Roger RogerNearly all of what is known of count Roger of Maine is related in a letter of Gontier, bishop of Le Mans. Gontier's predecessor, Lambert, died on a 13 December on the same day as count Bérenger, in an unknown year, probably in the middle of the 890's [Nec. Mans, 329; see the page of Bérenger for more on the chronology]. Gontier accuses Roger of ravaging the possessions of the diocese, and states that Roger was driven out by duke Robert (later king Robert I), who established a certain Gauzlin as count, but that Roger then succeded in driving out Gauzlin [Act. Pont. Cenom. 342-7; Latouche (1910), 14-6; Barton (2004), 35-6].
Date of Birth: Unknown.
Place of
Birth: Unknown.
Date of Death: Before 31 October 900.
He was undoubtedly deceased on
that date, when his son Hugues, count of Maine, appears with his
mother in an act of Charles the Simple. See the page of Hugues I for further details.
Place of Death: Unknown.
Father: Unknown.
Mother: Unknown.
Spouse:
Rothilde, d. 22 March, not long before 929, daughter of Charles
the Bald, king of the Western
Franks, Emperor.
Rothilde does not appear in any document with Roger, but she
appears as the mother of Roger's son Hugues. See Rothilde's page for further details.
Children:
Hugues I, d. after 26 March 931, count of Maine.
Hugues is called a son of Roger in two
charters of 930-1. See the page of Hugues I for further deatils.
NN, m. Hugues le Grand,
duke of France.
See Rothilde's page.
Conjectured ancestor: Roger, 8th century, count of Maine.
(said to be related to the Rorgonid counts of Maine)
This is a common onomastic conjecture,
based on the fact that there was an eighth century count of Maine
named Roger, who in turn had a son named Gauzlin (Gauziolenus),
a name common in the Rorgonid dynasty of counts of Maine [Act.
Pont. Cenom., 244-5; Boussard (1968), 19, 24; Keats-Rohan
(1994), 6; Jackman (1999), 138]. The conjecture is plausible, but
unproven.
Suggested
identification of Roger:
Roger, nepos of Hugues,
count of Bourges.
[e.g., Keats-Rohan (1994): 8-9; Keats-Rohan (2000), 65] This is
based on the suggestion that Roger of Maine was the same as a
certain Rotgarius, nepos of Hugues (Ugo),
count of Bourges, both present at the siege of Paris by the
Vikings in 885-7 [Abbo, De Bello Parisiaco, ii, 562-5,
MGH SS 2: 800]. For the old hypothesis that Hugues of Bourges was
the husband of Roger's wife Rothilde [Depoin (1908), 590-3], see
the page of Rothilde.
Conjectured daughter (unproven): Richilde, m. Thibaud,
viscount of Tours (parents of Thibaud
le Tricheur, count of Blois).
[Keats-Rohan (1997), 194; Keats-Rohan (2000), 65] See Rothilde's page for a discussion.
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).
Boussard (1968) = Jacques Boussard, "Les destinées de la Neustrie du IXe au XIe siècle", Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, Xe-XIIe Siècles 11 (1968), 15-28.
Depoin (1908) = Joseph Depoin, "Études préparatoires à l'histoire des familles palatines. III Thibaud le Tricheur - fut-il bâtard et mourut-il presque centenaire?" Revue des études historiques 74 (1908), 553-602.
Jackman (1999) = Donald C. Jackman, "Rorgonid Right - Two Scenarios", Francia 26/1 (1999): 129-153.
Keats-Rohan (1994) = K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, "Two Studies in North French Prosopography", Journal of Medieval History 20 (1994): 3-37.
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).
MGH SS = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores series.
Nec. Mans = Busson & Ledru, Nécrologe-obituaire de la Cathédrale du Mans (Archives Historiques du Maine 7, Le Mans, 1906).
Werner (1958) = Karl Ferdinand Werner, "Untersuchungen zur Frühzeit des französischen Fürstentums (9.-10. Jahrhundert)", 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.