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Dr.
Richard Baldwin, Gulf Coast State College.
This page last updated 3/17/12
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EARLY MIDDLE AGES (500-1000): KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS [Medieval or mediaeval=from medium Aevum, "the middle age"] I. Merovingians After
the fall of Rome in the fifth century, Germanic tribes invade the Roman Empire
in the West: Vandals invade north
Africa and the western Mediterranean, Visigoths southern Gaul and Spain,
Ostrogoths Italy, the Franks northern Gaul, the Angles and Saxons England.
Most of the Germanic kingdoms were torn by warfare, internal rebellion
and assassination and therefore offered no enduring impact on western
civilization. A shift of
civilization in the West then occurs from Italy and the Mediterranean to Gaul
and the continent with the rise of the Franks. This will result in the development of a distinctively
European civilization "during the period that extended from the Germanic
invasions of the Roman Empire to the establishment of the first European empire
by Charlemagne in the early ninth century" (Greaves 208). NOTE:
Two other civilizations will also emerge: the
Byzantine Empire in the East that will survive until 1453 when the Ottoman Turks
sack Constantinople; the Islamic
civilization that emerged after Muhammad (c570-632) founds the new religion in
the seventh century AD. The 8th and
9th centuries under the Abbassid caliphs will be the golden age of Muslim
civilization. By the 11th century
the Seljuk Turks will conquer Arab lands. In the 11th and 12th centuries the Arabs will loose land to
the Christians, but in the 15th and 16th centuries the Ottoman Turks will create
a great empire. The five pillars of
Islam: 1. There is no God but Allah
and Muhammad is his prophet; 2. pray 5 times/day toward Mecca; 3. alms; 4. fast
between sunrise and sunset during holy month of Ramadan; 5. pilgrimage to Mecca
at least once in lifetime. Importance of Byzantine Empire: (1) prevented Arabs from advancing into Eastern Europe (Arabs failed to take Constantinople in 717). (2) codification of the laws of ancient Rome under Justinian (preserved Roman law’s principles of reason and justice).
(3) preserved the philosophy, science, mathematics, and literature of
ancient Greece. 1. Merovingians (named after Merovech, semi-legendary ancestor of Clovis)
The Franks had lived along the east bank of the Rhine close to the North
Sea; in the late 4th century they began to move South and West across the Rhine
into Gaul. By 481 the Franks had
occupied the northern part of Gaul as far as the old Roman city of Paris when
CLOVIS (r.466-511) becomes the ruler of one of the small Frankish kingdoms.
He wears the Roman imperial colors and takes Roman titles and by his
death in 511 Clovis had united the Franks into a single kingdom by marriage
alliances, assassination, and manipulation of religion.
For example, after allying with other Frankish kings against Syagrius,
the last Roman general in Gaul, he turned on his allies and subdued them.
In Gregory of Tours
History of the Franks we learn that Clovis became a Christian in 496
for Christ's help in a battle. He
and his army were baptized and he became the only orthodox Christian ruler in
the West (others were pagans or Arian Christians).
THIS IS A DECISIVE EVENT IN HISTORY:
1) led to an alliance of Franks and the papacy; 2) assured the loyalty
of Gallo-Roman bishops (leaders of the native Christian population of Gaul); 3)
allowed Clovis to extend his realm in the name of Christian orthodoxy. 2. Decline of the Merovingians Unfortunately for civilization, the Merovingians were plagued by internal weaknesses: 1) the Germanic practice of dividing kingdoms among sons (i.e., treating kingdoms as private property) led to civil war among heirs. [the law of primogeniture--bequeathing estate to eldest son--would be adopted with the development of feudalism; it was unknown in Roman or barbarian law or among feudal peasants] 2) debaucheries--excessive drinking, etc.
By the mid-7th century civilization was gone: (1) the Roman system of administration and taxation had collapsed (Germans were tribal in organization and outlook; essentially rural and warrior people; German law was unwritten tribal customs--ex. trial by ordeal). (2) decline of trade (international commerce had ceased except small scale luxury items) (3) decline of cities (old Roman cities now served mainly to house local bishop and his staff) (4) no middle class (now nobles and land-bound serfs)
(5) new waves of invaders (Slavs from Russia began in 500 AD; in late 7th
= Muslim Moors from N. Africa so that by 711 Moors controlled Iberia). II. Carolingians Pepin II of Heristal (687-714) was the founder when he became ruler of Frankland, i.e. Mayor of the Palace (the Merovingian kings were weak, so the Mayor of the Palace was the real ruler; This house is named after Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus in Latin, Charlemagne in French. 1. Charles Martel (r.714-741): the Battle of Tours (732) Son of Pepin the II, Charles Martel was victorious over the Muslim invaders of Europe in 732 at the Battle of Tours (Poitiers). Thought of as the Savior of Europe.
“Pepin hesitated to usurp the throne because the Merovingian rulers had a blood right to be kings. To justify his action, he sought the advice and approval of Pope Zacharias I (741-752). He got it and deposed the last of the Merovingian kings and was crowned King of the Franks by St. Boniface in 751. In 752 Pepin conquered the Lombards and gave the Pope the exarchate of Ravena ("Donation of Pepin") making the Pope the temporal ruler over the Papal State (diagonal strip of territory across Italy). Pope Stephen II reaffirmed Pepin as the King of the Franks in 754. This alliance between the pope and the Franks would: (1) accelerate the separation of the Eastern and western churches. (2) create the Papal States which would play a major role in Italian politics until the late 19th century (1870). (3) give a sanction western kingship that would contribute to the rise of monarchs strong enough to pose a threat to the papacy. III. Charlemagne (r.768-814) 1. Road to Empire Charlemagne, Pepin the Short's son, would come to the throne in 768 and create the greatest empire since the fall of Rome. He was a "vigorous, lusty, intelligent man who loved hunting, women, and war [had 5 official wives, many mistresses and concubines]. All his life he wore Frankish costume and thought of himself as a Frankish chieftain. Not only could he read and write (he kept pen and ink under his pillow), he spoke Latin and understood some Greek. ITALY. “After ascending the Frankish throne, Charlemagne soon realized that Pepin’s arrangements in Italy would not last. In 773, Charlemagne led his army into Italy, crushed the Lombards, and took control of the Lombard state” (Spiel. 246-7). SPAIN. “Four years after his invasion of Italy, Charlemagne and his forces advanced into northern Spain. This campaign proved to be disappointing; not only did the Basques harass his army as it crossed the Pyrenees on the way home, but they also ambushed and annihilated his rear guard, an event that later gave rise to the epic poem, The Song of Roland. Later Charlemagne established the Spanish March, a stretch of territory south of the Pyrenees that was strongly fortified and served as a defensive bulwark against the Muslim forces in Spain” (Spiel. 247-8). GERMANY. “Charlemagne was considerably more successful with his eastern campaigns into Germany, especially against the Saxons located between the Elbe River and the North Sea....Charlemagne’s insistence that the Saxons convert to Christianity simply fueled their resistance. Not until 804, after eighteen campaigns, was Saxony finally pacified and added to the Carolingian domain” (Spiel. 248). A great conqueror, Charlemagne crossed the Rhine and in campaigns lasting more than thirty years conquered the heathen Saxons, who lived south of Denmark, and converted them at sword's point to Christianity. Monks and priests followed his armies. Charlemagne also added to his domain the western areas of modern Czechoslovakia (Bohemia), much of Austria, and portions of Hungary and Yugoslavia. The eastern boundaries of his realm reached the Elbe River in the north and the Danube, where it turns sharply south below Vienna. Along these wild eastern frontiers he established provinces (marks or marches). His advance into eastern Europe also brought him victories over the Asian Avars, successors to the Huns along the lower Danube. Far to the west, Charlemagne challenged Muslim power in Spain and set up a Spanish march in what is today Catalonia. A defeat of his rear guard at the pass of Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees Mountains in 778--though only a skirmish--formed the theme of the heroic epic Le Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland), which in its most accepted form was composed several centuries later. "By the end of the eighth century, Charlemagne had reunited under Frankish rule all of the western Roman provinces except for Britain, most of Spain, southern Italy, Sicily, and North Africa, but had added to his domains central and eastern European areas the Romans had never possessed. On Christmas Day, 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor in Rome. So mighty was the tradition of the Roman Empire and so great its hold on peoples minds that, more than three centuries after the disappearance of Romulus Augustus, last of the Western emperors, the chief bishop of the Christian church, seeking to honor and recognize his mighty patron, automatically crowned him `Roman Emperor Carolus Augustus'" (Winks 131-2). (The Pope needed Charlemagne's help to restore his control in Rome after he escaped being kidnapped by political enemies.) THIS REPRESENTS THE MERGING OF GERMAN, CHRISTIAN AND ROMAN TRADITIONS. 2. Administration C's empire was primitive by Islamic, Byzantine or Roman standards. His empire was divided into c. 250 administrative divisions each governed by a count (nobles personally loyal to the ruler with three main duties: 1) maintain local army loyal to king; 2) collect tribute and dues; 3) administer justice in his district). "On major decisions the emperor conferred with great nobles of state and church, but he told them what he (and they) were going to do, rather than asking them for advice and permission. Since the Franks, like other Germans, believed that law preexisted and could not be made by humans, even Charlemagne could not, in theory, legislate. But he did issue instructions to his subjects, which usually dealt with special administrative problems. His was a highly personal rule" (Winks 132). “...Charlemagne’s kingdom was held together...largely by loyalty to a single ruler who was strong enough to ensure loyalty by force when necessary” (Spiel. 249). Besides, the count and the bishop and other local magnates had considerable powers of their own when on their own lands. C. made several attempts to curb the power of the counts. “They were required to serve outside their own family lands and were moved about periodically rather than being permitted to remain in a county for life. By making the offices appointive, Charlemagne tried to prevent the count’s children from automatically inheriting their offices. Moreover, as another check on the counts” (Spiel.248), Charlemagne "also sent out from his own central administrative staff pairs of royal emissaries (the missi dominici, literally "the lord's messengers"), usually a layman and a cleric, to investigate local conditions and to correct abuses. As representatives of the emperor, they could overrule the count" (Winks 132).
3. Carolingian Renaissance of the ninth century: Alcuin "Despite his expanding empire, Charlemagne had no capital to rival Baghdad or Constantinople, so he determined to create a `second Rome' at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) in the heart of his kingdom. Its layout and principal buildings were inspired by Rome, its royal chapel by the Byzantine church of San Vitale in Ravenna. The new capital became the center of a cultural renaissance Charlemagne sponsored not only to enhance the reputation of his realm [he needed trained personnel] but also to improve the quality of the clergy. To direct his palace school, Charlemagne recruited one of the foremost scholars of the age. Alcuin (c.735-804), from Anglo-Saxon England. [“From 782-796, while serving at Charlemagne’s court as an adviser on ecclesiastical affairs, Alcuin also provided the leadership for the palace school” (Spiel. 252).] Charlemagne chose well, for Alcuin employed a curriculum inspired by Classical Rome and refined by European writers that became the model for education throughout medieval Europe. The seven liberal arts were divided into the trivium, comprising grammar, rhetoric, and logic, and the quadrivium, consisting of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. [“...adopted Cassiodorus’s sevenfold division of knowledge known as the liberal arts” (Spiel. 252).] Other scholars were lured to Aachen, and Charlemagne acquired manuscripts of legal and religious works for his scribes to copy and distribute to the monasteries of the realm. His scholars issued new editions of learned works and even developed a new, more readable script, called the Carolingian minuscule [to replace the illegible Merovingian script of the capitals of the Romans], from which modern scripts are derived. The manuscripts produced by these writers influenced fifteenth-century scholars and thus that later, more famous renaissance" (Greaves 210-211). [90% of extant Latin MSS were preserved by the Carolingians] So Alcuin wrote textbooks on grammar, spelling, rhetoric and logic and prepared a definitive text of the Bible which, with modifications, would become the standard version in the Middle Ages. “:Charlemagne personally encouraged learning by establishing a palace school and encouraging scholars from all over Europe to come to the Carolingian court” (Spiel. 252). A palace school was established for the education of the royal household and for stimulation of learning in the kingdom. Charlemagne felt is was his religious duty to raise the educational level of the clergy so that they understood and could properly teach the faith, so monastery schools were established to train the clergy and the Benedictine rule would become the uniform standard of life in the monasteries.
This all created a ninth century renaissance, a revival of learning that,
unfortunately, would not last. Although
it did rediscover and revive ancient works, it did not recapture the spirit of
Greece and Rome. It did not engage
in independent philosophical speculation or search for new knowledge, nor did it
achieve the synthesis of faith and reason of the Twelfth Century Renaissance. IV. Strengths and Weaknesses of Charlemagne's Empire 1. Strengths: 1) extended Christian civilization in Europe 2) established law and order (set up barriers to Slavic and Avar invasions) 3) his educational reforms instigated a cultural revival that contributed to a unique European civilization (vs. Byzantine and Saracen): it blended (1) the Roman heritage of a world empire and the intellectual achievement of the Greco-Roman mind, (2) Christian other-worldliness, (3) the customs of the Germanic peoples. “All in all, the Carolingian Renaissance played a crucial role in keeping the classical heritage alive as well as maintaining the intellectual life of the Catholic church” (Spiel. 254-3). 2. Weaknesses: 1) no standing army (warriors served for grants of land) 2) lacked roman style administration and law “The Carolingian system was glaringly inefficient. Great distances had to be covered on horseback, making it impossible for Charlemagne and his household staff to exercise much supervision over local affairs. What held the system together was personal loyalty to the king” (Spiel. 249). 3) no cities as centers of economic and cultural activity (Frankish economy localized and agricultural) "Historians generally believe that in the Early Middle Ages Europe was a sparsely populated landscape dotted with villages and clusters of villages of farmers and warriors” (Spiel. 245). 4) no strong line of successors NOTE: Louis the Pious (r.814-840), "Charlemagne's successor, designated his eldest son heir to the imperial title and promised his other two sons royal titles and the territories of Aquitaine and Bavaria. Unsatisfied with this and egged on by their stepmother, the younger sons revolted against their father. By the time peace was agreed on in the Treaty of Verdun (843), Louis was dead and the empire was irrevocably fragmented. Between the western and eastern kingdoms, out of which eventually emerged France and Germany, was a middle kingdom that retained the imperial title and extended from the modern Netherlands into Italy" (Greaves 212). Charles the Bald gets the western part (start of France); Lothair I got the Middle Kingdom (from Rome to the North Sea: would be source of conflict between France and Germany into the 20th c.); Louis the German gets eastern part (marks the beginning of Germany). |
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