Carolingians

Carolingians

Who: Frankish noble family which created the Carolingian dynasty with the ousting of the Merovingian dynasty

The power of the king in the 7th century – with the takeover of taxation, public lands and legal framework – also increased the power of the nobles they relied upon. The Carolingians were one group of these nobles. Having monopolized the position of “palace mayor” (first in Austrasia, after 687 in Neustria as well), they traveled with the Merovingian kings, signed their documents, and helped them formulate and carry out policies. In the first half of the 8th century, many of the Merovingian kings were children, allowing the mayors to take over much of the authority of the kings themselves.

The mayors also formed alliances of their own. They allied with other aristocrats and patronized monasteries and supporting churchmen in key positions, gaining prestige and influence. Charles Martel, for whom the Carolingian dynasty was named, spent much of his time as palace mayor (714-741) fighting other aristocratic groups, as well as a contingent of Muslims between Poitiers and Tours in 732. His efforts turned the aristocratic factions against each other, rewarded his supporters while crushing his enemies, and brought both lay and clerical aristocrats into his alliances.

One such churchman was the Anglo-Saxon monk Boniface (680-754), who wanted the continental church to have the same close relations with Rome as the English church. The Carolingians supported him as a missionary to Frisia (the Netherlands) and Germany, where he converted the population as a prelude to conquest. Although most of the areas he visited were already Christian, the churches had followed the Irish, rather than Roman, model. Boniface set up a hierarchical church organization and founded monasteries dedicated to the rule of St. Benedict. The new bishops were loyal to Rome and the Carolingians, rather than regional aristocrats.

The Carolingian partnership with the Roman church was cemented by Charles Martel’s son Pippin III (d. 768). Deposing the Merovingian king in 751, he petitioned Pope Zachary to legitimize their actions. He agreed. A few years later, the Carolingians responded in kind when the pope asked for their defense against the Lombards. This partnership with the church lent to the Carolingians an aura of Christianity. Carolingian kings, as Visigothic kings had been, were anointed with holy oil on their foreheads and shoulders in a ceremony reminiscent of the Old Testament kings anointed by God. As for the papacy, the alliance signaled a major shift. Pre-754, the papacy had been part of the Byzantine Empire. Afterwards, it turned to the West. Pippin launched a successful campaign against the Lombards (ending 756) which ended with the Donation of Pippin, a peace between the Lombards and the pope. It gave back to the pope the cities which had been ruled by the Lombard king, recognizing a territorial “republic of St. Peter,” ruled by the pope rather than the emperor. Thereafter the fate of Italy would rest with the pope and the northern Frankish kings, not the emperors of the East.

The most famous of the Carolingian kings was Charles the Great, or Charlemagne (786-814), under whom the Carolingian renaissance began. During his reign, he conquered new territory, took the title of emperor and initiated the revival of Christian classical culture. Charlemagne’s son was Louis the Pious (r. 814-840). He adopted the Benedictine rule as the monastic standard in the West, bringing the reformer Benedict of Aniane to court and requiring all monasteries in the kingdom to follow a uniform way of life based on St. Benedict’s rule.

Family struggles and tragedies erupted in Louis’ reign with the death of his wife and continued until his death, after which the Treaty of Verdun divided the kingdom among Louis’ three remaining sons. The western third went to Charles the Bald(r. 840-877), becoming France; the eastern given to Louis the German (r. 840-876), becoming modern day Germany (it’s not hard, is it kiddies?); the “Middle Kingdom” went to Lothar (r. 817-855), and was eventually absorbed by the other two, with parts becoming modern Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy.

“In 843 the empire of Charlemagne dissolved. Forged by conquest, it had been supported by a small group of privileged aristocrats, with lands and offices stretching across the entire realm. Their loyalty, based on shared values, real friendship, expectations of gain, and sometimes formal ties of vassalage and fealty, was crucial to the success of the Carolingians. The empire had also been supported by an ideal, shared by educated laymen and churchmen alike, of Christian belief and imperialism working together to bring good order to the earthly state. But powerful forces operated against the Carolingian Empire. Once the empire stopped expanding, the aristocrats could no longer hope for new lands and offices. They put down roots in particular regions and began to gather their own followings. Powerful local traditions such as different languages also undermined imperial unity. Finally…some people disagreed with the imperial ideal.” (HUNT 316-317) European emperors would continue to rule until WWI, but Charlemagne’s empire began to break down into smaller, more intimate units.