Matfrid was Count of Orléans

Count of Orléans

The Count of Orléans was the ruler of an area of modern France around the city of Orléans. The title was most commonly used in the Merovingian and Carolingian eras....

 in the reign of Emperor Louis the Pious

Louis the Pious

Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...

. Historians presume that he was the first of Frankish

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

 noble clan known as the Matfridings, Matfridinger or Matfriede.

Matfrid

Matfrid was Count of Orléans from around 818. He accompanied the Emperor on his expedition to Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

 in 824, and served at Louis's court. However, in 825, he supported Lothar

Lothair I

Lothair I or Lothar I was the Emperor of the Romans , co-ruling with his father until 840, and the King of Bavaria , Italy and Middle Francia...

, eldest son of Emperor Louis, in his revolt against the Emperor. Restored to favour, he led a Frankish army on the Marca Hispanica

Marca Hispanica

The Marca Hispanica , also known as Spanish March or March of Barcelona was a buffer zone beyond the province of Septimania, created by Charlemagne in 795 as a defensive barrier between the Umayyad Moors of Al-Andalus and the Frankish Kingdom....

, the Spanish frontier, in 827, jointly with his sister's husband Hugh, Count of Tours

Hugh of Tours

Hugh was the count of Tours and Sens during the reigns of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, until his disgrace in February 828. He was probably a son of Count Haicho of the House of the Etichonen....

 and Louis's son Pippin

Pepin I of Aquitaine

Pepin I was King of Aquitaine.-Biography:He was the second son of Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye....

, King of Aquitaine

Duke of Aquitaine

The Duke of Aquitaine ruled the historical region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of Frankish, English and later French kings....

.

Matfrid, Hugh, and Pippin failed to meet the invasion by Abu Marwan, and the following year at Aachen

Aachen

Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...

 an Imperial assembly stripped Matfrid and Hugh of their titles. Thereafter, although Matfrid supported the rebellions of Emperor Louis's sons on every occasion, he was repeatedly restored to his lands, title, and imperial favour.

Matfrid, once more serving Lothar, died in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 in 836 during a plague.

Jonas of Orléans

Jonas of Orléans

Jonas was Bishop of Orléans and played a major political role during the reign of Emperor Louis the Pious.Jonas was born in Aquitaine. Probably a cleric by the 780s, he served at the court of Louis the Pious, who ruled as King of Aquitaine during the reign of his father, Charlemagne. In 817,...

 addressed his "mirror of princes

Mirror-of-princes writing

The mirrors for princes refer to a genre – in the loose sense of the word – of political writing during the Early Middle Ages, Middle Ages and the Renaissance...

" work De Institutione laicali to Matfrid.

Matfridings

A second Matfrid, presumed to be the son of the first, was active in Lotharingia

Lotharingia

Lotharingia was a region in northwest Europe, comprising the Low Countries, the western Rhineland, the lands today on the border between France and Germany, and what is now western Switzerland. It was born of the tripartite division in 855, of the kingdom of Middle Francia, itself formed of the...

 during the reigns of Lothar and his son Lothar II

Lothair II of Lotharingia

Lothair II was the second son of Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde of Tours. He was married to Teutberga, daughter of Boso the Elder. He is the namesake of the Lothair Crystal, which he probably commissioned, and of the Cross of Lothair, which was made over a century after his death but...

, a frequent witness to their charters in the period from 843 to 860. The third Matfrid, presumed son of the second, was active in the period 867 to 878.

Later members of the Matfriding clan included Godfrey I, Duke of Lower Lorraine

Godfrey I, Duke of Lower Lorraine

Godfrey I was the count of Hainault from 958 and margrave or vice-duke of Lower Lorraine from 959, when that duchy was divided by Duke Bruno, who remained duke until his death in 965....

.