Lothar I and the visibility of the female aristocracy Maria Cristina La Rocca University of Padua, Italy This is a section of Aristocratic networks. Elites and social dynamics in Italy in the age of Lothar I(DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-0771-3) by Giuseppe Albertoni, Manuel Fauliri, Leonardo Sernagiotto Firenze University Press Florence 2025 https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0771-3.05

Available for academic research purposes

Open Access

Copyright Author(s)

Content licence CC BY 4.0

Metadata licence CC0 1.0

This is original content, published for academic research purposes

 Digital edition XML powered by Booksflow

The descriptions of the female aristocracy in the age of Lothar I differ somewhat from those of the preceding and following age: in general, women do not appear on the scene as a source of conflict or scandal, but instead seem to hide behind a stereotyped and aseptic image. This seems to apply especially to Lothar I’s bride, Ermengard. However, a broader analysis shows that, in practice, the empress’s political interventions greatly contributed to the acceptance of Lothar in the vast imperial space. Conversely, the control of women’s behaviour was a very important issue in defining Lothar’s imperial authority. This is shown by his decision to punish the nun Gerberga of Chalon-sur-Saône and to increase the protection around the royal nunnery of Santa Maria Teodota in Pavia. In the age of Lothar, the imperial power over women underlines his ability to potentially avoid the problems linked to the impurity of women’s bodies, their sexuality and the political turmoil.

 Middle Ages ninth century Carolingian Italy Female aristocracy queenship.

It is available online at https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0771-3.05

References Agnellus Ravennatis, Liber Pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis, ed. D. M. Delyiannis, Turnout 2006 (CCCM, 199). Agobardus, Liber Apologeticus, I, in Agobardi Lugdunensis Opera Omnia, ed. L. van Acker, CCCM, 52, Turnhout 1981. S. Airlie, Private bodies and the body’s politics in the divorce case of Lothar II, in «Past & Present», 161 (1998), pp. 3-38. S. Airlie, Making and Unmaking the Carolingians, 751-888, London 2021. Annales Bertiniani, ed. G. Waitz, Hannover 1883 (MGH, SS rer. Germ., 5). Astronomus, Vita Hludowici imperatoris, Hannover 1995, pp. 279-555 (MGH, SS rer. Germ., 64) M. Betti, The two versions of the life of Pope Sergius II in the Liber pontificalis. Anti-Frankish feeling in Rome after Louis II’s expedition of 844, in Networks of bishops, networks of texts. Manuscripts, legal cultures, tools of government in Carolingian Italy at the time of Lothar I, ed. G. De Angelis, F. Veronese, Firenze 2022 (Reti Medievali E-Book, 41), pp. 181-198. P. Biavaschi, L’ambiguo destino della poena cullei tra sopravvivenza e innovazione, in Codice Teodosiano e tradizioni giuridiche in Occidente. La terra, strumento di arricchimento e sopravvivenza, ed. G. Bassanelli Sommariva, S. Tarozzi, P. Biavaschi, Santarcangelo di Romagna (RN) 2016, pp. 169-186. F. Bougard, Culpabilis iudicetur. Réparation et châtiment des crimes et délits dans les lois «barbares», in Bougard, Justice, culture juridique, pratiques documentaires durant le haut Moyen Âge (VIe-XIe siècle), Spoleto 2024, pp. 3-49. C.M. Booker, Past Convinctions. The Penance of Louis the Pious and the Decline of the Carolingians, Philadelphia 2009. C.M. Booker, By the body betrayed: Blushing in the Penitential State, in Carolingian experiments, ed. M.B. Gillis, Turnhout 2022, pp. 221-244. E. Bournazel, Rèflexions sur le role et la place de la reine dans le palais royal et le gouvernement aux temps mérovingiens, in Le corti nell’alto medioevo, Spoleto 2015 (Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo, 62), pp. 385-428. G. Bührer-Thierry, “Just anger” or “Vengful anger”? The punishment of blinding in the early medieval West, in Anger’s Past. The Social Uses of an Emotion in the Middle Ages, ed. B.H. Rosenwein, Ithaca (NY) 1998, pp. 75-91. Capitularia regum Francorum, vol. 1, ed. A. Boretius, Hannover 1883 (MGH, Legum sectio, II/1). Capitularia regum Francorum, vol. 2, ed. A. Boretius, V. Krause, Hannover 1897 (MGH, Legum sectio, II/2). P. Chastang, Entre histoire et reconstruction des origines. Les actes anciens (IXe siècle) des cartulaires de Gellone, in Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert dans l’Europe du haut Moyen Âge. Actés de la table ronde d’août 1998, ed. C. Duhamel-Amado, X. Barral Altet, Montpellier 2000, pp. 65-74. Concilia aevi Karolini, 2 vol., ed. A. Werminghoff, Hannover-Leipzig 1906-1908 (MGH, Conc., 2). F.E. Consolino, La poesia epigrafica a Pavia longobarda nell’VIII secolo, in Storia di Pavia II. L’alto medioevo, Pavia 1987, pp. 159-176. M. Cristini, Matasuintha: From Gothic Queen to Imperial Woman, in Empresses-in-waiting. Female Power and Performance at the Late Roman Court, ed. C. Rollinger, N. Viermann, Liverpool 2024, pp. 243-260. M. De Jong, Exegesis for an Empress, in Medieval Transformations. Texts, Power and Gifts in Context, ed. E. Cohen, M. de Jong, Leiden/Boston/Köln 2001, pp. 69-100. M. De Jong, The Penitential State. Authority and Atonement in the Age of Louis the Pious, 814-840, Cambridge 2009. M. De Jong, Epitaph for an era. Politics and Rhetoric in the Carolingian World, Cambridge 2019. F. De Rubeis, Epigrafia femminile: la trasformazione delle virtù, in Agire da donna. Modelli e pratiche di rappresentazione (secoli VI-X). Atti del convegno (Padova, 18-19 febbraio 2005), ed. C. La Rocca, Turnout 2007, pp. 53-73. P. Delogu, «Consors regni»: un problema carolingio, in «Bullettino dell'Istituto storico italiano per il medio evo e Archivio muratoriano», 76 (1968), pp. 47-98. N. Demarchi, Paolo Diacono e il dolore. I racconti di un'emozione, Turnhout 2024. Epistolarum Tomus V, ed. E. Dümmler et al., Berlin 1899 (MGH, Epistolae Karolini aevi, 3). Gregorii Turonensis Liber in Gloria martyrum, in Gregorii Turonensis Miracula et opera minora, ed. B. Krusch, pp. 34-111 (MGH, SS rer. Merov., 1,2). K. Herbers, Papst Leo IV. Und das Papstum in der Mitte des 9. Jahrhunderts. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen päpstlicher Herrschaft in der späten Karolingerzeit, Stuttgart 2017. Hrabani Mauri Carmina, in Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, vol. 2, ed. E. Dümmler, Berlin 1884 (MGH, Poetae, 2). M. Innes, Queenship in Dispute: Fastrada, History and Law, in Writing the Early Medieval West. Studies in Honour of Rosamond McKitterick, ed. Elina Screen, Charles West, Cambridge 2018, pp. 230-247. Isidori Hispalensis episcopi Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX, ed. W.M. Lindsay, Oxford 1985. C. La Rocca, Pouvoirs des femmes, pouvoir de la loi dans l’Italie Lombarde, in Femmes et pouvoirs de femmes à Bysance et en Occident, ed. S. Lebecq, A. Dierkens, R. Le Jan, J.-M. Sansterre, Lille 1999, pp. 37-50. C. La Rocca, L. Provero, The Dead and their Gifts. The Will of Eberhard, Count of Friuli, and his Wife Gisela, Daughter of Louis the Pious (863-864), in Rituals of Power. From Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages, ed. F.C.W.J. Theuws, J.L. Nelson, Leiden 2000, pp. 225-280. R. Le Jan, Famille et pouvoir dans le monde franc (VIIe-Xe siècle). Essai d’anthropologie sociale, Paris 1995. R. Le Jan, L'épouse du comte du IXe au XIe siècle: transformation d’un modèle et idéologie du pouvoir, in Femmes et pouvoirs des femmes à Byzance et en Occident (VIe-XIe siècle), ed. S. Lebecq, A. Dierkens, R. Le Jan, J.-M. Sansterre, Lille 1999, pp. 65-73. R. Le Jan, Le couple aristocratique au haut Moyen Âge, in «Médiévales», 65 (2013), pp. 33-46. R. Le Jan, Les reines franques du VIe au Xe siècle: de la sphère privée à la sphère publique?, in Augusta, Regina, Basilissa. La souveraine de l’Empire romain au Moyen Âge, ed. F. Chausson, S. Destephen, Paris 2018, pp. 81-102. R. Le Jan, Amis ou ennemis? Émotions, relations, identité au Moyen Âge, Paris 2024. Leges Burgundionum, ed. L. De Salis, Hannover 1892 (MGH, LL nat. Germ., 2/1). Leges Langobardorum, ed. G. Pertz, Hannover 1868 (MGH, LL, 4). Liber Memorialis von Remiremont, ed. E. Hlawitschka, K. Schmid, G. Tellenbach, München 1970 (MGH, Libri mem., 1/1-2). M. Lightman, W. Zeisel, Univira: An Example of Continuity and Change in Roman Society, in «Church History», 46 (1977), pp. 19-30. S. MacLean, Queenship, nunneries and royal widowhood in Carolingian Europe, in «Past & Present», 178 (2003), pp. 3-38. S. MacLean, Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century. Charles the Fat and the End of the Carolingian Empire, New York (NY) 2003. S. MacLean, Palaces, Itineraries and Political Order in the post-Carolingian Kingdoms, in Diverging paths? The shapes of power and institutions in Medieval Christendom and Islam, ed. J.G.H. Hudson, A. M. Rodriguez López, Leiden 2014, pp. 291-320. S. MacLean, Frontiers and fortifications in the Carolingian imperial imagination, in Carolingian Frontiers: Italy and Beyond, ed. M. Betti, F. Borri, S. Gasparri, Florence 2024, pp. 141-159. Z. Mistry, Abortion in the Early Middle Ages, c. 500-900, Woodbridge 2015. J.L. Nelson, The Frankish World, 750-900, London 1996. J.L. Nelson, Women at the court of Charlemagne: a case of monstrous regiment?, in The Frankish World, 750-900, pp. 223-242. J.L. Nelson, Public histories and private histories in the work of Nithard, in Nelson, Politics and Ritual in early medieval Europe, London 1986, pp. 195-237. J.L. Nelson, Kings with justice, kings without justice: an early medieval paradox, in La giustizia nell’alto medioevo (secoli IX-XI), Spoleto 1997 (Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo, 44), pp. 797-826. J.L. Nelson, Courts, elites and gendered power in the Early Middle Age. Charlemagne and others, Aldershot 2007. J.L. Nelson, The Wary Widow, in Nelson, Courts, elites and gendered power in the early Middle Ages. Charlemagne and others, Aldershot 2007, pp. 82-113. J.L. Nelson, Bertrada, in Nelson, Courts, elites and gendered power in the early Middle Ages. Charlemagne and others, Aldershot 2007, 93-108. J.L. Nelson, Making a difference in eight-century politics: the daughters of Desiderius, in Nelson, Courts, elites and gendered power in the early Middle Ages. Charlemagne and others, Aldershot 2007, pp. 171-190. J.L. Nelson, Gendering Courts in the Early Medieval West, in Nelson, Courts, elites and gendered power in the early Middle Ages. Charlemagne and others, Aldershot 2007, pp. 185-197. J.L. Nelson, Du couple et des couples à l’epoque carolingienne, in «Médiévales», 65 (2013), pp. 19-32. Nithardi Historiarum Libri IIII, ed. E. Müller, Hannover-Leipzig 1907 (MGH, SS rer. Germ., 44). W. Pezé, Compétition et fidélité à l'épreuve de la guerre de succession (840-843), in Coopétition. Rivaliser, coopérer dans les sociétés du haut Moyen Âge (500-1100), ed. R. Le Jan, G. Bürer-Thierry, S. Gasparri, Turnhout 2018, pp. 141-166. Paulus Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum, ed. G. Waitz, Hannover 1878 (MGH, SS rer. Germ., 48). Pauli et Petri diaconorum carmina, in Poetae Latini Aevi Karolini, vol. 1, ed. E. Dümmler, Berlin 1881 (MGH, Poetae, 1). I placiti del “Regnum Italiae”, vol. 1, ed. C. Manaresi, Roma 1955 (FSI, 92). D.M. Polanichka, A. Cilley, The very personal history of Nithard: family and honour in the Carolingian world, in «Early Medieval Europe», 22 (2014), pp. 171-200. B.H. Rosenwein, Friends and Family, Politics and Privilege in the Kingship of Berengar I, in Portraits of Medieval and Renaissance Living: Essays in Memory of David Herlihy, ed. S. Cohn, S. Epstein, Ann Arbor (Mich.) 1996, pp. 91-106. E. Schoolman, Representations of Lothar I in the Liber Pontificalis Ravennatis, in Networks of bishops, networks of texts. Manuscripts, legal cultures, tools of government in Carolingian Italy at the time of Lothar I, ed. G. De Angelis, F. Veronese, Florence 2022 (Reti Medievali E-Book, 41), pp. 111-129. Sedulii Scotti Carmina, in Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini, ed. L. Traube, III, Berlin 1896, pp. 151-240 (MGH, Poetae, 3). P. Stafford, The King’s Wife in Wessex 800-1066, in «Past & Present», 91 (1981), pp. 3-27. P. Stafford, Queens, Concubines and Dowagers. The King’s Wife in the Early Middle Ages, London 1983. P. Stafford, Queens and Treasure in the Early Middle Ages, in Treasure in the mediewal West, ed. E.M. Tyler, Woodbridge 2000, pp. 61-82. P. Stafford, Fathers and Daughters, in Writing, kingship and power in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. D.A. Woodmann, R. Naismith, Cambridge 2018, pp. 139-161. Thegan, Gesta Hludowici imperatoris, ed. E. Tremp, Hannover 1995, pp. 168-277 (MGH, SS rer. Germ., 64). Y. Thomas, Parricidium. I. Le père, la famille et la cité (La lex Pompeia et le systèmes des poursuits publiques, in «Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome», 93 (1981), pp. 643-715. Die Urkunden Lothars I. und Lothars II., ed. T. Schieffer, Berlin 1966 (MGH, Diplomata Karolinorum, 3). Die Urkunden Ludwigs II., ed. Konrad Wanner, München, 1994 (MGH, Diplomata Karolinorum, 4). F. Veronese, Contextualizing marriage: conjugality and Christian life in Jonas of Orléans’ De institutione laicali, in «Early Medieval Europe», 23 (2015), pp. 436-456. F. Veronese, Giona di Orléans. Istruzioni di vita per laici, Ospedaletto 2018. F. Veronese, Un franco (anzi due) in Brianza. Gli ultimi anni di Ugo di Tours e sua moglie Ava (834-39), in I Longobardi a Venezia. Scritti per Stefano Gasparri, ed. I. Barbiera, F. Borri, A. Pazienza, Turnhout 2020, pp.155-63.