Liétaud
(Leotaldus) Liétaud
(Leotaldus)Liétaud appears as count during the lifetime of his father Aubry I when, in a donation to Cluny dated 8 or 12 April 935, he and his wife Ermengarde mentioned the names of their parents ["... ego Leotaldus, Dei gratia comes, necnon et uxor mea Ermengardis, pro Dei amore et eterna retributione, ut pius Dominus animas nostras vel parentum nostrorum, Alberici atque Tolosane, Manassei et Ermengardis, ..." Cart. Cluny, 1: 420 (#432); for the date, see ibid., 421, n. 1]. The chronicler Flodoard calls him "Leotaldus quidam Burgundiae comes" [Flodoard, Annales, s.a. 951, 129], and Richer calls him princeps of the city of Besançon ["Leotaldus eiusdem urbis princeps" Richer, ii, 98, MGH SS 3: 609]. The Angevin Saint-Aubin genealogies knew him as count of Besançon and his brother Humbert as count of Mâcon ["Letaldus comes Vesconsiosis et Umbertus comes Matisconiensis fratres fuerunt ..." Poupardin (1900), 208]. On 20 October 955, Liétaud appears as "Leotaldus, Burgundie comes" in a charter of king Lothaire of France [Cart. Cluny, 2: 76 (#980)]. He was succeeded by his son Aubry sometime between 958 and 960.
Date of Birth: Unknown.
Place of
Birth: Unknown.
Date of Death: Probably 4 January 958 × 20 August 960.
Liétaud's date of death can be
estimated on the basis of several charters, the dating of which
is not always certain. See the Commentary section for further
discussion.
Place of Death: Unknown.
Father:
Aubry I, count of Mâcon.
Mother: Tolosane/Etolane/Attalane.
As indicated above, Aubry and Ermengarde both name their parents
in a charter of 935. In a charter dated 8 May, possibly in 955,
Liétaud appears in a charter in which he names his son Aubry and
mother Etolana ["Ego Leotaldus, comes
Matisconensis, ... pro salute animæ meæ et filii mei Alberici
matrisque meæ Etolanæ, ...; Signum Leotaldi, comitis, et uxoris
ejus Richeldæ. S. Alberici, filii eorum, qui hoc donum laudando
firmaverunt, et scribi jusserunt." Cart Cluny, 2: 72-3
(#976)]. Aubry's wife appears as Attalane (not Tolane)
in another charter of her son Liétaud, dated probably 21
September 942, which also mentions Liétaud's first two wives and
his son Aubry II ["Ego Leotaldus gratia Dei comes et
uxor mea Berta, per amorem Dei, ut pius Dominus animam patris mei
Alberici necnon et animam matris mee Attalane, seu et nostris,
vel Irmengardis quondam uxoris mee, ... S. Leotaldi comitis. S.
Berte uxoris ejus, qui fieri et firmare rogaverunt. S. Alberici
filii sui qui consensit. ... Data per manum Berardi, sub die
Mercuris, XI kal. octobris, anno VI regnante Hludivico rege."
Cart Mâcon, 283-4 (#488); see also errata on p. 588 for reading
of Attalane (instead of "et Tolane");
the regnal year would give 941, but 21 September was on a
Wednesday in 942].
Spouses:
(1) Ermengarde, fl. 935, d. before 21 September 942, daughter of Manasses and Ermengarde.
Ermengarde was mentioned as deceased on 21 September 942 (see
above).
(2) Berthe, fl. 942-6.
["Leutaldus et uxor mea Berta",
March 943, Cart. Cluny 1: 582 (#625); "ego Leotaldus et
uxor mea Berta, ..., et pro anima Ermengardis dilettæ condam
uxoris meæ, ..., quem mihi Lanbertus, consanguineus meus, dedit,
et soror mea Attala michi postea reddidit, ... (Carta domni
Leotaldi comitis ...)", February 944, ibid, 1: 609-610
(#655); "ego Leutoldus et uxor mea Berta, ... pro
re[me]dio animarium nostrarum, et pro salute genitricis mee et
conjugis mee, nomine Hermengardis, ...", March 946,
ibid, 1: 633 (#680)]
(3) Richilde, fl. 948×9-955?.
["Leotbaldum et Richildem,
conjugen ejus, ...; S. Leotaldi comitis. S. Alberici, filii ejus.
S. Richildis ...", 948×9, Cart. Cluny, 1: 685 (#729);
"S. Leotaldus comes. S. Richeldis, uxorem ejus. S.
Alberico, filio ejus, qui consensit", 15 December 949,
ibid., 1: 710-1 (#753); 8 May possibly 955, ibid, 2: 72-3 (#976),
see above]
Child:
(by
Ermengarde)
Aubry II, count of Mâcon.
In a charter of January 962, count Aubry
mentions his parents Liétaud and Ermengarde ["ego
Albericus, gratia Dei comes, ... pro remedio animæ meæ ac
patris mei Leotaldi ac matris meæ Ermengardis, ..."
cart. Cluny, 2: 215 (#1124)]. Aubry also appears in two charters
with his father Liétaud and stepmother Richilde [Cart. Cluny, 1:
685 (#729), 710-1 (#753); see above]
The date of death of Liétaud
The death date of Liétaud is based on a number of charters from Cluny, not all of which can be dated with confidence. The following five charters from late in the tenure of Liétaud and early under Aubry help to narrow down Liétaud's date of death. They are listed with their chronological data and the date assigned by Bruel, the editor of the charters.
For the first four charters, there is the immediate problem that the chronological data are inconsistent if the beginning of Lothaire's reign is to be calculated from his accession on 12 November 954, as was usually the case. In a case where the calculation from the regnal year disagrees with calculations taken from the day of the week, the latter is more likely to be correct, especially in cases where the discrepancy is only one year. Thus, with some degree of confidence, we can accept the dates for charters #1037 (4 October 957), #1044 (4 January 958), and #1087 (20 August 960) which were given by Bruel, each one year off (but not always in the same direction) from the years obtained by calculating the regnal year. For charter #1124, we are left with the claculation which gives January 962, where the lack of an exact day and a day of the week leaves us without a way to check the accuracy.
This gives us reasonably probable dates for four of the five charters, but charter #1100 is more problematic to date. Not only do the beginning and the end of the charter contradict each other by stating different days of the week, but all of the years possible for those two days of the week are at least two years off from what would be obtained from calculating the years of reign from Lothaire's coronation. Thus, the charter has at least two distinct conflicts in dating, where these conflicts could, for example, include an error in the day of the week (and at least one mistake of this type is clearly present), an error in the number preceding "kal. februarii", an error in calculating the year of Lothaire's reign, or the deliberate use of a different starting date for Lothaire's reign. In dating the charter to 16 January 961, Bruel accepted Wednesday ("die mercoris") as correct as opposed to Tuesday ("die martys"), and originally suggested that the scribe Berard (the same scribe as in charters #1037, # 1044, and #1087) was dating the beginning of Lothaire's reign to July 956 [Cart. Cluny, 2: 194, n. 2]. However, he later changed his mind (about the explanation, not the date), suggesting that 12 November 955 was being used as the beginning of Lothaire's reign, and that the "V" for the fifth year of Lothaire was a copying mistake for an original "VI" [Bruel (1880), 48]. The first four charters were all written by the same scribe, named Berard. This scribe occasionally wrote charters in which the day of the week agrees with the calculation from the regnal year [e.g., #1000, 1001], but more often had a discrepancy of one year [e.g., #1037, #1044, #1058, #1059, #1087, #1108] (sometimes in one direction, sometimes the other) or occasionally more [#1085?, #1109].
In fact, there seems to be a simpler explanation for the dating of charter #1100. It is well known that the Roman numerals for 2 and 5 can be easily confused with one another if written in miniscule (ii vs. u, both represented by two minims), and miscopying 5 for 2 was a common error in copying Roman numerals. If "anno II reg. Hlotharii regis" is read instead of "anno V reg. Hlotharii regis", and we calculate from Lothaire's coronation, we get 956 as the year, which makes the day fall on a Wednesday, agreeing with one of the two days of the week given in the charter (and we can do no better than that). There is another reason for accepting an earlier date for charter #1100, for the attempt to place charter #1100 after charter #1087 is awkward. In charter #1087, from 20 August 960, Aubry II appears alone as count, and the only "evidence" that Liétaud still living at that time is dubious dating of 961 for charter #1100. With charter #1100 removed to the slightly earlier date to which it apparently belongs, we can conclude with a reasonable degree of probability that Liétaud was still living on 4 January 958, when he appears in Cluny charter #1044, and was probably dead by 20 August 960, when his son Aubry appears alone as count.
Possible relative: Lambert, d.
probably 978, count of Chalon.
Liétaud mentions a certain Lambert as his relative in a
charter of 944 ["ego Leotaldus et uxor mea Berta, ...,
quem mihi Lanbertus, consanguineus meus, dedit, et soror mea
Attala michi postea reddidit, ... ", February 944,
Cart. Cluny, 1: 609-610 (#655)]. The identity of the Lambert in
question is not specified, but Lambert of Chalon is the most
likely candidate. The nature of the relationship is unknown.
Falsely attributed
daughter: Gerberge, m. (1) Adalberto, king of Italy; m.
(2) Eudes-Henri, duke of Burgundy.
or
Falsely attributed son (mythical): Otto, count of Mâcon, supposed father of the above Gerberge.
The basis for this hypothesis is a charter in 1017×1025 of Otto, count of Mâcon (son of Gui, son of Otte-Guillaume, son of Adalbert and Gerberge), which, in addition to naming his father Gui and grandfather Otte-Guillaume, mentions his atavus Liétaud ["... ego Otto, comes Maticensis, ..., animæ etiam meæ et patris mei Guidonis, necnon avi mei Ottonis cognomento Wilelmi, et uxoris meæ et filii mei Gaufredi, ... sicuti jam ante comes Leotaldus, atavus meus, ..." Cart. Cluny, 3: 735-6 (#2712)]. Among a number of possible interpretations of this source, some have used it to indicate that Gerberge was either a daughter or granddaughter of Liétaud. This is discussed in detail on Gerberge's page.
Bouchard (1987) = Constance Brittain Bouchard, Sword, Miter, and Cloister - Nobility and the Church in Burgundy, 980-1198 (Ithaca & London, 1987).
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. Mâcon = M.-C. Ragut, ed., Cartulaire de Saint-Vincent de Mâcon (Mâcon, 1864).
Flodoard, Annales = Ph. Lauer, ed., Les Annales de Flodoard (Paris, 1905).
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Poupardin (1900) = René Poupardin, "Généalogies angevines du XIe siècle", Mélanges d'Archéologie et d'Histoire (Paris, Rome) 20 (1900):199-208.
Poupardin (1907) = René Poupardin, Le royaume de Bourgogne (888-1038) - Étude sur les origines du royaume d'Arles (Paris, 1907).
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.
Compiled by Stewart Baldwin
First uploaded 24 April 2008.