Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire (800-87 CE)

Aims

This course aims to:

• help you to acquire a detailed understanding of the cultural, political and socio-economic development of northern France and the Low Countries at a time of critical change, sometimes said to have witnessed the creation of ‘Europe’
• enable you to develop critical skills by debating a range of primary source materials from the period in question
• challenge your assumptions about the governmental, religious and literary achievements of what some still call ‘Dark Age’ Europe

Course content

The Carolingian empire dominated a vast area of western and central Europe, at its height encompassing something in the order of one million square kilometres. This course takes learners on a journey which begins with the dynasty’s rise to power in the 8th century and ends in 887 with the deposition of Charles ‘the Fat’. Along the way, we will focus on Charlemagne, perhaps the most renowned of all medieval kings. Taking power as King of the Franks in 768 and ruling initially with his brother Carloman (d. 771), he quickly asserted his authority at home and abroad, building an unassailable position on the back of tireless military campaigning and a gift for ruthless politicking. This gift is perhaps best exhibited in the extraordinary events of Christmas Day 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor at St. Peter’s in Rome, a moment brought to life for us by our most important primary source, the scholar Einhard. Sessions one, two and three will focus on Charlemagne as king and emperor, as well as the construction and rule of the empire he governed. 

But there was more to Charlemagne than the harsh reality of power and its exercise, for during his reign a court-sponsored programme of religious, literary and scholarly renewal unfolded at his palace at Aachen, laying the foundations of what would become the Western canon of classical learning. Was this a veritable ‘Carolingian Renaissance’, as some scholars have dubbed it? This is the question to which we will turn in our fourth session before exploring, in the fifth and final session of the course, the demise of Carolingian power.

What to expect on this course

This course will be taught in five sessions, each of which will be built around a short lecture of 10-15 minutes, followed by class discussion. After each lecture, I will introduce relevant source materials in English translation and provide orientation and guidance when needed but you – the learners! – are the principal protagonists of this course. That is to say, your readings of the source materials and your interpretations of the themes under discussion will take centre stage, creating an immersive and dynamic learning experience.

Course sessions

1. The Carolingian Rise to Power
   In the short lecture at the beginning of this session, I will sketch out the Carolingians’ rise to power, placing emphasis on the martial prowess and political nous of Charlemagne’s predecessors. We will then discuss the conflicting primary source accounts of the dynasty’s consolidation of its power under Charlemagne, working with extracts from the Royal Frankish Annals and examining other artefacts.
2. Charlemagne: King and Emperor 
   When Charlemagne was granted the imperial title by Pope Leo III in Rome on Christmas Day 800, a legitimising seal was set on the brutal reality of his power. But rather than ritual and ceremony, it was arguably the awesome Carolingian war machine and the regime’s unquenchable thirst for resources that underpinned Carolingian power. Accordingly, in this session we will look at the source materials which help explain how the Carolingian empire was won and augmented by conquest, as well as the potent ideological frameworks which exalted and celebrated Carolingian power.
3. Governing the Carolingian Empire 
   Was the Carolingian empire in any recognisable sense ‘governed’, or is that term an anachronism when applied to an empire constrained by the technological and logistical realities of the day? In this session we will consider the evidence for both sides of the argument: laws, capitularies and the records of royal estates will be mined for clues, allowing us to consider how, if at all, the Carolingians organised and administered their empire.
4. The Carolingian Renaissance
   Literature – indeed, writing of all kinds; jurisprudence; the visual arts; music; mathematics: all of these fields flourished to some degree under more or less direct Carolingian patronage, especially in the first half of the 9th century. But why? In this session we will explore how the Carolingians enigmatically conflated scholarship with God’s divine purpose for humankind. A series of manuscript illuminations and writings by ecclesiastics testify to the ideological zeal of the Carolingian educational project and in this session learners will investigate examples from these materials, allowing them to evaluate the role of the Church in the coordination of the Carolingian Renaissance.
5. The Demise of Carolingian Power
   How and why Carolingian power collapsed is the question to which we turn in this final session. Were structural flaws to blame or was the crisis of the 880s a straightforward case of political mismanagement? Perhaps more importantly, what is the legacy of Carolingian power and what lessons, if any, does it have for us today?

Learning outcomes

As a result of the course, you will gain a greater understanding of the subject and you should be able to:

• engage with early medieval primary sources drawn from the written and the material register
• compare and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of rival strands within historiographical debates concerning the creation of an early ‘European’ empire
• understand the early medieval origins of many debates of continuing relevance, such as the rhetoric and practice of public power, and the construction of political projects designed to consolidate pan-European authority

Required reading

Nelson, J, King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne (Allen Lane Publishing 2019)

Costambeys, M, Innes, M and MacLean, S (editors), The Carolingian World (Cambridge University Press 2011)

*Einhard, Vita Karoli, in Two Lives of Charlemagne, transl. David Ganz (Penguin Classics 2008) 

Dutton, P (editor), Charlemagne's Courtier: The Complete Einhard (University of Toronto Press 1998)

Dutton, P E (editor), Carolingian Civilisation: A Reader (University of Toronto Press 2004)