Lambert
LambertThe son of viscount Robert of Dijon and his wife Ingeltrude, Lambert was the first of his family to become count of Chalon ["... nobilissimus strenuissimusque Lambertus, filius Rotberti vicecomitis, Ingeltrude matre ortus, obtinuit comitatum Cabilonensem primus, assentante rege primoribusque Francie, ..." Cart. Paray-le-Monial, 2 (#2)]. He appears as count in June 960, when he gave consent to a charter of Frotgaire, bishop of Chalon ["S. Frotgarii episcopi et Rotberti comitis et uxore sua Ingeltrudis. S. Lamberti, comitis, qui consensit." Cart. S.-Marcel-lès-Chalon, 87-8 (#104)]. Lambert was still alive in 977, when the abbey of Paray-le-Monial was consecrated in his presence [Cart. Paray-le-Monail 2-3 (#2)]. Controversy in the dating of certain charters makes it uncertain how long after that he was alive (see below).
Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of birth: Unknown.
Date of death: 22 February, 977×985, probably 978.
For a detailed discussion of Lambert's
death date, see the Commentary section below.
Place of death: Unknown.
Father: Robert, viscount of Dijon.
Mother: Ingeltrude.
Spouses:
(1) NN.
As discussed in detail on Gerberge's page, Gerberge was probably Lambert's daughter by an earlier
marriage.
(2) Adélaïde, living 999.
Adélaïde appears with her husband in a
number of records. See, for example, under Hugues and the
Commentary section below, and on Adélaïde's page.
Children:
(probably by an unknown earlier wife)
Gerberge, d.
986×992, m. (1) Adalberto, king of Italy; (2) Eudes-Henri,
d. 1002, duke of Burgundy.
See the page of Gerberge for a detailed discussion of her parentage.
(by Adélaïde)
Hugues, d. 4 November 1039, count of
Chalon, prob. 978-1039; bishop of Auxerre, 999-1039.
[GC 12: 284-5; "Clarissimus comes
domnus Lambertus, ... S. Adalaidis, uxoris ejus, et Hugonis,
filii ejus." Cart. Paray-le-Monial, 82-3 (#165); "Facit
autem hanc donationem jamdictus præsul Hugo Deo devotus, primum
pro amore Dei, inde pro anima patris sui Lanberti ac matris suæ
Adeleydis, ..." Cart. Paray-le-Monial, 113 (#213); "Hugo
Cabilonensis, ex patre Lamberto, comitum venerabilissimo, et
matre Adelaide generosissima; ..." Gesta pontificum
Autissiodorensium, c. 49, Bib. Hist. Yonne, 1: 386; "...
scilicet pridie Nonas Novembris, consecutus est presentis vite
terminum. Sedit autem in episcopatu annos XL, menses VIII, et
dies IV, et fuit civitas sine episcopo dies XXXVI."
ibid., 392; "Hugo, filius Lanberti Cabilonensis comitis,
... . Fuit enim idem Hugo episcopus Autissioderi, regensque
comitatum patris ex imperio regis, quoniam preter eum pater non
habuit sobolem sexus masculini; ..." Rodulfus Glaber,
iii, 6 (p. 57)]
Mathilde, d. before 1019, m. Geoffroy
de Semur.
Mathilde appears in a charter of her
brother count Hugues of Chalon, evidently before he became bishop
in 999 ["S. Hugonis comitis. S. Ottonis nepotis ejus. S.
Teudbaldi nepotis ejus. S. Maltidis sororis ejus."
Cart. Paray-le-Monial, 92 (#184)]. She appears in about 1015 with
her husband and five sons in a Cluny charter ["Ego
Gausfredus et uxor mea Maheldis et filii mei Gausfredus, Herveus,
Oddo, Tethbaldus, Lanbertus ... Testes Gauzfredus et uxor ejus
Maheldis, filii eorum Gausfredus, Arveus, Oddo, Tetbaldus,
Lanbertus; ..." Cart. Cluny, 3: 721 (#2692)]. She was
mentioned as deceased in a charter of her brother from 1019
["... ego Hugo, episcopus Autisiodorensium, ob creatoris
amorem omnium, seu pro remedio patris mei Lanberti matrisque meæ
Adheleydis animarum, ... quam olim soror mea Maheldis et sponsus
ejus Gauzfredus ..." ibid., 3: 745 (#2722)].
Lambert's date of death
The cartulary of Paray-le-Monial gives the date of Lambert's death as 22 February 988 ["Anno ab Incarnatione Domini D CCCC LXXXVIII, quia non est in hominis potestate ejus vita, decessit e mundo isdem egregius comes, octavo kalendas martii ..." Cart. Paray-le-Monial 5 (#4)]. However, that date cannot be correct, because Adélaïde was already married to her second husband in the reign of king Lothaire of France (d. 2 March 986), as shown by two Cluny charters [#1474, #1701, see below]. Since it is known that Adélaïde did not marry her second husband Geoffroy until after the death of Lambert [from a charter of Saint-Marcel-lès-Chalon: "Ego in Dei nomine Tetbaldus comes Cabilonensium ... quod nobilissimus comes Gaufredus, qui post mortem prestantissimi et christianissimi comitis, avii mei Lamberti, accepit ejus conjugem, aviam meam, Adheleydam comitissam, ..." Cart. S.-Marcel-lès-Chalon, 11 (#6)], Lambert died before 2 March 986. Lambert was still alive in 977, when the abbey of Paray-le-Monial was consecrated in his presence [Cart. Paray-le-Monial 2-3 (#2)]. There is no reason to doubt the date of 22 February, and it generally assumed that there was an error in the Roman numerals of the year. Thus, Lambert's death can be placed between 977 and 985 (based on the reasonable assumption that Adélaïde's second marriage and the two Cluny charters did not all take place in the eight days following Lambert's death, ruling out 986 as the year). The question is where in this interval the date needs to be placed.
Two recent opposing views on Lambert's date of death have been put forth by Henri de Chizelle [Chizelle (1986)] and Christian Settipani [Settipani (1994)]. The primary evidence used by both of them consists of three charters from Cluny which, at first glance, appear to narrow down the date to a short interval. They did not use another charter which also appears to be relevant (the fourth charter in the list below).
The problem that prevents scholars from treating these charters in a routine way is that the years of Lothair were not calculated in a consistent manner. Lothaire was declared king on 12 November 954, and he died on 2 March 986 [Settipani (1993), 332]. The matter is complicated by the existence of a series of 44 charters from Cluny dated from the 33rd to the 40th year of Lothaire [Bruel (1880), 51, 54-7], including one of the charters above (#1474). Chizelle and Settipani both state that these charters extend from the 33rd to the 44th years of Lothaire [Chizelle (1986), 49 and Settipani (1994), 37; is this a typographical error of Chizelle that was accidently followed by Settipani?]. Since Lothair died in the 32nd year of his reign, counting from 954, this suggest that a different starting point was used for the dating of many of these charters.
The different handling of the dating of these charters explains the different opinions regarding the death date of Lambert. Only one of these four charters has a certain date. Charter #1537 has the additional information that the date was a Tuseday ("die martis"), showing that the date of 30 November 980 (which was on a Tuesday) is correct, dated from 12 November 954. Lot argued from this charter that Lambert was already deceased by that date, and therefore that the correct date was 978, based on the assumption that an extra "X" accidently appeared in the Roman numerals, which the easiest error to explain [Lot (1891), 328, n. 3]. However, this evidence is weakened by the appearance of Lambert in a charter which has a higher year of reign. (We cannot accept Bruel's date of before 22 February 978 for this charter without being guilty of circular reasoning, for Bruel assigned that date based on the assumption that Lambert died on that date.) Thus, there is the question of whether either of the charters in which Adélaïde appears with Geoffroy can be adequately dated.
In dating the Cluny charters of Lothaire, Bruel showed that most of the charts used a starting point of 12 November 954 for dates in Lothair's reign, and he evidently used that starting point in his dating of all charters for which that did not lead to a contradiction. In addition to several other starting dates which can be confirmed for specific charters, he assumed a starting date of 946 for the charters dated from the 33rd to 40th years of Lothair [Bruel (1880), 41-57]. However, there are two problems here. One is that there is no good reason to believe that all of the anomalously dated charters used the same starting point. The other is that there is no good way to know how many of the charters from a 32nd year of reign or lower belong in the anomalous group.
Chizelle argued that charter #1474 was dated according to Lothair's association on the throne in 952 (thus allowing a date before Lothair's death), but that the other two charters were dated from 12 November 954, giving a date between 12 November 981 and 12 November 982 for charter #1444bis, and 18 October 984 for charter #1701 [Chizelle (1986), 50]. With the date of Lambert's death being thus placed between 12 November 981 and 18 October 984, Chizelle then argued that the most likely date was 983 (suppressing a "V" from "D CCCC LXXXVIII"). Settipani argued that we should assume that all three of the above charters were dated from the same starting point, and thus somewhere between 942 and 952. This would give dates for Lambert's death between 970 (942+28) and 982 (952+30), or between 977 and 982, since we know that Lambert was alive in 977. Among all possible dates in that range, suppressing an "X" from the Roman numerals would be the easiest error to explain, giving the date 978. Both of these scenarios seem to be arguing false precision in an uncertain situation. In the absence of further evidence, there is no good reason to believe that all charters with a 32nd year of reign or less are dated with respect to 954 (as Chizelle has assumed), but there is also no good reason to assume that all three of these charters were dated by the same starting year (especially when that year would be in the range 948 to 950, seemingly lacking good explanation).
This leaves us with charter #1537 with its confident date of 30 November 980. While we can not be certain that Lambert's death was the reason that Adélaïde appears without a husband in that charter, it is the most probable explanation. Of the dates in the range 977-980, 978 would be the most likely one to lead to the erroneous date of 988. Thus, 22 February 978 is the most likely date for Lambert's death, but it is difficult to completely rule out other years in the range 977×985.
Possible relative: Liétaud,
count of Mâcon.
The basis of this is that a certain Lambert is called a consanguineus
in a charter of Liétaud [Cart. Cluny, 1: 609-610 (#655), see
under Attala below; see also Poupardin (1907), 234, 419, n. 3].
While the identity of this Lambert is not specified in the
charter, Lambert of Chalon is the most likely candidate. The
exact nature of the relationship is unknown. For one conjecture,
see the page of Raculf, viscount of
Mâcon, and for another, see the next item on Attala.
Supposed wife: Attala, daughter
of Aubry I, count of Mâcon.
This suggestion [Sackur (1892-4), 2: 469-471], is based on a
charter from Cluny from February 944, which states that certain
land which was granted to Liétaud by a certain Lambert was later
regranted by Liétaud's sister Attala ["ego
Leotaldus et uxor mea Berta, ... hoc est
mansus indominicatus cum æcclesia Beati Martini, quem mihi
Lanbertus, consanguineus meus, dedit, et soror mea Attala michi
postea reddidit, situs in pago Cabillonense, in villa Flagiaco,
..." Cart. Cluny, 1: 609-610 (#655)]. For chronological
reasons, it is improbable that Attala was the same person as
Lambert's known wife Adélaïde. For the possibility that Attala
was an earlier wife of Lambert, see Gerberge's page.
Falsely attributed children:
Maurice. (in fact son of Adélaïde by her second marriage)
Chizelle would argue that Lambert and
Adélaïde a son Maurice, whom he would distinguish as a separate
individual from Maurice, son of Geoffroy "Grisegonelle"
[Chizelle (1986); Chizelle (1996)]. Lambert's wife Adélaïde
certainly had a son named Maurice, but Chizelle's attempts to
show that he was Lambert's son, and that Adélaïde's second
husband Geoffroy was a man different from Geoffroy
"Grisegonelle", fail to convince. This is discussed in
detail on Adélaïde's
page.
Adélaïde/Aélis, m. Guy,
count of Mâcon.
[Verneuil (1876), 43; Vajay (1962), 160, n.
4; Rameau (1901), 141 names Guy's wife as "Adélaïde de
Chalon" without further identification] This supposed
marriage is discussed on the page of Lambert's daughter Gerberge.
Ermenburge, m. Humbert II,
lord of Salins.
["Ermenburgam nobiliori semine
exortam ... Cum conjugis meæ Ermengardis concensione, videlicet
terram quam ego ipse dederam patri ejus Lamberto, et ipse
Lambertus sibi dedit, quando eam Umberto tradidit in matrimonium"
From a donation made in 1028 by king Rodolphe III of Burgundy to
Ermenburge, from the cartulary of the abbey of Saint-Paul, at
Besançon, Verneuil (1876), 43, citing Chifflet, p. 153] There is
no good reason to believe that the Lambert mentioned in this
charter was Lambert of Chalon [see Chizelle (1986), 59].
Conjectured children:
Ingeltrude, fl. ca. 973×8.
Atto, fl.
ca. 973×8, d. bef. 978.
Lambert,
fl. ca. 973×8, d. bef. 978.
These three conjectured additional children
are based on a charter of Paray-le-Monial sometime before the
death of Lambert ["S. Lamberti comitis et Adalaidis
comitissæ. S. Hugo[li]ni. S. Ingeltrudis, Attonis, Lamberti."
Cart. Paray-le-Monial, 99 (#195)]. Settipani suggests that these
individuals were another daughter of Lambert and Adélaïde and
two of their sons who died before their father [Settipani (1994),
41, 53].
Bib. Hist. Yonne = Louis-Maximilien Duru, ed., Bibliothèque historique de l'Yonne, 2 vols., (Auxerre & Paris, 1850-63).
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. S.-Marcel-lès-Chalon = Paul Canat de Chizy, ed., Cartulaire du prieuré de Saint-Marcel-lès-Chalon (Chalon-sur-Saône, 1894).
Cart. Paray-le-Monial = Ulysse Chevalier, ed., Cartulaire de Paray-le-Monial (Montbéliard, 1891).
Chizelle (1986) = Henri de Chizelle, "Aperçu sur le comté de Chalon-sur-Saône au Xe siècle: à propos de la comtesse Aélis", Annales de Bourgogne 58 (1986): 45-70.
Chizelle (1996) = Henri de Chizelle, "Notes complémentaires concernant Aélis (Adèlais), comtesse de Chalon", Annales de Bourgogne 68 (1996): 79-83.
GC = Gallia Christiana.
Lot (1891) = Ferdinand Lot, Les derniers Carolingiens (Paris, 1891).
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, 3ser., 6 (1901): 121-209.
Sackur (1892-4) = Ernst Sackur, Die Cluniacenser in ihrer kirchlichen und allgemeingeschichtlichen Wirksamkeit bis zur Mitte des elften Jahrhunderts (Halle an der Saale, 1892-4).
Settipani (1993) = Christian Settipani, La préhistoire des Capétiens 481-987 (Première partie - Mérovingiens, Carolingiens et Robertiens) (Villeneuve d'Ascq, 1993).
Settipani (1994) = Christian Settipani, "Les origines maternelles du comte de Bourgogne Otte-Guillaume", Annales de Bourgogne 66 (1994), 5-63.
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.
Verneuil (1876) = "Le comté de Chalon, le Charollais, et la ville de Paray-le-Monial", Annales de l'Académie de Mâcon 15 (1877), 3-200.
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 24 April 2008.