The Vengeance of Vergy

bloodline of a Burgundian Duchess

Steven S. Green

Copyright 2012

Russellville, KY U.S.A.

modern scholarship advances in mapping the transition from Carolingian to "Capetian" primacy among the western Franks, insight into the mind of the medieval writer comes into better focus. Old documents sometimes only begrudgingly yield their secrets. In its limited scope, this study revisits some controversies of ninth through eleventh century Burgundy, providing a genealogical overview intended to survive scrutiny only as long as historical facts are thereby illuminated. In the year 1033 or thereabouts, the new Duc de Bourgogne Robert "le Vieux", son of King Robert II of France, installed as of 1032 by his brother King Henri I, took as his wife Helie de Semur. Their progeny would inherit the Duchy, in the person of a grandson Hugues, whose father Henri "le Damoiseau" predeceased Duke Robert. Scholarly inquiry into the true credentials of this roughly seventeen year old Duchesse Helie seems at an impasse. The ancestors of Helie's father Dalmas ("Dalmace" as he shall herein be called), the Seigneurs de Semur, vanish into obscurity as their line is investigated as far back as five generations. Nevertheless it is worth noting that Thibaut de Semur, the half-brother of Dalmace by their common father, Geoffroy, was only six years away from inheriting the County of Chalon from his uncle Hugues, who would die in 1039. Semur (Saint-Maur) was suddenly and inexplicably in the ascendancy. The field abounded with ladies of renown, so that an ambitious Capetian prince such as the young Robert "le Vieux" would not likely squander the opportunity to marry into royal blood; given the stony silence regarding the lineage of Dalmace, some attempt to trace the ancestry of Helie's mother Aremburge de Vergy must then proceed, despite many pitfalls. According to the Vita Sanctii Viventii presbyteri, a "vir strenuus", what those of a later period might term a "strenuous knight" or man of war, founded the monastery of Saint-Vivant in the ninth century "in loco montis Vergiaci castri".1 In the twelfth century, probably on the foundations of that

As

Stewart Baldwin, The Henry Project: the ancestors of King Henry II of England, Manasss Count of Autun, Chalon, Dijon, fl. 894-918. quoting : "Vita S. Viventii presbyteri, RHF 9: 131", 2008.

castle, a location chosen for its inherently defensible characteristics, a fortress, described as among the most impregnable in France, was erected at Vergy by an unrelated regime. Jeanne de Vergy of this later family would one day unveil the enigmatic Shroud of Turin, but mention of this serves only to show Vergy as a noteworthy citadel, of which the name echoes through time. Surviving genealogies preserve an undisputed, unbroken line of Aremburge's supposed ancestors who mesh seamlessly with documented descendants of Manasss "I", Comte de Dijon and their chronology. This is he who not only founded the monastery at Vergy castle, but also held the County, a point in favor (of the genealogies). His son Gislebert, Comte d'Autun, would become Duc de Bourgogne "after his possible brothers-in-law Raoul and Hugh "le Noir" ceded him their rights to Burgundy in [936]"2. (Descendants of Buvinus, son Richard "le Justicier" Duke of Burgundy, and Richard's sons Raoul and Hugh, would long vie with the Capetians for Burgundy and indeed, for influence over the future France.) Duke Gislebert's wife Ermengarde seems more likely than not a daughter of Duke Richard, but acceptance of this identification by DuChesne in 1625 is not yet universal. An historical problem of broader dimension remains, in Vergy. In the late 1040's Duke Robert of Burgundy, having sired by her an heir, repudiated his wife Helie, yet it is plain to see that any accusation of consanguinity would have been fraudulent, as there is absolutely no close relationship between the two. (On what grounds, then, might the Duke have been seeking annulment?) In 1048, in an act, it could be thought, leading up to said repudiation rather than following it, the "Dux Burgundie gener eius"3, Helie's husband, slew his father-in-law Dalmace in the course of a quarrel over the dinner table "by his own hand". It would be difficult to escape the conclusion that this hinged on Duke Robert's decision to marry Ermengarde d'Anjou for political advantage, inasmuch as his marriage to this daughter of Foulques "Nerra" was indeed effected that same year or in 1049. So ended the fairytale for Helie, who took the veil as "Petronilla", a peculiar outcome

Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands: A Prosopography on Medieval European Noble and Royal Families; Burgundy Duchy, Dukes; Chapter 2. Dukes of Burgundy [918]-956; B. Duke of Burgundy 936-956. Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, 2012. 3 ibid., Burgundy Duchy, Nobility; Chapter 6. Comtes et Vicomtes de Dijon; O. Seigneurs de Semur. quoting: Vita S Hugonis.

had infidelity on her part been the Duke's motive for divorce. The Duke also killed her brother Joceran. Clearly, explanation of Helie's fifteen year marriage to the violent Duke Robert requires a fuller accounting of her mother's pedigree. Two "mutually contradictory"4 interpretations, as Baldwin aptly terms them, concerning Aremburge's putative ancestor must be contrasted for factual value. Aspirations of deciphering these runes begin with the belief that refutation of the false claim must be the initial objective. Was the house of Vergy descended from the Childebrand-Nibelung line, or not? The monotonous claims that Theodoric or "Thierry" son of Theodoric "le Trsorier" was the father of Manasss I are legion; how do these arise? They are also inextricably bound up with one of the aforementioned interpretations. Like two steam locomotives rushing towards each other along the same track, the conflicting recensions of a lost original manuscript already command the attention of scholarship: "Richardus dux et Ingelbertus Walonem fratrem Manasserii comitis genitos ex sorore Richardi ducis successorem jusserunt ordinari."5 Here the Series Abbatum Flaviniacensium deals with the installation, as Abbot of Flavigny, of "Walo, brother of Manasss, Count", asserting that the progeny of Manasss were born of Duke Richard's sister, conveying in unambiguous language the message that the two were husband and wife. DuChesne's Histoire gnalogique de la maison de Vergy of 1625 contains the following variant of the lost text: "...Vualonem, fratrem Manasserii comitis qui gener erat B fratris Richardi ducis successorem jusserunt ordinari" 6 which explicitly calls Manasss the son-inlaw of Boson, King of Provence, Duke Richard's brother. Only through application of the premise that a truthful original was later corrupted with the intent of undermining the dynasty of Manasss can the veracity of either allegation be put to the test; else, the only rationale left open, an inverse postulate, would have his family manipulating its own genealogy to enhance their esteem and perceptions of their noble status, a scenario to be found quite impossible in face of the facts. In the greater context of conclusions by Settipani, who thinks a sister of Buvinus carried the "Richard" name into the family of the Childebrand-

4 5

Baldwin, Op. cit. Baldwin, Op. cit. 6 Baldwin, Op. cit.

Nibelungs,7 clues emerge. Exploiting the ease of conflation between the precedents set by the "Richilde" who married Ekkehard and by the daughter of Richard, Comte d'Amiens (sister of Duke Richard) thought to have married Theodoric "le Trsorier" and responsible for the name "Richard" of his son, a conspiracy would be perpetuated intent on suppressing Manasss' true origin. Its chief element would be to graft him and the genealogy of his descendants, the house of Vergy, to an illegitimate bloodline. Confusion sprung from these seeds of doubt guarantees that for all future generations, it is only with great difficulty that the true origin of the Manasss/Vergy line may be perceived. The beneficiaries would be, of course, the Capetians, who had broken with what would consequently seem the mediocre (and crassly "Buvinid") heritage of the (Chalon)/Semur/Vergy line when Duke of Burgundy Robert "le Vieux" divorced Helie in favor of Ermengarde d'Anjou. This was their denunciation of Dalmace, his Vergy allies, and their descendants. It is to be emphasized that if the outlined suspicions prove correct, the only possible conclusion must be that Vergy was actually far and away nobler than the ChildebrandNibelungs, which by definition infers a dwindling pool of potential candidates as the authentic ancestors of Manasss I. Did someone, the Capetians perhaps, feel threatened, or fear the loss of their exalted position atop the post-Carolingian political order, to the extent that they felt the need to debilitate Vergy in a future generation? This fraud is so elegantly crafted and so cunning as to escape detection. Childebrand was the son of Pepin "le Gros". Accounts that he was Pepin's son by an unknown concubine compel acceptance approaching moral certitude, a stigma which overshadows his common paternity with Charles "Martel". His son Nibelung "I" was likewise illegitimate. By calling Theodoric/"Thierry" the father of Manasss, and claiming that the latter had married the sister of Duke Richard, the unseen enemy in one stroke would deprive Manasss' descendants of their legacy from his real wife; they would forever brand the house of Vergy as descendants of an illegitimate line, erstwhile courtiers of the Merovingians; they would prevail, in that the fictional marriage would sound credible, falling into an established and ignoble pattern, as if another ordinary case of a Buvinid woman marrying a

Cawley, Op. cit., Carolingian Nobility; Chapter 1, Carolingian Nobility in France; J. Families of Nibelung, Childebrand and Theodoric.

Childebrand-Nibelung. This would also indirectly injure the prospects of Duke Richard's descendants and cement Capetian domination in Burgundy, which they had held since Gislebert's death in 956. The unique origin of Manasss, and that noble blood inherited from his real wife would, in theory, gradually be expunged from the ken of man. If that were not enough, the conspirators could now point to the fact that Manasss and his son Duke Gislebert were successors to the County of Autun as if to demonstrate familial continuity. That political rivals would fabricate a link between Manasss and a brother of Charles Martel begs the question: how much nobler than that could Vergy be, that this should have been chosen as the engine for dragging down the honor of their name? In reality, the family of Manasss supplanted the Childebrand-Nibelungs as the Counts of Autun, ending a long tenancy: Speaking of Theodoric "le Trsorier", "The Annales Bertiniani record his resignation of Autun in 879 after Boso disputed his possession of it."8 This alone is sufficient verification that the two families are fundamentally alien. The onomastic demarcation is definitive; yes, the name "Richard" did come into the Childebrand-Nibelung line, likely as per Settipani's ideas, but it never appeared in the Vergy line. The "Gislebert", "Walo" and "Manasss" names of the newcomers to the County of Autun are hopelessly incongruous with the "Theodoric", "Childebrand" and "Nivelon/ Nibelung" names of their predecessors; the coup de grce. Final elimination from the equation of the Childebrands ensures that the search for the true ancestry of Manasss I must follow a different course, and builds conviction that a contrived marriage to a sister of Duke Richard is at odds with historical fact. Having unearthed a hypothesis, Baldwin stops short of deeper inquiry. The "Count of Condroz"9 as Maurice Chaume called him is now an identifiable historical individual, despite other family members of the same name who are more difficult to resolve. He appears in legitimate documents of the years 877 and 885, and is certainly a relative of Reginar "I", Count of Hainaut who died 915/16, most probably his father or uncle.

Cawley, Op. cit., Carolingian Nobility; Chapter 1, Carolingian Nobility in France; J. Families of Nibelung, Childebrand and Theodoric. 9 Baldwin, Op. cit.

Support for Chaume's ostensible bluff is twofold. Firstly, the Annales Hanoni of Jacques de Guise, circa 1390, report that the immediate predecessor of Counts named "Raginerus" was Manasss, Count of Rethel. While the apparently anachronistic entry "is unlikely to be correct"10, Chaume could have consulted the work and drawn the innocuous conclusion that the unusual "Manasss" name existed among a known family of Counts in Hainaut fond of the name "Reginar", no matter how erratic and inaccurate the work of de Guise involving legendary material from earlier centuries. Whether Chaume had this or other tools at his disposal may never be known, and whether or not later Counts of Rethel named Manasss had any connection to the "Manicerius" of de Guise is moot here. The existence of an earlier historical Reginar of rank, lay abbot of Echternach 863/4-870 who may be the same person as the Regnier (Raganarius)11 of the Annales Bertiniani, killed in battle in 876, somewhat mitigates the degree of impossibility that "Manacerius" could have been, as per de Guise, the father or uncle of the "first" Reginar. In sum, Chaume suggested the father of Manasss I, Comte de Dijon, to be Giselbert, "Count of Condroz" known, in light of better evidence, as Giselbert, Graf van Maasgau, of the "Reginar" family of Counts in Hainaut. By consensus of the best current scholarship, This is the same Giselbert who in 846 abducted from the court, and married in Aquitaine, a daughter of the Emperor Lothar, who in turn eventually sanctioned said marriage in 848/49. If this can be so, Vergy carries the blood of Charlemagne. That would quite vindicate a conspirator's choice, as ancestor of Vergy, of Charles Martel's bastard brother, but would also make parting company with Helie de Semur a dangerous affair for Robert "le Vieux". The identification is feasible chronologically, as birth in 847 or later would make Manasss I no more than 73 years of age at the approximately known time of his death. The ordeal by immersion in boiling water is the only way forward, be it only as dire warning that not every word, written in Latin though it may be, carries in it the spirit of truth. Secondly, then, and finally, in consideration of Chaume's risky gambit, a hypothetical genealogical model with Manasss I as

10 11

Cawley, Op. cit., Lower Lotharingia Nobility; Chapter 10. Graven van Maasgau (Masau). Baldwin, Op. cit., Regnier I. quoting Annales Bertiniani, s.a. 876,133.

its subject must be devised for onomastic evaluation of its possibility.* The names "Manicerius/Manasss", "Giselbert/Gislebert", and "Ragenardus/ Reginar/Rainard" are all found on both sides of the divide. The name "Ermengarde" is predominant among women of both families. As dangerous a game of roulette as it may seem, Chaume might have similarly evaluated every known contemporary noble family of Europe, narrowing the list of suspected families to one; and that is a method of reasoning superior to mere conjecture. The genealogical machination attributed here to the Capetian scribes betrays itself on the following wise. Both families, the Childebrands, the Reginars, originate far north of Burgundy in or near the very old territorial nerve center of the Frankish kingdoms, a district surrounding Aachen, Lige, Herstal, and Prm, so both are in close proximity to the ruling family and in the service thereof. Both seem to have sent representatives to Autun in Burgundy to fulfill political or military obligations to the crown. Autun is the French contraction for Augustudunum, a frontier post of Roman civilization, a "fortress" founded by and named for Augustus, which the Muslims ignominiously sacked in 725. For all appearances, some vestige of its Imperial status lingered, in that the Dukes of Burgundy held, de facto, the County of Autun, with military connotations. If as theorized, Manasss I originated in Maasgau, his presence in Burgundy falls into exactly the same category as does that of Theodoric "le Trsorier", an administrator, a deputy, a governor. To have seized upon the Childebrand-Nibelungs as an avenue for impugning the race of Manasss is indicative of a provincial mindset. Imaginative though the genealogical deception was, it was of limited vision, transparent by virtue of the inability to escape familial connections to the localities incorporated. It was clever enough to mislead DuChesne. Why must the envisioned manipulations deprive Manasss of his wife? They do so to strip his descendants of that noble ancestry which, in the real world, came to them through her. Tasked with transforming Manasss into a Childebrand who married a pure Buvinid, the conspiracy did face a predicament! Absent some conflicted memory of this wife's royal blood, in a later generation, (assuming successful extirpation of descent from Giselbert) Helie de Semur would be just another peasant girl, leaving Robert "le Vieux"

* see chart ii, appendix 8

a laughingstock for ever having wed her, the Capetians, bourgeois. It is superbly ironic that where modern analysts leave room for doubts regarding the maternity of Boson's daughter the conspiracy itself dispels these, for what motive to expunge memory of her from Vergy had they, other than to repeal a claim of high birth? It was not Buvinid blood they feared, neither that of Duke Richard, nor that of King Boson; it was something truly more ominous. Discovery of this fateful flaw is the solution. Rumors of an imagined "first" wife of Boson would seem to have begun through erroneous surmise. The forcible abduction according to the Annales Fuldenses "in 878" of "filiam Hludowicis imperatoris de Italiam"12 by "Buosone comite" is cited as the only record of her existence, a peculiarity if he had already married Ermengardis in 876 as Medieval Lands perfunctorily states thereafter. For that matter, it seems absurd that "Hludowicis" should be intended to refer to anyone other than Emperor Louis II, King of Italy himself, the proven and universally accepted father of the Ermengardis married to Boson. Unless Boson is being accused of abducting his sister-in-law, (which, laughably, would furnish the same royal ancestry which is the subject of validation here) it seems responsible to interpret this anecdote as a duplication of the one genuine marriage, which gives Boson's children common maternity. The agreement among numerous independent primary sources that an Ermengarde was the wife of Manasss must then be coupled with what has been intuited out of the aggregate preponderance of related historical fact as the one original and factual recension of the Series Abbatum Flaviniacensium. The logical realization that Ermengarde is indeed the granddaughter of Emperor Louis II, as always believed by some, is then morally confirmed through perception that the only motivation for falsifying the Series in this way would be to cast doubt on that pedigree. Competitors for political influence could bribe the scribes, just as money fuels negative campaign advertising today. The absoluteness of all this stems from the historical reality that for the house of Capet, the Carolingian ancestry of Vergy was a conundrum.

12

Cawley, Op. cit., Provence; Chapter 1. Kings of Provence 855-928; B. Kings of Provence, Bosonid Family, 879-928.

Conclusion The maternal pedigree of Helie de Semur has been lost for many centuries. Although Chaume recovered it, he nevertheless seems to have erred in thinking that King Boson was married more than once, and so may not have fully grasped that Ermengarde, wife of Manasss I, was a granddaughter of Emperor Louis II. All of Helie's known Carolingian ancestry was from Lothar I through her mother, Aremburge de Vergy. Parallel extrapolation of the ancestry of Dalmace, Seigneur de Semur, father of Helie, is not possible on the basis of documentation thus far consulted, although bonds to Chalon, Autun and Vergy appear to be deep. The thoroughly studied political element of marital union in the upper echelon Frankish and Burgundian nobility renders it impossible for a brother of the King of France to have married too far beneath his station. The fraudulent variables, accordingly discovered, in genealogies of the house of Vergy can exist only as aspersions, hence scholarly reinstatement of an authentic original is vindicated, and faith inspired that Aremburge's entire regal pedigee can be proven accurate. A powerful Burgundian alliance reached its apex in the person of Raoul, King of France, son of Duke Richard "le Justicier". The significance of his anomalous election and reign is marginalized by the classification, as by Medieval Lands, of Raoul as a Capetian King for convenience. He is a Buvinid King, neither Carolingian nor Capetian. Overthrow of the erroneous impression that a key marriage in the alliance was that of an illusionary sister of Duke Richard to Manasss I, Comte de Dijon brings with it the understanding that Duke Richard's real marriage alliance was that of his daughter Ermengarde to Manasss' son Gislebert, who alone could consequently qualify to succeeded as Duke. How first cousins once removed remained married remains an issue. In the aftermath of the debacle which had befallen his sister Helie, Hugues de Florent-Saumur, the great Cluniac reformer, went on to become one of Europe's more influential diplomats and advisors to the Papacy in the era of the First Crusade. St. Hugues was canonized in 1120, just eleven years after his death. The Latin form of his name, "Floriaco", was carried by his descendants in the French form "Flory" or "Fleury". The best known Flory branch includes some noted Mediterranean military adventurers and a Sheriff 9

of Rutland, while members of the other held office in the crusader state of Jerusalem. Robert "le Vieux" Duke of Burgundy repudiated a wife of imperial Carolingian ancestry to marry his second cousin. This second wife also likely shared in his descent from Robert I, King of France, the totality of which brought the outrage of the church. Ermengarde d'Anjou was a greatgranddaughter of Foulques II d'Anjou and his wife Gerberge through Geoffroy I "Grisegonelle", and Robert "Capet" was their great-grandson through Adelaide "Blanche", the mother of Constance d'Arles. Twenty-eight years after the murder of Dalmace de Semur, on March 21, 1076, the cruel sixty-five year old robber-baron Duke of Burgundy Robert "le Vieux" and Ermengarde d'Anjou perished as a result "d'un accident honteux et tragique sur lequel on n'a aucun dtail"13, 'of an accident, shameful and tragic, on which one has not a clue'. All that can be said with certainty regarding this, the most informative account extant, is that it fails to note any connection between the name of the church chosen as the milieu for the assassination, Fleury-sur-Ouche, and those who might be most gratified to see Helie's grandson succeed as Duke, or the deaths of her father Dalmace and brother Joceran avenged.

13

Ernest Petit, Histoire des Ducs de Bourgogne de la Race Captienne, T. 1, p. 187, Paris, 1885.

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