Aubry II (Albericus)
Aubry II (Albericus)Aubry first appears in a charter of his father count Liétaud dated probably 21 September 942 ["S. Leotaldi comitis. S. Berte uxoris ejus, qui fieri et firmare rogaverunt. S. Alberici filii sui qui consensit." Cart. Mâcon, 284 (#488)], and he appears again in 948×9 ["Leotbaldum et Richildem, conjugen ejus, ...; S. Leotaldi comitis. S. Alberici, filii ejus. S. Richildis ...", 948×9, Cart. Cluny, 1: 685 (#729)]. He succeeded his father as count probably between 958 and 960, and Aubry appears alone as count in a charter of 20 August 960 ["ante presentiam domni Alberici comitis ... S. Alberici comitis" Cart. Cluny, 2: 180 (#1087)]. In January 962, count Aubry made a donation to Cluny for the souls of his father Liétaud and mother Ermengarde ["ego Albericus, gratia Dei comes, ... pro remedio animæ meæ ac patris mei Leotaldi ac matris meæ Ermengardis, et omnium parentum meorum ... S. Alberici comitis, qui donavit et ipse firmavit." Cart. Cluny, 2: 215-6 (#1124)]. Aubry was still alive on 14 January 971, when he and his wife Ermentrude signed three charters [see below under his date of death, and in the Commentary section under his alleged sons Liétaud and Aubry]. He was succeeded as count of Mâcon by Otte-Guillaume, who married his widow Ermentrude ["Hec sunt nomina Comitum Matisconensium. ... atque post illum, Albericus filius Leotaldi comitis; quo mortuo, dominus Guillelmus comes uxorem illius accepit; ..." Cart. Mâcon, 6 (#7); see Ermentrude's page for more details].
Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of
birth: Unknown.
Date of death: After 14 January 971 (after 12 November 981?).
Aubry is mentioned in three
charters all dated to 14 January in the 20th year of Lothaire.
Although this would calculate to 14 January 974 if the years are
counted from Lothair's coronation on 12 November 954, the correct
date is evidently 14 January 971, as one of the charters places
the event on a Saturday [Cart. Cluny, 2: 368 (#1291); see the
Commentary section below under Aubry's supposed sons Liétaud and
Aubry for more on these three charters]. It may also be that
Aubry was still alive at the time of a charter which mentions his
land as neighboring that of a certain Arembertus ["...
hoc est vineam ubi Arembertus residet, et terminatur de tribus
partibus via publica, a sero terra Sancti Romani et Alberici,
comitis. ... anno XXVIII regnante Lothario rege." Cart.
Cluny, 2: 627 (#1582)]. The lack of any indication in the charter
that Aubry was deceased has generally been interpreted as
indicating that he was still alive at the time. The charter is
dated to the 28th year of king Lothair, which would be from 12
November 981 to 11 November 982 if dated from Lothair's
coronation as king on 12 November 954. However, since an earlier
death date would fit better with the likely chronology of
Ermentrude's marriages (see Ermentrude's page), we should
probably allow the possibility either that Aubry was deceased at
the time of the charter (he is mentioned only indirectly in it)
or that the charter was dated from an earlier point than
Lothair's coronation, as was the case for some charters in
Lothair's reign [e.g., charter #1291 above; see Bruel (1880),
41-57].
Place of death: Unknown.
Father: Liétaud,
count of Mâcon.
Mother: Ermengarde.
In a charter of January 962, count Aubry
mentions his parents Liétaud and Ermengarde ["ego
Albericus, gratia Dei comes, ... pro remedio animæ meæ ac
patris mei Leotaldi ac matris meæ Ermengardis, ..."
cart. Cluny, 2: 215 (#1124)]. Aubry also appears with his father
in several charters (see Liétaud's page).
Spouse: Ermentrude, daughter of Ragenold/Renaud, count of Roucy; she m. (2) Otte-Guillaume, count of Burgundy and Mâcon.
Ermentrude appears with Aubry in three charters of 14 January
971. Her identification with the Ermentrude who was wife of
Otte-Guillaume follows from a list of counts of Mâcon in the
cartulary of Saint-Vincent de Mâcon which states that
[Otte-]Guillaume married Aubry's widow [Cart. Mâcon, 6
(#7), see above]. This is discussed in detail on Ermentrude's page.
Ermentrude is the only documented wife of Aubry II. For conjectures regarding a supposed earlier wife which have appeared in the literature, see the Commentary section.
Child:
Béatrix, d. prob. after 1028;
m. (1) Geoffroy
(II), d. 991×7, count of
Gâtinais, before 979-991×7;
m. (2) Hugues
du Perche.
The connection of Béatrix to Aubry II appears in the
Saint-Aubin genealogies, a collection of Angevin genealogies,
including one which makes Béatrix the granddaughter of Geoffroy
III and Foulques IV, counts of Anjou ["Letaldus comes
Vesconsiosis (et Umbertus comes Matisconiensis fratres fuerunt
...); ex Letaldo Albericus natus est; ex Alberico Beatrix; ex
Beatrice Gosfridus comes de Castello Landonensi. Ex Gaufrido
Gaufridus et Fulco presens." Poupardin (1900), 208].
See the pages of Béatrix, and Geoffroy (III), count of Gâtinais for
more details. While the identity of her mother is not directly
documented, and there have been conjectures that Béatrix was the
daughter of Aubry II by some otherwise unknown earlier marriage,
as discussed below in the Commentary section, placing Béatrix as
a daughter of Ermentrude seems perfectly consistent with the
known evidence.
Supposed sons (no
good evidence):
Liétaud, fl. 971, subdeacon.
Aubry, fl. 971.
Most secondary sources assign two sons of these names to Aubry,
but there does not seem to be any clear proof that Aubry had any
sons. Indeed, the fact that Otte-Guillaume and his family
succeeded to Mâcon suggests that even if Aubry did have sons,
they probably did not survive him for long. The main sources
suggesting that Liétaud and Aubry were sons of Aubry II are
three charters all dated to 14 January 971. One has a Liétaud
signing immediately after Aubry and his wife Ermentrude ["S.
Alberici, comitis, qui elemosina ista fieri et firmari rogavit.
S. Ermentrudis, conjuge sua. S. Leotaldi. ...", Cart.
Cluny, 2: 368 (#1291)]. The other two charters evidently have a
Liétaud (a subdeacon) and an Aubry signing between Aubry and his
wife Ermentrude [Bresslau (1879-84), 38, n. 5; Rameau (1901),
138; Bouchard (1987); all cite Juénin, N. Hist. de Tournus,
Preuves, p. 116ff.; I say "evidently" because I have
not seen this last source, and I am relying on what is said about
it by the others (none of whom give a direct quote)]. No
relationship is specified for either of these individuals in the
three charters [Bresslau (1879-84), 38, n. 5]. Some sources call
Liétaud a count of Mâcon as Liétaud II, and even assign him a
mythical son and successor Aubry III [e.g., L'Art, 11: 15], but
there is no evidence for any counts of Mâcon between Aubry II
and Otte-Guillaume (for more see below under Guillaume
"Barbe-Sale"). Lacking a direct statement making these
individuals sons of Aubry II, we are left with the obvious
onomastic considerations, which are not strong enough to imply
the relationship. It should also be noted that if Liétaud were
in fact a son of Aubry II, it would be necessary to place him as
a son of an otherwise unknown marriage to an earlier wife,
because Ermentrude (whose grandmother was married in 929) could
not have had a son old enough to be a subdeacon in 971. Even if
Liétaud and Aubry were sons of Aubry II, it would not be likely
that they survived for long, and there would be no good reason to
accept Vajay's identification of this Liétaud with Liétaud,
archbishop of Besançon [GC 15: 28], or his identification of
this Aubry with Aubry, abbot of Saint-Paul in Besançon [GC 15:
30, 214], both of which are unsupported identifications with
individuals mentioned in Gallia Christiana without any
genealogical affiliations [Vajay (1962), 162, n. 3]. Another
variant is the conjecture giving an alternate identification of
the supposed son Liétaud, as follows.
Kläui:
Falsely
attributed son:
Liétaud de Montbéliard (Lütold von
Mömpelgard), father of Hunfried,
d. 1051, archbishop of Ravenna.
[Kläui (1956)] The basis of this conjecture is that count
Thierry/Dietrich, count of Montbéliard/Mömpelgard, is said by
Aubry de Troisfontaines to have obtained that dignity through his
wife Ermentrude, who was a great-granddaughter of count
Otte-Guillaume by Ermentrude, widow of Aubry II ["...
fuit illa comitissa Barri Ducis Sophia, que comiti Montionis
Ludovico peperit Theodericum, et iste per uxorem suam
Ermentrudem, fuit etiam comes Montis Beliardi, ..."
Aubry de Troisfontaines, s.a. 1033, MGH SS 23: 784]. From this,
Kläui conjectured that Lütold von Mömpelgard, father of
Hunfried, archbishop of Ravenna, was a son of Ermentrude,
identified with the Liétaud often placed as a son of Aubry II.
Not only is the basis of this conjecture very slender, but as
already indicated, Aubry's supposed son Liétaud would have to
have been by a wife earlier than Ermentrude if the relationship
is valid at all, which would ruin the premise of Kläui's
argument.
Falsely attributed son (mythical):
Guillaume
"Barbe-Sale" or "Bouche-Ointe",
count of Mâcon.
The (entirely mythical) story of Guillaume
"Barbe-Sale" ("Dirty-Beard") can be outlined
as follows (as it appears in L'Art de vérifier des dates,
under Aubry III). Aubry III succeeded his father Liétaud II as
count of Mâcon at a tender age, under the guardianship of his
mother Berthe. His uncle Guillaume Barbe-Sale disputed the
guardianship, and bishop Milon, in order to settle the
difference, had Guillaume married to Berthe, after having
obtained a dispensation from the Pope. Aubry then died unmarried
around 995 [L'Art, 11: 15]. L'Art de vérifier des dates
cites the chronicle of Adémar de Chabannes as a source for its
account of Aubry III, but that chronicle contains no reference to
Aubry III, describing instead a struggle between "Willelmus,
cognomine Bucca uncta" and Hugues, count
of Chalon and bishop of Auxerre [Adémar Chab., iii, 50
(p. 173)]. The account of Aubry III and Guillaume Barbe-Sale
appears to be ultimately based on a number of confusions
resulting from the sloppy use of sources. The "Willelmus,
cognomine Bucca uncta" who appears briefly in the work
of Adémar de Chabannes was in fact a reference to count
Otte-Guillaume (with an unflattering nickname), and Guillaume
Barbe-Sale had no existence as a separate individual [see
Poupardin (1907), 216, n. 2; 219, n. 2; Bouchard (1987), 265, n.
28]. The Berthe who was supposedly wife of Liétaud II and mother
of Aubry III appears to have been based on Berthe, the second
wife of the earlier count Liétaud of
Mâcon. The supposed existence of Liétaud II and Aubry III as
counts of Mâcon and the supposed marriage of Guillaume
Barbe-Sale to Berthe appear to be corrupt interpretations from
the list of counts of Mâcon appearing in the cartulary of
Saint-Vincent de Mâcon ["... post hunc, Leotaldus
filius ejus; atque post illum, Albericus filius Leotaldi comitis;
quo mortuo, dominus Guillelmus comes uxorem illius accepit; ..."
Cart. Mâcon, 6 (#7)]. The counts listed in the part quoted (in
succession to Aubry I) were in fact Liétaud (the only count of
Mâcon of that name), Aubry II, and [Otte-]Guillaume. They were
evidently misinterpreted as the counts in succession to Aubry II
(could the sentence "Post hunc Leotaldus filius ejus
atque post illum Albericus filius Leotaldi comitis"
have been accidently repeated in some copy of the list?), leading
to the nonhistorical Liétaud II and Aubry III, with illius
misinterpreted as referring to Liétaud rather than Aubry, giving
the supposed marriage of Guillaume to Liétaud's widow.
Supposed daughter (unlikely):
NN, m. Guy, d.
1002×4, count of Mâcon.
[Anselme 8: 410, citing Samuel Guichenon]
Although not stated by Anselme, the primary source for this
conjectured daughter is a charter from 1017×1025 of Otto,
count of Mâcon (son of Guy, son of Otte-Guillaume, son of
Adalbert and Gerberge), which, in addition to naming his father
Gui and grandfather Otte-Guillaume, mentions his atavus
Liétaud, clearly referring to count Liétaud of Mâcon, Aubry's
father ["... ego Otto, comes Maticensis, ..., pro
peccatorum quoque meroum abolitione, animæ etiam meæ et patris
mei Guidonis, necnon avi mei Ottonis cognomento Wilelmi, et
uxoris meæ et filii mei Gaufredi, omniumque parentum et fidelium
meorum remedio, ... sicuti jam ante comes Leotaldus, atavus meus,
..." Cart. Cluny, 3: 735-6 (#2712)]. This link is one
of several attempts to explain this evidence. While it can not be
ruled out as impossible, there is no good reason to believe it.
Recent conjectures
There have been a number of conjectures in the recent literature
which involve either an otherwise unknown earlier wife of Aubry,
or additional children of Aubry. These conjectures are generally
motivated by an attempt to explain the succession to certain
territories, or by onomastic considerations. All of these
conjectures lack direct evidence, and in my opinion tend to push
the slender evidence further than it will go. Before listing
these conjectures, a brief comment about the possibility of an
earlier wife seems appropriate here.
Did Aubry II have another wife before Ermentrude?
As the list below shows, there are a number of conjectures regarding additional children for Aubry II, as well as more than one suggestion for the origin of a supposed earlier wife. In light of this, we should ask if there is any solid evidence which would suggest that Aubry had an earlier wife. In fact, no such wife appears in the records. Chronologically, there is no compelling reason to hypothesize such a wife. We know that the first husband of his daughter Béatrix died between 991 and 997, that her sons Aubry, Geoffroy, and Liétaud appear in a charter of bishop Franco of Paris on 26 May 1028, and that she appears in a donation of around 1030 (see the page of Béatrix). All of this is perfectly consistent with her being a daughter of Ermentrude. Thus, when considering conjectured identities for a supposed earlier wife of Aubry, it should be kept in mind that the evidence does not appear to demand the existence of such a wife.
Saint-Phalle:
Conjectured
identification (very doubtful): Aubry, fl. 957, 966, viscount of
Orléans.
Conjectured earlier wife:
NN, daughter of Geoffroy,
viscount of Orléans.
(This conjecture also places Béatrix as a daughter of the
supposed earlier marriage.)
The basis of these conjectures is the fact that Aubry's daughter
Béatrix had two sons (Aubry and Geoffroy) by different marriages
who both became counts of Gâtinais. From this, it is argued that
the claim to Gâtinais must have come through Béatrix
[Saint-Phalle (2000), 237]. One common theory (not universally
accepted) is that the counts of Gâtinais had their origin in the
viscounts of Orléans, of whom there is a Geoffroy who appears in
942 and an Aubry who appears in 957 and 966 [see, e.g., Mabille
(1871), lxxxiv-lxxxvi]. Saint-Phalle's hypothesis was that this
Aubry, viscount of Orléans, was to be identified with Béatrix's
father Aubry II of Mâcon, and that the claim had passed via an
otherwise unknown marriage of Aubry II of Mâcon to a daughter of
Geoffroy, viscount of Orléans. In order to explain the
appearance of the uncommon name Béatrix, he also suggested that
Geoffroy's wife had been a daughter or niece of Hugues le Grand
(whose mother's name was Béatrix) [Saint-Phalle (2000), 238-9,
242-3]. The supposed identity of Aubry II of Mâcon and Aubry of
Orléans is especially doubtful. By 960, Aubry II was already
count of Mâcon, so it is difficult to believe that he would sign
as a viscount in 966 without any indication of his comital rank
["sig. Alberigi Aurelianensis vicecomitis"
Mabille (1871), lxix, n. 1]. Mathieu adopted these conjectures
and combined them with others (see below), while Settipani
expressed skepticism about the identification and proposed a
different identity for the supposed earlier wife of Aubry II
[Settipani (2000), 255, see below]. See also the discussion on
the page of Aubry's daughter Béatrix.
Settipani:
Conjectured
earlier wife: NN, daughter of Hugues le Grand and sister
of Hugues Capet, king of France.
(or, more generally, a wife conjectured to have some sort of
Vermandois or Robertinian connection)
Conjectured
daughter:
Ermengarde, m. Milon IV,
count of Tonnere.
(This conjecture also places Béatrix as a daughter of the
supposed earlier marriage.)
This conjectured wife is based on the fact that the mother of
Hugues le Grand and a daughter of Aubry were both named Béatrix,
along with the general rareness of the name at that time
[Settipani (2000), 254, describing his earlier conjecture in
Settipani (1998), which I have not seen; see also Mathieu (2000),
84 (table)]. The conjectured daughter is based on the facts that
Ermengarde and Milon had a son named Aubry and Aubry's mother was
named Ermengarde. On the assumption that the name Béatrix
originated with the counts of Vermandois, Settipani weakened his
conjecture to the suggestion that Aubry's supposed earlier wife
was related through that dynasty, either directly or through the
Robertinians [Settipani (2000), 254-5].
Mathieu:
Conjectured
children:
(by the
daughter of Geoffroy of Orléans)
Renard, d. 1015,
abbot of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif.
NN (sister of
Renard), m. NN de Château-Thierry.
Starting with Settipani's conjecture that
the above Ermengarde was a daughter of Aubry, Mathieu noted that
bishop Thierry of Orléans, a son of Renard's sister, is said to
have been a cousin of Milon V of Tonnere, son of Milon IV and
Ermengarde. Combining this with the onomastic clues that Thierry
had a brother named Aubry and that Milon IV and Ermengarde had a
son named Renard, Mathieu suggested that Renard and his sister
were also children of Aubry II by a daughter of viscount Geoffroy
of Orléans [Settipani, (2000), 254-5, citing Mathieu (1998),
which I have not seen].
Mathieu:
Conjectured
daughter:
(by
Ermentrude)
NN, m. Ebles, son of Guillaume II (IV)
"Fier-à-Bras", count of Poitou and duke of
Aquitaine.
(conjectured mother of Ebles I, count of
Roucy and archbishop of Reims and Liétaud de Marle)
This conjectured link has no direct support. Ebles and Liétaud
appear as siblings in the Foigny Genealogy [Genealogiae
Fusniacenses, c. 3, 10, MGH SS 13: 252-4] and Aubry de
Troisfontaines [MGH SS 23: 823], but no early source gives their
parentage. They are often placed without proof as sons of
Ermentrude's brother count Giselbert of Roucy [e.g., Moranvillé
(1922), 34]. Mathieu's conjecture attempts to simultaneously
explain the succession to the countship of Roucy and the
appearance of the name Liétaud as a brother of Ebles, and the
proposed identity of the father is obviously onomastically based
[Mathieu (2000)]. Although this conjecture is not directly
supported by the evidence, the coincidence involving the uncommon
name Liétaud and the Roucy connection is certainly striking, and
it seems very plausible that the succession of Ebles to Roucy
came through Ermentrude. Chronologically, Ebles would make a
plausible grandson of Ermentrude. Mathieu's attempt to supply a
specific husband for this supposed daughter of Ermentrude seems
much more speculative.
Adémar Chab. = Jules Chavanon, ed., Adémar de Chabannes - Chronique (Paris, 1897).
L'Art = L'Art de vérifier des dates (1818 edition).
Bouchard (1987) = Constance Brittain Bouchard, Sword, Miter, and Cloister - Nobility and the Church in Burgundy, 980-1198 (Ithaca & London, 1987).
Bresslau (1879-84) = Harry Bresslau, Jahrbücher des Deutschen Reichs unter Konrad II, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1879-84).
Bruel (1880) = Alexandre Bruel, Études sur la chronologie des rois de France et de Bourgogne d'après les diplomes et les chartes de l'abbaye de Cluny aux IXe et Xe siècles (Paris, 1880).
Cart. Cluny = A. Bernard & A. Bruel, Recueil des chartes de l'abbaye de Cluny, 6 vols., (Paris, 1876-1903).
Cart. Mâcon = M.-C. Ragut, ed., Cartulaire de Saint-Vincent de Mâcon (Mâcon, 1864).
GC = Gallia Christiana.
Kläui (1956) = Paul Kläui, "Die Verwandtschaft des Kanzlers Hunfried mit Heinrich III", Zeitschrift für Württemburgische Landesgeschichte 15 (1956): 284-7.
Mabille (1871) = Émile Mabille, Introduction au Chroniques des Comtes d'Anjou (Société de l'Histoire de France, vol. 155, Paris, 1871).
Mathieu (1998) = "Nouvelles recherches sur le premiers comtes de Tonnere et de Bar-sur-Seine", Bulletin annuel de la Société d'Archéologie et d'Histoire du Tonnerois 51 (1998), 4-18. [I have not seen this work.]
Mathieu (2000) = Jean-Noël Mathieu, "La succession au comté de Roucy aux environs de l'an mil. Les origines de l'archevêque de Reims Ebles (1021-1033)", in Keats-Rohan & Settipani, eds., Onomastique et Parenté dans l'Occident médiéval (Oxford, 2000), 75-84.
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Poupardin (1900) = René Poupardin, "Généalogies angevines du XIe siècle", Mélanges d'Archéologie et d'Histoire (Paris, Rome) 20 (1900):199-208.
Poupardin (1907) = René Poupardin, Le royaume de Bourgogne (888-1038) - Étude sur les origines du royaume d'Arles (Paris, 1907).
Rameau (1901) = Mgr. Rameau, "Les comtes héréditaires de Mâcon", Annales de l'Académie de Mâcon, 3 ser., 6 (1901): 121-209.
Saint-Phalle (2000) = Edouard de Saint-Phalle, "Les comtes de Gâtinais aux Xe et XIe siècles", in Keats-Rohan & Settipani, eds., Onomastique et Parenté dans l'Occident médiéval (Oxford, 2000), 230-246.
Settipani (1994) = Christian Settipani, "Les origines maternelles du comte de Bourgogne Otte-Guillaume", Annales de Bourgogne 66 (1994): 5-63.
Settipani (1998) = Christian Settipani, Les Widonides du VIIe au Xe siècle (mémoire D.E.A., Paris I, 1998). [I have not seen this work.]
Settipani (2000) = Christian Settipani, "Les vicomtes de Châteaudun et leur alliés", in Keats-Rohan & Settipani, eds., Onomastique et Parenté dans l'Occident médiéval (Oxford, 2000), 247-261.
Vajay (1962) = Szabolcs de Vajay, "A propos de la 'Guerre de Bourgogne' - Note sur les successions de Bourgogne et de Mâcon au Xe et XIe siècles", Annals de Bourgogne 34 (1962): 153-169.
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 24 April 2008.