HIST 203
SYLLABUS
LECTURE OUTLINES

 

Week 7: Tuesday

THE RISE OF THE CAROLINGIANS

Click here for family trees of the Merovingian kings (481-751) and the Carolingians (751-987)

Seal-ring portrait of Childeric I (c. 440- c. 481), son of Meroveus (Merovech) and father of Clovis, from his tomb in Tournai

Map of the Merovingian kingdoms

The Albi, or Merovingian, world map (8th cent.) showing the Mediterranean world (North is to the left)

7th C.	Weak Merovingian “sluggard kings”; division of Francia (Neustria, Austrasia, Burgundy) and rise of mayors of the palace
680-714	Pepin of Heristal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, conquers Neustria (687) and establishes Carolingian hegemony over Burgundy as well

714-741 Charles Martel (“the Hammer”)

716-754	St. Boniface of England: missionary to Frisians and Germans, and reformer of Frankish Church (shown here in an 11th-cent. manuscript from Fulda)
726-843	Iconoclasm Controversy in Byzantine Empire
726	Pope Gregory II (715-31) condemns iconoclasm, resulting in revolt by the people of Ravenna against the Byzantine exarch (viceroy)
729	Lombards and Byzantine exarch temporarily unite to besiege Rome; pope reconciles with them
731-41	Pope Gregory III holds a synod denouncing iconoclasm (731); rebuilds walls of Rome after Ravenna falls to Lombards (temporarily) in 733; when Lombard King Liutprand marches on Rome, Gregory sends embassies begging military aid (739 and 740) to Charles Martel, who does not reply.
732	Defeat of Muslim army between Tours and Poitiers, by army of Franks led by Charles Martel

741-768 Pepin the Short

740s	“Donation of Constantine” (forgery by papal chancery, claiming imperial status for pope; click here for the text and for a 13th-cent. painting of this fictitious event)
751	Lombards capture Ravenna, kill the exarch and expel the Byzantines; query from Pepin to Pope Zacharias I (741-52) (“Who should have the crown?”) results in coronation of Pepin (by Boniface, at Soissons) and alliance between Franks and papacy
754-6	754 2nd coronation of Pepin, by Pope Stephen II (at St. Denis), leads to Pepin’s campaigns against Lombards (755, 756) and grant of lands to papacy (“Donation of Pepin,” 756)

768-814 Charlemagne (“Carolus magnus” = Charles the Great):

Map of Europe at Charlemagne’s death in 814
Partition of Charlemagne’s empire in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun

771-804	Conquest of Saxony and Bavaria
774	Conquest of Lombards (Charlemagne henceforth styles himself “King of the Franks and the Lombards”)
778	Campaign against Spanish Muslims; Count Roland killed by Basques at Roncevaux (or Roncesvalles); establishment of Spanish March
790s	Destruction of Avars
794	Establishment of permanent capital at Aachen (or Aix-la-Chapelle), with palace school headed by Alcuin of York (shown here presenting his student, Hrabanus Maurus, to St. Martin of Tours). See also: Reconstruction of Charlemagne’s palace at Aachen (with captions in French) Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel at Aachen: exterior and interior Charlemagne’s monogram on parchment and on his coinage
Christmas 800	Crowned “Emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III (795-816) at St. Peter’s, Rome (both are shown here, kneeling before St. Peter, in a 9th-cent. mosaic from the Lateran Palace). See also: Silver penny (denarius) of Charlemagne , minted after his imperial coronation St. Mark and the opening page of the St. Marks’s Gospel, from Charlemagne’s “Coronation Gospels” (Aachen c. 800)

Important terms include:

• Count
• Margrave
• Missi dominici (royal emissaries)

Primary sources include:

• Capitularies (laws, ordinances)
• Einhard, Life of Charlemagne

Music:

“Est mihi nonum” (3:47 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev3O_pX5JkI

Old Roman chant: “Inveni David servum meum” (7th century? 7:31 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhP654dN3Ww

“Christus vincit” – Laudes regiae (acclamations for the emperor), from MS Paris, BnF lat. 1118, c. 990 (10:29 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmH2VS8X2Vg

Some achievements of the “Carolingian Renaissance” (later 700s-800s):

• Capitulary of 789 mandated schools in every cathedral and monastery to teach students and to correct and copy texts (more than 90% of extant Classical Roman texts owe their survival to Carolingian copyists)
• Every monastery required to follow Benedictine Rule (reiterated 817-840, with expanded Rule)
• Accurate new edition of Latin Bible produced by Alcuin of York (d. 804)
• New, clear script developed (“Caroline minuscule“) – click here for an example (a Carolingian gospel book, British Library, MS Add. 11848)
• History of the Lombards and book of model sermons written by Paul the Deacon (d. 799)
• Encyclopedia and handbook on clerical instruction written by Rabanus Maurus, abbot of Fulda (d. 856)
• Neo-Platonic texts translated (from Greek) and written by John Scotus Eriugena (d. 877)
• Lives of saints written by Walafrid Strabo, scholar, poet, and gardener, tutor to Charles the Bald, and abbot of Reichenau (d. 849; click here for a plan of his garden)

Weaknesses of Charlemagne’s empire:

• Very unwieldy to govern large; multi-ethnic and multi-lingual empire; no standard laws or taxation system
• Long-distance trade weak; transport and communications very slow and hazardous
• Heavy reliance on personal loyalty of counts, margraves, and bishops to emperor
• Constant expansion of empire required to pay army and aristocracy with loot and land (“pyramid scheme”)
• Charlemagne’s son and heir (Louis the Pious) cash-poor and weak
• Fratricidal warfare among Charlemagne’s grandsons (Lothar, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald) divides empire
• External attacks after Charlemagne’s death (Vikings, Magyars, and Muslims)

Additional primary sources include:

Charlemagne, Capitulary De villis

Inventory of Charlemagne’s estate at Asnapium (Annapes)

Monastic annals