The Franks: Merovingians & Carolingians

1. The Franks: Merovingians & Carolingians 500-1066

2. Timeline • Anglo-Saxon invasions: 400-600 • Rise of Mercia: 650-800 • Viking invasions: 800-1066 • Rise of Wessex: 850-900 • Transformation of Wessex into England: 900s • Challenges to English stability: 975-1066

3. Barbarian Migrations 350-500

4. Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms c. 700

6. Tribal Hidage c. 700-720 • Hwinca syfan þusend hyda. 7,000 • Ciltern sætna feower þusend hyda. 4,000 • Hendrica þryu þusend hyda ond fif hund hyda. 3,500 • Unecungaga twelf hund hyda. 1,200 • Arosætna syx hund hyda. 600 • Færpinga þreo hund hyda. is in Middelenglum Færpinga 300 • Bilmiga syx hund hyda. 600 • Eastwilla syx hund hyda. 600 • Westwilla syx hund hyda. 600 • East engle þrittig þusend hida. 30,000 • Eastsexena syofon þusend hyda. 7,000 • Cantwarena fiftene þusend hyda. 15,000 • Suþsexena syufan þusend hyda. 7,000 • Westsexena hund þusend hyda. 100,000

7. Viking Invasion 793-1066

8. What was the impact of the Viking invasions on English political unification during the 800s? • They halted unification and England broke into a series of small states • They facilitated unification by eliminating rivals to the West Saxons • Historians are highly divided over the impact • They had no impact whatsoever

9. Alfred the Great871-899

10. Guthrum’s Peacec. 886

11. The Burghal Clusters

12. Early Shire Structureapprox. 30 shires. C. 950

13. Royal Writ

14. Anglo-Saxon Charter

15. Why were Germanic people unlikely to embrace charters to prove land ownership? • Most early charters were forgeries • Most Germanic people could not read before the 1100s • The concept of fighting for land was deeply ingrained in their culture • They were attached to memory and oral traditions

16. Chirograph

18. The Norman Conquest1066

19. Which factor(s) contributed most to political unification of England between 600 and 950? • Stable succession of West Saxon kings • Viking invasions • Hierarchy • Written laws, histories, charters, tax accounts, and royal orders • Something else

20. The Franks

22. Clovis, King of the Franksr. 481-511Grandson of the legendary Merovech, founder of the dynasty

23. The Merovingians produced their first legal code 100 years before Aethelberht of Kent

24. What factors likely facilitated the political unification of the Franks? • Franks constituted a superior race of Aryans • Proximity to Rome • Previously Gaul had been in the Roman Empire • Knowledge of Latin was much more widespread in their dominions than in England or Germany • Bishops were administering laws and organizing dioceses since Roman times

25. The Merovingians adopted Anointing of Kings over 100 years before the Anglo-SaxonsAnointing & Baptismof Clovis at Reims496

27. The Merovingian kingdom was almost three times as large as the Anglo-Saxon kingdom

28. Battle of Tours 732

29. Charlemagne attempted to reconstitute public power through a program of education

30. Charlemagne’s Empire

31. Alcuin of York(735-804)

32. A Carolingian Court

33. Charlemagne’s Empire

34. The Treaty of Verdun

35. What caused the Frankish Empire to disintegrate by the late 800s? • Invasions: Viking, Huns, Muslims • Problems associated with governing a large territory in a fairly illiterate and violent age • Frankish warrior practices, including the practice of partible inheritance • None of these items makes sense

36. The Vikings carved out a territory in Northern France, known as Normandy

37. Motte & Bailey Castle

38. The Ideal Structure of Feudal Society

40. The Three Orders & Peace of God

41. Merovingians • The Franks • Roman Christians after 496 • longstanding alliance with the papacy against • Lombards • Byzantines • Saxons • southwestward migration from mouth of the Rhine from 400-600 • practiced partible inheritance • suffered from fragmentation of authority

42. From Merovingian to Carolingian • During the 8th century the Merovingian political authority unravelled • Gradually Charles Martel gained control between 725 and 740; he initiates a 70 year process of the political consolidation that ended with the death of Charlemagne • Martel’s descendants would later be known as the Carolingians, the descendants of Charles • By the mid-8th century, this family had established the most formidable fighting force in Europe; noted victory included the Battle of Poitiers against the Muslims from Iberia in 732-3

43. Carolingians • Political successors to Merovingians • continuity of society and culture • Peppin the Short annointed in 751 at Soissons • political consolidation from 750-820 • expansion of imperial borders • improvements in agriculture • increase in trade and fairs • intellectual revival (Alcuin) • eventually suffered from political devolution due to partible inheritance (see Treaty of Verdun)

44. The Papal-Frankish Alliance • Peppin the Short visited by Pope Stephen in early 754 • Request for help occurs after no response from Eastern Emperor • Appeal to the salvation of Pippin's soul • Restore order in Italy • Gradually pope's demands increase • Turn over much of Italian peninsula to papacy • Franks to assume burden of protection

45. Charlemagne • Retains and surpasses the prestige of Charles Martel (grandfather) and his victory over Muslims at Tours-Poitier (732) • the Christian Warrior • crowned HRE on Christmas 800 • revitalizes the notion of Empire • encourages learning and vernacular literature • symbolizes the fight against the infidel, which later inspires The Song of Roland (c. 1095)

46. Carolingian Revival • Charlemagne’s collection of scholars • influence of Alcuin • establishment of schools • preservation of texts • improvement of writing • Reformation and standardization of Benedictine Rule • Resurgent neoplatonism • John Scotus • the Pseudo-Dionysius

47. The Treaty of Verdun (843) • Division of the Carolingian Empire into three distinct realms: • West Francia - modern France • Lotharingia - modern Holland, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland • East Francia - modern Germany, Austria

48. Holy Roman Empire • The initial impulse by secular leaders was to be acclaimed Emperor or King of the Romans, a claim to assume the mantle of the Roman Emperors • The term “Holy Roman Empire” was not used until the 12th century and it lasted until the mid-17th century • Nevertheless from the 9th to the 13th centuries, Frankish and later Saxon rulers habitually came to Rome to be crowned King of the Romans by the Pope • This pilgrimage usually occurred in the early years of a new leader's accession; it was hoped that the crowning by the pope would bestow legitimacy

49. The Holy Roman Empire • Although both Pippin and his son, Charlemagne, avoided dependency on the popes, their sons and grandsons failed to heed their example • By relying on the popes for the legitimization of their authority, the Holy Roman Emperors became dependant on the popes and consequently they sought to install popes who advanced their cause and the cause of their dynasty • This tendency prompted Emperors to appoint their own popes, who were not recognized by the Roman Cardinals • Referred to as anti-popes, these imperial friendly popes plagued the papacy from the 10th to the 15th centuries

50. Long-term Trends • Political unification • Development of Vernacular Literature • Conversion to Christianity • Cultural Fusion • Germanic & Christian • Tribal • Britons • Saxons • Danes • Normans