THE CAROLINGIAN ERA
The Carolingian era lasted somewhat longer than two centuries, from 751 to 987. It derives its name from the most important and best known ruler of the this house, Carolus Magnus, Charles the Great, Charlemagne.
SOURCES
The principal medieval sources are:
SECONDARY WORKS
THE ROYAL DIGNITY
In 749 Pepin III, sole mayor of the palace of the Merovingian Kingdom, sent two clerics to Rome to Pope Zacharias (741-752) to inquire about "the kings of Francia" (the Merovingian kings). The papal response was: "It is better to call king the one who has the power [Pepin] instead of him who remains without royal power [the Merovingian king Childeric III]." Since Pepin III all the rulers of France were anointed (with the exception of the two Napoleons and King Louis Philippe), the last one being King Charles X in 1824.
CAROLINGIAN KINGDOMS
Because the Carolingian rulers, just like their Merovingian predecessors, had the habit to divide their realms among their sons, there have been many Carolingian kingdoms: Francia, Germany, Italy, Aquitaine, Provence, Lotharingia. There have been thirty Carolingian kings in all, of whom seven were emperors.
During the reigns of Charlemagne and his son Lewis the Pious the empire was one. Lewis’s sons fought over the succession; the empire was divided in three parts, West Francia (France), East Francia (Germany), and the Middle Kingdom (the Benelux countries, Alsace-Lorraine, Burgundy-Provence, Italy). Lothar I, the ruler of the Middle Kingdom, became emperor (Treaty of Verdun in 843). This is the origin of five modern countries, France, Germany and the three Benelux countries.
In 855 the Middle Kingdom was divided into three separate kimgdoms: Italy, Burgundy-Provence, and Lotharingia. At that moment there were, therefore, five Carolingian kingdoms. In 870 Lotharingia was divided into two parts: Lower Lotharingia (the Benelux countries) and Upper Lotharingia (Alsace-Lorraine). Since 880 both parts were duchies of Germany. There were four Carolingian kingdoms then, France, Germany, Provence, and Italy.
All the Carolingian kingdoms (with the exception of Provence) were for two years (885-887) united in one hand under the French King Charles the Fat.
Since 888 Italy and Provence/Burgundy no longer were Carolingian. In 911 Germany got a non-Carolingian king. With Louis V of France the last Carolingian ruler died (987).
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CAROLINGIAN CONQUESTS
In 759 Pepin the Short conquered Septimania = the region of Narbonne, the last remnant of Arab possessions north of the Pyrenees.
Since 568 the Longobards ruled North Italy (Lombardy). The Popes felt threatened by them, because they made incursions into the papal territory in Middle Italy; to the east of Rome lay two Longobard duchies, Spoleto and Benevento. Charlemagne put an an end to this threat by conquering Lombardy in 773. He had himself crowned as rex Longobardorum in Pavia; the relation of the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms became that of a personal union. This meant that western emperors would have to conduct an Italian policy.
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The duchy of Bavaria was virtually annexed by the Franks in 788.
Charlemagne destroyed the power of the (Turco-Mongolian) Avars in Hungary; his grip on their country cannot have been strong.
Charlemagne was the first western ruler to fight the Muslims. From 795 onward the Franks conquered the part of Spain lying between the Pyrenees and the Ebro, with the Baleares. Henceforward it was called the Spanish March.
The Frankish subjection of the Saxon nation was only achieved in a long series of wars, lasting for decades. The Saxon chief Widukind became a legendary figure. All resistance ended in 804.
After Charlemagne’s death no new conquests were made.
Literature:
RONCEVALLES
The Franks’ first attempt to conquer the north of Spain in 788 failed completely. During their retreat they destroyed the walls of Pamplona, a Christian Basque city. The Frankish rearguard, commanded by Roland, margrave of Brittanny, was surprised by the Basques in the Pass of Roncevalles in the Pyrenees and entirely annihilated.
This in itself unimportant event, in fact a clash between two Christian armies, gave rise to legends, wich were codified in the eleventh-century Song of Roland. By then the Basques had been transformed into Muslims and the fight into the first armed encounter between western Christianity and Islam, with Roland as the great hero. The Dutch version is the medieval Roelantslied. The latest instalment is Ariosto’s Orlando furioso (1516-1522), in which the hero is far more concerned with love affairs than with fighting. Joseph Haydn’s opera Orlando paladino (1782) finds its inspiration in the Song of Roland, but the hero shares with the original Roland only the name. In the Teatro dei Pupi in Palermo one can still see a puppet play in which `Rolando’ lustily cuts Muslims in two (lengthwise!).
THE POSITION OF AQUITAINE
Aquitaine, the south-west of France, has for a very long time been a problem for the French crown. This intractable problem reached a breaking point during the Cathar crisis of the thirteenth century. Originally it was part of Neustria, but it was later a Carolingian kingdom. The Aquitanians got used to leading their own life. They constantly rebelled against the Franks.
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THE FRANKS AND THE PAPACY
The `special relationship’ of the western emperors with the papacy began in 754, when Pope Stephen II (752-757) went to France to ask the help of Pepin the Short against the Lombards. Pepin promised to give the Exarchate of Ravenna to the Pope (this was Byzantine territory, but then in the hands of the Lombards). This meant that the Pope and the Holy See, and therefore the Roman Catholic Church, became dependent on Frankish political power to a certain extent; this relationship contained the seeds of conflict.
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During a war with the Lombards in 756 Pepin actually conquered the Exarchate of Ravenna, giving it to the Pope. To safeguard the papal possessions from the Lombards they were made by the Franks into an independent state, wich would exist until September 20, 1870. The erection of this state made the Pope a factor of importance in Italian and often even in European politics, involving him in the intrigues of international diplomacy and even in wars.
CHARLEMAGNE EMPEROR
Charlemagne was crowned as emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III (795-816) on December 25, 800. Einhard: "In that time he received the titles of Caesar and Augustus, and he loathed them so much right from the start that he would not have entered the church [St.Peter’s], in spite of the great feast day, if he had known of the Pope’s plan beforehand." It has been always a subject of debate whether Charles really knew nothing of what was going to happen.
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The nearest guess is that the initiative rested with the Pope, but that Charles knew what was going to happen. In any case, he did not protest and accepted the crown. Possibly he wanted to take a reserved attitude in order not to irritate the Byzantine emperor.
THE KAISERIDEE
With Charlemagne’s coronation as emperor the Kaiseridee was born. The idea was that the ancient Roman Empire was restored now and that the western emperors were the successors of their Roman predecessors. The theory was that these emperors were to rule all Latin Europe, but in practice western kings were ready to concede the place of honour to the emperor, but did not allow them to control them.
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CAROLINGIAN INFIGHTING
A conspicuous feature of Carolingian history is the constant infighting between the branches of the family, which led to constant divisions and redivisions of the Carolingian Empire (see above); the Carolingians often fought one another fiercely for a share. The conflicts between Neustria and Austrasia would have a sequel in the wars of France and Germany, which were a constitutive part of European history for a thousand years. Even World War II was also a Franco-German war. The thousand-year-old feud was buried when the French president Charles de Gaulle and the German chancellor Konrad Adenauer reached one another the brotherhand in 1963.
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THE IMPERIAL SUCCESSION
Charlemagne’s imperial coronation was a papal initiative. From then on, throughout all the Middle Ages, it was the Popes who decided who was to be emperor. The coronation with the golden imperial crown (the German royal crown was silver, that of Lombardy of iron) took place in Rome.
From 800 until 877 there was a regular succession: Charlemagne (800-814), Lewis the Pious (814-850), Lothar I (840-855), Lewis II, (855-875),
Charles the Bald (875-877). Then there was a hiatus from 877 to 881. Charles III the Fat was emperor from 884 to 887. He was the last ruler to unite all the Carolingian kingdoms in one hand (885-887). The situation after his death was described with diagnostic precision by Regino of Prüm: "After his death the kingdoms that had been subjected to his rule, detached themselves from the common bond, as if they had no obligations towards their natural ruler [a Carolingian, that is], and everybody wanted to make king somebody of his own ethnicity." This meant that nationality took precedence over universality.
There was a second hiatus from 887 to 891. Then followed a period of great confusion. In 891 Guy II, Duke of Spoleto and King of Italy, was crowned as emperor 891-892). This was a counsel of despair, for Guy was not a Carolingian and his power did not reach farther than the Alps. After his death his son Lambert became emperor (892-898), which meant that a non-Carolingian dynasty belonged to the possibilities. When the German king Arnulf of Carinthië, a Carolingian, came to Rome in 896, Pope Formosus abandoned Lambert and made Arnulf emperor (896-899) (there were two emperors for a time). Arnulf was the last Carolingian emperor.
From 899 to 915 there was a third hiatus. In 915 again a non-Carolingian, Berengar I, margrave of Friaul and King of Italy, became emperor (915-923). His power did not reach farther than Lombardy. He was the last emperor of the Carolingian period.