Ranulf II of Aquitaine

Ranulf II (also spelled "Rannoux", "Rannulf", "Ramnulf", and "Ranulph"; 850 – 5 August 890) was Count of Poitou from 866 and Duke of Aquitaine from 887. On the death of Charles the Fat in 888, he styled himself King of Aquitaine and did so until 889 or his death, after which the title fell into abeyance.

He may have been selected as a temporary king by the Aquitainian nobles, for they accepted Odo of France after his death. Only the "Annales Fuldenses" definitively give him this title. He is recorded to have taken custody of Charles, the young son of Louis the Stammerer and he certainly did not recognise Odo as king. He appeared in the "Annales Vedastes" in 889 with the title "dux maximae partis Aquitaniae": "duke of the major part of Aquitaine." He founded the viscountcy of Thouars at about that time, part of larger movement to creat viscounts with powers over regional fortresses to man them against the Vikings.

Ranulf was a son of Ranulf I and Bilichild of Maine. He married an Ermengard (died 935) and by her had a son, Ranulf III, who succeeded him in Poitiers. His illegitimate son Ebalus succeeded him in Aquitaine and, upon the death of Ranulf III, in Poitiers too.

ee also

*Ramnulfids
*Dukes of Aquitaine family tree

ources

*Lewis, Archibald Ross. " [http://libro.uca.edu/lewis/index.htm The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050] ". University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965.
*MacLean, Simon. "Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the end of the Carolingian Empire". Cambridge University Press: 2003.

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