Middle Ages

A

The Empire of Charlemagne

Charlemagne impressed his contemporaries as a model king. He was huge of build, full of energy, and enormously successful in almost everything he did. During his 46-year reign, from 768 to 814, he almost doubled the territory ruled by the Franks. However, after Charlemagne’s death, his empire weakened and eventually fell apart. Charlemagne's descendants continued many of his projects, but they were unable to maintain his empire.

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1

Creation and Administration of the Empire

Charlemagne's empire was gained by military might and was maintained through centralized administrative institutions and personal loyalties. The powerful Carolingian army was made up of most of the free men of the kingdom. Some of these soldiers were mounted warriors who fought on horseback and were protected by armor. Most, however, were foot soldiers. This army was a formidable force. By the end of Charlemagne's reign, his empire included what is today much of central and western Europe (with the exceptions of Spain, Scandinavia, England, and southern Italy). This empire was very different from the Roman one. While the Roman Empire was based on the Mediterranean Sea, Charlemagne's was an empire of the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea.

The Carolingian Empire was administered by royal officials called counts and dukes. In each region of the empire, these governors were expected to carry out royal laws, oversee court cases, call men up for army duty, and maintain order. To ensure their loyalty, counts and dukes had to pledge fealty (faithfulness) to the king. Instead of money, the king gave them land for their services.

Bishops and other important churchmen also played key roles in Carolingian administration. For example, Charlemagne used bishops to check up on counts and to make sure that they carried out their duties well. Carolingian kings also called frequent meetings of the chief men of the empire, including bishops and abbots (heads of monasteries), to discuss laws, military matters, and religious issues.

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The Carolingians were even more closely attached to the church than the Merovingians had been. Charlemagne's father, Pepin the Short, had written to the pope for authorization before he deposed the last Merovingian king. When Pepin took the throne, he had himself anointed by a bishop—that is, his head and shoulders were rubbed with holy oil. This rite had been practiced by biblical kings and priests, and Pepin intended to associate himself with those figures in the minds of his contemporaries. The Carolingian rulers, each of whom was anointed, saw themselves as ruling 'by the grace of God.'

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2

Revival of the Western Empire

The Carolingians added the imperial title to their rule as well. There had been no Roman emperor in the west since 476, but many people around Charlemagne—and no doubt he as well—thought that he deserved the title. He was certainly recognized as ruler in Rome, and the pope relied on him for help. During one of Charlemagne's trips to Rome, on Christmas Day in the year 800, the pope placed the imperial crown on Charlemagne's head while the assembled crowd acclaimed him as emperor. Charlemagne may well not have liked the pope acting as 'emperor maker,' as it implied that the pope was more powerful and more important than the emperor. Instead, Charlemagne preferred to claim that he was crowned emperor by God. He wanted to be known as a Christian emperor, not a Roman emperor.

Charlemagne wanted to be considered a second Constantine, harking back to the first Christian emperor. Later medieval emperors looked to Charlemagne and Constantine as their models. For these later emperors, the title emperor meant two things above all. First, it meant that they were 'superkings' who ruled over—or at least had authority in—more than one kingdom. Because of the tradition of the Roman Empire, some sort of control in Italy was also considered important. Charlemagne held northern Italy and was the official protector of Rome. Later emperors considered it important to rule those places too. The 10th-century emperor Otto II and some of his successors even called themselves Roman Emperor. The second significance of the title emperor was that it gave its holder some of the luster, honor, and prestige of Constantine and Charlemagne.

In 1254, when the emperor's power was at its lowest ebb and every king was considered an emperor in his own kingdom, the title Holy Roman Empire was created. The empire basically encompassed what is today central Europe and Germany, and it did not include any territory in Italy. The empire lasted until 1806, a period of time in which only a handful of men were actually crowned emperor. Nevertheless, historians often trace the founding of the Holy Roman Empire to Charlemagne’s crowning as emperor of the Romans in the year 800. The event symbolized the creation of a new western empire, even though concept of the Holy Roman Empire had yet to develop.

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3

Unity and Diversity

Charlemagne recognized that Christianity was the most important factor unifying the empire. When he conquered the Saxons, a Germanic tribe in northern Germany, he forced them to be baptized, and any who returned to their old religions were executed. New monasteries were established on the frontiers of the empire, and the Carolingians tried to get all the empire’s monasteries to follow the Benedictine Rule. This code, written by Saint Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century, governed the monks’ daily regimen of work, study, and prayer. Charlemagne also directed that everyone across his empire stop working on Sunday in order to attend church.

These policies were part of the Carolingians’ attempts to unify the empire. In reality, however, there was little unity. The Carolingian Empire consisted of many different regions, each with its own language, customs, and laws. It is doubtful that everyone went to church on Sunday. It is certain that few of those who did go understood the words of the Mass, the central rite of Christian worship. The Mass was chanted in Latin, the language of ancient Rome, and by 800 only a small, educated elite understood Latin. At the same time, people in what is now northern Germany could not understand the speech of those living in the south. People in northern France made fun of the puffed sleeves and short pants worn by the Aquitainians in the south. People in Italy followed laws that differed from those elsewhere in the empire. There was enormous regional diversity.

B

The Carolingian Renaissance

To bring order and unity to this situation, as well as to fulfill their goal of creating a Christian empire, the Carolingians sponsored a revival of scholarship and art known as the Carolingian Renaissance. It had two main goals: to revive the wisdom of Roman writers, uniting it with Christian literature and learning, and to create new works of art and literature that expressed this same unity.

The Carolingian Renaissance began in the 790s and lasted for about a century. At first the scholars and artists involved in it came from the frontiers of the empire, such as Italy, or even from outside it, from places such as England. Later scholars and artists were Franks educated in Carolingian schools.

The most famous figure of the early Carolingian Renaissance was Alcuin. He came from England, which had important ties with Rome and the papacy and a strong tradition of scholarship. Alcuin became the head of a school at Charlemagne's court. He wrote letters on behalf of the king, advised him on issues of government, and tutored the royal household. He also revised and reedited a version of the Bible known as the Vulgate. This was important because it provided a standardized, authoritative text of the Bible for churches and schools.

Alcuin and other scholars also wrote theological treatises, poems, histories, essays on government, biographies (the most famous is Life of Charlemagne by Einhard), and hagiographies (stories of the lives of saints). Instead of using paper, which was unknown in the West, these scholars wrote on parchment made of animal skins. All works were written out by hand, which is why they are called manuscripts—from the Latin words manus (hand) and scriptus (written).

Carolingian artists worked with Byzantine and Roman illustrations to create paintings to decorate these texts. These paintings are called illuminations, and manuscripts with these illustrations are known as illuminated manuscripts. For example, in the front of each of the four Gospels (the first four books of the New Testament of the Bible) artists painted the portraits of the authors using vivid colors and gold leaf. The Romans had often begun their books with an author portrait of this type. By adopting this practice for Christian texts, the Carolingians used Roman traditions for Christian purposes.

The Carolingians also sponsored schools. Carolingian kings wanted every monastery to have both an internal school for future monks and an external school for the children in the neighborhood. In these schools children would learn the alphabet and how to read the Latin of the Psalter (the book of Psalms in the Bible). The idea was to give everyone enough education to understand at least the basic doctrines of Christianity so that they could fully participate in the Christian community. It is doubtful, however, if many external schools were set up, although monasteries and churches did organize schools for future monks and priests.

The legacy of the Carolingian Renaissance lasted long after the Carolingian Empire had passed away. It provided good, clear copies of important Christian texts: the Vulgate Bible, chants for the Mass, and the Benedictine Rule, which most of the monasteries in the empire followed. Its scholars' treatises and other writings set a solid foundation for the development of schools and universities in the 12th century.

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