The life and times of Pepin le Bref
You may have heard of that amazing manuscript known as the Book of Kells. I’ve talked about it here and here. If you want more Kells (and who doesn’t?), Trinity College Dublin, where the manuscript is housed, is offering a free, four-week, online course. You can get all the details at their site:
Should be fun!
Clothing is perhaps the most perishable item of all material culture. Even in our modern age clothing is quick to deteriorate – what do you think the odds of your socks surviving to be marveled over a thousand years from now? Without archaeological evidence we have to turn to the sources for information about how people dressed in the eighth century. We are fortunate to have a detailed description of Charlemagne’s everyday clothing, courtesy of his biographer Einhard. Fortunately for us Charles was a man of the people, and so his choices reflect, to some extent, everyday styles.
He wore ancestral, that is, Frankish, clothing. Next to his body, he wore a linen shirt and linen drawers, then a tunic ringed with silk fringe, and stockings. Then he wrapped his lower legs in cloth bands and put shoes on his feet. In winter he covered his chest and shoulders with a jacket 1.The Dutton translation says vest. made from otter or ermine skins, put on a blue cloak, and always girded himself with a sword, whose hilt and belt were either gold or silver. Sometimes he used a jeweled sword, but only on important feast days or when the envoys of foreign peoples arrived. He rejected foreign clothing, even if very beautiful, and never put up with wearing it except at Rome, when once on the plea of Pope Hadrian, and again on the request of his successor, Leo, he wore a long tunic and chlamys2.A short mantle fastened at the shoulders, worn by men in the Greek East since ancient times., and shoes made in the Roman fashion. On feast days he walked around wearing clothes woven with gold thread, bejeweled shoes, a cloak fastened with a gold pin, and a golden crown with jewels. The rest of the time, his dress was hardly different from that of the common people.3.Einhard, Life, ch. 23, p. 41.
Besides having a blog named after him, who was Pepin le Bref?
As with others from the period, we have to clear away some naming confusion. Due to differences in source material and translations, his name is variously rendered Pepin, Pipin, and Pippin. I chose Pepin simply because Tolkien used Pippin (his was a deliberate selection, perhaps because hobbits are short). The nickname “le Bref” is usually translated as “the Short,” but I think it could mean other things, such as short-tempered (as we’ll see), of few words, short haired,1.Unlike the “long-haired” Merovingian kings. or something else. But there’s no way to know one way or another.
Pepin is usually considered a middling figure, sandwiched between the legendary Charles Martel, and the timeless Charlemagne. While there is no dispute with the stature history has afforded Charles the Great, his grandfather’s claim to fame has come under greater scrutiny. Personally I see Martel and Pepin as great figures in an age when only the strongest and most resolute rulers could stay on top, which Pepin did for for twenty-five years.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | Unlike the “long-haired” Merovingian kings. |
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Recently a reader posed one of those inherently fundamental questions that never occur to someone like me, who is buried in this stuff all the time.
Writing is so fragile – how did any of these primary sources survive? An excellent question. The quickest answer is that everything was written on a surprisingly robust medium, which was then stored away and forgotten. Survival!
Virtually all of our primary source material was written down on vellum, which is calf skin that has been treated and stretched. This material is far more robust than paper, which in any case didn’t make it to western Europe until the eleventh century. Early medieval scribes used two types of inks, one based in carbon and one in iron. Both produced a rich, long-lasting dark lettering. The manuscripts were bound with heavy leather or even wood, when the manuscript was particularly valuable. As long as you keep the manuscript reasonably dry, protected from rats, and away from flames, it will last a long time.
I’ve updated the Map page with some maps that may be of interest and use. As I come across others I’ll include those. I think the one I need next is the locations of the bishoprics, particularly as those changed over time. Let me know if there’s anything you would like to see, and I’ll start digging.