Béatrix (Unknown) de France (abt. 0880 - bef. 0907)

Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Jack Day [send private message]

Biography

Disambiguation

Béatrix who married King Robert I of France is confused in many genealogies with Béatrix de Vermandois, legendary daughter of Heribert I of Vermandois.

Temporary Additional Note:

Jack,

The wife of Robert 1er, roi de france (860-June 15 923) is Beatrice de Vermandois.

you can verify the information with these links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_of_Vermandois https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/beatrice-vermandois-880-931 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/131675285/beatrice-of_vermandois https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/9HPT-832/beatrix-de-vermandois-0880-0931

From there you can complete the tree by researching: - Herbert 1 Comte de Vermandois - Pepin 1 de Peronne - Bernard d'italie - Pepin 1 d'italie - Charles 1 Charlemagne - Pepin III Le Bref -etc.

Birth and Parents

Béatrix's parentage as well as date and place of birth is unknown.

^[1]

Her falsely attributed fathers include Heribert I of Vermandois, and also Hugues, "duke of Burgundy".^[1]

As noted below, Béatrix died before 907. Her son Hughes married his first wife, say, 920, and therefore was himself born, say, 900. Making Béatrix aged 20 at the time her son was born would place her on birth at 880.

Marriage to Robert I, king of France.

Béatrix married Robert I, marquis of Neustria and later king of France from 922 to 923. Robert I died in 923. ^[1]

907 Death

Baldwin notes that her date of death is unknown, but probably before 21 May 907, the date of a document in which a countess Adèle appears next to Robert. Assuming that it is Adèle who is married to Robert on the date, then Béatrix would have died before that date. Her place of death is unknown. ^[1]

The legendary Béatrix is given a death date after an act of 26 March 931 by her son Hughes, which names both Hughes' father Rotbertus and mother Beatricis, but appears to identify only Rotbertus as deceased. However, Baldwin notes, that if Béatrix were still alive in 931, then she would have been married to Robert during the time that he was king of France (922-3), and she should therefore in that case appear as regina in the 931 act, and not merely as domnae. ^[1]

Issue

Béatrix and Robert were the parents of Hugues "le Grand", who died between 16 and 17 June, 956, duke of the Franks.

Hughes married (1) an unknown daughter of Roger, count of Maine, by his wife Rothilde; (2) in 926, Eadhild, daughter of Eadweard (Edward) "the Elder", king of the West Saxons; and (3) in 937, Hadwig, who died 9 January after 958, daughter of Heinrich I, king of Germany.^[1]

Research Notes

Falsely Attributed Second Husband

Szabolcs de Vajay ^[2] in 1970 claimed that after the death of Robert I, Béatrix married the "Konradiner" count Udo, (d. 949, count in Wetterau) and was mother by him of four children, Gebhard (d. 938), Konrad (d. 20 August 997, duke of Swabia) , Heribert (d. 992, count in Kinziggau) and Judith (m. Heinrich, count). Baldwin notes that no good evidence was offered in support of this, which presumes that Béatrix survived Robert. ^[1]

Disambiguation

Robert I, King of France, married a woman named Béatrix. A hundred years after her death, accounts grew up that Béatrix was the daughter of Heribert I, Duke of Vermandois.

Taking this relationship as a given, various other surmises were made about Béatrix and Robert, and the legend was born. Over time, these surmises were treated as fact, and only recently have they begun to be untangled. The profile for Béatrix Unknown, wife of Robert, contains her known facts.

The legendary Béatrix de Vermandois is presented below. As a legendary person who actually never existed, she is not linked to parents, spouses, or children.

Legendary Biography of Beatrix de Vermandois

Birth

Cawley shows Beatrix as born in between 880 and 883^[3], a time frame repeated by Jean Dunbabin ^[4]

Parents

She was said to be the daughter of Heribert I, Duke of Vermandois. ^[3]

Marriage

Jean Dunbabin, author of "France in the Making" states that Béatrice of Vermandois (c. 880–931), married King Robert I of France. ^[4] Cawley gives the date as 897. ^[3]

In Dunbabin's account, Heribert of Vermandois deliberately arranged an alliance with Robert of Neustria by giving in marriage his daughter Beatrice as Robert's second wife. ^[4] As a part of this pact Herbert also agreed to his son Herbert II of Vermandois marrying Adela, Robert's daughter by his first wife. ^[4]

Heribert II, son of Heribert I, did in fact marry a daughter of Robert^[1]

Death

She was said to have died after 26 March 931.^[3] 26 March 931 is the date of an act of Hugues le Grand which refers to his father as Rotberti and his mother as Beatricis, leading to the assumption that Béatrix was still alive on that date. ^[1]

The Legend

Attractiveness of the Legend

Heribert of Vermandois is a descendant of Charlemagne. If Beatrix, wife of Robert I, is the daughter of Heribert of Vermandois, then Hughes, son of Robert and Beatrix, is also a descendant of Charlemagne. While this is not mentioned in the other sources cited, it cannot have escaped the attention of those who promoted the legend.

Development of the Legend

The claim that Hugues le Grand was born to Robert I by a sister of Heribert II of Vermandois appears once in the eleventh century and then several times in the twelfth century: ^[1]

The legend first appears, over 100 years after Beatrix is supposed to have lived, in the "Historia Francorum Senonensis" (composed between 1015 and 1034): which states, Habebat enim idem Robertus sororem istius Herberti in conjugio; de qua ortus est Hugo Magnus. ^[5] Note that in this appearance, the name Beatrix is not given, but simply a sister of Heribert II, and thus a daughter of Heribert I of Vermandois.

The mother of Hugh as the sister of Heribert II is repeated by Clarius de Sens, Orderic Vitalis, Richard de Poitou, the Historia regum Francorum, and by Étienne de Rouen. ^[1] In a variation on the legend, Robert de Torigny in his additions to Gesta Normannorum Ducum, made Hugues le Grand the son of a daughter of Heribert II. For a more complete review of the argument, refer to the Stewart Baldwin site. ^[1]

Baldwin notes that the number of sources repeating the legend is an illusion because an examination of the wording in the various accounts leads to the conclusion that they depend, directly or indirectly, on the Historia Francorum Senonensis. In addition to its lateness from the events it reports, Baldwin also notes that the Historia Francorum Senonensis is not a reliable source for the early tenth century because of other errors which he cites.^[1]

Baldwin speculates that since Heribert II married a daughter of Robert, this may have originated the legend that Heribert II had a sister named Beatrix who married Robert. ^[6]

Overall I think you did a great job, it is just these few references which seem to not be refuted in my mind. But perhaps I am not reading them correctly...

Nevertheless, the legend "was commonly assumed to be correct in the nineteenth and early twentienth centuries." ^[1]

Questioning the Legend

The legend has been questioned only recently. Baldwin reports that Erich Brandenburg in 1964 objected to the apparent uncle-niece marriage and expressed doubt as to Béatrix's name ^[1]

Three years later in 1967, Karl Ferdinand Werner dealt with both of these objections, by giving the evidence that the mother of Hugues le Grand was indeed named Béatrix, and by pointing out that Heribert's wife could have been a daughter of Robert I by another marriage. ^[1] In 1982 Constance Bouchard argued for the affiliation of Beatrix and Heribert, and in 1993 Christian Settipani gave an onomastic argument for making Heribert I the father of Béatrix, pointing out that Béatrix's son Hugues le Grand had an illegitimate son named Heribert. ^[1] Unfortunately, Baldwin, notes, neither Werner nor Settipani mentioned any of the primary evidence for the parentage of Béatrix. ^[1]

In 1994 Helmut Schwager argued against the affiliation and most recently, Baldwin adds, in a number of postings to the internet newsgroup/mailing list soc.genealogy.medieval/GEN-MEDIEVAL, Peter Stewart has argued persuasively against placing Béatrix as a daughter of Heribert I.^[1]

Baldwin notes that no contemporary record mentions Hugues le Grand as being a nephew of Heribert II. The silence of Flodoard on this matter is especially striking, since he mentions the fact that the sons of Heribert were nepotes of Hugues le Grand (or that Hugues was an avunculus of Heribert's sons) on several occasions....and we would therefore expect him to also mention Hugues as a nephew of Heribert if that were a valid relationship. However, Flodoard never refers to Hugues and Heribert as blood relatives, despite several opportunities to do so when they are named together. ^[1]

Misplaced Artwork on Profile

The artwork attached to this profile does not pertain to Beatrix of Vermandois or Robert I, King of France, but rather to Robert, Count of Clermont, born 1256, and his wife Beatrix of Burgundy. ^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19} Stewart Baldwin. The Henry Project. Baldwin notes, "This page owes much to several postings made by Peter Stewart on the topic of Béatrix on the internet newsgroup/mailing list soc.genealogy.medieval/GEN-MEDIEVAL." Béatrix Accessed May 23, 2017. jhd
2. ↑ Vajay (1980) = Szabolcs de Vajay, "Comtesses d'origine occitane dans la Marche d'Espagne aux 10e et 11e siècles", Hidalguia 28 (1980): 585-616, 755-788. Cited by Stewart Baldwin. The Henry Project. Béatrix Accessed May 23, 2017. jhd
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Cawley, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. Medieval Lands Database.[1].
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Jean Dunbabin, France in the making, 843-1180 (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 95. Wikipedia. Herbert I, Count of Vermandois. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_I%2C_Count_of_Vermandois. Accessed May 6, 2017. jhd
5. ↑ Historia Francorum Senonensis, MGH SS 9: 366, cited by Stewart Baldwin, Beatrix, The Henry Project. http://sbaldw.home.mindspring.com/hproject/prov/beatr001.htm. Accessed May 223, 2017. jhd
6. ↑ Stewart Baldwin. "Heribert I" The Henry Project. First uploaded 23 May 2007. http://sbaldw.home.mindspring.com/hproject/prov/herib001.htm. Accessed May 6, 2017. jhd
7. ↑ Wikipedia. Robert, Count of Clermont. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert,_Count_of_Clermont.

Acknowledgments

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