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On Mon, 28 Oct 1996, Prof. Bugslag wrote: > Last week, Dave Van Meter asked about echoes of the last emperor > legend and its use in the construction of "once and future" > nationalisms, prior to c.1225. Although not too much prior to this, it > reminded me of the currency of the prophecy of St Valery during the > reign of Philip Augustus, which I was recently reading about in > Jacques Le Goff's marvellous new book on Saint Louis (Paris, 1996), > pp. 79-81. St Valery apparently told Hugh the Great that his son, > Hugh Capet, and his line would hold the realm of France 'until the > seventh succession.' Since Philip Augustus was the seventh > Capetian king, he was worried that the dynasty might be facing > extinction. The solution to this was seen in the return to the line of > Charlemagne, 'reditus ad stirpem Karoli'. In these circumstances, > Philip Augustus advanced his own Carolingian ancestry, through his > mother, Adele de Champagne, which was affirmed by the Gesta > Francorum usque ad annum 1214. In 1208, Philip Augustus called a > bastard which had just been born (and who wold become bishop of > Noyon) Charlot, and after the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, Guillaume le > Breton gave the victorious king the surname of 'Carolides', which > obviously didn't stick so firmly as the perhaps even more imperial > 'Augustus'. But the genealogical reference which succeeded was that > affirmed by Andre de Marchiennes in his Historia succincta de gestis > et successione regnum Francorum, in 1196, in which he emphasized > the Carolingian ancestry of Isabelle (or Elizabeth) of Hainaut, first wife > of Philip Augustus and mother of their eldest son, Louis, who was to > become King Louis VIII. Isabelle descended from the penultimate > Carolingian king, Louis IV, and from his son, Charles de Lorraine, who > was pushed aside by Hugh Capet. When Louis VIII became king in > 1223, the royal line had successfully returned to the line of > Charlemagne, thus setting back the clock and putting off the > inevitable. In all deference to the perspicacity of St Valery, it might be > pointed out that the Capetian line did come to an end seven kings > later with Charles IV! Promising bibliography on this cited by Le Goff > (and unseen yet by me) includes: Karl Ferdinand Werner, "Die > Legitimataet der Kapetinger und die Entstehung des 'Reditus regni > Francorum ad Stirpem Karoli," in Die Welt als Geschichte (1952), pp. > 203-25; Gabrielle M. Spiegel, "The Reditus Regni ad Stirpem Karoli > Magni: A New Look," French Historical Studies, 1972, pp. 145-74; and > Karl Ferdinand Werner, "Andrew von Marchiennes und die > Geschichtsschreibung von Audouin und Marchiennes am Ende des > 12. Jahrhunderts," Deutsches Archiv, 1952, pp. 402-63. I hope that's > helpful, or at least interesting. > Jim Bugslag > > > I would add to this list Elizabeth A.R. Brown, "La notion de la legitimite et la prophetie a la cour de Philippe Auguste," La France de Philippe Auguste. Le temps des mutations (paris, 1982), pp. 77-110. MFH %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%