King Dagobert, the saint, and royal salvation: the shrine of Saint-Denis and propaganda production

286 Pages·2017·13.21 MB·English

University of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
Fall 2016
King Dagobert, the saint, and royal salvation: the
shrine of Saint-Denis and propaganda production
(850-1319 C.E.)
Renee Lynn Goethe
University of Iowa
Copyright © 2016 Renee Lynn Goethe
This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2212
Recommended Citation
Goethe, Renee Lynn. "King Dagobert, the saint, and royal salvation: the shrine of Saint-Denis and propaganda production (850-1319
C.E.)." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa, 2016.
https://doi.org/10.17077/etd.b8b488ok
Follow this and additional works at:https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of theHistory Commons
KING DAGOBERT, THE SAINT, AND ROYAL
SALVATION:

THE SHRINE OF SAINT-DENIS

AND PROPAGANDA PRODUCTION (850 – 1319 C.E.)

by

Renee Lynn Goethe

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy
degree in History in the
Graduate College of
The University of Iowa

December 2016

Thesis Committee: Professor Katherine Tachau
Prof. Michael Moore
Copyright by

Renee Lynn Goethe

2016

All Rights Reserved
Graduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa

CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

____________________________

PH.D. THESIS

_________________

This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of

Renee Lynn Goethe

has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Doctor
of Philosophy degree in History at the December 2016 graduation.

Committee: Katherine Tachau, Thesis Supervisor

____________________________________________
Michael Moore, Thesis Supervisor

____________________________________________
Raymond Mentzer

____________________________________________
Michaela Hoenicke-Moore

____________________________________________
Jennifer Sessions
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my patient and marvelous family, particularly Dave, who stepped in to edit, proof, and
perfect my syntax, and Max, who grew up in the writing of this work. To Prof. Katherine Tachau,
who never gave up on my progress and encouraged me at all the right times. And to my mother,
who inspired me to work, strive, and keep moving ahead.

ii
ABSTRACT
By the early fourteenth century, the royal basilica of Saint-Denis had become the most
visible sign of the union between the rule of secular kings and the enduring French church. Two
notable abbots had been entrusted as regents for the throne, many of the abbots of the Carolingian
period had been lay abbots and local nobles, and the basilica had claimed the right to bury the
kings of France for centuries. However, the success of the abbey in creating the privileges they
enjoyed has obscured the work needed to claim these rights. Powerful abbots in the course of the
history of Saint-Denis used the tools they had to construct an argument to the kings; that in Saint-
Denis alone did the kings have the best hope of finding salvation. Only St.-Denis himself could
guarantee that a king, who may be stained with sins of a different nature than those of ordinary
people, would gain heaven.
By the mid-ninth century, Abbot Hilduin of Saint-Denis had composed a consolidated
account of the life of the saint he served. In his hands, Denis became the early convert of Paul and
first bishop of Athens, author of two essential early Christian visionary accounts, first bishop and
missionary to Gaul, and the martyred bishop of Paris. Scholarship on Hilduin’s vitae has picked
apart his sources, noted where he created references wholesale and ignored the discrepancies in
the time line, in order to create the most important and international of saints. What has been less
well noted is the creation of another kind of vitae, this one commissioned from Hilduin’s pupil
Hincmar, who was later to take on the role of archbishop of Rheims Cathedral. The Gesta
Dagoberti regis, composed around the same time as Hilduin’s Post beatam et salutiferam, created
the myth of the roi fondateur which was to serve the purposes of the abbey well in later centuries.
Dagobert I became the founding king of the abbey, despite evidence that he did little other
than decorate the shrine of the eighth century and be buried there. In the Gesta Dagoberti regis,
iii
Hincmar wove together some of the chronicle accounts of the Merovingian king with miraculous
visions and deeds of St.-Denis to construct a powerful argument for royal patronage of the abbey.
Dagobert thus discovered the abandoned shrine, constructed a new building, designated it a
monastery and funded it lavishly, then had himself buried there. He was the exemplar for later
kings, and the abbots of Saint-Denis utilized the ninth century account of Dagobert as they
struggled to retain the loyalty of the kings and made a bid to be the official necropolis for Frankish
royalty.
Over the course of five centuries, the tale of the founding king grew, as such stories do.
Each expansion of Dagobert’s biography, and by extension, the biography of the abbey, came
during points of stress between the kings and the royal basilica. For while the monks of the abbey
may have believed, by the eleventh century, that the bodies of the kings belonged in their church,
the royal family at times had other ideas. As newer competing institutions offered advantages not
available at Saint-Denis for those buried on their sites, the monks produced new and enhanced
accounts of the founding king and the benefits of taking St.-Denis as the patron.
This dissertation begins with the fundamental question: why was King Dagobert so
conspicuously present in the production of art and Dionysian symbolism? Covering the mid-ninth
century through the year of 1319, the best answer must be that the abbey believed the story of this
otherwise obscure Merovingian king served them well in promoting their site as the proper final
resting place for the kings. In the process, Saint-Denis became the most enduring and powerful
religious institutions of medieval France, garnering a reputation as a site for miraculous healing
and the becoming the foundation for the claims of legitimacy made by the ruling houses of France.
So successful was this campaign that, during the French Revolution, Saint-Denis was stripped of
the bones of the royal dead and partially demolished. It is worth noting, however, that at its
iv
foundation, Saint-Denis was only one of several abbeys founded by kings, and was one of many
that housed the royal dead. Its rise to prominence was not foreordained; it was carefully
constructed, gradually, over the course of centuries. King Dagobert was one of the essential
elements used to gain ascendancy and lay claim to the bodies of the kings.

v
PUBLIC ABSTRACT
By the early fourteenth century, the royal basilica of Saint-Denis had become the most
visible sign of the union between the rule of secular kings and the enduring French church. Two
notable abbots had been entrusted as regents for the throne, many of the abbots of the Carolingian
period had been lay abbots and local nobles, and the basilica had claimed the right to bury the
kings of France for centuries. However, the success of the abbey in creating the privileges they
enjoyed has obscured the work needed to claim these rights. Powerful abbots in the course of the
history of Saint-Denis used the tools they had to construct an argument to the kings; that in Saint-
Denis alone did the kings have the best hope of finding salvation. Only St.-Denis himself could
guarantee that a king, who may be stained with sins of a different nature than those of ordinary
people, would gain heaven.
By the mid-ninth century, Abbot Hilduin of Saint-Denis had composed a consolidated
account of the life of the saint he served. In his hands, Denis became the early convert of Paul and
first bishop of Athens, author of two essential early Christian visionary accounts, first bishop and
missionary to Gaul, and the martyred bishop of Paris. Scholarship on Hilduin’s vitae has picked
apart his sources, noted where he created references wholesale and ignored the discrepancies in
the time line, in order to create the most important and international of saints. What has been less
well noted is the creation of another kind of vitae, this one commissioned from Hilduin’s pupil
Hincmar, who was later to take on the role of archbishop of Rheims Cathedral. The Gesta
Dagoberti regis, composed around the same time as Hilduin’s Post beatam et salutiferam, created
the myth of the roi fondateur which was to serve the purposes of the abbey well in later centuries.
Dagobert I became the founding king of the abbey, despite evidence that he did little other
than decorate the shrine of the eighth century and be buried there. In the Gesta Dagoberti regis,
vi
Hincmar wove together some of the chronicle accounts of the Merovingian king with miraculous
visions and deeds of St.-Denis to construct a powerful argument for royal patronage of the abbey.
Dagobert thus discovered the abandoned shrine, constructed a new building, designated it a
monastery and funded it lavishly, then had himself buried there. He was the exemplar for later
kings, and the abbots of Saint-Denis utilized the ninth century account of Dagobert as they
struggled to retain the loyalty of the kings and made a bid to be the official necropolis for Frankish
royalty.
Over the course of five centuries, the tale of the founding king grew, as such stories do.
Each expansion of Dagobert’s biography, and by extension, the biography of the abbey, came
during points of stress between the kings and the royal basilica. For while the monks of the abbey
may have believed, by the eleventh century, that the bodies of the kings belonged in their church,
the royal family at times had other ideas. As newer competing institutions offered advantages not
available at Saint-Denis for those buried on their sites, the monks produced new and enhanced
accounts of the founding king and the benefits of taking St.-Denis as the patron.
This dissertation begins with the fundamental question: why was King Dagobert so
conspicuously present in the production of art and Dionysian symbolism? Covering the mid-ninth
century through the year of 1319, the best answer must be that the abbey believed the story of this
otherwise obscure Merovingian king served them well in promoting their site as the proper final
resting place for the kings. In the process, Saint-Denis became the most enduring and powerful
religious institutions of medieval France, gathering a reputation as a site for miraculous healing
and the foundation for the claims of legitimacy made by the ruling houses of France. So successful
was this campaign that, during the French Revolution, Saint-Denis was stripped of the bones of
the royal dead and partially demolished. It is worth noting, however, that at its foundation, Saint-
vii