Re: Descent from Charlemagne

["John S. Quarterman" <jsq@quarterman.org>]

>Not to throw water on anybody's enthusiasm but it should be noted that the 
>practice of inheriting a throne through one's family is a late practice in 
>European Middle Ages.  In other words, the successors to Charlesmagne were 
>elected and not necessarily from the previous ruler's family.

Charlemagne himself was son of Pepin the Short, King of the Franks,
who was son of Charles Martel, Mayor of the Palace, who effectively
deposed the Merovingian line of kings.

Charlemagne's son Louis I was King of Aquitaine,
and Louis' sons Pepin I, Louis II, and Lothar I were all kings of various
fragments of Charlemagne's empire.

French kings were chosen by primogeniture, descending from Louis I's son
Charles II the Bald.  Through Louis V the Coward, as seen in:

 http://www.quarterman.org/chart/charlemagne/

After that another line of primogeniture descends from Hugh Capet.

Perhaps you're thinking of the later Holy Roman Emperors, who were indeed
elected, although they were mostly Carolingians and then mostly Hapsburgs.

>Dane Bowen in Alexandria, Va., researching Bowen, Bacon, Carlton (Carleton), 
>Luker, Sanders (Saunders), Chaudoin (Chaudoins), Maverick, Richey (Ritchie, 
>Richie, Ritchey), Spence, Sumner, Way, and Wells families.

John S. Quarterman <jsq@quarterman.org>
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