Hugues II Hugues IIThe first certain appearance of Hughes II is in a charter of Saint-Père de Chartres on 25 June 955 ["S. Hugonis, comitis Cenomannorum." Cart. S.-Père de Chartres 1: 199 (#LXXIII), which gives 25 June 954; for the date, see Latouche (1910), 137, n. 4]. In September 960, he was a witness at the donation of a certain Éremburge to Saint-Florent de Saumur ["S. Hugonis comitis Cenomannorum." Latouche (1910), 162 (Pièce justificative #1)]. Hugues and two of his sons were witnesses to a donation of a certain Girard, canon of Saint-Martin, to Saint-Julien de Tours in March 967 ["Signum Hugonis, Cinomannorum comitis. Signum Hugonis, filii ejus. Signum Fulcuini, filii e[jus similit]er." Grandmaison (1885-6), 229 (#XXI)], and they signed a donation of Seifrid, bishop of Le Mans, in February 971 ["Signum + domni Hugonis comitis. Signum Hugonis et Fulchonis filiorum ejus." ibid., 233 (#XXIII)]. In September 976, along with count Geoffroy Grisegonelle of Anjou, he signed a charter at Saint-Aubin d'Angers ["Signum Hugonis Cenomannici comitis." Cart. S.-Aubin, 58 (#34)]. Two other undated charters in which he appears with two of his sons are probably from late in his reign, one with the consent of his sons Hugues and Herbert ["... Carta vero est Hugonis comitis Cenomanens[ium], in qua, filiis ejus consentientibus Hugone et Herberto, ..." Latouche (1910), 162 (Pièce justificative #2)], and one with his son Hugues ["S. Hugonis comitis. S. Hugonis filii ejus." Latouche (1910), 162 (Pièce justificative #3)].
It is possible that he appears as early as 936×7, when two counts named Hugues appear in a Poitevin charter ["S. Willelmi comitis, Hugoni comitis, item Hugoni, ..., Radulfi vicecomitis, ..." Car.t S.-Cyprien, 325 (#549)]. This would depend on the identification of these two counts Hugues as being Hugues I and Hugues II of Maine. See the page of Hugues I for more.
Date of Birth: Unknown.
Place of
Birth: Unknown.
Date of Death: 976×992.
He was still living in September
976, when he was witness to a charter at Saint-Aubin (see above),
but his son had succeeded by December 992, when his son Fulcoin
appears as "Fulcho, frater Hugoni comitis Cinnomanensis."
[Cart. S.-Maixent, 1: 78 (#LXI)].
Place of Death: Unknown.
Father:
Uncertain.
Mother: Uncertain.
The commonly made assertion that
he was a son of count Hugues I is undocumented, and
is discussed in the Commentary section.
Spouse(s):
Unknown.
See the Commentary section for a
conjecture. Since Herbert Bacon appears in sources well into the
eleventh century, he may have been a much younger son by a second
marriage.
Children:
Hugues III, d. 1014×5, count of Maine.
Fulcoin/Foulques, fl. 967-992.
He appears as a witness with his father in
March 967 and February 971 [Grandmaison (1885-6), 229 (#XXI), 233
(#XXIII)], and he appears as the brother of count Hugues of Maine
in December 992, holding land in Poitou ["Tenuit etiam
ipsam terram Fulcho, frater Hugoni comitis Cinnomanensis."
Cart. S.-Maixent, 1: 78 (#LXI); Richard (1903), 1: 114, 119, 125,
136].
Herbert Bacon, acting count of Maine,
1032×5-1038.
Herbert is mentioned in a charter
along with his father Hugues and his brother Hugues [Latouche
(1910), 162 (see above)]. He appears as "Herbertus frater
comitis" in two charters of his brother Hugues III, one from
1014 and the other undated [Cart. S.-Victeur, 4 (#3), 6 (#4)]. He
appears in the Actus as an avunculus of count
Herbert I "Wake-Dog" ["... Herbertus, comes,
cognomine Baco, avunculus Herberti ..." Act. Pont.
Cenom., 363]. On the death of Herbert "Wake-Dog"
in 1032×5, Herbert Bacon, who must have been rather old by that
time, became guardian of the young count Hugues IV. His years as
acting count included a struggle with Gervais, bishop of Le Mans,
ending with his capture (1038) and relegation to a monastery [Act.
Pont. Cenom., 363-5; Halphen (1906), 69-70; Latouche (1910),
26-7].
Supposed father (legendary,
existence unlikely):
David, count of Maine.
The only early sources to state the parentage of Hugues II are
two false charters which would make him the son of a certain
David. First, there is a supposed donation of Hugues, son of
David, to the canons of Saint-Pierre-de-la-Cour, signed by his
son Hugues and bishop Seifrid ["Ego Hugo, David filius,
comes Cenomannorum, ...; Hoc testificantur Hugo, filius meus;
Seingfredus, episcopus; ..." Latouche (1910), 158
(#76), 166-7 (Pièce justificative #6)]. In addition, there is
the supposed confirmation by count Hugues of a concession given
by his father David to the chapter of Saint-Pierre-de-la-Cour
["... ego Hugo, David filius, Cenomannorum comes, dono
et confirmo cuncta donaria que pater meus David ecclesie Beati
Petri de Curia dedit ..." Latouche (1910), 158 (#77),
167-8 (Pièce justificative #7)]. The fact that both of these
acts are said to be witnessed by bishop Seifrid and the
appearance of a son Hugues in the first one show that Hugues son
of David would have to be Hugues II. There is also a short notice
of an act of Hugues David, father of Herbert, to the canons of
Saint-Pierre-de-la-Cour [Latouche (1910), 158 (#78); Elbenne
& Denis (1910), cliv]. Discussing these charters, Latouche
showed that they were twelfth century falsifications [Latouche
(1910), Appendice II (pp. 105-112)]. Works of the twelfth century
also have a number of other references to count David of Maine,
said to be a contemporary of a king Robert and of count Geoffroy
Grisegonelle of Anjou [e.g., Hugues de Clers, De majoratu et
senescalcia Franciæ, Marchegay & Salmon (1856), 389; Gesta consulum Andegavorum, ibid., 77-8;
Chron. Robert de Torigny, s.a. 1169, MGH SS 6: 518]. Given the
lateness of these sources, their evident connection with the
false charters, and the fact that neither Robert I nor Robert II
was a contemporary of Geoffroy Grisegonelle of Anjou, these
sources are not reliable for the history of the tenth century.
Recently, Keats-Rohan has attempted to use De majoratu et
senescalcia Franciæ as a source for the history of Hugues
II, suggesting that it is perhaps significant that Charles the
Bald (grandfather of Hugues I) is known to have modelled himself
on the biblical king David [Keats-Rohan (1997), 192-3, 200-1].
Conjectured father (uncertain): Hugues I,
count of Maine.
Given the continuing use of the name Hugues
by the counts of Maine, it is not surprising that some have
believed that Hugues II was a son of Hugues I. This conjecture
has sometimes been stated with some kind of qualification [e.g.,
"peut-être un fils de Hughes Ier ou un autre de ses
parents" Latouche (1910), 16; "probably his son"
Barton (2004), 41; "probably his son" Keats-Rohan
(1997), 192, but without qualification on the table on p. 194],
but the relationship has often been stated without such
qualification [Werner (1967), 461; Keats-Rohan (1996), 27
(table); Keats-Rohan (2000), 65 (table); Settipani (2000), 258
(table); Settipani (2004), 233, 235 (table)]
Unfortunately, there is a twenty-four year gap between the last confirmed appearance of count Hugues I and the first confirmed appearance of Hugues II. (Here, I am regarding the identification with the counts Hugues appearing in two Poitevin charters from the 930's and the 939 appearance of a count Hugues in Le Baud, a very late source, as unconfirmed. See the page of Hugues I.) Indeed, there might even be enough room for a possible additional generation between Hugues I and Hugues II, although too little is known about the chronology to be sure in that regard (and even if there was an extra generation it would be rash to assume that the intervening individual was named David). Lacking better information, the above cautious statement by Latouche seems to reflect the situation well.
Conjectured mother (uncertain): NN, daughter of
count Gauzlin.
See the page of Hugues
I.
Conjectured spouse (very
uncertain): NN
of Vermandois, daughter of Heribert II?
This conjecture of Keats-Rohan is based on the possession of the
name Herbert by a son and further descendants of Hugues
[Keats-Rohan (1997), 196 & n. 38, 204]. While such a marriage
cannot be ruled out, the use of the word "probably" by
Keats-Rohan to describe the marriage is a considerable
overstatement.
Conjectured daughter (conjecture
later abandoned): Godehilde, m. Yves
I, lord of Bellême.
[Keats-Rohan (1994), 16, 19; however, see
Keats-Rohan (1996), 18, conjecturing a different origin for
Godehilde]
Act. Pont. Cenom. = Busson & Ledru, eds., Actus Pontificum Cenomannis in urbe Degentium (Archives Historiques du Maine 2, Le Mans, 1902).
Barton (2004) = Richard E. Barton, Lordship in the County of Maine c.890-1160 (Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2004).
Cart. S.-Aubin = Bertrand de Broussillon, Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Aubin d'Angers, 3 vols. (Angers, 1903).
Cart. S.-Cyprien = Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Cyprien de Poiters (Archives historiques du Poitou 3, 1874).
Cart. S.-Maixent = Alfred Richard, Chartes et documents pour servir à l'histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Maixent, 2 vols. (Archives Historiques du Poitou 16, 1886; 18, 1887).
Cart. S.-Père de Chartres = M Guérard, Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Père de Chartres, 2 vols. (Paris, 1840).
Cart. S.-Victeur = Paul de Farcy, ed., Cartulaire de Saint-Victeur au Mans (Paris, 1895).
Elbenne & Denis (1910) = Le chapitre royal de l'église collégiale de Saint-Pierre-de-la-Cour Sainte-Chapelle du Mans (Archives Historiques du Maine, 10, Le Mans, 1910).
Grandmaison (1885-6) = Charles de Grandmaison, ed., "Fragments de chartes du xe siècle provenant de Saint-Julien de Tours", Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes 46 (1885): 373-429; 47 (1886): 226-273.
Halphen (1906) = Louis Halphen, Le comté d'Anjou au XIe siècle (Paris, 1906).
Keats-Rohan (1996) = K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, "Politique et Parentèle: Les comtes, vicomtes et évèques du Maine c. 940-1050", Francia 23 (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).
Marchegay & Salmon (1856) = Paul Marchegay & André Salmon, Chroniques d'Anjou (Paris, 1856).
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Richard (1903) = Alfred Richard, Histoire des comtes de Poitou 778-1204, 2 vols. (Paris, 1903).
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 (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.