Salomon (Brittany)

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King Solomon of Brittany. 19th century fresco in the Saint-Pierre cathedral in Rennes.

Salomon (also Salomon de Poher, Breton: Salaun ; * 825 or 835 ; † June 25 (or December 15 ) 874 ) was a prince of the Bretons in the 9th century who, as an independent king, led the country to the greatest development of power in its history .

Salomon was a nephew of the Breton ruler Nominoë († 851) and gained control of the Bretons in 857 by murdering his cousin Erispoë . Although he had already been awarded a third of Brittany by the West Franconian King Charles the Bald in 852 , his usurpation may have occurred in response to Erispoë's rapprochement with the Franks , as it was due to his daughter's engagement to the Franconian king's son Ludwig had followed the stalker . In the following years he was involved in several revolts of the Franconian nobility against Charles the Bald, who reacted by appointing Robert the Brave as margrave of the neustrian mark.

In 863, Salomon obtained the contractual recognition of Charlemagne and was awarded the land between Sarthe and Mayenne , possibly as a Frankish vassal. In Franconian chronicles (see Regino and Annales Bertiniani ) he is still called the "Duke of the Bretons" ( dux Brittonum ) at this time , while he was already recognized as "King" by Breton authors. In the year 866 he finally emancipated himself from the Frankish supremacy and enlisted an army of Loire-Normans under the leadership of Hasteinn (Hastingo), which he plundered into western Neustria (today Anjou and Maine ). In the Battle of Brissarthe , the Normans achieved a complete victory over a Frankish contingent under Margrave Robert the Brave, who was killed in the process. In the peace negotiated with Charles the Bald in 867, Solomon achieved the greatest territorial expansion of the Breton territory, when the Franks gave him the Cotentin and the Avranchin . In the Franconian chronicles he was from now on also referred to as "King", which recognized his equality with the King of the Franks.

Salomon pushed ahead with the expansion of a Breton church system and obtained from Pope Nicholas I , who also recognized him as king, the formation of an archbishopric in Dol as the primacy of the Breton church. He defended the country against the raids of the Normans and in 873 he supported Charles the Bald in the siege of Angers held by the Vikings . The political stability of Brittany collapsed with the assassination of Solomon in 874 by his son-in-law, Count Pascweten von Vannes , and the Count Gurvant von Rennes , who fought each other from then on and thus opened the country to the Normans' raids. Since then, Salomon has been venerated as a saint and martyr in national Breton historiography . In the calendar of saints of the Catholic Church , June 25, the presumed day of death, is named as his feast day.

Web links

Commons : Salomon (Bretagne)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Historia Britanniae Armoricæ. Edited by Léopold Delisle . In: Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France . Nouvelle Édition Vol. 7, 1870, pp. 46–52, here p. 51 ; René Merlet (ed.): La chronique de Nantes (570 environ - 1049) (= Collection de textes pour servir à l'étude et à l'enseignement de l'histoire. 19, ZDB -ID 978323-4 ). Picard, Paris 1896, pp. 49-50, § XIV .
  2. ↑ His father was probably called Rivallon. See the document from Erispoë to the Redon Abbey of March 10, 857, which names a "Salomon filii Rivallon" as a witness. Aurélien de Courson (ed.): Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Redon en Bretagne (= Collection de documents inédits sur l'histoire de France. Series 1: Histoire politique. Vol. 42, ZDB -ID 1003687-8 ). Imprimerie Impériale, Paris 1863, p. 371 , Appendix No. XLIV.
  3. ↑ Georg Waitz (ed.): Annales Bertiniani (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica . Scriptores. 7: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi. Vol. 5). Hahn, Hanover 1883, p. 41 .
  4. ↑ Georg Waitz (ed.): Annales Bertiniani (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores. 7: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi. Vol. 5). Hahn, Hanover 1883, p. 61 .
  5. ^ Regino von Prüm : Chronicon. Published by Georg Heinrich Pertz . In: Monumenta Germaniae Historica. 5: Scriptores in folio. Vol. 1, 1826, ISSN  0343-2157 , pp. 537-612, here pp. 577-578 ; Georg Waitz (Ed.): Annales Bertiniani (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores. 7: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi. Vol. 5). Hahn, Hanover 1883, p. 84 .
  6. ↑ Nicolai I PAPAE Epistolæ. Edited by Léopold Delisle. In: Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France. Nouvelle Édition Vol. 7, 1870, pp. 385-438, here pp. 408-409 , Cap. XXIII.
  7. ^ Regino von Prüm: Chronicon. Published by Georg Heinrich Pertz. In: Monumenta Germaniae Historica. 5: Scriptores in folio. Vol. 1, 1826, pp. 537-612, here p. 585 ; Georg Waitz (Ed.): Annales Bertiniani (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores. 7: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi. Vol. 5). Hahn, Hanover 1883, pp. 123-124 .
  8. ^ Regino von Prüm: Chronicon. Published by Georg Heinrich Pertz. In: Monumenta Germaniae Historica. 5: Scriptores in folio. Vol. 1, 1826, pp. 537-612, here p. 586 ; Georg Waitz (Ed.): Annales Bertiniani (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores. 7: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi. Vol. 5). Hahn, Hannover 1883, pp. 125–126 .
  9. ↑ Martyrology ( Italian )
personal data
SURNAME Solomon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Salaun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Breton prince and king
DATE OF BIRTH 9th century
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 874 or December 15, 874