HIST 203
SYLLABUS
LECTURE OUTLINES
Week 7: Tuesday
CAROLINGIAN EUROPE
Music:
Carmina Carolingiana: Angilbert (745-814), Versus de bella que fuit acta Fontaneto (10:20 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtgW6O0VpqI
Incipit planctus Karoli (Lament on the death of Charlemagne, 10:01 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRfPUuoVHbw
Late Carolingian music, from an Aquitainian manuscript (MS lat. 1154) of the late 800s-early 900s (3:48 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev3O_pX5JkI
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
Mappa mundi from Albi (Merovingian, world map), c. 750-800, showing the Mediterranean world (North is to the left): original MS; modern drawing
| 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:
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| 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:
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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