Frederick (Frédéric) (c. 970/976 – January 1022), Count of Verdun (988–1022),

Count of Castres The Count of Castres was a title in the French nobility. It was held by: * John I, Count of La Marche * Bernard d'Armagnac, Count of Pardiac * Alan of Albret (1440–1522) * Boffille de Juge Boffille de Juge (died 1502), French-Italian adventur ...

(1000–1022), and Provost of Saint-Vaast. Frederick was part of the Ardennes-Verdun dynasty, and the eldest son of Godfrey I the Prisoner, Count of Verdun, and

Matilda Matilda or Mathilda may refer to: Animals * Matilda (chicken) (1990–2006), World's Oldest Living Chicken record holder * Matilda (horse) (1824–1846), British Thoroughbred racehorse * Matilda, a dog of the professional wrestling tag-team The ...

, daughter of Herman, Duke of Saxony of the Billung family, and a widow of Baldwin III of Flanders. Frederick was among those captured along with his father in 985 when

Lothair of France Lothair (french: Lothaire; la, Lothārius; 941 – 2 March 986), sometimes called Lothair II,After the emperor Lothair I. IIICounting Lothair II of Lotharingia, who ruled over modern Lorraine and Belgium. or IV,Counting Lothair II of Italy. ...

attacked Verdun in 985. He was released in 987 by family ally

Hugh Capet Hugh Capet (; french: Hugues Capet ; c. 939 – 14 October 996) was the King of the Franks from 987 to 996. He is the founder and first king from the House of Capet. The son of the powerful duke Hugh the Great and his wife Hedwige of Saxony, ...

, then

Duke of the Franks The title Duke of the Franks ( la, dux Francorum) has been used for three different offices, always with "duke" implying military command and "prince" implying something approaching sovereign or regalian rights. The term "Franks" may refer to an ...

(''dux et princeps Francorum''). In 988, Frederick worked to bring the body of his brother Adalberon, Bishop of Verdun, who died in Italy, to be buried in the Verdun Cathedral. It is uncertain how long Frederic remained as Count in Verdun as the charter dated 17 Aug 1156 of

Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt o ...

indicates that the County of Verdun was transferred to the

Bishop of Verdun The Bishopric of Verdun was a state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was located at the western edge of the Empire and was bordered by France, the Duchy of Luxembourg, and the Duchy of Bar. Some time in the late 990s, the suzerainty of the County ...

during the reign of

Emperor Otto III Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was crowned as King of ...

. However, a charter dated 1020, under which Haimont,

, confirmed an exchange of property, names ''domni Frederici…comes nostre civitatis'', which suggests that Frederic continued as count at least in part of the county. A 1020 charter of Abbot Richard demonstrates that Frederick must have resigned the countship soon after, as it refers to ''temporis dominus Fredericus qui comes Virdunensis civitatis fuerat''. Frederick was also Count of Castres, as shown by the charter dated 5 May 1005 under which Henry II, then King of Germany, granted market rights at ''Doncheria…in comitatu…Frederici comitis…Castricensis'' to the Abbey Saint-Médard de Soissons. It is not known who his wife or wives were. He apparently had a daughter Sophie (born c. 1010) who married Louis II, Count of Chiny. Louis' father, a successor of Frederick's as count, was murdered by Frederick's brother Gothelo. In 1020, near the end of his life, Frederick gave up his title and became a monk at Saint-Vanne Abbey. He was succeeded as Count of Verdun by his brother

Herman Herman may refer to: People * Herman (name), list of people with this name * Saint Herman (disambiguation) * Peter Noone (born 1947), known by the mononym Herman Places in the United States * Herman, Arkansas * Herman, Michigan * Herman, Minne ...

. It is unclear who, if anyone, succeeded him as Count of Castres.

Sources

* ''Germany and the Western Empire'', Volume III of the Cambridge Medieval History, University of Cambridge, 1922 * Abbé Charles Nicolas Gabriel, ''Verdun, Notice historique'', 1888, réédition 1993 * Poull, Georges, ''La maison souveraine et ducale de Bar'', Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 1994 * Crowe, Eyre Evans, ''The History of France'', London: Longman, Brown, 1858 970s births 1022 deaths Year of birth uncertain House of Ardenne–Verdun Counts of Verdun Counts of Castres