There have been a couple of examples on this series about the way that, by the year , the ideological presentation of West Frankish royalty focussed on being local kings for local people. However, this charter is undoubtedly my favourite example of the genre. The reason for holding the synod was nothing less than murder. The synod was meeting in order to condemn Fulk, and he was excommunicated, although Bishop Fulbert of Chartres was able to push the sentence back three weeks to allow Fulk time to repent and come to terms.
Fulk was ultimately compelled to go on a second pilgrimage to Jerusalem, perhaps setting out as early as summer However, the tenth-century history of the abbey is obscure.
After Charles granted Robert the lay abbacy of Saint-Denis in , it stayed in the Robertian family until Hugh Capet reintroduced a regular abbacy in the third quarter of the century. We have hints Saint-Denis remained significant: it was attacked by Otto II in , for instance; and we can see Hugh Capet, after becoming king, residing at the abbey and holding councils there.
This is more sinister than it sounds: thanks to the archives of dependent houses such as Salonnes, we know tenth-century kings were making gifts to Saint-Denis, but they have not been preserved. ARTEM , no. RtP , no. When God Almighty disposed to rescue this country of the Gauls from the shadows of unfaithfulness, He deigned to send to it the most holy Dionysius, that is, the most splendid lamp of the divine word, to make known the light of His truth.
The same precious martyr of Christ, since he always paid out the munificence of divine largess to all those seeking his help, is known to have been particularly well-disposed towards the excellence of the kings of the Franks through everything, and a most pious helper in everything, especially since they constantly endeavoured with their whole effort to elevate their memory with careful consideration and magnificent work.
