Charlemagne

Charlemagne “Charles the Great”, King of France and the Holy Roman Emperor united most of western Europe during his reign and ushered in what is known as the Carolingian Era, a mini renascence, earning him the title of the “Father of Europe”.  

Charlemagne was most likely born in 742, a subject in the Merovingian Kingdom located in modern day France.  When Charlemagne was about 10 years old, his father Pippin III lead a coup in 753 defeating the last Merovingian king, Childeric II.  Pippin placed himself a king.  When Pippin died in 768, his kingdom was divided between his two living sons, Charlemagne and Carloman.   

Charlemagne received the northern areas Austrasia and Neustria that were more difficult to defend but richer in taxes.  The brother Carloman received the southern areas including Aquitaine and Burgundy.  These areas were more secure but the tax revenues were lower.  The brothers did not get along well but their competition was brief as Carloman died of natural causes just 3 years after the death of their father Pippin. 

After Carloman’s death, Charlemagne reunited the kingdom taking away the rights of his brother’s heirs.  Charlemagne went on to conquer even more territories in the north such as Saxony, forcing the conquered Pagan people to become Christians or lose their lives.  (Centuries later, the Nazis propaganda used this to justify their attack on the Catholic Church properties and people.)  In the southeast, Charlemagne came to the rescue of the Vatican and the Pope by defeating the Lombards and conquering Bavaria.  That is when he was coronated as Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on Christmas Day 800 ad.  Charlemagne even conquered south over the Pyrenees mountain range in the southern part of France to control the Basque area which today is part of modern day Spain.

Charlemagne had at least 5 different wives and more concubines.  He fathered at least 19 children but had only one son survive him, Louis the Pious.  Louis was crowned by his father as co-ruler and served as such for one year before the death of Charlemagne.

Julius, Augustus, and Tiberius

Related to each other by blood, marriage, and legal adoption, these three men ruled the Roman Republic or Empire for nearly 90 years.  They were the first three rulers belonging to the Julio-Claudian dynasty that ruled Rome and the known world for more than 100 years.  Both families, the Julio and Claudian, were powerful contributors to the government of ancient Rome dating back to the republic's beginnings in 509 BC. In their times, however, these three men, Julius, Augustus, and Tiberius, gained and maintained their power by ruthless means.

Julius Cesar was the last ruler of Rome as a republic.  His rise to power came from both his political connections and military success.  After declining to obey the constitutional government's request to step down from his military command and return to Rome, Julius instead turned his army on Rome.  The result was in civil war.   When Cesar prevailed, he set himself up as dictator destroying the constitutional democracy that had governed Roman territories for centuries.  This alarmed others with power who orchestrated his murder on the senate floor on the Ides of March 44 BC.  During Julius Cesar's short reign from 49 to 44 BC, he implemented what is now called the Julian Calendar.  It is a calendar based on 365 days divided into12 months with an extra day added every four years.  The Julian calendar is the basis for the 1500's Gregorian Calendar that is the calendar used nearly worldwide today.

During the 17 years after the death of Julius Cesar, Rome was torn by civil war.  The fighting factions were lead by the three Triumvirate leaders, Marc Anthony, Octavian adopted son of Julius Cesar, and Lepidus a trusted general.   Lepidus was defeated first.  Marc Anthony sought for and gained money and military support from Cleopatra that reigned in Egypt.  Still, it was Octavian the grand nephew of Julius Cesar (grandson of the Julius Cesar's sister) that finally prevailed.  He was renamed Augustus Cesar.  When Augustus reunited the vast Roman territories, the country was not longer a republic.  The constitutional democratic principles were without power to control Augustus.  He proclaimed himself emperor.  He ruled from 27 BC through 14 AD.   He was the Emperor of Rome at the time of Christ's birth.

Tiberius Caesar was the adopted step son of Augustus Cesar.  Although he ruled the Roman Empire a long time, 14AD to 37AD, he really did not rule all the time.  He retreated to isolated places and had others care with the daily duties of ruling the empire.  He did, however, return on occasion to replace leaders and stop revolts. Tiberius was the Roman emperor and known world leader at the time of the crucifixion of Christ.   It is most likely that Tiberius had no knowledge of Christ nor of his crucifixion as it was handled by his governor Pontius Pilate.  Tiberius, however, is mentioned in The Bible.  The beginning date of John the Baptist's ministry is marked as the "fifthteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cesar".  (Luke 3:1)  The penny coins mentioned in Matthew 22:19 and Mark 12:15 are most likely silver denarus coins with Tiberius Cesar's image.

Cleopatra

Cleopatra was the last and final pharaoh of Egypt and she is your ancestor!  Her reign of Egypt ended about 30 B.C ending nearly 3000 years of reigning pharaohs from different dynasties.  Cleopatra's family was of the Ptolemy (toll_ la_may) dynasty.  The Ptolemy dynasty held power in Egypt for about 300 years starting after the death of Alexander the Great.  Ptolemy was one of three generals to whom the empire of Alexander the Great's was divided.

Cleopatra and her family were not Egyptians.  Rather, they were Greeks.  Most of her family never learned the Egyptian language so all official documents had to be written in both Greek and Egyptian.  One of these official documents, inscribed about 200 BC, was found.  It is called the Rosetta Stone.  This stone bears the same message in three languages Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek.  Because the stone included the message in Egyptian hieroglyphic and Greek, it has been the key that has enable our century to decode and read Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Because Egyptian hieroglyphics were not readable until the last century, the story of Cleopatra through the last two millenniums has been the story of her victors, the Romans.  Now that the Egyptian hieroglyphics can be read,  a lot more has become known about her.  First, Cleopatra was more successful in winning the hearts of the Egyptians than any of her preceding ancestors because she learned the Egyptian language, dressed like them, worshiped their Gods, and even made herself one of their Gods.  Amongst her people, she was know as an intelligent leader and philosopher.  She is reported to have spoken 9 languages.  Second, Cleopatra's initial ambitions were to keep Egypt free of Roman rule and restore her kingdom to the grandeur of it's beginning. She did this through relations and marriage to the most powerful men of her time.  At first it was Julius Cesar and after his death, Marc Anthony.

Cleopatra had a child with Julius Cesar named Cesarian who she claimed had the right to rule both Rome and Egypt. Cesar, however, did not name Cesarian as his heir.  Instead, he named Gaius Octavius, his sister's son.  After Cesar was murdered on the Ides of March (March 15...today!), there was a lot of twisting of allegiances.  Finally, Cleopatra aligned herself with Marc Antony with whom married and had three children.  Together, Marc Anthony and Cleopatra fought Octavius but were defeated.  They both ended up killing themselves to avoid being paraded in Rome as traitors.  Octavius, their victor, later changed his name to Augustus when he proclaimed himself the first emperor of Rome.  He was ruler of the world at the time of the birth of Christ.

King Lear

The first known written record of King Lear, another ancestor in the Duffin/Dalebout genealogy, comes from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s  “History of the Kings of Britain”.  Geoffrey’s account was written in the 12^th century.  (Geoffrey’s history was mentioned in last week’s pots.)  According to this work, King Lear would have reigned during the 8^th century BC.  That is about 2000 years prior to Geoffrey’s record.   How much of Geoffrey's story is fact verse legend?  This is unknown.  That is why Geoffrey’s amount is considered a pseudohistorical history. 

Goeffrey’s account of King Lear states that he was a good king, reigned 60 years, and was a contemporary with the prophet Elijah in the Old Testament.   As he neared the end of his life, he abdicated his throne and divided his lands between two of his three daughters, Goneril and Regan.  He denied his third daughter Cordelia any power or land because she failed to “flatter” him as did her sisters.  Despite not having a dowry, Cordelia married King Aganippus of the Franks and lived in France.   Goneril, Regan, and their spouses were left to rule England.  With time however, the two daughters showed contempt for their aging father to the point that he feared for his life and fled to France. 

Upon arriving in France, King Lear was destitute.  He was without food and proper clothing.  He sent a message to his daughter Cordelia whom he had spurned.  Cordelia had King Lear taken to another city, restored to his dignity and then announced to the court and nobles of France.  After hearing the sufferings of King Lear, the French nobles vowed to help him regain his throne.   France invaded England and was successful at restoring King Lear to his throne.  He reigned for another three years before passing away.  His daughter Cordelia reigned England after his death. 

In the early 1600, Shakespeare writes a play titled “King Lear”.   It is thought that Geoffrey’s history was Shakespeare’s main source of information.  Shakespeare used other sources and added additional plots to the play.  He also changed the story ending to a tragedy.  This made his play very different from the other contemporary plays of King Lear and a very good reason to see it regardless of whether or not you had seen other King Lear plays!   For historical record, changing the ending is unfortunate as people know the play and not the history.  On the other hand, without Shakespeare’s play, we would probably not even know about King Lear!

Constantine, King of Britain

The name Constantine, King of Britain appears in my genealogical records.  He lived during the early 6th century (500s a.d.).  Although there are various saints and kings named Constantine, we will use the one specified as King of Britain as that is the title listed on the genealogical record.

There are two competing stories about Constantine, King of Britain.  The first was written by a contemporary historian Gildas.  Gildas was a British monk in the southwestern part of England named Dumnonia where Constantine was king.  In Gildas' history, he was constantly encouraging King Constantine to repent.  He listed many of his sins such as the killing of two youths at the church altar and adulteries.  It was because of that constant call to repentance that the tradition spun the story that King Constantine gave up being king to join a monastery and was thereafter known as Saint Constantine.

The second history was written by a 12th century historian Geoffrey of Monmouth.  Because this history was written nearly 600 years later, it is often considered more of a mythical pseudo-history.  In its story line, Geoffrey names King Constantine as the successor to King Arthur, being his brother-in-law, and was crowned King by Arthur after King Arthur was mortally wounded in battle.  King Constantine's slaying of the two youth at the church was written in this history portraying the youths as traitors and part of the rebellion against the Round Table.  The only sin for Constantine in their killing was that the act was done in a church.  Constantine reigns for only 3 years.  His reign ends with his murdered by a nephew after which the country then plunges into civil war. 

Gift of Gifts!

I come from the genealogical lines of some really incredible people.  One of the most notable gifts they have given me is a record of my genealogy.  This incredible gift is a result of personal sacrifice in time and money.   Many of these records have now been digitized and are available on the internet.  That means I can look at them anytime I want!

That is what I did a few years ago... scrolled backwards through many of my lines.  After 18+ hours looking at names and places that dated back more than a millennium, I noticed that some of the names were repeating.  I started making a list of those names that had historical meaning to me or pricked my interest.  In the end, I had a list of more than 55 names!  I have decided to share short blurbs about some of these individuals.  History is a lot more interesting when you know you have a connection to it!