Genealogy Van der Beek » Charles II The Bald of France (823-877)

Personal data Charles II The Bald of France 

• He was born on June 13, 823 in Frankfort, Germany.
• He died on October 6, 877 in Averieux, France, he was 54 years old.
• A child of Lodewijk DE VROME and Judith Welf

Household of Charles II The Bald of France

He is married to Ermentrude d'Orleans.

They got married on December 13, 842 at Quierzy-sur Oise, France, he was 19 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Judith of France  ± 844-± 870 

Notes about Charles II The Bald of France

Although progress would be painfully slow in northern Europe, thegreat descent into the Dark Ages had ended with Charlemagne. Towns hadlargely ceased to exist north of the alps, and civilization, as it wasknown under the Roman Empire, had ended with the successive invasions ofthe Huns, Vandals, Goths and Franks. Even the political unity thatexisted under Charlemagne was short lived, and centuries of local wars,hardship and struggle lay ahead.

According to the Annals of St. Bertin, on March 20, 845 100 Vikingships entered the Seine and, after ravaging first one bank and then theother, came without meeting any resistance to Paris. Charles the Baldresolved to hold out against them; but seeing the impossibility ofgaining a victory, he made with them a certain agreement and by a gift of7,000 livres he bought them off from advancing farther and persuaded themto return.

Christianity, almost driven out of northern Europe by the barbarianinvasions gradually began to regain the dominance it had lost to thepagans, and trade gradually began to bring back not only the staples oflife, but also those luxuries that had been missing for centuries.

But even through the worst of times, one luxury item that continued tofind its way into Europe was the trade in spices. For hundreds of yearsfrail ships clawed their way along the Indian coast, past thepirate-infested Persian Gulf, along the coast of South Arabia and throughthe Red Sea to Egypt. Those were typical ways of bringing spices fromthe Orient to the Western world in medieval times. To understand theamazing prestige of spices in ancient times we must remember for onething that food was neither good nor palatable. There was no cattlefodder that could be stored, so beef was killed in the autumn andsalted. There were no potatoes; no corn, tea, coffee or chocolate.There were no lemons with which to prepare refreshingly acid beverages,and neither was there sugar with which to sweeten them. However, a dashof pepper, a little cinnamon or ginger, mixed with even the coarsestdishes, could make them palatable. The demand for spices had spread likea wave over all of Europe - even beyond the fringes of civilization. Asransom, when he lay siege to Rome, Alaric the Visigoth demanded 3,000pounds of pepper and later, an additional tribute of 300 poundsannually. The barbarians from the north were quick to learn that spiceskept their meat fresher and thus lessened the supply problem during theirconstant forays.

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Timeline Charles II The Bald of France

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