Hugues I Hugues ICount Hugues, consanguineus of king Charles, appears with his mother Rothilde in a document of king Charles the Simple dated 31 October 900 ["... adeuntes nostrae dignitatis excellentiam dulcissima genitrix nostra Adeleidis et dilectus comes Hugo consanguineus ... in comitatu quoque Coenomannico Nunniagum villam, quam dedit Hugo comes et mater sua Rodhildis sancto Ebrulfo, in vicaria Gaviacense cum omnibus apendiciis." Werner (1958), 281-2, n. 128, citing Lauer, Recueil des actes de Charles le Simple, 75ff. (#35), which is not easily available to me; see also Werner (1967), 423]. The obvious suggestion that the Hugues of this 900 document was a count of Maine is confirmed by an act of 31 March 914, in which he appears as "Cinomanorum comitis" in a charter of duke Robert, abbot of Saint-Martin de Tours (later king Robert I) ["S. domni Hugonis Cinomanorum comitis qui aderat." Werner (1958), 287]. Count Hugues, son of Roger, appears in two charters of Hugues le Grand dated 3 May 930 [Latouche (1910), 137 (#1); see Werner (1958), 280, n. 121, 284-6, for the date as 930 instead of Latouche's 929] and 26 March 931 [Latouche (1910), 137 (#2)]. Since a count Roger of Maine is known from just prior to 900, these four documents fit together very well, and it is now generally acknowledged that they refer to the same count Hugues. He has sometimes been identified with the Hugues, count of Poitou, who appears in a charter of 936×7 and another of April 938 (see the Commentary section below). According to a late source, he was still living on 1 August 939, when he participated in a battle against the Normans along with the count of Rennes and count Alain of Nantes [Le Baud (2nd redaction), 134, citing unspecified annals].
Date of Birth: Unknown.
Place of
Birth: Unknown.
Date of Death: Living 26 March 931, perhaps still alive 1
August 939.
Place of
Death: Unknown.
Father: Roger, d.
before 31 October 900, count of Maine.
Mother: Rothilde, daughter of Charles the Bald, king of the Western Franks, Emperor.
See above, and Rothilde's
page.
Spouse: Uncertain.
See the Commentary section.
Children: Uncertain.
See the Commentary section.
No known document gives us the identity of the wife of count Hugues I of Maine, nor is there any clear documentation for any children of Hugues.
Possible children:
See the page of Hugues II for a
discussion of his parentage. Gauzlin is documented as a brother
of Hugues II, so his attribution as a son of Hugues I depends on
the correctness of the theory that Hugues II was a son of Hugues
I.
Hugues II, d. 976×992, count of Maine.
Gauzlin.
[Keats-Rohan (1994), 19 & n. 97, citing
a 990 charter of Mont Saint-Michel which mentions a Rorgo, son of
Gauzlin, filius nepos fratris Hugonis cenomannensis,
with the footnote reading: "Printed in Morice, Histoire
ecclésiastique et civile de Bretagne, Preuves, t. I (Paris
1742), col. 350-1; edited by Hubert Guillotel, 'Les actes des
ducs de Bretagne (940-1148)', doctoral thesis, Paris, 1976, no.
6, 21-30, and discussed by id., 'Des vicomtes d'Alet aux vicomtes
de Poudouvre', Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de
l'arondissement de Saint-Malo, Annales 1988, 205; compare
Potts, 'Normandy or Brittany', 145 and n. 46." See also
Keats-Rohan (1996), 15 & n. 12 and Keats-Rohan (2000), 60
& n. 27, both with the same citations from Morice and
Guillotel, but without the citation from Potts] The reason for
citing Morice (1742) is unclear, as the part of the charter
quoted by Morice (evidently not the entire charter) does not give
the parentage of Rorgo, and does not mention a Gauzlin or a
Hugues of Maine. The citation from Potts lists manuscripts
containing the charter, and notes that Morice's version of the
charter is different, but does not mention Rorgo or Gauzlin
[Potts (1989), 145, n. 6]. I have not seen the thesis of
Guillotel.
Hugues as a possible count of Poitou
In a charter from the cartulary of Saint-Cyprien dated April 938 there appears a certain Hugues, count of Poitou ["Hugo, comes Pictav." Cart. S.-Cyprien, 61 (#65)]. He is evidently the same person as the count who appears with another count Hugh in a charter of 936×7 ["S. Willelmi comitis, Hugoni comitis, item Hugoni, ..., Radulfi vicecomitis, ..." Cart S.-Cyprien, 325 (#549)]. The presence of a viscount named Raoul (possibly Raoul, viscount of Le Mans) in the second witness list has encouraged the identification of the two men named Hugues with Hugues I and Hugues II of Maine. The Poitevin connections of Fulcoin/Foulques, a son of Hugues II, would also seem to encourage this identification. If the identification is correct, it would also strengthen the identification of Hugues II as a son of Hugues I. [See Keats-Rohan (1997), 194; Settipani (2004), 233, 284, n. 7; both cite the 1981 doctoral thesis of Jean-Pierre Brunterc'h, which I have not seen]
Conjectured connections
There have been a number of conjectured
connections of Hugues I of Maine which are based mainly on
onomastic considerations. There does not appear to be any direct
evidence for any of the following conjectures.
Conjectured wife: NN, daughter of count Gauzlin.
Gauzlin was the name of the (evidently Rorgonid) count of Maine
who opposed count Roger of Maine (father of Hugues) in the 890's.
This conjecture is based on the appearance of the Rorgonid names
Gauzlin and Rorgo among the descendants of Hugues, assuming the
above Gauzlin to be a son of Hugues [Keats-Rohan (1996), 27;
Keats-Rohan (1997), 194-5; Keats-Rohan (2000), 65; Settipani
(2000), 257-8; the latter two give her the conjectured named
Bilichildis].
Conjectured son:
Hervé, count of
Perche/Mortagne.
Conjectured granddaughters:
Hildegarde, m. Geoffrey I,
viscount of Châteaudun.
Gerberge, m. (1) Bérenger;
(2) Gelduin de Saumur.
Hildegarde and Gerberge are documented as
sisters in a 980 charter from the cartulary of Saint-Florent
[Settipani (1997), 259 & n. 236]. Without offering a reason,
Keats-Rohan makes them grandchildren of Hugues I of Maine, with
an unspecified intermediate link [Keats-Rohan (1996), 27;
Keats-Rohan (1997), 194, 202; Keats-Rohan (2000), 65]. Discussing
the origin of viscountess Hildegarde of Châteaudun, Settipani
conjectured that Hildegarde and Gerberge were daughters of Hervé
of Perche and that Hervé was a son of Hugues I of Maine, with
both links indicated by dotted lines [Settipani (2000), 256-8].
The argument was onomastic, based largely on the appearance of
the names Hugues and Hervé among the children of the two
sisters. The Bérenger who was the first husband of Gerberge has
sometimes been incorrectly identified with Juhel Bérenger, count of Rennes.
Conjectured daughters:
NN, m. Gui, fl. 937,
count.
[Conjectured parents of Rothilde,
m. (1) Archambaud, viscount of Comborn; (2) Géraud, viscount of
Limoges]
Rothilde, m. Ainaud,
fl. 937.
These two conjectured daughters are onomastically based, with no
direct supporting evidence. The main factor is the presence of
the name Rothilde, also the name of the mother of Hugues. In the
case of the unnamed wife of Gui, the presence of the names Hugues
and Geoffroy among the sons of viscount Géraud is also mentioned
in support of the hypothesis [Settipani (2004), 233-7]
Cart S.-Cyprien = Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Cyprien de Poiters (Archives historiques du Poitou 3, 1874).
Keats-Rohan (1994) = K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, "Two Studies in North French Prosopography", Journal of Medieval History 20 (1994): 3-37.
Keats-Rohan (1996) = K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, "Politique et Parentèle: Les comtes, vicomtes et évèques du Maine c. 940-1050", Francia 23/1 (1996): 13-30.
Keats-Rohan (1997) = K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, "'Un vassal sans histoire'?: Count Hugh II (c.940/955-992) and the origins of Angevin overlordship in Maine", in K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, ed., Family Trees and the Roots of Politics (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1997): 189-210.
Keats-Rohan (2000) = K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, " 'Bilichildis' Problèmes et possibilités d'une étude de l'onomastique et de la parenté de la France du nord-ouest", in Keats-Rohan & Settipani, eds., Onomastique et Parenté dans l'Occident médiéval (Oxford, 2000), 57-68.
Latouche (1910) = Robert Latouche, Histoire de comté du Maine (Paris, 1910).
Le Baud (2nd redaction) = NN, sieur d'Hozier, ed., Histoire de Bretagne, avec les les chroniqves des maisons de Vitré et de Laval, par Pierre Le Bavd, chantre et chanoine (Paris, 1638). This was taken from the second redaction of Pierre Le Baud's history of Brittany, which was finished not long before his death on 19 September 1505.
Morice (1742) = Dom Hyacinthe Morice, Memoires pour servir de preuves à l'histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Bretagne, 3 vols, (Paris, 1742).
Potts (1989) = Cassandra Potts, "Normandy or Brittany? A Conflict of Interests at Mont Saint Michel (966-1035)", Anglo-Norman Studies 12 (1989): 137-156.
Settipani (1997) = Christian Settipani, "Les comtes d'Anjou et leur alliances aux Xe et XIe siècles", in K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, ed., Family Trees and the Roots of Politics (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1997): 211-267.
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.
Settipani (2004) = Christian Settipani, La Noblesse du Midi Carolingien (Prosopographia et Genealogica 5, 2004).
Werner (1958) = Karl Ferdinand Werner, "Untersuchungen zur Frühzeit des französischen Fürstentums (9.-10. Jahrhundert)", parts I-III, Die Welt als Geschichte 18 (1958): 256-289.
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
Uploaded 10 January 2008.