Charlemagne.
This guy!
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| "Hey, everybody! I'm yo' grandad!" |
Before I begin, please click the picture below to listen to Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" on Youtube. It has nothing to do with this post, I just like the song.
It's Steely Dan!
So to summarize if this is your first post, we Baldwins can trace our lineage fairly recently and locally, driving back to the William H. and Lyman J. section, passing through Isaac, Asahel, and the two Theophilus-es until we get to Richard Baldwin and Elizabeth Alsop.
From here we take a short ride up the tree until we get to the Clere family, and continue up to King Edward I. At this point there are a number of routes one can possibly take to get up to Charlemagne due to pedigree collapse and the -ahem- inbreeding of the royal families.
My favorite fork in the road (the one I can best remember) is to take a quick jump back to King John and his parents, King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, follow Henry's line back to William I, and then go through his father Robert I. If you get to Alfred the Great instead, you made a wrong turn at Matilda and you'll have to turn around until you see William again.
Once you see Bernard of Italy on your right, it's a few more left turns until you get to Pepin, King of Italy and his father Charlemagne. If you hit Pepin the Short, you've gone too far and run into Charlemagne's father. Hang a left at the big W make a U-turn. See the link above to one lineage from William I to Charlemagne. See my Noble Ancestors intro post for two alternate lines.
So by my reckoning, Charlemagne is both my 38th great-grandfather on at least two different lines, and my 39th great-grandfather on a third, depending on which lines you trace back and count. I am confident that there are more lines where he would show up as my ancestor.
So who was this guy?
Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, or Charles I. King of the Franks, King of the Lombards, and King of the Romans. Holy Roman Emperor. Founder of the Carolingian Empire. "Father of Europe", united Europe in the middle ages. Conquered a lot of land. Killed a lot of people. His brother mysteriously disappeared. Suspicious! Charlemagne kept many records and archives. Strove for literacy, and learned to read, though he had sloppy handwriting. Many reforms in writing, the church, politics, and education were instituted by Charlemagne. He did a lot of good for modern society. Some very old texts exist today as translations, because Charlemagne copied and kept them. The originals are long, long destroyed.
Historically, a Very Big Deal.
And you can read volumes of books on Charlemagne. This blog's purpose is not to delve too deeply into that... These are little historical blurbs.
But now you know, and you know how. We Baldwins are descended from Charlemagne (any Baldwins who come from Richard and Elizabeth). And that's pretty cool. But don't get a big head! I'm going to burst your bubble and tell you that everyone else probably is descended from Charlemagne too. Most likely everybody of western European ancestry, which includes most white people in Europe and the United States, and many other people as well. This can be known due to statistical analyses, the amount of time between now and then, and the amount of people living back during the middle ages on the entire planet. If you were to multiply your parents x2 for each generation until you get back to the year 742, it would be far greater than the entire world population. Therefore, 'duplicate' ancestors are inevitable many times over for many different people. Even Barack Obama can trace his lineage back to Charlemagne through King John, just as we can.
To borrow a quote from a guardian article I read:
"But we are all special, which means none of us are. If you’re vaguely of European extraction, you are also the fruits of Charlemagne’s prodigious loins. A fecund ruler, he sired at least 18 children by motley wives and concubines, including Charles the Younger, Pippin the Hunchback, Drogo of Metz, Hruodrud, Ruodhaid, and not forgetting Hugh."
Let's not forget Hugh!
All this having been said, articles like the above can sound kind of snarky. As if the author is chastising you for taking an interest in your family, and history, and showing a little enthusiasm for it. I say, these sorts of sciences are getting a little too stuffy. I say, it is still pretty neat to be able to know exactly how you are related to Charlemagne and all the rest. That's what this blog and genealogy are for. So don't get too upset if you tell somebody you are a descendant of Charlemagne or Every President or Vincent Price and they get annoyed with you. They may roll their eyes, snort a little, and tell you everybody is related so what's the big deal in their high-and-mightiest snark voice. Some people will become snotty and say well I don't believe you.
But don't worry. Those people are crabs.
You can just point them over here and let them look at the research if they really want to know. As long as you are having fun and not hurting anybody, be as proud or ashamed as your Grandpa Charlemagne as you want to be!
Before I close, let's take a minute to appreciate some of those names you'll run into if you research. Hildegard. Fulk. Drogo of Metz. I can hear it on the little medieval playground now. "Fulk, Fulk, watch thine sulk!" "Hildegard! Hildegard! Forsooth, why hath thine bosoms turned hard?"
Children can be monsters.
Here's Steely Dan's "Hey 19" to close the post.
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