ABBATIAL ELECTIONS: THE CASE OF THE LOIRE VALLEY IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY Catriona Howie A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2015 Full metadata for this item is available in Research@StAndrews:FullText at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6811 This item is protected by original copyright This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence Abbatial Elections: The Case of the Loire Valley in the Eleventh Century Catriona Howie This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 26th February, 2015 Abstract This thesis examines a series of documents described as electoral charters, produced in monastic institutions of the Loire Valley from the late tenth to late eleventh centuries. By considering the variations in the formulas used for each charter, the study considers what the charters were saying about power or wanted to project about the powers at play in the events they described. Through this, the thesis demonstrates that the power of lordship projected by such documents was of a very traditional nature throughout the period in which they were being produced. The count’s role on each occasion showed him to be a dominant force with a power of lordship composed of possession and rights of property ownership, but also intangible elements, including a sacral interest. By considering the context of events surrounding each charter of election, the thesis demonstrates that elements of this lordship could be more or less projected at different times in order that different statements might be made about the count. Thus, the symbolic expressions of power appear to have been bigger elements or more strongly emphasised in periods when the count’s political or military power was under pressure. The differences in formulas used throughout the period of the charters’ production demonstrate that, despite the appearance of new elements that may appear to have been important novelties, these processes were likely to have been original to proceedings, and therefore the notions of a reform of investitures taking place in the mid-eleventh century must be nuanced. Instead of demonstrating a mutation in relationships between lord and Church, the documents demonstrate an alteration in style and content, becoming more narrative and verbose and in these ways revealing elements of the process of abbatial elevations that had previously been hidden from view. ii Acknowledgements I have been fortunate in undertaking this work to have received the help of librarians at the British Library, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, as well as in the municipal library of Angers, where special thanks are owed to Marc-Édouard Gautier for his expertise. In addition, the assistance of the archivists at the departmental archives of Maine-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher and Indre-et Loire has been invaluable in providing me with access to sources, and I am grateful for their generous willingness to share their own vast knowledge to bring to my attention useful works of which I would otherwise have been unaware. The research trips which allowed me to access these libraries and their collections would not have been possible without the financial assistance received from the School of History, University of St. Andrews and the Society for the Study of French History. Thanks are due also to the School of History, University of St. Andrews, in particular Tim Greenwood, and to the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, especially Tom Brown and Andrew Brown, for providing me with employment to fund these studies. I am very grateful to all of these bodies for making the whole project possible. For providing me with the original encouragement and the thoughts that proved to be the seeds of the project, thanks are surely due to Prof. David d’Avray and Dr. Antonio Sennis, as they are to Judith Green, whose insightful comments early on proved to be so fruitful. To Frances Andrews, for an awareness of the manifold ways in which the topics included here could be approached, thank you. Subsequent thanks must also go to the staff, secretaries and students of the Institute of Mediaeval History at St. Andrews who have constantly provided me with an enthusiastic atmosphere in which to work. Unquestionably, this thesis would be much poorer without the professional and personal support and friendship of the postgraduate community, most especially Patricia Stewart, Rob and Varan Houghton, Maxine Esser for their good-humour, and Matt McHaffie for his intricate knowledge of Angevin cartularies. iii Among these names should also be listed that of Berenike Walburg, whose kindness, friendship, and ability to find good humour in the moments when it was most needed were quite unsurpassed. It is to her memory that this work must be dedicated. Other historians deserving my utmost thanks for their advice and some outside perspective on the issues of the work as a whole must surely include Terry Stewart, and Katrin von Schirp. I should also thank alongside them Heather Alexander, Caitlin Macnamara and Sarah Wicks for their friendship, hospitality, and long-suffering patience. To Dot and Brian Holt for their advice on medieval farming practices, mention must certainly be made. For their continued support and friendship during the course of this study, thanks are surely due to all members of the Officers’ Mess, RAF Lossiemouth. Your interest in all things medieval has been impressive, to say the least, and doubtless my feet would be less firmly grounded without your camaraderie. Never in the field of human endeavour was so much owed to one man – to Peter Holt for his advice on a million topics, his unequalled IT and moral support, and his gin mixing skills. Of your patience, it is truly fair to say: Per ardua ad astra. Finally, my biggest thanks and dedication must surely be due to my parents, Ian and Mary Howie, whose penchant for châteaux, tapestries, and the Loire undoubtedly inspired my interest in all things historical. For swans, ermine, porcupines, and salamanders, for your patience with my endless corrections to the published tour guides, and for your faith in believing we’d get this far, thank you always. iv Abbreviations Ann. Sancti. Albini Annales Sancti Albini Andegavensis Archives de Maine-et-Loire Arch. de M.-et-L. Bib. mun. Bibliothèque Municipale Bib. nat. ms. lat. Bibliothèque nationale de France, manuscript latin. BNF Bibliothèque Nationale de France du Cange Glossarium mediae et infirmae latinitatis, ed. C. du Cange, 10 vols. (5th ed., Niort, 1883-7). Cart. de la Trin. et de Vend. Cartulaire de l’abbaye cardinale de la Trinité de Vendôme, ed. C. Métais, 5 vols. (Paris, 1893 – 1904). Cart. du Ronceray Cartulaire de l’Abbaye du Ronceray d’Angers, in Archives d’Anjou. Recueil de documents et mémoires inédits sur cette province, ed. P. Marchegay, 3 vols. (Angers, 1843-1854), here vol. 3 (1854). Cart. de Saint-Aubin Cartulaire de l’abbaye de Saint-Aubin d’Angers, ed. B. de Broussillon, 3 vols. (Paris, 1903). EHR English Historical Review Gallia Christiana Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa: qua series et historia archiepiscoporum, episcoporum, et abbatum franciae vincinarumque ditionum, 7 vols. (Paris, 1870-1899). v Gratian Concordia discordantium canonum, Corpus Iuris Canonici, ed. A. E. Friedberg 2 vols. (2nd ed. Leipzig, 1879). JMH Journal of Medieval History Mansi J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova Amplissima Collectio, 31 vols. (Venice, 1774) MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica Anti. Poet. Antiquitates. Poetae Latini medii aevi Ep. Epistolae SS rer. Merov. Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum Niermeyer Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus, ed. J. F. Niermeyer (Leiden, 1976). O. V., Hist. Eccl. Orderic Vitalis, Historia Ecclesiastica, in Patrologia Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne, vol. 188. PG Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne, 161 vols. (Paris, 1857-66). PL Patrologiae Cursus Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne, 221 vols. (Paris, 1844-65). Rec. d’ann. ang. et vend. Recueil d’Annales Angevines et Vendômoises, ed. L. Halphen (Paris, 1903). Rec. des Chartes de Cluny Recueil des Chartes de l’abbaye de Cluny, eds. A. Bernard and A. Bruel, 6 vols. (Paris, 1876-1903). Rev. Bén. Revue Bénédictine vi Rev. hist. Revue historique RM La régle du maître, ed. and trans. A. de Vogüé, 2 vols. (Paris, 1964-5). vii A note on names and spelling The texts of the charters given here follow spellings given in the original manuscript cartularies or documents where available. This is primarily because the choice of edited spelling that the published edition by de Broussillon uses, for example j for consonantal i, is intolerably old-fashioned now. On the other hand, the graphic distinction between u and v is certainly a modern one, and most editors of Latin texts, even post-Classical ones, now always use u for both vowel and consonant, and similarly V for either capital letter. Making a distinction between these, however, greatly helps less experienced Latin readers, so I am inclined to be unfashionable and keep the distinction. The same goes for abbreviated or omitted diphthongs in the medieval texts: accessibility of the text is much improved by making it evident that –oe- and –ae- are diphthongs. This has been done by following the practice of the eleventh-century manuscript texts, in which scribes either included both letters or used ę. de Broussillon’s tactic of simply ignoring these shows a misunderstanding of the eleventh-century palaeographic tendencies, or else was done for reasons that are no longer self- evident. To avoid complicating the texts below, I have not marked expansions of contractions or sigla as they appear in the manuscripts or copied texts, but have fully transcribed and expanded all abbreviations, and altered spellings as described.