Fromont I, comte de Sens

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fromond_Ier_de_Sens

Fromond de Sens
title Count of Sens around 939 - 948
Other titles Viscount of Senses
Successor Fox I
Dynasty Fromonides
Birth around 914
Death 948 Sens [Yonne]
children Fox I [? a girl]

Fromond Ier de Sens (né vers 914 - mort en 948) est le premier comte héréditaire de Sens au xe siècle. D'abord simple vassal d'Hugues le grand, il est vicomte à partir de 939 puis comte de Sens jusqu'à sa mort en 948. Il est le fondateur et le plus ancien ancêtre connu de la dynastie des Fromonides qui dirigea le comté de Sens pendant un siècle.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fromond_Ier_de_Sens

Fromond I er de Sens (born around 914 - died in 948 ) is the first hereditary count of Sens in the 10th century. First simple vassal of Hugues the great, he was viscount from 939 then count of Sens until his death in 948. He is the founder and the oldest known ancestor of the Fromonides dynasty who ruled the county of Sens for a century.

Uncertain origins:

Many genealogies, and in particular the foundation for the medieval genealogy MedLands, make Fromond I a son of Garnier, count of Troyes and his wife Teutberge d'Arles, daughter of the count of Arles. There is no evidence to support this hypothesis and Fromond is absent from the list of Garnier and Teutberge's children.

An allusion in a chronicle mentions a relationship between Fromond and the count Herbert II de Vermandois. If it were proven, it would explain the rights of her son Renard Vetulus on the abbey of Faremoutiers in the country of Meaux, and the support that Eudes II de Blois, great-grandson of Herbert II, will provide to Renard le Mauvais in 1015.

The most credible hypothesis is that he was a vassal of Hugues the Great, maternal nephew of Herbert II, probably from his Loire clientele, installed like other vassals by the father of Hugues Capet in his new conquests of eastern Paris. This is the hypothesis followed by Étienne Meunier in his 1981 work on the Bailiwick of Sens which is based on the work of Michel Bur on the formation of the county of Champagne and on that of Canon Maurice Chaume on the counts of Sens in the 9th century.

The first name Fromond was then unknown in the region. A Saint Fromond is known in the English Channel. The first name exists in acts of Saint-Maixent [Deux-S%C3%A8vres].

The first hereditary count of Sens

Installed as a simple viscount vassal by Hugues the Great , count of Paris after the latter took meaning in 939, confirmed in this title and this function in 941. He knew how to erect his fief in hereditary county which he transmitted to his son Renard I at his death in 948.

Indeed, the domain gathered by Hugues the Great is too vast to be held by a single man. The royal ambitions of Robert, the extension of his domains, did not allow him to curb the empowerment of the fiefdoms that he distributed to his vassals. Apart from the original strongholds of the Robert dynasty, notably in Orleans, the withdrawal of the duke is visible in the 940s, consecrating the independence acquired by his vassals.

In 942, the viscount of Paris, Teudon-Thoudon, assumed the county powers. It is the same from Fromond to Sens when he transmits the county to his son Renard at his death in 948. Medieval chronicles allow us to appreciate this ascent by the titulature attributed to Fromond. In 942, when he seized the Sainte-Colombe abbey of Saint-Denis-lès-Sens , he was cited as viscount, Frotmundus vicecomes Senonum, in the chronicles of Saint-Pierre-le-vif. When he died in August 948, he was buried as a count.

Promoted late in 936 to ducal dignity, Hubert Le Grand subsequently promoted his own viscounts of Tours, Blois and Sens, to the county rank. The concomitance of the measure is proven.

Fromond had to fight against several Norman and Hungarian invasions in Sens. The Hungarians invaded Burgundy and Champagne in 945 and attacked Sens without success. However, many monasteries and abbeys were looted, including the abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-vif . He also had to fight like his predecessors against the powerful archbishops of Sens, notably Gerlanus-Gerlair, 938 - 954.

Around this time Ragenost Count of Rheims sized the city, taking advantage of the absence of Fromond. Fromond, sheltered behind the walls of the Sainte-Colombe Abbey of Saint-Denis-lès-Sens, and managed to take back the city and drove out the archbishop who had taken the side of Herbert II de Vermandois, count of Vermandois in his quarrel with Hugues le Grand. This event appears to have taken place in 945. Following his resumption of the city, he had the walls of Sainte-Colombe destroyed so that no one could imitate his example and take refuge in a fortress under the walls of Sens.

Family

His wife remains unknown but he had at least 2 children:

Renard I, his son and successor, count of Sens from 948 to 996 or 999; a daughter, mother notably of Sewin, archbishop of Sens from 977 to 999.

The Sacramentary of Sens Cathedral records his death in 948 according to Medlands; the date also maintained by Laurent Theis, unlike the death date of 953 maintained - wrongly - Larcher de Lavernade

This is the date chosen by Clement, while Larcher bases himself on the chronology of the archbishops for the date of 949 but he killed Fromond in 953. The date of Fromond's death seems more probably 948. It is therefore either a date error for the event which may have taken place earlier, or an error on the name of the count who should be Renard in 949.

References

(en) Genealogy of the medieval nobility of Champagne, Chapter XX: Counts and Viscounts of Sens ; site consulted on December 20 , 2011 Etienne Meunier, " The Bailiwick of Senses, 1194-1477 ", Master thesis in Law, Faco , nineteen eighty one Michel Bur , The formation of the county of Champagne , Nancy, University of Nancy II, 1977 , p.145 M. Chaume , The Counts of Sense in the 9th century , Nancy, Bsas, 1930 History of the cities of France , Volume 3, p. 111. Laurent Theis , New History of Medieval France, Volume 2: The Legacy of the Charles, of the Death of Charlemagne Around the Year One Mil , Paris, Éditions du Seuil, 1990 ( ISBN 2-02-011553-0 ) , p.130 [ François Clément , The Art Of Checking The Dates Of Historical Facts, Charters, Chronicles, And Other Ancient Monuments, Since The Birth Of Our Lord ..., volume 2 , Jombert, 1784 , p.593 (digitized version on Google) Charles Larcher de Lavernade , History of the city of Sens , Culture and civilization, 1976 (original edition: 1845) , p.62 Laurent Theis , op. cit. , p.201. Chronico Sancti Petri Vivi Senonensis , RHGF IX, p. 34. Cited by MedLAnds, note 1757 . Obituaries of Sens, Volume I.1, Cathedral Church of Sens. Sacrament Senesian of the 9th - 10th centuries, p. 2. Cited by MedLands, note 1758 and 1759 . Etienne Meunier, " The Sénonais at the time of dynastic change ", Bulletin of the Society of Historical and Natural Sciences of Yonne , no 119, 1987 (1988), p. 19 to 38 Larcher de Lavernade, op. cit., p.62-63. Larcher de Lavernade, op. cit., p.267 Larcher de Lavernade, op. cit., p.64-65.

Bibliography

   Charles Larcher de Lavernade , History of the city of Sens , Culture and civilization, 1976 (original edition: 1845) .

   Étienne Meunier , The Bailiwick of Sens (from 1194 to 1477) , version scanned by Google .

   François Clément , The Art Of Checking The Dates Of Historical Facts, Charters, Chronicles, And Other Ancient Monuments, Since The Birth Of Our Lord ..., tome 2 , Jombert, 1784 , version scanned by Google in 2010 .

   Michel Bur , The formation of the county of Champagne , Nancy, University of Nancy II, 1977 .

   Laurent Theis , New History of Medieval France , vol. 2: The legacy of the Charles: from the death of Charlemagne around the year 1000 , Paris, Seuil, coll. "Points. History ”( no. 202), 1990 , 280 p. ( ISBN 978-2-02-011553-7 ) .