What is the current academic consensus on Charlemagne's genealogy?
score:4
The ancestry I have found going back from Arnulf of Metz is as follows:
Arnoldus or Arnual (c. 540/560 – c. 611)- Bishop of Metz son of:
Ansbertus, who was married to Blithilde (also called Bilichilde), who was the daughter of:
Chlothar I (c. 497 – 29 November 561) "le Vieux", King of the Franks son of:
Clovis I (c. 466 – c. 511) king of the Franks son of:
Childeric I (c. 440 – 481/482) son of:
Merovech (d. 453/457) semi-legendary founder of the Merovingian dynasty of the Salian Franks
As you mentioned, there is a lot of debate as to how much of this is valid. We do know that some of these individuals existed and we know enough to corroborate some of the connections, but for some of them we know little more than the name and there is some doubt as to whether Merovech ever even existed.
A purely legendary extension of the line is as follows:
Merovech son of Chlodio (c. 392/395–445/448) who was the son of:
Pharamond or Faramund (c. 370-427) son of:
Marcomer, a descendant of King Priam of Troy
The thing with many of these records of kingly lines is that the farther back one goes the more suspect the information tends to become. Also, depending on when the record was made, the record might only go back a generation or two before the embellishment begins.
As for whether there is a consensus about Charlemagne's ancestry, I would say that there is none, at least in the sense that not all historians are prepared to dismiss all of the records completely. On the other hand, I can't imagine there could be many that don't have serious doubts as the the veracity of much of the genealogy, particularly in the earlier periods where Merovech is alternatively listed as being the son the sea-god Neptune. When you start seeing items like that in the genealogy, it is time to question the veracity of the record.
Upvote:0
The descent from a daughter of Clothair I is not believed in very much. Other (possible) descents from the Merovingians have been proposed.
Some researchers also take Charlemagne's male line ancestry back generations beyond St. Arnulf to a Frankish king of Cologne who was murdered by his son egged on by Clovis about 500. There are also suggested descents from Gallo-Roman nobles in female lines. There are many theories about the relationships between various Gallo-Roman nobles and bishops in Frankish and late Roman Gaul. At the present time it is uncertain just how exalted Charlemagne's unproven Gallo-Roman ancestry might have been.
Upvote:2
The only thing I found on Google Books that seemed relevant was The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe (1993) by Pierre Riche. Riche traces the ancestry of the family to Arnulf of Metz (c. 582 – 640). He dismisses attempts to trace the genealogy back further. He says the most reliable source is the biography Vita Sancti Arnulfi, written shortly after Arnulf's death. This source describes Arnulf as being of Frankish ancestry and "sufficiently elevated and noble parentage, and very rich in worldly goods."
More post
- 📝 Pedophilia in ancient Greek and Roman culture
- 📝 Are there precedents of 'I am not a racist' from US Presidents?
- 📝 Can someone help me ID this insignia?
- 📝 Context for peace between UK and Germany around the Fall of France
- 📝 Were some categories of French-Jewish people treated better by Vichy anti-Jewish laws
- 📝 Abraham Lincoln Quote Background
- 📝 How area of a country used to be calculated?
- 📝 How did Irish defeat Norse at Battle of Tara in 980 CE.?
- 📝 What is the archaeological evidence for the Aztecs' use of entheogens?
- 📝 Did it matter that the Red Army clung on to Stalingrad's West bank in 1942?
- 📝 Did Hitler ever tell a joke?
- 📝 Has Section 2 of the 14th amendment ever been enforced?
- 📝 Identification of location and type of bi-plane
- 📝 How big was the Golden Horde?
- 📝 Why did Byzantine champions (consistently) lose duels to Muslim armies' champions?
- 📝 What tactic/strategy won Napoleon the six-day campaign
- 📝 Did the historic events behind the film The Big Short happen under Glass Steagall?
- 📝 Occupation of Iran in World War 2
- 📝 Did German citizens need a visa to enter Switzerland in 1945?
- 📝 Why was the Soviet Union unable to stop the violence in Nagorno-Karabakh?
- 📝 How much were telegraphists in the 1950s paid?
- 📝 Who were these two conspirators against Titus?
- 📝 Are there any communist leaders without a record of acts we consider as a crime (against humanity)?
- 📝 How are Julian and Gregorian dates usually represented in historical works?
- 📝 What did Douglas MacArthur mean by "In war, there is no substitute for victory?"
- 📝 Who are the three people in the Twilight Struggle card "Red Scare / Purge"?
- 📝 Were Russians less racist than I thought?
- 📝 Why was Hanford, Washington, selected during World War II as the site of America’s first nuclear energy plant?
- 📝 What percentage of the German population worked on gathering the harvest in 1917?
- 📝 Did the King of Siam offer war elephants to the Union during the Civil War?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What is the current academic consensus on Charlemagne's genealogy?
- 📝 What is the current consensus on the origins of the Brahmi script?
- 📝 What was the policy on academic research being published beyond the iron curtain?
- 📝 What is the historical background of the current Ukraine crisis?
- 📝 At what point were the most current and former US Presidents alive?
- 📝 What is the current state of historical thought on the Aryan invasion/migration theory?
- 📝 What is the current location of the "Cauldron of Trun and Chambios" from August 1944?
- 📝 What impact does colonial legacy have on current US presence in the South China Sea dispute?
- 📝 What are the current obligations of Treaty of Lausanne?
- 📝 What is the current U.S. monetary standard?
- 📝 Are there any theories about what health problems would a man of the past suffer in the current age?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 What is the origin of 3 meals a day?
- 📝 Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
- 📝 What is the first recorded dog name?
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What knowledge may have been lost at the Library of Alexandria?
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 What fueled the street lights in 13th-century Cordoba?
- 📝 What do the phone number suffixes J, M, R, W in 1940 New York phone book mean?
- 📝 What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world?
- 📝 What was the historical context of the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution?
- 📝 What is the significance behind "40 days" that often appears in the Bible?
- 📝 What did babies eat before the advent of modern blenders?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 Aside from the Pyramids, what is the tallest man-made structure still standing in Europe & the Near East from ancient times?
- 📝 Has an heir ever made the country believe the current ruler died in order to take over the throne?
- 📝 What did the Emancipation Proclamation exactly do?
- 📝 What is the logic for the map maker classifying the map this way, specifically in Canada?