Adalbero of Laon

Adalbero of Laon , called Ascelin , (* around 947; † January 27, 1030 in the Abbey of Saint-Vincent in Laon ) was Bishop of Laon from 977 to 1030.

He came from the Lorraine family of Wigeriche and was the son of Reginar of Bastogne , a brother of the Count of Verdun Gottfried the Prisoner and Adalberus , the Archbishop of Reims .

After starting his training in Gorze , between 969 and 974 he was a student of Gerbert von Aurillac, who later became Pope Silvester II , in Reims . Since he was a loyal follower of the Carolingian king Lothar , this made him his chancellor in 974 and on January 16, 977, after the death of Bishop Roricon on December 20, 976, the bishop of Laon.

Shortly after he took office as bishop, rumors surfaced that Lothar's wife Emma had committed adultery with Adalbero of Laon. His uncle Adalbero of Reims called a synod in which the innocence of Adalbero and Emma was established. Lothar's brother Karl , who had spread the rumor, had to go into exile. He was 977 by Otto II. To the Duke of Lower Lorraine made and thus on the side of the enemy with his brother Lothar Ottonen passed over.

After the deaths of Lothar (986) and his son Ludwig V (987), Hugo Capet was elected king from the Robertin family . He founded the new Capetian dynasty . The claim to the throne of Charles of Lower Lorraine, the last surviving Carolingian heir to the throne, was passed over. In the following year, Karl took up arms to assert his claim to the crown. Adalbero of Laon, like his uncle Adalbero of Reims, who had crowned Hugo Capet, sided with the new dynasty. When Karl succeeded in taking Laon with a single blow, he was able to capture his enemy, the queen widow Emma, ​​and Adalbero of Laon. Adalbero of Laon escaped from the dungeon, but then reconciled with Karl and got his diocese back. He won Karl's trust and swore allegiance to him, but at the end of March 991 he betrayed Karl and opened the city gates of Laon to Hugo's troops at night. Karl was surprised in his sleep and arrested with his wife and children. He remained in custody until the end of his life. Adalbero became the archetype of an unscrupulous traitor for posterity. He was nicknamed Vetulus traditor (old traitor).

In 993, Adalbero allied himself with Count Odo I of Blois in order to give Hugo Capet and his son Robert to King Otto III. to deliver. In 998 he was deposed at the Synod of Pavia .

The exact date of his death is not known. July 19, 1030 is mentioned, but also (in the necrology of Saint Vincent in Laon) a January 27, perhaps that of the year 1031. He was buried in the abbey church of Saint Vincent in Laon.

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