Royalty in my family - The Carolingian Dynasty

His father was Count of Hainaut until 958, but fell in disgrace with Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor and lost his County to Godfrey I, Duke of Lower Lorraine.
He received the County of Mons in 973 but was replaced with Godfrey I, Count of Verdun in 974. He replaced Godfrey as Count of Mons in 998.

one of the first Babenbergs, was the most important East Frankish general during the reign of Charles the Fat. He was variously titled Count or Margrave of Saxony and Duke of Franconia.
Henry was the ancestral lord of a castle, Babenberg, on the River Main, around which the later city of Bamberg was built. He enjoyed the favour of Charles the Fat and was his right-hand man in Germany during his reign. He led a surprise strike on a force of Vikings prior to the Siege of Asselt, but it was unsuccessful. When, in 885, Charles summoned Hugh, Duke of Alsace, and Godfrey, Duke of Frisia, to a court at Lobith, it was Henry who arrested them and had Godfrey executed and Hugh imprisoned on Charles' orders.
In 884, when Charles succeeded to the throne of West Francia, he sent Henry there to hold the March of Neustria against the Vikings. In 886, he was sent to aid the besieged of Paris. He did not stay long but returned later that year with Charles. However, he died in a skirmish with the Vikings while en route.

was the Frankish Duke of Friuli from 846. He was an important political, military, and cultural figure in the Carolingian Empire during his lifetime. He kept a large library, commissioned works of Latin literature from Lupus Servatus and Sedulius Scottus, and maintained a correspondence with the noted theologians and church leaders Gottschalk, Rabanus Maurus, and Hincmar.
He inherited the title of Duke of Friuli from his father Unruoch II. His mother was Engeltrude, possibly a daughter of Beggo of Paris and Alpais.

]Gisela was renowned her piety and virtue, much like her namesake (Gisela), the beloved sister of Charlemagne, who had chosen the religious life from girlhood.
Her dowry consisted of many rich domains including the fisc of Cysoing; located at the center of the country of Pèvele, Cysoing was one of the most beautiful fiscs in the region and became one of her and Evrard's regular residences. They founded a monastery there, which was not completed until after their deaths..
The nunnery San Salvatore was given to her after Ermengarde, wife of Lothair I. For a time she served as both abbess and rectrix..
Also, she presented to the Church the mosaics which still exist in the cathedral at Aquileia. They contain (what is most remarkable for that time) a Crucifixion, the Virgin, St. George, the portrait of Gisela, and various allegorical figures..
She dedicated herself to the education of her and Evrard's many children.

He was born in Brabant as the son of Reginar II, Count of Hainaut.
Together with his brother Rodolphe, he took part in the rebellion of his uncle Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine. When Gilbert was killed in 939, Regnier had to pledge fealty to King Otto the Great.
He then allied himself with King Louis IV of France, but King Otto sent duke Hermann of Swabia to quell the rebels in 944.
Otto appointed Conrad the Red as duke of Lotharingia, who tried to diminish the power of Reginar. However, when Conrad rose against Otto, Reginar supported him. In an anarchic situation, Reginar appropriated the dowry of Queen Gerberge, Otto's sister and mother of the French king, and also church property.
In 953, Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne, who had also been appointed duke of Lotharingia, restored order and defeated Reginar.
As Reginar refused to submit, he was exiled to Bohemia, where he died.

]was a vassal of Charles the Bald. He was count of Maasgau on the lower Meuse.
Gilbert's background is not known. The similarity of his son's name to the name "Ragnar" has been used as an argument to suggest a Viking connection. Another possibility is that he was related to a man named Reginar, son of Meginhere (a nobleman from the court of Charlemagne). Gilbert had served King Lothair I, but defected to Lothair's half-brother Charles the Bald during the civil war of 840-843. Gilbert's lands eventually came under the rule of Lothair and his rights as count were revoked. In 846 Gilbert abducted an unnamed daughter of Lothair and his wife Ermengarde of Tours. He took her to Aquitaine and married her in an attempt to force Lothair to reinstate him. Rösch suggests that Gilbert's wife was named Ermengarde, but there is no conclusive evidence that this is correct.

Judith ensured that her son Charles received a share of the kingdom, just like his three half-brothers from Louis' first marriage. This contributed to the ensuing civil war among Louis and his sons. Rebels temporarily imprisoned Judith in the convent of Poitiers on allegations of adultery during 830. From 833 to 834, she was exiled in Tortona.

Crown the Duke. He is most illustrious by his exploits, his nobility, his forces. The throne is not acquired by hereditary right; no one should be raised to it unless distinguished not only for nobility of birth, but for the goodness of his soul.

Her father used her as security for a truce with Hugh Capet, whom she married in 970. In 987, after the death of Louis V, the last Carolingian king of France, Hugh was elected the new king with Adelaide as queen. They were proclaimed at Noyon and blessed at Reims. They were the founders of the Capetian dynasty of France.

At the death of Rudolph, duke of Burgundy, in 936, Hugh was in possession of nearly all the region between the Loire and the Seine, corresponding to the ancient Neustria, with the exception of the territory ceded to the Normans in 911. He took a very active part in bringing Louis IV (d'Outremer) from the Kingdom of England in 936, but in the same year Hugh married Hedwige of Saxony, a daughter of Henry the Fowler of Germany and Matilda of Ringelheim, and soon quarrelled with Louis.
Hugh even paid homage to the Emperor Otto the Great, and supported him in his struggle against Louis. When Louis fell into the hands of the Normans in 945, he was handed over to Hugh, who released him in 946 only on condition that he should surrender the fortress of Laon. At the council of Ingelheim (948) Hugh was condemned, under pain of excommunication, to make reparation to Louis. It was not, however, until 950 that the powerful vassal became reconciled with his suzerain and restored Laon. But new difficulties arose, and peace was not finally concluded until 953.

was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans (Imperator Romanorum) from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800. This temporarily made him a rival of the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople. His rule is also associated with the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture through the medium of the Catholic Church. Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define both Western Europe and the Middle Ages. He is numbered as Charles I in the regnal lists of Germany (where he is known as Karl der Große), the Holy Roman Empire, and France.
The son of King Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, a Frankish queen, he succeeded his father in 768 and co-ruled with his brother Carloman I. The latter got on badly with Charlemagne, but war was prevented by the sudden death of Carloman in 771. Charlemagne continued the policy of his father towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in Italy, and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain, to which he was invited by the Muslim governor of Barcelona. Charlemagne was promised several Iberian cities in return for giving military aid to the governor; however, the deal was withdrawn. Subsequently, Charlemagne's retreating army experienced its worst defeat at the hands of the Basques, at the Battle of Roncesvalles (778) (memorialised, although heavily fictionalised, in the Song of Roland). He also campaigned against the peoples to his east, especially the Saxons, and after a protracted war subjected them to his rule. By forcibly Christianizing the Saxons and banning on penalty of death their native Germanic paganism, he integrated them into his realm and thus paved the way for the later Ottonian dynasty.
Today he is regarded not only as the founding father of both French and German monarchies, but also as a Pater Europae (father of Europe): his empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans, and the Carolingian renaissance encouraged the formation of a common European identity.

]Bertrada lived at the court of her elder son Charles, and according to Einhard their relationship was excellent. She recommended him to marry his first wife, Desiderata, a daughter of the Lombard king Desiderius, but he soon divorced her. Einhard claims this was the only episode that ever strained relations between mother and son. Bertrada lived with Charlemagne until her death in 783; the king buried her in Saint Denis Basilica with great honors.

Richard the Justiciar (died 921) was Count of Autun from 880 and the first Margrave and Duke of Burgundy. He eventually attained suzerainty over all the counties of Burgundy save Mâcon and by 890 he was referred to as dux (duke) and by 900 as marchio (margrave). By 918 he was being called dux Burgundionem or dux Burgundiae, which probably signified less the existence of a unified Burgundian dukedom than feudal suzerainty over a multiplicity of counties in a specific region.