – 817 A.D.)
Ye year 810 of our Lord, Pepin bore his illegitimate son Bernard of Italy, nephew of Emperor and King of all the Franks, Louis the Pious. King Bernard of Italy and his wife, Cunigunda, had their one and only son ye year 815 of our Lord named Pepin, ye honor of his father. Bernard’s liege, Louis the Pious, placed his sons into positions of power of the Frankish Empire, which he inherited with the death of both his other brothers, Pepin, father of Bernard, and Charles. Lothair was to be Emperor of Lombard, while Bernard would be King of the subkingdom of Italy.
Instigation by Bishop Theodulf of Orléans and a subordinate position gave King Bernard Casus Bellum for war. Though his great Marshal, Bohemond of Modena, urged, King Bernard refused to go to war and surrendered. He wrote later in his letter to the Emperor:
“Tis my solemn wish to go in peace before those who wished me not,”
When he arrived before the Emperor under a letter of safe conduct, Emperor of the Franks, Louis placed him on trial, without his knowledge as he stood before him. He sentenced the King of Italy to death by blinding. His son would mourn his death as Pepin became nothing more then a count of Vermandois, the titles being stolen by the Emperor. Louis the Pious would seek his penance for what he considered a sin and did so before his holy father Pope Paschal I, and a council of ecclesiastics and nobles of the realm. Thereafter, the Carolingians of the Vermandois, having been taken out of power twice, would continue on with a grudge, all the while with a claim on the throne of the Franks and Italy.
Pepin I, the Lesser, Count of Vermandois
Pepin born ye year 815 of our Lord was the first count of Vermandois, lord of Senlis, Peronne, and Saint Quentin. Pepin, the Lesser, appearing as count in 834, would support Lothair I against Louis the Pious, to avenge his father’s death and serve his liege, as Lothair I was now King of Italy and Emperor of the Lombard, with an extension of other titles given to him by his father, Louis the Pious, placing him before his other sons.
His marriage to Bertha Nibelung gave his lands ye significance with the Nibelungid territories so added. Upon Pepin the Lesser’s death he left his oldest as Bernard, count of Laon, Pepin II, decedent of the hitherto generation, count of Vermandois and lord of Valois, and Herbert I of Vermandois.
Pepin II, the Obscure
Pepin II, born ye year 846 of our Lord, became count of Vermandois upon the death of Pepin the Lesser, and was known for doing very little and died in 893. Very little of anything happened of importance. He bore a male heir, Robert of France, who married the then countess Beatrix, his sister. Hitherto Robert of France became the pure blooded heir of his position and had no sons with his sister.
Herbert II, Count of Vermandois
At the death of Robert of France ye year 902 of our Lord, saw no male heirs, his daughter, Hildebrante of France, married once again a member of the Vermandois line, Herbert II lord of Péronne and St Quentin de Monte her cousin once removed. His father was Herbert I of Vermandois son of Pepin I and probable grandson of Theodoric, his mother was Bertha de Morvois. His marriage to Hildebrante of France gave him the county of Meaux as well as Vermandois. In the year 918 of our Lord he was also named Count of Mézerais and of the Véxin.
With his cousin Bernard, Count of Beauvais and Senlis, he constituted a powerful group in the west of France, to the north and east of Paris. A group of ambitious barons by the year 922 of our Lord eyed the then King Charles III, the Simple, with scorn. When they together crowned Robert I, brother of Odo, king, King Charles III was outraged and attempted to quash the rebellion. Herbert imprisoned King Charles III in Chateau-Thierry, then in Péronne at his defeat in the battle of Soissons the next year.
On the death of Seulf Archbishop of Rheims, in the Lord’s year of 925, with the help of King Rudolph, he acquired for his second son, then only five years of age, Hugh the archbishopric of Rheims, which had a large inheritance in France and Germany. In the Lord’s year of 926, on the death of Count Roger of Laon, Herbert demanded this County for Eudes, his eldest son. He settled there, initially against the will of King Rudolph and constructed a fortress there. Rudolph yielded to pressure to free king Charles III, whom Herbert still held in prison.
In the Lord’s year of 930, Herbert took the castle of Vitry in Perthois at the expense of Boso, the brother of King Rudolph. Rudolph united his army with the army of Hugh, marquis of Neustria, and in the Lord’s year of 931, they entered Rheims and defeated Hugh, the son of Herbert. Artaud became the new archbishop of Reims. Herbert II then lost, in three years, Vitry, Laon, Chateau-Thierry, and Soissons. The intervention of his ally, Henry the Fowler, allowed him to restore his domains, in exchange for his submission to King Rudolph and at the loss of Reims and Loan.
Chapter III: Those who would breed Kings
Otto, the Ambitionless
Otto, Count of Vermandois, was the son of Herbert III of Vermandois and Ermengarde, born in the Lord’s year of 979. He married Pavia and had three sons with her. During this time the last Carolingian left the throne of France. Though Otto Carolingian was, within all rights, an heir to the throne, he was thwarted by an election during the fall. Grande lands and armies of the Capitan Dynasty proved a persuasive tool in the nobles’ decision.
Otto died peacefully ye 1045, without any claims on the throne, figuratively or literally. His son Herbert IV was given Vermandois, Eudes I the Insane became a courtier in his brother’s court, and his other brother, Peter of Vermandois, was part of the new court as well. Herbert IV now had placed upon his shoulders the choice to die in ye obscurity or to grab, with new found oppurtunity, thou dynasty tis due rebirth.
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