Heribert
II Heribert
IIHeribert first appears as lay-abbot of Saint-Médard de Soissons on 6 November 907 ["venerabilis comes Heribertus abba preest" Settipani (1993), 224, n. 231, citing an act of Charles the Simple]. He appears as a witness to a charter of Robert (of Neustria) and his son Hugues on 30 May 914 ["Signum Erberti comitis." Mabille (1871), xcviii-c]. In 923, using false promises of safe conduct, he captured king Charles the Simple ["... et Heribertus comes Bernardum, consobrinum suum, cum aliis legatis consilium quod per illos agebatur, ut fertur, ignorantibus, ad Karolum dirigit: qui ab eisdem sacramentis persuasus, ad Heribertum cum paucis proficiscitur; quique eum in castello suo super Somnam, apud Sanctum Quintinum, suscepit." Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 923, 15], who remained a captive for the rest of his life. Heribert died in 943, and his lands were distributed among his sons in 946 ["Quidam motus inter filios Heriberti comitis agitantur pro hereditatum distributione suarum; qui tamen, Hugone principe avunculo ipsorum mediante, pecantur, divisis sibi, prout eis competens visum est, rebus." Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 946, 100]. See Schwager (1994).
Date of Birth: Unknown.
Place of
Birth: Unknown.
[Date of Death: 23 February 943.
["Heribertus comes obiit,
quem sepelierunt apud Sanctum Quintinum filii sui; ..."
Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 943, 87] The date of 23 February
comes from the necrology of the church of Reims [Longnon (1909),
229, n. 4]
Place of Death: Unknown (buried at Saint-Quentin).
Probable father:
Heribert I, d. 900×906, count of Vermandois.
Although not directly documented, this
parentage is very probable. See the page of Heribert I for more details.
Mother: Unknown.
Spouse:
NN, still living 931 [Flodoard, Annales,
s.a. 931, 51 (not named)], daughter of Robert
I, d. 923, king of France.
This relationship is confirmed by the fact
that Hugues the Grand was an avunculus of Heribert's
sons, who in turn are called nepotes of Hugues (see the
page of this wife for details).
Children:
Heribert's lands were distributed among his sons in 946 ["Quidam
motus inter filios Heriberti comitis agitantur pro hereditatum
distributione suarum; qui tamen, Hugone principe avunculo ipsorum
mediante, pecantur, divisis sibi, prout eis competens visum est,
rebus." Flodoard, Annales s.a. 946, 100]. The
children are not listed in any one place in the contemporary
sources, but various statements in Flodoard's annals clearly
document the five sons and two daughters listed below. Of the
children, only Hugues has a well documented approximate
birthdate. Depending on whether Hugues was one of the elder or
younger children, this has led to varying conjectures for the
birthdates for the other children [see, e.g. Werner (1967),
table; Bur (1977), 507-513; Schwager (1994), 401-6].
Eudes, d. after 19 June 946, count of
Vienne and Amiens.
Eudes was apparently the eldest son of Heribert. He first
appears in 927, when a quarrel broke out between king Raoul and
Heribert, with Heribert wanting the county of Laon for his son
Eudes, and the king giving it instead to Roger, son of Roger
["Anno DCCCCXXVII, inter Rodulfum regem et Heribertum
comitem, pro Laudunensi comitatu quem Heribertus Odoni, filio
suo, dari petebat, concedente illum rege cuidam filiorum
Rotgarii, nomine Rotgario, simultas exoritur."
Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 927, 37]. In 928, Heribert
obtained Vienne for Eudes from king Hugh of Italy, which,
however, Charles Constantine was holding in 931 ["Hugo
rex, habens colloquium cum Rodulfo, dedit Heriberto comiti
provintiam Viennensium vice filii sui Odonis" Flodoard,
Annales, s.a. 928, 43; ibid., s.a. 931, 46]. A year
after the death of Heribert, in 944, Eudes was holding Amiens,
but was driven out by men of the king ["Ambianensem
quoque urbem, quam tenebat Odo filius Heriberti, favente Deroldo
episcopo, et tradentibus ipsius episcopus fidelibus, domestici
regis recipiunt. Ex quibus rebus ita gestis exoritur iterum
discordia inter regem et filios Heriberti." Flodoard, Annales,
s.a. 944, 91]. Eudes was still alive on 19 June 946, when he
witnessed an act of Hugues le Grand [Settipani (1993), 225, n.
245].
Adèle, d. 960, m. 934 Arnulf I,
count of Flanders.
["Arnulfus de Flandris filiam Heriberti, olim
sibi juramentis alterutro datis depactam, sumit uxorem."
Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 934, 59; "Ipse
namque iam predictus comes venerabilis Arnulfus accepit coniugem
Adelam, domni Heriberti comitis filiam atque duorum regum, Odonis
scilicet atque Rotberti, neptem." Witger, Genealogia
Arnulfi comitis, MGH SS 9: 303]
Heribert "vetulus"
("the old"), d. 980×4 apparently 30 March [Bur (1977), 114], abbot of
Saint-Médard de Soissons; count of Omois;
["Nepotes Hugonis, Heribertus et Rotbertus, ..."
Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 952, 134]
m. 951, Eadgifu, daughter
of Eadweard
"the Elder", king of
Wessex, and widow of Charles III of
France.["Ottogeba regina, mater Ludowici regis, egressa
Lauduno, conducentibus se quibusdam tam Herberti quam Adalberti,
fratris ipsius, hominibus, ad Heribertum proficiscitur; qui
suscipiens eam, ducit in conjugem." Flodoard, Annales,
s.a. 951, 132]
Robert, d. after 19 June 966; count of Meaux, 946-; count of
Troyes, 956-;
["Rotbertus, filius Heriberti, se Lothario regi
committit." Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 957, 144;
"Rotbertus, frater Heriberti, ..." Flodoard, Annales,
s.a. 960, 148]
m. 942×950, Adélaïde (Werra), d. after 967, daughter of Giselbert, count of Chalon
and Troyes.
Albert (Adalbert), d. 8 September, 987
or after [Bur (1977), 510], count of Vermandois, 946-987;
["Cum quo postquam locutus est Remos revertitur,
ubi Adalbertus, filius Heriberti, ad eum veniens, ipsius
efficitur." Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 949, 123
(see also, s.a. 951, quoted above)]
m. Gerberge, daughter of Giselbert, duke of Lorriane.
[Dümmler (1876), 246, n. 1; Glocker
(1989), 282-3; see the page of Giselbert for details of this
marriage]
Liégard, living 16 August 979 [Bur (1977), 512],
m. (1) ca. 940, Guillaume
I, d. 943, duke of Normandy;
m. (2) 943×5, Thibaut I "le Tricheur",
d. 16 January 975, count of Blois and Chartres, viscount of
Tours.
["Hugo presul assumens secum
Teobaldum, sororis suae maritum, ...", Flodoardi
Historia Remensi Ecclesiae, iv, 33, MGH SS 13: 584; "Tetbaldus
nempe, patrato scelere, concitus perrexit ad Heribertum, Trecorum
comitem, petens ab eo sororem ipsius dari sibi in conjugium,
uxorem scilicet predicti Willelmi quem interfecerunt."
Rodulfus Glaber iii, 9, 39 (p. 88)] Liégard was still living on
5 February 978, when she appears in a charter of Saint-Pére de
Chartres [Cart. Saint-Pére de Chartres 1: 63-5]
Hugues, b. ca. 920, d. ca. 962 [Bur (1977), 507], archbishop of
Reims, 925-932, 940-6.
His father had him created archbishop of
Reims at the age of five ["Episcopatus Remensis
Heriberto comiti comissus est sub obtentu filii sui Hugonis,
admodum parvuli, necdum, ceu ferebatur, quinqennis."
Flodoard, s.a. 925, MGH SS 3: 376].
Falsely attributed
mother (fictional): Berthe, daughter
of Guerri (Wedricus),
count of Morvois, and his wife Eva.
See the page of Heribert
I for discussion.
Falsely attributed
daughter (in fact a granddaughter):
Adèle, m. Geoffroy
Grisegonelle, d. 987, count of
Anjou.
Although Heribert did have a daughter of
this name, she was the wife of Arnulf of Flanders (see above).
The Adèle who was wife of Geoffroy Grisegonelle was Heribert's
granddaughter, a daughter of his son Robert, as is discussed on Adèle's page.
Falsely attributed son:
Ragenold/Renaud, d. 10 May 967, count of Roucy.
This falsehood appears in amateur work from
time to time, due to its appearance in the widely used Ancestral
Roots [AR7, 133 (line #151); see the page of Ragenold].
Conjectured daughter
(very improbable):
Godehilde, living 1005;
m. Yves I, livinf 1005, lord of Bellême.
[Depoin (1909), 153-6] Godehilde was almost
certainly in a later generation than the children of Heribert.
AR7 = Frederick Lewis Weis (with additions and corrections by Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr.), Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 (7th, ed., Baltimore, 1992).
Bur (1977) = Michel Bur, La formation du comté de Champagne (Nancy, 1977).
Cart. S.-Père de Chartres = M Guérard, Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Père de Chartres, 2 vols. (Paris, 1840).
Depoin (1909) = Joseph Depoin, "Les premiers anneaux de la maison de Bellême - Contribution à la chronologie des évèques du Mans", Bulletin Historique et Philologique du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques, 1909: 147-167.
Dümmler (1876) = Rudolf Köpke & Ernst Dümmler, Kaiser Otto der Große (Leipzig, 1876).
Glocker (1989) = Winfrid Glocker, Die Verwandten der Ottonen und ihre Bedeutung in der Politik. Studien zur Familienpolitik und zur Genealogie des sächsischen Kaiserhauses (Cologne-Vienna, 1989).
Flodoard, Annales = Ph. Lauer, ed., Les Annales de Flodoard (Paris, 1905).
Longnon (1909) = Auguste Longnon, "Nouvelle recherches sur les personnages de Raoul de Cambrai", Romania 38 (1909): 219-253.
Lot (1901) = Ferdinand Lot, "Herbert le Jeune et la succession des comtés champenois vers 1023", Annales de l'Est 15 (1901): 265-283.
Mabille (1871) = Émile Mabille, Introduction au Chroniques des Comtes d'Anjou (Société de l'Histoire de France, vol. 155, Paris, 1871).
Rodulfus Glaber = Maurice Prou, ed., Raoul Glaber - les cinq livres de ses histoires (900-1044) (Paris, 1886).
Schwager (1994) = Helmut Schwager, Graf Heribert II. von Soissons, Omois, Meaux, Madrie sowie Vermandois (900/06-943) und die Francia (Nord-Frankreich) in der 1. Hälfte des 10. Jahrhunderts (Münchener historische Studien Abteilung mittelalterliche Geschichte, 6, 1994).
Settipani (1993) = Christian Settipani, La préhistoire des Capétiens 481-987 (Première partie - Mérovingiens, Carolingiens et Robertiens) (Villeneuve d'Ascq, 1993).
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.
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 23 May 2007.
Note about Ragenold of Roucy added 24 April 2008.
Minor revision uploaded 26 July 2008 (discussion of the documentation on his wife moved to the page of that wife)
Note about Godehilde added 24 January 2011.