Charlemagne's sister Gisela
From
Peter Stewart@21:1/5 to
All on Wed Dec 21 16:39:51 2022
The life of Gisela is not very thoroughly set out in any webpage I can
find, not included at all in Genealogics, and not really adequately
covered in the print reference works usually cited in SGM discussions of
the Carolingians. I don't know if there is much interest in her era now
in the newsgroup, but I'm happy to give details of sources for anyone
who wants these.
Quite a lot is known about Gisela in comparison to most other women of
her time. She was born in 757, probably towards the end of the year
since the linen used at her baptism was sent to Pope Paul I in Rome as a
token of his proxy godparenthood, and his letter to her father King
Pippin acknowledging this was not written until 758.
At some time around 765/67 she was betrothed to the young Byzantine
co-emperor Leo, son of Constantine V. This is often dated to 765/66,
when letters from Constantinople were received by Pippin (and
deliberately mistranslated for him and his court). It is assumed that
one of these letters probably suggested the marriage. However, this may
not have come up until later, when envoys from the eastern empire
attended the synod of Gentilly in 767. The eunuch Synesios stayed on
when his colleagues returned to Constantinople after this, and it may be
that his mission included tutoring the girl in Greek and Byzantine
customs as another eunuch later did for her niece Rotrude (about whom I
will post in a different thread). Whenever it started, the betrothal did
not last long as Leo was married to Eirene in 769.
Gisela dedicated her life to religion, and lived at her brother's court
for some time as a nun. She was given Chelles abbey, on the eastern
outskirts of modern Paris, but never called herself abbess. There has
been some academic discussion of this over recent decades, with Dame
Jinty (aka Janet) Nelson concluding in 2020 that "If Gisela _had_ been
abbess of Chelles, it would have been bizarre indeed if the strictly contemporary author of the _Annales Mettenses Priores_, writing at
Chelles, had not mentioned it. Gisela, it must be concluded, was not an abbess." However, this obscures the point that she was very clearly an
abbess in all but name - and a plausible rationale for this is not far
to seek, since we know she came and went to her brother's court after
taking up residence at Chelles: in 779 the capitulary of Herstal ruled
that an abbess was never to leave her convent. Gisela may have held
herself exempt by her royal status from following such a rule, but more probably she refrained from using the title abbess in order not to set a
bad example by disobeying it. Her name occurs with the title abbess in
the obituary of Chelles (in the form "Gela") and in that of Argenteuil
priory (in the form "Gisla").
She was certainly living at Chelles by the summer of 798, when she was undertaking a major construction project including a range of buildings
and a new abbey church. She would hardly have taken charge in this way
if someone else had been the abbess. Alcuin of York, abbot of
Saint-Martin, wrote to her about this and it was mentioned in the
mid-9th century translation of St Bathild's relics. In late January 799
Alcuin was requested by Charlemagne to visit her at Chelles - he did so
in the summer of that year on his way home to Tours from the Pas de
Calais. In the summer of 800 she and her niece Rotrude (who was then
living with her as a nun) wrote together to Alcuin, teasing him about
sending them an exegesis of John's gospel from Tours across the Loire to
Paris more easily than St Jerome had been able to send such works from Bethlehem to women in Rome. Incidentally, Alcuin addressed Gisela in
letters as sister and Rotrude as daughter (i.e. in spiritual
relationship to himself rather than biological to Charlemagne), which presumably indicates that Gisela was his abbatial counterpart.
Charlemagne himself visited her at Chelles in 804 when she was ill.
Since the 17th century it has frequently been asserted that Gisela was
abbess also of Notre-Dame de Soissons, with one historian of the diocese claiming that she lived, died and was buried there. I think this is
wrong, as her cousin Theodrada must have been abbess there by ca 800/04
at the latest because she was in office at the time St Paschasius
Radbertus took monastic vows there as boy (he was born ca 790). More
recently it has been proposed that she was abbess of Notre-Dame
d'Argenteuil as well, that was a priory of Saint-Denis until Charlemagne
made it independent, but the evidence for this is not compelling.
The date of Gisela's death is usually given as 30 July 810. The year is uncertain - we are told only that she died a few years before
Charlemagne. Her niece Rotrude died in June 810, and this may have led
to a supposition that Gisela succumbed shortly after her. The obituary
of Argenteuil places her death on 8 July, without a year, and that of
Chelles has her dying on 30 July under the title abbess although a nun
also named in the form "Gela" is listed there under 8 July, which may
have been originally a record for her or may have confused the
Argenteuil obituarist by the coincidence of this name for someone else.
Peter Stewart
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From
Peter Stewart@21:1/5 to
Peter Stewart on Wed Dec 21 18:10:27 2022
On 21-Dec-22 4:39 PM, Peter Stewart wrote:
The life of Gisela is not very thoroughly set out in any webpage I can
find, not included at all in Genealogics, and not really adequately
covered in the print reference works usually cited in SGM discussions of
the Carolingians. I don't know if there is much interest in her era now
in the newsgroup, but I'm happy to give details of sources for anyone
who wants these.
Quite a lot is known about Gisela in comparison to most other women of
her time. She was born in 757, probably towards the end of the year
since the linen used at her baptism was sent to Pope Paul I in Rome as a token of his proxy godparenthood, and his letter to her father King
Pippin acknowledging this was not written until 758.
At some time around 765/67 she was betrothed to the young Byzantine co-emperor Leo, son of Constantine V. This is often dated to 765/66,
when letters from Constantinople were received by Pippin (and
deliberately mistranslated for him and his court). It is assumed that
one of these letters probably suggested the marriage. However, this may
not have come up until later, when envoys from the eastern empire
attended the synod of Gentilly in 767. The eunuch Synesios stayed on
when his colleagues returned to Constantinople after this, and it may be
that his mission included tutoring the girl in Greek and Byzantine
customs as another eunuch later did for her niece Rotrude (about whom I
will post in a different thread). Whenever it started, the betrothal did
not last long as Leo was married to Eirene in 769.
I forgot to add that Gisela was betrothed again after this, or at any
rate her mother apparently planned to make her so - in 770 Berta
arranged marriages for her sons Charlemagne and Carloman to daughters of Desiderius, king of the Lombards, and evidently also for Gisela to his
son Adelgis. Pope Stephen III wrote to the Frankish kings fulminating
against this, but possibly this was more a warning-off in case there
should be such a betrothal than an angry response to actual intentions
for Gisela.
Peter Stewart
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