The End of Charlemagne's Life
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Name Class Date The Early Middle Ages Primary Source The End of Charlemagne’s Life ABOUT THE READING Einhard lived and VOCABULARY worked in Charlemagne’s court beginning in bade ordered 791 or 792. Einhard started writing his biography of the great king in 817, three years interred buried after Charlemagne’s death. In this reading we lamentations expressions hear about the last days of Charlemagne. of grief portended predicted As you read consider the ways in which people despised hated responded to Charlemagne’s life and death. Toward the close of his life, when he was broken by ill-health and old age, he summoned Louis, King of Aquitania, his only surviving son by Hildegard, and gathered together all the chief men of the whole kingdom of the Franks in a solemn assembly. He appointed Louis, with their unanimous consent, to rule with himself over the whole kingdom, and constituted him heir to the imperial name; then, A diadem is a crown placing the diadem upon his son’s head, he bade him be proclaimed Emperor and Augustus. This The title Augustus originated in step was hailed by all present with great favor, for it the Roman Empire. really seemed as if God had prompted him to it for the kingdom’s good; it increased the king’s dignity, and struck no little terror into foreign nations. After sending his son back to Aquitania, although weak from age he set out to hunt, as usual, near his palace at Aix-la-Chapelle. While wintering there, he was seized, in the month of January, with a high fever, and took to his bed. He died January 27, the seventh day from the time that he took to his bed, at nine o’clock in the morning, after partaking of the holy communion, in the seventy-second year of Charlemagne was believed to have been born in 742. He his age and the forty-seventh of his reign. died in 814. Source: The Life of Charlemagne, by Einhard Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. 16 The Early Middle Ages 55623_MSH_PrimSource_Ch17a.indd623_MSH_PrimSource_Ch17a.indd 1616 66/28/05/28/05 33:33:41:33:41 PMPM Name Class Date The End of Charlemagne’s Life, continued Primary Source His body was washed and cared for in the usual manner, and was then carried to the church, and interred amid the greatest lamentations of all the people. Very many omens had portended his approaching end, a fact that he had recognized as well as others. Eclipses both of the sun and moon were very frequent during the last three years of his life, and a black spot was visible on the sun for the space of seven days. The gallery between the basilica and the palace, which he had built at great pains and labor, fell in sudden ruin to the ground on the day of the Ascension of our Lord. The wooden This is the day on which Christians celebrate Jesus’s return to heaven. bridge over the Rhine at Mayence, which he had caused to be constructed with admirable skill, at the cost of ten years’ hard work, so that it seemed as if it might last forever, was so completely consumed in three hours by an accidental fire that not a single splinter of it was left, except what was under water. Saxony is a region in Germany that at that time included northern Moreover, one day in his last campaign into Saxony Germany and part of Britain. By against Godfred, king of the Danes, [Charlemagne] conquering Saxony, Charlemagne greatly expanded his empire. himself saw a ball of fire fall suddenly from the heavens with a great light, just as he was leaving camp before sunrise to set out on the march. It rushed across the clear sky from right to left, and everybody was wondering what was the meaning of the sign, when the horse which he was riding gave a sudden plunge, head foremost, and fell, and threw him to the ground so heavily that his cloak buckle was broken and his sword belt shattered; and after his servants had hastened to him and relieved him of his arms, he could not rise without their assistance. He happened to have a javelin in his hand when he was thrown, and this was struck from his grasp with such force that it was found lying at a distance of 20 feet or more from the spot. But [Charlemagne] despised, or affected to despise, all these omens, as having no reference whatever to him. Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. 17 The Early Middle Ages 5623_MSH_PrimSource_Ch17a.indd 17 6/28/05 3:34:13 PM Name Class Date The End of Charlemagne’s Life, continued Primary Source WHAT DID YOU LEARN? 1. What two belief systems are contrasted in this reading? Give details from the text to support your answer. 2. Who else besides historians would be interested in this account? Why? 3. Why do you think Einhard is careful to describe Charlemagne’s attitude toward the omens? Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. 18 The Early Middle Ages 55623_MSH_PrimSource_Ch17a.indd623_MSH_PrimSource_Ch17a.indd 1818 66/28/05/28/05 33:34:44:34:44 PMPM Name Class Date The Early Middle Ages Primary Source Feudal Capitularies ABOUT THE READING After the fall of the Roman Empire, it became common in Europe to form voluntary alliances to ensure security against invaders and other threats. The more powerful member of the alliance, or lord, agreed to protect the weaker member, or vassal, in return for the vassal’s services. In addition to a military alliance, the lord and the vassal often shared a landlord-tenant relationship. In the Frankish Empire of northern Europe, kings, who served as the sovereign, or chief, lord over many landholders often issued regulations to govern the relationship between lords and vassals. Sets of these regulations are known as capitularies, from the Latin word for chapter. The following selection includes two such capitularies. The third passage is a commentary on the nature of feudal relationships written by a medieval scholar. As you read consider why rules concerning the relationship between lord and vassal developed. Capitulary Concerning Freemen and Vassals, 816 This capitulary from the Frankish Empire outlines when VOCABULARY a vassal is entitled to leave a lord. perpetrated carried out If anyone shall wish to leave his lord, and is able to prove against him one of these crimes, that is, in the first place, if the lord has wished to reduce him unjustly into servitude; in the second place, if he Vassals were not to be treated as servants. has taken counsel against his life; in the third place, if the lord has committed adultery with the wife of his vassal; in the fourth place, if he has willfully attacked him with a drawn sword; in the fifth place, if the lord has been able to bring defense to his A lord was required to defend his vassal after he has commended his hands to him, vassal if he was able to. Source: Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History E. P. Cheyney (trans.),Vol. 4, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1898. Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. 19 The Early Middle Ages 5623_MSH_PrimSource_Ch17b.indd 19 6/28/05 3:35:37 PM Name Class Date Feudal Capitularies, continued Primary Source and has not done so; it is allowed to the vassal to leave him. If the lord has perpetrated anything against the vassal in these five points it is allowed the vassal to leave him. WHAT DID YOU LEARN? 1. Under what circumstances was it permissible for a vassal to leave his lord? List all the specific cases given in the selections. Capitulary of Mersen, 847 With this capitulary, the three grandsons of Charlemagne VOCABULARY tried to force all freemen who had not already entered will command, declare into a feudal relationship with a lord to do so. admonish gently warn We will moreover that each free man in our kingdom shall choose a lord, from us or our faithful, such a one as he wishes. We command moreover that no man shall leave his lord without just cause, nor should any one receive him, except in such a way as was customary in the time of our predecessors. And we wish you to know that we want to grant right to our faithful subjects and we do not wish to These men were pledging to treat their vassals well. do anything to them against reason. Similarly we admonish you and the rest of our faithful subjects that you grant right to your men and do not act against reason toward them. And we will that the man of each one of us in whosoever kingdom he is, shall go with his lord against the enemy, or in his other needs unless there shall have been (as may there not be) such an invasion of the kingdom as is called a landwar, so that the whole people of that kingdom shall go together to repel it. Source: Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History Vol. 4, E. P. Cheyney (trans.), University of Pennsylvania Press, 1898. Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. 20 The Early Middle Ages 55623_MSH_PrimSource_Ch17b.indd623_MSH_PrimSource_Ch17b.indd 2020 66/28/05/28/05 33:36:13:36:13 PMPM Name Class Date Feudal Capitularies, continued Primary Source WHAT DID YOU LEARN? 1. What was a vassal’s main responsibility? 2.