A King Praises Himself: The Letters of Charles the Bald to Pope Hadrian II

Abstract

Abstract In 871–2 two letters were dispatched in the name of the West Frankish king Charles the Bald to Pope Hadrian II. These letters have long been of interest to historians for their rigorous defence of royal sovereignty in the face of an increasingly intrusive papacy, and their authorship has often been ascribed to Charles’s prolific archbishop, Hincmar of Rheims. This article argues that these letters should be read from a different perspective, prioritising the tone taken by the author of the letters. By exploring the author’s ideas about honourable forms of address and the avoidance of harsh censure, I argue that these letters show the guiding hand of Charles himself, revealing a view of royal power not only as an institution, but also as a status that necessarily had to be approached with deference and praise. Close examination of Charles’s argument suggests that his identification with contemporary panegyrics, above all those by his Irish praise poet Sedulius Scottus, informed his perspective on the dignity of his royal office and led him to respond aversely to papal criticism that threatened to undermine his legitimacy as ruler. Hadrian’s transition from harsh rebuke to sycophancy across his letters suggests that Charles’s diplomatic successes with the papacy were also accompanied by papal recognition of his exalted, quasi-imperial status through laudatory address.