Jesse was born into a noble
Frankish family. He studied with
Alcuin of York, which recommended him to Charlemagne. He was the head deacon at the
court in Aachen before he was made bishop. His predecessor at Amiens,
George, consecrated the main altar of
Saint-Riquier Abbey in 798 or early 799. On 4 September, Jesse consecrated the altar dedicated to Raphael in the north portal.
Charlemagne's envoy Jesse accompanied
Pope Leo III on his return to Rome from Saxony in 799. He accompanied Charlemagne to Rome for his imperial coronation in November 800. In 802–803, he was in Constantinople as Charlemagne's ambassador to the
Byzantine Empire. He set out on his mission with Count Helmgaud in April 802. According to
Theophanes the Confessor, one of the matters for this embassy was the proposed marriage of Charlemagne and the Empress
Irene. Jesse and Helmgaud never met the empress. Their ship lay at anchor in the Bosphorus when she was deposed in a palace coup in October. They returned the following spring with a Byzantine ambassador and the draft of a peace treaty. In 808, Jesse was sent as a
missus dominicus (royal emissary) to Ravenna. In a letter to the emperor, Pope Leo objected to this appointment, calling Jesse "unsuitable" for the job or to be a royal counsellor. Jesse attended the
Council of Aachen (809). In 810, he was one of Charlemagne's envoys, along with and
Adalard of Corbie, sent to discuss the
filioque controversy with the pope, probably because he was regarded as an expert in eastern affairs. In 811, Jesse was one of the witnesses of
Charlemagne's testament.
Louis's opponent Jesse either withdrew or was excluded from high politics after the accession of Charlemagne's son, Louis, in 814. He attended the
synod of Noyon (814) and the
synod of Paris (829). In 830, he was one of the leaders of
a rebellion against Louis. According to
Odbertus, it was Jesse who officiated when the captive empress
Judith was forced to become a nun. The emperor soon gained the upper hand. A tribunal of bishops held at
Nijmegen in the autumn of 830 under the presidency of Archbishop
Ebbo deposed Jesse from his bishopric. Although he was covered by the general pardon issued by Louis in the spring of 831, he seems to have been restored as bishop only after Louis's deposition in 833.
Thegan of Trier, biographer and partisan of Louis, criticizes Ebbo harshly for his role in both episodes: "You, with the judgement of others, deposed Jesse from the priesthood, but now you have recalled him to his former rank. Either then or now you showed false judgement." On 28 February 834, following Louis's restoration, Jesse went into internal exile to the
Italian kingdom of Louis's eldest son
Lothair. Jesse died in Italy in the autumn of 836 or 837, the year being uncertain. He was the victim of an epidemic that also took the lives of
Wala of Corbie,
Hugh of Tours and
Matfrid of Orléans. The author of the
Vita Hludovici attributes his death, between early September and Martinmas (11 November), to the judgement of God. ==Works==