Bégon
BégonBégon was a son-in-law of emperor Louis I "the Pious" (see below), and count of Paris ["... Hludovicus divina ordinante providentia Imperator Augustus, Begoni inlustri Comiti, et omnibus successoribus tuis præsentibus et futuris, atque Reipublicæ administratoribus, sive exactoribus infra pagum Parisiacum thelonea recipientibus, seu his omnibus qui infra eumdem pagum honores habere videntur." RHF 6: 468 (#17)].
Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of birth: Unknown.
Date of burial: 28 October 816.
Place of
death: Unknown.
["Picco, primus de amicis
regis, qui et filiam imperatoris [nomine Elpheid] duxit uxorem,
defunctus est." Annales Laurissenses Minores,
s.a. 816, MGH SS 1: 122] The date of burial (dep[ositio])
appears in the necrology of Saint-Germain-des-Prés ["v
kl. nov. Dep. ... Begoni comitis" Longnon (1884), 51;
Obit. Sens 1.1: 276].
Probable father or
other close relative: Gérard I, fl. 747-775, count of Paris.
Probable mother or
other close relative: Rotrude.
No direct evidence is available on the
parentage of Bégon. The main clues are the fact that he was
count of Paris and the fact that he named a son Leuthard, and
there was another Leuthard, probably count of Fezensac, who was
father of count Gérard II of Paris, brother of count Étienne of
Paris, and probably son of count Gérard I. This suggests that
Bégon was also of the same family, but his exact placement is
uncertain.
Possible earlier spouse:
(1?) NN (Hildebrun?).
It has been sometimes suggested
that Bégon had an earlier wife. If so, she may be the Hildebrun
who is mentioned as the wife of a Bicco in a Lorsch donation of
13 June 801 ["Anno XXXIII regni sæpe nominati principis
ego Bicco & conux mea Hiltdibrun ... Actum in monasterio
Lauresham idus Junii." Codex Lauresh., 1: 547 (#640)].
However, it is not certain that the Bicco who was donating at
Lorsch was the same as the later count of Paris. Bégon's wife
would certainly not be the Williburge proposed by Depoin in a
Lorsch donation dated 14 July 789, who shows no sign of being the
wife of the Bicco of the donation ["anno XXI regni
domini nostri Karoli. Pridi idus Julii ego Bicco dono pro anima
Williburgae, quod ipsa mihi tradidit, ... Signum Bicconis, qui
hanc donationem fecit, ..." Codex Lauresh., 1: 400
(#349); Depoin (1912), 90]. See the further comments under
Bégo's possible daughter Susanna.
Known spouse:
(2[?]) Alpaïde, daughter of Louis I "the
Pious", emperor.
["... donec Ludowicus imperator idem Sancti Petri
monasterium Alpaidi filiae suae dedit. Cuius mulieris vir nomine
Bego prefatum dirui iussit oratorium; ..." Flodoard, Historia
Remensis Ecclesiae, ii, 12, MGH SS 13: 460; "...
Quod monasterium Ludowicus imperator Alpheidi, filiae suae, uxori
Begonis comitis, dono dedit, eidemque sacro loco immunitatis
preceptum delegavit, ut et pater ipsius Karolus imperator egerat
olim. Quod coenobium postea per precarium ipsius Alpheidis vel
filiorum eius Letardi et Ebrardi ad partem et possessionem
Remensis devenit ecclesiae." ibid., iv, 46, p. 595]
Possible daughter (more likely by an earlier wife than by Alpaïde):
Susanna;
m. Wulfhard.
The argument for making Susanna a daughter
of Bégon was given by Werner [Werner (1967)], and is rather
involved. The details are given on the page of her son Adalhard. If Werner's theory is correct, Susanna would be the
grandmother of Adélaïde, wife of king Louis II of France. If Susanna
was also a daughter of Alpaïde, then Adélaïde and Louis would
be first cousins twice removed (or second cousins once removed in
the much less likely scenario that Alpaïde was a daughter of
Charlemagne), well within the prohibited degree. This suggests
that Susanna was the daughter of an earlier marriage, which would
also make the chronology less tight. The main argument for making
Susanna a daughter of Alpaïde is the rather weak onomastic
observation that Adélaïde's son Charles III the Simple named
one of his daughters Alpaïde.
Children by Alpaïde:
[Flodoard, Historia Remensis
Ecclesiae, iv, 46, MGH SS 13: 595, see above]
Leuthard, bur. 3 January, bef. 869, count
[of Paris?].
["iij non. jan. Dep. ... Leuthardi
comitis." Longnon (1884), 41]
Eberhard, d. bef. 8 June 871.
Eberhard was deceased by 8 June 871, when a
charter mentioned that he had bequeathed lands to his nephew
Adalhard [Cart. Cluny, 1: 20 (#16); RHF 8: 636 (#241)].
Cart. Cluny = A. Bernard & A. Bruel, Recueil des chartes de l'abbaye de Cluny, 6 vols., (Paris, 1876-1903).
Codex Lauresh. = Codex principis olim Laureshamensis abbatiae diplomaticus, 3 vols., (Mannheim, 1768-70). I have not seen Glöckner's modern edition [K. Glöckner, ed., Codex Laureshamensis, 3 vols., (Darmstadt, 1929-36)].
Depoin (1912) = Joseph Depoin, "Les comtes de Paris sous la dynastie carolingienne", Mémoires de la société historique et archéologique de l'arrondissement de Pontoise et du Vexin 31 (1912): 83-117.
Longnon (1884) = Auguste Longnon, "Notice sur le plus ancien obituaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés", in Notices et Documents publiés pour la Société de l'Histoire de France à l'occasion du cinquantième anniversaire de sa fondation (Paris, 1884), 19-55.
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Obit. Sens = Obituaires de la Province de Sens (2 vols. in 3, Paris, 1902-6).
RHF = Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France.
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 16 August 2012.