Fathers and sons in a charter database:

statistics and stories

Rachel Stone, King’s College Londonrachel.stone@kcl.ac.uk

Sources for Frankish father-son relationships

• Normative sources: law-codes, conciliar acta, moral treatises

• Narrative sources: histories, poetry, polemical works

• Documentary sources: charters, polyptychs, letters

Using charters for studying fathers and sons

• Large number of them, spread out through empire

• Family practice rather than simply ideology

• Allows looking at non-royal/non-noble fathers and sons

Making of Charlemagne’s Europe - project

• AHRC-funded project 2012-2014: KCL History and Digital Humanities departments

• Royal and private charters from Frankish empire for 768-814

• Online database:

www.charlemagneseurope.ac.uk

MKCHEUR charter source base

929 charters

from across the

empire

Family analysis: data problems

• People described as fathers in charters: 80• People described as sons in charters: 601

• Average father has 7 or more sons?

• “Prando, filiu quondam Teudiperto” (CDA 49)

recorded as “Prando is son of Teudipert”• End up with 685 known fathers

Family analysis: regional differencesNo of charters mentioning country

No of charters mentioning fathers and country

No of charters mentioning sons and country

Austria 83 15 9

Belgium 18 5 1

France 211 41 21

Germany 330 60 72

Italy 315 16 208

Luxembourg 5 1 8

Netherlands 16 2 8

Switzerland 14 1 8

Turkey 1 0 0

Spain 1 0 1

Dead fathers

• 685 fathers in our charters

• 336 said to be dead at time charter written = 49%

• Inheritance only on father’s death?• Some living fathers mentioned

Dead fathers: Roman evidence

Saller (1994) & Scheidel (2009): c. one-third of Roman fathers dead by child aged 15, one-half by age 25

Early medieval demography• Saller ‘senatorial level 6’ assumptions

• Mean age of marriage 15 (women), 25 (men), life-expectancy at birth 32.5 years

• Cipriano-Bechtle, Grupe & Schroeter (1996) • Wenigumstadt, Bavaria, 5th-8th century: life-expectancy at birth 34

years

• Fleming (2006)• Raunds Furnells, Northamptonshire, 10th-11th century: life

expectancy at birth 21.8 years

Patterns of inheritance

• 61 charters (7%) with specific evidence on inheritance

• More often formulaic/vague • “anything I have from paternal or maternal inheritance” • portiona mea, hereditas

Complex patterns of inheritance• MON 48 (740-829), Huno “donavi ad sanctum

Michahelem me ipsum vel meam partem, quod mihi pater meus dimisit in Chessindorf, quod ego in portionem meam contra filios meos tuli et ego abui in ipsa diae.”

• I give to St Michael [Mondsee] myself and my share which my father put aside for me in Koestendorf, which I had as my portion against (?) my sons and I have to this day.

Future provision: sons and children

• WBG 128 (773) Sigibald grants property to Wissembourg, but retains the right of a future legitimate son to buy back the property (“si filium genuero de legitima uxore”)

• WBG 79 (c. 790) Helphant gives property to Wissembourg but retains the usufruct, for himself and any future sons (“si filios procreauerim”)

• WBG 19 (808) Arbio gives property to Wissembourg and receives it back as a precarial grant for himself and his children, Odo and Eugenia

Future provision: multiple choices

• FRE 41 (771) “ego Vurmhart...propriam hereditatem post obitum meum, si genetrix mea ante finem meum vitalem emitterit flatum et si soboles non genuissem, post dies meos funditus substantia mea...ad intemerate virginis Mariae ecclesiae...pertinere debuisset; si autem meae decessisse et genetrice aut infante proprio supervixisse contigerit, tertia pars ecclesiae conteneatur, eorum post obitum relique quae fuerint supra membratim ecclesiae soli dentur.”

Consenting

• 78 charters (8%) mention consenters

• 6 with sons consenting to father’s donation

• 5 with father/stepfather consenting to sons’ transactions (not all donations)

Family emotions: spiritual beneficiaries

• 192 charters (21%) where someone other than the donor is prayed for/remembered

• 168 individuals/groups – some get prayed for in multiple charters

• 90 individual men, 42 individual women

Spiritual beneficiary: parents

• 13 fathers only being prayed for• 6 mothers only• 10 father and mother together• 4 groups of ancestors• 16 groups of “parentes”

Spiritual beneficiaries: children

• 181 Carolingian royal diplomas• 50 with prayers for Charlemagne’s children generally

(28%)• 2 for Pippin of Italy specifically

• 734 private charters• 11 with prayers for sons (1.5%)• 2 for daughters• 4 for children generally

Dead children• 5/17 (non-Carolingian) fathers having prayers for dead

children

• CHLA 61:20 (812): donation by Ascolfus to St Stephen’s Oile for his soul and that of his parentes and “pro ipsum infantulu nomine Appo, qem nos ividem ad ipsa ecclesia sepellimus”

Family conflict? Keporah and Rodoin

FRE 65 (774) : “Ego Onolfus...dilectum et quasi unicum Keparohun amisi filium latrociniis insidie interemptum a quo orbatus remansi cum unico Hrodino filio vocabulo”

“ad honorem si [Rodoin] accesserit... possedeat praedictum patrimonium intercessor genitori matrique et germani adsistat...Sin autem nostris impetire dedierit delictis, ut sublimare sacerdotalis neglexerit gratibus...”

Family conflict? Scrot and Wago

• FRE 72a (776): • Scrot donates to Freising on death-bed for his soul• donation confirmed a week later by father Toto• Wago, Scrot’s brother, donates to Freising “tam pro me pro

genitore vel prodecessoris”

• FRE 86 (777): • Agreement by Toto and Osperga, (new wife) with remaining sons,

Cundhard, Rato and Wago, and with Freising

Family harmony? Walderan and Rado

• CHLA 24:756 (777)• “tu Rado, filius meus, mihi in mea senecta multa erga inpendere

visus est in omnibus mihi semper obediens es; propterea volo, ut omnem tuo conquesitum aut lavoratum post decessum meo abere diveas, absque portionem nepotem meorum, que sunt filie quondam Insunu, qui fuit filius meus, quia melior et amplius tuus Radoni cognosce servitium quam de nepotis mee”

Fathers in charters: how distinctive?

• Father as provider

• Love and obedience

• Family tensions

• Lack of patrilineages

• Fractured families

• Carolingians atypical?