Silva Carbonaria
Silva Carbonaria, the "charcoal forest",
Further to the southeast, the higher elevation and deep river valleys were covered by the even less penetrable ancient Arduenna Silva, the deeply folded Ardennes, which are still partly forested to this day. To the east, the forest was possibly considered to extend to the Rhine. It was there in Cologne in 388 CE that the magistri militum praesentalis Nannienus and Quintinus[4] began a counter-attack against a Frankish incursion from across the Rhine, which was fought in the Silva Carbonaria.[5]
Roman road
A great
Use as a border
There are signs that the Silva Carbonaria represented the boundary between the Roman provinces of
With the collapse of central Roman administration in the fourth century, Germanic
For a time in the sixth century, the Silva Carbonaria formed a barrier between the West Frankish kingdom of
Throughout the rule of the
Medieval monasteries
Extensive tracts of the untamed woodlands belonged to monasteries. The Benedictine
Economic importance
The
Notes
- ^ Or Carbonarius saltus, "the charcoal ravine or wildwood" — in the sense of "unfit for the plough" (Hoffmann 1698, s.v. "Carbonarius saltus"); the lexicographer Hoffmann found Carbonaria silva mentioned by Gregory of Tours, the twelfth-century chronicler Sigebert of Gembloux, and Johannes Trithemius.
- ^ F. L. Ganshof, "Manorial Organization in the Low Countries in the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Centuries" Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th Series 31 (1949:29-59) p. 30.
- ^ André De Vries, Brussels: A Cultural and Literary History, 2003:18.
- ^ A. H. M. Jones, John Robert Martindale, J. Morris, eds. The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, 1971 s.v. Quintinus"
- ^ According to Sulpicius Alexander, quoted in Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks ii.9: multos Francorum, qui Rhenum transierant, a Romanis apud Carbonariam ferrô peremptos tradit, quoted by Hoffmann 1698.
- ^ a b c Ulrich Nonn, Pagus und Comitatus, pp.226-234 and map.
- ^ Van Durme 2002:11.
- ^ The confused legendary origins of the chausée Brunehaut were unraveled and examined by J. Lestoquoy, "L'étrange histoire de la Chaussée Brunehaut", in Arras au temps jadis1946; see "Presentation of Brunehaut and its villages".
- ^ Émile Cammaerts, A History of Belgium from the Roman Invasion to the Present Day, 1921: 34, in general following conclusions based on toponymy by the historian Godefroid Kurth.
- ^ The historiography of this idea is traced by Luc van Durme in "Genesis and evolution of the Romance-Germanic language border in Europe", in Jeanine Treffers-Daller and Roland Willemyns, eds. Language Contact at the Romance-Germanic Language Border, 2002:39ff.
- ^ "At that stage, the silva Carbonaria separated Clovis's Salian kingdom from Sigebert's eastern domain." (The Cambridge Ancient History, eo.loc.); "The Silva Carbonaria formed for a time a natural barrier between Salians and Ripuarians, though it may not have proved very effective," (John Michael Wallace-Hadrill, The Barbarian West, 400-1000 1996:70); in the chronicle of the Monastery of Saint Arnulf, under the year 690: adunatô exercitu Peppinus ad Carbonariam silvam pervenit: qui terminus utraque Regna dividit.
- ^ Liber Historiae Francorum (51) "“Theudoaldo, enim fugato, Ragamfredo in principatum maiorum palacii elegerunt. Qui, commoto cum rege exercitu Carbonaria silva transeuntes, usque Mosam fluvium terras illas vastantes succenderunt; cum Radbode duce gentile amiciciam feriunt.”" ("However, Theudoald fled and a terrible persecution happened in that time. After Theudoald left, Ragenfrid was elected as the ‘princeps’ maior of the palace. After having assembled an army with the king, he traversed the Silva Carbonaria and devastated all lands up to the Meuse and burned places. Then they concluded a pact of friendship with the pagan, dux Radbod.”) The Neustrian army and their new Frisian allies advanced and took the city of Cologne. Shortly afterwards, when the Neustrian army laden with booty retreated from Cologne to Neustria, Charles Martel waited in ambush and defeated them at the Amblève river.
- ^ Annales Mettenses Priores, “Ad solacium autem prestante Domino tantae rei publicae administrationis erat ei gloriosa genitrix, cunctis laudibus digna, nomine Begga, filia Pippini precellentissimi quondam principis, qui populum inter Carbonariam silvam et Mosam fluvium et usque ad Fresionum fines vastis limitibus habitantem iustis legibus gubernabat.” (“As support, however, in the administration of such large state, the Lord providing, he (Pepin of Herstal) had his glorious mother, Begga by name, worthy of all praise. She was the daughter of the late most excellent Pippin (of Landen), who with just laws governed the population living in the vast territories between the Forest Carbonaria and the river Meuse up to the borders of the Frisians.”)
- ^ Title 47 of Lex Salica specifies that the interested parties in a contested ownership meet within forty days if they live within the bounds of the Silva Carbonaria and the Loire; otherwise eighty days must be allowed. (T.M. Charles-Edwards, in Iorwerth Eiddon and Stephen Edwards, eds. The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. XV [Cambridge University Press] 2005:273.
- ^ As Gregory of Tours noted, Rhenum transierunt, pluribus suorum in Romano relictis solo, ad repetendam depopulationem paratis, cum quibus congressua Romanis adcomodus fuit, multis Francorum apud Carbonariam ferro perimptis. (Historia Francorum ii.9.).
- ^ Liber Historiae Francorum (51) “Theudoaldo, enim fugato, Ragamfredo in principatum maiorum palacii elegerunt. Qui, commoto cum rege exercitu Carbonaria silva transeuntes, usque Mosam fluvium terras illas vastantes succenderunt; cum Radbode duce gentile amiciciam feriunt.” (However, Theudoald fled and a terrible persecution happened in that time. After Theudoald left, Ragenfrid was elected as the ‘princeps’ maior of the palace. After having assembled an army with the king, he traversed the Silva Carbonaria and devastated all lands up to the Meuse and burned places. Then they concluded a pact of friendship with the pagan, dux Radbod.”). The Neustrian army advanced to Cologne and took the city. When they retreated from Cologne to Neustria, Charles Martel waited in ambush and defeated them at the Amblève river.
- ^ Hoffmann 1698, Laubiense Monasterium in Silva Carbonaria esse situm, auctore Fulcuinô; esse et Coenobium S. Foillani in silva Soniaca parte Carbonariae non longe a Niviala:
- ^ Koen Deforce, Bart Vanmontfort and Kris Vandekerkhove, Early and High Medieval (c. 650 AD - 1250 AS) Charcoal Production and Its Impact on Woodland Composition in the Northwest-European Lowland, in: Environmental Archaeology, 2018, p. 169
- ^ There are seven other forests in Belgium that are also remains of the Silva Carbonaria
- ^ De Vries 2003:13; Hofmann, in the late seventeenth century, noted this remnant in writings of Gotefridus Wendelinus and also remarked on remnants in the Forêt de Mormaux or Mormal, the Bois de Cirau, and the woodland called Die Leu that stretched from Leuven to the gates of Diest, the forest-covered Hageland or Hagelanden.
References
- Hofmann, Johann Jacob. Lexicon Universale, Historiam Sacram Et Profanam Omnis aevi... (Leiden) 1698. on-line facsimile text on-line transcript.
- Duvivier, Charles, "La forêt charbonnière: Silva Carbonaria", in Revue d'histoire et d'archéologie 3 (1862:1-26).
- Freiherren von Richthofen (1841), "Review of "Der lex Salica und der lex Anglorum et Werinorum Alter und Heimat, von Hermann Müller, ordentlichem Professor der Rechte zu Würzburg" Würzburg, 1840", Kritische Jahrbücher für deutsche Rechtswissenschaft, vol. 5, p. 1000 (includes list of early references to the Silva Carbonaria)
- Vander Linden (1923), La Forêt Charbonnière (PDF)
- Hoops, Johannes (1981), "Carbonaria Silva", Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 4, ISBN 9783110065138
- Van Durme (2010) Genesis and Evolution of the Romance-Germanic Language Border in Europe
Primary sources
- Mentioned as a boundary in the Lex Salica. Various versions can be compared here and here on the dMGH.de (Monumenta Germaniae Historica) collection.
- The Liber Historiae Francorum repeats the story found in Gregory of Chlodio going through the forest to take Tournai. Latin is here on the dMGH.de collection.