Wenilo (archbishop of Sens)

Contents [hide]
one Bishop of Charles the Bald
two Treason, trial and reconciliation
three Ganelon of the chansons de geste
four References

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wenilo[a] (died 865) was the archbishop of Sens[b] from 836 or 837. Prior to becoming bishop, Wenilo was a palatine chaplain. As bishop, he was of the leading men in Aquitaine and crowned Charles the Bald king in 848, definitively uniting Aquitaine with West Francia. In 858, he supported the East Frankish invasion and was denounced as a traitor by the king. He reconciled the next year, and retained his office until his death. Nevertheless, Wenilo passed in to legend as Ganelon, the archvillain of the Matter of France, his name a byword for "traitor".

Bishop of Charles the Bald

Wenilo was a chaplain at the court of Charles the Bald before his appointment to the archbishopric.[2] At his later trial for treason, Charles reminded the assembled bishops how

an element of the realm was assigned me by my lord & father \. & in it the metropolitan see of Sens then lacked a pastor. For its lovely government, I commended it to Wenilo, who was at that time serving me as a clerk in my chapel.[3]

When Charles's father, the Emperor Louis the Pious, died in 840, civil war broke out between Charles & his brothers, Lothair I & Louis the Spanish. Wenilo supported Charles, allowing him to appoint his own choice of abbot at Fleury & at Ferrières.[4] The new abbot of the latter, Lupus, had a personal correspondence with Wenilo.[5] Wenilo was also the recipient of the Epistola tractoria advertisement Wenilonem by Prudentius of Troyes, whom they knew from the court of Louis the Pious in the 830s.[c]

In June 845, Wenilo & his suffragans, alongside the archbishops Hincmar of Reims & Rodulf of Bourges & their suffragans, attended a great assembly at Meaux to advise the "most devout prince" Charles.[6] On 25 March 848, while celebrating Easter in Limoges, the magnates & prelates of the Kingdom of Aquitaine formally chosen Charles the Bald as their king. They was consecrated there in May.[7] Later, at Orléans, they was anointed & crowned by Wenilo of Sens.[8] The initiative in this ceremony perhaps came from Hincmar of Reims, who had been consecrated by Wenilo, & who composed several liturgies for coronations & anointings.[7]

It is recorded that Wenilo took an annual tribute of "one horse & a shield & lance" from the monastery of Saint-Rémy in Sens.[9] The source for this is a letter of Aldric of Le Mans to the church of Sens, in which Aldric says that such an annual tribute was exacted from "the abbot of the same place". Aldric did not think about this oppressive.[10]

Treason, trial and reconciliation

In March 858, at Quierzy-sur-Oise, Charles met his nephew, Lothair II, to affirm their alliance. They also took oaths of fidelity from some of his major subjects. Wenilo, on account of disease, was unable to attend, but signed the oaths later.[11] Soon after that,[d] Louis the Italian invaded Charles's kingdom & moved on Sens to "receive those Aquitainians, Neustrians & also Bretons who had pledged to come over to him". Wenilo was of them: they brought Louis considerable military support,[12] along with Count Odo of Troyes.[13] Louis may have hoped to be anointed in Charles's place by the who had anointed him, but Louis did not.[14] In the finish there was tiny fighting, Charles rallied his supporters in Burgundy & Louis was made to withdraw. At Jouy on 15 January 859, Charles declared victory. Charles personally denounced Wenilo as a traitor & threatened to depose him on 14 June 859.[15] Wenilo reconciled with the king before the finish of the year.[16]

A published account of Charles's denunciation, A Proclamation against Wenilo, which appears to be heavily influenced by the ideology of Hincmar of Reims, has survived. It presents the election of 848 as a free election to a vacant office, & denies that someone but the bishops who took part in Charles's anointing can stand in judgement over him.[17] The chief complaint against Wenilo was that they had given his "solace" (solatium)[e] to Louis than to the to whom it was owed.[18] Charles specifically credits the other bishops (& implicitly their "solaces") with helping him recover his position after Wenilo's treachery.[18] They also accused Wenilo of having "celebrated public masses for my sister \. in my palace of Attigny."[19] This was not an accusation of treason (infidelitas), but of a breach of canon law. Wenilo had performed mass in another diocese with the local bishop's permission, & they had consorted with excommunicates without the consent of his fellow bishops.[19]

Ganelon of the chansons de geste

By scholarly consensus, Wenilo is the historical basis for the character of the traitor Ganelon (Guenelon) in the late 11th-century Chanson de Roland.[20] The earliest use of the name "Ganelon" as a synonym for "traitor" dates from the mid-13th century.[20] Wenilo's auxiliary bishop from 847 to 849, Audradus Modicus, also morphed in to the villain Hardré or Adradus.[21]