Throughout ANVIL and WHEEL, I portray Pippin as a more reluctant partner in Carloman’s wars. There is plenty of debate over this in the histories as it is unclear that Pippin actually participated in or approved of the siege of Laon and the raising of Childeric III to the Merovingian throne. Of the two charters that remain from Childeric III’s reign, he only sites Carloman, “who placed us on the throne.”[16]
Pippin did try to repay Duke Hunoald’s treason by conquering the castles in northern reaches of Aquitaine. The two brothers met at Vieux Poitiers to split the kingdom after the imprisonment of their half-brother Gripho.[17] Later Pippin agreed to join Carloman in defeating Duc Odilo of Bavaria by the River Lech in 743.[18]
The history also shows that Pippin fathered a son with Bertrada, daughter of the Compte de Laon, early in his adulthood who as the story suggests becomes Charlemagne, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The timing of his birth, however, has been greatly debated as some suggest he might have been born as early as 742.[19] I chose to agree with this scenario and it forms the basis of much of the story in Book III.
Bertrada
As noted above Bertrada, the daughter of the Compte de Laon had a long relationship with Pippin starting in their early years. The fight in the novel between Bertrada and Pippin is purely fictional as is her attack on the King’s road and her flight from the king’s men. I was led to this in part by the need for some romantic tension in the novel, but also because Pippin didn’t join Carloman on his campaign in Alemannia. I needed some reason for him to stay in Paris.
Hiltrude
As described above, Hiltrude left Charles Martel’s Court without permission to marry Duke Odilo of Bavaria in 741. This became what was considered the “scandal of the eighth century” in part because Duke Odilo promptly led a rebellion against Pippin and Carloman following the death of Charles.
In the novel, Trudi is carrying the child of another man when she arrives in Regensburg to marry Odilo. This is fiction and part of a romantic narrative I developed for ANVIL. She did give birth after marrying the Duke to a son named Tassilo.
I portrayed Hiltude as opposing Odilo’s rebellion primarily because of the presence of a Papal Legate named Sergius. The histories show Sergius trying to make peace between the Franks and the Bavarians before the war. Hiltrude would have had access to and the ear of the Pope, so I chose to have her solicit this intercession.
After the fact, Pippin is reported to have given a speech in which he lectures Sergius on the justice of the Frankish cause. The two brothers spent more time justifying this battle than any other conquest made [20] and it may have been done in part out of concern for their sister.
Boniface
Boniface (née Winfred) now St. Boniface, held great sway over Charles Martel and at least Carloman. A legate of the Pope, Boniface personally ministered to Charles’ family, was godfather to Charles’ sons, and a close advisor to the family. A passionate missionary who spent much of his early life converting the pagans, Boniface was named by the pope a “bishop at large.” Boniface held enormous influence over the other bishops of the region and was partly responsible for gathering the synods to address Charles’ taking of Church lands.
As noted in the story he also founded a monastery in Fulda, Hesse in 742. The story of Boniface felling Thor’s tree in Fritzlar is well-known in ecclesiastic circles and is described much as I have portrayed it the novel. To this day, there is a memorial depicting Boniface cutting down the tree in dowtown Fritzlar.
Theudebald
A son of Godefred of Alemannia, Theudebald had made an enemy of Charles Martel when he expelled Bishop Eto from Alemannia “because of a hatred for Charles.” A year later, Charles returned to expel Theudebald.[21] There is no evidence that Theudebald paraded Eto naked through the streets or vice versa. That is my fiction.
As noted above, Theudebald does resurface after Charles death to lead a rebellion in Alemannia in 742, where he was defeated by Carloman. He later joined with Odilo in 743 at the battle of River Lech.
His rape of Hiltrude is pure fiction. Although it was a cruel way to treat her character after she finally arrives in Regensburg to marry Odilo, it helped to portray the sense of isolation she would have suffered as the daughter of Charles Martel in rebel territory. Later events (to be covered in book III) also suggest a substantial dislike for Theudebald among her brothers, so I felt it justified in keeping the storyline intact.
Odilo
Duke Odilo of Bavaria came to power following Charles’ intervention in the “civil unrest” there nearly twenty years before the story in WHEEL begins. As he had blood ties in Alemannia, I named him a relative of Theudebald. Odilo survived the battle at the River Lech and for a time continued to rule Bavaria in the name of the Franks. As mentioned above, he and Hiltrude had a son named Tassilo.
Fictional characters
Lady Hélène, her sister Catherine and Agnès are fictional characters. Lady Hélène played a significant role in ANVIL and, enjoying her character, I kept her around for Book II. To my surprise, her sister appeared in the early drafts of WHEEL as Catherine of Loches. This required me to write some backstory for the two which led to the development of Agnès’s character.
Pippin’s lieutenant Gunther is also a fictional character as is Carloman’s champion Hamar. Childebrand, however, is a very real person. He was Charles half-brother and Pippin’s uncle.
Other personages
Where I could, I used the real names of the Dukes and warlords of the time. Hunoald and Waifar of Aquitaine existed and were a constant thorn in the side of the Carolingians. King Liutbrand and Aistulf ruled the Lombards on the Roman Peninsula and did indeed threaten Pope Gregory. Aistulf was also a renowned swordsman who won prizes at the Spoleto tournaments much as is described in ANVIL.
There is also no record of the name of Carloman’s wife, so I supplied one. The fact of this, I find odd. As the wife of the mayor and the mother of Drogo, she should have been important enough for her name to be recorded.
Places
Little construction exists today that existed in the eighth century. Charles’ palace at Quierzy along the river Oise is gone. Quierzy still exists. It is a very small farming community with little remaining historical reference (although I did find a civic building there named the “salle de Charlemagne”).The walled city of Laon still stands atop a ridge northeast of Soissons. Although the city has grown and protects far newer buildings than were present in the mid-eighth century, it is still possible to stand on the southern wall and imagine Carloman’s army approaching across the vast plain below the city. Dozens of tunnels beneath the city have recently been excavated. Many were created to protect the wealth of its residents.
The basilica of St. Denis was built in 451 above a Gallo-Roman cemetery. The monastic community there was founded in the seventh century. The church that stands there today was built after the turn of the millennium and post-dates the story in ANVIL. The tombs that housed the remains of French kings, sadly, were sacked during the French revolution. St. Germain des Prés, the church Carloman visits in ANVIL during his stay at Isle de la Cité still stands, although the portion of the church that existed during that time is closed to the public. There is no evidence that Carloman was married or received his first communion at St. Germain des Prés.
The Abbey at Chelles was founded in 658 at the site of a Merovingian royal villa in Val-de-Marne near Paris. It was primarily used as a retreat for noble women who had become widowed or wished to take orders. Unfortunately, it was destroyed down during the French Revolution and no longer stands.
Danauwörth and Regensburg still stand along the southern banks of the Danube. Little is left of the Roman fort I described that was built in Regensburg during the 1st century after Christ. Part of one tower and one half of a double-arched entryway still exist, as does a portion of the southeastern wall. I was greatly helped in visualizing it by a schematic drawing of what the fort should have looked like, provided by Dr. Boors, c
hief archeologist of the Regensburg museum. Dr. Boors gave me a guided tour of the museum and what was left of the fort walls. He was also kind enough to show me those artifacts from the region attributed to the eighth century. The value of this tour was extremely helpful in that it resolved several open questions in my mind. These included the use of Roman coin during this time period (Dr. Boors showed me a treasure trove of solidi and denarii), the existence of spurs and more importantly the Christian artifacts (or rather the lack thereof) among grave sites in the region.
As can be deduced from the footnotes, I have relied heavily on Paul Fouracare’s account of the period which is detailed in The Age of Charles Martel published by Pearson Education Limited in 2000. Much of the summary I’ve recounted above I pulled from his text, specifically the pages that dealt with church's influence and the death of Charles Martel (pp. 160 – 176). It is one of the clearest texts on this period that I have read and magically appeared on the bookstore shelf just in time for the research phase of ANVIL. For that I am eternally grateful. I did not always take his lead, however, and have tried to cite some of the other choices I made throughout this note. I provided Fouracre with a copy of ANVIL, which he was kind enough to read and to give the following feedback:
“I initially jibbed every time you filled in gaps with your imagination - a no no for historians, but a must for novelists! But eventually I just went with the narrative flow and found that you captured the spirit or the essence of the issues (personal and political) rather nicely. I have always been struck by the drama of Hiltrude’s flight to Odilo and Bavaria.”
Bibliography
I also drew heavily on the writings of Ian Wood The Merovingian Kingdoms 450 – 751 and Edward Bachrach’s Early Carolingian Warfare, Prelude to Empire, the latter of which was extremely helpful in characterizing battle armor and tactics of the time.
Other important texts upon which I relied include:
Carolingian Chronicles, the Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories, translated by Scholz and Rogers (The University of Michigan Press, 1992)
Two Lives of Charlemagne by Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, (Penguin Classics 1979)
Frankish Institutions Under Charlemagne by Francois Louis Ganshof (Norton Library 1970)
Sieges of the Middle Ages by Philip Warner (Pen & Sword Military Classics 2004)
Witchcraft in Europe 400 – 1700 edited by Alan Charles Kors and Edward Peters (University of Pennsylvania Press 2001)
Charlemagne by Mathias Becher (Yale University Press 2003)
Charlemagne by Roger Collins (University of Toronto Press 1998)
Charlemagne, Father of a Continent by Alessandro Barbero and translated by Allan Cameron (University of California Press 2004)
Complete Illustrated Guide to Runes, Nigel Pennick (HarperCollins Publishers 2002)
TANTRA, The Cult of the Feminine, Andre Van Lysebeth (Weiser Books, Boston, MA 1995).
Footnotes
[1] The Age of Charles Martel, Paul Fouracre, (Pearson Education Limited 2000) Introduction p.6: “Modern scholarship has picked away at this picture of unqualified Carolingian success by taking on board the fact that the sources reveal only one point of view, and that late-eighth century and early ninth century writers were, in the main, working under the patronage of the Carolingian family itself.”
[2] The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751, Ian Wood (Pearson Education Limited, 1994) Chapter 15 p. 287
[3] The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751, Ian Wood (Pearson Education Limited, 1994) Chapters 15 – 16 pp. 270-275
[4] The Age of Charles Martel, Paul Fouracre (Pearson Education Limited 2000) Introduction p. 2
[5] The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751, Ian Wood (Pearson Education Limited 1994) Chapter 16 pp. 289-290
[6] Early Carolingian Warfare, Prelude to Empire, Bernard S. Bachrach (University of Pennsylvania Press 2001) Chapter 1 p.37
[7] Charlemagne, Roger Collins (University of Toronto Press 1998) Chapter 2 p. 31 citing Annales Laureshamenses 741, ed. Pertz, MGH SS, 2, p. 24
[8] The Age of Charles Martel, Paul Fouracre (Pearson Education Limited 2000) Chapter 6 pp. 167-168
[9] Interview with Dr. Andreas Boos M.A. Archeologist, Historisches Museum der Stadt Regensburg, May 2005
[10] Witchcraft in Europe 400-1700, ed. Alan Charles Kors and Edward Peters (University of Pennsylvania Press) Chapter 1 pp.55-57; Source: Medieval Handbooks of Penance, McNeill and Gamer, (New York 1938, rpt. 1990) pp. 305-306
[11] Age of Charles Martel, Paul Fouracre (Pearson Education Limited 2000) Chapter 3 pp. 108-109
[12] Complete Illustrated Guide to Runes, Nigel Pennick (HarperCollins Publishers 2002)
[13] TANTRA, The Cult of the Feminine, Andre Van Lysebeth (Weiser Books, Boston, MA 1995)
[14] Early Carolingian Warfare, Prelude to Empire, Bernard S. Bachrach (University of Pennsylvania Press 2001) Chapter 1 p.33 referencing the Chronicles of Fredegar chapter 25
[15] Ibid. Chapter 1 p.40
[16] Age of Charles Martel, Paul Fouracre (Pearson Education Limited 2000) Chapter 3 p.168
[17] Early Carolingian Warfare, Prelude to Empire, Bernard S. Bachrach (University of Pennsylvania Press 2001) Chapter 1 p.39
[18] Ibid. Chapter 1 p.39
[19] Two Lives of Charlemagne, Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, (Penguin Classics 1969) Translation and introduction by Lewis Thorpe p.3
[20] Age of Charles Martel, Paul Fouracre (Pearson Education Limited 2000) Chapter 3 pp. 168-169 referencing the Earlier Annals of Metz
[21] Age of Charles Martel, Paul Fouracre (Pearson Education Limited 2000) Chapter 3 pp. 106-107 referencing the Chronicon Herimanni Augiensis
Books In This Series
The Carolingian Chronicles
Based on a true story, the Carolingian Chronicles recounts the rise of one of the most influential families in the history of western civilization.
Anvil of God, Book One of the Carolingian Chronicles
After conquering a continent for the Merovingian kings, only one things stands between Charles the Hammer and the throne - he's dying. Anvil of God is a whirlwind of love, honor, sacrifice and betrayal that follows a bereaved family's relentless quest for power and destiny.
Wheel of the Fates, Book Two of the Carolingian Chronicles
Wheel of the Fates picks up where the award-winning Anvil of God left off - chronicling the lives of Charles the Hammer's children as they vie for power in what's left of the kingdom...and their family
Wheel of the Fates: Book Two of the Carolingian Chronicles Page 41