Henry (died 28 August 886) was the leading military commander of the last years of the Carolingian Empire. He was commander-in-chief under Kings Louis the Younger and Charles the Fat. His early career was mostly restricted to East Francia, his homeland, but after Charles inherited West Francia in 884 he was increasingly active there. During his time, raids by the Vikings (mainly Danes) peaked in Francia. The sources describe at least eight separate campaigns waged by Henry against the Vikings, most of them successful.
Henry is described in the sources as a Saxon, Frank or Thuringian. His title is given variously as count (Latin comes), margrave (marchensis) or duke (dux). The territory he governed is described variously in the sources as Francia, Neustria or Austrasia, perhaps indicating that his military command covered most of the north of the empire from the Breton March in the west to Frisia and Saxony in the east.
Family Henry's family has been called the Popponids because the name Poppo was particularly common among them.Donald C. Jackman (2010), Ius Hereditarium Encountered III: Ezzo's Chess Match. Editions Enlaplage. pp. 9–12. The Popponids later came to be better known as the (Elder) House of Babenberg. It is speculated that he was a son of Count Poppo of Grapfeld,Hugh Chisholm (ed.), "Babenberg", Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. (Cambridge University Press, 1911), vol. III, p. 91. or perhaps of Poppo's son, Christian I of Grapfeld, and his wife, Heilwig.Jackman, Ius Hereditarium, pp. 20–21. His brother was Poppo, Duke of Thuringia.Timothy Reuter (ed.), The Annals of Fulda, Ninth-Century Histories, Volume II (Manchester University Press, 1992), p. 55, n. 4. The Popponids were probably related to the Hattonids, and Henry may have "inherited" his positions in Saxony (from Banzleib) and in Austrasia (from Banzleib's brother Adalbert).
Henry's wife was possibly Ingeltrude, the daughter of Eberhard of Friuli; a memorial book of the abbey of Reichenau names a Henry (Heimirich) and an Ingeltrude (Engildrud) side by side.Jackman, Ius Hereditarium, pp. 16–17.
Henry had three sons, and probably at least one daughter. His sons all died during the so-called Babenberg feud with the rival Conradine family:Bernard S. Bachrach and David S. Bachrach (eds.); Widukind of Corvey, Deeds of the Saxons (Catholic University of America Press, 2014), p. 32, n. 143.Pierre Riché, The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993). pp. 228–29. Adalbert (c. 854 – 9 September 906), captured and executed Adalhard (died 903), captured and executed Henry II (died 902), killed in battle
Widukind of Corvey calls Adalbert a "close relative through his sister" of King Henry I of Germany, which led Emil Kimpen to conclude that Henry I's mother, Hathui (Hedwig, Hadewig), was Adalbert's sister and Duke Henry's daughter. This suggestion has been widely accepted, not least because it explains the adoption of the name Henry by Henry I's family, the Liudolfings. In this case, it is through Duke Henry that the name ultimately entered the East Frankish (German) and West Frankish (French) royal families, the Ottonians and Capetians. Hathui married Duke Otto of Saxony. Their son, Henry I, had a daughter, Hedwig, named after her grandmother, who married Hugh the Great and became the mother of Henry I, Duke of Burgundy, and great-grandmother of King Henry I of France.
The House of Babenberg, which governed the March of Austria from 976 until 1246, is generally regarded as descending from the Popponids, possibly through an unnamed daughter of Henry. The names of the children (Henry, Ernest, Poppo, Adalbert and Leopold) of the first known Babenberger, Margrave Leopold I, are strongly suggestive of a link with Henry.See Jackman, Ius Hereditarium, p. 34, for a hypothetical family tree.
Life Henry is described by Abbo Cernuus in his Bella Parisiacae urbis as a Saxon. It is more likely he was a Thuringian.Simon MacLean, Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the end of the Carolingian Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 61 and n. 72.
Reign of Louis the Younger Henry is described by the Annals of Fulda as the "leader of the army" (princeps militiae) of Louis the Younger when the latter rebelled against his father, King Louis the German, in 866. Louis was joined in his revolt by his younger brother, Charles the Fat. The brothers may have been upset by the grant of Bavaria to their older brother, Carloman, as a sub-kingdom in 864. During the short revolt, Louis sent Henry on a mission to Duke Rastislav of Moravia. The rebellion was soon patched up, however, and Louis received Saxony as a sub-kingdom, while Charles got Alemannia.Reuter, Annals of Fulda, p. 55.
In 871, a Saxon vassal of Henry's was blinded on the orders of Louis the German, which prompted Louis the Younger and Charles to temporarily cut off relations with their father in solidarity with Henry.Reuter, Annals of Fulda, p. 65.MacLean, Kingship and Politics, p. 214. Nothing is known of Henry's reaction to this incident.Timothy Reuter, Germany in the Early Middle Ages, c. 800–1056 (Routledge, 2013), p. 85. It has been suggested that Louis the German took advantage of his sons' insubordination to remove Henry from power in Saxony and replace him with Duke Bruno (brother of the aforementioned Otto, who probably married Henry's daughter).Jackman, Ius Hereditarium, pp. 23–24.
In 876, Louis the German died and his sons became kings in full in their respective sub-kingdoms. Henry remained in the service of Louis the Younger. In 880, he was sent with Count Adalhard of Metz to make war on Count Theobald of Arles, the chief commander of the army of Hugh of Lotharingia, Louis's second cousin who had been excluded from the succession. According to the Annals of Fulda, Henry won a "bloody victory". The victorious army then joined the rest of Louis the Younger's forces and marched on Mâcon, which they took from the rebel leader Boso, who had made himself king in Burgundy and Provence in opposition to the Carolingians.Reuter, Annals of Fulda, p. 89.
Reign of Charles the Fat Louis the Younger died in January 882 and was succeeded by Charles the Fat, who was made Emperor of the Carolingian realm the year before and reunited the East Frankish kingdom of his father Louis the German. Under Charles, Henry's career was a succession of battles with Viking raiders. Charles almost immediately sent Henry with an army to besiege Asselt, where an army of Vikings was encamped. According to the Annals of Fulda, Henry and Charles's nephew Arnulf led the advance guard, with Henry in charge of the Frankish contingent and Arnulf leading the Bavarian troops.MacLean, Kingship and Politics, p. 34–35. Charles arrived with the main force in May 882.MacLean, Kingship and Politics, p. 97.
Having received oaths from the Viking leaders, the siege of Asselt was considered a success and the Frankish army withdrew. After spending some time at his Christmas court in 882, the emperor sent Henry against some Vikings who had raided Deventer. According to the Annals of Fulda, Henry "settled matters as well as he could, and returned."Reuter, Annals of Fulda, p. 106 and n. 14. In late 883, Henry marched against the Vikings again, inflicting severe losses on them. According to the Annals of Fulda, "it is said that not one escaped". Henry, however, was wounded in the fighting.Reuter, Annals of Fulda, p. 107 and n. 9.
In 884, Henry won two more victories over the Vikings, slaughtering them "wherever they wanted to go to plunder", according to the annalist of Fulda. Some Vikings who had been harrying West Francia then overwintered in the Hesbaye in 884–85. In early 885, Henry and Archbishop Liutbert of Mainz surprised them in their camp. The survivors fled by night, leaving their plunder behind.MacLean, Kingship and Politics, p. 38–39. Henry and Liutbert are the most prominent men (after the Carolingian kings) in the latter part of the Mainz recension of the Annals of Fulda. This is probably because its author was a partisan of Louis the Younger, as Henry and Liutbert had been Louis's chief advisors.Reuter, Annals of Fulda, p. 11.
In 885, Godfrid, one of the Viking leaders at Asselt who had sworn oaths to Charles, taken baptism and received Frisia, was accused of plotting with the emperor’s cousin Hugh to seize Lotharingia. Henry tricked him into a meeting and killed him with his followers. According to the Annals of Saint-Vaast, one of Godfrid's followers, Gerolf, defected and plotted Godfrid's downfall with Henry.Bernhard von Simson (ed.), Annales Xantenses et Annales Vedastini, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi (Hanover, 1909), s.a. 885. Henry then captured Hugh at Gondreville and handed him over to the emperor, who had him blinded and imprisoned in the monastery of Saint Gall.MacLean, Kingship and Politics, p. 150.
In 885, a large Viking force laid siege to Paris. The defence of the city fell to Bishop Joscelin and Count Odo. According to the Annals of Saint-Vaast, after the Vikings destroyed one of Paris's towers, Joscelin sent Count Erkenger of Melun to East Francia with specific instructions to ask Henry to come with an army.
As a result, in 886 Henry led the first army to relieve the siege. it was in the field from 9 February until 1 May, but its only actions were skirmishes with Vikings who occasionally strayed too far from their fortifications. By July, Charles himself was leading a huge army towards Paris. Henry was again sent off with an advance guard while the emperor was still at Metz. It was during this expedition that Henry's horse fell into a trap near Quierzy and he was cut off from his men and killed on 28 August. The same basic account of Henry's death is found in the Annals of Saint-Vaast, the chronicle of Regino of Prüm and the Annals of Fulda.Reuter, Annals of Fulda, pp. 100–01 and nn. 1 and 4.
Death, burial and epitaph The deaths of Hugh and Henry in August placed Count Odo in a preeminent position in West Francia. While writers looking back tended to see him as succeeding his brother Robert the Strong directly, he did not in fact do so. Rather, the sudden deaths of Hugh and Henry followed by that of the Emperor Charles less than two years later left a vacuum in the West that Odo was able to take advantage of to have himself elected king in 888.
The Annals of Fulda appear to assign blame for Henry's death when recording that he was "abandoned by his men". Regino records that Henry was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Médard de Soissons. An eight-distich epitaph for Henry was added by an eleventh-century hand to a copy of Regino's chronicle. A marginal note beside Regino's account of Henry's death directs the reader to the epitaph, which appears at the end of the manuscript.Wolf-Rüdiger Schleidgen, Die Überlieferungsgeschichte der Chronik des Regino von Prüm (Selbstverlag der Gesellschaft für Mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, 1977), p. 22.
Titles By 871, according to the Annals of Fulda, Henry was a count (Latin comes), a title the annalist prefers for him until the end of his life, even after he had attained higher rank. By contrast, Regino of Prüm, usually calls Henry a duke (dux), a title implying military command and the control of territory much larger than a county. Under the year 885, the Annals of Saint Vaast call Henry the Duke of the Austrasians (dux Austrasiorum).