Reginar Longneck: Difference between revisions

'''Reginar I Longneck''' ({{circa}} 850 – 915), {{lang-la|Rainerus}} or ''Ragenerus Longicollus'', was a leading nobleman in the kingdom of [[Lotharingia]], variously described in contemporary sources with the titles of [[count]], [[margrave]], [[missus dominicus]] and [[duke]]. He stands at the head of a Lotharingian dynasty known to modern scholarship as the [[Reginarids]], Reginars, Reiniers, or Regniers, because of their frequent use of the name "Reginar". ▼

He was probably the son of [[Gilbert, Count of the Maasgau|Gilbert]], Count of the [[Meuse (river)|Maas]][[Gau (country subdivision)|gau]], and a daughter of [[Lothair I]] whose name is not known (Hiltrude, Bertha, Irmgard, and Gisela are candidate names). In an 877 charter in the [[Capitulary of Quierzy]], he possibly already appears as "Rainerus", alongside his probable father as one of the regents of the kingdom during [[Charles the Bald]]'s absence on campaign in Italy.<ref>MGH Leg. 1: Capitularia Regum Francorum II [http://www.dmgh.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb00000821_00395.html?sortIndex=020%3A030%3A0002%3A010%3A00%3A00&sort=score&order=desc&context=%22Ingelgerus%2C+Rainerus%22&divisionTitle_str=&hl=false&fulltext=%22Ingelgerus%2C+Rainerus%22+ p.359]</ref> ▼

He was [[Lay Abbot]] of important Abbeys stretching from the [[Maas (river)|Maas]] to the [[Moselle]] through the [[Ardennes]], Saint-Servais in [[Maastricht]], Echternach, [[Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy|Stavelot-Malmedy]], and Saint-Maximin in [[Triers]]. All these Abbeys lay on or near the boundary negotiated between the Eastern and Western Frankish Kingdoms in the [[Treaty of Meerssen]] in 870, during a period when the Western Kingdom controlled much of Lotharingia. In Echternach, he was referred to as "Rainerus iunior" because the lay abbot before him, a probable relative, had the same name.▼

His secular titles and activities are mainly only known from much later sources which are considered to be of uncertain reliability. [[Dudo of Saint-Quentin]], in describing the great deeds of the early [[Normans]], calls Reginar I (who, along with a prince of the [[Frisians]] named Radbod, was an opponent of [[Rollo of Normandy|Rollo]], the founder of Normandy) a Duke of both Hainaut and Hesbaye.<ref>Dudo: "Raginerum Longi-Colli, Hasbacensem et Hainaucensem ducem" Dudo, [https://archive.org/stream/demoribusetacti00dudogoog#page/n153/mode/1up ii, 9].</ref> Centuries later [[William of Jumièges]], and then later still, [[Alberic de Trois Fontaines]] followed Dudo using the same titles when describing the same events. He was variously referred to as Duke, Count, Marquis, ''missus dominicus'', but historians doubt that these titles were connected to a particular territory. That he called himself a Duke is known from a charter at Stavelot 21 July 905, but this was during a period when [[Gebhard, Duke of Lorraine|Gebhard]] was Duke of Lotharingia.<ref>Parisot (1898) p.563</ref> ▼

Reginar was originally a supporter of [[Zwentibold]] in 895, but he broke with the king in 898. He and some other magnates who had been key to Zwentibold's election three years earlier then took the opportunity provided by the death of [[Odo of France|Odo of West Francia]] to invite [[Charles the Simple]] to become king in Lotharingia. His lands were confiscated, but he refused to give them up and entrenched himself at [[Durfost]], downstream from Maastricht. Representatives of Charles, Zwentibold, and the [[Emperor Arnulf]] met at [[Sankt Goar]] and determined that the succession should go to [[Louis the Child]]. Zwentibold was killed by Reginar in battle in August 900.▼

Louis appointed [[Gebhard, Duke of Lorraine|Gebhard]] as his Duke in Lotharingia. In 908, Reginar recuperated Hainaut after the death of [[Sigard, Count of Hainaut|Sigard]]. Then, after the death of Gebhard in 910, in battle with the [[Magyars]], Reginar led the magnates in opposing [[Conrad I of Germany]] and electing Charles the Simple their king. He never appears as the Duke of Lorraine, but he was probably the military commander of the region under Charles. He was succeeded by his son [[Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine]]; however, the Reginarids did not succeed in establishing their supremacy in Lotharingia like the [[Liudolfings]] or [[Liutpoldings]] did in the duchies of [[Duchy of Saxony|Saxony]] and [[Duchy of Bavaria|Bavaria]].▼