In Partial Fulfillment
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THE ÀRNULFINGS BEFORE 687 A Study of the House oÎ Pepin in the Seventh Century A Thes is Presented to The Faculty of Graduate SÈudies and Research univers ity of Manitoba In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Richard A. Gerberd j"ng October, I977 THE ARI{ULFIIIÊS BFFfJRE 687: A Study of the House of Peoin in the Seventh Centur.y BY RICHARD A GERBERDTNG A disserti¡tion sÍrbnritted to the F¿cutty of Grutuafc Stt¡tlics o[ the University of Muuitobr in partill fulfillmcnt ol' the rc{¡uircments of thr,' dr,'gr ce of TASTER r)I ARTS @ r1977 Pernrission h;¡s becr¡ gl't¡ût!'d to tl¡c LIBRARY O[¡ TllE Uf'¡lvUR- SITY O I. M N ITO IJA to lcl¡d or scll copir;s of this dissert¡rtion, ttl ^ the. NATIoNA L LIERARY Of (:ANAI)A to n¡icn¡l'ilm this d¡ssert:¡tion and to lentl or soll copir,'s of the filnt,:¡nd UN¡vliRSlTY MICROFILMS to publish ïn übstrlct of tlris dissertat¡on. The author rcserves other ¡rublication rights, an¡I neíthor t&rc d¡sserþtion rror extcnsivo cxtritcts fionì it uuy bc printerf or other- wise reprotluceil without tl¡u author's wriltuì lrcnnlsshltì. -l- CONTETITS Page I. INTROÐUCTION. t TÏ. HISTORIANS, SOURCES, .ANÐ METHODS 3 Modern Scholars 3 The Sources I1 The Narrative S ource s . 32 Genea logiae 33 Vitae. 40 Lêges . 45 Formula e 5t Chartae et Ðiplomatae. 52 Onoma s tic s 60 Grave s 64 TII. THE POLITICAL EI¡VTRONI\,IENT 67 IV. THE ARNULFTNG FACTToN I22 FamilyTies. ...: . I22 Other Ties 155 Their Social position . l_59 V. THE ARNULFING LAND-HOLDTNGS . L7L The Location of Their Holdings . L7L The Nature of Their Ho1dings 2O3 VI . ADVANTAGES OF T¡TE ARNULFING POSITTON 226 Increased, Advantage of Landed WealËh. 226 Advantage of an Eastern Basis . Z3L Organizational Advantage. Z4A vlr. SuMMARY 25A VIII. APPENÐIX - Sources pertaining to the Rule of Grimoald r, 656_662 260 IX. BTBLIOGRAPITY OF CITED LITERATURE 265 primary Sources 265 Source Collections 266 Secondary Literature 26A -2- I. INTROÐUCTION When Pepin II defeated the royal NeustÏian forces at Tertry on the S omme in 687. he established the de facto rule -th" of what was to become the carolingian dynas ty. l-n" of Cl-ovis would wear the c roI^¡r¡. f or si:<ty-four more years, but after Tertry the sons of Pepin would wield the power. This study will examine the Arnulfing faction in the century preced- ing that clash at Tertry in an a ttempt to draw from its social and economic position some of the reasons. for its triumph. The construction of an accurate image of the Arnulfings in the seventh century ís a difficult task. The written sources which that century has left us are so scarce and were often written for such non-historical purposes tha t histor- ians have frequently been forced to ut.iliSe unique methods in their attempts to uncover rrie es eigentlich gewesen ist. Nonetheless, as a review of those sources and methods will shohr, thê means do exist with which we can create that image. We will examine both the identity of the Arnulfings and the nature of their landholdings in detail . This information forms the heart of our study, for it is only after this has been gathered as completely and as accurately as the sources will a1low, that we can then proceed, to consider the ways in which the Arnulfings' posit,ion and holdings sired their success. -3- TT. HISTORIANS, SOT]RCES, A¡{D I4ETHODS One of the most productive paths r^rhich historiography concerned with the earfy Middle Ages has trod is the ever- increasing willíngness of historians to include more and different types of sources as the bases for their analyses. As lrte shall- see, the basis for viewing the period has widened from consideration of just chronicles and legal doc uments to even include such Èhings as grave locations and land measure- ment. The more historíans have broadened this basis, the more sound their perspective has become. However, even with the inclusion of many valuable new types of documentation, the interpretation of an important event, or even of an en- tire phase of economic or social development, can still hinge on the meaning of a single word in one source. Mode rn Scholars . Among all students of the period the paucity of written source material is a standard lament. With the scarcity of contemporary hrritten substantiation, historica1 interpolation, deduction, and even conjecture have necessarily flourished. Hardly a point is raised which doesn't find a speedy and often convincing opponent striving to ensure its fa1l. Often both antagonist and protagonist come armed with the same con- 4I l- tèmporary documentation. Consequently only the broadest of h is toriograph ica 1 overviews will be attempted by way of introduction; the more specific positions of the various scholars and schools wilI be considered as the issues arise in the course of the studv- The Renaissance humanists and their reason-deifying Enlightenment progeny struck up such a blinding love affair vrith the ancients that what they sar,r' in the eèrl-y Middle Ages hrere bands of barbarians living amongst the ruins of an ideal civilization they had recently overrun and wantonly destroyed. They were not at a11 interested in the contemporary medíeval sources, seeing them as hopelessly barbaric and vulgar, but rather they víewed our period from the vantage point. of the age vrhich had preceded it. This dismal view of "the age between" lasted unt,il the first part of the nineteenth century I " A famous example: Sir Samuel Dil1, among others, has held up the fact tha t Èhe Lex Salica makes no mention of a Frankish nobility as evidence TirãT-ã-ãõË-fe caste did not exist in the early sixth century. (Sir SamueI Dill, Roman Society in caul in the Merovingian Age, London: George ffi æother hand, Karr Bosl points out that the nobil-ity's absence in the roya J- law indicaÈes the oppo- site. Not only did a noble caste exist, but it was po\,rerful enougfh in its own right to exist without need of protection of the royal law. (KarI BosI, "Ge se llscha f tsentwicklung 500 - 900", in: I{ermann Aubin and Wolfgang Zorn, Handbuch Cer deutschen Wirtschafts - und Soz ia lgeschichtãlEd-Tl-EEutt- á where, in the wake of Herder and Hege1, our once sword_ swinging barbarian was now seen as the incorporation of noble qualities, primeval freedorns, and national character and destiny. It seemed that Rome had not been conquered from wíthout by ruthless barbarians; its oppressive degener_ acy had rotted it from within. One ideal type had merely replaced another . Soon, hohrever, von Ranke,s hard_nosed requirements for sound hístoriography found an echo among the historians con_ cerned with our period, and it is in the l-ast century tha t a fruitful study of the seventh century really begins. The great German historians of the nineteenth century and the earlier editors of the l{onumehta cermaniae Hi_storica took a decidedly legalisÈic approach. 2 ,h"y were convinced that a constitutional approach was the methåd for sober historical understanding, and the very titles of the ir works broadcast 3 the ir convictions. Their notes abound ín references to the barbarian laws and the various royal capitularies and t ' George Waí|Lz, Deutsche Ve rfass unqsgesch ichÈe Berlin: lrleidmannsche Buc er, De utsche Rechtsge schichte , Le ipz ig. 1906 ; and the MGH e d i torlEl¡¡]- PerLz, Ð.L.C. Bethûtann, c. Wattenbach, anã-ãga in Waitz. I " Although entitled "Rechtsgeschichte", "verfa ss ungsge schichte " "Diplomatâ" and, so forth, these are monumenta 1 works giving an insightful general history of the period. Theiï titles have a somev/hat unfortunate t.ranslation in English. 6 privileges. This, of course, yielded a far more "civilized" vievr of the barbarian "successor states" than had the l-a te Roma n sources which either cob/ered in front of a seemingly unimpedible mass of destroying barbarians, or whích bewailed the godlessness of imperial ways. Their legaI approach, however, assumed a modern picture of the state and. often, therefore, yielded a correspond.ing Iy distorted view of Mero- vingian soc iety. Voices \^rere heard in disagreement - first the Frenchman, Fustel de Coulanges, and, then the Englishman, Sir Samuel DiIl. They, along with the great scholar Bruno Krusch, editor of the Monumenta Germaniae Hístorica rs series on the Rerun Mero- vinqicarum, took a more sociologicaJ- look at the narrat.ive and legal sources. they saw a society comprised not so much of constant feuds and composition formulas, but rather one of established agricultural co¡rununities with recognized poli- tical authority structures. Roman caul and Merovingian Gaul seened to be drawing a bit closer together. 4 Notrr Denis Fustel de Coulanges, Histoire des institutions politiques de 1'ancienne France, Paris: Libra irie Hache tte & cie, 1912, and Sir Samuel DiIl, RÒman Society, L926. Eai 5 , Thanks to Krusch's incomparable editorial achievement with the Merovingian saints' lives in the Rerum Merovingicarum series of the Monumen ta Germaniae Historica the vita became more widely accepted as a credibfe contemporary source. Historians indeed had developed a concrete methodology vrith which they could squeeze valuable historical nectãr from $/ha t might easily appear to be useless hagiographical pulp. 6 Ivlen like Heinrich BonneIl and Englebert Muehlbacher had also widened the base by their skillfuf use of donation d,ocuments, charters, and deeds from whatever authority. 7 5 .'. .Bruno Krusch, the greatest Merovingian scholar who has ever lived..." (J.