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Ancestors of Martha Jo (Martha) Cross

Generation No. 42


      3599375835136. Charlemagne Of France, born April 02, 742 in Aix-La-Chapelle; died January 28, 814 in Aachen. He was the son of 7198751670272. the Short Pepin III Of France and 7198751670273. Bertrada II Of Laon. He married 3599375835137. Hildegard Of Linzgau.

      3599375835137. Hildegard Of Linzgau, died Unknown.

Notes for Charlemagne Of France:
With the consent of the great nobles, Charlemagne, Charles the Great, became King of France and Holy Roman Emperor of the West from 771 to 814, following the death of his brother. He was born April 2, 742, probably at Aix-La-Chapelle. When only twelve years old we find him commissioned to receive and welcome the pontiff who came to implore his father's aid against the barbarians that threatened Rome. He probably accompanied his father in his campaigns at an early age, but the first time that we really see him in the field, is on the renewal of the war with the rebellious Duke of Aquitaine.

Upon the death of Pepin, in 768, Charlemagne and his younger brother Carloman succeeded to equal portions of one of the most powerful of European kingdoms, bounded by the Pyrenees, the Alps, Mediterranean, and the ocean. But this would hardly enabled the monarchs, even had they been united, to resist successfully the incursions of the barbarous tribes on the German frontiers of France, which had commenced with the first establishment of the Frankish dominion in Gaul; and which were kept alive by the constant pouring forth of fresh hordes from the overpopulated north. The situation of Charlemagne was rendered yet more perilous by the massive enmity of his brother, and the rebellion of Hunald, the turbulent Duke of Aquitaine. But fortunately Charlemagne had a genius equal to the difficulties of his situation; though his brother refused to aid him, he defeated Huald; and no less illustrious by his clemency than by his valor and military skill, he forgave the vanquished rebel.

Desiderius, the King of Lombardy, had made large encroachments upon the states of the Roman Pontiff, whose cause was taken up by Charlemagne. This led to feuds, which Bertha, his mother, endeavored to appease by arranging a marriage between her son and the daughter of the Lombard. But Charlemagne soon took a disgust to the wife thus imposed upon him, and repudiated her, that he might marry Hildegarde, the daughter of a noble family in Swabia. Thus he married Hildegarde of Swabia (Linzgau), Countess, born in 757/758, died April 30, 782/3.

In 771 Carloman died, and Charlemagne was elected to the vacant throne, to the exclusion of his nephews, whose extreme youth made then incapable of wearing the crown in such troubled times. Gilberge, the widow of Carloman, immediately fled, and sought refuse with Desiderius, the common retreat for all who were hostile to the Frankish monarch.

From that time, sole ruler during a reign of forty-three years, he waged incessant wars on all his borders, subduing rebellions, extending his domains and at the same time advancing Christianity. In 772 he began a thirty-year war with the determined Saxons, after the successful opening of Charlemagne was called to the assistance of Pope Hadrian I. against Desiderius, King of the Lombards. Charlemagne marched two armies over the Alps and conquered Lombardy in 774; returned and beat the Saxons again and hastened into Spain, in 778, to help the Arabian rulers of that country against the Osman Caliph of Cordova. It was in this war that Roland, the hero of romance, fell in the pass of Roncesvalles.

In 799 the Romans revolted against Pope Leo III., and were again brought into subjection by Charlemagne. In return, while he was praying on the steps of St. Peter's Church, he was crowned by Leo with the iron crown of the Western Empire, successor of the Roman Caesars, unexpectedly to him, as he pretended, on Christmas Day, 800, amidst the popular acclamations, "Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific Emperor of the Romans!"

The extensive domain of Charlemagne was rendered secure only by ceaseless vigilance and warfare. The short intervals of peace which ere allowed him, he employed in endeavoring to educate and civilize his people. He made a tour through his dominions, causing local and general improvement, reforming laws, advancing knowledge, and building churches and monasteries. Christianity being one of the chief means to which he trusted for the attainment of his grand objects. In this he was no less successful than he had before been in war. With exception of the Eastern empire, France was now the most cultivated nation in Europe, even Rome herself sending thither for skillful workmen, while commerce, roads, and mechanics must have been much advanced, as we may infer from the facility with which marble columns and immense stone crosses were often carried through the whole extent of France upon carriages of native construction. Luxury, too, with its attendant arts had made considerable strides. Vases of gold and silver richly carved, silver tables highly wrought, bracelets, rings, and table cloths of fine linen, might be seen in the houses of the nobles. The people must have been dexterous in working iron, for their superiority in this respect is shown by the severe laws forbidding the exportation of arms.

Charlemagne drove back the Arabs, reduced the Huns, and effectually protected his long line of coast from the attempted invasion of the Northmen. It is said, that upon one occasion he arrived at a certain port just as the pirates were preparing to land; but the moment they learned of the presence of the monarch, they immediately fled in great terror at the mere mention of his name.

It was always an object of first importance with Charlemagne to support the papal authority, as holding out the only means of spreading Christianity, which he justly considered the most effectual instrument he could employ to enlighten and civilize the world.

Charlemagne securely laid the foundations of his empire. He was vigilant, judicious, and energetic, both as a ruler and commander. He fostered agriculture, trade, arts, and letters with untiring zeal, clearing forests, draining swamps, founding monasteries and schools, building cities, constructing splendid palaces, as at Aix, Worms, and Ingelheim, and drawing to his court scholars and poets from all nations, being himself proficient in science, as well as all hardy accomplishments.

Charlemagne was tall and a commanding presence, and could speak and write Latin as well as his native German. He fostered all learning and the fine arts, studying rhetoric and astronomy. He reigned over France, half of Germany, and four-fifths of Italy. The Caliph Haroun-al-Rashid sent an embassy to the court of Charlemagne with gifts in token of good will.

Attacked with pleurisy, he died after a short illness, in the seventy-second year of age, and the forty-seventh of his reign, on January 28, 814. Some years later Charlemagne was canonized by the church.




     
Children of Charlemagne Of France and Hildegard Of Linzgau are:
  i.   Charles Of Aquitaine, born 772 in Aachen, Rhineland, Prussia; died December 04, 811.
  1799687917568 ii.   Pepin I Of France, born April 773 in Of Aachen, Rhineland, Prussia; died July 08, 810 in Milan, Italy; married Bertha Of Toulouse.
  iii.   Adelheid Of France, born 774 in Of Pavie, Italy; died 774.
  iv.   Rotrude Of France, born Abt. 775; died Unknown; married (1) Rogo I Of Ranulf du Poitou; born Bef. 810 in Poitiers, France; died October 866 in Brissarthe, Maine-et-Loire, Anjou, France; married (2) Rogo Of Maine Bef. 824; born Bef. 807 in France; died Abt. 841.
  v.   the Pious Louis I Of France, born 777 in Chasseneiuil, Lot-en-Garonne, Aquitaine, France; died June 20, 840 in Near Ingelheim, lRhinehessen, Hess, Prussia; married (1) Ermengarde Of West d'Esbay 794 in France; died Unknown; married (2) Judith Of Baviere February 819; died Unknown.
  vi.   Lothaire Of France, born August 778 in Casseneuil, Lot-et-Garonne, France; died August 778.
  vii.   Bertha Of France, born 779; died 853; married Angilbert Of Ponthieu in France; died Unknown.
  Notes for Bertha Of France:
Lady Berthe, born 779, died 853, married Angilbert, Governor of Ponthieu and Abbey of St. Richaire. They were the ancestors of four successive Governors of Ponthieu and three successive Counts of Montreuil. William I Count of Montreuil, was the father of Hildwin (Haudoun) de Rameru Count of Rouci, living in 1033. He had a daughter, Marguerita, who married Hugh, 2nd Count of Clermont in Beauvais. Their daughter was Adeliza Clermont, who married Gilbert de Tonebruge. See the continuation of this lineage in the Clare Line in Vol. II.

  viii.   Gisele Of France, born 781; died Unknown.
  ix.   Hildegard Of France, born 782 in Of Aachen, Rhineland, Prussia; died January 09, 783 in Brissarthe, Maine-et-Loire, Anjou, France.


      3599375835656. III Ecgbert Of Wessex, born Abt. 775 in Wessex, England; died February 04, 839. He was the son of 7198751671312. I EAlhmund (Edmund) Of Kent. He married 3599375835657. Redburg Of Wessex in Wessex, England.

      3599375835657. Redburg Of Wessex, born 788 in Wesex, England; died Unknown.

Notes for III Ecgbert Of Wessex:
Notes for King of Egbert of England, King:
Egbert, King of England (Stuart, Royalty for Commoners, Page 170, Line 233-41). AKA: Egbert 'the Great'. Born: in 775 in Wessex, England, son of Eahlmund=Edmund, King of Kent. Egbert was King of England 827-836, King of Wessex in 802 and Under-King of Kent from 784 to 786. Married before 806: Redburga=Raedburh N? Died: on 4 Feb 839 in Wessex, England.
EGBERT (d. 839) was King of Wessex from 802 until 839. He claimed descent from Ingild, a brother of King Ine of Wessex. His father was a certain Ealhmund who ruled briefly in Kent c. 784 in opposition to Offa of Mercia. When King Cynewulf of Wessex died in 786, Egbert disputed with Beorhtric for possession of the king-dom. Beorhtric, Offa's protege, came out on top and Egbert departed into exile at the Frankish court. On Beorhtric's death in 802 Egbert returned and established himself as King of Wessex in a successful revolt against Mercian ascendancy.
Egbert ruled an independent Wessex for the next twenty-three years, of which we have little record. This was succeeded by a period of frenzied activity. In 825 he Defeated King Beornwulf of Mercia at the battle of Ellendun (probably Wroughton in Wiltshire) and immediately afterwards sent his son Ethelwulf eastwards to wrest Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex from Mercian overlordship. He also received an appeal for protection from the East Anglians who had rebelled against the Mercians. The Mercian empire seemed to be falling apart as rival claimants contended for kingship over the next few years. In 829 Egbert conquered Mercia and went on to lay waste part of Northumbria and exact submission and tribute from its king Eanred. For a short period he was overlord of all the English kingdoms. But in 830 Mercia threw off West Saxon lordship and for the rest of his reign Egbert's direct authority was restricted to Wessex and the south east.
It has sometimes been claimed that Egbert was the first 'King of all England'. But this is absurd. The notion is based upon the treat-ment of Egbert in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, put together in the form in which we have it at the court of Egbert's grandson Alfred and concerned above all else to magnify the exploits of the West Saxon royal dynasty. Mercian supremacy did not end with Offa. Ninth-century Mercia may have been subject to dynastic instability, as which Anglo-Saxon kingdom was not? But it could still produce some imposing rulers such as Cenwulf (796-821), Wiglaf (827-40) and Beorhtwulf (840-52). Further to the north the Northumbrian King Eanred (808-40) continued to rule a kingdom stretching from the Humber to the Firth of Forth: the submission to Egbert in 829 had no lasting effect.
Nevertheless, Egbert's reign is an important one. In the first place, he consolidated West Saxon domination over the remaining British princes of the southwest in a series of campaigns in 815, 825, 830 and 838. Secondly, his annexation of south-eastern England in 825 was to be permanent. Kent became a dependency where West Saxon princes could learn the business of kingship: just as Egbert entrusted Kent to his son Ethelwulf, so after his accession in 839 Ethelwulf placed his son Athelstan in authority there. Egbert and Ethelwulf were at pains to cultivate good relations with the archbishops of Canterbury; they had learnt the lessons of Offa's failure in this respect. In particular, they tried to ensure that the see of Canterbury should be well-disposed not just to individual kings of Wessex but to the dynasty as a whole; in their own words in a charter of 838, 'that we and our heirs for ever afterwards may have firm and unbroken friendship from the archbishop and all his successors.' They wanted to break free from the snares of dynastic instability and discon-tinuity which plagued Mercia, Northumbria and their Frankish neighbours over the Channel. That they succeeded in doing so no doubt owed much to luck, but also something to shrewd management. Finally, Egbert showed that he could cope with new enemies, the Vikings. They ravaged the Island of Sheppey in 835, and Defeated him at Carhampton in 836. But when in 838 they made common cause with the Britons of the south-west Egbert Defeated them at Hingston Down in Cornwall. In the last battle of his life, Egbert showed that the Danes were vulnerable.

Taken from MEDIEVAL HISTORY & CIVILIZATION by Daniel D. McGarry.
By the ninth century, Wessex had become the strongest of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It came to the fore under EGBERT (r.802-839), who became Bretwalda and is often reckoned as the first King of England.
Taken from ACADEMIC AMERICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA.
EGBERT, d. 839, King of Wessex, laid the foundations for the ascendancy of WESSEX among the English kingdoms. At first an unsuccessful claimant to the Wessex crown, he finally became king in 802. EGBERT Defeated the Mercian king Beornwulf at Ellandune (825) and briefly (828-29) held the kingdom of Mercia itself. He was also recognized as king in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Essex and received the nominal submission of Northumbria. The later years of his reign were marked by frequent Danish raids on England.
Taken from ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES of The Counties and COUNTYL FAMILIES OF WALES by Thomas Nicholas
With the establishment of the kingdom of Mercia the affairs of Flintshire come out to the surface with some distinctness. That before this time the Saxons had ravaged these parts is in some measure proved by the desolating visit of Austin and the hosts of King Ethelbert to Bangor Iscoed in the sixth century. Edwin of Northumbria and Egbert of Wessex, also, who had both effected a kind of temporary conquest in North Wales, doubtless for a time held Flintshire. But Offa made a serious business of the conquest of a portion of the territory, and to this day hasleft obvious proofs of his earnestness and determination in the rampart of "Offa's Dyke," a line of Defence which cut off from the Welsh the best part of the tract now called Flintshire. Whether this vallum, remains of which are traceable from near Caergwrle to the shore near Holywell, is more properly called "Offa's Dyke" or "Watt's Dyke," is a question still sub judice; but be it the one or the other, the work is a monument of most strenuous doings, a long scar on the face of Flintshire reminding us of the bloody onslaughts of King Offa and his Angles.





     
Child of Ecgbert Of Wessex and Redburg Of Wessex is:
  1799687917828 i.   AEthelwulf Of Wessex, born Abt. 806 in Wantage, Berkshire, England; died 899 in England; married (1) Osburga Of Wessex Bef. 828 in Wessex, England; married (2) Judith Of france October 01, 856 in Verberie sur Oise, France.


      3599375835904. Turincbertus Of Wormgau, born Bet. 661 - 756; died Aft. 770. He was the son of 7198751671808. Rutpert I (Robert) Of Wormgau.
     
Child of Turincbertus Of Wormgau is:
  1799687917952 i.   Rutpert II (Robert) Of Wormgau, born Bef. 770; died Aft. 807; married Theoderata Of Wormgau Bef. 789 in Wormgau.


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