Bernhard of Gothien

Bernhard von Gothien († after 878) was a West Franconian nobleman who had been given rule over Gothien or Septimania by the Carolingians . As Count of Barcelona , Girona and Rosselló , he is also referred to as Bernhard II (in contrast to his predecessor Bernhard of Septimania ; † 844).

origin

There is considerable confusion about his origin, not least because of his name, which appears more frequently in the top management of the Franconian Empire at this time :

1. According to Dümmler (see below) he was a brother of Emenon of Poitiers and like him a son of Bilechild, daughter of Count Rorgon I of Maine and sister of the Rorgoniden Gauzlin († 886).
2. In the case of Karl Ferdinand Werner (see below), Bilechild's husband is Bernhard von Poitiers (X 844), Count of the Breton Marks
3. Schwennicke (see below and Wilhelmiden ) in turn sees him as the grandson of Adalelmus, brother of Wilhelm of Aquitaine , but gives no information about his parents.
4. Bernhard von Gothien should not be confused with Bernard Plantevelue († 885/86), Count of Autun and Auvergne , the son of Margrave Bernhard of Septimania (last attested in 844), who in turn was a son of Wilhelm von Gellones.

Life

After Ranulf I , Count of Poitou, died in the Battle of Brissarthe in 866 , Bernhard von Gothien ousted his heir Ranulf II from the county in 868 , who now fled with his brothers Gauzbert and Ebalus to Aquitaine to the court of Ludwig II the Stammler . In the year 872, King Charles the Bald placed his son Ludwig the Stammler as King of Aquitaine under the supervision of Bernard Plantevelue , Count of Autun , Boso of Vienne - and Bernhard of Gothien.

When Ludwig the Stammler succeeded his father as King of Western France in 877 and his sub-kingdom in Aquitaine thus became obsolete.In the early summer of 878 he then took to the field against the Normans on the Lower Loire and the Rorgonids , Bernhard von Gothien took advantage of the situation, to rise up against him - also as a close relative of the Rorgonids.

In the autumn of 878, at the meeting in Troyes , where he was crowned King of West Franconia on September 7, 878, Ludwig had Bernhard von Gothien condemned, allowing Ranulf II to reign in the Poitou. After his conviction, Bernhard disappears from the annals.

Web links

• Bernhard, Margrave of Gothien at genealogie-mittelalter.de

literature

• Ernst Ludwig Dümmler : History of the East Franconian Empire. Volume 1-2. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1862-1865.
• Rudolf Schieffer : The Carolingians (= Kohlhammer-Urban-Taschenbücher 411). 4th, revised and expanded edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 2006, ISBN 3-17-019099-7 .
• Detlev Schwennicke (Ed.): European family tables . New episode Volume 3, Part 4: Feudal France and its influence on the world of the Middle Ages. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1989, plate 731.
• Karl Ferdinand Werner : Important noble families in the empire of Charlemagne. In: Wolfgang Braunfels (ed.): Karl der Große. Life's work and afterlife. Volume 1: Personality and History. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1965, pp. 83-142.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Cf. collection of materials on Bernhard, X 844 at medieval-genealogie.de

predecessor	Office	successor
Humfried	Count of Barcelona 865–878	Wilfried I. the hairy
Ramnulf II.	Count of Poitou 868–878	Ramnulf II.