Berta

public profile

Share your family tree and photos with the people you know and love

  • Build your family tree online
  • Share photos and videos
  • Smart Matching™ technology
  • Free!

Berta

Dutch: Berthe, Prinses der Franken
Also Known As: "Bertham", "Berta", "Bertam", "Princess Bertha der Franken", "Bertha of France", "Berthe", "Bertrada"
Birthdate:
Birthplace: Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Death: after March 11, 824
Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Place of Burial: Somme, Picardie, France
Immediate Family:

Daughter of Charlemagne and Hildegard of Vinzgouw
Partner of Angilbert "the Saint" de Ponthieu, abbot of Saint-Riquier
Mother of Nithard "the Chronicler"; Hardouin de Ponthieu; Berthe De Ponthieu de Boulogne and Armid
Sister of Charles 'the Younger', King of the Franks; Pépin, king of Italy; Adalhaid; Rotrude; Lothair and 3 others
Half sister of Amaudra; Pippin the Hunchback; Adeltrude; Ruodhaid, Abbess of Faremoutiers; Theodrada, Abbess of Argenteuil and 6 others

Occupation: (Berta (Carolingien))(Berthe (Carolingien)), Charlemagne's daughter, partner of St Angilbert, sent to nunnery to do penance for relationship with Angilbert, Prinsesse af Frankrig, prinses van France
Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:

About Berta

Bertha (779-826), daughter of Charlemagne & Hildegard

Please see Charlemagne Project for Source Details

[Berta ([779/80]-11 Mar, 824 or after). "Hruodrudem et Bertham et Gislam" are named daughters of King Charles & Hildegard by Einhard[126]. Angilbert's poem Ad Pippinum Italiæ regum names (in order) "Chrodthrudis…Berta…Gisla et Theodrada" as daughters of King Charles[127]. Theodulf's poem Ad Carolum Rege changes the order slightly when he names "Berta…Chrodtrudh …Gisla…Rothaidh…Hiltrudh, Tetdrada" as daughters of the king[128]. The Chronicon Fontanellense records that Charles I King of the Franks proposed a marriage between “Offæ Rege Anglorum sive Merciorum…filiam” and “Carolus iunior”, but that King Offa refused unless “Berta filia Caroli Magni” was also married to his son which was unacceptable to the Frankish king[129]. Her father kept her and her sisters at the court of Aix-la-Chapelle refusing them permission to marry, but she was banished from court by her brother Emperor Louis I on his accession[130]. The Vita Angilberti records the relationship between "Berta filia [rex de regina Hildigarda]" and "domnus Angilbertus"[131]. The Chronicon Centulensis records that “Angilbertus” married “regis filiam Bertam” and that they had “duos filios Harnidum et Nithardum”[132]. Nithard names Bertha, daughter of King Charles, as his mother[133]. The necrology of the abbey of Saint-Denis records the death "V Id Mar" of "Berta filia Karoli imperatoris qui dedit superiorem Curtem"[134]. Mistress: (from [795]%29 of ANGILBERT "the Saint", son of [NITHARD & his wife Richarda] ([750]-18 Feb 814, bur Saint-Riquier, église du Saint-Sauveur et de Saint-Richard). :[http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/CAROLINGIANS.htm#_Toc240955192

Nome: ou Bertrada. Nascimento: ou 780, ou 775, ou em Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Alemanha. Morte: ou 22 de janeiro de 822/823, ou 23 de março de 822/823, ou 14 de janeiro de 828, ou 11 de março de 826, ou 14 de janeiro de 823, ou depois de 14 de janeiro de 823.


From the Find-a-Grave page on Bertha Carolingian:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=52843950

Birth: unknown, Aachen, Germany

Death: unknown, France

Bertha Carolingian was born 779 to Charlemagne (747-814) and Hildegard (758-783) and died March 11, 825 of unspecified causes.

She was married ( or common law) to Saint Angilbert of Centula. Bertha and Angilbert both entered religious life when prayers for a successful resistance to a Danish invasion were answered when a storm scattered the Danish fleet.

She entered a convent and he became a nun.

From the Find-a-Grave page on her common-law husband, St. Angilbert of Centula:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=52842750

Saint Angilbert "Homer" Of Centula

Birth: unknown, Normandy, France

Death: unknown, Somme, France

Born 777

Died February 18, 814

Saint Angilbert (died 18 February 814) was a Frank who served Charlemagne as a diplomat, abbot, poet and semi-son-in-law. He was of noble Frankish parentage, and educated at the palace school in Aquae Grani (Aachen) under Alcuin. He is venerated as a saint, on the day of his death—18 February.

When Charlemagne sent his young son Pepin (OUR ANCESTOR) to Italy as King of the Lombards Angilbert went along as primicerius palatii, a high administrator of the satellite court. As the friend and adviser of Pepin, he assisted for a while in the government of Italy.

Angilbert delivered the document on Iconoclasm from the Frankish Synod of Frankfurt to Pope Adrian I, and was later sent on three important embassies to the pope, in 792, 794 and 796.

In 790 he was named abbot of Centulum, also called Sancti Richarii monasterium (Saint-Riquier) in northern France, where his brilliant rule gained for him later the renown of a saint. It was not uncommon for the Merovingian, Carolingian, or later kings to make laymen abbots of monasteries; the layman would often use the income of the monastery as his own and leave the monks a bare minimum for the necessary expenses of the foundation.

Angilbert, in contrast, spent a great deal rebuilding Saint-Riquier, and when he completed it Charlemagne spent Easter of the year 800 there.

Angilbert's non-sacramental relationship with Bertha was evidently recognized by the court - if she had not been the daughter of the King historians might refer to her as his concubine. They had at least two sons, one of whom, Nithard, became a notable figure in the mid-9th century.

Control of marriage and the meanings of legitimacy were hotly contested in the Middle Ages. Bertha and Angilbert are an example of how resistance to the idea of a sacramental marriage could coincide with holding church offices.

His poems reveal the culture and tastes of a man of the world, enjoying the closest intimacy with the imperial family. He accompanied Charlemagne to Rome in 800 and was one of the witnesses to his will in 814.

Angilbert was the Homer of the emperor's literary circle, and was the probable author of an epic, of which the fragment which has been preserved describes the life at the palace and the meeting between Charlemagne and Leo III. It is a mosaic from Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and Venantius Fortunatus, composed in the manner of Einhard's use of Suetonius, and exhibits a true poetic gift.

Of the shorter poems, besides the greeting to Pippin on his return from the campaign against the Avars (796), an epistle to David (Charlemagne) incidentally reveals a delightful picture of the poet living with his children in a house surrounded by pleasant gardens near the emperor's palace.

The reference to Bertha, however, is distant and respectful, her name occurring merely on the list of princesses to whom he sends his salutation.

Angilbert's poems have been published by E. Dummler in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. For criticisms of this edition see Traube in Roederer's Schriften für germanische Philologie (1888). See also A. Molinier, Les Sources de l'histoire de France.

From Wikipedia

Family:

Children: Nithard de Ponthieu*

Spouse: Bertha Carolingian

Burial: Abbey church of Saint-Riquier

Somme, France

Created by: genealogybuff

Record added: May 25, 2010

Find A Grave Memorial# 52842750



It is difficult to understand Charlemagne's attitude toward his daughters. None of them contracted a sacramental marriage. This may have been an attempt to control the number of potential alliances. Charlemagne certainly refused to believe the stories (mostly true) of their wild behaviour. After his death the surviving daughters entered or were forced to enter nunneries by their own brother, the pious Louis. Only one of them, Bertha, had a recognised relationship, if not a marriage, with Angilbert, a member of Charlemagne's court circle.



http://www.our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p332.h...

http://www.our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/ui05.h...



Bertha (779-826), daughter of Charlemagne & Hildegard

Please see Charlemagne Project for Source Details

[Berta ([779/80]-11 Mar, 824 or after). "Hruodrudem et Bertham et Gislam" are named daughters of King Charles & Hildegard by Einhard[126]. Angilbert's poem Ad Pippinum Italiæ regum names (in order) "Chrodthrudis…Berta…Gisla et Theodrada" as daughters of King Charles[127]. Theodulf's poem Ad Carolum Rege changes the order slightly when he names "Berta…Chrodtrudh …Gisla…Rothaidh…Hiltrudh, Tetdrada" as daughters of the king[128]. The Chronicon Fontanellense records that Charles I King of the Franks proposed a marriage between “Offæ Rege Anglorum sive Merciorum…filiam” and “Carolus iunior”, but that King Offa refused unless “Berta filia Caroli Magni” was also married to his son which was unacceptable to the Frankish king[129]. Her father kept her and her sisters at the court of Aix-la-Chapelle refusing them permission to marry, but she was banished from court by her brother Emperor Louis I on his accession[130]. The Vita Angilberti records the relationship between "Berta filia [rex de regina Hildigarda]" and "domnus Angilbertus"[131]. The Chronicon Centulensis records that “Angilbertus” married “regis filiam Bertam” and that they had “duos filios Harnidum et Nithardum”[132]. Nithard names Bertha, daughter of King Charles, as his mother[133]. The necrology of the abbey of Saint-Denis records the death "V Id Mar" of "Berta filia Karoli imperatoris qui dedit superiorem Curtem"[134]. Mistress: (from [795]%29 of ANGILBERT "the Saint", son of [NITHARD & his wife Richarda] ([750]-18 Feb 814, bur Saint-Riquier, église du Saint-Sauveur et de Saint-Richard). :[http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/CAROLINGIANS.htm#_Toc240955192

Nome: ou Bertrada. Nascimento: ou 780, ou 775, ou em Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Alemanha. Morte: ou 22 de janeiro de 822/823, ou 23 de março de 822/823, ou 14 de janeiro de 828, ou 11 de março de 826, ou 14 de janeiro de 823, ou depois de 14 de janeiro de 823.


From the Find-a-Grave page on Bertha Carolingian:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=52843950

Birth: unknown, Aachen, Germany

Death: unknown, France

Bertha Carolingian was born 779 to Charlemagne (747-814) and Hildegard (758-783) and died March 11, 825 of unspecified causes.

She was married ( or common law) to Saint Angilbert of Centula. Bertha and Angilbert both entered religious life when prayers for a successful resistance to a Danish invasion were answered when a storm scattered the Danish fleet.

She entered a convent and he became a nun.

From the Find-a-Grave page on her common-law husband, St. Angilbert of Centula:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=52842750

Saint Angilbert "Homer" Of Centula

Birth: unknown, Normandy, France

Death: unknown, Somme, France

Born 777

Died February 18, 814

Saint Angilbert (died 18 February 814) was a Frank who served Charlemagne as a diplomat, abbot, poet and semi-son-in-law. He was of noble Frankish parentage, and educated at the palace school in Aquae Grani (Aachen) under Alcuin. He is venerated as a saint, on the day of his death—18 February.

When Charlemagne sent his young son Pepin (OUR ANCESTOR) to Italy as King of the Lombards Angilbert went along as primicerius palatii, a high administrator of the satellite court. As the friend and adviser of Pepin, he assisted for a while in the government of Italy.

Angilbert delivered the document on Iconoclasm from the Frankish Synod of Frankfurt to Pope Adrian I, and was later sent on three important embassies to the pope, in 792, 794 and 796.

In 790 he was named abbot of Centulum, also called Sancti Richarii monasterium (Saint-Riquier) in northern France, where his brilliant rule gained for him later the renown of a saint. It was not uncommon for the Merovingian, Carolingian, or later kings to make laymen abbots of monasteries; the layman would often use the income of the monastery as his own and leave the monks a bare minimum for the necessary expenses of the foundation.

Angilbert, in contrast, spent a great deal rebuilding Saint-Riquier, and when he completed it Charlemagne spent Easter of the year 800 there.

Angilbert's non-sacramental relationship with Bertha was evidently recognized by the court - if she had not been the daughter of the King historians might refer to her as his concubine. They had at least two sons, one of whom, Nithard, became a notable figure in the mid-9th century.

Control of marriage and the meanings of legitimacy were hotly contested in the Middle Ages. Bertha and Angilbert are an example of how resistance to the idea of a sacramental marriage could coincide with holding church offices.

His poems reveal the culture and tastes of a man of the world, enjoying the closest intimacy with the imperial family. He accompanied Charlemagne to Rome in 800 and was one of the witnesses to his will in 814.

Angilbert was the Homer of the emperor's literary circle, and was the probable author of an epic, of which the fragment which has been preserved describes the life at the palace and the meeting between Charlemagne and Leo III. It is a mosaic from Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and Venantius Fortunatus, composed in the manner of Einhard's use of Suetonius, and exhibits a true poetic gift.

Of the shorter poems, besides the greeting to Pippin on his return from the campaign against the Avars (796), an epistle to David (Charlemagne) incidentally reveals a delightful picture of the poet living with his children in a house surrounded by pleasant gardens near the emperor's palace.

The reference to Bertha, however, is distant and respectful, her name occurring merely on the list of princesses to whom he sends his salutation.

Angilbert's poems have been published by E. Dummler in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. For criticisms of this edition see Traube in Roederer's Schriften für germanische Philologie (1888). See also A. Molinier, Les Sources de l'histoire de France.

From Wikipedia

Family:

Children: Nithard de Ponthieu*

Spouse: Bertha Carolingian

Burial: Abbey church of Saint-Riquier

Somme, France

Created by: genealogybuff

Record added: May 25, 2010

Find A Grave Memorial# 52842750 -------------------- It is difficult to understand Charlemagne's attitude toward his daughters. None of them contracted a sacramental marriage. This may have been an attempt to control the number of potential alliances. Charlemagne certainly refused to believe the stories (mostly true) of their wild behaviour. After his death the surviving daughters entered or were forced to enter nunneries by their own brother, the pious Louis. Only one of them, Bertha, had a recognised relationship, if not a marriage, with Angilbert, a member of Charlemagne's court circle.


http://www.our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p332.h...

http://www.our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/ui05.h...

read more



Bertha (779-826), daughter of Charlemagne & Hildegard

Please see Charlemagne Project for Source Details

[Berta ([779/80]-11 Mar, 824 or after). "Hruodrudem et Bertham et Gislam" are named daughters of King Charles & Hildegard by Einhard[126]. Angilbert's poem Ad Pippinum Italiæ regum names (in order) "Chrodthrudis…Berta…Gisla et Theodrada" as daughters of King Charles[127]. Theodulf's poem Ad Carolum Rege changes the order slightly when he names "Berta…Chrodtrudh …Gisla…Rothaidh…Hiltrudh, Tetdrada" as daughters of the king[128]. The Chronicon Fontanellense records that Charles I King of the Franks proposed a marriage between “Offæ Rege Anglorum sive Merciorum…filiam” and “Carolus iunior”, but that King Offa refused unless “Berta filia Caroli Magni” was also married to his son which was unacceptable to the Frankish king[129]. Her father kept her and her sisters at the court of Aix-la-Chapelle refusing them permission to marry, but she was banished from court by her brother Emperor Louis I on his accession[130]. The Vita Angilberti records the relationship between "Berta filia [rex de regina Hildigarda]" and "domnus Angilbertus"[131]. The Chronicon Centulensis records that “Angilbertus” married “regis filiam Bertam” and that they had “duos filios Harnidum et Nithardum”[132]. Nithard names Bertha, daughter of King Charles, as his mother[133]. The necrology of the abbey of Saint-Denis records the death "V Id Mar" of "Berta filia Karoli imperatoris qui dedit superiorem Curtem"[134]. Mistress: (from [795]%29 of ANGILBERT "the Saint", son of [NITHARD & his wife Richarda] ([750]-18 Feb 814, bur Saint-Riquier, église du Saint-Sauveur et de Saint-Richard). :[http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/CAROLINGIANS.htm#_Toc240955192

Nome: ou Bertrada. Nascimento: ou 780, ou 775, ou em Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Alemanha. Morte: ou 22 de janeiro de 822/823, ou 23 de março de 822/823, ou 14 de janeiro de 828, ou 11 de março de 826, ou 14 de janeiro de 823, ou depois de 14 de janeiro de 823.


From the Find-a-Grave page on Bertha Carolingian:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=52843950

Birth: unknown, Aachen, Germany

Death: unknown, France

Bertha Carolingian was born 779 to Charlemagne (747-814) and Hildegard (758-783) and died March 11, 825 of unspecified causes.

She was married ( or common law) to Saint Angilbert of Centula. Bertha and Angilbert both entered religious life when prayers for a successful resistance to a Danish invasion were answered when a storm scattered the Danish fleet.

She entered a convent and he became a nun.

From the Find-a-Grave page on her common-law husband, St. Angilbert of Centula:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=52842750

Saint Angilbert "Homer" Of Centula

Birth: unknown, Normandy, France

Death: unknown, Somme, France

Born 777

Died February 18, 814

Saint Angilbert (died 18 February 814) was a Frank who served Charlemagne as a diplomat, abbot, poet and semi-son-in-law. He was of noble Frankish parentage, and educated at the palace school in Aquae Grani (Aachen) under Alcuin. He is venerated as a saint, on the day of his death—18 February.

When Charlemagne sent his young son Pepin (OUR ANCESTOR) to Italy as King of the Lombards Angilbert went along as primicerius palatii, a high administrator of the satellite court. As the friend and adviser of Pepin, he assisted for a while in the government of Italy.

Angilbert delivered the document on Iconoclasm from the Frankish Synod of Frankfurt to Pope Adrian I, and was later sent on three important embassies to the pope, in 792, 794 and 796.

In 790 he was named abbot of Centulum, also called Sancti Richarii monasterium (Saint-Riquier) in northern France, where his brilliant rule gained for him later the renown of a saint. It was not uncommon for the Merovingian, Carolingian, or later kings to make laymen abbots of monasteries; the layman would often use the income of the monastery as his own and leave the monks a bare minimum for the necessary expenses of the foundation.

Angilbert, in contrast, spent a great deal rebuilding Saint-Riquier, and when he completed it Charlemagne spent Easter of the year 800 there.

Angilbert's non-sacramental relationship with Bertha was evidently recognized by the court - if she had not been the daughter of the King historians might refer to her as his concubine. They had at least two sons, one of whom, Nithard, became a notable figure in the mid-9th century.

Control of marriage and the meanings of legitimacy were hotly contested in the Middle Ages. Bertha and Angilbert are an example of how resistance to the idea of a sacramental marriage could coincide with holding church offices.

His poems reveal the culture and tastes of a man of the world, enjoying the closest intimacy with the imperial family. He accompanied Charlemagne to Rome in 800 and was one of the witnesses to his will in 814.

Angilbert was the Homer of the emperor's literary circle, and was the probable author of an epic, of which the fragment which has been preserved describes the life at the palace and the meeting between Charlemagne and Leo III. It is a mosaic from Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and Venantius Fortunatus, composed in the manner of Einhard's use of Suetonius, and exhibits a true poetic gift.

Of the shorter poems, besides the greeting to Pippin on his return from the campaign against the Avars (796), an epistle to David (Charlemagne) incidentally reveals a delightful picture of the poet living with his children in a house surrounded by pleasant gardens near the emperor's palace.

The reference to Bertha, however, is distant and respectful, her name occurring merely on the list of princesses to whom he sends his salutation.

Angilbert's poems have been published by E. Dummler in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. For criticisms of this edition see Traube in Roederer's Schriften für germanische Philologie (1888). See also A. Molinier, Les Sources de l'histoire de France.

From Wikipedia

Family:

Children: Nithard de Ponthieu*

Spouse: Bertha Carolingian

Burial: Abbey church of Saint-Riquier

Somme, France

Created by: genealogybuff

Record added: May 25, 2010

Find A Grave Memorial# 52842750 -------------------- It is difficult to understand Charlemagne's attitude toward his daughters. None of them contracted a sacramental marriage. This may have been an attempt to control the number of potential alliances. Charlemagne certainly refused to believe the stories (mostly true) of their wild behaviour. After his death the surviving daughters entered or were forced to enter nunneries by their own brother, the pious Louis. Only one of them, Bertha, had a recognised relationship, if not a marriage, with Angilbert, a member of Charlemagne's court circle.


http://www.our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p332.h...

http://www.our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/ui05.h...

read more

view all 13

Berta's Timeline

779
779
Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
795
795
Ponthieu, Somme, Picardy, France
797
797
Centuleponthieu, Paris, Paris, Île-de-France, France
805
805
Ponthieu, Ain, Rhone-Alpes, France
824
March 11, 824
Age 45
Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
????
????
????
Princess of, Franks