Anchier/Anscario
Anchier/AnscarioAnscario first appears in 879, when he was sent as an envoy to Ludwig/Louis of Germany by those loyal to the sons of Louis le Bègue ["... miserunt Vultarium episcopum Aurelianensem et Goiramnum ac Ansgerum comites ad Hludowicum apud Viridunum, " Ann. Bertin., s.a. 879, 149]. He appears on a donation of king Carloman to Montieramey on 17 November 882 ["... illustres fideles nostri Rotbertus et Anscarius, dilecti nobis comites ..." Giry (1896), 131 (#18)], and on another charter of Carloman dated 6 March 883 ["Theodericus et Anscharius comites ambasciaverunt." RHF 9: 430]. On 15 January 887, he appears as count of Oscheret in a charter of the emperor Charles the Fat ["... et in comitatu Oscarensi villa quae Fiscinis nuncupatur, ex jam dicti comitis Anscarii honoribus ..." Ronserot (1893), 525 (#14)]. In 889, with his brother Guy/Guido, he was a major supporter of Guido of Spoleto (later emperor) in his struggle for the Italian throne, and the brothers led 500 men against Berengario I, with Anscario's brother dying in the second battle between the two rivals [Gesta Berengarii imperatoris, ii, 15, Dümmler (1871), 97; ibid, ii, 189 (p. 107); see below under Guy/Guido]. Anscario appears as marchio in charters of emperor Guido on 21 February 891 ["Anscherius marchio" Dipl. Guido & Lamb., 12 (#5), 17 (#7)] and 29 June 892 ["Anskerii nostri strenuissimi marchionis" ibid., 41 (#15)], and in a charter of the emperor Lamberto on 25 July 896 ["dilectissimus marchio noster atque fidelissimus comes Anscharius" ibid., 82 (#5)]. Soon after the death of Lambert (15 October 898), Anscario reconciled with king Berengario I, with whom he appears in an act of 1 December 898 ["Ascherium illustrem marchionem" Dipl. Bereng. I, 70 (#23)]. Anscario may have been the man of that name who appeared in a letter of pope John IX in May 899 ["Anscharium comitem dilectum filium nostrum" PL 131: 30 (#3)]. He was definitely deceased by 21 April 902, when his son Adalberto appears as "Adalbertus marchio filius quondam Anscherii" [Hlawitschka (1960), sketch of Adalbert von Ivrea, citing Dipl. Lodov. III, 51 (#18) (not seen by me)].
Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of birth: Unknown.
Date of death: 898×902.
[See above]
Place of death: Unknown.
Father: Unknown.
Mother: Unknown.
See the Commentary section for some
conjectures about the parentage of Anscario.
Spouse: Unknown.
Child:
Adalberto, margrave of Ivrea;
m. (1) Gisela, daughter of Berengario I, king of Italy.
m. (2) Ermengarde, daughter of Adalberto II, margrave of
Tuscany, by his wife Bertha.
Brother: Guy/Guido, d. 889, count.
Guido is mentioned as one of the early
supporters of king (later emperor) Guido of Spoleto against
Berengario I ["Anscherio cum fratre simul, ..."
with the gloss "cognominis erat duci Gallorum, id est
Wido." Gesta Berengarii imperatoris, ii, 15,
Dümmler (1871), 97; "Hic uidet Anscherius fratrem ..."
with the gloss "suum, scilicet Widonem" ibid,
ii, 189 (p. 107)]. He has been identified with a Burgundian count
Guy who appears from 877 to 882 [Dümmler (1871), 23, n. 1;
Poupardin (1901), 82, n. 1]. This Guy appears in the Capitulary
of Quierzy in 877 [MGH Leg. 1: 540], and in a charter of the
emperor Charles the Fat dated 4 November 882 ["Wido
comes" Sickel (1869), 414 (#9)].
Poupardin (1901), Chaume:
Conjectured father: Guy,
d. 20 June, before 869, count.
Guy possessed the villa of
Vendoeuvre some time before 865 ["... villa quae
Vendopera dicitur, quam piae memoriae Hludowicus imperator sancto
Petro tradiderat et Wido quidam comes per plures annos tenuerat,
..." Ann. Bertin., s.a. 865, 78], and died on
a 20 June, before 869 [Poupardin (1901), 82, n. 1]. While
Poupardin does not explicitly call this Guy the father of
Anscario, he conjectures Guy to be the father of Anscario's
brother, the Guy who died in 889 [ibid., 82, n. 1, 168]. The
earlier Guy is then conjectured by Poupardin to be the son of yet
another Guy, the count of Maine who died in 834 [ibid., 82, n.
1]. Like Poupardin, Chaume conjectures Anchier/Anscario and
Guy/Guido (d. 889) as the sons of Guy, d. before 869, who is then
conjectured to be the brother of an Anchier and son of count
Amédée of Langres [Chaume (1925), 1: 539 (table 6); see the
next conjecture].
Poupardin (1907):
Conjectured father:
Amédée, count of Langres.
This possible parentage, suggested by
Poupardin in 1907, who apparently overlooked that this disagreed
with his 1901 conjecture [Poupardin (1907), 22], is based on a
charter of Richard le Justicier, duke of Burgundy, dated 18 May
918, in which he restored certain possessions in the pagus
of Langres to the canons of Langres which had been previously
granted by a certain count Amédée and his wife (unnamed) and
his son Anchier ["... in pago Lingonico, quam ex
longinquo tempore Amadeus comes in suo nomine et uxoris suae,
necnon et filii ejus Anscharii ..." Ronserot (1897),
184 (#13)]. This theory depends on the identification of the
Anchier of that charter with Anchier/Anscario of Oscheret and
Ivrea. The major weakness of this theory is that there is
no clear evidence as to when the count Amédée and his son
Anchier lived. As noted above, Chaume placed them a generation
earlier.
Wüstenfeld:
Falsely
attributed father: Eudes,
d. 870×1, count of Anjou, Châteaudun, Troyes.
[For Eudes, see the Commentary section of
the page of Robert
the Strong.]
Falsely attributed
brother: Eudes (Otus),
killed 889.
Wüstenfeld bases this theory on the supposed appearance
of Anscario in book 2, line 158 of the MGH edition of the Gesta
Berengarii ["Ascherium sternens heros Atesinus et
Otum" Panegyricus Berengarii, ii, 158, MGH SS
4: 199], but Dümmler's more accurate edition shows that Ascherium
is a misreading ["Alcherium sternens heros Athesinus et
Othum" Gesta Berengarii imperatoris, ii, 158,
Dümmler (1871), 106]. Based on this inaccurate reading,
Wüstenfeld concluded that the brother of Anscario named at lines
15 and 189 was this Otus of line 158, when in fact the
important manuscript glosses to the Gesta Berengarii
(which were not given in the MGH edition that Wüstenfeld was
using) show that Anscario's brother was named Guido [see above].
Wüstenfeld interprets the name Otus as being Odo/Eudes
(the name Otto is another possibility), and points out another
record in which an Anchier and Eudes are in close relationship, a
charter of Charles the Bald from 16 August 851 in which the
deacon Anchier received a grant from Charles at the request of
Eudes, count of Anjou [RHF 8: 518; Wüstenfeld (1863), 420-1].
Based on this slim and mistaken evidence, Wüstenfeld conjectured
that Eudes of Anjou was the father of Anscario.
Falsely attributed
brother: Guido of Spoleto,
d. December 894, king of Italy, emperor.
This error is due to a careless reading of a few lines in Gesta
Berengarii imperatoris, in which the fratris of Anscherius
was wrongly identified as Guido of Spoleto [Gesta Berengarii
imperatoris, ii, 13-15, Dümmler (1871), 97]. This error is
discussed by Wüstenfeld [Wüstenfeld (1863), 419ff.] and
Dümmler [Dümmler (1871), 22-3].
Ann. Bertin. = G. Waitz, ed., Annales Bertiniani (MGH SRG 6, Hannover, 1883).
Chaume (1925) = Maurice Chaume, Les origines du duché de Bourgogne, 4 vols. (Dijon, 1925).
Dipl. Bereng. I = Luigi Schiaparelli, ed., I diplomi di Berengario I (vol. 1, Rome, 1903).
Dipl. Guido & Lamb. = Luigi Schiaparelli, ed., I diplomi di Guido e di Lamberto (vol. 1, Rome, 1906).
Dipl. Lodov. III = Luigi Schiaparelli, ed., I diplomi italiani di Lodovico III e di Rodolfo II (Fonti per la storia d'Italia, 37, Rome 1910). [I have not seen this work.]
Dümmler (1862-88) = Ernst Dümmler, Geschichte des Ostfränkischen Reiches (Leipzig, 1862-88).
Dümmler (1871) = Ernst Dümmler, Gesta Berengarii Imperatoris (Halle, 1871).
Giry (1896) = Arthur Giry, "Étude carolingiennes", in Études d'histoire du Moyen Age dédiées à Gabriel Monod (Paris, 1896), 107-136.
Hlawitschka (1960) = Eduard Hlawitschka, Franken, Alemannen, Bayern und Burgunder in Oberitalien (774-962) (Freiburg, 1960).
MGH Leg. = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges series.
MGH SRG = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum (separate editions).
PL = P. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus, series Latina, 221 vols. (Paris, 1844-1859).
Poupardin (1901) = René Poupardin, Le royaume de Provence sous les Carolingiens (Paris, 1901).
Poupardin (1907) = René Poupardin, Le royaume de Bourgogne (888-1038) - Étude sur les origines du royaume d'Arles (Paris, 1907).
RHF = Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France.
Ronserot (1893) = Alphonse Ronserot, "Diplòmes carolingiens originaux des archives de la Haute-Marne", Bulletin de la Société des Sciences Historiques et Naturelles de l'Yonne 47.1 (1893), 503-539.
Ronserot (1897) = Alphonse Ronserot, "Chartes inédites des IXe et Xe siècles appartenant aux archives de la Haute-Marne (851-973)", Bulletin de la Société des Sciences Historiques et Naturelles de l'Yonne 51.1 (1897), 161-207.
Sickel (1869) = Th. Sickel, "Diplome des 8., 9., and 10. Jahrhunderts", Forschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte 9 (1869), 403-434.
Wüstenfeld (1863) = Ch. Wüstenfeld, "Ueber die Herzoge von Spoleto aus dem Hause der Guidonen", Forschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte 3 (1863): 383-432.
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 20 September 2008.