Alard/Adalhard
Alard/AdalhardAdalhard appears as comes and missus dominicus in a charter to Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire of 866×875 ["... et Adelhardus comes, missi dominici, ..." Cart. S.-Benoît-sur-Loire, 57 (#24)]. He appears as a count palatine in the Capitulary of Quierzy (14 June 877) ["Adalardus comes palatii" MGH Leg. 2: 359 (#281, c. 17)]. He appears as count in a lost act of king Carloman (882-4) ["Adalardus comes" Rec. actes Louis IV, 14 (#5)]. Adalhard's last known appearance is on 10 October 890 in a cahrter for Saint-Martin de Tours ["S. Adalardi comitis" Werner (1967), 434 & n. 20; Pancarte S.-Martin de Tours, 68 (#17)]. The parentage of Adalhard, and his conjectured position as the father-in-law of Louis II, are based on identifications of Werner, and are discussed in the Commentary section.
Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of birth: Unknown.
Date of death: after 10 October 890.
Place of
death: Unknown.
Possible father: Wulfhard.
Possible mother: Susanna.
See the Commentary section.
Spouse: Unknown.
Possible children:
See the Commentary section.
Wulfard, abbot of Flavigny.
Adélaïde,
living 9 November 901;
m. Louis II
le Bègue, d. 10 April 879,
king of France 877-9.
The possible genealogical connections of count Adalhard depend on certain identifications of several appearances of the name Adalhard in various records as referring to the same man. The main argument was given by Karl Ferdinand Werner.
Werner's Conjecture
Werner's argument is based mainly on the following five records.
The following table indicates how these pieces were put together by Werner [Werner (1967): 429-441]:
Thus, as can be seen from the table, Werner gathered together three disconnected genealogical fragments and connected them together by conjecturing that Susanna was a daughter of Bégon, that Adalhard nepos of Eberhard was the same as Adalhard son of Susanna and Wulfhard, and that Adélaïde was a daughter of Adalhard. The entire picture fits together well, with the onomastic link between abbot Wulfhard and Susanna's family, and with the known fact that Adélaïde was a proavus of Bégon. However, a definite weak link is that the word imperatoris in the Flavigny sources has to be ignored or explained away in order to make abbot Wulfhard a sororius of king Louis II of France instead of emperor Louis II, for without this link, the basic onomastic argument vanishes. Also, even if the theory is accepted in its basic outline, Adélaïde and Wulfhard could have instead been children of one of Adalhard's siblings, where the main points of the reconstruction would still be valid. Although Werner's theory is probably the best that has been offered regarding the exact way that Adélaïde descended from Bégon, it still falls well short of proof.
Cart. S.-Benoît-sur-Loire = Maurice Prou & Alexandre Vidier, eds., Recueil des chartes de l'abbaye de Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, 2 vols. (Paris, 1900-12).
MGH Leg. = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Legum series.
Pancarte S.-Martin de Tours = Émile Mabille, ed., La Pancarte noire de Saint-Martin de Tours (Paris, 1866).
Rec. actes Louis IV = Ph. Lauer, ed. Recueil des actes de Louis IV (Paris, 1914).
Werner (1967) = Karl Ferdinand Werner, "Die Nachkommen Karls des Großen bis um das Jahr 1000 (1.-8. Generation)", Karl der Große 4 (1967): 403-483 & table, especially Excurs II: Königin Adelheid, pp. 429-441..
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 16 August 2012.