Enemies and Recovery
Charles the Great
Information found in the Royal British Annals, some by Einhard(770-849),
lived in the court of
Charlemagne, witnessed many events he describes, was educated at the
palace school, became
trusted advisor and friend to the king, wrote Life of Charles(829-835),
described his intent
Character
o Large man, Loved feasting and hunting, good swimmer(uncommon), drank
in
moderation, liked steam baths, spoke Latin(significant for a Germanic),
spoke
some Greek, native tongue was a form of German, was illiterate,
dominant figure
of his day
o Became a legendary hero
o Practiced serial monogamy, had many concubines with numerous children
o Wouldn’t let his daughters get marriage, loved them too much and wanted
to
keep them close since marriage would mean they would leave the
court
Military Activities
o Lombards blinded Pope Leo III, used as excuse to capture the Lombard
capital
and sent the king to a monastery, took the crown of Lombardi for
himself
o Major campaign in Saxony, attempt to complete what his father Kevin the
Short
had tried to do
•Wanted to tame the wild Saxon borderlands
•775 Charles subdued the Saxons, as soon as Charles left the
Saxons
rebelled and refused any authority, proud pagans and violent anti-
Christian
•They linked Christianity with the Frankish monarchy, resisted
this
•Charles had to fight the Saxons for 23 years. 780 parts were
conquered,
780-785 campaigns to the North, these wars helped to subdue
the area we
know as the Netherlands
•792-last Saxon revolt, effectively crushed and end of resistance,
faced
with problem of how to stabilize the area
• Built garrison fortresses, brought in Frankish counts and gave lands to
them for permanent presence, mass deportation of Saxons to the West in
Frankia, sent Frankish peasants to the east(broke up their ties with each
other)
• Calming effect of the church, forced them to accept Christianity
•787-invaded Bavaria, already Christian, came into direct contact
with the Avars,
•791, led army against the Avars, 805, leader of them converted
to Christianity and
became ally of Charles
•778-Army to northern Spain, fighting Christian Basques, failed in
rearguard
action to the Muslims, most important defeat here(found in the song
of Rolland)
Battle of Roncevaux Pass, eventually Charlemagne won strips of
land
•Almost every year the army was mustered to some frontier area to
fight
•Wars were profitable due to booty, unscripted warfare, peasants
were fair game,
all booty was split among all soldiers according to rank
•Avar conquest of 795, more loot than any other campaigns
combined, 15 wagons
need just for gold and silver
Administration
o Administrative network, peaceful core in Frankia taken care of by local
counts
o Border regions needed defence, had rank of official called Margruff, was
count of a borderland, supervised by small group of lieutenants who would
report to the king
o System of loyalty to the king
o Established system of missi dominici, messengers from the king, always 2
and work as a team
•One is a cleric and one is a nobleman, sent to survey area and take
orders to the borderlands
•Never spend 2 years with your partner, no bonds formed
•Always sent to different regions so no relationship with the local
population is formed
•Valuable means for Charles to supervise, their authority was direct
from
Charles
o Ordered law codes of all peoples to be written down, oral culture in many
groups under Charles,
o Capitularies, a series of legislative or administrative acts emanating from
the Frankish court to discuss anything in the kingdom(from the clergy to the
army), diversity is tolerated
Education
o May have proposed and supported education for pragmatic reasons
o Recognized the fact that good government required educated officials
o Slept with tablets under his pillow to try and absorb information
o Gathered around him well educated men from around the Empire
o Hired Alcuin to run the palace school, leader of the educational movement
•Was English lived 735-804, educated at York
•Returning from mission to Rome, offered job by Charles to head the
school, wanted it to be the centre of learning in his kingdom, later on he
retired to a monastery
•Was well loved teacher whose advice was constantly sought
•Charles was educated by him on how to behave and address
contemporary
theological issues
•King to major interest in the school
o Transformation of learning in the period
o Wholesale copying of all texts from Religious texts to anything else
o Books of ancient literature
o Period that they copied so many manuscripts that they preserved
knowledge for us
o Libraries were located in monasteries, Scriptora developed, handwriting
improved with much practice
o Carolingian miniscule was a writing style developed from the Merovingian
Miniscule, developed at Abbey or Corbee, first found in 778, first to be well
formed and had spaces between words
•Based on script developed in Ireland during period when Ireland was
completely cut off by marauders, developed form called insular,
popularized by Alcuin, basis for some lower case and upper case
letters
Disintegration
- Empire was divided among grandchildren
- Led to civil war and anarchy
- Break down in authority, armed force became the only way to enforce law
- Series of new invasions made the state more difficult
- Viking, Magyar and Islamic invasions in the 11th centuries,
o Islam moved from Spain towards the Byzantines through Italy, Magyars
came
from the Russian Steppes and settled in Hungary, Vikings go everywhere
- Nothing is safe anymore