Approaches to Community and Otherness in the Late Merovingian and Early Carolingian Periods Richard Christopher Broome Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of History September 2014 ii The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Richard Christopher Broome to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2014 The University of Leeds and Richard Christopher Broome iii Acknowledgements There are many people without whom this thesis would not have been possible. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Ian Wood, who has been a constant source of invaluable knowledge, advice and guidance, and who invited me to take on the project which evolved into this thesis. The project he offered me came with a substantial bursary, for which I am grateful to HERA and the Cultural Memory and the Resources of the Past project with which I have been involved. Second, I would like to thank all those who were also involved in CMRP for their various thoughts on my research, especially Clemens Gantner for guiding me through the world of eighth-century Italy, to Helmut Reimitz for sending me a pre-print copy of his forthcoming book, and to Graeme Ward for his thoughts on Aquitanian matters. I would also like to thank the other groups of people it has been my privilege to work with in the course of my research. Being a graduate student of Ian Wood gave me access to the celebrated Texts and Identities group, and I am incredibly grateful for having had the opportunity to participate in three T&I conferences, where I received much useful feedback on my research. Likewise, I have been fortunate to study at Leeds at the same time as a possibly unprecedented number of other early medievalist postgraduates, each of whom has made some contribution – great or small – to my research. Here special mentions must go to Erin Dailey for discussions about Brunhild and her times, and to Kıvılcım Yavuz for her thoughts on the issue of Franks and Trojans. I am also particularly grateful to my partners in Networks and Neighbours, Tim Barnwell, Jason Berg and Michael Kelly, for encouraging me to think more critically about my methodology. In April 2013 I was lucky to spend time studying in Utrecht, and I would like to thank all the early medievalists there for providing such a warm and welcoming environment for me to work in. I am particularly grateful to Mayke de Jong for extending the invitation, to Erik Goosmann for arranging a seminar for me to speak at as well as for sharing his thoughts on eighth-century Frankish politics and for sending me a copy of his thesis, and to Rob Meens for discussions about Radbod. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for always encouraging my interest in history and dreams of studying it. iv This thesis is dedicated to Elle, for the adventure that has been the last ten years, and for her love and support despite my unending need to study really old stuff. v Abstract The aim of this study is to examine how contemporary authors approached and understood the communal identity of the inhabitants of the regnum Francorum from the seventh to the early ninth century. In order to do this, the study takes in a wide variety of narrative sources – historical and hagiographical – and addresses issues of both ‘community’ and ‘otherness’, and above all the relationship between the two. To this end, the study explores three related discourses that emerged and developed in this period. The first of these discourse concerned the Franks themselves, especially the way authors imagined a Frankish community composed of a single gens which overcame inherent divisions within the regnum. The second discourse involved the relationship between Franks and non-Franks, and how authors relied on concepts of rebellion and paganism rather than ethnic identity to encourage a sense of exclusion. Crucially, we shall see this was a discourse that only really emerged in the eighth century. The third discourse is represented by a case-study of a specific people – the Frisians that charts how they went from being peripheral pagans at the beginning of the eighth century to being seen as part of the community by the middle of the ninth. Above all, though, we seek to highlight the variety between the different authors who participated in these discourses, emphasising that, while there were over-arching ideas in each discourse, each author interpreted these ideas in an individual way. This provides us with a much more ambivalent picture of community and otherness from the period than we might expect. vi Abbreviations Primary Sources AMP Annales Mettenses priores, ed. B. de Simson, MGH SRG, 10 (Hanover, 1905). ARF Annales Regni Francorum inde ab a. 741 usque ad a. 829, qui dicuntur Annales Laurissenses maiores, ed. F. Kurze, MGH SRG, 6 (Hanover, 1895). CCCM Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis (Turnhout, 1966- ). Continuationes Fredegar, Chronicarum quae dicuntur Fredegarii Scholastici libri IV. cum Continuationibus, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM, 2 (Hanover, 1888), pp. 168-93. DLH Gregory of Tours, Decem libri historiarum, ed. B. Krusch and W. Levison, MGH SRM 1, 1 (Hanover, 1937). Fredegar Fredegar, Chronicarum quae dicuntur Fredegarii Scholastici libri IV., ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM, 2 (Hanover, 1888), pp. 1-168. LHF Liber Historiae Francorum, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM, 2 (Hanover, 1888), pp. 215-328. MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica SRG Scriptores rerum germanicum in usum scholarum separatim editi, 63 vols (Hannover, 1871-1987). SRM Scriptores rerum merovingicarum, ed. B. Krusch and W. Levison, 7 vols (Hannover, 1885-1920). SS Scriptores in folio, 30 vols (Hannover, 1824-1924). Passio Leudegarii Passio Leudegarii I, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM, 5 (Hanover, 1910), pp. 282-322. Revised ARF Annales Regni Francorum inde ab a. 741 usque ad a. 829, qui dicuntur Einhardi, ed. F. Kurze, MGH SRG, 6 (Hanover, 1895). Vita Balthildis Vita Balthildis, ed. B. Krusch, MGH SRM, 2 (Hanover, 1888), pp. 475-508. Vita Bonifatii Willibald, Vita Bonifatii, ed. W. Levison, MGH SRG, 57 (Hanover, 1905), pp. 1-58. Vita Gregorii Liudger, Vita Gregorii abbatis Traiectensis, ed. O. Holder-Egger, MGH SS, 15, 1 (Hanover, 1887), pp 63-79. vii Vita Karoli Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni, ed. O. Holder- Egger, MGH SRG, 25 (Hanover, 1911). Vita Liudgeri Altfrid, Vita sancti Liudgeri, ed. W. Diekamp, Die Vitae Sancti Liudgeri (Munster, 1881), pp. 1-53. Vita Willibrordi Alcuin, Vita Willibrordi archiepiscopi Traiectensis, ed. W. Levison, MGH SRM, 7 (Hanover, 1920), pp. 81-141. Secondary Sources Gerberding, Rise R.A. Gerberding, The Rise of the Carolingians and the Liber Historiae Francorum (Oxford, 1987). Late Merovingian France P. Fouracre and R.A. Gerberding, Late Merovingian France: History and Hagiography 640-720 (Manchester and New York, 1996). Wood, Merovingian Kingdoms I.N. Wood, The Merovingian Kingdoms (London, 1994). Wood, Missionary Life I.N. Wood, The Missionary Life: Saints and the Evangelisation of Europe, 400-1050 (London, 2001). viii Note on Names, Titles and Translations When studying the early medieval period, one is confronted with a series of unfamiliar and often unusual names. Especially in the case of the Merovingian period, standardised English versions of personal names do not necessarily exist. In order to provide internal consistency for this study, I have followed the spellings in Wood’s Merovingian Kingdoms, with the exception of Leudegar of Autun, where I have followed Fouracre and Gerberding’s Late Merovingian France. Names of the Carolingian period are – generally – more standardised, with one notable exception, where I have used Pippin (rather than, for example, Pepin). I have also referred to the first three Pippins by their ordinal numbers rather than their epithets. As a rule, I have retained Latin titles such as dux or princeps because modern equivalents of these (‘duke’, ‘prince’) seem somewhat anachronistic. The exceptions to this are titles which seem more straightforward; for example rex is translated ‘king’ and episcopus ‘bishop’. All translations in this study are my own. English translations of many of the sources exist, however, and I have had cause to consult them in the course of my research. As acknowledgement of this, and in order to guide the reader towards further useful resources, I have included translated versions of primary sources in the Bibliography. ix Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... iii Abstract .............................................................................................................. v Abbreviations .................................................................................................... vi Note on Names, Titles and Translations ......................................................... viii Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 The Franks between the Roman and Carolingian Empires ...................... 1 The Purpose of This Study ..................................................................... 13 Texts