Peter Stewart
2021-04-17 05:49:11 UTC
Emma was the second wife of Guillaume Taillefer of Toulouse and daughter
of Roubaud of Provence and Ermengarde.
Leaving aside the vexed question of whether her mother was the same as
Eimildis wife of Roubaud, and therefore the duplication of the latter
into a father and son married to Eimildis and Ermengarde respectively is
an unnecessary conjecture, the chronology of Emma's marriage has been
left confused in the literature.
She is sometimes said to have married Guillaume (now usually numbered
III) of Toulouse by 992, but this is based only on their later
affirmation of a charter of her father dated in that year, which was
subscribed by his children and their spouses after he had died.
Emma named her parents as Roubaud and Ermengarde in a charter misdated
22 April 1015, known from a transcription by Claude Chantelou here
(folio 66r-v): https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10073789v/f67.item.
In this Emma said that she had received her inheritance at Favas in the
county of Fréjus ("ex hereditate quæ mihi legitime obuenit hoc est in
comitatu Foroiulensi in castro que nominant Fauars"). This came to her
probably from her mother, but in any case from a parent who had died by
the time of the charter.
The trouble with its dating is that it specifies Sunday 22 April 1015
("X kl maii anno dominicæ Incarnationis millesimo XV. sub die
dominico"), but 22 April in 1015 was a Friday.
Jean-Pierre Poly in his 1972 catalogue of acts of the counts of Provence
suggested that the date should be amended to 23 May 1008, on the grounds
that months were frequently misstated in dating by calends, that
Audibert of Châteaurenard who subscribed the charter was supposedly dead
by 23 April 1010, and that 23 May was a Sunday in 1008.
But even allowing for confusion over the month it is hard to see how a
scribe or copyist could write "XV" instead of "VIII", 1015 instead of 1008.
A better emendation I think would be to 22 April 1016. There is no proof
that Audibert had died as Poly asserted before 23 April 1010 - this is
the date of a charter for Correns priory by his wife and sons (copied by
Chantelou without dating but ascribed to 1010 here:
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10073789v/f65.item). In this the
wife's father, mother and relatives are remembered but not a deceased
husband, which would be strikingly odd if Audibert had recently died.
It would also be remarkably mysterious that a bull of Sergius IV dated
16 May 1010 absolved Audibert and his brother while granting an
indulgence to all benefactors of Correns priory (copied by Chantelou,
ascribed to ca. 1009 but without internal dating that is known from a
copy by Baluze, on folio 50r-v here:
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10073789v/f51.item). The
authenticity of this document has been doubted, as several aspects of
its form suggest a later forgery, but in any event the close coincidence
of date and the absolution indicate that the writer knew the
circumstances well enough, and that Audibert's absence from his wife's
charter of 23 April - just over three weeks before the papal response to
a deal apparently agreed beforehand - was because he was still under
excommunication at that time rather than deceased.
The upshot for Emma's chronology is that her charter as countess need
not have been written before 1010 and it seems that a slight slip in the
date could be readily amended to Sunday 22 April 1016 ("X kl maii anno
dominicæ Incarnationis millesimo XVI sub die dominico"). This fits with
the earliest known milestone in the life of her son Pons II of Toulouse,
who was married for the first time by 1037, and leaves open the
possibility that her husband's first wife, Arsinde, may have lived into
the second decade of the 11th century.
Peter Stewart
of Roubaud of Provence and Ermengarde.
Leaving aside the vexed question of whether her mother was the same as
Eimildis wife of Roubaud, and therefore the duplication of the latter
into a father and son married to Eimildis and Ermengarde respectively is
an unnecessary conjecture, the chronology of Emma's marriage has been
left confused in the literature.
She is sometimes said to have married Guillaume (now usually numbered
III) of Toulouse by 992, but this is based only on their later
affirmation of a charter of her father dated in that year, which was
subscribed by his children and their spouses after he had died.
Emma named her parents as Roubaud and Ermengarde in a charter misdated
22 April 1015, known from a transcription by Claude Chantelou here
(folio 66r-v): https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10073789v/f67.item.
In this Emma said that she had received her inheritance at Favas in the
county of Fréjus ("ex hereditate quæ mihi legitime obuenit hoc est in
comitatu Foroiulensi in castro que nominant Fauars"). This came to her
probably from her mother, but in any case from a parent who had died by
the time of the charter.
The trouble with its dating is that it specifies Sunday 22 April 1015
("X kl maii anno dominicæ Incarnationis millesimo XV. sub die
dominico"), but 22 April in 1015 was a Friday.
Jean-Pierre Poly in his 1972 catalogue of acts of the counts of Provence
suggested that the date should be amended to 23 May 1008, on the grounds
that months were frequently misstated in dating by calends, that
Audibert of Châteaurenard who subscribed the charter was supposedly dead
by 23 April 1010, and that 23 May was a Sunday in 1008.
But even allowing for confusion over the month it is hard to see how a
scribe or copyist could write "XV" instead of "VIII", 1015 instead of 1008.
A better emendation I think would be to 22 April 1016. There is no proof
that Audibert had died as Poly asserted before 23 April 1010 - this is
the date of a charter for Correns priory by his wife and sons (copied by
Chantelou without dating but ascribed to 1010 here:
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10073789v/f65.item). In this the
wife's father, mother and relatives are remembered but not a deceased
husband, which would be strikingly odd if Audibert had recently died.
It would also be remarkably mysterious that a bull of Sergius IV dated
16 May 1010 absolved Audibert and his brother while granting an
indulgence to all benefactors of Correns priory (copied by Chantelou,
ascribed to ca. 1009 but without internal dating that is known from a
copy by Baluze, on folio 50r-v here:
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10073789v/f51.item). The
authenticity of this document has been doubted, as several aspects of
its form suggest a later forgery, but in any event the close coincidence
of date and the absolution indicate that the writer knew the
circumstances well enough, and that Audibert's absence from his wife's
charter of 23 April - just over three weeks before the papal response to
a deal apparently agreed beforehand - was because he was still under
excommunication at that time rather than deceased.
The upshot for Emma's chronology is that her charter as countess need
not have been written before 1010 and it seems that a slight slip in the
date could be readily amended to Sunday 22 April 1016 ("X kl maii anno
dominicæ Incarnationis millesimo XVI sub die dominico"). This fits with
the earliest known milestone in the life of her son Pons II of Toulouse,
who was married for the first time by 1037, and leaves open the
possibility that her husband's first wife, Arsinde, may have lived into
the second decade of the 11th century.
Peter Stewart