View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Groningen University of Groningen The growth of an Austrasian identity Stegeman, Hans IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2014 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Stegeman, H. (2014). The growth of an Austrasian identity: Processes of identification and legend construction in the Northeast of the Regnum Francorum, 600-800. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 12-11-2019 The growth of an Austrasian identity Processes of identification and legend construction in the Northeast of the Regnum Francorum, 600-800 Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de rector magnificus dr. E. Sterken en volgens besluit van het College van Promoties. De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op donderdag 22 mei 2014 om 16.15 uur Johan Lammert Stegeman geboren op 13 maart 1953 te Dordrecht Promotor Prof. dr. D.E.H. de Boer Copromotor Dr. K.J. Heidecker Beoordelingscommissie Prof. dr. Y. Hen Dr. R.M.J. Meens Prof. dr. O.M. van Nijf Prof. dr. C.G. Santing 1 2 3 4 5 !e growth of an 6 7 8 Austrasian identity 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "#$% &'(-&)-*+'-'),)-, (printed version) 0 "#$% &'(-&)-*+'-'))&-- (electronic version) 1 Cover illustration: Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains, Metz 2 Map design inside cover: SchelvisOntwerp, Haren 3 Book design: Hans Gordijn, Baarn 4 Printing & binding: Ten Brink O.set, Meppel 1 2 3 4 Index 5 6 7 8 Abbreviations and references / 9 0 Preface 0 1 2 I. Introduction 11 3 4 !. "e object of this study: Austrasian identity, Austrasian territory 5 and its dynamics 11 6 ,.,. An Austrasian identity? 11 7 Austrasians !rst mentioned 11 8 An Austrasian “Kulturraum” 12 9 Austrasianness, regional variation and “Teilreiche” 13 0 Lack of a contemporary Austrasian narrative 14 1 ,.5. Austrasia as a territory 16 2 Constancy of Austrasia’s Western border 16 3 Con"ict about Austrasia’s Western border 10 4 #e Eastern border of Austrasia 27 5 ,.*. Approaches to Austrasian identity: Texts and Identities; 6 ethnogenesis 26 7 #. Perspectives on kingship and on the missionary tradition in 8 Austrasia 2/ 9 5.,. Austrasian kingship 28 0 5.5. !e missionary tradition of Austrasia 20 1 $. "e sources 31 2 *.,. Narrative sources of VIIth-century and/or Merovingian origin 31 3 *.5. Frankish narrative sources of the VIIIth and earl IXth century 39 4 *.*. Other narrative sources 41 5 :.*. Other sources 43 6 7 II. !e grammar of kingship and the Austrasians, "##-$## 46 8 9 !. Ideology – general 46 0 Ministerium Dei; numinosity of kings 4/ 1 #. Ideology – narratives 40 2 #e grammar of kingship in the Vita Columbani 40 3 #e grammar of kingship in the Chronicle of Fredegar 61 4 * 1 #e grammar of kingship in the Liber Historiae Francorum 64 2 #e grammar of kingship in the Annales Mettenses Priores 69 3 Relations between the narratives 60 4 $. Ideology – applied 91 5 #e grammar of charters – suggestive but problematical 92 6 #e Epistolae Austrasicae 92 7 Legislation 93 8 Royal accessions 94 9 Liturgy 96 0 %. “Teilreiche”, kingship and identity 9/ 1 :.,. Kings in the Austrasian “Teilreich” 98 2 Austrasian kingship based on aristocratic consensus 98 3 #e lands and gentes beyond the Rhine /1 4 :.5. Devolutions of royal authority to Austrasia in the VIIth century /2 5 &. Policy and kingship // 6 Kingship, mayors and monasticism // 7 Merovingians and Pippinids 87 8 Politics re"ected in hagiography 83 9 '. Kingship assumed by the Carolingians, (&!; some conclusions 86 0 #ree accounts of the dynastic transfer 86 1 #e dynastic transfer and Austrasian identity 89 2 Conceptual evolution of kingship 88 3 4 III. !e construction of the sacred 02 5 6 !. A paradigm of the sacred. "e Christian context 02 7 Lapses and lacunae in Austrasian Christianity 03 8 Outside in"uences 06 9 #. "e construction of a missionary identity 0/ 0 VIIth-century Austrasia: No proof for missionary zeal 0/ 1 Restoring lapses of faith 00 2 Amandus 177 3 Rupert, Emmeram, Corbinian 172 4 Retrospective projection of missionary zeal into the VIIth century 174 5 A problematical missionary identity 179 6 $. Legend construction 17/ 7 *.,. Blessing, prophecy and peregrinatio – Jonas’ construction of a 8 perspective on Columbanus and its in;uence on Austrasian 9 identity 178 0 Blessing 170 1 Prophecy 117 2 Peregrinatio 111 3 *.5. Amandus as a model saint 114 4 *.*. Legends about Austrasian kings 121 : Dagobert I 124 1 Sigebert III 129 2 Dagobert II 120 3 Holy kings – concluding remarks 137 4 %. An Austrasian topography of the sacred 137 5 Ancient dioceses and new monastic foundations 137 6 Prayer, power and monasteries 136 7 &. Some conclusions on Austrasian identity and the sacred 138 8 9 IV. Aristocrats and kingship 142 0 1 !. Austrasians as a group 142 2 Fredegar’s view of the Austrasians 143 3 #e Liber Historiae Francorum and the Annales Mettenses Priores 4 about the Austrasians 146 5 #. "e Historia vel Gesta Francorum 149 6 #e sponsors of the Historia vel Gesta Francorum – and their 7 perspective 149 8 #e Austrasian perspective of the Historia vel Gesta Francorum 148 9 An aristocratic Origo Francorum 167 0 $. Austrasians as a politically active group 162 1 A history of self-consciousness 162 2 Arnulf and Romaric 163 3 Pippin of Landen 169 4 Pippin, dukes and alliances 168 5 Faction strife 197 6 #e crisis of Childeric II 192 7 Aristocratic opposition as an Austrasian characteristic 193 8 %. Austrasian aristocrats and kingship 199 9 0 V. Elements of ethnogenesis and understanding Austrasian 1 identity 1/4 2 3 !. "e Franks: a short history and a pretentious tradition 1/4 4 #. “Traditionskerne” 181 5 $. Primordial event; '!#/'!$ 186 6 %. Change of devotion 101 7 &. Primary enemy / Missionary ideology 100 8 '. Some conclusions on the genesis of “Austrasianness” 274 9 0 VI. General conclusions 278 1 2 !. Introductory 278 3 #. Kingship 217 4 - 1 #e narrative of kingship 217 2 Royal authority and aristocratic power 213 3 Prudently preparing for a new dynasty 216 4 $. "e sacred 21/ 5 Construction of a missionary identity 21/ 6 Legend construction 218 7 Saints and kingship 210 8 Topography of the sacred 210 9 %. Aristocrats 227 0 &. "e paradigm of ethnogenesis 224 1 2 Summary 22/ 3 4 Sources 233 5 6 Literature 230 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 + 1 2 3 4 Abbreviations and references 5 6 7 8 AASS Acta Sanctorum 9 AMP Annales Mettenses Priores 0 ARF Annales Regni Francorum 1 BBKL Biogra<sch-bibliogra<sches Kirchenlexikon 2 CMSA Center for Medieval Studies Amsterdam 3 DLH Decem Libri Historiarum (Gregorii Turonensis) 4 HGF Historia vel Gesta Francorum (reconstructed in “Die 5 Fredegar-Chroniken”, R. Collins) 6 IMC International Medieval Congress (as held annualy at 7 Leeds University) 8 LHF Liber Historiae Francorum 9 MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica 0 MGH DD MER Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Diplomata regum 1 Francorum e stirpe Merovingica 2 MGH Epp Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epistolae (in 3 Quart) 4 MGH LL Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges 5 MGH SS Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores (in Folio) 6 MGH SS Rer. Lang. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum 7 Langobardicarum et Italicarum 8 MGH SSRM Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum 9 Merovingicarum 0 MGH SSRG Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum 1 Germanicarum in usum scholarum 2 NDB Neue Deutsche Biographie 3 PL Patrologia Latina 4 5 Concerning the references to the narrative sources in the footnotes, the 6 following remark is in order. In all cases where the sources are subdivided 7 into capita, the references are to those rather than to page numbers. 8 Capita-numbering is less prone to change than page numbering, which 9 varies per edition. Besides, most translations maintain the original 0 capita division. References to capita in the footnotes are indicated by 1 “c.”, followed by the number of the caput. All other numbers specifying 2 passages within sources and literature refer to page numbers. 3 4 ' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 Preface 5 6 7 8 !e notions and ideas which are worked out in this thesis have been long 9 in growing.