ABSTRACT
The Gesta Abbatum Fontanellensium reveals that Gervold, who was abbot of St Wandrille from 789 to 807, was set up by Charlemagne as procurator for the trade of the Frankish kingdom, and that as a result he was responsible for levying tolls (tributa atque vectigalia), especially in Quentovic. Perhaps because of these duties he also played a leading role in Charlemagne's dealings with Off a, king of Mercia. 7 A charter of Charlemagne granting exemptions to the community of St Germain-des-Pres from various tolls in 779 confirms the economic importance of the emporium. 8 Later the place came to have a particular significance for the community of St Wandrille. After the Viking attacks on the Seine in 839 the relics of Wandregisel and Ansbert were taken first to Bloville and then to the church of St Peter, outside Quentovic.9 As a result a notable cult of Wandregisel and Ansbert grew up in the region. The cures effected at the shrines of the saints, and recorded in the ninth-century Miracula Wandregisili, provide a remarkable insight, if not into the trading-centre itself, at least into the ailments of some of the townspeople and other inhabitants of the region. The cures can be dated to the second half of the ninth century, when Quentovic was supposedly in decline, largely as a result of the Viking onslaught: the evidence of the Miracula may imply that the decline of Quentovic was less marked than has been supposed.
