Eric J. Goldberg - Louis The Pious and The Hunt

Louis the Pious and the Hunt
Author(s): Eric J. Goldberg

Source: Speculum, Vol. 88, No. 3 (JULY 2013), pp. 613-643
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Medieval Academy of
America
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Louis the Pious and the Hunt
By Eric J. Goldberg
History remembers Charlemagne not only as a great conqueror but also as

a mighty hunter. It is largely thanks to Einhard that we have this image of
Charlemagne as a second Nimrod, the "robustus venator" of Genesis 10.8-9. In
the Life of Charlemagne (Vita Kar oli) , Einhard mentioned hunting on no fewer
than five occasions,1 making it a notable leitmotif that distinguishes the work
from Einhard's literary model, Suetonius's Lives of the Caesars ? In Einhard's eyes,
Charlemagne's frequent hunting embodied the essence of Frankish manhood; he
wrote, "He often exercised himself with riding and hunting, which came natu-
rally to him, since there can hardly be found another people in the world that
can equal the Franks in this art."3 Einhard's emphasis on Charlemagne as a royal
hunter was something new in early-medieval historiography, since earlier chron-
iclers, like Gregory of Tours and Bede, had mentioned hunting kings infrequently
and only in passing.4 But the Vita Karoli was to cast a long shadow, and a num-
ber of subsequent early-medieval writers were to adopt Einhard's motif of the
king as huntsman.
Yet we should not forget that Einhard wrote the Vita Karoli after Charlemagne's
death, during the reign of his son and heir Louis the Pious (814-40). This ar-
ticle asks why a courtier and man of letters like Einhard, who wrote in the cir-
cles around Louis the Pious, might have placed such an emphasis on Carolingian
hunting prowess. Einhard's attention to royal hunting was far from isolated.
I would like to thank Noah Blan, William Broadhead, Valerie Garver, Thomas Noble, and
Speculum's two anonymous readers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. I
also want to express gratitude for the support of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung and the spon-
sorship of Rudolf Schieffer, which enabled me to revise this article during the summer of 2011 at the
Monumenta Germaniae Historica in Munich. This article is dedicated to Thomas Noble on the oc-
casion of his sixty-fifth birthday.
1 When recounting Charlemagne's military training of his sons (chap. 19), physical traits and hab-
its (chap. 22), huntsmen presenting roasted game on spits (chap. 24), renaming of February Hornung
("Antler-Shedding Month," chap. 29), and hunting during the last months of his life (chap. 30):
Einhard, Vita Karoli magni , ed. Oswald Holder-Egger, MGH SS rer. Germ. 25 (Hannover: Hahnsche
Buchhandlung, 1911), 19, 22, 24, 29, 30, pp. 23, 27, 29, 33, 34-35.
2 For Einhard's use of Suetonius see David Ganz, "Einhard's Charlemagne: The Characterization
of Greatness," in Charlemagne: Empire and Society ; ed. Joanna Story (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2005), 38-51, esp. 45-48. Suetonius mentioned hunting only in connection to
Domitian's skill at archery, and his comment is negative: Suetonius, Life of Domitian , ed. and trans.
Otto Wittstock, Kaiserbiographien , Schriften und Quellen der alten Welt 39 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag,
1993), 19, p. 648.
3 Einhard, Vita Karoli 22, MGH SS rer. Germ. 25:27.
4 Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum X, ed. Bruno Krusch and Wilhelm Levison, MGH SS rer.
Merov. 1/1 (Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1951), 4.21, 5.12, 5.14, 5.39, 6.46, 8.6, 8.10, 10.10,
pp. 154, 207, 211, 246, 319, 374, 377, 494; Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People , ed.
and trans. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), 3.14, pp. 256-61.
Speculum 88/3 (July 2013) doi:10.1017/S0038713413001711 613
614 Louis the Pious and the Hunt
Indeed, under Louis the Pious there is a striking, and h

abundance of references to royal hunts. In fact, we have
Louis's hunting than to that of any other early-medieval
sources report Louis's hunting on no fewer than twenty-seve
and that is in addition to the many references to hunting
etry. (The Appendix below lists all reports of Carolingian
twenty-seven hunting trips average about one recorded h
reign. This is an extraordinary statistic, vastly outnumb
hunting for any other early-medieval king. This article a
ers like Einhard in the circles around Louis the Pious who fir
ing from an elite pastime of little political significance in
of kingly representation. To put it another way, it was t
ing of the writing of history, biography, panegyric, and po
of Charlemagne's heir that elevated the hunt from an eve
suit to a prominent ritual of royalty. Why was this the
around Louis the Pious pay so much attention to the hu
thors talk about hunting, and what did the emperor's dev
to them? This article seeks to answer those questions. In
how and why hunting first emerged as an essential ritual
Europe.
The last few decades have witnessed a long-overdue flowering of scholar-
ship on the later Carolingians and on Louis the Pious in particular.5 While his-
torians formerly dismissed Charlemagne's heir as a weak, overly pious, monk-
ish king and as the "great emperor's little son,"6 recent assessments of his reign
have reinterpreted Louis to have been a ruler of considerable ambition, skill,
culture, and learning - and therefore of scholarly interest.7 Réévaluations of
Louis the Pious have emphasized the highly developed imperial ideology behind
his reign that built upon, yet in important ways departed from, the political cul-
ture of his father's palace. Some scholars have explored the flourishing of his-
torical writing, poetry, and biblical commentaries around his court, writing that
played a "crucial role in deliberately enhancing the public and political image
5 For an overview of this scholarship see Marios Costambeys, Matthew Innes, and Simon MacLean,
The Carolingian World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 154-222, 379-427.
6 Nikolaus Staubach, " 'Des grossen Kaisers kleiner Sohn': Zum Bild Ludwig des Frommen in der
älteren deutschen Geschichtsforschung," in Charlemagne's Heir: New Perspectives on the Reign of
Louis the Pious (814-840), ed. Peter Godman and Roger Collins (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990),
701-23.
7 Important milestones for the réévaluation of Louis the Pious include François-Louis Ganshof
"Louis the Pious Reconsidered," History 42 (1957): 171-80; Rudolf Schieffer, "Ludwig "der Fromm
Zur Entstehung eines karolingischen Herrscherbeinamens, " Frühmittelalterliche Studien 16 (198
58-73; Charlemagne's Heir, ; ed. Godman and Collins; Philippe Depreux, "Louis le Pieux recon
sidéré? À propos des travaux récents consacrés à l'héritier de Charlemagne et à son règne," Franc
21 (1994): 181-211; idem, Prosopographie de l'entourage de Louis le Pieux (781-840), Instrumen
1 (Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke, 1997); Egon Boshof, Ludwig der Fromme (Darmstadt: Primus Verlag,
1996); Mayke de Jong, The Penitential State: Authority and Atonement in the Age of Louis the
Pious , 814-840 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009); Courtney Booker, Past Conviction
The Penance of Louis the Pious and the Decline of the Carolingians (Philadelphia: University
Pennsylvania Press, 2009).
Speculum 88/3 (July 2013)
Louis the Pious and the Hunt 615
of the ruler,"8 while others have highlighted the highly C

penitential ideology behind Louis's public persona.9 In spit
arship, however, the image of Louis as a less dynamic rule
persists. One leading survey of Carolingian history states ma
out question, when seen as a whole, he did not come wit
energy, the same endurance, and the same skilled hand
first Carolingian emperor."10
But this image of Louis the Pious as somehow less vigor
sors vanishes when the hunt is brought into focus. To be
long noted in passing Louis's passion for the chase. In th
arly investigation of Louis's reign, Bernhard von Simson
political narrative to remark that a love of hunting was
Persönlichkeit."11 Von Simson undoubtedly was correct:
that Charlemagne's heir was an ardent and skilled hunts
and ideological significance of Louis's hunting remains d
torians, the emperor's frequent hunts suggest a dangerou
of royal business. Régine Le Jan described Louis's hu
dévorante qu'il faut satisfaire à tout prix,"12 while Egon
reckless, passion-fueled hunting may have contributed to
ses of the 830s.13 Yet other historians have offered more
Maria Schäpers and Mayke de Jong stressed the import
as a public assertion of political stability,14 while Rosam
preted Louis's numerous hunting trips as a sign of efficie
Others have voiced more positive interpretations of Car
8 Matthew Innes and Rosamond McKitterick, "The Writing of Histor

Emulation and Innovation , ed. Rosamond McKitterick (Cambridge: Ca
1994), 193-220, at 209; Peter Godman, "Louis 'the Pious' and His Poets,"
19 (1985): 239-89; Ernst Tremp, Studien zu den Gesta Hludowici imperator
Thegan, Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Histórica 32 (Hannove
1988); idem, "Thegan und Astronomus, die beiden Geschichtsschreiber
Charlemagne's Heir ; ed. Godman and Collins, 691-700. More generally,
History and Memory in the Carolingian World (Cambridge: Cambridge
9 Thomas F. X. Noble, "The Monastic Ideal as a Model for Empire: Th
Revue bénédictine 86 (1976): 235-50; idem, "Louis the Pious and His
belge de philologie et d'histoire 58 (1980): 297-316; Matthew Innes,
His White Teeth to Be Bared in Laughter': The Politics of Humour in t
in Humour ; History and Politics in Late Antiquity and the Early M
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 131-56; de Jong, Pen
10 Rudolf Schieffer, Die Karolinger ; 4th ed. (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2
11 Bernhard von Simson, Jahrbücher des fränkischen Reichs unter Ludw
Duncker & Humblot, 1874), 34-35, 81.
12 Régine Hennebicque (Le Jan), "Espaces sauvages et chasses royales
Revue du Nord 62 (1980): 35-57, at 48-49.
13 Boshof, Ludwig der Fromme , 268.
14 Maria Schäpers, "Ludwig der Fromme und die Jagd: Rechtliche, so
(master's thesis, University of Bonn, 2006), esp. 65-73; de Jong, Penite
15 McKitterick, History and Memory ; 267. For Karl Leyser, Medieval G
900-1250 (London: Hambledon, 1982), 242 and n. 5, Louis's hunting
"Carolingian enough."
Speculum 88/3 (July 201
general: to provision the court (Régine Le Jan), to reinf

derie between the king and magnates (Janet Nelson), as
court poetry (Peter Godman), to symbolize the ruler's dom
Dutton), and as an arena for political competition and con
In short, if we are to come to a better understanding of
need to take seriously his devotion to the chase and unde
the ideology of his court.
One must view Louis's hunting in its larger historical co
arship on premodern hunting has tended to focus on the
modern periods,17 the chase had become a defining badge
by the dawn of the early Middle Ages. In late antiquity
and hawks emerged as a key marker of a Roman gentle
rized "barbarian" elite of the post-Roman West quickly
badge of civilized, noble life.19 Procopius noted the gusto
16 Hennebicque, "Espaces sauvages," 35-57; Janet L. Nelson, "The Lord

Choice: Carolingian Royal Ritual," in Rituals of Royalty: Power and
Societies , ed. David Cannadine and Simon Price (Cambridge: Cambridg
137-80, reprinted in Janet L. Nelson, The Prankish World: 750-900
99-132 (esp. 120-24); Peter Godman, "The Poetic Hunt: From Saint Ma
in Charlemagne's Heir ; ed. Godman and Collins, 565-89; Paul Edward
of Beasts," in idem, Charlemagne's Mustache and Other Cultural Cluste
Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 43-68; Martina Giese, "Kompetitive Aspekt
im Frühmittelalter," in Streit am Hof im frühen Mittelalter ; ed. Ma
Plassmann, Super Alta Perennis: Studien zur Wirkung der Klassisch
University Press, 2011), 263-84.
17 This scholarship is vast; important examples include John Cummins,
The Art of Medieval Hunting (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988
im Mittelalter, ; ed. Werner Rösener (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprech
in den Erinnerungskulturen von der Antike bis in die Frühe Neuzeit , ed.
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000); Richard Almond, Medieval Hunting (
S. Oggins, The Kings and Their Hawks: Falconry in Medieval England
Press, 2004); William Perry Marvin, Hunting Law and Ritual in M
(Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 2006); T. Alisen, The Royal Hunt in Eur
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006); Martina Giese, "Graue Theorie
mittelalterliche Jagd zwischen Buchwissen und Praxis," Archiv für Kultu
18 For hunting and falconry in antiquity see Jacques Aymard, Essai
origines à la fin du siècle des Antonins (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1951); Kurt L
und Falknerei im Altertum (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1973); J. K. Ande
World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984); C. M. C. Green
Classical Antiquity 15 (1996): 222-60.
19 Pierre Riché, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West , trans. J
University of South Carolina Press, 197 6), 231-32; Peter Brown, The R
Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000 , rev. ed. (Maiden: Wiley-Black
ing in the early Middle Ages see Kurt Lindner, Die Jagd im Frühen Mitt
schen Weidwerks 2 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1940); Jörg Jarnut, "D
unter rechts- und sozialgeschichtlichen Aspekten," in L'uomo di front
medioevo: 7-13 aprile , 1983 , Settimane di Studio del Centro italiano d
(Spoleto: Presso la sede del Centro, 1985), 765-80; Claus Dobiat, "Die Jag
in Die Franken - Wegbereiter Europas, ed. Karin von Welck, Alfried W
and Michèle Gaillard (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1996), 720-22; Nao
of the Norman Conquest," Anglo-Norman Studies 27 (2005): 185-97;
adopted the luxurious lifestyle of the late Roman elite -

queting, ostentatious attire, the theater and hippodrom
hunting" - and this was true of most barbarian lords who
empire.20 Starting in the later fifth century we occasionally
engaged in the chase,21 and early-medieval law codes con
tion about dogs, hawks, equipment, and hunting techniques.2
tury the Merovingian kings began creating royal forests ( fo
pervision of foresters (forestarii) where they claimed a mon
and land use.23 By the Carolingian period, hunting and th
were the two pillars of a nobleman's education. Odo of Clu
hood education of one Frankish count this way: "Throug
devoted himself to the study of the liberal arts, but beca
parents only to the extent of going through the Psalter.
structed in secular exercises, as is the custom for noble
hounds, to become an archer, and to learn to fly falcons
Hunting was nothing less than a worldview that engraine
a sense of what it meant to be a soldier, gentleman, and lord
man, therefore, Louis the Pious was continuing a centuries-o
back to the late Roman aristocracy.
As with so many other Merovingian legacies, the Carolin

moral, administrative, and legal aspects of hunting and ro
the reform councils of Carloman and Pippin the Short r
prohibition against clerical hunting, thereby affirming the
of the lay nobility that differentiated it from the cleri
Normans on Hunting Practices in England," in Food in Medieval Engl

C. M. Woolgar, D. Serjeantson, and T. Waldron (Oxford: Oxford Uni
Alban Gautier, "Game Parks in Sussex and the Godwinsons," Anglo
51-64.
20 Procopius, History of the Wars, ed. and trans. H. B. Dewing, Loeb Classical Library 81
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1916), 6.6, pp. 256-57.
21 Sidonius, Poems and Letters , ed. and trans. W. B. Anderson, Loeb Classical Library 296/1
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936), 1.2, pp. 338-41; Gregory of Tours, Libri historiarum
4.21, 5.12, 5.14, 5.39, 6.46, 8.6, 8.10, 10.10, MGH SS rer. Merov. 1:154, 207, 211, 246, 319, 374,
377, 494; Bede, Ecclesiastical History 3.14, ed. Colgrave and Mynors, 256-61.
22 Jarnut, "Die frühmittelalterliche Jagd," 768-72.
23 Ibid., 775-79; Sönke Lorenz, "Der Königsforst ( forestis) in den Quellen der Merowinger- und
Karolingerzeit: Prolegomena zu einer Geschichte mittelalterlicher Nutzwälder," in Mönchtum, Kirche ,
Herrschaft , 750-1050, ed. Dieter R. Bauer, Rudolf Hiestand, and Brigitte Kasten (Sigmaringen: Jan
Thorbecke, 1998), 261-85, esp. 265-69. This was a break with Roman law, which had asserted that
wild animals were the property of no one (res nullius) and therefore could be hunted on one's own
property or the property of another: Green, "Did the Romans Hunt?" 237-39.
24 Odo of Cluny, De vita sancii Geraldi Auriliacensis comitis libri quatuor 1.4, PL 133:645.
25 For hunting as a worldview see Gautier, "Game Parks," 51.
26 Karlmanni principis capitulare , ed. Alfred Boretius, MGH Capit. 1 (Hannover: Hahnsche
Buchhandlung, 1883), 2, p. 25; Pippini principis capitulare Suessionense, ed. Boretius, MGH Capit.
1, 3, p. 29. On this topic see Friedrich Prinz, Klerus und Krieg im frühen Mittelalter (Stuttgart: Anton
Charlemagne occasionally made grants of forestes in Fra

and Frisia, a gesture that indicated that control of fores
Carolingian usurpation of power.27 By Charlemagne's day
key component of the training of aristocratic youths at
saint's life, the boys at the palace (regii pueri ) mocked
called him a "loser" ( degeneris ) when he refused to particip
(venandi ritus) P Charlemagne reiterated his predecessors
cal hunting,29 and he also put restrictions on laymen, f
Sundays and days of judicial assemblies.30 Charlemagne w
tical and administrative aspects of royal hunting as well.
On the Government of the Palace (De ordine palatii ), C
included four master huntsmen, a falconer, keepers of k
ests, and beaver trappers.31 The Capitulary on Royal Man
lis) assigned stewards of the king's estates a host of respo
hunt: maintaining kennels of dogs and mews of hawks; em
ers, and netmakers; protecting royal forests and game pa
fences; supervising the foresters; and exterminating wolv
perial coronation, Charlemagne again insisted that forest
fish, make sure no one hunted illegally, and, if he did gr
to hunt in a forest, that the recipient not hunt more th
Yet during his last years the emperor expressed palpable f
ing, which continued to be a problem despite his frequent
ordered that anyone found in possession of a dog with a
Hiersemann, 1971), 83-85; Hubertus Lutterbach, "Die für Kleriker

Waffentragens, des Jagens sowie der Vogel- und Hundehaltung (a
Kirchengeschichte 109 (1998): 149-66.
27 Urkunden Pippins , Karlmanns und Karls des Grossen , ed. Engelbert
1 (Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1906), nos. 28, 80, 84, 87, 11
28 Vita TrudoniSy ed. Bruno Krusch and Wilhelm Levison, MGH S
Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1913), 4, p. 278: "ut mos est regiis pueris, ve
though Saint Trudo died ca. 698, his vita was not written until Charlem
Bishop Angilram of Metz (769-91).
29 Karoli magni capitulare primům , ed. Alfred Boretius, MGH Capit.
sorum generale , ed. Boretius, MGH Capit. 1, 19, p. 95; Capitulare Man
clesiasticum, ed. Boretius, MGH Capit. 1, 6, p. 195. Charlemagne also d
not have huntsmen: Capitulare Aquisgranense , ed. Boretius, MGH Cap
30 Admonitio generalis , ed. Alfred Boretius, MGH Capit. 1, 81, p. 61
ed. Boretius, MGH Capit. 1, 17, p. 63; Capitulare de causis diversis, ed
p. 135.
31 Hincmar, De ordine palatii , ed. Thomas Gross and Rudolf Schieffer, MGH Fontes iuris 3
(Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1980), 16-17, 24, pp. 64-67, 76-79. See further Rosamond
McKitterick, Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2008), 149-55.
32 Capitulare de villis , ed. Alfred Boretius, MGH Capit. 1, 45-47, 62, pp. 87-89. See further Karoli
ad Pippinum filium epistola , ed. Boretius, MGH Capit. 1:211-12.
33 Capitulare Aquisgranense 18, MGH Capit. 1:172.
34 Capitulare missorum generale 39, MGH Capit. 1:98. Pippin of Italy made a similar decree: Ptpptnt
capitulare Italicum, ed. Boretius, MGH Capit. 1, 17, p. 211.
apparently the distinguishing mark of royal canines - wa

ence with the animal for questioning.35
Louis the Pious continued this Carolingian tradition of
related to the hunt. He notably intensified his father's effor
ests and confiscate those illicitly created by nobles, thereby
ing where the king hunted from where everyone else hu
to 818/19, Louis ordered his missi to undertake an empire
illicit forests: "Concerning newly created forests: That w
turn them over unless he can produce an authentic charte
by the order and permission of our father, the lord Char
of those that are for our use, we ourselves want to decid
with them."36 Soon thereafter, Louis confirmed his father's
to the monastery of Saint-Bertin - but only in the mona
("in eorum proprias silvas") and expressly not in nearby
forestes nostras").37 In 826 Louis demanded that his miss
of a certain Count Authar and even of his own butler O
officials seem to have been some of his closest associates. He sent his falconer
Gerric and huntsman Dagolf on important royal business, and he freed his for-
esters in the Vosges (where he often hunted) from onerous obligations not re-
lated to the hunt.39 Such developments suggest the rising status of huntsmen, fal-
coners, and foresters because of their close personal ties with the emperor.40 Indeed,
the falconer Gerric is attested in Louis's entourage from 794 to 826/27, making
him one of Louis's longest-documented companions.41
While the documentation for Carolingian hunting goes back to the 740s, ac-
tual reports of royal hunts emerge more slowly. Intriguingly, the first reference
to a royal hunt by a Carolingian author was not that of a Carolingian but of a
Lombard hunt: that of Pippin's rival, King Aistulf (749-56). The Continuation
of the Chronicle of Fredegar, which at this point was written by Pippin's cousin
Nibelung, reported that in 756 "King Aistulf of the Lombards was out hunting
in the woods when, by divine judgment, he was thrown from his horse against
a tree and, as he had richly deserved, lost both life and crown in a painful
35 Capitulare missorum 18, MGH Capit. 1:116.

36 Capitula per se scribenda, ed. Alfred Boretius, MGH Capit. 1, 7, p. 288. See further: Capitulare
missorum 22, MGH Capit. 1:291.
37 Urkunden Pippins , Karlmanns und Karls des Grossen , no. 191, MGH DD Kar. 1:2 56-57; Johann
Friedrich Böhmer, Engelbert Mühlbacher, and Johann Lechner, eds., Regesta imperii , 1/1: Die Regesten
des Kaiserreichs unter den Karolingern , 751-918 , 2nd ed. (Innsbruck: Wagnersche Universitäts-
Buchhandlung, 1908), no. 726, p. 293; Theo Kölzer, Kaiser Ludwig der Fromme (814-840) im Spiegel
seiner Urkunden (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2005), Urkundentabelle, provisional no. 185.
38 Responsa missis data , ed. Alfred Boretius, MGH Capit. 1, 3, 6, p. 314.
39 Depreux, Prosopographie de V entourage de Louis le Pieux , nos. 69, 117; Formulae imperiales ,
ed. Karl Zeumer, MGH Formulae Merowingici et Karolini aevi (Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung,
1886), no. 43, pp. 319-20.
40 Stuart Airlie, "Bonds of Power and Bonds of Association in the Court Circle of Louis the Pious,"
in Charlemagne's Heir ; ed. Godman and Collins, 191-204, esp. 192-93.
41 Depreux, Prosopographie , no. 117.
death."42 This first Carolingian report of a royal hunt i

what it says and for what it does not say. While Nibelu
ignominious death to convey the Lombard king's loss of
implication the transfer of that favor to Pippin), Nibelun
hunting itself was an especially royal activity. To put it anot
eyes kingly hunts seem not to have been ideologically sig
worthy of mention, unless something unusual occurred.
It was not until after the imperial coronation in 800 th
only near-contemporary report of Charlemagne hunting. It
Prankish Annals (Annales regni Francorum, or ARF), th
and the Earlier Annals of Metz (Annales Mettenses prio
Charlemagne hunting on six occasions: in 802, 803 (twic
However, the reports from the ARF and Einhard were p
Pious, and that may also have been the case for those of
them aside for a moment, we are left with only one acco
the vivid description of Charlemagne's hunt near Aachen in
epic poem Charlemagne and Pope Leo (Karolus magnu
poem offers a pro-Carolingian view of how Charlemagn
title in 800, and it seems to have been written soon aft
poet began book 3 by praising Charlemagne's greatness
imperial terms and describing Aachen as the "Roma sec
42 The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar and Its Cont

J. M. Wallace-Hadrill (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1960), 39,
43 Annales regni Francorum , ed. Friedrich Kurze, MGH SS rer. Ger
Buchhandlung, 1895), s.aa. 802, 804, 805, pp. 117, 119, 120; Einhard, V
Germ. 25:34-35; Annales Mettenses priores , ed. Bernhard von Sim
(Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1905), s.aa. 803, 805, pp. 90, 94
44 The date of composition of the independent reports of Charlema
Mettenses priores , s.aa. 803, 805, MGH SS rer. Germ. 10:90, 94-95,
traditionally argued that the first section of the AMP, covering the y
806: Hartmut Hoffmann, Untersuchungen zur karolingischen Annalisti
1958), 9-61; Late Merovingian France: History and Hagiography, 640-72
Richard A. Gerberding (Manchester: Manchester University Press,
Charlemagne , 61-62. However, Roger Collins, "The deviser' Revisi
Alternative Version of the Annales regni Francorum , " in After Rome
of Early Medieval History , ed. Alexander Callander Murray (Toronto:
1998), 191-213, at 195-97, makes the case that the AMP may in fact h
Moreover, McKitterick, Charlemagne , 31-49, argues that the section o
thirteen to fifteen years of Charlemagne's reign was penned ca. 817, w
date for this section of AMP, since the AMP quotes and paraphrases fr
More work needs to be done on the dating of the AMP.
45 Karolus magnus et Leo papas ed. Ernst Dümmler, MGH Poetae
Buchhandlung, 1881), 366-79; partially translated in Poetry of the Car
Peter Godman (London: Gerald Duckworth, 1985), 196-207. See furt
575-86; idem, Poets and Emperors: Frankish Politics and Carolingian
Press, 1987), 82-91. For the context of this poem see Am Vorabend d
"Karolus magnus et Leo papa " und der Papstbesuch in Paderborn 799 , ed.
and Peter Johanek (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2002).
46 Karolus magnus et Leo papa , lines 1-136, MGH Poetae 1:366-69.
behind the building of Aachen see Janet L. Nelson, "Aachen as a Place
of Virgil and Ovid, the poet then described Charlema

Aachen:
Not far away there is a lofty woodland and verdant meadow

A grove growing near the city has fields lush with streams
In its midst, surrounded by many walls
Everywhere all kinds of wild animals

Hide in these woods. For amid these shady groves
Father Charles himself, the venerable hero, constantly
Exercises himself with sport through the fields,
Chases wild animals with dogs, and, with menacing arrows,
Lays low a horned herd beneath the dark trees.47
The poet went on to describe a grand royal hunt at

royal hunts seem to have been smaller-scale affairs, wit
early in the morning with a few companions and servan
with assemblies and other festive occasions at court, roy
large and lavish. This was the case of the hunt descr
and Pope Leo . Here Charlemagne's poet radically revi
of hunting voiced by two late-antique authors from
Sulpicius Severus and Paulinus of Périgueux.48 He began w
morning preparations and the hunting party's depart
courtyard with a great blasting of horns and barkin
and royal daughters, all elegantly attired, accompanied
game park.49 The passage culminated with Charlemagne
boar:
Exhausted from running, [the boar] stands panting on tired

Now it defends itself with murderous tusks against the dogs
It lays low and drives off the savage Molossian hounds with
Presently father Charles himself charges into their midst.
Faster than a flying bird he pierces with his sword the beast
Breast and drives cold iron through its heart.
The boar crashes down, vomiting out its lifeblood
And rolls over in yellow sand as it dies.50
of Power in the Early Middle Ages , ed. Mayke de Jong and Frans The
the Roman World 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 217-41; McKitterick, Charlem
47 Karolus magnus et Leo papa , lines 137-52, MGH Poetae 1:369-70.
and collections of exotic animals see Karl Hauk, "Tiergarten im
Königspfalzen: Beiträge zur ihrer historischen und archäologischen Erfor
des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 11/1 (Göttingen: Vandenhoec
esp. 39-43 on Aachen. More generally, see The Medieval Park: New Pers
(Macclesfield, Cheshire: Windgather, 2007), esp. the article of Naom
Animal Parks," 49-62.
48 Godman, Poets and Emperors , 88-89.
49 Karolus magnus et Leo papa , lines 153-267, MGH Poetae 1:369-7
50 Ibid., lines 291-98, p. 373.
Following the hunt, Charlemagne distributed the game

presided over an all-night banquet in the park.51 Here we cat
albeit highly idealized, of the hunt as political ritual. Th
the forest, the chase itself, the distribution of game, and th
large hunting excursions glorified the ruler and his fami
fostered an elite sense of community among the king an
short, grand royal hunts encapsulated the political order
The hunting scene from Charlemagne and Pope Leo ther
the earliest description of a Carolingian hunt and the on
report of Charlemagne's hunting. Notably this first refe
in his reign, in a poem composed soon after the imperial
have long debated the ideological significance of the
Charlemagne, but unquestionably it included a heighten
"international" prestige and parity with the imperial ru
and Baghdad.53 The association of hunting with imperial
in the ancient world, and rulers like Ashurbanipal, Alex
Hadrian were commemorated in art and literature for th
As Peter Godman has noted, the author of Charlemagne
complex strategy of borrowing from earlier poets, espec
Aeneas's hunt near Carthage, thereby implying that Cha
Aeneas and new Augustus.55 In Rome, Charlemagne and
had studied the prominent depictions of imperial hu
Constantine,56 and they would have been keenly aware t
and Byzantine emperors had elaborate hunting villas and gam
gifts exchanged among the Carolingian, Byzantine, an
cluded dogs, falcons, hawks, and more exotic animals,58
51 Ibid., lines 312-25, p. 374.

52 For hunting, processions, and banquets as political ritual in the ea
"Lord's Anointed," 120-24; Gerd Althoff, "Der frieden-, bündnis- und gem
des Mahles im früheren Mittelalter," in Essen und Trinken in Mittelalt
Bitsch, Trude Ehlert, and Xenia von Ertzdorff (Sigmaringen: Jan Thor
Verwandte , Freunde und Getreue: Zum politischen Stellenwert der Gru
Mittelalter (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1990), 203
53 Costambeys, Innes, and MacLean, Carolingian World , 160-70.
54 Anderson, Huntine in the Ancient World , chaps. 1, 4, 6.
55 Godman, "Poetic Hunt," 577-78.
56 For Hadrian's medallions incorporated into Constantine's arch see An
Restless Emperor (London: Routledge, 1997), 284 and n. 14. Einhard ha
nography of the Arch of Constantine, since his silversmiths modeled the
Constantine's arch and fittingly transformed its hunting medallions into
evangelists: Paul Edward Dutton, Charlemagne's Courtier: The Comp
Broadview, 1998), 63-67.
57 For the hunting of the caliphs see Garth Fowden, Quasayr * Amra : A
Late Antique Syria (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 85
game parks are described by Nancy P. Ševčenko, "Wild Animals in the By
Garden Culture , ed. Antony Littlewood, Henry Maguire, and Jo
(Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection,
58 Notker, Gesta Karoli magni imper atoris , ed. Hans F. Haefele, MGH S
Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1959; repr. Munich, 1980), 2.8-2.9, p
fantastic beasts adorned silks imported from Constan

Charlemagne surrounded himself with images of wild an
ons and bears on the bronze doors of the chapel, a bronz
and an eagle capping the roof of the church.60 The heroi
Charlemagne and Pope Leo therefore had close associatio
new imperial status, symbolizing that he "was the univer
and animals."61
While there is only a single near-contemporary account of Charlemagne hunt-
ing, there is a dramatic proliferation of references to royal hunts under Louis
the Pious. As we will see, no two authors under Louis the Pious voiced exactly
the same attitudes toward the hunt. Nevertheless, three overarching themes
emerge. First, echoing Charlemagne and Pope Leo , writers stressed the imperial
ideology behind the chase. To put it another way, the writers of Louis's court
vastly expanded on the image of the imperial huntsman that they found in
Charlemagne and Pope Leo , on the Arch of Constantine, and in diplomatic gifts
from Constantinople and Baghdad.
Second, by reporting the hunting of both Louis and his father, authors empha-
sized the political continuity between regimes. This may have been a particularly
pressing issue for Louis, since his father had favored Louis's older brother Charles
the Younger until the unexpected deaths of Charles in 811 and his other brother,
Pippin of Italy, in 810.62 Even then, the elderly Charlemagne did not summon Louis
to Aachen and crown him coemperor until 813, suggesting that there was some
hesitation at court about the third son's abilities to rule the empire.63 By stressing
continuity in devotion to the chase, therefore, court authors presented Louis as
his father's natural successor, when in fact some seem to have had their doubts.
Third, under Louis hunting played a heightened role as a badge of the ruler's
martial prowess and physical hardihood. Through no fault of his own, Louis
came to the throne after the end of the Carolingian military expansion, when
Rarities (Kitab al-Hadaya wa al-Tuhaf), trans. G. al-Qaddumi, Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs
39 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996), 91-92; Ann Christys, "The Queen of the Franks
Offers Gifts to the Caliph al-Mutafi5," in The Languages of Gift in the Early Middle Agess ed. Wendy
Davies and Paul Fouracre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 149-68.
59 Percy Ernst Schramm and Florentine Mütherich, Denkmale der deutschen Könige und Kaiser
(Munich: Prestei, 1962), 95, 115, 154, and plates 6, 104; Dutton, "Charlemagne, King of Beasts,"
43, 61-62; Valerie L. Garver, W omen and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 2009), 59.
60 Schramm and Mütherich, Denkmale , 115 and plates 4-5.
61 Dutton, "Charlemagne, King of Beasts," 61. At this time Charlemagne's court was not the only
royal center in Europe developing this ideology of the imperial huntsman. The eighth-century Saint
Andrew's Sarcophagus, which probably was used for the burial of a Pictish king (perhaps Óengus I
[732-61]), depicts King David, dressed as a late Roman emperor, slaying a lion adjacent to a hunt-
ing scene: Sally M. Foster, ed., The St. Andrews Sarcophagus: A Pictish Masterpiece and Its
International Connections (Dublin: Four Courts, 1998).
62 Roger Collins, Charlemagne (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998), 156-58; Matthias
Becher, Charlemagne , trans. David Bachrach (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 126-31;
Costambeys, Innes, and MacLean, Carolingian World , 194-96.
63 De Jong, Penitential State , 16-22.
the remarkable era of Carolingian conquests across Europ

and the empire took on increasingly stationary borders
through diplomacy and through small-scale frontier cam
commanders.64 This shift from offensive to defensive w
of key public arenas, like the military camp and the vict
predecessors had presented themselves as triumphant gen
of Roman and Byzantine emperors.65 Indeed, as king of
presided over one of the last great Carolingian trium
Muslim-held Barcelona to the Franks in 801. 66 But, as r
static empire, Louis had fewer opportunities for such dr
and victory celebrations. In this context, the hunt seems
cial role as a proxy for war and as a public display of th
and vigor. This was vital to the stability of Louis's regi
nobles demanded that their ruler embody the bravery and
they prided themselves.67
One sees these three interwoven themes - imperial ideo
Charlemagne, and martial prowess - in the hunting reports f
rative source from Louis's court, the continuation of the An
McKitterick has argued that the section of the ARF cover
fifteen years of Charlemagne's life was composed early in
probably as early as 817.68 As McKitterick notes, the ARF9 s
for Charlemagne's last years provided a "cleverly orchestr
troduced Louis the Pious as his father's natural heir and t
perial rule.69 It is precisely these retrospective entries p
depicted Charlemagne's hunting as a key component of his im
64 Timothy Reuter, "The End of Carolingian Military Expansion," in

Godman and Collins, 391-405; idem, "Plunder and Tribute in the Caroli
of the Royal Historical Society ; 5th ser., 35 (1985): 75-94. See further
the Pious and the Frontiers of the Frankish Realm," in Charlemagne's He
333-48; Herwig Wolfram, "The Creation of the Carolingian Fronti
Transformation of Frontiers from Late Antiquity to the Carolingians,
and Helmut Reimitz, The Transformation of the Roman World 10 (
Costambeys, Innes, and MacLean, Carolingian World, 154-60.
65 Michael McCormick, Eternal Victory: Triumphal Rulership in Late
the Early Medieval West (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 19
66 Ermoldus Nigellus, In honorem Hludowici imperatoris, lines 515-64
Poetae 2 (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1884), 21-22; Astronom
ratoris, ed. Ernst Tremp, MGH SS rer. Germ. 64 (Hannover: Hahnsche
pp. 318-21; Charlemagne and Louis the Pious: Lives by Einhard, Not
the Astronomer, trans. Thomas F. X. Noble (University Park: Pennsylv
2009), 140, 237-38.
67 For Carolingian hunting as a sign of royal vitality, especially in old
Alter, Krankheit, Tod und Herrschaft im frühen Mittelalter: Das Beispiel
zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 56 (Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 200
68 McKitterick, Charlemagne, 31-49 (esp. 48), 54-55; eadem, History a
"The 'Reviser* Revisited," 191-213, esp. 202-3, similarly suggests that
were penned some time after the first version that covered the years 74
69 McKitterick, Charlemagne, 54-55.
70 Annales regni Francorum, s.aa. 802, 804, 805, MGH SS rer. Germ.
significant is the ARF s first report of a royal hunt, und

thor situated Charlemagne's first hunt (in this case, in the A
in the midst of other details that marked his new imperial s
title of imperator, his establishment of peace treaties wi
Baghdad, the arrival of the elephant Abul- Abbas as a gif
expansion of his empire in southern Italy and beyond th
emphasis on Aachen as his imperial capital.71 This account
the only previous reference to hunting in the ARF, wh
Continuation of the Chronicle of Fredegar) reported ho
Aistulf was struck down by the judgment of God while
the ARF authors under Louis the Pious established from t
of the hunt as a symbol of imperial ideology, political legitim
The authors of the ARF then used this leitmotif to hig
tween regimes. Beginning in 817, the ARF regularly repor
Ardennes, Vosges, and near Nijmegen, Frankfurt, and Salz
served as a golden thread woven into the fabric of the A
new emperor to his father. Indeed, the ARF suggested an int
ing under Louis: while its authors mentioned Charlemagne
occasions (802, 804, 805), 73 they described Louis's hunts o
occasions, sometimes more than once in a year (817 twic
823, 825 three times, 826, 829).74 Moreover, the ARF au
recurring phrases like "in the usual way (more suo, mor
the fall hunting season ( autumnali venatione completa )"
quency and duration of Louis's hunts. Here literary repr
ality: as Maria Schäpers has argued, Louis's seasonal hun
lasted "vielleicht einen guten Monat oder noch mehr."75 T
Louis not only continued, but also exceeded, the vigorous
At the same time, these frequent references to hunting calle
martial prowess and physical hardihood in an era when h
person. Indeed, the ARF author placed the very first rep
amid assertions of his speedy recovery from an injury
collapsed on him and his companions on Maundy Thursd
71 Ibid., s.a. 802, p. 117.

72 Ibid., s.a. 756, pp. 14-15.
73 Ibid., s.aa. 802, 804, 805, pp. 117, 119, 120. The ARF also implies a
809, p. 129.
74 Ibid., s.aa. 817, 819, 820, 821, 822, 823, 825, 826, 829, pp. 146, 147, 152, 154, 155, 159,
162, 167, 168, 171, 177.
75 Schäpers, "Ludwig der Fromme und die Jagd," chap. 10. One can use Kölzer's table of Louis's
diplomas to estimate the duration of some hunting trips reported in the ARF: Kölzer, Ludwig der
Fromme , Urkundentabelle.
76 Annales regni Francorum , s.a. 817, MGH SS rer. Germ. 6:146. The chronicler noted that the
emperor had been wearing his sword belt - a badge of Frankish manhood - when injured. Concern-
ing sword belts see Régine Le Jan, "Frankish Giving of Arms and Rituals of Power: Continuity and
Change in the Carolingian World," in Rituals of Power from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle
Ages , ed. Frans Theuws and Janet L. Nelson, The Transformation of the Roman World 8 (Leiden:
Brill, 2000), 281-309.
In short, his frequent hunting was a sign of the emperor

tial vigor, and thus of the stability of his regime.
Throughout Louis's reign, a number of authors develope
rial hunting. The earliest of them was Theodulf of Orléans, w
panegyric for the new emperor.77 The precise date of th
tain, but Theodulf seems to have written it some time
death in January 814 and his own disgrace and exile in la
In this work Theodulf wove together royal and imperial ima
as "rex," "Caesar," "induperator" (an archaic form of im
the "European kingdoms (Europeia regna)" While the poem
dard material for a panegyric, the bishop of Orléans stru
describing the emperor's hunting exploits and invoking th
As you yourself pursue wild beasts, so may you subdue ba
May you subdue Spain, as you yourself pursue wild beasts
As the wild boar yields to you, so may the Moor and Arab
May the Sarmatian surrender, as the wild boar yields to y
May you seize the necks of the proud, as a cast of falcons
As a hawk seizes a goose, so may you seize the necks of th
In this way Theodulf wove together the themes of imper

ing prowess, thereby echoing the ARF. Yet Theodulf als
timent as well: the hope that the emperor's success at the
cesses in subduing hostile neighbors. This idea that there was
the ruler's personal hunting prowess and the military streng
sisted throughout Louis's long reign.
During the later 820s, other poets and authors again took u
ing imagery. In 826 Ermoldus Nigellus wrote a long epic
of Emperor Louis as well as two verse epistles addressed
Pippin of Aquitaine (d. 838).80 A supporter of Pippin's,
iled by Louis the Pious to Strasbourg in Alsace for infidelity
works Ermoldus repeatedly appealed for pardon.81 Erm
77 Theodulf, Carmina , ed. Ernst Dümmler, MGH Poetae 1 (Berlin: Hah

no. 39, p. 531; Godman, Poets and Emperors, 96.
78 Perhaps Theodulf wrote the poem for Louis's assembly on February 2
when Louis received news of his father's death and was acclaimed em
and Lechner, Regesta impériu 1/1, no. 519d, p. 239; Astronomer, Vita
Ernst Tremp, MGH SS rer. Germ. 64 (Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhand
Philippe Depreux, "Wann begann Kaiser Ludwig der Fromme zu regieren?
für österreichische Geschichtsforschung 102 (1994): 255-70. Concernin
exile in 817/18, apparently the result of false charges of treason, see God
96-106.
79 Theodulf, Carmina 39.7-12, MGH Poetae 1:531.
80 Ermold le Noir, Poème sur Louis le Pieux et épîtres au roi Pépin , ed. and trans. Edmond Far
2nd ed. (Paris: Champion, 1964). Ermoldus wrote the first verse letter soon before he composed
Honor of Emperor Louis in 826, and he penned the second verse letter not long thereafter: Godman,
"Louis the Pious and His Poets," 255; idem, Poets and Emperors , 106-29.
81 Concerning Ermoldus and his poetry see Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance , trans. Godman
45-46; idem, "Louis 'the Pious' and His Poets," 253-71; Dieter Schaller, "Ermoldus Nigellus," i
read as a triptych, since he sent copies of each to both

is particularly striking about these works is that Ermoldu
the hunt throughout them. In his first verse epistle, Erm
of the Aquitanian countryside, and he envisioned Pippin r
rural palace built by his father.82 Although Ermoldus s
Aquitaine, he emphasized the excellent forests, hunting
(his place of exile) between the Rhine and the Vosges m
continued this hunting imagery in his second verse epist
love of the chase, Ermoldus began by comparing his pos
court poets to an eager puppy in the midst of a pack of b
For models of good rulership, Ermoldus offered Pippin
Testament kings as well as of Pippin's ancestors, and he
Pippin would listen to his In Honor of Emperor Louis , a
sent him.85 His central argument in this letter was that
God before all things. But here he voiced concern that P
voted to the chase:
To be sure you should enjoy the joys of the woods [and fields],
Catch this or that animal with dog and falcon:
One day should be reserved for the use of hunting weapons,
Another day should be reserved for carrying out more important business.
Cease to be a boy in both age and conduct,
Be a man: thus, O king, you are worthy to have your title.86
To drive home this message, Ermoldus told a humorous story of a pious hermit
who endangered his soul by adopting a stray cat.87 He concluded this tale with a
serious admonition for- Pippin: "I did not write these things for you, O king, be-
cause you love this kind of little animal: it is for dogs that your devoted affec-
tion should be less."88 In urging Pippin to put royal business before hunting,
Ermoldus echoed his grandfather's legislation on that subject as well as Jonas of
Orléans's On the Lay Estate (De institutione laicali ), a treatise in which Jonas
had devoted an entire chapter to the sins of excessive aristocratic hunting.89
Between these two verse epistles, Ermoldus penned his epic In Honor of
Emperor Louis , which, as he told Pippin, provided an idealized model of Christian
Lexikon des Mittelalters , 3 (Munich: Artemis, 1999), 2160-61; de Jong, Penitential State , 89-95;
Charlemagne and Louis the Pious , trans. Noble, 119-86.
82 Perhaps Angeac: Ermoldus, Ad Pippinum regem 1.11-14, ed. Farai, pp. 202-3 and n. 3.
83 Ermoldus, Ad Pippinum regem 1.77-134, ed. Farai, pp. 208-12. Ermoldus's reference to kings
{reges) hunting in the Vosges may be an allusion to Louis's recent hunt there in 825, when Lothar
visited him: Annales regni Francorum, s.a. 825, MGH SS rer. Germ. 6:167-68.
84 Ermoldus, Ad Pippinum regem 2.7-13, ed. Farai, p. 218.
85 Ibid., 2.109-200, pp. 226-32. Ermoldus referred to the copy of his poem about Louis the Pious
that he had sent Pippin at lines 139-42.
86 Ibid., 2.41-46, p. 220 and textual note c.
87 Ibid., 2.69-106, pp. 222-24.
88 Ibid., 2.107-8, p. 224.
89 Jonas of Orléans, De institutione laicali 22-23, PL 106:213-18; Godman, Poets and Emperors ,
127.
kingship - and royal hunting. Throughout this work, the po

the imagery of the hunt, undoubtedly because he knew
the emperor's personal interests. In book 1, for example, Erm
dant game and fish at Louis's palace of Doué, and he me
of the monastery of Conques, the land of which formerly h
by wild beasts.90 In book 2, he again suggested a connect
ety and hunting prowess when describing the foundation of
near Aachen: "It was once a favorite haunt of horned sta
wild cows and wild goats. But Louis acted to clear the reg
fully turned it into a place pleasing to God."91 In book
Louis's 818 Breton campaign - one of the few military ac
as emperor - as a hunt: he compared the Bretons to wild
and thickets, he likened their rebel king Murman to a ra
described Murman's palace as an overgrown game park.9
cluded book 3 by contrasting Louis's successful "hunt" in
(and the literal butchering of Murman)93 with the bucolic, w
at Aachen:
There is a noted place near the royal hall

Which is called Aachen and whose fame is immense,
Girded by a stone wall and surrounded by an earthen ram
Situated in the woods, where the recent growth is flower
A bubbling stream slowly meanders through it.
Different birds and beasts live there.
When it pleased the king, with a few companions
He would often go there for the thrill of hunting.
He would skewer the massive bodies of horned bucks with his sword
Or cut down does and she-goats.
When ice stiffened the ground in wintertime,
He set his clawed falcons against birds.94
Ermoldus's hunting imagery culminated in book 4 with a vivid depiction of a

royal hunt in 826 on an island in the Rhine near Ingelheim.95 He modeled this
hunting scene on that of Charlemagne and Pope Leo, thus revealing that people
around Louis's court were still reading this work.96 As in the earlier poem,
Ermoldus presented the hunt as a grand ceremonial occasion at court, but he
introduced some notable changes as well. To begin, while Charlemagne and Pope
Leo had focused on the hunting of the emperor himself, Ermoldus expanded his
view to include the exploits of the ruler's sons and companions:
90 Ermoldus, In honorem Hludowici imperatoris, lines 230-34, 744-49, ed. Farai, pp. 22, 58.
91 Ibid., lines 1238-1247, p. 96; Charlemagne and Louis the Pious , trans. Noble, 155.
92 Ermoldus, In honorem Hludowici imperatoris , lines 1304-11, 1346-51, ed. Farai, pp. 102, 104.
93 Ibid., lines 1726-31, p. 131.
94 Ibid., lines 1836-47, p. 140; translation modified from Charlemagne and Louis the Pious , trans.
Noble, 169.
95 Ermoldus, In honorem Hludowici imperatoris , lines 2062-2359, ed. Farai, pp. 156-80.
96 Godman, "Louis 'the Pious* and His Poets," 258-59; idem, Poets and Emperors , 111.
The whole wood resounded with constant barking,

Here the cries of men, there the blasts of horns
Here a little doe fell among the stags,

There a boar with fangs was run through by a spear.
Happy Caesar [Louis] slew many beasts;
Struck them down with his own hand.
Swift Lothar, in the full flower of youth, killed many bea
Other groups of men in the meadows slew
Many animals of different kinds.97
Ermoldus went on to narrate how even the young Char

toddler under the watchful eye of his mother Judith,
trembling fawn and thereby emulate his father.98 The ment
attention to a second notable change. Charlemagne a
numerous women - the queen, royal daughters, and
accompanying the huntsmen as spectators and socializing
all-night banquet in the game park. In stark contrast, Er
male presence to Empress Judith alone, thereby suggestin
the gender dynamics of the hunt." According to Ermold
post-hunt banquet, but the hunting party returned to th
evening mass and the ceremonial display and distribution
we once again catch a glimpse of the hunt as courtly ritu
nificant changes from the earlier depiction under Ch
emphasized that the hunt was a showcase, not only for t
peror, but also for his sons and nobles. At the same time
cant reduction in the mingling of the sexes by limiting
Judith alone and substituting evening mass for the all-nig
park.
Ermoldus wrote In Honor of Emperor Louis to ingratiate himself with the em-
peror and his counselors. Yet his verses drew the fire of another court figure, the
gifted Reichenau monk and poet Walahfrid Strabo, who joined Louis's entou-
rage in 829. Walahfrid made his debut at the palace with a daring poem titled
On the Statue ofTheodoric (De imagine Tetrici ), "the greatest work of Ludovican
political poetry."101 The poem's title comes from a (now-lost) equestrian statue
that Charlemagne had moved from Ravenna to the courtyard at Aachen after
the imperial coronation. This gilded statue depicted the Roman Emperor Zeno,
97 Ermoldus, In honorem Hludowici imperatoris, lines 2381-93, ed. Farai, pp. 180-82; translation
modified from Charlemagne and Louis the Pious , trans. Noble, 180-81.
98 Concerning this scene see Elizabeth Ward, "Caesar's Wife: The Empress Judith," in Charlemagne's
Heir ; ed. Godman and Collins, 205-27, at 218-19.
99 De Jong, Penitential State , 189.
100 Ermoldus, In honorem Hludowici imperatoris , lines 2396-2447, ed. Farai, pp. 182-86.
101 Michael W. Herren, "Walahfrid Strabo's De imagine Tetrici: An Interpretation, in Latin Culture
and Medieval Germanic Europe, ed. Richard North and Tette Hofstra, Germania Latina 1 (Groningen:
Egbert Forsten, 1992), 25-41; Herren, "The De imagine Tetrici of Walahfrid Strabo: Edition and
Translation," Journal of Medieval Latin 1 (1991): 118-39; Godman, Poets and Emperors , 133-44
(quotation from 147).
although the Ostrogothic ruler Theodoric the Great later

to it, and it was upon this secondary identification that W
In the poem, Walahfrid presented Louis the Pious as a n
stowed praise on the emperor's wife and sons and the lea
including Hilduin, Einhard, and Grimald. Walahfrid began
attack on Ermoldus, lamenting the decline of poetry in
Ermoldus's sobriquet Nigellus , "the Black," with the ph
(black dung).103
Walahfrid wove the imagery of the hunt througho
Theodoric, but with notable differences from the huntin
and Charlemagne and Pope Leo. The earlier poems had h
or's martial prowess and violent dominion over the natur
Walahfrid depicted the Aachen game park as an earthly
where wild beasts (bears, boars, wolves, stags) and perh
tures (lions, leopards, tigers, dragons) might live in peace
tle, oxen, and sheep.104 Here Walahfrid invoked the visi
Isaiah 11, which predicted the coming era of peace that
by the messiah who sprang from the root of Jesse: "The
lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf,
cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down
shall eat straw like the ox" (Isaiah 11.6-7).105 Through t
of the Aachen game park, Walahfrid shifted Ermoldus's
over nature to Louis's identity as a new Moses and mess
usher in the golden age of peace. Yet Walahfrid did not d
predicated on the killing of wild beasts. In his conclusion
the imagery of Theodulf's panegyric and interpreted the
emperor's military might:
Just as the bear, boar, timid hare, and swift stags

Antelope, wolf, and huge herd of wild cattle
Fear your bow in the lovely glades,
So the Bulgar and cur of Sarah, bad guest of the Span
The brutish Britton, shrewd Dane and dreadful Moor
Bow their necks in terror before your venerable hands.1
Walahfrid found a solution for this tension between th

with and domination of nature in a witty epigram know
Little Doe." In that poem, Walahfrid described a young tr
decomposing remains of a deer shank - a scene that Wala
bled upon while strolling in the Aachen game park:
102 Agnellus of Ravenna, Liber pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis, ed. O

SS rer. Lang. (Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1873), 94, pp. 337-38
and His Poets," 276-78.
103 Walahfrid Strabo, De imagine Tetrici, lines 10-23, trans. Herren,
104 Ibid., lines 115-27, p. 135.
105 Hauk, "Tiergarten im Pfalzbereich," 40-42; Herren, "Walahfrid St
30.
106 Walahfrid, De imagine Tetrici , lines 250-55, trans. Herren, pp. 1
What once covered bone marrow now nurtures a tree.

A shinbone produces a seed - that must be a very good omen.
I am astonished that the bark is not damp and that it is
Tougher than the very wood: such is the strength in the bone.
All things exist to serve you, great emperor: you go hunting for deer
And a forest grows up from their bones! Hail!107
Once again Walahfrid was thinking in terms of the golden age, since his de-
scription of the young tree growing out of the decaying remains of the hunt re-
called the first lines of Isaiah 11, which describe the messianic king as a new
branch emerging from the stump of Jesse. In this way Walahfrid put a positive
spin on this somewhat macabre scene, interpreting it as yet another sign of Louis's
Christlike harmony with nature. (The tree, of course, was also a symbol of the
cross and resurrection.) At the same time, Walahfrid suggested a contrast be-
tween Louis's regenerative powers and Charlemagne's more destructive hunting,
since Charlemagne and Pope Leo had described a scene in which Louis's father
heaped up slain stags beneath a black tree in the Aachen game park, without
any indication of rebirth.108 The implication was that Louis's reign, unlike his
father's, had ushered in a new messianic era of peace, harmony, and rebirth in
the human and natural worlds.
Einhard, too, had his own distinctive views on royal hunting. As I have al-
ready noted, Einhard penned the Vita Karoli, with its prominent depictions of
Charlemagne the hunter, under Louis the Pious, some time between ca. 817 and
ca. 829.109 Several themes emerge in Einhard's descriptions of the hunt. Most
notably, Einhard is the first author to emphasize the specifically Frankish mas-
tery of hunting, relating that Charlemagne taught his sons - who implicitly in-
cluded Louis the Pious - to ride and hunt "in the Frankish fashion (more
Francorum)"110 Einhard continued this message of Frankish and Carolingian
virtuosity when he reported that Charlemagne "often exercised himself in rid-
ing and hunting, which came naturally to him (quod Uli gentilicium erat ), since
there can hardly be found another people who can equal the Franks in this art."111
Here Einhard borrowed the language of the Vita Ansberti (written ca. 800), which
described how the young Merovingian prince Theuderic III (673-91) had like-
wise avidly hunted, "which came naturally to him (ut sibi gentilicium erat)"112
By echoing the Vita Ansberti and its depiction of Theuderic III, Einhard implied
107 Walahfrid, Carmina 27, MGH Poetae 2:382; English translation from Poetry of the Carolingian
Renaissance , trans. Godman, 214-15 (no. 28).
108 Karolus magnus et Leo papa , line 152, MGH Poetae 1:370: "[Karolus solet] sternere corni-
geram nigraque sub arbore turbam."
109 For debates about the date of the Vita Karoli see Charlemagne's Courtier ; trans. Dutton, xviii-
xxiv; McKitterick, Charlemagne^ 11-14; de Jong, Penitential State , 67-69; Charlemagne and Louis
the Pious , trans. Noble, 9-10.
110 Einhard, Vita Karoli 19, MGH SS rer. Germ. 25:23. In highlighting Frankish and Carolingian
mastery of hunting, Einhard reflected the pro-Frankish and pro-Carolingian triumphalist ideology of
the ARF: McKitterick, History and Memory ; 113-32; eadem, Charlemagne , 31-56.
1,1 Einhard, Vita Karoli 22, MGH SS rer. Germ. 25:27.
112 Vita Ansberti , ed. Bruno Krusch and Wilhelm Levison, MGH SS rer. Merov. 5 (Hannover:
Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1910), 7, p. 623. Concerning this text see Ian N. Wood, "Saint- Wandrille
that Charlemagne and Louis were upholding an age-old F

the last Merovingians allegedly had abandoned when, bere
tia , they gave up their chargers for an ox cart.113 To play u
between Merovingian decrepitude and Carolingian poten
that the elderly Charlemagne hunted "more suo" up until his
This Frankish devotion to hunting even shaped Charlem
Einhard noted that the emperor renamed February H
"Antler-Shedding Month."115 For Einhard, therefore, vigoro
sential component of Frankish identity and Frankish ma
the Carolingians ostensibly had rescued from Merovingia
Einhard also referred to hunting in his other major h
Translation and Miracles of Saints Marcellinus and Peter
Einhard described two hunting trips of Louis the Pious
Einhard's reports of Louis's two hunts did not fall just anyw
and Miracles. Instead, they appeared within the crucial op
Einhard recounted how he finally regained the relics of
his rival at court, Archchancellor Hilduin of Saint-Deni
of the miracles worked by those relics in his own mano
Mayke de Jong has described these miracles as the "apoth
tire work, and the passage intertwines the divine power of S
Einhard's status as a courtier.117 Here Einhard referred to
to emphasize the vigor of the emperor (although that vig
but to draw attention to his insider status at the palace.
tium rings like a bell throughout the passage. Einhard descri
going hunting "de palatio" and returning "ad palatium,"
a courtier's pride, how, upon the emperor's return from the
presented him with the gift of a vineyard and a heavy g
jewels. Einhard concluded this pivotal scene with the emp
ing, this time borrowing the phraseology of the ARF : "
parted from the palace for the sake of hunting in the cu
solemni) and went into the woods."118
and Its Hagiography," in Church and Chronicle in the Middle Ages: Essay
ed. Ian N. Wood and G. A. Loud (London: Hambledon, 1991), 1-14.
113 Einhard, Vita Karoli 1, MGH SS rer. Germ. 6:2-4. On this pass
Long Shadow of the Merovingians," in Charlemagne: Empire and Societ
114 Einhard, Vita Karoli 30, MGH SS rer. Germ. 6:34-35. Einhard seem
Ermoldus, who had reported Charlemagne's physical decline late in
Hludowici imperatoris , lines 652-81, ed. Farai, pp. 52-54. However, thi
accepting a late date (post-826) for the Vita Karoli , as one school arg
the Pious , trans. Noble, 11. But McKitterick, Charlemagne, 11-14, arg
817. Either way, one author seems to have been correcting the other.
115 Einhard, Vita Karoli 29, MGH SS rer. Germ. 6:33.
116 Einhard, Translatio et miracula ss. Marcellini et Petri 2.3-2.6, ed.
(Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1888), 246-47.
117 De Jong, Penitential State, 70.
118 Einhard, Translatio et miracula ss. Marcellini et Petri 2.6, MGH S
It is significant that Einhard's rival at court, Hilduin of

have encouraged the composition of (or perhaps even pen
cal work in which the royal hunt likewise figured prom
Dagobert ( Gesta Dagoberti ).119 The Gesta Dagoberti pro
count of the life of the Merovingian king Dagobert I (62
of the church of Saint-Denis. Hilduin apparently presente
in 835 the emperor referred to the Gesta Dagoberti in a
Saint-Denis.120 In the opening pages, the Gesta Dagoberti
hunting story about how the young Merovingian prince,
outside Paris, had stumbled upon the dilapidated shrine o
nessed a miracle there.121 As a result, he became a lifelon
The author went on to depict Dagobert as a model king,
virtues were those of great military leadership and hunting
lion, he subjected the necks of rebels and the ferocity o
strengthened by fortitude of spirit, often triumphed. ...
himself and thus was unusually vigorous in anything tha
tivity."122 Especially striking is the Gesta Dagoberďs claim t
saintly ancestor, Arnulf of Metz (d. ca. 640), who, as the
had taught Dagobert to hunt, "as is customary for the p
genti Francorum moris est)"123 In this way the Gesta Da
into the Merovingian past the recent emphasis on royal h
had been the Carolingians themselves, in the person of
taught the Merovingians the Frankish art of the chase.124
Around the time that Einhard, Walahfrid, and the author o
were writing, a group of chroniclers at court began a co
the so-called Annals of Saint-Bertin (AB). Scholars debate
thors of the Aß during the last decade of Louis's reign; in
point to several changes in authorship during the 830s an
119 Gesta Dagoberti I regis Francorum, ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH S

Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1888), 396-425. Concerning this text see Wilh
Levison, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter : Vorzeit und Karo
Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1953), 113; Wilhelm Wattenbach, Wilhelm
Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter: Vorzeit und Karolinger,
Nachfolger, 1957), 319; McKitterick, History and Memory, 214. For H
chancellor between 819 and 830, see Josef Fleckenstein, Die Hofkapell
Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Histórica 16/1 (Stuttgart: Anto
120 Epistolae variorum, ed. Ernst Dümmler, MGH Epp. 5 (Berlin: We
1899), no. 19, p. 326; Gesta Dagoberti, MGH SS rer. Merov. 2:396-9
121 Gesta Dagoberti 2-4, MGH SS rer. Merov. 2:401-2.
122 Ibid., 23, pp. 408-9.
123 Ibid., 2, p. 401.
124 The Vita Ansberti and the Vita Trudonis, both penned under Ch
lighted the hunting of the Merovingians: Vita Ansberti 7, MGH SS rer
ed. Bruno Krusch and Wilhelm Levison, MGH SS rer. Merov. 6 (Hannov
1913), 4, p. 278.
125 The Annals of St-Bertin, trans. Janet L. Nelson (Manchester: Manche
6-13; de Jong, Penitential State, 65-66. If Collins is correct that the lat
be dated ca. 831, then this chronicle, with its independent reports of
is clear is that the chronicler who took over the AB in m

vived the ARFs practice of giving reports of hunting. W
AB are notably silent about hunting between 830 and ea
late 835, the new author regularly described Louis's hunti
way the AB author used the hunt to connect the last year
ARFs hunting reports, which went back to Charlemagne
AB author employed the hunting motif to assure his read
tality of the elderly emperor and the return of political stab
lions of the early 830s. He narrated that Louis hunted in
836 at Remiremont and Frankfurt, in 838 near Ver and
at Kreuznach and again in the Ardennes. Echoing Einhar
over, the AB author called attention to Louis's enthusiast
last year of his life, noting that the elderly emperor h
criter") in the summer of 839 and with great pleasure ("d
autumn.127 With Louis's death in 840 and the beginning
ship, there is an abrupt end of references to hunting in the A
five years. However, as I will show, Hincmar revived the
hunts when he took over the chronicle in the mid-860s.
Louis's two biographers, Thegan and the Astronomer, demonstrate the range
of attitudes toward royal hunting in the circles around the Carolingian court. The
former of these, Thegan, who was the chorbishop of Trier, wrote his Deeds of
Emperor Louis ( Gesta Hludowici imperatoris) some time between late 835 and
early 838.128 In this work Thegan showed what can only be described as tepid
enthusiasm for royal hunting. Indeed, if we compare Thegan's Gesta Hludowici
with his chief historical sources and literary models, the ARF and Einhard's Vita
Karoli , we find that he almost completely expunged hunting from his royal por-
trait, a narrative decision consonant with Thegan's overarching objective of pro-
viding a highly Christianized and monastic model of emperorship.129 Thus he re-
ported that Charlemagne had taught his sons only the liberal arts and laws,
thereby omitting Einhard's emphasis on riding and hunting.130 Similarly, when
describing Charlemagne's last months, Thegan passed over in silence Einhard's
report of the elderly emperor hunting "more solito," and he instead depicted him
praying, giving alms, and correcting the Gospels.131 In his later chronological
and 805, is roughly contemporary with the beginning of the AB: Collins, "The 'Reviser' Revisited,"
195-97.
126 Annales de Saint-Bertin , ed. Félix Grat, Jeanne Vielliard, and Suzanne Clémencet (Paris
Klincksieck, 1964), s.aa. 835, 836, 838, 839, pp. 18, 20, 25, 33-34.
127 Ibid., s.a. 839, pp. 33-34.
128 On Thegan and his Deeds of Emperor Louis see Thegan, Gesta Hludowici imperatoris , ed. Ernst
Tremp, MGH SS rer. Germ. 64 (Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1995), 1-22; Ernst Tremp
Studien zu den Gesta Hludowici imperatoris , Schriften der MGH 32 (Hannover: Hahnsch
Buchhandlung, 1988); de Jong, Penitential State , 72-79; Charlemagne and Louis the Pious , trans
Noble, 187-94.
129 Innes, "The Politics of Humour, 131-56.
130 Thegan, Gesta Hludowici imperatoris 2, MGH SS rer. Germ. 64:178.
131 Ibid., 7, pp. 184-86.
chapters, moreover, Thegan removed all the references t

found in his chief historical source, the ARF P1 Indeed,
Thegan mentioned hunting was chapter 19, where he pai
of Louis that he loosely modeled on chapters 22-26 of th
Einhard had highlighted Charlemagne's love of hunting a
served by his huntsmen, Thegan instead focused on
Christian learning and austere self-control during banque
nore Louis's hunting skill altogether, noting that the emp
erful chest, broad shoulders, and arms so strong that no
shooting a bow or throwing a spear."133 Then, in the ver
same chapter he added: "In the month of August, when t
went hunting until boar season had arrived."134
In contrast to Thegan, Louis's anonymous second biogr
"Astronomer," made hunting prowess a central componen
emperor. Here he obviously echoed the Vita Karoli , a wo
The Astronomer was a learned churchman, courtier, an
Pious, and he wrote his Life of Emperor Louis (Vita Hlud
after Louis's death in the winter of 840/41. 135 Indeed, th
no fewer than seventeen separate royal hunts, making him t
ness to royal hunting for the entire early Middle Ages.
Astronomer emphasized Frankish and Carolingian virtuos
he described Louis hunting "according to the custom of
cording to the custom of the kings of the Franks (iuxt
[regum])."136 Thus the Astronomer viewed hunting as a
macy, and he therefore criticized Lothar's hunting in 833
usurped the throne from his father.137
For the Astronomer, Louis's devotion to hunting was par
sis on Louis's lifelong martial prowess and manly vigor. H
boy Louis already was an excellent equestrian, knew how
wore little boots and spurs; and he reported that Charlemagn
belt on him when he came of age.138 The Astronomer un
love of hunting was well established while he was still kin
the earliest datable reference to a hunt of Louis's (in ca
132 Ibid., 21-58, pp. 210-54.

133 Ibid., 19, p. 200.
134 Ibid., 19, p. 204.
135 Concerning the Astronomer see Astronomer, Vita Hludowici , M
de Jong, Penitential State, 79-89; Charlemagne and Louis the Pious , t
Past Convictions , 293 n. 129, makes the suggestion that the Astro
Walahfrid Strabo. While this hypothesis is intriguing, one notes that the
to hunting the same Isaiah 1 1 imagery that one finds in Walahfrid's De
gram on the deer bone.
136 Astronomer, Vita Hludowici 29, 35, MGH SS rer. Germ. 64:380,
137 The Astronomer paired Lothar's hunting in 833 with his illegitimat
bassadors who had come to see his father: ibid., 48-49, p. 480. The Ast
hunting master Burgarit died in a plague in 836 while Lothar was cont
ibid., 56, pp. 512-14.
138 Ibid., 4, 6, pp. 294-96, 300.
that Louis sent his falconer Gerric to his father to negotiate

imperial throne in 813.139 Here the Astronomer probably wa
description of the elderly Charlemagne hunting at this t
stressed the virile continuity between father and son. Th
corded Louis's hunting in old age during the later 830s
he noted that in 840 Louis died on an island in the Rhin
game park where Ermoldus had depicted Louis hunting in
tion was that Louis, like his father, died a true huntsman
Although the Astronomer highlighted Louis's lifelong d
he made it clear that Louis was even more devoted to Go
clergy, thereby exemplifying his overarching thesis "that h
but also a priest."141 It is possible that some contempora
scholars) worried that Louis hunted excessively, since th
of his way to deny the charge: in the prologue he stres
chief virtues was moderation, and he reported that Louis
of piety during Lent "that he scarcely permitted himsel
bit of riding."142 Indeed, the Astronomer playfully introduc
for reforming the church in athletic language more ap
thereby giving rise to what may be the only intentional
his entire work: "This was the holy emperor's exercise ( e
daily game ( ludus ), this was his athletic contest in the P
nia): seeing to it that the state might shine forth more brill
and practice, that he who adorns himself with sublime humi
in humility might rise higher in eminence. Finally, at th
with golden bindings and jeweled daggers, refined cloth
out with spurs began to be cast aside and abandoned by
ics."143 Here the Astronomer alluded to his earlier com
first came to the throne, almost every clergyman "knew bet
self to riding, to military exercises, and to hurling missi
ship."144 Luxurious attire, spurs, lances, and daggers - the la
for the "unmaking," or ceremonial butchering, of the gam
equipment of aristocratic huntsmen, not of bishops and c
that, concurring with the Astronomer's report, Louis's ca
his predecessors' frequent prohibitions of clerical huntin
ently considered the issue finally settled.146
139 Ibid., 17, 20, pp. 332, 342-43 and n. 250.

140 Ibid., 57-59, 61-62, pp. 518, 524, 528, 534, 546.
141 Ibid., 19, p. 334 and n. 209; de Jong, Penitential State , 83.
142 Astronomer, Vita Hludowici, prologue, 62, MGH SS rer. Germ. 6
143 Ibid., 28, p. 378; translation modified from Charlemagne and Lou
255-56.
144 Astronomer, Vita Hludowici 19, MGH SS rer. Germ. 64:334-36.
145 Cummings, Hound and the Hawk , 41-44. For the significance or hunting knives in early
Anglo-Saxon England see Naomi Sykes, "Deer, Land, Knives and Halls: Social Change in Ear
Medieval England," Antiquaries Journal 90 (2010): 175-93.
146 However, the Concilium Romanům of 826 did legislate on this issue: Eugenii II Concilium R
manům 12, ed. Alfred Boretius, MGH Capit. 1:373.
Another distinctive aspect of the Vita Hludowici is that

and 834, the Astronomer reported that Louis not only went
but also went fishing.147 Royal forests and hunting parks of
fish as well as game, and Ermoldus had praised the fishin
Vosges. The Astronomer's description of Louis fishing, of
parison with Christ's apostles, and it also recalls a memor
the Vita of Louis's ancestor, Saint Arnulf of Metz.148 Nev
ences to royal angling are unusual. While the Fisher Kin
erary figure from late-medieval Arthurian traditions, th
ably few references to kings fishing in the early Middle Age
other report of an early-medieval ruler fishing is that of
the Annals of Saint- Amand reported under the year 800
fishing along the coast immediately before departing for
in Rome.150 The Astronomer himself mentioned this tri
the ocean, and he explicitly stated that Louis's father had
erary "as he was at rest from foreign wars (utpote ab e
//s)."151 The Astronomer's comment recalls the Life of Aug
reported that Augustus took up fishing and other peace
ately after the civil wars (statím post civilia bella)."152 In th
significant that the Astronomer placed his two referenc
mediately after narrating how he had regained the thro
lions of 830 and 833. Through his unusual references to
fore, the Astronomer suggested a comparison with Cha
and conveyed the notion that the empire had returned t
ods of civil war.
Perhaps the most interesting reference to hunting in the Vita Hludowici falls
in the pivotal chapter 58, which notably is the only place where the Astronomer
referred to himself.153 In that chapter, the anonymous biographer recorded how,
one night in the spring of 837, the emperor interrogated him about what was
147 Astronomer, Vita Hludowici imperatoris 31, 52, MGH SS rer. Germ. 64:466, 492.
148 Vita Arnulfi episcopi Mettensis , ed. Bruno Krusch, MGH SS rer. Merov. 2 (Hannover: Hahnsche
Buchhandlung, 1883), 6, pp. 426-46.
149 The late Carolingian epic Waltharius described its eponymous hero fishing, but the poet went
out of his way to explain that Walter was forced to perform this unwelcome labor because he was
fleeing from the Huns through the forests of Germany: Waltharius , lines 271-73, 423-25, ed. and
trans. Dennis M. Kratz, "Waltharius" and "Ruodlieb," The Garland Library of Medieval Literature
A/13 (New York: Garland, 1984), 14-16, 22. For the Arthurian tradition of the Fisher King see
Richard W. Barber, The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
2004), esp. 43-49. For fishing as sport in the later Middle Ages see Richard C. Hoffmann, "Fishing
for Sport in Medieval Europe: New Evidence," Speculum 60 (1985): 877-902.
150 Annales sancti Amandi , ed. Georg Heinrich Pertz, MGH SS 1 (Hannover: Hahnsche
Buchhandlung, 1826), s.a. 800, p. 14.
151 Astronomer, Vita Hludowici imperatoris 12, MGH SS rer. Germ. 64:312. The Astronomer mis-
dated this trip to the coast by one year, placing it immediately after the imperial coronation (p. 313
n. 133).
152 Suetonius, Life of Augustus 83, ed. Wittstock, Kaiserbiographien, 160.
153 Astronomer, Vita Hludowici imperatoris 58, MGH SS rer. Germ. 64:518-24. For a new expla-
nation of the heavenly phenomena the Astronomer describes, see Scott Ashley, "What Did Louis the
believed to be a comet, thereby earning him his astronom

their learned discussion, the emperor concluded that the
approaching death, and he therefore spent the night in a
ing to hunt early the next morning. The Astronomer no
uted alms to the poor and clergy and had masses celebrat
for the Ardennes, thereby underscoring once again that
church before the chase. He concluded the chapter with
servation: "This hunt yielded to him vastly more than us
everything that pleased him at that time turned out to h
other words, the Astronomer interpreted this unusually succ
that the emperor, by means of his prayer vigil and almsg
God's favor in the aftermath of the ominous comet.155 A
Astronomer, like Einhard, told this hunting story to rem
own insider status at the palace.
Following Louis the Pious's death in 840, his successors,

to hunt. Indeed, at the courts of his sons Louis the Ger
Bald we find an important new development in the histor
the first surviving treatises related to hunting and falconry
clers reported royal hunts only sporadically and with mu
chroniclers under the second Carolingian emperor. The c
840 seems to be the return to more frequent military campa
ership. With Louis the Pious's descendants once again co
person (both against outside enemies as well as against ea
ing apparently lost some of its importance as a proxy for
appeared altogether as a claim to royal legitimacy and qu
Thus Nithard, who chronicled the civil wars among Lou
Lothar I's 842 hunt in the Ardennes as a sign of his con
regions of the empire.157 The Annals of Xanten interpreted
of Lothar I and Louis the German in 850 near Aachen
political alliance.158
Pious See in the Night Sky? A New Interpretation of the Astronomer'

837," Early Medieval Europe 21 (2013): 27-49.
154 Astronome^ Vita Hludowici imperatoris 58, MGH SS rer. Germ
echo of Livy); translation from Charlemagne and Louis the Pioust tran
155 Here the Astronomer echoed Charlemagne and Pope Leo , in whic
his slaying of the boar as a sign of good fortuna: Karolus magnus et
1:373-74.
156 Eric J. Goldberg, " The Hunt Belongs to Man': Some Neglected Treatises Related to Huntin
and Falconry from the Court of Louis the German," in Discovery and Distinction in the Early Midd
Ages: Studies in Honor of John ]. Contreni , ed. Cullen J. Chandler and Steven A. Stoffera
(Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, forthcoming), 31-56.
157 Nithard, Historiarum libri IUI , ed. Ernst Müller, MGH SS rer. Germ. 44 (Hannover: Hahnsc
Buchhandlung, 1907), 4.4, p. 45.
158 Annales Xantenses , ed. Bernhard von Simson, MGH SS rer. Germ. 12 (Hannover: Hahnsc
Buchhandlung, 1909), s.a. 850, p. 17.
In the later ninth and tenth centuries, chroniclers ominous

attention to royal hunts gone wrong as well as to the huntin
This shift in the nature of hunting narratives reflects la
the late Carolingians: the early deaths of Carolingian men
of whom perished from hunting injuries159 - as well as the
bitions of Frankish magnates. While the so-called Annals
tion of east Frankish Carolingian hunts, they noted the prac
the increasingly powerful rulers of Moravia and the gru
the Bald's grandson Carloman, when he was gored by a
Making pointed criticism of the policies of Charles the Fa
of Fulda darkly noted the Northmen's usurpation of Car
around Paris in 886: "They took possession of the entire
to hunt and sport with no one to prevent them."161 Re
rated a large number of hunting disasters into his Chron
Merovingian king Chilperic while returning from a hunt
ing injury of King Aistulf in 756, the fatal wounds suffered
son while hunting in 864, the death of Carloman while bo
Magyars' usurpation of hunting and fishing rights in Pan
Eberhard's murder while hunting in 898.162 Regino wrot
efit of hindsight, and his litany of hunting mishaps conv
of the late Carolingian dynasty and the dynasty's apparent lo
During the Carolingian "restoration" in tenth-century W
tastrophes continued to haunt Louis the Pious's distant
reported how Louis IV the Seafarer (936-54) died after b
horse while pursuing a wolf near Reims.164 Richer simil
last Carolingian king, Louis V (986-87), died from interna
from his horse while hunting near Senlis.165 With this final
long line of Carolingian kings came to its dark end.
Among late Carolingian chroniclers, two placed special em
ing: Hincmar of Reims and Notker the Stammerer. H
159 Hack, Alter, Krankheit , Tod und Herrschaft , 132-46.

160 Annales Fuldenses , ed. Friedrich Kurze, MGH SS rer. Germ
Buchhandlung, 1891), s.aa. 870, 884, pp. 70, 101.
161 Ibid., s.a. 886, p. 104.
162 Regino, Chronicon , ed. Friedrich Kurze, MGH SS rer. Germ
Buchhandlung, 1890), s.aa. 517-537, 755, 870, 884, 889, 898, pp. 2
146.
163 Stuart Airlie, " 'Sad Stories of the Deaths of Kings': Narrative Patterns and Structures of Authority
in Regino of Priim's Chronicle , " in Narrative and History in the Early Medieval West , ed. Elizabeth
M. Tyler and Ross Balzaretti, Studies in the Early Middle Ages 16 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006), 105-
31; History and Politics in Late Carolingian and Ottoman Europe: The " Chronicle " of Regino of
Prüm and Adalbert of Metz, trans. Simon MacLean (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009),
1-53.
164 Flodoard, Les Annales de Flodoard, ed. Philippe Lauer, Collection des Textes pour Servir à
l'Enseignement de l'Histoire 39 (Paris: A. Picard et fils, 1905), s.a. 954, p. 138; also reported by
Richer of Reims, Historiarum libri IIII, ed. Hartmut Hoffmann, MGH SS 38 (Hannover: Hahnsche
Buchhandlung, 2000), 2.103, p. 170.
165 Richer of Rheims, Historiarum libri 4.5, MGH SS 38:234.
Speculum 88/3 (July 201 3)
authorship of the AB in the early 860s, and he revived th

that he found in the earlier sections of the AB and ARF. Hincmar wrote as a
supporter of Charles the Bald, and in his hands the hunt reemerged as an impor-
tant symbol of political legitimacy. Under the year 864 Hincmar inaugurated his
reports of royal hunting with no fewer than four separate references, the most
reported hunts for a single year in any early-medieval chronicle.166 Notably, all
four of these hunts in 864 involved mishaps: Charles the Bald's son Charles the
Child suffered a grievous injury when returning from the hunt one evening, Louis
the German's son Carloman escaped his father's custody while hunting, Louis the
German himself fell from his horse and injured his ribs in a game park, and Louis
II of Italy was gored by a stag.167 Hincmar contrasted these hunts gone wrong in
864 with those of his patron Charles the Bald, whom he described regularly hunt-
ing in the autumn without mishap: in 865 (at Orville), 867 (Orville), 868 (Orville),
869 (Ardennes), 870 (Cuise), 871 (Orville), 872 (Ardennes), and 873 (Orville).168
In this way, Hincmar implied that Charles the Bald was the only Carolingian who
maintained his predecessors' tradition of vigorous hunting. Charles the Bald him-
self sought to maintain firm control over royal forests, just as his father and grand-
father had done. In the capitulary of Quierzy (877), he gave detailed instructions
about where his son could and could not hunt and exactly how much game he
could take from his forests.169
The hunt likewise remained an important symbol of royalty for Notker the
Stammerer, who included a number of hunting stories in his Deeds of
Charlemagne , which he wrote for Charles the Fat in 885-87.170 Time and again,
Notker employed the motif of the hunt to epitomize traditional Carolingian po-
litical dominance - a dominance that was in danger of collapsing because of an
unprecedented dynastic crisis. One of Notker's first hunting stories concerned
the exploits of Pippin the Short, thereby projecting Carolingian hunting prow-
ess back to the family's first king. According to Notker, when Pippin returned
from laying siege to Pavia, he learned that some of the nobles were accusing
him of cowardice and making fun of his short stature. Pippin therefore had a
lion and an ox released in his courtyard and challenged anyone to slay them.
When no one volunteered, Pippin drew his sword and slew both animals with a
single stroke. The stupefied nobles fell to the ground and exclaimed, "A man
166 For an analysis of Hincmar's entry for the year 864 in the AB see Janet L. Nelson, "A Tale of
Two Princes: Politics, Text, and Ideology in a Carolingian Annal," Studies in Medieval and Renaissance
History 10 (1988): 105-41.
167 Annales de Saint-Bertin, s.a. 864, ed. Grat, Vielliard, Clémencet, pp. 105, 114-15.
168 Ibid., s.aa. 865, 867, 868, 869, 870, 871 (canceled), 872, 873, pp. 123, 137, 151, 164, 175,
182, 188, 195.
169 Capitulare Carisiacense , ed. Alfred Boretius and Victor Krause, MGH Capit. 2 (Hannover:
Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1897), 32-33, p. 361.
170 For his hunting stories see Notker, Gesta Karoli imperatoris 1.20, 2.8, 2.9, 2.13, 2.15, 2.17,
MGH SS rer. Germ. 12:26-27, 60-61, 63-64, 76, 79-80, 86-87. Concerning Notker see Simon
MacLean, Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century : Charles the Fat and the End of the
Carolingian Empire , Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th ser., 57 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003), 201-4; Charlemagne and Louis the Pious , trans. Noble, 51-59.
would have to be crazy to deny your right to rule over mank

seems to have been inspired by the widely disseminated accou
hunting death in 756, contrasting the Lombard king's ig
Pippin's hunting prowess and political power. Notker co
sage about Carolingian hunting in his story about Harun
the hunting prowess of Charlemagne's ambassadors and
allegedly muttered to himself, "Now I know how true are
about my brother Charles. By hunting so assiduously, and
and mind with unflagging zeal, he is accustomed to dom
der heaven."172 In both these scenes, Notker, like Hincm
with power, prowess, and political legitimacy. Conversely
a negative light the hunting of rulers who had political
those of the Carolingians: he told the story of how the
was murdered by his son while hawking, he accused Mu
cowardice during a hunt while visiting Charlemagne's cou
at an effete Byzantine emperor who ate fish instead of r
Following the demise of the Carolingian dynasty, chronicle
attention to the hunting prowess of the new rulers of Europ
Charles the Fat, for example, the first Robertian king O
ing in the royal forest of Cuise, where Charles the Bald f
charter dated 889 narrates that, soon after coming to t
was staying in the forest of Cuise to hunt, as is the roya
at the place called Audita, with the bishops, counts, and roya
at the West Saxon court in Britain, Asser praised the huntin
Great (871-99) and, like Einhard and the Astronomer, sim
tention to his own insider status as a courtier: "An enthusias
strives continually in every branch of hunting, and not
could approach him in skill and success in that activity, j
of God, as I have so often seen for myself."175 In the te
of Corvey painted a similar picture of the first Ottonia
36): "He was so keen at hunting that in a single outing h
171 Notker, Gesta Karoli imperatoris 2.15, MGH SS rer. Germ. 12:80; tra
and Louis the Pious , trans. Noble, 109.
172 Notker, Gesta Karoli imperatoris 2.9, MGH SS rer. Germ. 12:64; tran
and Louis the Pious , trans. Noble, 99-100.
173 Notker, Gesta Karoli imperatoris 2.6, 2.8, 2.13, MGH SS rer. Ger
174 Recueil des actes d'Eudes , roi de France (888-898), ed. Robert-Henri
1967), no. 14, p. 67.
175 Asser, De rebus gestis Mlfredi , ed. William Henry Stevenson, Ass
gether with the " Annals of Saint Neots" Erroneously Ascribed to Asse
1959), 22, pp. 19-20; translation based on Alfred the Great : Asser's " Life
Contemporary Sources , trans. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge (Har
74-75. Like Charlemagne, Alfred reportedly made sure his sons receive
arts as well as "hunting and other skills appropriate to noblemen," and
falconers, hawk trainers, and dog keepers in his entourage: Asser, De reb
Stevenson, pp. 55, 58-59.
wild animals."176 Liudprand of Cremona likewise wrote

eral occasions. He reported that Emperor Lambert II of
(and allegedly was murdered) in the royal forest of Mar
praised the game parks of Emperor Otto I (936-73), and
that the Byzantine emperor Nicephorus II (963-69) hunt
like the common mules from Cremona.177
This image of the imperial hunter was one of the most enduring legacies of Louis
the Pious's reign for the subsequent history of Europe. It was the poets and chron-
iclers around Louis's court who elevated hunting from a mere elite pastime into a
prominent ritual of royalty. This surge in reports of royal hunts coincided with
the spike in historical writing and poetry that took place under Louis, but it was
far from inevitable. Instead, this new emphasis on royal hunting arose out of the
specific historical circumstances of Louis's reign. Not only did it reflect the fact
that Louis was an ardent huntsman, but it also enabled the court to highlight
Louis's imperial status, his political continuity with Charlemagne, and his mar-
tial prowess in an age when Frankish military expansion had come to an end. At
the same time, poets and chroniclers used the motif of the hunt to win the favor
of the hunt-loving emperor and to call attention to their insider status in the pal-
ace. While subsequent early-medieval authors perpetuated this motif of the king
as huntsman, it never reattained the prominence it had under Louis the Pious,
apparently because of the reemergence of kings as military leaders after the breakup
of the Carolingian empire. Attention to Louis's hunting gives us a new perspec-
tive on Charlemagne's heir and problematizes further the outdated image of him
as a weak, indolent, overly pious ruler whose reign marked the beginning of the
end of the Carolingian dynasty. When it came to the hunt, it seems that Louis the
Pious not only equaled but even surpassed the exploits of his famous father.
Appendix
Reports of Carolingian Hunts, 751-987
Year (Season/Month) Ruler Location Source
799 Charlemagne near Aachen KMLP

802 (summer) Charlemagne Ardennes ARF
803 (summer) Charlemagne Bohemian Forest AMP
803 (summer) Charlemagne Bavaria AMP
804 (late summer-early fall) Charlemagne Ardennes ARF
80 5 (July) Charlemagne Vosges ARF, AMP
81 1 (?) (fall) Louis the Pious Aquitaine VH 17
813 (fall) Charlemagne near Aachen VK 30
817 (late April-May) Louis the Pious Nijmegen ARF, VH 28
817 (late summer-early fall) Louis the Pious Vosges ARF [ VH 29
819 (late summer-early fall) Louis the Pious Ardennes ARFy VH 32
(continued)
176 Widukind, Res gestae Saxonicae , ed. Paul Hirsch, Max Biidinger, and Wilhelm Wattenbach,
Quellen zur Geschichte der sächsischen Kaiserzeit (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft,
1977), 1.39, pp. 78-79.
177 Liudprand, Antapodosis, ed. Joseph Becker, MGH SS rer. Germ. 41 (Hannover: Hahnsche
Buchhandlung, 1915), 1.42, pp. 30-31; Liudprand, Legatio 37-38, ed. Becker, MGH SS rer. Germ.
41:194-95.
Appendix ( continued )
Year (Season/Month) Ruler Location Source
820 (fall) Louis the Pious near Quierzy/Aachen(?) ARF

821 (late summer-early fall) Louis the Pious Vosges ARF [ VH 34
822 (fall) Louis the Pious Ardennes ARF, VH 35
823 (fall) Louis the Pious Ardennes ARF
825 (spring) Louis the Pious Nijmegen ARF
825 (summer) Louis the Pious Vosges ARF, VH 39
825 (fall) Louis the Pious Nijmegen ARF, VH 39
826 (summer) Louis the Pious, island near Ingelheim Ermoldus 4
Lothar I, and
Charles the Bald
826 (late summer-early fall) Louis the Pious Salz ARF
827 (late summer-early fall) Louis the Pious near Compiègne/Quierzy VH 41
828 (spring) Louis the Pious near Aachen TMMP 2.3
828 (spring) Louis the Pious near Aachen TMMP 2.6
829 (fall) Louis the Pious Frankfurt ARF ; VH 43
831 (late summer-early fall) Louis the Pious Vosges VH 46
833 (late summer) Lothar I near Soissons/Compiègne(?) VH 48
834 (spring) Louis the Pious Ardennes VH 52
834 (early summer) Louis the Pious Remiremont VH 52
835 (late summer) Louis the Pious Ardennes AB, VH 57
836 (spring) Louis the Pious Remiremont AB
836 (late summer-early fall) Louis the Pious Frankfurt AB, VH 55
837 (spring) Louis the Pious Ardennes VH 58
838 (September-October) Louis the Pious Ver/Compiègne AB, VH 59
839 (July) Louis the Pious Kreuznach AB
839 (late summer) Louis the Pious Ardennes AB, VH 61
842 (summer) Lothar I Ardennes Nithard 4.4
850 (summer) Lothar I and Louis Ardennes/Osning AX
the German
864 Charles the Child Cuise Forest AB, Reg (870)
864 Carloman near Regensburg(P) AB
864 Louis the German between Bavaria and AB
Frankfurt
864 Louis II of Italy Italy AB
8 65 (September) Charles the Bald Orville AB
867 (early fall) Charles the Bald Saint- Vaast/Orville AB
868 (fall) Charles the Bald Orville AB
869 (fall) Charles the Bald Ardennes AB
870 (September-early Charles the Bald Cuise Forest AB
October)
871 Charles the Bald Orville (canceled) AB
872 (September) Charles the Bald Ardennes AB
873 (November-early Charles the Bald Orville AB
December)
884 (December) Carloman Bezu Forest AF, AV, Reg
954 (early September) Louis IV near Reims Flodoard
987 (May) Louis V near Senlis Richer 4.5
Source abbreviations:
AB - Annales Bertiniani KMLP - Karolus magnus et Leo papa
AMP - Annales Mettenses priores Nithard - Nithard, Libri historiarum IUI
ARF - Annales regni Francorum Reg - Regino of Prüm, Chronicon
AV - Annales Vedastini Richer - Richer, Historiarum libri IUI
AX - Annales Xantenses TMMP - Einhard, Translatio et miracula
Ermoldus - Ermoldus Nigellus, In honorem sanctorum Marcellini et Petri
Hludowici imperatoris VH - Astronomer, Vita Hludowici
Flodoard - Flodoard, Annales VK - Einhard, Vita Karoli
Eric J. Goldberg is Associate Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (e-mail: egoldber@mit.edu).

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Eric J. Goldberg - Louis The Pious and The Hunt

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Louis the Pious and the Hunt

Author(s): Eric J. Goldberg

History remembers Charlemagne not only as a great conqueror but also as

Speculum 88/3 (July 2013) doi:10.1017/S0038713413001711 613

Indeed, under Louis the Pious there is a striking, and h

Speculum 88/3 (July 2013)

of the ruler,"8 while others have highlighted the highly C

8 Matthew Innes and Rosamond McKitterick, "The Writing of Histor

Speculum 88/3 (July 201

general: to provision the court (Régine Le Jan), to reinf

16 Hennebicque, "Espaces sauvages," 35-57; Janet L. Nelson, "The Lord

Speculum 88/3 (July 2013)

adopted the luxurious lifestyle of the late Roman elite -

As with so many other Merovingian legacies, the Carolin

Normans on Hunting Practices in England," in Food in Medieval Engl

Speculum 88/3 (July 2013)

Charlemagne occasionally made grants of forestes in Fra

Hiersemann, 1971), 83-85; Hubertus Lutterbach, "Die für Kleriker

Speculum 88/3 (July 2013)

apparently the distinguishing mark of royal canines - wa

35 Capitulare missorum 18, MGH Capit. 1:116.

Speculum 88/3 (July 2013)

death."42 This first Carolingian report of a royal hunt i

42 The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar and Its Cont

Speculum 88/3 (July 2013)

of Virgil and Ovid, the poet then described Charlema

Not far away there is a lofty woodland and verdant meadow

Everywhere all kinds of wild animals

The poet went on to describe a grand royal hunt at

Exhausted from running, [the boar] stands panting on tired

Speculum 88/3 (July 201

Following the hunt, Charlemagne distributed the game

51 Ibid., lines 312-25, p. 374.

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fantastic beasts adorned silks imported from Constan

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the remarkable era of Carolingian conquests across Europ

64 Timothy Reuter, "The End of Carolingian Military Expansion," in

Speculum 88/3 (July 2013)

significant is the ARF s first report of a royal hunt, und

71 Ibid., s.a. 802, p. 117.

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In short, his frequent hunting was a sign of the emperor

In this way Theodulf wove together the themes of imper

77 Theodulf, Carmina , ed. Ernst Dümmler, MGH Poetae 1 (Berlin: Hah

Speculum 88/3 (July 2013)

read as a triptych, since he sent copies of each to both

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kingship - and royal hunting. Throughout this work, the po

There is a noted place near the royal hall

Ermoldus's hunting imagery culminated in book 4 with a vivid depiction of a

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The whole wood resounded with constant barking,

Here a little doe fell among the stags,

Ermoldus went on to narrate how even the young Char

Speculum 88/3 (July 2013)

although the Ostrogothic ruler Theodoric the Great later

Just as the bear, boar, timid hare, and swift stags

Walahfrid found a solution for this tension between th

102 Agnellus of Ravenna, Liber pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis, ed. O

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What once covered bone marrow now nurtures a tree.

Speculum 88/3 (July 2013)