The Empire Strikes Back?:
Carolingian Europe
How to Make Glow-in-the-Dark Ink, 1661
"Letters that are not to be read but in the night, must
be written with the Gall of a Tortois, or Fig milk, if you
put it to dry at the fire, or else [with] Water of GlowWormes."
Johann Jacob Wecker, Eighteen Books of the Secrets of
Art & Nature (1661)
What we’re doing today?
 Precis – Conference Preparation
 Before
 During
 Fine Print
 The Kingdom of the Franks & Charlemagne
 More transformations & migrations! The Norse
 Medieval Kingship? Emperors?
The Timeline – 500-750
 http://digihum.mcgill.ca/~matthew.milner/teaching/classes/hist214_f13/ti
meline/
Conferences – Preparation “Precis”
You are responsible for
 1 document for Conferences
 ALL documents for exam & midterm
Preces are
 A summary of the document (1/2)
 An analysis of its SIGNIFICANCE to the theme of the Conference AND the Course
(1/2)
 Marked out of 2 – 0 – you didn’t do it; 1 – summary is ok, but significance isn’t; 2
– you’ve thought about and indicated WHY it’s important
 NO more than 1 page – quality over quantity
 ‘Crib-sheet’ for Conferences
 50% of your participation mark
Conferences – In Class
Conferences...
 Groups of 5-6 students, each with a different document
 QUICKLY present your document to the others
 Discuss and answer the questions for the class
 CAREFULLY record your discussion and answers
 Group discussion is worth 50% of your participation
 Hints:
 Record disgreements! Don’t just jot down one word answers, write and record answers
that have an ARGUMENT, and use examples from your documents.
 Think of this as practice exam / midterm question answering.
 Hand in your preces and groupsheet at the END of class
Conferences – Fine Print & Hints
 Document Analysis
 Use the document analysis guide to help think, but don’t ‘answer’ every question
 Read and use RAMPOLLA Chapter 3!
 If you miss class:
 3 strikes your out unexplained attendance policy – mandatory
 Inform your TA and discuss absences ASAP
 Missing preces due by Dec 3 430pm. Group work required as well in order to get other
50%, but you need to read the other documents and use them in your answers
 Exchange email addresses with your group
 Study groups
 Exchange notes & thoughts
 Help each other out
The Kingdom of the Franks
 Germanic tribe who move into N. of Gaul
 Clovis I converts to Christianity (496)
 Merovingian dynasty (from Clovis to 751)
 Carolingian family takes over 751
 Carolingian dynasty rules Frankish Empire, 751-876
 separation of East, Central and Western Francia
The Kingdom of the Franks
486-511AD
The Kingdom of the Franks
526AD
The Kingdom of the Franks
7th Century
The Coup
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Merovingian Kings are ineffective

Carolingian family cultivates patronage links with Papacy, with Catholic Bishops,
and Benedictine monasteries
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As palace mayors, they enforce allegiance to these larger networks of authority
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Patronage mechanisms: rewards for retinues

Carolingian family one of wealthiest in Francia
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Importance of communication networks (and writing)
Charles Martel (688-741), from a large Frankish aristocratic family

becomes maior domus (mayor of the palace) 717

consolidates Frankish territories (Aquitaine; Alsace)
battle of Tours/Poitiers (732) against Andalusian Muslim army
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during an interregnum, takes title dux et princeps francorum (737-41)
his son Pepin III/Pippin the Short (Pépin le Bref) deposes Childeric III (751),
becomes King of the Franks (751) (d. 768)
Charlemagne (Karl the Great), r. 768-814
 Son of Pepin the Short
 Consolidates Frankish kingdom,
subdues and converts Saxons
 Extends territory to most of
Western Europe (except Spain)
 Crowned by Pope (800) as Roman
Emperor (Augustus)
Charlemagne – Coronation (centuries later)
Rome, Christmas Day, 800 AD:
Pope Leo III crowns
Charlemagne emperor and
“Augustus”

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Pope Leo III under attack

Asserting independence from
Byzantines

Lombard pressures from the
North

Unpopular in Rome itself
Empress Irene in
Constantinople (797-802)

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Dynastic quarrels; pressure from
Arabs
Charlemagne needs to
impress Saxons and other
conquered lords
Jean Fouquet, Grandes
chroniques de France, c. 1460
Charlemagne’s Empire
e. 9th Century
Charlemagne’s Reign
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Emperor and Pope: special relationship
War with Saxons, Avars, etc. (conquest, conversion)
Meritocracy – Counts & Governors
Inspectors (missi dominici)
 Sent to monitor Counts
 Christian Kingship
 Reform, renovatio, correctio
 Practical aspect of “Christian kingship”-- patronage
 Literacy, the Word:
 Schools attached to Monasteries
 The Court (in Aachen) as secular monastery?
Charlemagne’s Kingship

Karolus Magnus (Charles the Great)

“King of the Franks” 768-,

“Emperor of the Romans”, 800-died 814

Words for “King”:

Polish: król,

Czech: král,

Slovak: kráľ,

Hungarian: király,

Lithuanian: karalius,

Latvian: karalis,

Russian: король,
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Macedonian: крал,

Bulgarian: крал,

Serbian: краљ,
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Croatian: kralj,
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Turkish: kral
Charlemagne’s Kingship - Aachen
The Carolingian ‘Renaissance’?
 literacy and power
 monastery schools (Fulda, Tours, etc) for elite boys
 copying and collecting classical Greek & Roman texts
 development of vernaculars (using Latin alphabet)
 codification of laws
 Alcuin, monk (from Britain)
 Einhard, court writer
Charlemagne’s Kingship
 The image:
 An idea of European unity based on
“Christendom” and revived “Empire”
 A new model of Christian kingship
 Revival of the “Roman Empire” in the
West?
 The reality:
 Improvised and fragile; need for
legitimacy
Charlemagne’s Kingship - Einhard
 Einhard: b. c. 770, d. 840
 Fulda monastery school, then Aachen court
 Close advisor to Charlemagne
 Writes the Vita Karoli, ? 817-23 or 829-36 ?
 Influenced by Latin histories (Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars)
 The model emperor: Augustus
Einhard – What makes a good king?
 Models inherited from the Roman past
 Stability in kingdom, and expansion
 Wars (or defence) against pagan invaders (Vikings, Saxons)
 Defence of Christianity
 Sponsorship of learning
 Taking wise counsel / respect for the elites
 Magnificent (and generous) spending
 Good diplomacy with other kings
Carolingian Collapse
Frankish Inheritance – partible; from meritocracy to inherited aristocracy
 Louis the Pious (sole heir to Charlemagne)
 Unlike his father– legalisitic, reforms monastic life, expels illegitimate (many brothers!)
 Court life boring
 Treaty of Verdun in 843
 Charles II the Bald – the west
 Louis the German – the east
 Lothair – the middle
 Factionalism - with 100 years of Frankish empire = dozen of principalities
 Economic problems – infrastructure (bridges & roads); no exports
 End of hope for restored ‘central’ European government
Carolingian Collapse
Norse Migration – the Vikings
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Viking migrations & raids – population pressures in Scandinavia?
A new technology – the longboat; shallow, allows river travel
England 789, kill King of Wessex, Beorhtric
Raid Monasteries – Lindisfarne (793), Jarrow (794), Iona (795)
830s more raids; take control of Dublin, 850; full invasion in England in 860s;
890s Kingdoms of Northumbria & East Anglia overrun. Century of Danish invasion
– eventually Dane becomes king of Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex 1013; Cnut
king in 1016.
 East: From 860s/880s: Kievan Rus.
 Normandy, 911-.
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Sicily (1059) (Norman kingdom)
England (1066) (Norman conquest)
Orkneys, Shetlands, Faroes
Iceland (860/950-)
Greenland (981-), Newfoundland (1000-)
Norse Migrations & Raids 8th-10th Centuries
The Magyars
 Pagan nomads from
central Asia
 Attack the eastern
Carolingian Empire
 Settle in modern
Hungary
 Fight on horseback great cavalry warriors.
Ottonian Empire
 Successor to Louis the German’s kingdom
 Ottonian dynasty (919-1024): kings of saxony and Holy Roman Emperors,
founded by Henry I, proclaimed Emperor in 933
 Otto I
 Uses church men as ministers, and founds institutions along the Rhine
 Invades Italy, reclaims lands
 962 Coronation at Rome by Pope John XII as “Holy Roman Emperor” - start of the Holy
Roman Empire, which lasts until 1806
 Roman pretensions – 11th century Emperors start using title ‘King of the
Romans’
 Emperor more important than Pope; sets up later conflict
Europe at c. 1050
Otto III as Emperor, c. 1000AD
Rex Imago Christi
Otto II (reigned 967-983), in majesty,
depicted in the Aachen Gospel (c. 973)
Imagery from the Apocalypse: Christ’s
return in judgement
Twin Nature of Kings
We thus have to recognize [in the king] a twin
person, one descending from nature, the
other from grace ... One through which, by
the condition of nature, he conformed with
other men: another through which, by the
eminence of [his] deification and by the
power of the sacrament [of consecration],
he excelled all others. Concerning one
personality, he was, by nature, an
individual man: concerning his other
personality, he was, by grace, a Christus,
that is, a God-man . . . The power of the
king is the power of God.
(Anonymous of York, On the Consecration of
Bishops and Kings, c. 1100)
Two Bodies?
Ernst Kantorowicz (1895-1963)
The King's Two Bodies: a study in mediaeval
political theology (Princeton, 1957).
Legalistic & theological explanation of polity &
kingship
1. Physical body – dies, is human
2. Political body – doesn’t die, is social, is
supernatural, fount of justice, continued
association of polity
Not clearly separated!
“Political Theology”
Take Away

Charlemagne attempts to turn the Frankish kingdom into the Roman
Empire, restoring the unity of the Western Empire in some form.

Makes pretenses and claims on Roman-ness - in his building projects
(Aachen and elsewhere), his coronation (800AD), alliances with the Pope,
re-establishment of a centralized administration based on merit, not
inheritance, emphasis on education and intellectual life (Carolingian
Renaissance).

Like Byzantine Emperor fuses kingship with Christianity

Carolingian Empire collapses due to partible inheritance, unstable
economics and infrastructure, and squabbling.

Exacerbated by new migrations which result in refashioning of empire.

919 new Dynasty in East forms Holy Roman Empire, Otto I crowned in
Rome 962.

Makes claims of Christ-like Kingship - king has two bodies, natural and
political / mystical

As a result of disintegration Europe needs new way of forming and
maintain social stability - feudalism & manorialism
Terms
Vikings
Charlemagne
Missi Dominici
Einhard
Aachen
Treaty of Verdun
800AD