Europe in Charlemagne’s Time
Read and Highlight.
For a brief time, Europe was controlled by one man:
Charlemagne, king of the Franks and Lombards, emperor of the
Romans. While the land area was large, the government he used
to control it was crude and simple compared to that of the
Romans.
Charlemagne inherited a sizeable kingdom from his
father, Pepin. The Franks had been expanding from their
homeland near the Rhine River for many centuries. They were a
Christian people at a time when most barbarians were either
pagan or Arian heretics. This meant that the Christian Church
was their friend and ally. Pepin had developed a particularly
close relationship with the pope. Pepin had not started out as
king of the Franks. That title was held by a line of kings called
Merovingians. The Carolingians, Pepin’s family, served as
mayors of the palace and did the real work of ruling the kingdom. Pepin sent a question to the pope. Who should be king, he
who does the work or he who inherited the title? The pope
replied that Pepin should be king. He was crowned King of the
Franks in A.D. 751. Pepin went on a campaign against the
Lombards in north Italy and defeated them. He donated a parcel
of Lombard land to the pope. These lands, usually called the
Papal States, were ruled by popes until modern times.
When Charlemagne inherited the kingdom in 768, it
already stretched from the Pyrenees Mountains past the Rhine.
It was bordered on the north by the Atlantic, the English
Channel, and the North Sea, and on the south by the
Mediterranean and the Alps. Charlemagne conducted over 53
campaigns that expanded the borders. On the west, he pushed
the borders over the Pyrenees and into Spain. To the east he
fought the Saxons, whose homeland was near the base of the
Danish peninsula. The Saxons did not give in easily, and
Charlemagne had to fight them repeatedly. These were not
genteel wars. The Saxons were pagans who burned down
monasteries and churches. Charlemagne, for his part, once
ordered about 4500 Saxons beheaded. Eventually, in 804, the
Saxons were conquered and converted.
Like his father, Charlemagne fought the Lombards. He
eventually added northern Italy to his kingdom as well. This is
when he added “the Lombards” to his title. During one of the
campaigns in Italy, he added the last of his titles. He was
attending church services in Rome on Christmas Day in 800
when the pope crowned him emperor of the Romans. What this
event means remains a mystery, but that hasn’t stopped
historians from concocting magnificently inventive
explanations.
Charlemagne’s interest in religion was very active. He felt
free to issue orders to church officials. One problem he faced
was lack of education. Christianity is a religion that relies on
literacy, and the literacy rate in his empire was about zero.
Charlemagne was alarmed to observe that priests could not
conduct even simple services in proper Latin. He directed that
church officials establish schools to be sure priests were
properly educated. He set up one such school at his own palace.
He also ordered that church officials should encourage monks to
copy books. The monastic rule was interpreted so that copying
books counted as labor. In his time, writing itself was reformed.
Each letter was made to stand alone, and words were written
with spaces between them. These two developments made
reading easier. However, it is doubtful if Charlemagne’s subjects
attained a one percent literacy rate. Charlemagne himself could
read Latin and kept a tablet under his pillow to practice writing.
Apparently he slept well because he never learned to write. In
spite of this, he had set in motion a process that saved ancient
books and literacy for future generations.
Charlemagne spent most of his time on the move.
Traditionally, Frankish kings had moved from royal estate
(manor) to royal estate, eating up the produce of their lands.
Charlemagne eventually selected Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) as
his capital. Perhaps he was trying to live up to the title of
emperor. Archaeology shows that Aix-la-Chapelle was a small
town of perhaps 2000 people.
Charlemagne’s government was very simple. He broke up
his empire into roughly 300 counties. Each was ruled by a
count. He also sent out teams of royal messengers called missi
dominici who traveled about hearing cases and keeping the
counts loyal. The counts were in a position that made rebellion
tempting. From time to time, Charlemagne had to put down
uprisings. When he died in 814, there was no strong personality
to replace him.
Frankish kings divided their kingdoms among their sons.
Charlemagne had a single surviving son, Louis the Pious. He did
not fill his father’s shoes adequately. He in turn had three
surviving sons. The inheritance was disputed but eventually
settled in the Treaty of Verdun in 843. Charles the Bald got the
western kingdom, which spoke French. Louis the German ruled
the eastern kingdom, which spoke German. Lothair inherited a
strip down the middle and the title of emperor. The grandsons
and their descendants could not hold the empire. While they
fought each other, the counts seized the chance to become
independent. As a result, the title of king or emperor began to
mean very little. Later heirs of Charlemagne eventually lost even
the pretense of power.