[1] As a young canon of Reims, he gained prominent roles in the administrations of the archbishops Heriveus (900–22) and Seulf (922–25), particularly in the cathedral scriptorium.
Following Seulf's death in 925, the magnate Herbert II, Count of Vermandois installed his four-year-old son, Hugh, as the new archbishop.
In 946, Louis gained control of Reims with the assistance of the East Frankish ruler Otto I. Hugh was again deposed, and Artold was re-ordained.
Flodoard primarily reported major political and military events, focusing on those in West Francia but extending his coverage to the Ottonian empire and Italy.
This work recounts the history of Reims back to its supposed origins in the time of Romulus and Remus, though it focuses principally on the Christian era up to 948.
Flodoard had access to an episcopal archive stretching back to the sixth century, and based much of his history on original documents which he summarized or reproduced extracts from.
The poem narrates the victories of Christ, martyrs, saints and popes, drawing on a vast range of earlier historical and hagiographical literature.
Flodoard evidently gathered material for the work when he visited Rome in 936/7, and the text is a rare witness to the history of the city and the popes in the early tenth century.