Carolingian Kings Research Articles

Between court and counts: Carolingian Catalonia and the aprisio grant, 778–897

In the late eighth century, Charlemagne issued a new kind of land grant in Septimania and the Spanish March to refugees fleeing Muslim Spain. This grant, the aprisio, was made from fiscal land in deserted areas and included special rights and immunities. Previous scholars have interpreted the aprisio in economic and military terms as a mechanism to entice settlers to the region in order to make the land productive and to provide warriors to defend the Frankish frontier. This article suggests that political concerns also may have played an important role, arguing that the aprisio grant was an attempt by Carolingian kings to limit the power exercised by very powerful marcher counts.

Sant Esteve de Banyoles: del patrocinio regio al pontificio (IX-XI)

This paper deals with the development of the political relationships of the abbey of Sant Esteve de Banyoles with the Carolingian kings, the papacy and the counts of Besalu in the Early Middle Ages. Trying to avoid a localist or regionalist point of view, it also stresses the importance of the Carolingian tradition in the subsequent evolution of the institutional relationships of ecclesiastical domains.

The Carolingian response to the revolt of Boso, 879–887

The decade leading up to the disintegration of the Carolingian Empire in 887–8 is traditionally characterised by historians as a period when royal authority was in terminal decline, crippled by the deaths of three great rulers in the mid‐870s and by the attempt of the non‐Carolingian rebel Boso of Vienne to seize a throne in 879. This article challenges the conventional view, and argues that Boso's revolt actually inspired the four surviving Carolingian kings to enter into a period of successful and effective cooperation. They came to a sworn agreement which sealed a new mutually guaranteed succession plan and resolved several outstanding territorial disputes. The end of the empire was brought about neither by internal conflict nor by loss of faith in the royal house, but rather by the premature deaths of a series of heirless rulers and the failure of the last emperor Charles the Fat to organize his succession in 887.

The Ancestors of Inhalational Anesthesia: The Soporific Sponges (XIth–XVIIth Centuries)

The Ancestors of Inhalational Anesthesia: The Soporific Sponges (XIth–XVIIth Centuries)

"More Devoted to the Equipment of Battle Than the Splendor of Banquets": Frontier Kingship, Military Ritual, and Early Knighthood at the Court of Louis the German

'More Devoted to Equipment of Battle Than Splendor of Banquets': Frontier Kingship, Military Ritual, and Early Knighthood at Court of Louis German. This article explores role of political symbolism and ritual in creation of a medieval frontier kingdom. The study focuses on reign of Carolingian king Louis the (840-876), founder of east Frankish kingdom that later evolved into kingdom of Germany. Reflecting endemic warfare along his kingdom's Slavic frontiers, Louis cultivated a highly militarized courtly ceremonial and triumphal royal ideology rooted in emerging Frankish culture of knighthood, exemplified especially by king's devotion to relics of True Cross, which became holy talisman of east Frankish army in its annual campaigns against pagan barbarian Slavs. Through militaristic rituals of knighthood and a triumphal devotion to True Cross, Louis German and his magnates proclaimed independent existence of their n...

From poachers to gamekeepers: Scandinavian warlords and Carolingian kings

This article represents the first comprehensive study of the commendation and conversion of Viking leaders by Carolingian rulers, from the first recorded instance under Charlemagne to the agreement with Rollo in the early tenth century. The survey underlines how widespread the practice was, and permits an assessment of its effectiveness as a defensive strategy against Scandinavian incursions. The outcome varied: some Scandinavians found themselves defending Frankish territory against Viking attack, others acted as intermediaries between Franks and Scandinavians, still others were granted Frankish benefices but never trusted, and ultimately killed. Nonetheless, the article demonstrates that in the majority of cases the practice of commendation and conversion worked to the Carolingians’ advantage, neutralizing potential enemies or even turning them into useful allies.

The Revival of the Cult of Martin of Tours in the Third Republic

Statuary groups, countless illustrations, and colorful stained glass all preserve for us the most famous medieval image of the charitable soldier-saint, Martin of Tours (336–397). The young Martin is depicted seated on his horse dividing his soldier's cape to share it with Christ disguised as a freezing beggar at the gate of Amiens. After abandoning the Roman army, Martin became a monk, an ascetic “soldier of Christ,” and was chosen by the people of Tours as their bishop. Renowned in his lifetime as a wonderworker, Martin's tomb remained for centuries an important pilgrimage center. The later Carolingian kings carried a fragment of Martin's cape into battle as a victory-giving talisman, and French monarchs invoked the saint as their patron. Because of its royalist associations, Saint Martin's basilica at Tours was almost completely destroyed in the French Revolution, and subsequently houses and new municipal streets encroached on the sacred space.

Fathers of Power and Mothers of Authority: Dhuoda and the Liber manualis

When the Carolingian mayor of the palace, Pippin III the Short, deposed the last Merovingian king in 751 and had himself elected and anointed to succeed him, he completed the long ascent of his family to preeminence in Francia and eventually in Europe, a preeminence that would last, in one way or another, for more than two centuries.' Much has been written about the ultimate political consequences of the Carolingian empire, but one of the great legacies it left the West was the general renewal of learning that the Carolingian kings and emperors sponsored.2 Beginning with Pippin's reign, and through those of his descendants, Charlemagne (+814), Louis the Pious (+840), and his great-grandson Charles the Bald (+877), Carolingian kings favored scholars with enormous patronage in their efforts to renew their kingdoms spiritually and intellectually. Although their larger goals might have outstripped their resources, their efforts to produce a moral reform of the peoples under their governance bore some fruit, and it was in fact to this end that the kings themselves, as well as many of the intellectuals of the period, worked.3 This moral concern is perhaps the

The Susanna Crystal of Lothar II: Chastity, the Church, and Royal Justice

The meaning of the ninth-century Susanna Crystal has never been satisfactorily explained. Lauer's 1908 hypothesis connects the gem with the attempted divorce of Lothar II. Carolingian polemic literature and commentaries on Daniel 13 suggest three broader interpretations: Susanna herself is Ecclesia, or she is an example of Chastity, or the entire episode is an illustration of just judgment. The last of these is most fully supported by the object. The cycle on the crystal includes and compositionally emphasizes the summoning of Susanna (not normally illustrated), and carefully differentiates between interrogation and condemnation. A judge and public viewers are added to the biblical narrative. All of these features stress the proper functioning of legal judgment. The added judge resembles a Carolingian king, and a prominent inscription (LOTHARIVS REX FRANCORVM ME FIERI IVSSIT) draws attention to the patronage of Lothar II (855-869). The unusual wording of this inscription stresses Lothar's position, his role as patron, and the link between him and his people. Just judgment is frequently cited in Carolingian theoretical works as one of the most important characteristics of the ideal king. The Susanna Crystal may claim this important royal virtue for Lothar II.

England and Aquitaine in the century before the Norman Conquest

A commonplace among English historians today is the importance of English ties with Aquitaine during the later Middle Ages. For some three centuries, historical events came to link the destinies of these two countries and peoples who otherwise differed strikingly in economy, language and culture in general, with lasting consequences for both. It has long been taken for granted by both English and French historians that this association came about abruptly in the 1150s as a result of the ascent to the English throne of Henry of Anjou who, through his marriage to Eleanor, heiress of the duchy of Aquitaine, became the sovereign of that enormous territorial principality. Till the present no one has suspected that any significant ties existed between the Anglo-Saxons and Aquitanians prior to that time. To be sure, the Anglo-Saxons had been in contact with the late Carolingian kings in the tenth century and with the Normans in the eleventh, but those were purely northern French phenomena. So too were the important Anglo-Saxon relations with the monks of Fleury-sur-Loire in the later tenth and early eleventh centuries, but these were not known to have had any repercussions in Aquitaine far to the south.

La majesté sacrée du roi : images du souverain carolingien

The Sacred Majesty of the King : Images of a carolingian Sovereign. The body of works examined consists of six representations of a sovereign in majesty (King or Emperor) from the Carolingian period, dated approximately between 840 and 875. The article’s aim is to define formal and iconographical characteristics associated with the idea of royal majesty in these manuscript images. It is shown that royal majesty is not defined by one element alone but by a combination of several elements. Its image is compared with other types of majesty, particularly those of Christ and David. The evolution of religious ideology in the ninth century forbades the assimilation of a sovereign’s majesty with divine majesty. The author therefore introduces the notion of « intermediary majesty » in order to account for the particular traits of the image of the Carolingian King, who remains a sacred personage in a sacred space (etymologically « forbidden »), while playing the role of an intermediary between God and the people.

Hérédité royale et pouvoir sacré avant 987

Le 22 mai 987, le roi carolingien Louis V meurt des suites d'un accident de chasse en forêt de Senlis. Il n'a pas de fils. Son plus proche parent, qui prétend à sa succession, est son oncle paternel Charles de Basse-Lorraine. Or, les grands de Francie occidentale vont élire comme roi le duc des Francs Hugues Capet, de la famille des Robertiens, qui est sacré à Noyon le 3 juillet 987.Cet événement est aujourd'hui considéré comme fondateur parce que les descendants d'Hugues Capet ont conservé le trône pendant plus de huit siècles et se sont identifiés à la nation. On trouverait difficilement dans l'histoire universelle comportement plus dynastique que le leur. A tel point que dans la conscience commune, l'idée de monarchie est étroitement associée à celle d'hérédité. Or, il faut bien se rendre à l'évidence : d'un point de vue strictement dynastique l'avènement d'Hugues Capet est une usurpation.

Making Ends Meet: Wealth and Poverty in the Carolingian Church

In the early ninth century, the Frankish Church was unashamedly, triumphantly, rich. The Franks were assured that God loved them. Thanks to the intercessions of churchmen, God had promoted the expansion of the Frankish Empire: in a world of social relations organized and expressed through the exchange of gift and countergift, it seemed only fair that God, or rather his Church on his behalf, should share in the profits. ‘Give tithes to the Lord’, Smaragdus urged a young Carolingian king: ‘He subjected many realms to you, and commanded powerful peoples to serve you’.

Historiographie épiscopale et modèle familial en Occident au IXesiècle

Depuis une dizaine d'années, l'attention des chercheurs de langue française a été attirée sur la littérature généalogique. Georges Duby, dans une étude parue en 1967, posait les fondements de travaux poursuivis depuis dans le cadre de son séminaire au Collège de France. Léopold Genicot vient de donner presque simultanément une étude exemplaire de la généalogie des comtes de Boulogne et un fascicule de laTypologie des Sources du Moyen Age occidentalconsacré précisément aux généalogies. Ces travaux sur l'histoire des familles nobles montrent l'importance des représentations que ces familles se donnent de leur ascendance, et les liens qui existent entre ces représentations et les préoccupations des princes au moment de la mise au point des généalogies. Ils sont venus éclairer pour nous des recherches entreprises par ailleurs sur ces listes épiscopales développées que sont lesGesta Episcoporum.