Aupais Carolingien

  Noted events in her life were:

• From Gen-Medieval Archives: Aupais. ¹⁹³
From: Richard Borthwick<rgbor@cyllene.uwa.edu.au >
Subject: Re: "Aupais"
Date: 29 May 1998 00:19:14 -0700

At 11:06 AM 28/05/98 -0700, you wrote:
>On a recent posting to the newsletter, the descendancy of Charlemagne
>and Himiltrude included a daughter, Alpais, who married Begue de Paris
>(-816).
>
>I have Alpais, who married Begue de Paris, as the daughter of Louis I of
>France (SON OF CHARLEMAGNE) and Ermengarde Hesbaye.
>
>Can anyone help sort this out?
>
>Carol, aka seejay51@home.com
>
>
There are two positions on Alpais' origins and largely they depend on how one interprets the following passage from the Minor Lorsch Annals (Codex Fuldensis) for 816 (MGH SS 1): "Picco, primis de amicis regis, qui et filiam imperatoris [*] duxit [duxerat] uxorem, defunctus est." The Hildesheim Annals repeat this but insert at [*] the words "nomine Elpheid". A fairly literal translation is: "Bego/Biggo, first amongst the king's friends, who [had] also married the emperor's daughter [by name Elpheid], died." The question is whether '...imperatoris ...' refers to the 816 emperor (i.e. the current one, Louis the Pious) or to the previous one (Charlemagne).

Flodoard in his history of the church of Reims says that Alpais was the daughter of Louis. But Flodoard (writing very much later, in the C10th) would appear to be using the Lorsch/Hildesheim annals, makes the reference of '...imperatoris ...' to be Louis the Pious who was indeed emperor in 816. This does not settle the matter since Flodoard (who is usually very reliable) may have made a not unreasonable but nevertheless wrong identification. Count Bego (before his brief time as count of Paris) had a career in southern France during Louis the Pious' time as king of Aquitaine. Since Bego married while Charlemagne reigned (but probably before he became emperor in 800) the reference of '...regis...' in the Lorsch Annals quoted above is thus to Louis as king of Aquitaine and '...imperatoris...' is to Charelemagne. Whether Alpais is the daughter of Charlemagne or of his son thus turns on how one citically interprets Flodoard.

There are also other factors. The Louis-as-father thesis has Alpais marrying a man much older than herself. Bego (if the reference is to the same man) would appear to have been a widower when he married Alpais. His first wife was Williburga for the benefit of whose soul he transfers part of a vinyard on 14 July 789 to the Lorsch held church of St Nazaire [Lorsch Codex ed. by Gloeckner, II p.80 No.349]. If he then married a daughter of Charlemagne, Alpais (b. between 765/70) in about 795, this eases the chronological crush had she been a daughter of Louis. The difficulty with this (though it is not an impossibility) is that Alpais (who was known to have died in 852) would have been very old (over 82). But then Charlemage himself was a long-liver! The Louis-as-father thesis would reduce her age. On balance the Charlemagne-as-father thesis looks more probable since her sons, Leuthard and Eberhard would have been old enough to succeed their father in 816 (which they apparently did).

If Alpais was a dau. of Louis then she was most probably dau. by a mistress/concubine before his first marriage. If she was the dau. of Charlemagne the claim is that she was dau. by his first marriage to Himiltrude. On this I am so sure. I don't see why she could not have been his dau. by a mistress/concubine. Settipani (1993) has Alpais as the dau. of Charlemagne by Himiltrude.

• Web Reference: Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands, Alpais .
Alpais is likely the daughter of Emperor Louis I and one of his mistresses, although Settipani thought she was the daughter of Charlemagne. "The Annales Hildesheimenses name "filiam imperatoris…Elpheid" as the wife of "Bicgo de amici regis" when recording the death of her husband [Annales Hildesheimenses 815, MGH SS III, p. 42]." Alpais married Bego who governed the county of Toulouse as "marchio" for Septimania in 806 and comté de Paris about 815.

Aupais married Begue comté de Paris, son of Girard de Paris and Routroud Carolingien. (Begue comté de Paris was born before 776 in Paris, Île-de-France, France ¹⁶⁰ and died in 816 ¹⁶⁰.)