This project uses an ahnentafel of Charlemagne to identify and cut the fake lines in his ancestry.

Background

The Emperor Charlemagne is the ancestor of most, perhaps all Europeans. His ancestry goes back only a few generations but he has become the gateway for hundreds of fake genealogies back to antiquity, all based on wishful thinking.

Experts generally agree that only 8 ancestors of Charlemagne can be proven. Another 5 are almost certain. Everything else is academic conjecture or amateur speculation. See, e.g., Francisco Tavares de Almeida, "The 8 proven ancestors of Charlemagne" at soc.genealogy.medieval, posted Jan. 13, 2017, citing Christian Settipani, Les Ancètres de Charlemagne 2nd. ed. (2014).

How to participate

• Use the ahnentafel below to identify ancestors of Charlemagne, then add those ancestors to the project.
• Cut any lines that do not appear in the ahnentafel.
• If you find a contemporary academic source that changes or adds to this information, start a project discussion.
• The best place to search for updates and corrections to this information is the archives of soc.genealogy.medieval.

Reading an ahnentafel

An ahnentafel is a numbered list of a person's ancestors. If you are looking at a person on the list, that person's father is their number times 2. That person's mother is that number times 2 plus 1. A child's number is one-half their father's number.

The proven ancestry of Charlemagne

This table shows the proved ancestors of Charlemagne, as accepted by the majority of experts. The relationships on Geni should conform to this table, but go no further.

Generation 1

• 1 - CHARLEMAGNE Patricius Romanorum 742-814

Generation 2

• 2 - Pepin III le Bref 714-768
• 3 - Bertrade II de Laon ca 720-783

Generation 3

• 4 - Charles Martel 686/689-741
• 5 - Rotrude de Treves ca 690-724 almost certain
• 6 - Charibert de Laon ca 690-747

Generation 4

• 8 - Pepin II the Middle ca 635-714
• 9 - Alpaide van Bruyeres ca 660-705
• 13 - Bertrade de Prüm ca 690-ca 720

Generation 5

• 16 - Ansigisel de Metz 607/610-662/685
• 17 - Saint Beggue of Austrasia 605/615-693 almost certain

Generation 6 oudouders

• 32 - Arnulf of Metz (582-640) almost certain
• 34 - Pepin of Landen (c580-640) almost certain
• 35 - Saint Itta (?-652) almost certain

Related Projects

• Charlemagne: Direct Descent Line

Jump Back To

• Medieval Kingdoms of Western Europe Project List