Turpin

Who was Turpin?

Turpin was an archbishop of Reims during the late 8th century. He was for many years regarded as the author of the legendary Historia de vita Caroli Magni et Rolandi, and appears as one of the Twelve Peers in a number of the chansons de geste, the most important of which is La Chanson de Roland.

He is probably identical with Tilpin, an 8th-century archbishop of Reims alluded to by Hincmar, his third successor in the Holy See. According to Flodoard, Charles Martel drove Rigobert, archbishop of Reims, from his office and replaced Rigobert with a warrior clerk named Milo, afterwards bishop of Trier. The same writer represents Milo as discharging a mission among the Vascones, or Basques, the very people to whom authentic history has ascribed the great disaster which befell the army of Charlemagne at Roncevaux Pass.

It is thus possible that the warlike legends which have gathered around the name of Turpin are due to some confusion of his identity with that of his martial predecessor. Flodoard says that Tilpin was originally a monk at Saint Denis Basilica, and Hincmar tells how after his appointment to Reims he occupied himself in securing the restoration of the rights and properties of his church, the revenues and prestige of which had been impaired under Milo's rule. Tilpin was elected archbishop between 752 and 768, probably in 753; he died, if the evidence of a diploma alluded to by Jean Mabillon may be trusted, in 794, although it has been stated that this event took place on 2 September 800.