Eberhard of Friuli
His name is alternatively spelled Everard, Evrard, Erhard, or Eberard; in Latinized fashion, Everardus, Eberardus, or Eberhardus.
He kept a large library, commissioned works of Latin literature from Lupus Servatus and Sedulius Scottus, and maintained a correspondence with the theologians and church leaders Gottschalk, Rabanus Maurus, and Hincmar.
[2] His marriage to Gisèle, the daughter of Emperor Louis the Pious, cemented his eminent position at the Frankish court.
[5] Named Duke of Friuli and Count or Marquis[6] de Trévise, in Italy, he defended his country against invasion by the Bulgars and managed to completely drive them from the peninsula—825-830.
During the tragic years (830-839) where the emperor had suffered at the hand of his son's revolt the most undignified treatment, Count Eberhard remained inviolably loyal.
[7] In return for his services, the emperor Louis the Pious gave Count Evrard the highest honor possible: the hand of his (acknowledged) daughter, the Princess Gisèle, in marriage.
Gisèle, a woman of piety and virtue,[4] was the daughter of Louis le Débonaire and his second wife, the empress Judith.
One gives the name fisc, in this age, to large, rural properties separate from the royal domains; that is, to sorts of farms with a residence for the master and homes for settlers.
[4] Already, in the century before (in 752), the little hamlet established on the royal fisc of Cysoing has been made famous through the martyrdom of Saint Arnoul.
[4] Saint Arnoul, a courageous warrior, who was, it is said, the father of Godefroid, Bishop of Cambrai-Arras, had been attached to the court of a noble lord, his relative.
Also, his piety, his taste for ceremonies of worship, his devotion to the saints, and his respect for the precious relics was apparent in his every act.
[4] Eberhard's activity was not limited to the royal fisc of Cysoing, as he involved himself freely with matters of other domains and the empire in general.
Eberhard and his consort meticulously recorded not only their lands and possessions within a prepared will, but the identities and relationships of family members and neighboring royals.
The third, Adélard, got the lands of Cysoing, Camphin, Gruson and Somain, with charges and respects of all the properties of the Abbey in these regions.
[4] The three daughters of Eberhard, Ingletrude, Judith and Heilwich, got various other domains : Ermen, Marshem, Balghingham, Heliwsheim, Hostrenheim, Luisinga, Wendossa, Engerresteim.
The testimony split equally the jewels and ornaments of the saint, the precious objects of his chapel and the books of his library.
