Main References

1

• Main References
• Becher, Matthias. Charlemagne. New Haven Yale
  U. Press, 2003.
• Boussard, Jacques. The Civilization of
  Charlemagne. London Weidenfeld Nicolson,
  1968.
• Brown, R. Allen. The Origins of Modern Europe
  the Medieval Heritage of Western Civilization.
  Woodbridge Boydell, 1996.
• Bulfinch, Thomas. The Age of Chivalry and
  Legends of Charlemagne. New York New American
  Library, 1962.
• Bullough, Donald A. The Age of Charlemagne.
  London Ferndale, 1980.
• Cabaniss, Allen. Charlemagne. New York Twayne,
  1972.
• Calmette, Joseph. Charlemagne. Paris PUF,
  1966.

2

• Einhard. The Life of Charlemagne. Ann Arbor U.
  of Michigan Press, 1960.
• Fichtenau, Heinrich. The Carolingian Empire.
  Toronto U. of Toronto Press, 1978.
• Folz, Robert. The Coronation of Charlemagne, 25
  Decmber 800. London Routledge, 1974.
• Halphen, Louis. Charlemagne and the Carolingian
  Empire. Amsterdam North-Holland Pub., 1977.
• Hodges, Richard. Mohammed, Charlemagne and the
  Origins of Europe Archaeology and the Pirenne
  Thesis. Ithaca Cornell U. Press, 1983.

3

• Loyn, H.R., et al., eds. The Reign of
  Charlemagne Documents on Carolingian Government
  and Administration. New York St. Martins
  Press, 1975.
• Macdonald, Fiona. The World in the Time of
  Charlemagne. Philadelphia Chelsea House, 2001.
• McKitterick, Rosamond. Charlemagne the
  Formation of a European Identity. Cambridge
  Cambridge U. Press, 2008.
• Munz, Peter. Life in the Age of Charlemagne.
  London Putnam, 1969.
• Nelson, Janet L. Courts, Elites, and Gendered
  Power in the Early Middle Ages Charlemagne and
  Others. Aldershot Ashgate, 2007.

4

• Pirenne, Henri. Mohammed and Charlemagne.
  London Allen Unwin, 1968.
• Riche, Pierre. Daily Life in the World of
  Charlemagne. Liverpool Liverpool U. Press,
  1978.
• Sullivan, R.E. The Coronation of Charlemagne
  What did it Signify? Boston Heath, 1959.
• Thorpe, Lewis. Two Lives of Charlemagne.
  Harmondsworth Penguin, 1969.

5

• 4th - 5th centuries synthesis of Classical and
  Christian Cultures
• 8th century Germanic (thus, completed the
  Birth of Europe also the title of a book by
  Robert Lopez)
• Historical background after the fall of the
  Western Roman Empire (in 476), in Gaul (modern
  France) were the Franks
• Clovis (Louis) was the King of the Franks, r.
  481-511 Merovingian Dynasty

6

• But soon, it was disorganized, weakened,
  disintegrated, and decentralized -- the
  Merovingian kings soon became figure heads
  (puppets) and power passed to the aristocracy
  cliques of nobles.
• By the 7th century, the Carolingians, a great
  landholding family in medieval Europe as in
  China land was wealth, and wealth was power,
  rose to power. They became the mayors (or dux)
  of the itinerant royal household, that is, chief
  administrator and their offices were hereditary
  with own warriors, etc., indicating that they
  were the real masters.

7

• Charles Martel (714-741), the Hammer, was a
  ruthless warrior, especially in the Battle of
  Tours (732), defeated the Muslims from
  Spain/North Africa and stopped the Muslims since
  then
• The Carolingians have been producing
  extraordinary able men over several generations
  luck (always only ONE surviving heir fro several
  generations) medieval feudalism could be
  disintegrating, because of divided succession
  among heirs (not yet primogeniture).

8

• Then, Carloman ruled as mayor for 6 years, then
  retired to a Benedictine monastery in 747 and
  left the power to his brother, Pepin the Short.
  When in 751, the Lombards captured Ravenna and
  threatened the Pope in Rome, who asked for help.
  Pepin the Short asked the Pope a far from
  theological question Is it right that a
  powerless ruler should continue to bear the title
  of king? Of course, the answer from the Pope
  was no, which meant the powerless Merovingian
  king should step down and thus, in 751, Pepin
  the Short became King of the Franks, (thus, ended
  the Merovingian Dynasty, and started the
  Carolingian Dynasty).

9

• If Pepin the Short needed the support and
  blessings of the papacy (to legitimize his claim
  to the throne), the papacy needed Pepins support
  (or military protection) even more thus,
  alliance of the two.

10

• Charlemagne, r. 768-814 a typical medieval
  feudal warrior king, a talented military
  commander, a statesman, and a friend of
  learning (limited) by his biographer Einhard,
  Life of Charlemagne.

11

• While at his table, he Charlemagne listened to
  reading and music. The readings were stories and
  deeds of olden times he was also fond of St.
  Augustines books, especially of the one
  entitled, The City of God. ... He also tried to
  write, and used to keep tablets and blank pages
  in bed under his pillow so that in his leisure
  hours, he might accustom his hands to form the
  letters but as he did not begin his efforts at
  an early age but late in life, they were met with
  poor success.

12

• Charlemagne was described as warm and talkative
  on the one hand, but hard, cruel, and violent on
  the other thus, admiration and fear (or, hope
  and fear).
• Nevertheless, Charlemagne was ideal to later
  medieval ages what an emperor ought to be was
  often defined in term of what Charlemagne was,
  that is, Charlemagne was a model, a typical
  medieval feudal warrior king.

13

• The Imperial Coronation at the Mass on Christmas
  Day, 800 crowned by Pope Leo III as the Holy
  Roman Emperor (cf. later and then, in 1804, the
  coronation of Emperor Napoleon and Empress
  Josephine).
• Yet, despite his military genius and political
  charisma, Charlemagne was a man of his age, in
  tune with its most progressive forces yet by no
  means removed from its past.

14

• Conclusion The Empire of Charles the Great did
  not long survive the death of its founder, and it
  never really attained the economic and social
  organization of a civilized state. But, for all
  that, it marks the first emergence of the
  European culture from the twilight of prenatal
  existence into the consciousness of active life.
  (Christopher Dawson, The Making of Europe).

15

• The Carolingian Renaissance
• What The Carolingian Renaissance formed part of
  a program of religious renewal that Carolingian
  political clerical leaders sponsored and
  encouraged in the hope that it would lead to the
  moral betterment of the Christian people. John
  J. Contreni, The Carolingian Renaissance, in
  Warren Treadgold, ed., Renaissances before the
  Renaissance. (Stanford Stanford U. Press,
  1984), pp. 59-74.

16

• The Carolingian Renaissance limitation, limited
  in scope and in depth mainly preservation only
  emphasized on the study of Christian scripts.
• Because, in the Carolingian Dynasty, the Franks
  or the Germanic barbarians were illiterate, thus,
  the elite scholars were mainly foreign born, such
  as Einhard, Alcuin, etc.
• Nevertheless, the Carolingian Renaissance had
  certain effect on education and culture moral
  regeneration of society.

17

• Why How By 8th century, the Carolingian mayors
  of the palace had consolidated and were soon
  legitimizing their hold over the Frankish
  kingdom. Then, (1) Carolingian expansion brought
  the Franks into contact with active cultural
  centers in Spain, Rome, etc. (2) learned foreign
  scholars were invited and they arrived in France
  thus, concentrating the materials and human
  resources for cultural revival in the hands of
  the Carolingians.

18

• Carloman copied out the Life of Arnulf of Metz
  (his ancestor), and wrote out the Deeds of the
  Franks.
• Pepin the Short supported learning and religion,
  and reformed the Frankish Church.

19

• Charlemagne admired St. Augustines The City of
  God and he recruited and listened to an
  international constellation of Italian,
  Anglo-Saxon, Irish, and Visigothic men of
  letters, such as Alcuin, Einhard, etc.
• All in all, according to Warren Hollister, The
  age of Charlemagne/Carolingian Renaissance
  witnessed the synthesis of Classical, Christian,
  and Germanic Cultures.

20

• Significance (1) the Carolingians sponsored a
  literary Renaissance, whose principal effect was
  to preserve civilization Kenneth Clark, Thanks
  to the Carolingians, civilization survived by the
  skin of its teeth (2) The Carolingians were not
  at all original but simply imitated programs
  texts proposed earlier and elsewhere.

21

• The Aftermath of Charlemagne the 2nd Wave of
  Barbarian Invasion in the 9th 10th centuries
  (Geoffrey Barraclough, The Crucible of Europe) --
  Vikings (pirates from Northern Europe Normans
  (North men) later Magyars in Eastern Europe
  Hungarians (Huns) later and Saracens in North
  Africa and Southern Italy (Muslims).

22

• Charlemagne died in 814 -- the end of an era.
• Louis the Pius, r. 814-840, was not incompetent,
  but he could not compare with Charlemagne, his
  father Pepin the Short, his grandfather Charles
  Martel, the Hammer, his great grandfather (in
  military, politics, charisma, etc.).
• By the later part of his life, Charlemagne has
  already stopped expansion cf. The Song of
  Roland and by the time of Louis the Pius, he
  could not award his followers in land
  feudalism, thus, causing general grievances.

23

• The Frankish feudalism at that time what kept
  the government going effective was loyal service
  from the vassals to the lords only, thus,
  unreliable.
• There was no bureaucracy perhaps, at the most,
  missi dominici (royal envoys to local counties)
  by Charlemagnes own initiative, not a permanent
  institution yet, it was the only link between
  the kings court and the local level.

24

• Louis the Pius died in 840, and there were 3
  surviving sons to succeed his throne, thus,
  splitting the empire into 3 regions Lothar (the
  eldest) in Holy Roman Empire Louis the German in
  Western Germany and Charles the Bold in Eastern
  France.
• A period of decline (?), yet, significant changes
  were happening under the surface (cf. the time
  between Han and Tang Dynasties in China --
  apparently barbaric, yet, many effective
  institutions proven to be successful in Tang
  China were rooted in this period).

25

• The Vikings from Scandinavia Norway, Denmark,
  and Sweden of Northern Europe were called as the
  North men or Norsemen (cf. Sir James C. Holt)
  and they were adventurous with restless spirit
  (perhaps over-population?), and with improved
  Vikings ships, the breakdown of the Carolingian
  empire (causing attraction for invasion to
  western Europe).

26

• Nevertheless, the Vikings were great navigators
  and adventurers, and they have contributed to the
  widening the perspectives and enhancing the
  horizons of the medieval Europeans.
• The Magyars were swift moving Hungarian horsemen
  attacked and finally settled in Eastern Europe.

27

• The Saracens (Muslims) were pirates from Northern
  Africa, plundering the coastal cities, such as
  Sicily in Southern Italy or Lombardy in
  Northeastern Italy.
• Conclusion 9th to 10th centuries Europe was a
  formative period, and it was out of this 2nd wave
  of barbarian invasion that medieval Europeans of
  that generation had suffered, but eventually that
  a rising Europe took shape.

28

• By the 10th century, Europe was on the eve of the
  High Middle Ages.
• Causes of the recovery -- a series of
  interrelated causes (1) the barbarian invasions
  ended (2) the barbarians were settled and
  Christianized (3) there were no big
  plagues/famines, etc. (4) thus, rise of
  population and (5) arable land extended.

29

• Expansion of frontiers (externally and
  internally)
• Lynn Whyte, Jr., Medieval Technology and Social
  Changes.
• Robert Lopez, The Commercial Revolution of the
  Middle Ages.
• Thus, by the 10th century, Europe was on the
  verge of a creative explosion!