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Carolus Magnus

Carolus Magnus. Charlemagne and the European Idea. Feudal Reminders. Much like China Lord of the Manner Underlings, nobles Serfs Feudalism not around until about 1000ish Merovingian Gaul Hereditary ownership of fiefdoms from sons of Merovech the Salian Frank

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Carolus Magnus

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  1. Carolus Magnus Charlemagne and the European Idea

  2. Feudal Reminders • Much like China • Lord of the Manner • Underlings, nobles • Serfs • Feudalism not around until about 1000ish • Merovingian Gaul • Hereditary ownership of fiefdoms from sons of Merovech the Salian Frank • Clovis ca 500 unites Gaul

  3. Charlemagne's family • Austrasia • Eastern France, Low Countries, Aachen • Merovingian Maiores of the Palace, hereditary ministers and landowners • Local rulers ascend to great power thanks to hereditary mode and decentralization of central authority • Unlike Diocletian, Constantine, Justinian, Abbasids – complex state bureaucracies • Personal and close structure determined by abilities of ruler

  4. Fall of the Merovingian • Merovingian plunder economy – mid 8th c • Last Kings of Merovingians are weak • Long hair of Stephen cut and he's sent to a monastery • 'Empty name of King' - Einhard • Mayor of the Palace holds all power • Ability to tax the population dwindles with decentralization of power • Plunder economy dries up after they rule everything and have no land to promise followers • Grimoald tries to depose Mervingians but he's executed, 661 • Blood of Clovis is strong but Grimoald'sfamily stays as Maiores

  5. Rise of the carolingians • Cant take power from Merovingians without reason so… • Rationale for legitimacy for the Maiores to take over • Election? Hereditary line? Success in war? Economist? • Opponents, especially Neustria (Paris), look for takeover, too • Military success • Ally with Bishop of Rome who was threatened by Lombards and put off by iconoslasm • Monks – generally Irish or British – serve as bridge from Austrasia to Rome. St Boniface converts Germans with help from Austrasia Maiores.

  6. 733, Tours (poitiers) • Highwater mark for caliphate into Europe • Charles Martel, Maior of Austrasia

  7. Pepin the short, 741-68 • Cements deal with papacy, monasteries, and the Austasians • Mobilizes family power with church • Helps Boniface's reforms • Restoration of Church lands • Role of king as guardian of Church • Wrote to the Pope "is it right for the man who holds the power not to wear the crown?" • 751, Pepin elected King of the Franks • Deposes and puts to monastery last of the Merovingians • 753, Pope Stephen goes across the Alps to crown Pepin • Pepin in return defeats the Lombards • Succeeded by Charles and Carloman

  8. Charles, King of the Franks • Beneficiary of 100 years of Carolingian ascent • Weak kings, monks, success in war, byzantine iconoclasm, lonbard threat Papacy shifts from looking east to looking north

  9. Charles, king of the franks • Beneficiary of 100 years of Carolingian ascent • Weak kings, monks, success in war, byzantine iconoclasm, lonbardthreat • Papacy shifts from alliance with Roman emperors and other patriarchates to northern alliance • Combines military prestige (Lombards and Avars and Saxons and Bavarians, Barcelona, The Song of Roland),… • piety (Christian ruler, mass forced conversions, and love of St Augustine, oversees cultural programme) and … • Legacy of Rome – rescues Pope from Roman factions, coronated HRE • Founder of Europe as a cultural expression

  10. Carolingian renaissance • Revival of learning under Charlemagne and Louis the Pius & Charles the Bald • "Ministry to see to salvation of public good" • Revive the Roman Empire • Planned programme – like the House of Wisdom • Revive Latin as the universal language

  11. Preservation of learning in the west before charles • Roman culture required wealthy, educated, laymen: liberal arts • Practically, to enter government you must have knowledge (like China, or 19th c Britain) • Athens, Pergamon (parchment), Alexandria, Constantinople…all in the east! • Disappearance of lay literacy in Europe • Boethius and Cassiodorus of Vivarium (liberal arts as aid to religious understanding) • Italy devastated by Belisarius • Benedictine monks, by accident • Irish, English, and Italian monasteries • 264 manuscripts survive – 26 are secular! Role of the scriptorium

  12. Charlemagne's cultural programme • 'Industrial' output • 'We are concerned to restore with zeal the workshops of knowledge…we invited others to learn to practice the liberal arts.' • Intellectuals direct government, given great privilege, be sure the church and the state are effective and uniform. Carolingian script. • Educate populace and church. • Alcuin of York

  13. Manuscripts • Collect, collate, annotate • No innovation – reverence for the originals • Firm idea the truth is being handed down in two parts: Bible/church fathers and Classics • Regularize liturgy, develop standards for poetry and spelling • Fight against iconoclasm and adoptionism • From 26-290 classical manuscripts from 700-800 • Polybius, Livy, Tacitus, Vergil, Cicero, Lucretius… • Palimpsest • Growth of libraries @ Reichennal,Corbie, Lorsch, Tours, St Gall, Aachen

  14. Einhard • Biographer of Charlemagne • Monastic entrepreneur • Seliganstadt – monastery under his purview – power of the reliquary • Life of StsMarcellinus and Peter

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