Charles-Constantine (died 962) was a

Count of Vienne The count of Vienne was the ruler of the Viennois, with his seat at Vienne, during the period of the Carolingian Empire and after until 1030, when the county of Vienne was granted to the Archdiocese of Vienne. Girart de Roussillon ruled Provenc ...

. His father,

Louis the Blind Louis the Blind ( 880 – 5 June 928) was the king of Provence from 11 January 887, King of Italy from 12 October 900, and briefly Holy Roman Emperor, as Louis III, between 901 and 905. His father was a Bosonid and his mother was a Carolingia ...

, was

King of Provence The land of Provence has a history quite separate from that of any of the larger nations of Europe. Its independent existence has its origins in the frontier nature of the dukedom in Merovingian Gaul. In this position, influenced and affected ...

and Holy Roman Emperor.

Life

When Charles' father Louis died in 929,

Hugh of Arles Hugh (c. 880–947), known as Hugh of Arles or Hugh of Provence, was the king of Italy from 926 until his death. He belonged to the Bosonid family. During his reign, he empowered his relatives at the expense of the aristocracy and tried to estab ...

, who was already

king of Italy King of Italy ( it, links=no, Re d'Italia; la, links=no, Rex Italiae) was the title given to the ruler of the Kingdom of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The first to take the title was Odoacer, a barbarian military leader, ...

, took over

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border ...

and gave it, in 933, to King

Rudolf II of Burgundy Rudolph II (c. 11 July 880 – 11 July 937), a member of the Elder House of Welf, was King of Burgundy from 912 until his death. He initially succeeded in Upper Burgundy and also ruled as King of Italy from 922 to 926. In 933 Rudolph acquired ...

. Charles-Constantine for whatever reason, did not inherit the imperial throne or Provence. This has led many to believe he was, in fact,

illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ...

. He was awarded the county of the Viennois in 931, by

Rudolph of France Rudolph (french: Rodolphe), sometimes called Ralph (; c. 890 – 14/15 January 936), was the king of France from 923 until his death in 936. He was elected to succeed his father-in-law, Robert I, and spent much of his reign defending his realm f ...

.Constance Brittain Bouchard, ''Those of My Blood: Creating Noble Families in Medieval Francia'', (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 82. He was married to Thiberge de Troyes. They had two sons: * Richard * Hubert and possibly a daughter: * Constance of Vienne, married to Boson II count of Arles.

Name and ancestry

This count appears simply as "Carolus" (Charles) in his own charters.Reginald L. Poole, "Burgundian Notes", ''English Historical Review'', 27(1912):299—309.

Flodoard Flodoard of Reims (; 893/4 – 28 March 966) was a Frankish chronicler and priest of the cathedral church of Reims in the West Frankish kingdom during the decades following the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. His historical writings are ...

, writing his annals during the count's lifetime, called him ''Karolo Constantino Ludovici orbi filii'' (Charles Constantine, son of Louis the Blind), and this added

byname An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

also appears in the writings of 10th-century historian

Richerus Richerus or Richer of Reims (fl. 10th century) was a monk of Saint-Remi, just outside Reims, and a historian, an important source for the contemporary kingdom of France. Life He was a son of Rodulf, a trusted councillor and captain of Louis IV of ...

, who used Flodoard as a source. The implications of this byname, Constantine, have been subject to debate. Poole considered it a

toponymic Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a p ...

name of Flodoard's devising, reference to

Arles Arles (, , ; oc, label=Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province ...

(sometimes called ''Constantina urbs''), but Previté-Orton sees in it a reference to his parentage.C. W. Previté Orton, "Charles Constantine of Vienne", ''English Historical Review'', 29(1914):703—9. A surviving letter by Patriarch

Nicholas I Mystikos Nicholas I Mystikos or Nicholas I Mysticus ( el, Νικόλαος Α΄ Μυστικός, ''Nikolaos I Mystikos''; 852 – 11 May 925) was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from March 901 to February 907 and from May 912 to his death ...

testifies that Emperor

Leo VI the Wise Leo VI, called the Wise ( gr, Λέων ὁ Σοφός, Léōn ho Sophós, 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was very well r ...

of Byzantium, father of

Constantine VII Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zo ...

, had betrothed his daughter to a Frank prince, a cousin of Bertha (of Tuscany), to whom came later a great misfortune. That unfortunate prince could only be Louis III, whose mother

Ermengard of Italy Ermengard of Italy, also ''Ermengarda'', ''Ermengarde'', or ''Irmingard'' (852/855 – 897) was a queen and regent of Provence. She was the second and only surviving daughter of Louis II, Holy Roman Emperor. Life Born in around 852, she was the da ...

was a first cousin of Bertha, and who was blinded on 21 July 905, while the prospective bride would have been Emperor Leo's only surviving daughter at that time,

Anna of Constantinople Anna Porphyrogenita ( grc-x-medieval, Ἄννα Πορφυρογεννήτη, translit=Anna Porphyrogennētē, rus, Анна Византийская, uk, Анна Порфірогенета; 13 March 963 – 1011) was a Grand Princess consort ...

, born to his second wife Zoe Zaoutzaina. Charles Constantine would thus have been given names reflecting his paternal and maternal imperial heritage. However, it is still questioned whether the planned marriage ever took place,Shepard, Jonathan, The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire, Cambridge University Press, 2008, pg. 423 and there are chronological difficulties (not insurmountable in the opinion of Previté-Orton) in making Anna the mother of Charles Constantine.

suggested that the ancestry of Charles Constantine was tainted by illegitimacy back to five generations, although the meaning of this is disputed.

References and Notes

Sources

*''Dictionnaire de Biographie Française''. Roman d'Amat and R. Limousin-Lamothe (ed). Paris, 1967. {{DEFAULTSORT:Constantine, Charles Bosonids 962 deaths 10th-century French people Medieval French nobility People of Byzantine descent Year of birth unknown Sons of emperors Sons of kings