[179] By the first years of the tenth century Frankish monarchs who lived north of the Loire had lost all effective control over Southern France and Catalonia. Real authority over the Spanish March, Gascony, Septimania, Aquitaine and the Valley of the Rhone was now in the hands of noble families, who, by hereditary right, seem to have exercised such functions of government as remained and who tended to dominate the Church as well. This end of the power of the royal government, however, did not destroy all vestiges of influence which French monarchs still exercised over these regions. Some remained down to the middle of the tenth century and even afterwards, until it disappeared, not to be found again until the middle of the twelfth century.

Let us examine this ending of royal influence over the Midi and Catalonia and the reasons for it. We might perhaps best begin by considering the matter of royal presence in these regions. From 900 on our evidence seems to show that kings of France rarely traveled south of Poitou and Burgundy. When they did, they seem to have confined their visits to regions like Auvergne and Western Aquitaine which were close to their northern centers of authority. Of all these kings, Raoul seems to have shown the most interest in the Midi, traveling to LePuy and Auvergne⁽¹⁾ and acting for a period in a military capacity in the Limousin, Quercy, and adjoining regions.⁽²⁾ Louis IV probably made several visits to Western [180] Aquitaine and Auvergne.⁽³⁾ Lothaire certainly visited LePuy.⁽⁴⁾ In contrast to a Charles the Bald or a Carloman, however, northern French rulers seem to have showed little direct interest in their southern domains, if by interest one means actual visits.

We have, however, other indices of interest, besides actual visits, which need to be examined. That is evidence of charters issued by these rulers which concern the Midi and Catalonia and are proof of continuing ties of homage or fidelitas, which linked important noble families of the regions to a distant crown. Before examining these two points, however, we must emphasize that there were at least two regions of Southern France and the Spanish March in which neither of these two forms of continued royal influences are to be found in this period. I refer to the Valley of the Rhone and to Pallars and Ribagorça. The Valley of the Rhone, after 890 had kings of its own and so did not recognize, even in theory, northern French monarchs,⁽⁵⁾ while Pallars and Ribagorça from the late ninth century on had counts who both in theory and in fact possessed power independent of the kings who lived north of the Loire.⁽⁶⁾

Elsewhere, however, charters and evidence of homage seem to point out that some royal influence remained in most regions south of Poitou and Burgundy down into the reign of Lothaire. Lest we overestimate the importance of this influence, however, we need to understand its true basis and nature in the light of the political realities of the period. The first of these political realities was the rivalry which existed between the older Carolingian family and the new rising power of the Capetians. This rivalry led to a practice of choosing monarchs alternately from these rival houses between the years 887 and 938. First Eudes was made king.⁽⁷⁾ Then [181] his Carolingian rival Charles the Simple succeeded him in 898.⁽⁸⁾ Then there was a return to the Capetians with Raoul.⁽⁹⁾ And finally in 938 Louis IV re-established his family in control of the monarchy for most of the rest of the century until the Capetians finally won out permanently at the time of Hugh Capet.⁽¹⁰⁾

This rivalry was one in which the noble families of the Midi and Catalonia could take very little part, even if they had wished to do so. Election of monarchs seems to have been a prerogative of Northern French magnates and churchmen, who encouraged Capetian-Carolingian rivalry since this forced each monarch to bid for their support with important concessions. But it did have serious political effects upon the magnates who controlled political power south of Poitou and Burgundy.

Much more important for the Midi and Catalonia during this period, though was another rivalry -- one which involved the House of Toulouse and neighboring noble families, and one of which historians have been much less aware. This rivalry, like that between Carolingians and Capetians, also went back into the last years of the ninth century. It seems to have been the result of the ambitions of the Toulousain family to dominate the Limousin and Auvergne to the north and the Carcassonne-Narbonne region to the south of their broad domains which stretched from Angoulême and Périgord to the Rhone. Their claims and ambitions in the Limousin brought them into conflict with Ebles of Poitou and his heirs, who, having recovered their ancestral county from Count Ademar in 902, had hopes of extending their authority to the south.⁽¹¹⁾ Their claims to Auvergne resulted in an enmity between their house and the heirs of Bernard Plantevelue, who controlled this region during the first years of the tenth century. Then, after the death of Count Acfred, the last direct heir of this house, it led to additional friction with the House of Poitou which also had a claim to Auvergne.⁽¹²⁾ It was probably a common [184] opposition to the House of Toulouse which caused these two families to be linked by marriage alliance early in this period.

To the south, Toulousain claims to a special overlordship over Narbonne, Carcassonne, and Razes seem to have been the basic cause of an enmity which existed between the heirs of Oliba of Carcassonne and the family of Toulouse -- a conflict which also had its roots in the last years of the ninth century.⁽¹³⁾ In this conflict it would seem that the House of Carcassonne could generally count on the support of its relatives, the Gothic counts who controlled Catalonia.⁽¹⁴⁾ But they probably sought other allies also, and this was the cause of that marriage alliance with the family of the Bernards of Auvergne, which finally resulted in Acfred II of Carcassonne-Razès succeeding William II as count of Auvergne in the 920's.⁽¹⁵⁾ During most of our period, then, we find the House of Toulouse in basic conflict with the noble families who controlled Poitou, Auvergne, and Carcassonne -- families who were linked by close ties and marriage alliances.

If the House of Toulouse had its enemies in the Midi, it had its allies too. Its counts seem to have maintained a close alliance with the Western Aquitanian noble house of Angoulême-Périgord, whom they tied to their house by a marriage alliance and the concession of the county of Agen, which also linked them to that associated noble house descended from Ermenon.⁽¹⁶⁾ They also seem to have maintained close and friendly ties with the hereditary dukes of Gascony.⁽¹⁷⁾ To the east they did the same with the counts who controlled the Lower Rhone Valley and Provence.⁽¹⁸⁾ [185] Thus the House of Toulouse and its allies controlled a wide belt of territory, during this period, which effectively separated their northern enemies in Poitou and Auvergne from their southern adversaries in Carcassonne-Razès and Catalonia. In the continuing struggle both sides found royal influence a useful weapon, just as both the Carolingians and Capetians sought the support of these same powerful magnates in the course of their own rivalry.

With this in mind let us consider what can be learned from an examination of charters which were issued by northern French monarchs and from acts of homage by the magnates of the Midi and Catalonia to these same rulers. We must begin by noting again that the accession of Eudes marked the opening of a new era for French monarchs and their power in the lands which lay south of Poitou and Burgundy. The nobles of most of these regions only accepted Eudes as king with extreme reluctance,⁽¹⁹⁾ and those of the Rhone Valley used his accession as an excuse to rally to the new king of Provence, Louis, son of Boson⁽²⁰⁾ As far as can be ascertained most of the magnates of Aquitaine, Septimania, and Catalonia refused to do homage for their honores to a king whom they considered to be little more than a usurper.⁽²¹⁾ The exceptions seem to have been Ademar, count of Poitou,⁽²²⁾ and the House of Toulouse, who became Eudes' only dependable supporters in the Midi.⁽²³⁾

As a result the return of the Carolingian line to power in 898, with Charles the Simple, could not help but be hailed as a victory by the anti-Toulousain party. They used it as an occasion to drive Count Ademar from Poitou in 902,⁽²⁴⁾ and the Gothic counts of Carcassonne and Catalonia did homage to Charles for their lands and honores, something they had refused to Eudes.⁽²⁵⁾ It seems probable that it was in recognition of this support that Charles the Simple gave to the magnates of this faction [186] charters which contained many privileges. He confirmed to the heirs of Count Guifred control over lands which had belonged to the royal fisc in Catalonia⁽²⁶⁾ and generously endowed abbeys like Saint-Jacques de Joucan in 900⁽²⁷⁾ and Lagrasse in 908⁽²⁸⁾ which were controlled by his Gothic supporters. He seems to have done the same for the archbishop of Narbonne, who was menaced by Toulousain encroachment also.⁽²⁹⁾

About 909, however, we begin to notice a certain change in the policies which Charles the Simple pursued in Southern France. In this year Charles gave to the abbey of Psalmodi a charter in which he refers to Raymond of Toulouse as marchio and as a fidelis, which implies that he had done homage to him for his honores in the Midi.⁽³⁰⁾ Whether such an act actually took place or not, there can be little doubt that Charles' relations with his Gothic supporters grew cooler after this period. He issued no more royal charters which were in their interest and in 914, when Archbishop Arnulf of Narbonne was murdered, he attempted to name as his successor a bishop of Béziers who appears to have been the candidate of the House of Toulouse. In the face of the united opposition of the counts of Catalonia and Carcassonne this attempt ended in failure and with it most of Charles' influence in the Midi.⁽³¹⁾ Only one more charter, given in 924 to the abbey of Solignac in the Limousin, probably at the behest of the Toulousain house, testifies to his influence south of Poitou.⁽³²⁾

Toward the end of Charles' reign it became apparent that Raoul of the Capetian family would succeed him as king. The enemies of the Toulousain family, who had been checked by Charles' defection to this house, again appear to have taken heart. At any rate in 924 we find Raoul, with the consent of Count William II of Auvergne, giving a charter to Adelard, bishop of LePuy, in which he granted to him the burg of this city and the right to coin money.⁽³³⁾ Two years later the same Count William [187] did homage to Raoul for his honores of Auvergne, Velay, Gevaudun, and the Lyonnais.⁽³⁴⁾ Soon afterwards about 929 this same monarch rewarded a certain Oliba with wide royal lands and rights in Besalu.⁽³⁵⁾ And in 931 on the petition of his "fidelissimus miles Dalmatius" -- probably Viscount Dalmace of LePuy -- he granted certain privileges to the abbey of Montolieu, which was located in a region controlled by the counts of Carcassonne.⁽³⁶⁾

It was probably the results of such royal favor to their enemies which caused Count Ermengaud and his nephew Count Raymond Pons, whom our source calls "principes Gothorum," to hasten north in 932 to do homage to Raoul for their lands, bringing with them their ally Sánchez, the hereditary duke or princeps of Gascony.⁽³⁷⁾ If they hoped by this act of homage to disarm Raoul and checkmate their rivals, however, they were doomed to disappointment. For it was at about this period that this monarch in the company of Count Ebles Manzur of Poitou entered the Limousin and Western Aquitaine at the head of a force of Northern French warriors.⁽³⁸⁾ Raoul and his allies succeeded in their immediate objective, which was to destroy the last Viking bands which appear to have still been operating freely in this region of France. But their expedition had still another result. This was to deliver the Limousin and perhaps a part of Quercy into the hands of the Poitevin house, as we learn from a charter that Raoul gave to the abbey of Tulle in 933, which mentions that this monastery is being reformed by Count Ebles of Poitou and Viscount Ademar of Scalas.⁽³⁹⁾

Faced by this danger to his authority in the Limousin and the northern portion of his domains, Raymond Pons of Toulouse seems to have made peace with his enemies in the Carcassonne region. He must have then taken the offensive in the Limousin. At least he and his allies regained the southern portion of this province, for in 935, in another charter which Raoul gave to Tulle there is no mention of Count Ebles, but only of Ademar, who is now called count "in partibus Cahors"⁽⁴⁰⁾ -- which seems to imply if not a break with his Poitevin ally at least an accommodation with Raymond Pons and the Toulousain House and their allies.

[188] Such an accommodation, however, was of short duration. By 938 Raoul was dead and had been succeeded by Louis IV of the Carolingian family. It seems probable that initially Louis tried not to take sides in the dispute of the Midi. True, soon after his accession he gave a generous charter to the abbey of San-Cugat near Barcelona, the foundation most favored by the counts of Barcelona.⁽⁴¹⁾ But he balanced this grant by giving a similar charter in 939 to the newly founded abbey of Saint-Pons of Thomières which Raymond Pons had established as a repository for his family's interests in the Narbonnaise.⁽⁴²⁾ By 941 Louis IV seems to have leaned doser to Raymond Pons, who became his principal ally in the Midi. A contemporary source tells of a meeting between Raymond and the king at which he probably did homage to him for his honores and brought his supporters with him to do likewise. The chronicler in this instance mentions him in the following terms: "Regimundo Gothorum principe ceterisque proceribus Aquitanorum."⁽⁴³⁾ That he controlled at least a part of Auvergne and the Limousin in this period seems clear from another charter dating from this same year which Louis IV issued to the Auvergnat abbey of Chanteuges. In this charter the king speaks of Raymond Pons as princeps of Aquitaine.⁽⁴⁴⁾

By 942, however, it seems that Louis had changed allies and that the House of Poitou was back in favor. In that year we find him in Western Aquitaine where he reformed the abbey of Saint-Jean d'Angély in the Saintonge.⁽⁴⁵⁾ He appears to have done so in close alliance with the count of Poitou, for in the same year we find him giving two churches to the abbey of Saint-Hilaire of Poitiers. In this charter we find among the witnesses William Caput Stupe of Poitou signing as count and marchio along with his brother Ebles, who was later to be bishop of Limoges and abbot of Saint-Hilaire.⁽⁴⁶⁾ In the same year he gave a charter to Tulle as well.⁽⁴⁷⁾ Two years later in 944 we find him giving privileges to ecclesiastical establishments in the Barcelona region on the petition of Count Geoffrey of Ampurias-Roussillon and Bishop Gotmar of Barcelona.⁽⁴⁸⁾

Certainly this friendship and alliance between the king and the Poitevin [189] house represented a danger to the family of Toulouse and their interests in Aquitaine, but it did not last for long. For in 944 Ebles Manzur died leaving his domains to his son Count William Caput Stupe. In the confusion that followed the claims which the House of Poitou had to Auvergne had to be abandoned temporarily. Perhaps the Limousin also had to be abandoned, at least the southern portion of it, though Ebles, William's brother, was able to assume the office of bishop of Limoges.⁽⁴⁹⁾ Louis apparently took no action during this period in either the Limousin or Auvergne, but he did continue to maintain close and friendly relations with the counts of Catalonia. At any rate in 948 and 953 we find him granting charters containing a number of privileges to the monastery of Saint-Peter of Rhodes.⁽⁵⁰⁾ In 951 we find him granting additional privileges and confirming the land of the newly established abbey of Monserrat, near Barcelona,⁽⁵¹⁾ and in 952, on the pleas of Counts Guifred and Sunyer doing the same for Cuxa and Saint-Peter of Camprodon.⁽⁵²⁾

By 954, however, Louis was dead and his son Lothaire had succeeded him without a struggle. Lothaire's accession seems to mark the end of most royal influence in areas south of Poitou. When Count William Caput Stupe of Poitou, for instance, in 955 took control of much of Auvergne,⁽⁵³⁾ Lothaire did little except to renew in 955 the privileges of the church of LePuy which may have been threatened by this conquest.⁽⁵⁴⁾ We have no record, for instance, of any homages to him by any magnates who lived south of Poitou.⁽⁵⁵⁾ Nor does he appear to have been consulted or even considered when, for a brief period in the 960's, the House of Toulouse-Rouergue re-established a measure of control over the Limousin and parts of Auvergne.⁽⁵⁶⁾ Then for several decades there is little evidence of royal [190] influence, except a charter which Lothaire gave to Cuxa in 958 reaffirming the privileges of this abbey,⁽⁵⁷⁾ and one ten years later which was given to San-Felix de Guixolds near Barcelona.⁽⁵⁸⁾ The only other sign of royal interest in the Midi was this monarch's apparent acquiescence in the assumption of the title of duke of Aquitaine by William Fierebras of Poitou in 973⁽⁵⁹⁾ By 975, even by 954, the French monarchs, who had lost their power in the Midi and Spanish March in the late ninth century, had also lost their influence over such regions in their kingdom.

We might sum up our conclusions concerning royal influence in lands which lay south of Poitou and Burgundy, then, as follows. Despite outward appearances based on the issuing of charters and specific evidence of homages, from the time of Eudes on, French monarchs had no actual power over any part of Southern France and Catalonia. During these years of Capetian-Carolingian rivalry, however, they were able to maintain a certain illusion of authority or rather of influence. This seems to have been largely the result of the acute rivalry which existed between the House of Toulouse and its neighbors to the north and to the south. Thanks to this rivalry for some decades French monarchs were able to play one faction against another and thus force each side to seek their support and periodically to renew their homages to the crown. By the reign of Lothaire, however, even these outward signs of royal authority ended. The principes and churchmen of the Midi and Catalonia moved toward a new destiny in which they ceased to concern themselves, except spasmodically, with these monarchs who lived north of the Loire.

Yet some residue of royal tradition remained, if not of real royal influence. Except in the Valley of the Rhone and Pallars and Ribagorça, charters continued to be dated from the reigns of those monarchs who lived north of the Loire. True the phrase "regnanti Jesu Christe" seems to appear frequently enough to indicate a certain indecision and frustration, particularly toward the end of the tenth century,⁽⁶⁰⁾ and a somewhat puzzled count of Bigorre, just to be safe, in a charter dating from 945 refers to both the reigns of Louis IV of France and García of Aragón.⁽⁶¹⁾[191] But even granting such facts, a tradition that the kings of France were the overlords of Southern France remained, although it had little political substance. It was this tradition which was to flower again some two centuries later, when in the twelfth century French kings again advanced south of the Loire and began to re-establish their authority over areas which had not known their power or their presence for many, many decades. Royal influence ceased in the Midi and Catalonia by 975, if not earlier, but the memory of it remained for the future.

As royal influence faded, something began to replace it on a level more important than the local one. In Catalonia, curiously enough, it seems that one such influence was that of the caliphate of Cordova, which, in a sense, was a reaffirmation, after more than a century, of the fact that Catalonia formed a part of the Iberian peninsula. We begin to find Cordovan influence in Catalonia about 950, at the very moment when the influence of the French monarchy had all but disappeared. At about this time an embassy representing Count Borell of Barcelona visited Abd-ar-Rahman III's capital of Cordova.⁽⁶²⁾ A little later in 966 after a border conflict with the Moslems, peace was made which strengthened such ties.⁽⁶³⁾ In 971 and 974 two other embassies were sent to Cordova.⁽⁶⁴⁾ These embassies seem to have resulted in a new relationship being established in which the counts of Barcelona became, for all practical purposes, vassals of the powerful Moslem rulers to the south of them -- a status which was to continue until the great Moslem attack which Almansor launched against Barcelona in 985. This attack opened a new and difficult period for Catalonia and its Islamic neighbors. Fading Carolingian influence then resulted for a time at least in a certain Moslem predominance as far as Catalonia was concerned.

This new status, however important it may have been temporarily, was less important than still another outside influence which we now begin to find, not only in the Spanish March but in the rest of the Midi. I refer to the power and influence of the Papacy. The growth of Papal influence during this period of the tenth century and its importance to Catalonia has long been known to historians, ever since the appearance of the important studies of Kehr, a German scholar, several decades ago. Kehr showed how, as royal ties to the north loosened, Catalan counts, nobles, and churchmen, starting about 950, began to look to Rome for a protection and interest they could no longer expect from distant French monarchs. [192] They thus multiplied such Papal connections,⁽⁶⁵⁾ which were to end in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries with these portions of the Iberian peninsula firmly tied to the see of St. Peter.

Though this Catalan story is well known and documented, it has been less appreciated that this was not merely a Catalan affair. For during these years we find exactly the same thing happening in the rest of the Midi also, even in the Valley of the Rhone with its separate local royal house. Our first documentary proof of this new Papal influence, as a matter of fact, comes from Dauphiny where in 932 a charter was issued by Pope John to the Abbey of Saint-Barnard de Romans which had special ties linking it to the Papacy.⁽⁶⁶⁾ This Papal bull represented an attempt to protect this monastery from depredations which it suffered at the hands of Sylvius, a nearby local magnate, and it ordered the latter to make amends for damage he had caused this establishment. These amends were to include a payment of one hundred pounds of silver and the freeing of some six hundred serfs -- a stiff penalty indeed.

Such Papal intervention may have been effective, for it continued in later years. In addition to favors bestowed on Catalan religious establishments, in 950 Pope Agepitus II began extending Papal protection into other parts of the Midi. In 950 this pontiff gave the abbey of Montolieu a charter which confirmed this abbey's rights over its domains and gave it special authority over a number of churches.⁽⁶⁷⁾ In 951 Lagrasse secured a similar charter affirming Papal protection of its patrimony,⁽⁶⁸⁾ and so did Saint-Chaffre du Monastier in Velay.⁽⁶⁹⁾ This was followed by still another Papal charter given the new abbey of Lézat on the borders of Gascony.⁽⁷⁰⁾ Papal intervention in the affairs of the Church of the Midi had begun, and so had Papal protection for its abbeys -- an intervention which was to have momentous consequences in the future.

Important as Pope John's intervention in the affairs of Saint-Barnard de Romans was to prove in the future, and that of Pope Agepitus in [193] Catalonia, Gascony, Velay, and Septimania, it was another outside ecclesiastical power which, in the immediate future, was to affect these regions more profoundly. I refer to the abbey of Cluny. Cluny, which had been established early in the tenth century by Duke William the Pious of Aquitaine, was a foundation which was soon to enjoy complete ecclesiastical independence. It very early began to exercise authority and influence over neighboring regions which lay south of Poitou and Burgundy. As one would expect the first evidence of such influence is to be found in regions like the Lyonnais, Auvergne, and Forez which were very close to Cluny itself. Thus as early as 927⁽⁷¹⁾ we have evidence that Cluny had begun to accumulate property in Auvergne as the result of gifts by individuals impressed by Cluny's piety and reforming zeal. Other gifts followed in 929, 936-937, 954, 959, 963, 964-965, 966, and 975⁽⁷²⁾ Perhaps the most important acquisition of all was the important abbey of Sauxillanges which between the years 950 and 952 became one of Cluny's daughter houses⁽⁷³⁾ -- one of the first great abbeys to acknowledge Cluny's authority in this way.

In Forez we find similar gifts to Cluny in 927-942, in 965, and in 969,⁽⁷⁴⁾ while in 943 the abbey had sufficient property in this region to grant to a local nobleman, Aicard, a villa as a precarium.⁽⁷⁵⁾Nearby in the Vienne region donors gave land to Cluny in 937 and 975,⁽⁷⁶⁾ and even more important in 943 King Conrad of Provence -- Burgundy gave to her an important charter which placed all her property in his kingdom under his royal protection.⁽⁷⁷⁾ An examination of Cluny's charters of this period reveals this abbey's need of royal protection in the Valley of the Rhone, for they show that extensive gifts were being made to her. These gifts, which consisted of villas, churches, and other property seem to have been made in Valence in 928 and 975, in Uzès in 946 and 948, in Digne in 956-967, in Provence proper in 958, and in Apt in 959-960.⁽⁷⁸⁾ One of them [194] was the abbey of Saint-Armand bestowed on Cluny by Boson, count of Provence in 958.⁽⁷⁹⁾

Though Cluny seems to have accumulated property and to have increased her influence primarily in Auvergne and the Valley of the Rhone, during these decades, we also find her extending her influence into other parts of the Midi. For instance sometime between 932 and 942, probably in 937, Bernard, count of Périgord, gave to her the abbey of Sarlat,⁽⁸⁰⁾ and she accumulated other property in the Limousin and Quercy during the same period. No wonder when Mayeuil, the venerable abbot of Cluny, was captured and held for ransom in 972 by Moslem brigands in the Alps while on a journey to Rome,⁽⁸¹⁾ such an outcry arose in the Midi, an outcry which probably had a great deal to do with the final expulsion of these Moslem brigands from their pirate base of Fraxinetum in Provence. For by this time Cluny, from a simple abbey free of local, secular, and ecclesiastical control, had grown into a power in its own right. It had become a potent force capable of protecting abbeys, churches, and even individuals throughout the Midi in a lawless age in which such protection was a practical necessity. Already Cluny was on the way to becoming the powerful house which it became under St. Odilon's leadership later on in the next century.

The disappearance of royal influence over Southern France and the Spanish March then, created, about 950, a vacuum which needed to be filled in some way. Immediately the caliphate of Cordova assumed a certain suzerainty over Catalonia. More important, however, were two other outside powers, the Papacy and Cluny, which by 975 had spread their influence into most of the regions lying south of Poitou and Burgundy, bringing with them at least some assurance of a protection which Northern French monarchs could no longer provide.

1. A charter dating from 924 probably was given during this visit to Velay (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 49). See also a charter granted at the request of Raoul's fidelissimus miles Dalmatius, who was probably a viscount of Velay or Auvergne in Cart. de Carcassonne, I, 76.

2. For example see the charters which Raoul gave to Tulle in 933 and 935 during his visit to this region (Cart. de Tulle, nos. 15, 598).

3. See Louis IV's confirmation of the privileges of Saint-Pons de Thomières in 939 in Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 73. This does not necessarily mean he was present in person in this part of the Midi. On the other hand two charters issued by him in 942 seem to prove that he visited Aquitaine. One was the charter he gave to Saint-Jean d'Angély (Cartulaire de Saint-Jean d'Angély, ed. G. Musset, no. 1). The other was one he gave to Saint-Hilaire of Poitiers (Cart. de Saint-Sernin, no. 289). For the charter he issued in 941 during his visit to Auvergne see Cart. de Brioude, no. 338. See the record of another visit to Auvergne in 944 (Flodoard, Annales, ed. P. Lauer, anno 944).

4. See a charter dating from 955 given to the church of LePuy during his visit to Velay (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 97).

5. On the situation which existed in this region during the early tenth century see R. Poupardin, Le Royaume de Bourgogne (888-1038), pp. 1-109.

6. See Abadal, Els Comtats de Pollars i Ribogorça.

7. On the results of the assumption of royal office by Eudes see J. Dhondt, Etude sur la naissance des principalités territoriales en France, pp. 160-250; L. Auzias, L'Aquitaine Carolingienne (778-987), pp. 180 ff, and E. Favre, Eudes, comte de Paris et roi de France (882-898).

8. For this reign see A. Eichel, Charles le Simple.

9. See P. Lauer, Louis IV, d'Outremer, pp. 1-65, on the rivalry between Capetians and Carolingians during this period.

10. See Lauer, ibid., and F. Lot, Les Derniers Carolingiens: Lothaire, Louis V. Charles de Lorraine.

11. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 21, pp. 140-141, and "Aquitaniae Historiae Fragmentum," ibid., p 199.

12. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 23, p. 143. Ademar says Ebles Manzur was count of both Poitou and Auvergne. That he was count of the latter seems very doubtful, since we find no reference to him in either the Cart. de Brioude or the Cart. de Sauxillanges during this period. All he had was a claim to Auvergne.

13. On the investiture of Count Bernard of Toulouse with the counties of Carcassonne and Razes in 872 by Charles the Bald see Cart. de Carcassonne, V. 221.

14. See R. de Abadal i de Vinyals, Els Primers Comtes Catalans, pp. 3-60, 120-160, on the ties which linked the counts of Carcassonne with those of Catalonia.

15. See Abadal, ibid., pp. 48-49, on Acfred II (of Carcassonne) and his inheritance of the county of Auvergne through his mother who was a sister of Duke William the Pious.

16. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 20, p. 139, mentions the marriage of William, count of Périgord, with the sister of Count William of Toulouse, a union which brought to the former the county of Agen.

17. Flodoard mentions that Lupus Aznar Vasco accompanied Counts Raymond and Ermengaud of Toulouse when they did homage to King Raoul for their lands (Flodoard, Annales, anno 932).

18. Bertha, countess of Rouergue, seems to have been a daughter of the count of Provence. See the charter of 960 which mentions the lands she possessed in Provence (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 107).

19. Concerning Catalonia see comments of Abadal in Els Primers Comtes Catalans, pp. 235-239.

20. See the charter of 892 which Louis signs as king of Provence in Cart. de Grenoble, no. 31. This does not mention Eudes.

21. See Abadal, Els Primers Comtes Catalans, and Dhondt, Étude sur la naissance de principalités.

22. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 21, p. 140.

23. See account of the letter which Eudes wrote to Count Raymond of Toulouse in 892 on behalf of the church of Nîmes in Cart. de Nîmes, no. 5.

24. Ademar de Chabannes, III, 21, p. 140.

25. Abadal, Els Primers Comtes Catalans, p. 257.

26. See the record of land which the king gave to Count Guifred II in 911 in El Archivo Condal de Barcelona, no. 33, and the charter recording another royal grant to Guido, bishop of Gerona, in 922 (Catalunya Carolingia, II, 379-380).

27. Cart. roussillonnais, no. 3.

28. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 34.

29. Ibid., V. no. 25, and Catalunya Carolingia, II, 373-374, 438-439.

30. Hist. Gén. de Lang., no. 37.

31. Ibid., nos. 114, 116, 126. On the resistance to this see Abadal, Els Primers Comtes Catalans, pp. 262-264. He dates the end of royal influence of an effective sort in Catalonia from 922, except in the case of a few abbeys which kept royal connections.

32. Cart. d'Uzerche, no. 1306.

33. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 49.

34. Flodoard, Annales, anno. 926.

35. Catalunya Carolingia, II, 386.

36. Cart. de Carcassonne, I, 76.

37. Flodoard, Annales, anno 932.

38. See Cart. de Tulle, nos. 15, 598.

39. Ibid., no. 15.

40. Ibid., no. 598.

41. Catalunya Carolingia, II, 183-186. See also grant to Ripoll in ibid., p. 162.

42. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 73.

43. Flodoard, Annales, anno 944.

44. Cart. de Brioude, no. 338, and Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 75.

45. Cart. de Saint-Jean d'Angély, no. 1.

46. Cart. de Saint-Sernin, no. 389.

47. Cart. de Tulle, no. 15.

48. Catalunya Carolingia, II, 226-228, 389-390.

49. See mention of Bishop Ebles in a Limousin charter which dates from 951 (Cart. d'Uzerche, no. 120). On his building of castles at Limoges in 944 see Ademar de Chabannes, III, 27, p. 147.

50. Catalunya Carolingia, II, 229-231, 231-234.

51. Ibid., pp. 256-257.

52. Ibid., pp. 77-78, 92-93.

53. Chartes de Cluny, I, no. 825. It seems questionable, however, that William exercised much real authority over Auvergne in this period. For instance none of the charters found in the Cartulary of Brioude mention him.

54. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 97.

55. On the failure of the lords of the Midi and Catalonia to do homage for their lands to French kings from this time on see J. Lemarignier, "Les Fidèles du roi de France," in Recueil de travaux offerts à M. C. Brunel, II.

56. See the record of a court held in the Limousin in 960 by Count Raymond I of Rouergue (Cart. de Beaulieu, no. 47). See the record of land which Raymond owned in this same region according to his will which dates from 961 (Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 111). Note that in this will he left land which he owned in Auvergne to Brioude.

57. Catalunya Carolingia, II, 96-98.

58. Ibid., pp. 202-204.

59. F. Lot, Fidèles ou vassaux? p. 67.

60. Eudes became king much of the Midi had difficulty in deciding to recognize him. This was even more noticeable in the late tenth century as the Carolingian line came to an end.

61. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V. no. 84.

62. Abadal, Els Primers Comtes Catalans, pp. 316-318.

63. Ibid., pp. 318-320.

64. Ibid., pp. 320-321.

65. See P. Kehr, "Papsturkunden in Spanien: Vorarbeiten zur Hispania Pontifica I. Katalanien," in Abhandlungen der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, XVIII (1926).

66. Cart. de Saint-Barnard de Romans, no. 13. Much earlier, however, is evidence of such ties set up by Gerald of Aurillac for his new monastery (see Odo, Vita Sancti Geraldi Aureliacensis, II, 4, and III, 4, in Migne Patrología latina, CXXXIII, cols. 672-673, 691).

67. Cart. de Carcassonne, I, 78.

68. Ibid., II, 224-225.

69. Cart. de Saint-Chaffre, no. 375.

70. Hist. Gén. de Lang., V, no. 97.

71. Chartes de Cluny, I, no. 333.

72. Ibid., I, nos. 378 (929); 458, 459, 460 (936-937); 872, 873, 876 (954) ; II, nos. 1060, 1068 (959); 1149, 1156, 1164, 1167 (963); 1183 (964-965); 1206, 1208 (966); 1209 (975).

73. Ibid., I, no. 792, and Cartulaire de Sauxillanges, ed. H. Doniol, no. 16.

74. Chartes de Cluny, I, no. 342 (927-942); II, no. 1189 (965); 921 (969).

75. Ibid., I, no. 642.

76. Ibid., I, no. 476 (937); II, no. 1311 (975).

77. Ibid., I, no. 622.

78. Ibid., I, no. 367, and II, no. 1390 (Valence); I, nos. 693, 724 (Uzès); II, nos. 1013 (Digne); 1052, 1066 (Provence); 1071 (Apt).

79. Ibid., II, no. 1052.

80. Galia Christiana, II, anno 937, col. 595.

81. Raoul Glaber, Historiarum libri V. ed. R. Prou, I, IV, 9, pp. 10-12.