纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 053洛泰尔一世水晶雕刻(5)(在线收听

"We know almost nothing about the court of Lothair II simply because most of our sources devoted to him are in two particular categories. One—narrative sources describing the vulnerability of his own little kingdom in the middle of the west and the east Frankish kingdoms, where his uncles, Charles the Bald on the west and Louis the German on the east, were in fact casting their greedy eyes upon his kingdom with the hope of taking it. The other category of information is much more pertinent to this crystal, in that it is concerning the attempts Lothair II made to get rid of his wife Theutberga. He appears to have married her very soon after he inherited the throne, even though he had a long-standing mistress called Waldrada, from whom he had two children, a son and a daughter. When he married Theutberga she had no children, and she continued to bear no children, and Lothair appears to have decided Waldrada would be a better bet. So he recruited his two bishops, of Cologne and Trier, to have the marriage annulled, on the grounds of incest with Theutberga's brother."

原因在于现有的与他相关的资料基本只有两类。一类引用各项记录描述他那夹在东西法兰克王国之间的小国的脆弱,他的两位叔叔,西边的秃头查理和东边的日耳曼人路易,都对他的江山虎视眈眈。另一类则跟这块水晶关系更密切,着重描述了国王为摆脱妻子塞勃格而作的努力。他似乎是在继承王位不久之后便迎娶了塞勃格,但之前早巳有个名叫沃尔德华达的情妇,还为他生有一子一女。而塞勃格一直没有给他添子嗣。洛泰尔似乎断定沃尔德华达才是较好的选择。他找来科隆和特里尔的两位主教,要他们以王后与她的兄弟乱伦为由宣布解除他们的婚姻关系。

Lothair's bid to divorce his wife and marry his mistress was no self-indulgent whim; he needed to have a legitimate heir. It was his only chance to preserve his inheritance and his kingdom. But royal divorce, then as now, was political dynamite.

洛泰尔试图废后再迎娶情妇的行为并非完全出于一己私欲:他需要一位合法继承人,这是他保留继承权与王国的唯一机会。但王室的离婚件,不论今时还是往日,都是政治上的一颗重磅炸弹。

The bishops of Cologne and Trier had actually obtained confessions from the Queen—possibly through torture—that she had committed incest with her brother, but Theutberga appealed to the Pope, who investigated the case and declared her innocent.

科隆和特里尔的主教其实已经拿到了王后供认与兄弟乱伦的证词,这可能是屈打成招的结果。但塞勃格又向教皇上诉,后者通过调査宣布她是清白的。

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