Ebroin

Who was Ebroin?

Ebroin was bishop of Poitiers from 839 to his death. He took on the administration of the county of Poitiers during a troubled period and continued to faithfully support King Charles the Bald.

In 835 Ebroin's cousin, Count Rorig I of Maine, petitioned King Pippin I for the monastery of Glanfeuil to be given to Ebroin. Glanfeuil had been placed under the authority of another relative of Ebroin's, Abbot Ingelbert of Saint-Pierre-des-Fossés, by the Emperor Louis the Pious in 833. In 844 Ebroin bestowed the office of abbot on Rorig's son Gauslin. On 14 July 847 Charles confirmed Ebroin's right of possession of abbey, apparently without oversight from Fossés, and its heritability in his family.

In 839 Ebroin sided with Charles the Bald against Pippin II in the battle for the subkingdom of Aquitaine, which had been ruled by Pippin I, Charles' brother and Pippin's father, until his death in 838. According to the Vita Hludovici, Ebroin was Charles's advisor on Aquitainian affairs. Between Charles's first visit to Poitiers in April 839 and February 840, when the emperor left him in charge of conducting a campaign against Pippin II, Charles appointed Ebroin as his archchaplain.