Notes
Per Stuart's "Royalty For Commoners" (405:41), King of Brittany, Governorunder LOUIS THE PIOUS (RIN 1212) beggining in 826. Sources quoted inMoriarty are Winkhaus, Ahnen zu Karl dem Grossen und Wiederkind (1950),Brandenburg, Die Nachkommens Karl des Grossen (1935), and others. In thenotes after the table, he states "Accounts of the early descent vary; theabove taken from Winkhaus is the latest and best."
Turton's "Plantagenet Ancestry" calls his father Erispoe, but this may bea mistake derived from his son's name.
Extracted from the Book, "The Bretons", by Galliou and Jones:
"Although Nomenoe was a native Breton (one of the very few facts abouthim that can be definitely established), more important than hisethnicity was the manner in which he came to power, the way he maintainedit and the legacy he left to his immediate successors.
Virtually nothing is known about him before his appointment as missusimperatouris in Brittany around 1 May 831. La Bordcrie's argument that hewas already count of Vannes in 819 and 'governor' of Brittany in 826 mustbe rejected following a critical re-examination of acta in the cartularyof Redon which show Guy, a member of the Widonid family, as count atVannes until January 830 at least. When appointed Nomenoe was, orcertainly became, an imperial vassal (fidelis); he was probably firstdrawn to LOUIS' [THE PIOUS (RIN 1212)] attention during the campaigns ofthe 820s. Through benefices then conferred upon him or as a result oflater promotion he came to possess land that once belonged to theimperial fisc as grants to Saint-Sauvetlr de Redon demonstrate. Of hisown patrimony nothing is known though since he was related (probably bymarriage) to Rivallon, count of Pohet in 844, this may have lain inCornouaille. As missus the main centre of his own power was theVannetais: two Redon documents of 832 and 834 style him comes
or princeps Velnetice civitatis. Other acta from the same source showthat he exercised his authority both in that county and beyond. As missusthis was extremely wide-ranging. It included ecclesiastical as well ascivil, judicial and military matters, which perhaps explains hishigh-handed dismissal of all the Breton
bishops in 849 (below p. 154). In addition to missus, he is sometimesstyled dux or magister, and described as 'ruling' (gubernans, regnans..nominans). Contrary to normal Carolingian practice , he does not appearto have shared his missaticum with an ecclesiastic but he had severalsubordinate officials, also styled missi, to assist
him. The novel feature of his missaticum was that territorially itincluded lands which the Carolingians had never succeeded in masteringand a county (Vannes) detached from the former Frankish March. It wasthus LOUIS THE PIOUS (RIN 1212) himself rather than Nomenoe who firstcreated a union which remained fundamental to the Breton state; duringhis lifetime Nomenoe did not seriously betray THE EMPORER's trust.
His loyalty to the Carolingians began to waver in 843 during the civilwars between the sons of LOUIS THE PIOUS. After first supporting CHARLESTHE BALD (840-77) (RIN 1620), whose share of the empire in the sequenceof partitions, culminating in the treaty of Verdun (843), always includedsuzerainty over Brittany, Nomenoe became embroiled in quarrels over thecounty of Nantes. Here a scion of the Widonids, Lambert [Not our ancestor(RIN 1697) as he died in 936)], was disputing possession with Renaud,count of Herbauge. In May 843 a Breton army led by Nomenoe's son ERIPSOEand Lambert defeated Renaud at Messac (I-et-V), where the Roman road fromAngers to Carhaix crosses the Vilaine. A month later, taking advantage ofthese divisions among the Neustrian aristocracy, the Vikings sackedNantes. By the autumn CHARLES THE BALD, hoping to restore order in thewest, was at Rennes but his campaign was a failure. In 844 Nomenoe andLambert continued their feud with the heirs of Count Renaud and raided asfar afield as Maine. After a brief truce, military
operations began again and on 22 November 845 CHARLES THE BALD wasdefeated at Ballon, near Redon (I-et-V), when he went to succour thoseopposing Nomenoe in Brittany. For a few days Lupus of Ferrieres fearedCHARLES himself had been killed. Relations between Nomenoe and CHARLESwere temporarily patched up in 846 when Nomenoe deserted Lambert. By nowthe
Viking presence was making itself felt and there are hints of a challengeto Nomenoe's own authority in Brittany. Around Christmas 846 a Bretonarmy was ravaging the Bessin, contrary to a truce with CHARLES whichNomenoe seems personally to have kept until 849. In 847 he also sufferedthree reverses at the hands of the Vikings before bribing them to lookelsewhere for booty. Two years Inter, however, Nomenoe was at the heightof his powers. In a synod held at Coitlouh (M?) in May 849 he dismissedthe five Breton bishops (Alet, Dol, Quimper,
Saint-Pol-dec-Lon and Vannes) for simony and replaced them with nominees'of his own race and language'. A damaging schism with the Frankishchurch began that was to rumble on during the reigns of his two immediatesuccessors. Then, reconciled with Count Lambert, who had returned fromexile hoping to re-establish himself again at Nantes, Nomenoe launched aseries of vigorous military assaults on Rennes, Nantes and Le Mans. Lupusof Ferrieres, writing on behalf of a synod of
Carolingian bishops in August 850, urged Nomenoe to repent and make peacewith CHARLES but to no avail. A raid on Nantes resulted in thedestruction of its walls and gates. In the depths of winter Nomenoepressed on. Then, unexpectedly on 7 March 851 he died deep in Fankishterritory at Vendome. His achievements - the establishment of personaldominance in Breton secular and religious affairs, the beginnings of anadministration which united both Frankish and Breton lands - hung in thebalance.
Whatever advantages his origins may have conferred (and the silence ofthe records is total), the career of Nomenoe as it can now be traceddemonstrates how much he owed to imperial patronage as a fidelis andmissus. It was this that had elevated his authority above that of otherBretons; it provided the territorial basis for his power. In seeking toextend this he acted within the political framework of the
empire by alliances with other families of the Reichsavistokratie.
Quarrels between the sons of LOUIS THE PIOUS, local disputes and thehavoc caused by the Vikings furnished ideal circumstances for Nomenoe'spower to grow as the transition from loyal lieutenant in the 830s toindependent leader with expansionist policies after 843 shows. But therewere limitations to his ambitions: despite a later tradition that afterdeposing the Breton bishops Nomenoe had himself crowned at Dol, which heallegedly wished to turn into a metropolitan see, there is nocontemporary warrant for this."
