Ermentrude's consecration (866): queen‐making rites and biblical templates for Carolingian fertility

Abstract

Ermentrude's consecration in 866 has long been interpreted as the quintessential example of queen‐making as fertility rite. More recent scholarship has illuminated how Carolingian queen‐making articulated richer definitions of queenship and reflected wider political roles of queens. This article re‐examines the significance of fertility at Ermentrude's consecration. Close analysis of the introductory address that survives alongside the liturgy for anointing and coronation shows that fertility was an unusually important theme at Ermentrude's consecration – but not simply the queen's fertility. By modelling royal fertility on biblical templates, the consecration communicated not only hopes of future children but also political messages about divine sanction of dynastic continuity and good kingship.

An Unbeloved Heir? A Reassessment of Louis the Stammerer's Role in the Last Years of Charles the Bald's Reign and its Implications for Understanding Carolingian Rule

“…We therefore have almost a decade's worth of wishes for more children contained in a variety of sources. 119 However, it is important to think about what this sort of language might mean, and how pointedly it was directed at Louis the Stammerer, if at all. To the best of my knowledge, only Kasten has adduced explicit evidence that Charles was aiming to disinherit his eldest son, pointing to a letter traditionally ascribed to Alcuin which she re-dates as actually being from the time of Charles the Bald.…”

“…126 Mistry has recently argued that late ninth-century normative texts, notably but far from exclusively the 866 coronation ordo for Charles the Bald's first wife Queen Ermentrude, linked fertility not just to queenly virtue, but also to kingly virtue. 127 Being blessed with sons was a sign of good kingship; the reverse was also true. 128 Of the many formulations of this idea, the bluntest came from the Irish monk and Carolingian courtier Sedulius Scottus.…”