In order to understand how the HN functions as a medium of cultural memory, we first must investigate the specific conditions of its composition. Having reassessed the manuscript tradition in the course of the previous chapter, it is now possible, and necessary, to reconsider the historical and literary context of Dudo's work. I shall begin with a closer look at the author himself and his education.

Dudo's education and early career

Not much is known today about the life of the man who wrote the HN. Scholars have already gathered, compiled and analysed what little reliable information there is on Dudo and his biography, often on the basis of what he himself tells us in the pages of his work. It is sufficient, therefore, to summarize the main facts and figures which are known, before moving on to a more detailed investigation of Dudo's intellectual and literary background and how it shaped his writing. What seems certain is that Dudo was born not in Normandy, but in the neighbouring French county of Vermandois (later Picardy), which at the time consisted of two domains: Péronne and Saint-Quentin. Saint-Quentin appears to have been the more influential of the two, not least because it possessed the right to maintain both a market and a mint. In 943, rule over Vermandois was assumed by a new count, Albert I († 987–8).

Albert I belonged to the Herbertian dynasty, so named after Albert I's grandfather and founder of the family, Héribert († c. 907). Héribert, in turn, was a great-great-grandson of Charlemagne, and thus a great-nephew of Louis the Pious. Héribert's father, Pepin I († after 850), appears to have acquired a piece of land in Vermandois early in the 830s – although without being granted the title of count (comes). This honour was reserved for Héribert himself, whose son and successor, Héribert II, also won hereditary lordship over Saint-Quentin. Héribert II and his successors continued a tradition originally established under the Carolingian kings of France: having been granted their overlords’ permission, they invested members of their own family, or, less regularly, of related families, as abbots of Saint-Quentin. On a practical level, this means that throughout the tenth century the counts of Vermandois, through their own appointment, also came to hold the office of abbot in one of the local monasteries (Personalunion).