Gilbert, Count of the Maasgau
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Gilbert (Giselbert), Count of Maasgau was a Frankish noble in what would become Lotharingia, during his lifetime in the 9th century. The Carolingian dynasty created this "middle kingdom" and fought over it, and he is mentioned as playing a role on both sides.
After the death of Louis the Pious in 840, Gilbert was a vassal of Charles the Bald in the western kingdom which later became France, but he switched sides to join Charles' brother Lothair I, who would become first king of the future Lotharingia. Gilbert later offered to switch sides again.
Various proposals have been made about his family connections and exact titles, though most of these are considered uncertain.
- Based upon a contemporary description of him as "comes Mansuariorum", it is proposed that he held the Maasau on the lower Meuse.
- He is sometimes seen as a count who held the Pagus Lomacensis, which included the pagus of Darnau.
- He is believed to be a likely ancestor or close relative of Reginar I and the Reginarid dynasty.
Nithard, a near contemporary, mentions him twice:
- In 840 after the death of Louis the Pious, a Giselbert is described by Nithard as one of those who defected by not coming when called upon by Charles the Bald to fight his brother Lothar. Nithard's comment indicates that while subjects were faithful to Charles between the Seine and Meuse rivers, men from beyond the Silva Carbonaria, Herenfrid, Giselbert, Bovo and others, broke the pledges of allegiance to Charles.[1]
- In 841, after Charles' victory at the Battle of Fontenay-en-Puisaye, Nithard describes a Gilbert who was "Gislebertus comes Mansuariorum", literally Gilbert count of the Mansuarians - who would be an unknown people. This Gilbert was among the northern notable who Charles the Bald was keen to gain to his side after his victory, and Nithard said that Gilbert offered to join Charles, if Charles should enter his country.[2]
The Annals of Fulda Abbey also make two mentions of a Count Gilbert in subsequent years, who is generally thought to be the same person.
- In 846, the annals mention a Count Gilbert who abducted an unnamed daughter of Lothar I and his wife Ermengarde of Tours.[3] He took her to Aquitaine and married her in an attempt to force Lothair to reinstate him.[4]
- In 848, a few years later, the same Annals of Fulda say that Count Gilbert and Lother were reconciled.
In 870, the Treaty of Meerssen was made, which ceded much of Lotharingia to Charles the Bald. A Count Gilbert was mentioned in some later records from this time:
- In 863, Soye, near Namur is named as a place in the pagus of Darnau, in the county of Count Giselbert.
- In 877, the year of Charles the Bald's death, a Count Giselbert was one of a group of counts from the area towards the Meuse who could support the son of Charles the Bald, Louis the Stammerer.[5]
In 880, the Treaty of Ribemont conceded all of Lotharingia to be once again under the eastern Frankish kingdom ("Germany"). From 884 until his death in 887, the eastern king, Charles the Fat even ruled the western kingdom ("France"). Another possible record of Gilbert is sometimes proposed: