Chapter 1 - Flodoard, His Archbishops and the Struggle for Rheims

Summary

This chapter examines the West Frankish political controversies that defined Flodoard’s career and reassesses the nature of the historian’s involvement in them. Between 925 and 961, the see of Rheims was contested by two archbishops in a dispute that was intrinsically linked with wider political struggles in West Francia. Even though Flodoard tells us about his own participation in the archiepiscopal dispute, previous scholars have downplayed this involvement, considering it to have had little impact on his historical works. This chapter scrutinises Flodoard’s autobiographical remarks and portraits of the two rival archbishops, Hugh and Artold, arguing that his role in the dispute did have a significant bearing on the content and tone of his Annals and History of the Church of Rheims. The History, moreover, has tended to be viewed as a passive work of ‘local history’ primarily of benefit for the clergy of Rheims. Yet Flodoard composed it immediately following the resolution of the Rheims schism. By reappraising the nature of this settlement and Flodoard’s impetuses for writing, this chapter advances a broader interpretation of the purpose and audience of his History.