Abstracts_Résumés de communication

CHARLEMAGNE AFTER CHARLEMAGNE
11th annual symposium of the
INTERNATIONAL MEDIEVAL SOCIETY (IMS-Paris)
CHARLEMAGNE APRÈS CHARLEMAGNE
11ème symposium annuel de la
SOCIÉTÉ INTERNATIONALE DES MÉDIÉVISTES
in conjunction with the / en collaboration avec le
LABORATOIRE DE MÉDIÉVISTIQUE OCCIDENTALE DE PARIS (LAMOP)
de l’Université Paris I—Panthéon-Sorbonne
26-28 June 2014
CENTRE MALHER
9 rue Malher, 75004 Paris
Keynote speakers / Conférenciers principaux
Dominique Boutet
***
Elizabeth A.R. Brown
Cover image / Image de couverture : Ms. 79a, recto, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
PAPER ABSTRACTS / RÉSUMÉS DE COMMUNICATION
(in alphabetical order by author’s last name / par ordre alphabétique du nom d’auteur)
Marianne Ailes
La Chanson de Roland d’Oxford: remaniement anglo-normand?
Charlemagne n’a jamais regné en Angleterre, mais son mythe y était bien connu
au Haut Moyen Age. L’histoire de la bataille de Roncevaux fut une des histoires les
mieux connues en Angleterre et y a subit certaines transformations particulières.
L’histoire survient dans des textes anglo-normands et des versions en moyen anglais,
derivés du chronique du Pseudo-Turpin aussi bien qu’une version de la chanson de geste.
En particulier la version la plus ancienne de la Chanson de Roland nous est parvenue
dans un manuscript anglo-normand. Cette communication propose une lecture de la
Chanson de Roland du manuscript d’Oxford en tant que remaniement, voire
appropriation, de l’histoire de Roncevaux pour un public anglais. Loin d’être la chanson
‘nationale’ telle qu’envisagée par Gaston Paris et les autres érudits du dix-neuvième
siècle, cette version de la Chanson démontre un caractère particulier et en accord avec la
tradition de la chanson de geste en Angleterre. De plus le copiste qui écrit ‘nostre
emperere…’ a bien compris que le roi de France était aussi l’empereur de la chrétienté, y
compris l’Angleterre. Les vers qui font allusion à l’Angleterre révèlent combien la
chanson de geste a été adaptée pour un pays qui n’a jamais été subjugué par l’empereur.
L’étiquette ‘épique nationale’ convient peut-être mieux la version rimée de la chanson,
version mieux connue en France mais qui laisse peu de traces en Angleterre.
Jade Bailey
Le Livre de Charlemaine: The Emperor Charlemagne as a Didactic Exemplar in a LateMedieval ‘Chivalric Textbook’
In 1445, Margaret of Anjou was presented with a magnificent French manuscript
anthology on the occasion of her marriage to King Henry VI of England. The codex –
London, British Library, MS Royal 15 E VI – encompasses a wide range of literature on
the theme of chivalry, from chansons de geste and prose romances to political treatises by
Alain Chartier, Christine de Pizan and other renowned writers. Presented to a French
Queen of England at a time when English kings still titled themselves ‘King of France’,
the anthology has been described as a ‘chivalric textbook’ owing to the didactic nature of
the treatises it contains – some of which were originally written for French princes – but
there has been little attempt to read the epic and romance texts as part of this perceived
function.
The figure of Charlemagne appears in five of the anthology’s texts as well as a
number of its sumptuous illuminations. As part of the Arts and Humanities Research
Council-funded project, ‘Charlemagne in England’, my doctoral research concentrates on
the Royal manuscript’s version of Fierabras (ff. 25r-85v), one of three chansons de geste
listed together in the anthology’s table of contents as ‘le liure de charlemaine’. I argue
that this centring of focus on the figure of Charlemagne invites a reading of these texts
and the images that accompany them through the prism of the emperor himself,
emphasising his importance to ideas of medieval French kingship and allowing him to
serve as an imperfect model of kingly behaviour, powerful yet prone to human weakness.
This paper will explore the textual and visual representation of Charlemagne, assessing
his contribution to a ‘chivalric textbook’ destined for a fifteenth-century Anglo-French
royal audience.
Jeanette Beer
Nithard’s Personal Contribution to Charlemagne’s Legacy
Nithard begins the first book of his Historiae de dissensionibus filiorum Ludovici
Pii with a eulogy of Charlemagne. Good flowed from the great emperor’s memory; in
him total wisdom and total virtue were combined, which made his whole reign honest
and useful in all ways; he was terrible but also lovable; he was a real man (“vir”). To the
modern reader the whole section now reads like conventional panegyric, but Nithard’s
contemporaries would have registered hidden depths. Nithard’s contribution to
Charlemagne’s legend was surely motivated by more than a simple desire to honour a
distinguished relative.
This paper will examine those attributes of Charlemagne’s imperium that Nithard
chose to highlight — and some he chose to ignore. He praises Charlemagne’s felicitous
thirty-two-year reign and his equally felicitous fourteen years of imperial control; his
successful taming of the Franks and barbarians whose “fierce hearts” he reigned in with a
healthy dose of terror; his legacy in Europe which he left “replete with goodness.” Such
details will, by the end of the Histories, serve per contrarium as implied criticism of the
great emperor’s less than great descendants. Their repartition of Charlemagne’s old
empire continues interminably. His feuding cousins squabble endlessly without care for
the public good. Louis the German faces sedition from the Saxons who had previously
been converted to the true religion. Young Charles the Bald’s performance cannot match
that of his namesake, “who was deservedly called ‘great.’” (On a more personal level,
Charles may also have failed adequately to reward Nithard’s service, as Janet Nelson has
suggested!). Nithard concludes the Histories by mourning the two good men in his life:
Charlemagne and his father Angilbert. Their star will continue to rise but, he
prophesies, never-ending dissension will afflict the rest, and the earth will wage war
against the foolish — “et pugnabit orbis terrarum contra insensatos.” Whatever its
motivation, his elaborately constructed panegyric of Charlemagne contributes to the
growing legend surrounding the greatest Charles of all.
Daisy Delogu
‘comment on conquiert Dieu’:
Charlemagne as a Devotional Guide in L’Istoire le roy Charlemaine
Girart d’Amiens’ 23,000-verse epic poem, L’Istoire le roy Charlemaine,
composed for Charles de Valois during the opening years of the 14th century, has most
often been studied with respect to its sources, dating, relationship to its historical and
political context, and status as an example of late medieval chanson de geste. I propose
instead to examine this text in connection to the lay, religious culture fostered at the
Capetian courts in response to the crusading zeal, and the devotional practices, of the
recently-canonized Louis IX.
Warfare, here presented almost exclusively in terms of crusade, is the emperor’s
principal activity in the Istoire. However, the figure of Charlemagne also provides a
model for what we might think of as internal crusade. Just as Charlemagne fought for
God, so too, the reader is enjoined to arm him- or herself in order to combat the vices that
God detests (vv. 17,488-92). Accordingly, Charlemagne’s unremitting crusading
endeavors may be read in literal but also in figurative terms, and the emperor’s efforts at
conversion are directed towards intradiegetic non-believers, as well as towards Girart’s
extradiegetic, French, noble, Christian public. Interspersed with battle scenes are
dialogues between Roland and the giant Fernagus, and between Charlemagne and the
Saracen Agoulant, which discuss the articles and the mysteries of the faith in terms that
are reminiscent of the material we find in explicitly-didactic and devotional works of the
era. Thus the culturally-prestigious figure of Charlemagne, and a “secular” literary genre,
here serve to inspire the constant vigilance required to ensure that one remains internallyoriented towards God.
Joan Molina Figueras
La mémoire de Charlemagne à Gérone à la fin du Moyen Age.
Culte, objets et images.
A partir de 1343 la cathédrale de Gérone fut le lieu de célébration de la fête de
Saint Charlemagne, un fait unique dans toute la Péninsule Ibérique et au monde
mediterraneen. La célébration se composait d’un office liturgique et d’un sermon, et tout
le chapitre participait à cette cérémonie flamboyante qui à partir de cette date eut lieu
chaque 28 janvier. Bien que la célébration liturgique fut interdite en 1484 par Sixte IV,
divers témoignages confirment que la fête, avec la lecture du sermon, se maintint
jusqu’au XIX siècle, fait que confirme son enracinement parmi les membres du chapitre
de la cathédrale.
L’étude vise à approfondir autant les fondements et motifs qui donnèrent lieu à
l’institutionnalisation du culte de l’empereur carolingien dans la cathédrale de Gérone
que ses formes d’expression liturgiques et visuelles. Cela nous permettra de comprendre,
d’une part, l’étroite relation qui existe entre la promotion de cette fête et la volonté de
développer une série de cultes et légendes liés aux origines de la cathédrale, concrétisée
par la construction en parallèle d’un nouvel édifice gothique. En ce sens, nous verrons
comment la récupération de la mémoire de Charlemagne s’inscrit dans un programme
complet d’exaltation historique et symbolique conçu par les principaux dirigeants de la
cathédrale, particulièrement dominé par l’évêque Arnau de Montrodon (1335-1348).
D’autre part, l’étude analysera aussi le caractère et la fonction d’une vaste série d’objets
légendaires qui, tout au long des derniers siècles du Moyen Age, furent attribués au
personnage de l’empereur. Pour finir nous n’oublierons pas de faire l’analyse des images
qui lui furent consacrées durant cette même période, ainsi que leur lecture à partir de leur
répartition calculée d’un bout à l’autre de la topographie templière. Une vision
d’ensemble qui nous permetrà connaître un des cas plus excepcionnelles et riches de la
utilisation de la memoire de Charlemange à la fin du Moyen Age.
Christopher Flynn
Speculum Caroli: The Representation of Charlemagne in the Speculum Historiale of
Vincent of Beauvais
The Dominican Vincent of Beauvais wrote his quadripartite encyclopedic work
the Speculum Maius (or, the Greater Mirror) in an attempt to capture all of the existing
knowledge of the world. It contains a lengthy section on Charlemagne, who ruled as
King of the Franks from 768 until his death in 814. Almost immediately after Vincent’s
death in 1264, the Speculum Maius, particularly the subsection Speculum Historiale,
became one of the most widely copied, distributed, and read encyclopedias of the later
Middle Ages, and it was translated into numerous vernaculars. As such, for most readers,
it was the most readily available source of historical information about Charlemagne
outside of oral tradition. Due in large part to the extensive readership of Vincent’s
Speculum Historiale, Charlemagne emerged into the later Middle Ages as a wonderfully
colorful conglomeration of history and legend, and as such, he served as an idealized
paradigm of both kingship and soldiery which every leader, crusader, or Christian knight
should aspire to emulate. Working from a manuscript edition (circa 1280) and a very
early printed copy (1494) of the Speculum Historiale housed at the University of
Minnesota’s James Ford Bell Library, this paper will interrogate Vincent’s portrayal of
Charlemagne as a model king and crusader. The more contemporary accounts of
Charlemagne’s courtier Einhard and the monk Notker the Stammerer will be utilized as a
means of comparison to the somewhat more fanciful portraits of Charlemagne that
dominated the later Middle Ages. They will also provide the opportunity to trace the
progression of Charlemagne’s legacy from its eighth century origins into Vincent’s
thirteenth century work.
Matthew Gabriele
The Ghost of Charlemagne and King Philip I of Francia at the
End of the Eleventh Century
The traditional historiogaphical narrative has been that the Capetians eschewed
connecting themselves to the Carolingians until the later twelfth century, and only then
after Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis reintroduced those early medieval rulers to the
intellectual worlds of Louis VI and Louis VII. Yet, moving back a generation, the legacy
of Charlemagne seemed to haunt King Philip I – particularly during his marriage to
Bertha of Holland (1072/3-1092). Contextually, this should make sense, as the eleventh
century witnessed a veritable explosion of interest in Charlemagne. Annalists and
diplomatists wrote him into their pasts, seeking political and religious legitimacy by tying
themselves to an imagined Golden Age.
But it also made sense in the specific case of Philip I. The great ninth-century
king and emperor seems to have hovered just over Philip’s shoulder – an explicit
presence at times but more often implicitly guiding Philip’s understanding of his office.
Focusing on the West Frankish diplomatic corpus towards the end of the eleventh
century, we can see that Philip I presented a relationship with certain West Frankish
monasteries that attempted to summon an image of Charlemagne as an archetype of royal
power. These monasteries, both within and far removed from the royal demesne,
reflected a very similar understanding of Carolingian royal power right back at Philip I.
This relationship functioned to assert his political “presence” in Normandy, Flanders,
Anjou, and Aquitaine (places far removed from his direct control), as well as engage
those monasteries to remember their spiritual duty to the whole regnum Francorum.
Their prayers would assuage God’s wrath and grant health to both the eleventh-century
Franks and their rightful king.
Jürg Goll
La statue en stuc de Charlemagne à Müstair
Le couvent Saint Jean de Müstair dans les Grisons (Suisse) est inscrit au
Patrimoine Mondial de l'UNESCO depuis 1983. Les moniales de l'ordre des Bénédictins
vénèrent Charlemagne en tant que donateur de leur couvent. Des hymnes, des
représentations et des statues témoignent de cette tradition ancestrale. Chaque année, le
28 janvier, les religieuses offrent une sérénade à Charlemagne.
La statue en stuc de Müstair est la plus ancienne statue monumentale de
Charlemagne et une des œuvres clés de l'histoire de l'art suisse. En tant chef d'oeuvre de
la sculpture médiévale, elle est souvent présentée dans le contexte européen comme
image de Charlemagne, Pater Europae. Autant la sculpture est connue, autant sa genèse
et sa datation restent inconnues et sujettes à controverse (9e-12e s.).
Dans sa forme actuelle la statue se présente comme un palimpseste, c'est à dire
une superposition, au cours des siècles, de nombreuses couches d'ajouts et de
modifications. En conséquence, l'analyse traditionnelle de sa surface atteint maintenant
ses limites.
A l'heure de la commémoration du 1200e anniversaire de la mort de
Charlemagne, un projet interdisciplinaire avec une participation internationale dans les
domaines de l'archéologie, l'histoire de l'art, l'histoire, la restauration et la science des
matériaux, essaie d'analyser cette statue. Les questions concernant son origine, ses
transformations, sa fonction et finalement sa datation sont au centre de recherches
comparatives et complémentaires. Des technologies non invasives complètent l'analyse
nouvelle de cette oeuvre d'art unique.
Philippa Hardman
Carolingian Onomastics: Naming and Meaning in Middle English Narratives of
Charlemagne
This paper starts from Duggan’s observation (2012) that a questionable
assumption caused Michel to name the text of MS Digby 23 ‘the Chanson de Roland
(rather than, for example, the Chanson de Charlemagne, considering that Roland dies
long before the text ends)’. Most of the English texts derived from the cycle du roi are
unnamed, and while many open with references to Charlemagne, and his central role is
clear in all, every modern editor has named the text after anyone but Charlemagne. This
paper will interrogate the editorial choices behind such titles, and will examine the
evidence for contemporary readings of the texts as narratives of Charlemagne. It will
argue that Caxton’s description of his translation of Bagnyon’s Fierabras: ‘thystorye and
lyf of the noble and crysten prynce Charles the grete’, reflects the interest throughout the
English corpus of Matter of France texts in foregrounding the role of Charlemagne within
the action of the narratives. The discussion will refer briefly to Middle English romances
in the Fierabras and Otinel traditions, but will focus on the rewritings in English of the
events surrounding the battle of Roncevaux: in particular on The Song of Roland and the
‘Rewful tale How Rowlond deyde at rouncyuale’ (Otuel and Roland, ll. 1976-2786). It
will argue that the English Song of Roland is more appropriately named than the French
Chanson de Roland, in view of the adaptations it makes to the inherited tradition, while
the ‘Rewful tale’ repackages its material (from the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle tradition) to
create a narrative of Charlemagne threatened by treason and ultimately punishing the
traitor with the full force of the law. In conclusion, some thoughts will be offered on the
contemporary context for such adaptations in these two fifteenth-century texts.
Chris Jones
King and Emperor? Perceptions of Charlemagne in later Capetian France.
The figure of Charlemagne saturated northern French culture in the century after
1230. The Frankish emperor was a stock character in chronicles and chansons de geste as
well as appearing in material as varied as the stained glass of Chartres, Louis IX’s
representations to Pope Innocent IV, a sermon preached in the course of Philip IV’s
Flanders campaign, and the statues of the Grand’salle of the Palais de la Cité. Since the
pioneering work of Robert Folz in the 1950s, it has become an accepted commonplace
that the interest shown in Charlemagne in later Capetian France was linked to the
territorial – and even to the ‘imperial’ – ambitions of kings such as Philip IV. This paper
questions such views. Before the reign of the Valois king Charles V, Charlemagne’s role
as ‘emperor’ was far less prominent in French thought than his role as ‘king of France’.
Presented as part of a continuous line of French kings, Charlemagne came to play an
important legitimising role for not only the Capetians but for a variety of ecclesiastical
institutions in the French kingdom that held relics connected with him. This role far
outweighed any interest in laying claim to the territories the Carolingian emperor had
once ruled beyond France. The paper argues that while the inhabitants of late medieval
Italy certainly drew a clear link between Charlemagne and expanding Capetian power,
contemporary inhabitants of northern France rarely did so. Instead, when Charlemagne
did appear as ‘emperor’ in a French context, he did so primarily in connection with
crusading considerations.
Patricia Kroschwald
A reinvented tradition? – The veneration of Charlemagne at Halberstadt Cathedral
Since its beginnings the bishopric of Halberstadt had been considered a
foundation of Charlemagne. Written records mention him founding a monastery in
Seligenstadt, which was later transferred to Halberstadt. This tradition remained rather
marginal until the edition of the Deeds of the Bishops of Halberstadt in 1208/9. Calling
the first Carolingian Emperor the Apostle of the Saxons, the founding story of
Halberstadt Cathedral made a significant shift towards hagiography. It was not until the
late 13th and 14th century, though, that Charlemagne's foundation of Halberstadt
Cathedral was supported by visual evidence. Church furnishings and treasure objects
representing Charlemagne as a ruler and a saint were created. In the centre of this visual
contribution stood a relic of Charlemagne, a rare piece which Halberstadt Cathedral was
able to acquire. Through images and objects Charlemagne was transformed into the holy
founder of Halberstadt Cathedral. As indicated above, a remarkable temporal gap remains
between the description of Charlemagne as founder of Halberstadt Cathedral in earlier
written sources and his celebration as a holy founder by means of images that came after.
It is even possible to speak of a reinvented tradition, which according to Hobsbawm
„take[s] the form of reference to old situations, or which establish[es it's] own past“
without actually being old (Hobsbawm 1983). This fact requires explanation. For what
reasons was the cult of Charlemagne established? In my paper I want to address this
question by showing how Charlemagne was used not only in Halberstadt as a source of
prestige and venerability. An ecclesiastical institution that claimed Charlemagne as its
founder asserted its standing and self-image in order to gain or regain momentum. Thus,
it appears that the veneration of Charlemagne increased, when Halberstadt Cathedral met
political marginalization and financial difficulties in the Late Middle Ages.
Richard Landes
Charlemagne, Otto III et Adémar de Chabannes: L'empereur de l'an 6000
dans la pensée de l'an Mil.
Bien que les historiens contemporains n’ont presque rien dit au sujet du “fait” que
le couronnement de Charlemagne s’est passé en l’an 6000 depuis la Création du monde
selon tous les historiens de Jérôme à Bède, les historiens modernes attentifs (Brandes,
Fried, Möhring, Landes, Palmer, Van Meter), trouvent de nombreuses indices d’une
pensée millénariste autour de ce projet impériale. Et comme tout projet millénariste, cette
expérience impériale fut à la fois décevante, et persistante. En fait, selon une logique
chronologique active depuis plus de sept siècles la date décevante de 6000 AM (annus
mundi) fut transférée a l’an AD 1000. Et, en fait, l’empereur de l’an Mil, Otto III visita le
tombeau (jusqu’alors perdu) de Charlemagne à la Pentecôte de cet année fatidique. Là il
découvre Charlemagne, assis sur un trône avec cheveux et ongles qui ont continué à
pousser. Adémar de Chabannes fut un des trois historiens contemporains qui racontèrent
cet épisode frappant. Cette présentation expliquera les enjeux millénaristes de l’empire
carolingien et le rôle que jouèrent leurs déceptions au courant du 9e et 10e siècle dans
l’avènement de l’an 1000 chez Otton, et 1033 (millénaire de la Passion) chez Adémar. En
fait, le rôle qu’a joué Charlemagne, et dans la pensée d’Otton et dans celle d’Adémar,
suggère que la tradition fondamentale des moyen âges de l’empereur qui reviendra à la
fin des temps (Fréderic I et II), prend ses origines au tournant du millénaire dans la
relation entre Charlemagne et Otto III.
Anne Latowsky
Poésie et chronologie : la Terre Sainte, l’Espagne et les vies de Charlemagne
Les voyages de Charlemagne en Terre Sainte et en Espagne, bien que fictifs,
figurent parmi les épisodes les plus significatifs de la vie de l’empereur carolingien. Mais
qui imagina ces expéditions légendaires qui circulèrent au cours des siècles après 814
sous différentes formes en latin et en langues vernaculaires ? A un moment donné, elles
furent conçues, semble-t-il, comme deux évènements consécutifs dans la biographie du
roi franc. Après la canonisation en 1165, les deux récits apparurent l’un à la suite de
l’autre dans la Vita sancti Karoli, choix qui a sans doute déterminé cette nouvelle
chronologie biographique. On ne saurait dire pourquoi les hagiographes compilèrent ainsi
leurs documents, mais il nous sera possible cependant de démontrer que certains poètes
de l’époque qui adaptaient la matière de Charlemagne répondaient de manière créative à
ces nouveaux apports à sa vie légendaire.
Dans cette communication, il sera question de deux œuvres, Le Voyage de
Charlemagne à Jérusalem et à Constantinople, et le Galien li Restoré, poèmes dans
lesquels figurent Charlemagne et les douze pairs, mais qui comprennent peu de traits du
genre épique. Tous deux font preuve d’ailleurs d’un intérêt pour la fiction biographique
qui veut que le voyage en Terre Sainte soit la dernière aventure des Francs avant la
tragédie de Roncevaux. On étudiera donc l’emploi d’un discours biographique dans un
contexte pseudo-épique aux fins de créer de nouvelles versions des voyages sacrés de
l’empereur. Ces observations nous permettront de mettre en valeur les commentaires
implicites des poètes sur le caractère évolutif de la biographie de Charlemagne.
Clark Maines
Charlemagne Iconography at Chartres Cathedral
The Charlemagne window in the Cathedral of Chartres is among the most wellknown stained glass windows in France. Far less well-known, however, is a mural
representing Charlemagne located in the cathedral crypt that presents an earlier and more
succinct version of the window's crusading iconography. Little studied, the mural has
been twice restored, though it retains most of its original form. The mural can be dated to
the years between 1194 and ca. 1220/1225 when it was rendered redundant by the
Charlemagne window in the upper church.
The Charlemagne mural represents five sainted figures enframed by a five-part
arcade. Beneath the taller, central arch, a figure of Saint James is easily identifiable by
inscription and attribute. His size and central placement identify him as the principal
saint in the composition. To the left of the arcade is a scene of the Mass of Saint Gilles.
It shows the saint standing behind an altar, a kneeling figure of Charlemagne and a
bustate angel descending from heaven with a banderole revealing the king's sin that is
"too terrible to confess."
My paper will argue that the Charlemagne mural links forgiveness of the king's
terrible sin to his Spanish crusade. To the noble warrior, the mural presents Charlemagne
as the ideal crusader and offers that knight the reward of sins forgiven in exchange for
participating in crusade. To the churchman, the mural presents crusading as an expiatory
activity. Further, as cartulary records reveal, the mural reminds the cleric of the revenues
that become available to the church through crusading. Finally, it can be plausibly
suggested that the Charlemagne mural (and the window) can be related to the cathedral
liturgy investing crusaders with the sign of the cross.
Cesare Mascitelli
Charlemagne à l’épreuve de la Geste Francor: l’empereur en italie aux
siècles XIIIe et XIVe
L’image traditionnelle d’un Charlemagne «emperere magnes» comme on
l’apprécie à partir de la Chanson de Roland est filtrée, quelques siècles plus tard, par le
regard de l’anonyme auteur italien de la Geste Francor. Dans la plupart des épisodes qui
forment cette œuvre en forme cyclique, on reparcourt la légende de l’empereur dès sa
naissance (Berta da li gran pè) jusqu’au moment qu’il regagne son trône légitime, à la
suite d’une enfance passée loin du royaume (Karleto). Mais la puissance et le courage qui
caracterisent la jeunesse de Charlemagne sont destinés à disparaître: il devient, pendant
l’âge adulte, un souverain à la fois irréfléchi, craintif de ses ennemis, irascible et
vindicatif. Cet affaiblissement généralisé de sa figure et de son autorité dans la Geste
Francor paraît justifiable face à la situation politique dans l’Italie des siècles XIIIe et
XIVe, où la croissante puissance des seigneuries septentrionales remplaçait
progressivement le pouvoir impérial. Si l’on reconnaît dans la Geste Francor un témoin
littéraire de ces changements sociaux et politiques, la transformation de Charlemagne
serait un élément tout à fait original de la littérature franco-vénitienne. Dans cette
perspective, l’ajout de nombreuses situations romanesques, voire comiques, et la
réélaboration de l’image de Charlemagne seraient finalisés à satisfaire les goûts d’un
nouveau public, c’est-à-dire celui des belliqueux seigneurs de l’Italie du Nord. Cette
hypothèse paraît renfermée par plusieurs éléments qui situent l’œuvre à Vérone dès
l’époque de Cangrande della Scala (1291-1329); d’ailleurs, le seul manuscrit qui transmet
la Geste Francor (aujourd’hui Venise, Biblioteca Marciana, fr. Z 13) se trouvait en 1407
dans la bibliothèque de Francesco Ier Gonzague de Mantoue, en démontrant l’intérêt de
ces personnages de haut lignage pour les vicissitudes “italiennes” de l’empereur.
Eric Rice
Charlemagne and the Consciousness of France
in the Medieval Liturgy of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle)
Nostalgia for Charlemagne’s reign was at the heart of the identity of Aachen’s
Marienkirche, which he constructed and endowed. After his death, the institution
developed enduring ways of expressing his legacy and the power of his successors, the
emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. The most important among these were the church’s
role as the coronation site of German kings (from 936 to 1531); the veneration of the
church as the site of Charlemagne’s interment and, eventually, of the ruler as a saint
(from 1165); and the display in a septennial pilgrimage (beginning in 1349) of the socalled Great Relics, which Charlemagne had procured for the church.
In creating rituals for these three expressions of Charlemagne’s legacy, the canons
of Aachen’s Marienkirche, some of whom were educated in Paris, were conscious of the
ruler’s legacy in France, and this paper explores the ways in which some Aquensian
rituals were designed to emulate or even to compete with parallel French rituals. While
the coronation rites seem to have endured much as they had always been, liturgical
melodies and reliquaries associated with Charlemagne’s sainthood betray a French
influence. The twelfth-century sequence for Charlemagne’s feast day is a contrafact of a
melody by Adam of Saint Victor. A fourteenth-century bust reliquary containing the
ruler’s cranium displays the fleur-de-lis above the imperial eagle and looks distinctly like
one that contained the head of Saint Louis. Even the pilgrimage, a relatively late
development in the church’s activities that was essentially centered on the Shift of the
Virgin, can be viewed as a response to the pilgrimage of Chartres, the focus of which was
a Marian veil. I argue that all of these responses to French traditions are self-conscious
efforts to bolster the importance of Aachen’s Marienkirche in the face of waning
prominence.
Enimie Rouquette
La figure de Charlemagne dans la poésie carolingienne : de 814 à la mort de
Charles le Chauve
Charlemagne, de son vivant, fut mis en scène dans de nombreux poèmes par les
érudits qui gravitaient autour de lui. Sa mort en 814 donna lieu à des pièces poétiques —
déplorations, épitaphes, récits posthumes— rappelant ses qualités de roi des Francs,
d’empereur, de défenseur de la paix et de la foi catholique.
Mais convenait-il encore de pleurer le grand souverain, quand son fils avait pris la relève
? Charlemagne devint sous Louis le Pieux moins une personne que l’on évoque qu’une
référence que l’on invoque : un point de repère chronolo- gique, une source de fierté pour
tel ou tel monastère, une légitimation directe et personnelle du nouvel empereur.
Après le décès de Louis et la division de l’empire, Charlemagne fut pour cer- tains le
symbole nostalgique de la paix et de l’unité perdues. Mais les poètes s’efforcèrent surtout
de légitimer historiquement le roi qu’ils célébraient en le ra□achant à la lignée des
carolingiens, dont Charlemagne était le maillon princi- pal. C’est particulièrement le cas
de poèmes adressés à Charles le Chauve : celui-ci n’est pas seulement le petit-fils du
grand empereur, il en est aussi l’image dans le présent, celui qui en porte le nom, son
héritier moral et politique.
Si la mort de Charles le Chauve marqua « la fin du rêve impérial », elle fut aussi
une nouvelle étape dans la représentation poétique de Charlemagne. À me- sure que le
souvenir de l’empereur se fit plus lointain, celui-ci devint une figure de légende : le
processus semble consommé dans le poème du Saxon anonyme, près de quatre-vingt ans
après la mort de Charlemagne.
Jace Stuckey
The Memory of Charlemagne, Kingship, and the Uses of the Past in
Capetian France
By the twelfth century, the legend of Charlemagne had become the subject of
competing narratives in the Holy Roman Empire and France. Frederick Barbarossa laid a
strong claim to the Charlemagne tradition when he engineered the successful
canonization of Charlemagne in 1165 emphasizing himself as the inheritor of
Charlemagne’s position of authority and legitimacy. However, in France rulers often
claimed familial decent from Charlemagne and viewed themselves as God’s favored
kings and defenders of the Church as was once Charlemagne’s role.
The focus of this paper is on France where the increasingly powerful dynasty of
French kings from the Capetian line made the Charlemagne legend a part of their identity
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Capetians perhaps more than any other family
needed to be creative with their connections to Charlemagne since in previous centuries
they had openly and successfully challenged the Carolingians for power. However, as
the events in the tenth century became more distant, the Capetians could be more easily
transformed from usurper to successor.
In this era, various authors including chroniclers, poets, and panegyrists
consciously wrote about the past in a way that strengthened or legitimized claims of
connection between Carolingian kings like Charlemagne and the later Capetians. In fact,
they often compared kings such as Louis VI, Louis VII, and Philip II Augustus directly to
Charlemagne’s character and reign. It was through this constructed memory of
Charlemagne that authors explored critical issues concerning kingship such as legitimacy,
law, the relationship with the Church, social and political order, and even critiques of the
king.
The ultimate goal of the paper is to assess how the memory of Charlemagne shaped
the ideology of ‘kingship’ and the political discourse of Capetian France as well as to
elucidate the ways in which a figure like Charlemagne came to represent such an
important predecessor for the French kings in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries?
Luke Sunderland
Charlemagne in Medieval French Chronicles: 'les bienfais qu'il avoit fais
pesoient plus que le mal'
This paper will argue for the ambivalence of the figure of Charlemagne
throughout the Old French literary tradition. It will begin with a brief reading of the trial
of Ganelon in the Oxford Roland, where the emperor’s assumption of heroic status by
punishing the traitor comes at the cost of overriding his barons’ judgment; the scene is
redolent of tyranny. Subsequent works about Charlemagne then deal differently with this
ambiguous legacy – I shall look first at the Grandes Chroniques de France, where a
moralizing narrative is developed, assimilating Charlemagne to Jesus and Ganelon to
Judas. Charlemagne’s other wars of conquest are, by the same stroke, turned into the
benevolent and systematic expansion of a Christian empire. Second, I shall examine the
Myreur des Histors, which derives a different lesson from the Ganelon material –
Charlemagne erred in believing the traitor in the first place, causing the disaster of
Roncevaux. This is made out to be the culmination of his tendency to believe bad barons
and alienate good ones. The Myreur combines and develops Charlemagne’s wars against
his own barons, especially Ogier, lionized here – this is material which the Grandes
Chroniques, knowingly or not, omit. In both, however, Charlemagne is almost damned,
saved only by his good deeds in constructing churches and monasteries. My overall
contention, then, will be that there is a long fight, across the centuries, over the legacy of
Charlemagne. Is he a figure of solidarity, or one of division? Is he a hero or a villain?
Does he represent continuity or rupture? Fundamentally, it seems impossible to be
emperor without assuming the stains of sin – but can they ever be washed out? These
anxieties, present in the Oxford Roland, are what subsequent texts like the Grandes
Chroniques and the Myreur address with differing agendas and results.
Claire Tignolet
Charlemagne au temps des premiers Capétiens :
une figure de référence dans l’historiographie (Xe-XIIe siècles) ?
C’est au XIIIe siècle que la figure de Charlemagne est pleinement valorisée dans
l’histoire du royaume de France, dans un mouvement de « reditus ad stirpem Karoli » qui
célèbre la continuité dynastique entre Capétiens et Carolingiens. Le souvenir de
l’empereur carolingien contribue alors à l’affirmation du pouvoir capétien. Mais qu’en
est-il, en amont, de la place réservée à Charlemagne dans l’historiographie au temps des
premiers Capétiens ? Les écrits historiographiques du Moyen Âge central n’ont pas
souvent été exploités pour étudier l’image de Charlemagne – à la différence des sources
littéraires de cette période. Ils peuvent pourtant permettre de mieux saisir l’évolution de
cette figure mythique, au moment de la transition entre Carolingiens et Capétiens.
Pour une telle étude, les productions du monastère de Fleury aux Xe-XIIe siècles
constituent des témoignages appropriés. Fleury est en effet un grand centre de production
historiographique, avant que le relais ne soit pris par Saint-Denis au cours du XIIe siècle.
Alors que le monastère est situé dans une région qui se trouve au cœur du pouvoir des
Robertiens et des premiers Capétiens, les textes historiographiques qui en sont issus se
mettent peu à peu au service des nouveaux souverains. On peut donc s’interroger sur les
enjeux de la présence, ou de l’absence, des références à Charlemagne dans les écrits
fleurisiens.
Nous nous concentrerons sur les textes historiographiques (avec l’œuvre
d’Hugues de Fleury), tout en tenant compte des textes hagiographiques contemporains
(l’entreprise des Miracula sancti Benedicti, les œuvres d’Aimoin et d’Helgaud). Pour
mettre en perspective l’image de Charlemagne qui s’en dégage, il conviendra de mesurer
l’utilisation par les auteurs des textes carolingiens (ceux d’Eginhard ou de l’Astronome)
et de comparer les résultats obtenus dans notre enquête à ceux des grandes études déjà
réalisées sur la figure de Charlemagne dans d’autres espaces historiographiques (par
exemple dans la région de Metz ou dans le monde ottonien).
Gernot Wieland
“Charlemagne” in Anglo-Saxon England
Despite the fact that Alcuin worked closely with Charlemagne and that the later
West-Saxon king Egbert spent thirteen years in Francia, Charlemagne did not seem to
inspire the imagination of the Anglo-Saxons to any great extent as there are no
contemporary or later paeans to this first Frankish emperor. The Winchester manuscript
of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle seems to compound this relative neglect when in its entry
for 812 (actually 814) it speaks of the passing of the "king" Charles, as though
Charlemagne had not been crowned emperor in 800. The Peterborough manuscript is
better informed; a different hand adds Charlemagne's coronation as emperor to entry of
the year 800, but the original hand still refers to him as "king" Charles for the year of his
death. Clearly the Anglo-Saxons knew about Charlemagne, but at least in the AngloSaxon Chronicle they seem to treat him with benign neglect.
This paper would like to re-examine the picture the Anglo-Saxons had of
Charlemagne. While Aethelwulf's marriage to Judith, the great-granddaughter of
Charlemagne, indicates a desire of the West Saxons to be connected to the Carolingian
royal house, there is no clear evidence that he wished to do so on account of
Charlemagne. The image of Charlemagne becomes somewhat clearer with the AngloSaxon Chronicle in which the account of purely Anglo-Saxon historical events is
enriched with "Frankish material," with specific references to Charlemagne among them,
and clearer yet with Asser's biography of Alfred the Great, for which Asser used
Einhard's Vita Caroli as one of his sources. Asser's Vita Alfredi also contains the curious
story of Eadburh who had accidentally killed her husband Beorhtric and had fled to
Charlemagne's court. Charlemagne ostensibly allowed her to choose between himself and
his son (not named), but when she chose his son, Charlemagne in what appears to be a
Solomonic judgement sent her to a convent. Since this particular story is the longest of
any account on Charlemagne in Anglo-Saxon England, the paper will explore its folk-tale
motifs, the wisdom attributed to Charlemagne, as well as the indication that rulers of
great standing will attract stories. Alfred's educational reform very much seems to be
modeled on Charlemagne's, so that during Asser's and Alfred's time, the Anglo-Saxon
interest in Charlemagne was at its highest point. Alfred's grandson Aethelstan does send
his half-sister Eadgyth to East Francia to marry Otto I, but by the time of Otto the
Carolingian dynasty had been replaced by a Saxon one, and with this replacement the
memory of Charlemagne in Anglo-Saxon England was greatly diminished.
Charles Yost
Charlemagne and the Schism
Along with the imperial rule of Charlemagne, the growth and hardening of schism
between the Greek and Latin Churches is generally considered as one of the central and
defining developments in the history of the medieval West. While the contribution of
early medieval disputes to the widening gulf between the Churches has been frequently
recognized, rarely has the later medieval invocation of the memory of Charlemagne as an
explanation for Christian disunity been seriously considered. And yet, in the following
centuries, Latin and Greek churchmen and polemicists would conjure the remembrance
of Charlemagne and invoke his crowning in their ruminations on the schism. That there
were Greeks and Latins, who (though agreeing on little else) shared a memory of
Charlemagne as a decisive figure in the breach of Christendom is a matter of great
concern for scholars seeking to understand this phenomenon from the medieval
perspective. In this paper, I propose to investigate high and late medieval Greek and Latin
reflections on the role of Charlemagne in the making of the schism. I shall focus on his
description and role in the narratives of three anonymous Greek treatises, the so-called
“Opuscula de origine schismatis” (ed. J. Hergenröther, 1869), which give chronological
accounts of the schism between the Churches. It is this portrait of Charlemagne that I
shall bring into critical comparison with texts authored by Latin churchmen, principally
the Opusculum tripartitum of Humbert of Romans. Through this investigation, I hope to
shed light on the medieval understanding of the legacy of Charlemagne as related to the
failure of Christian unity.
Václav Žůrek
Saint patron et ancêtre : Charlemagne dans la politique de Charles IV de Luxembourg
La communication veut présenter le rôle de Charlemagne dans le programme
monarchique du roi de Bohême et l’empereur romain Charles IV (1346-1378). C’était le
personnage Charles IV qui contribua beaucoup à la propagation du culte de saint
Charlemagne en Europe centrale au XIVe siècle. Outre plusieurs autels, il fonda le
monastère de saint Charlemagne à Prague et une collégiale filiale à son lieu de naissance
présomptif Ingelheim-sur-le-Rhin.
Or, Charles IV avait plusieurs raisons pour soutenir la gloire du premier empereur
de l’Occident. Il le considérait comme son prédécesseur dans la dignité impériale et en
même temps, Charles IV proclamait qu’il faisait partie des descendants de Charlemagne.
Le nom Charles, que le jeune Luxembourg portait depuis sa confirmation à la cour de
Charles IV de Valois à Paris en 1323, l’approcha encore plus à son ancêtre fameux qu’il
déclare son patron saint personnel. Dans la propagation du culte, Charles IV ne se borna
pas aux territoires sous son règne, il envoya même à la cour parisienne de Charles V, son
neveu, les reliques pour encourager la vénération de saint Charlemagne.
L’ambivalence de la position de Charlemagne se voit bien illustrer par le château
de Karlstein, où Charlemagne est peint à la fois comme l’ancêtre dans la généalogie
fictive des Luxembourg dans la salle de fête et son portrait en tant que saint patron de
l’Empire décore la chapelle de la sainte Croix. Le discours littéraire à la cour de Charles
IV aide à répandre l’image de Charlemagne comme le souverain idéal et protecteur de
l’Eglise.
Nous présenterons dans la communication les deux facettes de la représentation
de Charlemagne en tant que personnage historique et en tant que saint patron à la cour de
Charles IV.

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