A Brief History
On November 7, 921, the Treaty of Bonn was signed by two Frankish kings, Charles the Simple and Henry the Fowler. Once more, as we have noted in other articles, kings and other leaders have had some pretty goofy names.
Digging Deeper
Henry got his moniker, “The Fowler,” because of his affinity for hunting birds, and was said to be fixing his bird catching nets when a messenger found him to tell him he had become King of East Francia. The other party to this Germanic treaty was King Charles III of West Francia, known better as Charles the Simple, or alternately as Charles the Straightforward because of his direct manner of speaking.
Charles was the son of Louis the Stammerer and was at first kept off the throne by Frankish noblemen instead opting for Emperor Charles the Fat as Charles III was merely a child at the time. Charles III had to wait for King Odo to keep his throne warm before ascending to the throne in 898.
Henry had succeeded the more sedately named Conrad the Younger and was in turn succeeded by Otto the Great, much more kingly names, or so we believe.
Question for students (and subscribers): What king or leader do you think had the goofiest name? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Lewis, Brenda Ralph. Kings & Queens of England, a Dark History: 1066 to Present Day. Metro Books, 2006.
Riché, Pierre. The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. Translated by Michael Idomir Allen. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
The featured image in this article, a Romantic 19th-century depiction originally from Bildersaal Deutscher Geschichte (Stuttgart–Berlin–Leipzig, 1890) of the meeting between the two kings at Bonn in 921, is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1927, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation.
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