04/11/2023, 09:28 Silva Carbonaria - Wikipedia

Silva Carbonaria
Silva Carbonaria, the "charcoal forest",[1] was the dense old-
growth forest of beech and oak that formed a natural boundary
during the Late Iron Age through Roman times into the Early
Middle Ages across what is now western Wallonia. The Silva
Carbonaria was a vast forest that stretched from the rivers
Zenne and the Dijle in the north to the Sambre in the south.[2]
Its northern outliers reached the then marshy site of modern
Brussels.[3]

Further to the southeast, the higher elevation and deep river

valleys were covered by the even less penetrable ancient
Arduenna Silva, the deeply folded Ardennes, which are still Compared to modern old-growth
partly forested to this day. To the east, the forest was possibly beech forests (shown here:
considered to extend to the Rhine. It was there in Cologne in Gribskov, Nordsjælland, Denmark),
388 CE that the magistri militum praesentalis Nannienus and Silva Carbonaria was remarkably
Quintinus[4] began a counter-attack against a Frankish dense
incursion from across the Rhine, which was fought in the Silva
Carbonaria.[5]

Roman road
A great Roman road forming a "strategic axis"[7] linked the
Rhine crossing at Cologne with Maastricht, where it crossed the
Maas at the head of navigation. Skirting the northern edges of
the Silva Carbonaria, it passed through Tongeren, Kortrijk and
Cambrai to reach the sea at Boulogne. The highway was the
main east–west route in a landscape where the river valleys,
tributaries of the Meuse and the Scheldt, tended southwest to
northeast. It remained viable through the Early Middle Ages as
the chaussée Brunehaut, the "Road of Brunehaut". As a public The green diamonds show places
work its scale had become unimaginable in the Middle Ages: named as having been in the Silva
the chronicler Jean d'Outremeuse solemnly related in 1398 that Carbonaria in medieval records.[6]
Brunehaut, wife of Sigebert I, had built this wide paved road in The Roman road between Bavay
526, and that it was completed in a single night with the devil's and Tongeren is shown in brown.
aid.[8]

Use as a border
There are signs that the Silva Carbonaria represented the boundary between the Roman provinces
of Gallia Belgica and Germania Inferior. In the Middle Ages, these provinces were still represented
by the church dioceses of Reims and Cologne. On a smaller level, the forest served as a boundary
between the Roman civitates of the Tungri to the east and the Nervii to the west. This boundary
continued to be used into the Middle ages as the boundary between the bishoprics of Liège and
Cambrai.[6]

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With the collapse of central Roman administration in the fourth century, Germanic Franks living
along the Rhine border established kingdoms within the empire, and settled in less populated
areas. The Salian Franks expanded their settlements from a starting point near Nijmegen until they
pressed into the more populated and Romanized areas in the Silva Carbonaria and near the Maas.
The Romanized population came to be known as *walhōz or "strangers" to the Germanic Franks—
continued speaking a Late Latin, whose name survives in Walloon. In the past the Romance-
Germanic linguistic division that marks Belgium to this day has been perhaps too facilely linked[9]
to these geographic parameters.[10]

For a time in the sixth century, the Silva Carbonaria formed a

In the 19th century, the iron ore in
the formerly wooded valleys fuelled
the sillon industriel of Wallonia
barrier between the West Frankish kingdom of Clovis and the
East Frankish kingdom of Sigebert the Lame, centred on
Cologne, until he was assassinated in the forest of Buchaw by
his son some time after 507, and Clovis joined the two
kingdoms. [11] The Liber Historiae Francorum mentions that
the Neustrian army invaded Austrasia in the succession battle
of Pepin of Herstal and the war started when Ragenfrid and his
army traversed the Silva Carbonaria.[12] The Annales Mettenses
Priores inform us that the wealth of Pepin of Herstal's family
was their vast territories between the Silva Carbonaria and the
river Meuse.[13]

Throughout the rule of the Merovingian dynasty, founded by

Clovis, the Silva Carbonaria thus became the boundary between their two kingdoms of Austrasia
and Neustria.[6] The Silva Carbonaria is mentioned in the Salic Law of the Franks,[14] where it
marked "the boundary of the territories occupied by the Frankish people".[15] The Liber Historiae
Francorum mentions that the war of succession after the death of Pepin of Herstal started when
the Neustrian army, under the command of Ragenfrid (mayor of the palace), traversed the Silva
Carbonaria[16]

Medieval monasteries
Extensive tracts of the untamed woodlands belonged to monasteries. The Benedictine Abbey of
Lobbes lay in the Silva Carbonaria and that of Saint Foillan, in the present-day Sonian Forest
(Forêt de Soignes/Zoniënwoud) not far from Nivelles.[17] From the 8th century onwards, parts of
the Silva Carbonaria were cleared for agriculture, eventually subdividing it in several smaller
isolated forests like the Sonian forest today.[18]

Economic importance
The charcoal—which gave the forest its name and into which the once seeming inexhaustible
woods were slowly converted—was required to fuel the scattered smelting furnaces that forged the
plentiful iron found in outcroppings laid bare by riverside erosion. Even before the Romans
arrived, iron weapons forged in the Silva Carbonaria were traded by the Belgae to their cousins in
the southeast of Britain. In the High Middle Ages further woodlands were cleared. Today the most
significant remnant[19] of the Silva Carbonaria is the Sonian Forest,[20] preserved because it had
been set aside as a noble hunt. At the start of the nineteenth century the area of this remnant of the
primeval forest still covered about 100 square kilometres, but due to timber cutting its area has
diminished to its current protected area of 44.21 km².

Notes

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1. Or Carbonarius saltus, "the charcoal ravine or wildwood" — in the sense of "unfit for the
plough" (Hoffmann 1698, s.v. "Carbonarius saltus"); the lexicographer Hoffmann found
Carbonaria silva mentioned by Gregory of Tours, the twelfth-century chronicler Sigebert of
Gembloux, and Johannes Trithemius.
2. F. L. Ganshof, "Manorial Organization in the Low Countries in the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth
Centuries" Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th Series 31 (1949:29-59) p. 30.
3. André De Vries, Brussels: A Cultural and Literary History, 2003:18.
4. A. H. M. Jones, John Robert Martindale, J. Morris, eds. The Prosopography of the Later
Roman Empire, 1971 s.v. Quintinus"
5. According to Sulpicius Alexander, quoted in Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks ii.9: multos
Francorum, qui Rhenum transierant, a Romanis apud Carbonariam ferrô peremptos tradit,
quoted by Hoffmann 1698.
6. Ulrich Nonn, Pagus und Comitatus, pp.226-234 and map.
7. Van Durme 2002:11.
8. The confused legendary origins of the chausée Brunehaut were unraveled and examined by J.
Lestoquoy, "L'étrange histoire de la Chaussée Brunehaut" (http://www.nordmag.fr/patrimoine/hi
stoire_regionale/voies_com/histoire_brunehaut.htm), in Arras au temps jadis1946; see
"Presentation of Brunehaut and its villages" (http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/be-whtbh.htm
l).
9. Émile Cammaerts, A History of Belgium from the Roman Invasion to the Present Day, 1921:
34, in general following conclusions based on toponymy by the historian Godefroid Kurth.
10. The historiography of this idea is traced by Luc van Durme in "Genesis and evolution of the
Romance-Germanic language border in Europe", in Jeanine Treffers-Daller and Roland
Willemyns, eds. Language Contact at the Romance-Germanic Language Border, 2002:39ff.
11. "At that stage, the silva Carbonaria separated Clovis's Salian kingdom from Sigebert's eastern
domain." (The Cambridge Ancient History, eo.loc.); "The Silva Carbonaria formed for a time a
natural barrier between Salians and Ripuarians, though it may not have proved very effective,"
(John Michael Wallace-Hadrill, The Barbarian West, 400-1000 1996:70); in the chronicle of the
Monastery of Saint Arnulf, under the year 690: adunatô exercitu Peppinus ad Carbonariam
silvam pervenit: qui terminus utraque Regna dividit.
12. Liber Historiae Francorum (51) "“Theudoaldo, enim fugato, Ragamfredo in principatum
maiorum palacii elegerunt. Qui, commoto cum rege exercitu Carbonaria silva transeuntes,
usque Mosam fluvium terras illas vastantes succenderunt; cum Radbode duce gentile
amiciciam feriunt.”" ("However, Theudoald fled and a terrible persecution happened in that
time. After Theudoald left, Ragenfrid was elected as the ‘princeps’ maior of the palace. After
having assembled an army with the king, he traversed the Silva Carbonaria and devastated all
lands up to the Meuse and burned places. Then they concluded a pact of friendship with the
pagan, dux Radbod.”) The Neustrian army and their new Frisian allies advanced and took the
city of Cologne. Shortly afterwards, when the Neustrian army laden with booty retreated from
Cologne to Neustria, Charles Martel waited in ambush and defeated them at the Amblève river.
13. Annales Mettenses Priores, “Ad solacium autem prestante Domino tantae rei publicae
administrationis erat ei gloriosa genitrix, cunctis laudibus digna, nomine Begga, filia Pippini
precellentissimi quondam principis, qui populum inter Carbonariam silvam et Mosam fluvium et
usque ad Fresionum fines vastis limitibus habitantem iustis legibus gubernabat.” (“As support,
however, in the administration of such large state, the Lord providing, he (Pepin of Herstal) had
his glorious mother, Begga by name, worthy of all praise. She was the daughter of the late
most excellent Pippin (of Landen), who with just laws governed the population living in the vast
territories between the Forest Carbonaria and the river Meuse up to the borders of the
Frisians.”)
14. Title 47 of Lex Salica specifies that the interested parties in a contested ownership meet within
forty days if they live within the bounds of the Silva Carbonaria and the Loire; otherwise eighty
days must be allowed. (T.M. Charles-Edwards, in Iorwerth Eiddon and Stephen Edwards, eds.
The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. XV [Cambridge University Press] 2005:273.
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15. As Gregory of Tours noted, Rhenum transierunt, pluribus suorum in Romano relictis solo, ad
repetendam depopulationem paratis, cum quibus congressua Romanis adcomodus fuit, multis
Francorum apud Carbonariam ferro perimptis. (Historia Francorum ii.9.).
16. Liber Historiae Francorum (51) “Theudoaldo, enim fugato, Ragamfredo in principatum maiorum
palacii elegerunt. Qui, commoto cum rege exercitu Carbonaria silva transeuntes, usque Mosam
fluvium terras illas vastantes succenderunt; cum Radbode duce gentile amiciciam feriunt.”
(However, Theudoald fled and a terrible persecution happened in that time. After Theudoald
left, Ragenfrid was elected as the ‘princeps’ maior of the palace. After having assembled an
army with the king, he traversed the Silva Carbonaria and devastated all lands up to the Meuse
and burned places. Then they concluded a pact of friendship with the pagan, dux Radbod.”).
The Neustrian army advanced to Cologne and took the city. When they retreated from Cologne
to Neustria, Charles Martel waited in ambush and defeated them at the Amblève river.
17. Hoffmann 1698, Laubiense Monasterium in Silva Carbonaria esse situm, auctore Fulcuinô;
esse et Coenobium S. Foillani in silva Soniaca parte Carbonariae non longe a Niviala:
18. Koen Deforce, Bart Vanmontfort and Kris Vandekerkhove, Early and High Medieval (c. 650 AD
- 1250 AS) Charcoal Production and Its Impact on Woodland Composition in the Northwest-
European Lowland, in: Environmental Archaeology, 2018, p. 169
19. There are seven other forests in Belgium that are also remains of the Silva Carbonaria
20. De Vries 2003:13; Hofmann, in the late seventeenth century, noted this remnant in writings of
Gotefridus Wendelinus and also remarked on remnants in the Forêt de Mormaux or Mormal,
the Bois de Cirau, and the woodland called Die Leu that stretched from Leuven to the gates of
Diest, the forest-covered Hageland or Hagelanden.

References
Hofmann, Johann Jacob. Lexicon Universale, Historiam Sacram Et Profanam Omnis aevi...
(Leiden) 1698. on-line facsimile text (http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/hofmann/h
of1/s0721b.html) on-line transcript (https://archive.today/20120913215215/http://www.uni-mann
heim.de/mateo/camenaref/hofmann/c/books/c_2042.html).
Duvivier, Charles, "La forêt charbonnière: Silva Carbonaria", in Revue d'histoire et
d'archéologie 3 (1862:1-26).
Freiherren von Richthofen (1841), "Review of "Der lex Salica und der lex Anglorum et
Werinorum Alter und Heimat, von Hermann Müller, ordentlichem Professor der Rechte zu
Würzburg" Würzburg, 1840" (https://books.google.com/books?id=lExMAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA100
0), Kritische Jahrbücher für deutsche Rechtswissenschaft, vol. 5, p. 1000 (includes list of early
references to the Silva Carbonaria)
Vander Linden (1923), La Forêt Charbonnière (http://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/rbph_0035-081
8_1923_num_2_2_6224.pdf) (PDF)
Hoops, Johannes (1981), "Carbonaria Silva" (https://books.google.com/books?id=0loRGqHp2p
MC&pg=PA341), Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 4, ISBN 9783110065138
Van Durme (2010) Genesis and Evolution of the Romance-Germanic Language Border in
Europe (http://www.multilingual-matters.net/jmmd/023/0009/jmmd0230009.pdf)

Primary sources
Mentioned as a boundary in the Lex Salica. Various versions can be compared here (http://ww
w.dmgh.de/de/fs1/object/context/bsb00000855_meta:titlePage.html?sort=score&order=desc&di
visionTitle_str=&hl=false&fulltext=carbonaria&sortIndex=020:020:0004:010:01:00&context=car
bonaria) and here (http://www.dmgh.de/de/fs1/object/context/bsb00000856_meta:titlePage.htm
l?sort=score&order=desc&divisionTitle_str=&hl=false&fulltext=carbonaria&sortIndex=020:020:0
004:010:02:00&context=carbonaria) on the dMGH.de (Monumenta Germaniae Historica)
collection.

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The Liber Historiae Francorum repeats the story found in Gregory of Chlodio going through the
forest to take Tournai. Latin is here (http://www.dmgh.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb00000749_00
254.html?sortIndex=010%3A020%3A0002%3A010%3A00%3A00&text=true&sort=score&order
=desc&context=carbonaria&divisionTitle_str=&hl=false&fulltext=carbonaria) on the dMGH.de
collection.

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