A letter from Hugh of Fleury ()

Translated letter:

To Matilda, glorious empress, Hugh, unworthy monk of the monastery of father Benedict at Fleury, to rejoice equally in temporal and eternal felicity. I decided to collect this little book for you, my lady, so that the loftiness of your family might be known to posterity and the nobility of your ancestors published to future centuries. So I shall take pains to put forth briefly to you in the book of the modern kings of the Franks the acts of those who ruled after emperor Louis in France, for the raising of your spirits. Which history has never been put together in a series, but inserted here and there in codices and interwoven in other treatises because no one until now took pains to gather it together in one body and redact it in the form of one book. In this prologue, moreover, I shall take pains to recount to you the splendid genealogy of your ancestors and I shall briefly narrate their actions equally among the deeds of the aforesaid kings, and I shall declare clearly to those who do not know it, the nobility of your lineage. Rollo, from whose blood you issued, was a renowned duke of the Danes, who at the time of Charles the Bald, king of the Franks, after the death of emperor Louis, entered Gaul by the Seine, and conquered all of Neustria which is now called Normandy. Rollo was succeeded by his son William, William by Richard, a noble and magnificent prince. This Richard engendered another Richard, a man dear to God and very holy. And this Richard begat Robert, and Robert William, renowned king of the English/Angles who subjugated that kingdom by his industry which none of the Roman emperors had dared to attack except Claudius and Julius Caesar. No king of our time has been happier than this William or more moderate. No one can suffice to praise his magnanimity and magnificence, by which he appeared glorious to the ends of the earth beyond all the kings and princes of our time. Few later kings will, I think, imitate him and enjoy the affluence and elegance of his customs with which God and happy fortune endowed him in this life. His son and heir was Henry, magnificent king of the English, your father. Let these things briefly related about your highness’s family and lineage suffice. A short while ago I took care to collect a book about the deeds of Roman emperors for your aunt [Adela of Blois], the widow of count Stephen of Chartres, which contains the arrival of the Franks in Gaul and relates the lineage of the ancient kings of that people up to Charlemagne and his son Louis, Charlemagne who claimed the empire of the Romans by his industry and when he died left it to his son Louis. Louis then had four sons and divided it among them which led to great discord among them. Three brothers, Lothar, Louis and Pipin, fought bitterly against their brother Charles at Fontenoy, in the second year after the death of Louis, wanting to deprive him of the kingdom of France. But they did not succeed. The army of the Franks prevailed against them. And from that day to this the kingdom of the Franks remains severed and divided from the Roman empire. For Lothar got Germany and Italy and the royal cities of Rome and Ravenna, with the name of emperor, and his brother Louis Saxony and Bavaria, and Pipin Aquitaine and Gascony, and Charles French Burgundy, lesser Britanny, and Neustria, and he later acquired Aquitaine for himself. The genealogy of king Charles I shall describe in a subsequent book one by one in separate chapters up to Louis, the last king of this line who died without children. After his death the princes of France promoted Hugh the Great over themselves, the son of great Hugh, duke of France. I shall append that catalogue in order and relate the acts of all of them equally up to the present king, lord Louis, son of the most clement king Philip, as I promised, God willing, with few words. His acts I do not dare to contaminate with my uncultured pen. For what I write I now conclude with brief words, [interposing no covering of rhetorical eloquence.] Those things which we take pains to collect for you we do not claim as our own, but we have plucked(1) them by our sweat from many books to supplement the history we mentioned above and which as we promised we recently produced. But I ask you, receive favorably this gift offered to you and strengthen it with the sign of your authority. Fare well. Omnipotent God bless you with his grace and make you fertile with progeny and happy always with prosperity. Amen.

Original letter:

Matildi gloriosae imperatrici Hugo indignus monachus patris Benedicti Floriacensis cenobii temporali pariter et eterna felicitate letari. Presentem libellum vobis ideo, domina mea, deflorare decrevi, ut generis vestri sublimitas posteris innotescat et attavorum vestrorum nobilitas venturis seculis intimetur. Quo etiam in libro modernorum regum Francorum actus vobis breviter explanare curabo, eorum videlicet qui post Lugdovicum imperatorem regnaverunt in Franciam, ad deliniendum animum vestrum. Quae nusquam historia seriatim digesta, sed hac illacque quibusdam in codicibus inserta et aliis tractatibus interfusa tenetur, eo quod nemusque modo eam curavit in unum corpus adgregatam congerere et in unius libri formam redigere. In hoc preterea prologo vobis vestrorum attavorum splendidam genealogiam recensere curabo, et eorum pariter actus inter prefatorum regum gesta breviter enarrabo, et quae sit stirpis vestrae generositas, lucide nescientibus declarabo. Rollo igitur, de cuius sanguine processistis, Danorum dux inclitus extitit; qui Karoli Calvi regis Francorum temporibus post imperatoris Lugdovici decessum per Sequanam intravit in Galliam; et ingressus in eam, totam sibi vindicavit Neustriam, quae nunc Normannia vocitatur. Rolloni vero successit filius nomine Guillelmus, et Guillelmo Richardus, princeps nobilis atque magnificus. Hic quoque Richardus genuit alterum Richardum, virum Deo carum atque sanctissimum. Et iste Richardus genuit Rotbertum, et Rotbertus Guillelmum Anglorum regem inclitum, qui memoratum regnum sua sibi subiugavit industria, quod nullus Romanorum imperatorum ausus est aggredi preter Claudium et Iulium Cesarem. Nullus rex nostrorum temporum hoc Guillelmo fuit felicior ac moderacior. Eius magnanimitatem et magnificenciam nemo laudare sufficit, quibus ille usque ad terminos terrae super omnes evi nostri reges ac principes apparuit gloriosus. Pauci posthac reges, sicut reor, illum imitabuntur et eius affluencia et morum elegantia perfruentur, quibus eum Deus in hac vita felixque fortuna ditavit. Huius quoque fuit heres ac filius Henricus, Anglorum rex magnificus, pater vester. Hec in transcursu de vestra sufficiat dixisse prosapia et de progenie celsitudinis vestrae. Porro ego dudum amitae vestrae, relictae videlicet comitis Stephani Carnotensis, codicem unum de gestis Romanorum imperatorum deflorare curavi, qui continet Francorum adventum in Galliam, et regum antiquorum eiusdem gentis refert prosapiam usque ad Karolum Magnum et eius filium Lugdovicum. Quorum Karolus Magnus sua industria Romanorum sibi vindicavit imperium, et decedens suo reliquit filio Lugdovico. Lugdovicus vero cum quatuor genuisset filios, illud eis divisit. Unde inter eos magna discordia pullulavit, et tres germani, Lotharius videlicet Lugdovicus atque Pipinus, contra fratrem suum Karolum dimicaverunt atrociter, anno secundo obitus Lugdovici, apud Fontanidum campum, cupientes eum Franciae regno privare. Sed non valuerunt. Prevaluit enim adversus eos Francorum exercitus. Ab illo tamen die usque nunc manet regnum Francorum ab imperio Romanorum seiunctum atque divisum. Nam Lotharius Germaniam et Italiam sortitus est et Romam et Ravennam regias urbes cum nomine imperatoris, Lugdovicus vero, germanus ipsius, Baioariam et Saxoniam, et Pipinus Aquitaniam atque Vasconiam, et Karolus Franciam Burgundiam et minorem Britanniam atque Neustriam; sed et Aquitaniam ipse sibi postmodum adquisivit. Cuius Karoli regis genealogiam in subsequenti libro sigillatim per singula capitula denotabo usque ad Lugdovicum huius prosapiae regem ultimum, qui sine liberis decessit. Post cuius obitum proceres Franciae provexerunt super se Hugonem Magnum, magni cuiusdam Hugonis ducis Franciae filium. Cuius etiam cathalogum ordine suo subiciam, et horum omnium actus pariter usque ad presentis temporis regem domnum Lugdovicum, clementissimi regis Philippi filium, Deo annuente sicut promisi paucis sermonibus conprehendam. Eius vero actus meo inculto stilo contaminare non audeo. Nam quod scribo brevi sermone concludo [nullum rethoricae facundiae fucum interserens](1). Sed et illa quae vobis deflorare curamus non a nobis accepimus, sed a multis codicibus nostro sudore decerpsimus ad suplementum historiae illius cuius supra meminimus et quam sicut promisimus nuper edidimus. Vos autem munus vobis oblatum favorabiliter queso suscipite, et auctoritatis vestrae signo corroborare curate. Valete. Deus omnipotens sua vos gratia benedicat et prole fecundet et prosperitate semper letificet. Amen.

Historical context:

This is a letter of dedication of Hugh’s history of the kings of France, which he offers to Matilda with praise of her Norman ancestors.

Scholarly notes:

(1) The editor notes that these lines were deleted early on (linea transducta deleta sunt iam antiquitus).

Translation notes:

(1) The word Hugh uses for collect is "deflorare," deflower in the botanical sense, (cf. florilegium, anthology), so he has “plucked” the flowers from various sources.

Printed source:

Hugonis Liber qui Modernorum Regum Francorum Continet Actus to Matilda, MGH SS [Scriptores] 9 pp376-77