Pippininds

Begga

Ansegisel and Begga
Ansegisel and Begga imagined in an oil painting by Peter Paul Rubens, dated between 1612 and 1615, now held in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna
posted on wikipedia
Father: Pepin the Elder

Mother: Itta

Married: Ansegisel

Children:
Occupation: Abbess at Andenne

Notes:
A life of Begga, Vita S. Beggæ, in Latin, was written between 1080 and 1090. Some excerpts:
Vita S. Beggæ pp3-4 (1631)
GLoriosſus Dux Pipinus Regni Francorũ diſponebat Principatum, atque in cunctis quæ ad cultum Dei pertinent, ſtrenue ſeſe agebat: cùm omnipotens æternaq́ue Divinitas, quæ ſemper cuncta providendo diſponit, ex conjuge Yduberga, nobiliſſima matrona, duarum dedit ei ſucceſſionem filiarum. Quæ cùm nobiliter natæ nobiliuſq́ue eſſent educatæ, parentes earum unam vocaverunt Beggam, alteram verò Gertrudem.
… Felix itaque Begga, Gertrudis virginis germana, cum parentibus permanſit in aula Regali: ſi quando oportunum foret juxta morem fæculi, felicibus auſpiciis, ſicut dignum erat, tradi eam marito. Nec mora, adfuit eventus & cum magna ambitione co pioſiſſimoq́; apparatu, ſicut Francorum conſuetudo est, Regum Duci magno Anſigiſo, ex regali progenie orto, deſponſatur habenda.
This roughly translates as:
The glorious Duke Pepin of the Frankish Kingdom was ruling the Principality, and was diligent in all that pertained to the worship of God: when the omnipotent and eternal Divinity, which always disposes of all things by providence, gave him a succession of two daughters by his wife, Iduberga, a most noble matron. And since they were of noble birth and of noble upbringing, their parents called one Begga, and the other Gertrude.
… So the happy Begga, the sister of the virgin Gertrude, remained with her parents in the royal court: if ever it were opportune, according to the custom of the priest, under auspicious auspices, as was fitting, to give her to her husband. Without delay, the event arrived and with great ambition and most pious preparation, as is the custom of the Franks, she was to be betrothed to the great Duke of Kings, Ansigius, born of royal lineage.

The lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints vol 12 p249 (Alban Butler, 1813)
Dec. 17.]
    ST. BEGGA, WIDOW AND ABBESS.
  This saint was daughter of Pepin of Landen, eldest sister to St. Gertrude of Nivelle, and married Ansegise, son to St. Arnoul, who was some time mayor of the palace, and afterward bishop of Metz. Her husband being killed in hunting, she dedicated herself to a penitential state retirement, and, after performing a pilgrimage to Rome, built seven chapels at Anden on the Meuse, in imitation of the seven principal churches at Rome. There she also founded a great nunnery in imitation of that which her sister governed at Nivelle, from which she was furnished with a little colony who laid the foundation of this monastery, and lived under her direction. Many holy virgins were trained up by them in the perfect practice of piety. The rich monastery of Anden was afterward converted into a collegiate church, of thirty-two canonesses of noble families, with ten canons to officiate at the altar. It is situate in the forest of Ardenne, in the diocess of Namur. St. Begga departed to our Lord in the year 698 and is named in the Roman Martyrology. Sec Miræus, in Fastis Belgicis, and G. Ryckel vita S. Beggæ Beguinarum et Beguardurum Fundatricis. Lovanii, 1641, in 4to.

Butler’s Lives of the Saints p579 (ed. Herbert J Thurston, 1990)
[December 17
  ST BEGGA, Widow (A.D. 693)
PEPIN of Landen, mayor of the palace to three Frankish kings, and himself commonly called Blessed, was married to a saint, Bd Itta or Ida, and two of their three children figure in the Roman Martyrology: St Gertrude of Nivelles and her elder sister, St Begga. Gertrude refused to marry and was an abbess soon after she was twenty, but Begga married Ansegisilus, son of St Arnulf of Metz, and spent practically the whole of her long life as a nobleman’s wife “in the world”. Of this union was born Pepin of Herstal, the founder of the Carlovingian dynasty in France. After the death of her husband, St Begga in 691 built at Andenne on the Meuse seven chapels representing the Seven Churches of Rome, around a central church, and in connection therewith she established a convent and colonized it with nuns from her long-dead sister’s abbey at Nivelles. It afterwards became a house of canonesses and the Lateran canons regular commemorate St Begga as belonging to their order. She is also venerated by the Béguines of Belgium as their patroness, but the common statement that she founded them is a mistake due to the similarity of the names. St Begga died abbess of Andenne and was buried there.
  A life of St Begga, together with some collections of miracles, has been printed in Ghesquière, Acta Sanctorum Belgii, vol. v (1789), pp. 70-125; it is of little historical value. See also Berlière, Monasticon Belge, vol. i, pp. 61-63; and DHG., vol. ii, cc. 1559-1560. There can be little doubt that the word beguinae, which we first meet about the year 1200 and which, as stated above, has nothing to do with St Begga, was originally a term of reproach used of the Albigensians: see the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, vol. i, cc. 1341-1342.

The Dark Ages, 476-918 p178 (Charles William Chadwick Oman, 1898)
  Towards the end of his reign, Chlothar II. made his son Dagobert king of Austrasia, while he was still a very young man. The chief councillors by whose aid Dagobert administered his realm were two men whose names form a landmark in Frankish history — Arnulf, bishop of Metz and count Pippin the elder, the ancestors of the great house of the Karlings. Bishop Arnulf was the wisest and best of the prelates of Austrasia, and, after a long life of usefulness in church and state, won the name of saint by laying down his crozier and ring and retiring to a hermitage, to spend his last fifteen years in the solitudes of the Vosges. Count Pippin, a noble from the land between Meuse and Mosel, whose ancestral abodes are said to have been the manors of Hersthal and Landen, was appointed mayor of the palace, and lived in the closest concord and amity with Arnulf. They cemented their alliance by a marriage, Begga, the daughter of Pippin, being wedded to Ansigisel, the son of the bishop; for Arnulf, like many of the Frankish clergy, lived in lawful wedlock. From these parents sprang the whole of the line of mayors, kings, and emperors whose mighty deeds were to make their comparatively unimportant ancestors famous in history

Death: 17 December, with the year variously given as 693, 698 or 709.

Vita S. Beggæ pp18-9 (1631)
PLures labuntur anni, fugit ætas: beata Begga fracta jam ſenio, ſanctis roborata virtutibus, viribus corporeis cœpit repente deſtitui. Que, convocatis utriuſque ſexus choris, Canonicorum videlicet & puellarum, indicat ſe jam reſolui. Omnibus lugentibus, & pro anime conſolatione Pſalmos perſonantibus, Sacramentu corporis & ſanguinis Dominici imploravit ſibi donari; & his, qui aderant, valedicens, ſexto decimo Kalendarum Ianuariarum die, purior auro exceſſit è mundo. Cujus corpus honorificè aromatibus condientes, & exequiis debitis creatori Deo commendantes, in eodem, quod ædificavit, monaſterio in pace ſepelierunt.
This roughly translates as:
Many years pass, age flees: blessed Begga, now broken by old age, but strengthened by holy virtues, suddenly began to lose her bodily strength. And, having summoned the choirs of both sexes, namely the Canons and the girls, she indicates that she has now resolved. While all mourned, and for the consolation of her soul, she implored that the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord be given there; and taking leave of those who were present, on the sixteenth day of the Kalends of January [17 December], she departed from the world purer than gold. Whose body, having honourably anointed with spices, and commending to God the Creator with due funeral rites, they buried in peace in the same monastery which she had built.
Buried: in the monastery that became Saint Begga's Collegiate Church in Andenne on the Meuse

Sources:

Itta

Birth: 591/2
Itta was aged 60 at her death in 652

Married: Pepin the Elder

Children:
Notes:
After the death of her husband, Itta and her daughter, Gertrude, founded a monastery at Nivelles.
Vita Sanctae Geretrudis in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS rer. Merov. 2 p447 (1888)
  Geretrudis patre Pippino, matre Itta a. 626. p. Chr. nata, postquam filium ducis Austrasiorum sponsum a Dagoberto rege sibi oblatum respuit, puella quattuordecim annorum patrem amisit (a. 640). Tunc mater consilio Amandi episcopi monasterium sibi filiaeque aedificandum curavit Nivialense, cui Geretrudem tonsam et sacro velamine indutam abbatissam praeposuit,. Ibi tota studiis ecclesiastieis se dedidit, sancta volumina ex Urbe, ex transmarinis regionibus (i. e. Britannia) homines divinae legis peritos adsciscens. Mater anno 12. post Pippinum defunctum (652. p. Chr.) aetate sexagenaria mortua, in Nivialensi monasterio, in basilica S. Petri apostoli sepulta est.
This roughly translates as:
  Gertrude, the daughter of Pippin and Itta, was born in 626 AD, after she had rejected the son of the Duke of Austrasia, who had been offered to her as a bridegroom by King Dagobert. The girl lost her father at the age of fourteen (640 AD). Then her mother, on the advice of Bishop Amandus, arranged for a monastery to be built for her and her daughter at Nivelle, over which she appointed Gertrude, who had been tonsured and clothed in the sacred veil, as abbess. There she devoted herself entirely to ecclesiastical studies, collecting holy volumes from the city and men skilled in divine law from overseas (i.e. Britain). Her mother died in the 12th year after Pippin's death (652 AD), at the age of sixty, and was buried in the monastery of Nivelle, in the basilica of St. Peter the Apostle.

Annales Xantenses in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 2 pp219-20 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1829)
650.  Itta relicta Pippini, Nivelle monasterium edificat.
… 657 Beata Itta mater sancte Gerthrudis obiit. 
This roughly translates as:
650. Itta, widow of Pepin, builds a monastery at Nivelle.
… 657 Blessed Itta, mother of Saint Gertrude, died.

Vita S. Beggæ p3 (1631)
GLoriosſus Dux Pipinus Regni Francorũ diſponebat Principatum, atque in cunctis quæ ad cultum Dei pertinent, ſtrenue ſeſe agebat: cùm omnipotens æternaq́ue Divinitas, quæ ſemper cuncta providendo diſponit, ex conjuge Yduberga, nobiliſſima matrona, duarum dedit ei ſucceſſionem filiarum. Quæ cùm nobiliter natæ nobiliuſq́ue eſſent educatæ, parentes earum unam vocaverunt Beggam, alteram verò Gertrudem.
This roughly translates as:
The glorious Duke Pepin of the Frankish Kingdom was ruling the Principality, and was diligent in all that pertained to the worship of God: when the omnipotent and eternal Divinity, which always disposes of all things by providence, gave him a succession of two daughters by his wife, Iduberga, a most noble matron. And since they were of noble birth and of noble upbringing, their parents called one Begga, and the other Gertrude.

The lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints vol 2 p442 (Alban Butler, 1846)
FEB. 21.]
Pepin was married to the blessed Itta, of one of the first families in Aquitaine, by whom he had a son called Grimoald, and two daughters, St. Gertrude, and St. Begga. The latter, who was the elder, was married to Ansigisus, son of St. Arnoul, to whom she bore Pepin of Herstal. B. Pepin, of Landen, died on the 21st of February, in 640, and was buried at Landen; but his body was afterwards removed to Nivelle, where it is now enshrined, as are those of the B. Itta, and St. Gertrude in the same place.

Itteville in northern France was named for Itta, and she is the patron saint of the village.

Death: 652 at Nivelles Abbey

Buried: in the basilica of St. Peter the Apostle in Nivelles Abbey, where her husband's remains were brought, and her daughter Gertrude is also buried.

Sources:

Pepin the Elder

Father: possibly Carloman
Some early, but not contemporary, sources, such as the Annales Xantenses (printed in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 2 p219 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1829)) claim that Pepin's father was Carloman, a mayor of the palace in the court of king Lothair, but this link, and even Carloman's existence, is doubted by modern historians based on the lack of contemporary mention of Carloman who should have been noted in his own right if he was mayor of the palace.

Married: Itta

Children:
Occupation: Mayor of the palace of Austrasia, to the kings Clothair II, Dagobert and Sigebert.

Notes:
Annales Xantenses in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica SS 2 p219 (ed. G. H. Pertz, 1829)
  Anno dominice incarnationis 647 Pippinus, filius Karlomani, maior domus Lotharii obiit1, relinquens filium nomine Grimoaldum, et duas filias, Gerthrudem virginem sanctam, et Beggam quam Anchisus dux egregius, [patruus sancti Wandregisili abbatis] filius Arnulfi episcopi Mettensium, duxit uxorem; ex qua genuit Pippinum iuniorem [et ducem].
  1) obiit a. 639.
This roughly translates as:
  In the year of our Lord's incarnation 647, Pepin, son of Carloman, elder of the house of Lothair, died1, leaving a son named Grimoald, and two daughters, Gertrude the holy virgin, and Begga, whom the illustrious duke Anchises, [father of the holy abbot of Wandregisil] son ​​of Arnulf, bishop of Mettense, married; from whom he begot Pepin the younger [and duke].
  1) died in the year 639.

Vita S. Beggæ p3 (1631)
GLoriosſus Dux Pipinus Regni Francorũ diſponebat Principatum, atque in cunctis quæ ad cultum Dei pertinent, ſtrenue ſeſe agebat: cùm omnipotens æternaq́ue Divinitas, quæ ſemper cuncta providendo diſponit, ex conjuge Yduberga, nobiliſſima matrona, duarum dedit ei ſucceſſionem filiarum. Quæ cùm nobiliter natæ nobiliuſq́ue eſſent educatæ, parentes earum unam vocaverunt Beggam, alteram verò Gertrudem.
This roughly translates as:
The glorious Duke Pepin of the Frankish Kingdom was ruling the Principality, and was diligent in all that pertained to the worship of God: when the omnipotent and eternal Divinity, which always disposes of all things by providence, gave him a succession of two daughters by his wife, Iduberga, a most noble matron. And since they were of noble birth and of noble upbringing, their parents called one Begga, and the other Gertrude.

The lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints vol 2 pp441-2 (Alban Butler, 1846)
FEB. 21.]
    B. PEPIN OF LANDEN, MAYOR OF THE PALACE
      TO THE KINGS CLOTAIRE II., DAGOBERT, AND SIGEBERT.
  HE was son of Carloman, the most powerful nobleman of Austrasia, who had been mayor to Clotaire I., son of Clovis I. He was grandfather to Pepin of Herstal, the most powerful mayor, whose son was Charles Martel, and grandson Pepin the Short, king of France, in whom began the Carlovingian race. Pepin of Landen, upon the river Geete, in Brabant, was a lover of peace, the constant defender of truth and justice, a true friend to all servants of God, the terror of the wicked, the support of the weak, the father of his country, the zealous and humble defender of religion. He was lord of great part of Brabant, and governor of Austrasia, when Theodebert II., king of that country, was defeated by Theodoric II., king of Burgundy, and soon after assassinated in 612: and Theodoric dying the year following, Clotaire II., king of Soissons, reunited Burgundy, Neustria, and Austrasia to his former dominions, and became sole monarch of France. For the pacific possession of Austrasia he was much indebted to Pepin, whom he appointed mayor of the palace to his son Dagobert I., when, in 622, he declared him king of Austrasia and Neustria. The death of Clotaire II., in 628, put him in possession of all France, except a small part of Aquitaine, with Thoulouse, which was settled upon his younger brother, Charibert. When king Dagobert, forgetful of the maxims instilled into him in his youth, had given himself up to a shameful lust, this faithful minister boldly reproached him with his ingratitude to God, and ceased not till he saw him a sincere and perfect penitent. This great king died in 638, and was buried at St. Denys’s. He had appointed Pepin tutor to his son Sigebert from his cradle, and mayor of his palace when he declared him king of Austrasia, in 633. After the death of Dagobert, Clovis II. reigning in Burgundy and Neustria, (by whom Erchinoald was made mayor for the latter, and Flaochat for the former,) Pepin quitted the administration of those dominions, and resided at Metz, with Sigebert, who always considered him as his father, and under his discipline became himself a saint, and one of the most happy among all the French kings. Pepin was married to the blessed Itta, of one of the first families in Aquitaine, by whom he had a son called Grimoald, and two daughters, St. Gertrude, and St. Begga. The latter, who was the elder, was married to Ansigisus, son of St. Arnoul, to whom she bore Pepin of Herstal. B. Pepin, of Landen, died on the 21st of February, in 640, and was buried at Landen; but his body was afterwards removed to Nivelle, where it is now enshrined, as are those of the B. Itta, and St. Gertrude in the same place. His name stands in the Belgic martyrologies, though no other act of public veneration has been paid to his memory, than the enshrining of his relics, which are carried in processions. His name is found in a litany published by the authority of the archbishop of Mechlin. See Bollandus, t. 3, Febr. p. 250, and Dom Bouquet, Recueil des Hist. de France, t. 2, p. 603.

The Dark Ages, 476-918 p178 (Charles William Chadwick Oman, 1898)
  Towards the end of his reign, Chlothar II. made his son Dagobert king of Austrasia, while he was still a very young man. The chief councillors by whose aid Dagobert administered his realm were two men whose names form a landmark in Frankish history — Arnulf, bishop of Metz and count Pippin the elder, the ancestors of the great house of the Karlings. Bishop Arnulf was the wisest and best of the prelates of Austrasia, and, after a long life of usefulness in church and state, won the name of saint by laying down his crozier and ring and retiring to a hermitage, to spend his last fifteen years in the solitudes of the Vosges. Count Pippin, a noble from the land between Meuse and Mosel, whose ancestral abodes are said to have been the manors of Hersthal and Landen, was appointed mayor of the palace, and lived in the closest concord and amity with Arnulf. They cemented their alliance by a marriage, Begga, the daughter of Pippin, being wedded to Ansigisel, the son of the bishop; for Arnulf, like many of the Frankish clergy, lived in lawful wedlock. From these parents sprang the whole of the line of mayors, kings, and emperors whose mighty deeds were to make their comparatively unimportant ancestors famous in history

The Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th edition vol 21 p635 (ed. Hugh Chisholm, 1911)
  PIPPIN I. (d. 640), incorrectly called Pippin of Landen, was mayor of the palace to the youthful Dagobert I., whom Clotaire II. had placed over the kingdom of Austrasia. He was disgraced when Dagobert became sole king in 629, and had to seek refuge in Aquitaine. Returning at Dagobert's death (639), he governed Austrasia in Sigebert’s name, but died in the following year

Death: 21 February 640

Buried: initially at Landen; Pepin's body was later moved to Nivelles Abbey, where his wife and daughter Gertrude are also buried.

Sources:
Return to Chris Gosnell's Home Page

If you have any comments, additions or modifications to the information on this page, please feel free to email me.
Created and maintained by: chris@ocotilloroad.com