Ebbo
French archbishop

Ebbo, Ebo or Epo (c. 775 – 20 March 851) was the Archbishop of Rheims from 816 until 835 and again from 840 to 841. He was born a German serf on the royal demesne of Charlemagne. He was educated at his court and became the librarian and councillor of Louis the Pious, king of Aquitaine, son of Charlemagne. When Louis became emperor, he appointed Ebbo to the see of Rheims, then vacant after the death of Wulfaire.
He was an important figure in the spread of Christianity in the north of Europe. At the insistence of Louis, in 822, he went to Rome and asked Pope Pascal I to become the papal legate to the North. He was licensed to preach to the Danes and he and Halitgar, bishop of Cambrai, and Willerich, bishop of Bremen, went there in 823. He made short subsequent trips, but all with little success. Ansgar was more successful a few years later.
When Louis's sons by his first marriage to Ermengarde of Hesbaye (Lothair, Louis, and Pepin) rebelled in 830, Ebbo remained loyal.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ebbo” is french archbishop. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ebbo, French and archbishop, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q819901. VIAF identifies the subject as 47118966. The Library of Congress control number is nr98025714. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ebbo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.