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Creating New Identities (750-900) - An Empire in Spite of Itself

Q: How was the success of the Carolingians possible?

The Carolingians took advantage of the same 'Medieval Warm Period' that seems to have affected the North Atlantic region in general They exploited to the full the institutions of Roman culture and political life that remained to them. At the same time, they were willing to experiment with new institutions and take advantage of unexpected opportunities.

Q: What is the Carolingian takeover called? How did it happen?

The Carolingian takeover was a 'palace coup.' After a battle (at Tertry, in 687) between Neustrian and Austrian noble factions, one powerful family with vast estates in Austrasia came to monopolize the high office of mayor for the Merovingian kings in both places. In the first half of the eighth century these mayors took over much of the power and most of the responsibilities of the kings.

21 important questions on Creating New Identities (750-900) - An Empire in Spite of Itself

What lay between Byzantium and the Islamic world? How did this entity differ?

Between Byzantium and the Islamic world was Francia.
While the first two were politically centralized, subject to sophisticated tax systems, and served by salaried armies and officials, Francia inherited the centralizing traditions of the Roman Empire without its order and efficiency.
Francia's kings could not collect a land tax, the backbone of the old Roman and the more recent Byzantine and Islamic fiscal systems.

What did the Carolingians manage to do?

The new dynasty of kings in Francia, the Carolingians, managed to muster armies, expand their kingdom, encourage a revival of scholarship and learning, command the respect of emperors and caliphs, and forge an identity for themselves as leaders of the Christian people.

How was the success of the Carolingians possible?

The Carolingians took advantage of the same "Medieval Warm Period" that seems to have affected the North Atlantic region in general
They exploited to the full the institutions of Roman culture and political life that remained to them.
At the same time, they were willing to experiment with new institutions and take advantage of unexpected opportunities.

What is the Carolingian takeover called? How did it happen?

The Carolingian takeover was a "palace coup."
After a battle (at Tertry, in 687) between Neustrian and Austrian noble factions, one powerful family with vast estates in Austrasia came to monopolize the high office of mayor for the Merovingian kings in both places.
In the first half of the eighth century these mayors took over much of the power and most of the responsibilities of the kings.

What did Charles Martel do? What did he have to deal with?

Charles Martel (mayor 714-741) gave the name Carolingian (from Carolus, Latin for Charles) to the dynasty.
In 732 he won a battle near Poitiers against an army led by the Muslim governor of al-Andalus, ending further raids.
Charles had other enemies: he spent most of his time fighting vigorously against regional Frankish aristocrats intent on carving out independent lordships for themselves.

What is in the Donation of Pippin?

In the so-called Donation of Pippin (756), the new king forced the Lombards to give some cities back to the pope.
The arrangement recognized that the papacy was now the ruler in central Italy of a territory that had once belonged to Byzantium.

How did the papacy evolve geographically and politically in the eighth century?

Before the 750s, the papacy had been part of the Byzantine Empire; by the middle of that decade, it had become part of the West.
It was probably soon thereafter that members of the papal chancery (writing office) forged a document, the Donation of Constantine, which had the fourth-century Emperor Constantine declare that he was handing the western half of the Roman Empire to Pope Sylvester. Thus did the papacy signal its independence from the East.

What did the partnership with Rome add to the Carolingian dynasty?

The Carolingian partnership with Rome and Romanizing churchmen added to the dynasty's Christian aura.
Anointment - daubing the kings with holy oil - provided the finishing touch. It reminded contemporaries of David, king of the Israelites.

Who was the most famous Carolingian king? How was he portrayed by Einhard?

The most famous Carolingian king was Charles (r.768-814), called "the Great" (le Magne in Old French). Large, tough, wily, and devout, he was everyone's model.
The courtier and scholar Einhard (d.840) portrayed Charlemagne as a Roman emperor, patterning his biography of the ruler on the Lives of the Caesars, written in the second century by Roman historian Suetonius.

What did Alcuin emphasize about Charlemagne?

Alcuin (d.804), also the king courtier and an even more famous scholar, emphasized Charlemagne's religious side, nicknaming him "David," the putative author of the psalms, victor over the giant Goliath, and king of Israel.
Empress Irene at Constantinople saw Charlemagne as a suitable husband for herself (though the arrangement eventually fell through).

How was Charlemagne's fame achieved? What did he conquer?

Charlemagne's fame was largely achieved through wars of plunder and conquest.
He invaded Italy, seizing the Lombard crown and annexing northern Italy in 774. He moved his armies northward to fight the Saxons and, after more than thirty years of bitter war, he annexed their territory and forcibly converted them to Christianity.
To the southeast, he sent his forces against the Avars, capturing their strongholds, forcing them to submit to his overlordship, and making off with cartloads of plunder.

What is the "Spanish March"? What did it lead to?

An expedition to al-Andalus gained Charlemagne a ribbon of territory north of the Ebro River, a buffer between Francia and the Islamic world called the "Spanish March."
Even his failures were the stuff of myth: a Basque attack on Charlemagne's army as it returned from Spain became the core of the epic poem The Song of Roland.

What led Charlemagne's army?

Charlemagne's army was led by his fideles, faithful aristocrats, and manned by free men, many the "vassals" (clients) of the aristocrats.
The king had the bannum, the ban, which gave him the right to call his subjects to arms (and, more generally, to command, prohibit, punish, and collect fines when his ban was not obeyed).
Soldiers provided their own equipment; the richest went to war on horseback; men had to be mobilized for each expedition.

Was the Carolingian military organization a success?

The Carolingian military organization was very successful; men were glad to go off to war when they could expect to return enriched with booty.

What was the stretch of Charlemagne's kingdom by 800?

By 800, Charlemagne's kingdom stretched nearly 1000 miles from east to west, even more from north to south when Italy is counted. On its eastern edge was a strip of "buffer regions" under Carolingian overlordship that extended from the Baltic to the Adriatic.

What happened with the connections of the Carolingians with the Islamic world?

Connections with the Islamic world, especially with the Abbasids, grew apace, drawing the Franks into sporadic contact with wider economic, diplomatic, and cultural networks.

How did Charlemagne begin to act as emperor?

Charlemagne began to act according to the model of Roman emperors, sponsoring building programs to symbolize his authority, standardizing weights and measures, and acting as a patron of intellectual and artistic enterprises.
He built a capital city at Aachen, complete with a chapel patterned on San Vitale, the church built by Justinian at Ravenna. So keen was Charlemagne on Byzantine models that he had columns, mosaics, and marbles from Rome and Ravenna carted up north to use in his own structures.

What kind of laws did Charlemagne issue?

These are extant in the form of "capitularies," summaries of decisions made at assemblies held by the ruler with the chief men of his realm.
He appointed regional governors - counts - to carry out his laws, muster his armies, and collect his taxes.
Chosen from among Charlemagne's aristocratic supporters, they were compensated for their work by temporary grants of land rather than with salaries.

Why did Charlemagne give land instead of money, like the Romans?

Charlemagne lacked the fiscal apparatus of the Roman emperors (and of his contemporary Byzantine emperors and Islamic caliphs), so he made land substitute for money.

What did Charlemagne do to discourage corruption?

To discourage corruption, he appointed officials called missi dominici ("those sent out by the lord king") to oversee the counts on the king's behalf. The missi - abbots, bishops, and counts, aristocrats all - traveled in pairs across Francia. They were to look into the affairs - large and small - of the Church and laity.

How did Charlemagne call himself? What did that title mean?

Charlemagne called himself simply "king" for about a year; then he adopted a new title that was both long and revealing: "Charles, the most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and peaceful emperor who governs the Roman Empire and who is, by the mercy of God, king of the Franks and the Lombards."
According to this title, Charlemagne was not the Roman emperor crowned by the pope but rather God's emperor, who governed the Roman Empire along with his many other duties.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

A Short History of the Middle Ages, Sixth Edition | 9781487541019 | Barbara H Rosenwein

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Creating New Identities (750-900) - An Empire in Spite of Itself

21 important questions on Creating New Identities (750-900) - An Empire in Spite of Itself