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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Why Charlemagne did not allow his daughters to marry

As you know, I study everything I can find about the history of Salerno in the period from Longobards till Normanns. And it's about a year that I am bounded to this study because I find something new every time I finish the previous book.

Now, I wanted to write here something interesting from the actual situation in Italy or in the world today, but, you know, it's really a sad picture that I found looking around in the internet. The news and articles are about what bag is good for this autumn (yesterday I spoke with a friend that said me: she do not buy anything more for the lack of money in the family) (ah, by the way, if you are interested in that bag, open the casket of your grandy and pull out one of those), about who made the baby to Kurnikova -Iglesias or not, and about the boil on the chin of a quarrelsome show-girl. And there were other "interesting" notices. I thought, maybe you are tired to read about this jumbling too. Let's look in the human lives in Middle Ages.

There are some curiosities about  Charlemagne. I'll  tell them to you to make your life more happy (if the Kings are so...) They say, the poor King of France had not money for his family and had to organize a chicken farm to sell eggs to balance his counts. His car was a car of a common Frank, his clothes were poor. As a King he had a "special" pet -an elephant that he loved too much. So much to make him die from the ingestion of all those things that the owners want to offer to their loved pets.

He had 3 wives that gave him different daughters (I don't know the precise number). Charlemagne never allowed them to marry and took them with him everywhere. There are modern opinions about his "special" relations with his daughters -did you notice that every any relation is always judged as "special" in the last years? Well, reading about his personal story, I do not agree with these opinions.

The daughters of the kings had too bad destinies in that epoch. Just as their (Kings') sisters. All they were a specie of coins to create connections between fathers/ brothers and their friends or enemies.
The same Charlemagne married one of the daughters of the King of Longobards. Probably, that was the most powerful character in that period. Nobody knows the reasons (even his biographer) but after some time Charles sent his wife back to her father. And it was the reason to begin a war (when Charles win and became a King of Longobards too).
The war began later when the daughter of Robert Guiscard was refused by Bizantines. And there are many other similar examples.

From other side the offended sister/ daughter coud provoke her husband to assault her father/ brother.
It was so with Sighelgaita, the wife of Robert Guiscard, that became the owner of the principality of Salerno.
Similar story happens in Byzantium when Anna Comnena trys to become the Empress.


So, my dear lovers of the "special" relations between fathers and daughters, the decision of Charlemagne was very very clever: he avoided all the problems connected with the daughters this way. No son-in-law/ brother-in-law -no wars, no revolutions at least from THIS side. :-)))

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