The Princess and Emperor’s Breakup

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Byzantines, Charlemagne, Constantine, Franks, Hruodtrude, Irene, Queen of the Darkest Hour

One untrue tidbit from research for Queen of the Darkest Hour: Frankish Queen Fastrada was so envious that her stepdaughter would become Byzantine empress she thwarted the girl’s marriage plans in 788.

The betrothal between Charlemagne’s eldest daughter, Hruodtrude, and Emperor Constantine was indeed thwarted, but there is no evidence that Fastrada was behind it, let alone motivated by envy. The reason for the breakup is the same as the betrothal: politics.

Let’s go back seven years to 781, when Hruodtrude was 6 and Constantine was 11, with his widowed mother, Irene, serving as regent. The couple’s parents agreed their children should wed—traditional marriage for medieval royals. The hope was to secure an alliance between the two most powerful realms in Christendom.

Constantine and his mom, Irene (photo by PHGCOM, CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons)

For the time being, Hruodtrude would stay in her parents’ household. Irene sent a tutor to Charles’s court to teach the girl Greek and familiarize her with Byzantine customs. Perhaps the agreement was that Hruodtrude would move to Constantinople when she was a marriageable age, about 12 or 13.

All was not well at the time of the betrothal. In her court, Irene harbored one of Charles’s enemies: his ex-brother-in-law Adalgis. The son of the Lombard king Charles had deposed, Adalgis had escaped to Constantinople during Frankish-Lombard war in 773-74.

When Constantine turned 16, Irene did not give up her power. And then there was Irene’s habit of calling councils His Holiness did not approve. A believer in the power of prayer to win wars, Charles would not want to risk offending God.

The situation worsened in 788, when Adalgis tried to claim the Lombard throne, impossible without Irene sheltering him. Shortly after the Franks defeated him, the betrothal between Hruodtrude and Constantine was broken.

Both Charles and Irene take credit for the breakup. Constantine was upset to lose the Frankish princess, according to both Frankish and Byzantine sources. History is silent on Hruodtrude’s sentiments.

Himiltrude: Charlemagne’s First Ex-Wife

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Charlemagne, Himiltrude, Medieval Queens, Middle Ages, Queen of the Darkest Hour

Who was Himiltrude?

Was she Charlemagne’s first wife, whom he divorced to marry a Lombard princess? Or was the mother of Charles’s eldest son, Pepin, merely a concubine?

Charlemagne’s biographer Einhard calls her a concubine, and some scholars agree with him. But as you can see from the title of this post, I think she was a wife. Here is what Pope Stephen said in an angry letter to both Charles and his younger brother, Carloman, fearing one of the Frankish kings would wed the daughter of his political enemy, the king of the Lombards: “Moreover, most gentle and most gracious God-instituted kings, you are already, by His will and decision and by your father’s order, joined in lawful marriage, having accepted as most illustrious and noble kings wives of great beauty from the same land as yourselves.” (Charlemagne: Translated Sources by P.D. King.)

No one disputes Carloman was married. When he died in 771, his widow, Gerberga, fought for their sons’ rights. While Stephen’s successor, Hadrian, refused to anoint Carloman’s son, he didn’t argue they were bastards. He would have had an easier time if he could.

It makes no sense that Charles and Carloman’s father, Pepin, would arrange for only his younger son’s marriage when he planned to split the kingdom between his heirs, following Frankish tradition. A matter of political alliances, marriage was much too important to be left to young men. When Pepin died in 768, Charles was 20, and Carloman was 17.

Might Himiltrude have seen herself as an empress? (From Costume of All Nations, 1882)

Little is known about Himiltrude other than she was a Frankish noblewoman and Pepin’s mother. Her skeleton might have been found at the double monastery of Nivelles, which was connected to the royal family.

We don’t who was abbess at Nivelles at the time, so this allows a novelist some creative speculation. Might appointing Himiltrude to rule an abbey, and control its property and other assets, have been something of a divorce settlement to keep peace with her family?

Still, medieval women often did not go away quietly. Gerberga crossed the Alps and sought help from the ruthless Lombard king, the father of Charles’s second ex-wife.

As for Himiltrude, it is possible she bided her time and waited to see if Charles would treat her son right.

Might she have become bitter as she watched another woman’s sons be named heirs to the kingdom? Might she have plotted against her ex-husband to place her own son on the throne and become queen mother, the most powerful woman in Francia? At least one scholar has speculated as much, based on the little evidence that is available, and for me, that was good enough to incorporate into Queen of the Darkest Hour.

Did Charlemagne Worry about Too Many Heirs?

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Charlemagne, Fastrada, Middle Ages, Queen of the Darkest Hour

When Fastrada married Charlemagne, she did not need to bear a son to ensure her place as queen. Her predecessor Hildegard had already provided Charles with three boys, and she and Charles likely made plans on how to divide kingdom among her sons, with Pepin (Himiltrude’s child) receiving a prize archbishopric.

Had Fastrada born a son, he too would have expected a kingdom, at the expense of his brothers. How Fastrada and her family felt about her children remains a mystery, and it provides fodder for a novelist. In Queen of the Darkest Hour, Fastrada and her father want a boy while Charles has a different desire.

For more about why Charles might have prayed for a girl, see my post on Susan Keogh’s blog.

Charlemagne’s family tree from the Nuremberg Chronicle, by Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514) (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)