Chucus (sometimes anglicized "Hugh") was the
mayor of the palace of
Austrasia
Austrasia was a territory which formed the north-eastern section of the Merovingian Kingdom of the Franks during the 6th to 8th centuries. It was centred on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers, and was the original territory of the F ...
from 617 to 623. He was the predecessor to
Pepin of Landen
Pepin I (also Peppin, Pipin, or Pippin) of Landen (c. 580 – 27 February 640), also called the Elder or the Old, was the Mayor of the palace of Austrasia under the Merovingian King Dagobert I from 623 to 629. He was also the Mayor for Sig ...
and successor of
Warnachar
Warnachar (sometimes numbered Warnachar II; in modern French, ''Warnachaire'' or ''Garnier'') was the mayor of the palace of Burgundy (617-626) and briefly Austrasia (612-617). He began his career as the regent during Theuderic II's minority (5 ...
.
He is mentioned in the will of Saint
Bertechramnus
Bertechramnus or Bertram of Le Mans was one of the wealthiest bishops of 6th-century Gaul. He was bishop of Le Mans from 587 until 623.
At the time of his death his will listed a private holding of over 3,000 square kilometres of land. By the e ...
, written on 26 March 616, in which the bishop indicates that shortly before, the property of a certain Aureliana, wife of
Dynamus, bishop of Avignon(604-625), had been shared by King Clotaire II between the mayors of the palace, Gonland and Chucus.
Hugues is also mentioned in the chronicle of
Fredegar
The ''Chronicle of Fredegar'' is the conventional title used for a 7th-century Frankish chronicle that was probably written in Burgundy. The author is unknown and the attribution to Fredegar dates only from the 16th century.
The chronicle begins ...
:
" The thirty-fourth year of the reign of Clotaire 17, King Agon sent to this prince three noble Lombard deputies, Agiulf, Pompège and Gauton, to beg him to return to his nation the twelve thousand sous of gold that he paid every year to the Franks; and with address these deputies secretly gave three thousand sous of gold, of which a thousand to Warnachaire, a thousand to Gondeland, and a thousand to Chuc; they offered at the same time to Clotaire thirty-six thousand gold sous. The king remitted the tribute to the Lombards, and united with them by oath of an eternal friendship. "
There is no documentation of him having any children, but several later aristocrats have the given name of Hugues or derivatives of Hugues, and are considered to be descendants of his.
Among them, there is the
Hugobert Hugobert (also Chugoberctus or Hociobercthus) (died probably in 697) was a seneschal and a count of the palace at the Merovingian court during the reigns of Theuderic III and Childebert III. He was a grandson of the ''dux'' Theotar, and it is assume ...
, a
seneschal
The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...
. A doubt of relation is formed from the fact that Hugobert was a Neustrian while Hugues was an Austrasian, but Christian Settipani, a notable genealogist and historian, noted that Hugobert has a daughter named Ragentrude, mother of Hugobert, Duke of Bavaria and assumed that the seneschal could be Waldebert's son.
References
*
*{{Cite book, last1=Settipani, first1=Christian , url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/908405951, title=Les ancêtres de Charlemagne : les 2048 quartiers du premier empereur franc, edition= Deuxième édition, revue et corrigée, series=Occasional Publications / 16, pages=347 , date=2014, isbn=978-1-900934-15-2, location=
xford?publisher=P & G, Prosopographia et Genealogica, oclc=908405951
7th-century Frankish nobility
Mayors of the Palace