From Imperator to Holy Crusader: a Historiography of the Charlemagne Legend
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Augustine and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period
Augustine and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period This volume is an investigation of how Augustine was received in the Carolingian period, and the elements of his thought which had an impact on Carolingian ideas of ‘state’, rulership and ethics. It focuses on Alcuin of York and Hincmar of Rheims, authors and political advisers to Charlemagne and to Charles the Bald, respectively. It examines how they used Augustinian political thought and ethics, as manifested in the De civitate Dei, to give more weight to their advice. A comparative approach sheds light on the differences between Charlemagne’s reign and that of his grandson. It scrutinizes Alcuin’s and Hincmar’s discussions of empire, rulership and the moral conduct of political agents during which both drew on the De civitate Dei, although each came away with a different understanding. By means of a philological–historical approach, the book offers a deeper reading and treats the Latin texts as political discourses defined by content and language. Sophia Moesch is currently an SNSF-funded postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, working on a project entitled ‘Developing Principles of Good Govern- ance: Latin and Greek Political Advice during the Carolingian and Macedonian Reforms’. She completed her PhD in History at King’s College London. Augustine and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period Political Discourse in Alcuin of York and Hincmar of Rheims Sophia Moesch First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. -
Francia. Band 44
Francia. Forschungen zur Westeuropäischen Geschichte. Herausgegeben vom Deutschen Historischen Institut Paris (Institut historique allemand) Band 44 (2017) Nithard as a Military Historian of the Carolingian Empire, c 833–843 DOI: 10.11588/fr.2017.0.68995 Copyright Das Digitalisat wird Ihnen von perspectivia.net, der Online-Publikationsplattform der Max Weber Stiftung – Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland, zur Verfügung gestellt. Bitte beachten Sie, dass das Digitalisat urheberrechtlich geschützt ist. Erlaubt ist aber das Lesen, das Ausdrucken des Textes, das Herunterladen, das Speichern der Daten auf einem eigenen Datenträger soweit die vorgenannten Handlungen ausschließlich zu privaten und nicht-kommerziellen Zwecken erfolgen. Eine darüber hinausgehende unerlaubte Verwendung, Reproduktion oder Weitergabe einzelner Inhalte oder Bilder können sowohl zivil- als auch strafrechtlich verfolgt werden. Bernard S. Bachrach – David S. Bachrach NITHARD AS A MILITARY HISTORIAN OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE, C 833–843 Introduction Despite the substantially greater volume of sources that provide information about the military affairs of the ninth century as compared to the eighth, the lion’s share of scholarly attention concerning Carolingian military history has been devoted to the reign of Charlemagne, particularly before his imperial coronation in 800, rather than to his descendants1. Indeed, much of the basic work on the sources, that is required to establish how they can be used to answer questions about military matters in the period after Charlemagne, remains to be done. An unfortunate side-effect of this rel- ative neglect of military affairs as well as source criticism for the ninth century has been considerable confusion about the nature and conduct of war in this period2. -
The Heirs of Alcuin: Education and Clerical Advancement in Ninth-Century Carolingian Europe
The Heirs of Alcuin: Education and Clerical Advancement in Ninth-Century Carolingian Europe Darren Elliot Barber Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds Institute for Medieval Studies December 2019 ii The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. iii Acknowledgements I wish to thank my supervisors, Julia Barrow and William Flynn, for their sincere encouragement and dedication to this project. Heeding their advice early on made this research even more focused, interesting, and enjoyable than I had hoped it would be. The faculty and staff of the Institute for Medieval Studies and the Brotherton Library have been very supportive, and I am grateful to Melanie Brunner and Jonathan Jarrett for their good advice during my semesters of teaching while writing this thesis. I also wish to thank the Reading Room staff of the British Library at Boston Spa for their friendly and professional service. Finally, I would like to thank Jonathan Jarrett and Charles West for conducting such a gracious viva examination for the thesis, and Professor Stephen Alford for kindly hosting the examination. iv Abstract During the Carolingian renewal, Alcuin of York (c. 740–804) played a major role in promoting education for children who would later join the clergy, and encouraging advanced learning among mature clerics. -
Francia. Forschungen Zur Westeuropäischen Geschichte
&ƌĂŶĐŝĂ͘&ŽƌƐĐŚƵŶŐĞŶnjƵƌǁĞƐƚĞƵƌŽƉćŝƐĐŚĞŶ'ĞƐĐŚŝĐŚƚĞ ,ĞƌĂƵƐŐĞŐĞďĞŶǀŽŵĞƵƚƐĐŚĞŶ,ŝƐƚŽƌŝƐĐŚĞŶ/ŶƐƚŝƚƵƚWĂƌŝƐ ;/ŶƐƚŝƚƵƚŚŝƐƚŽƌŝƋƵĞĂůůĞŵĂŶĚͿ ĂŶĚϭϰ;ϭϵϴϲͿ K/͗10.11588/fr.1986.0.52621 ZĞĐŚƚƐŚŝŶǁĞŝƐ ŝƚƚĞ ďĞĂĐŚƚĞŶ ^ŝĞ͕ ĚĂƐƐ ĚĂƐ ŝŐŝƚĂůŝƐĂƚ ƵƌŚĞďĞƌƌĞĐŚƚůŝĐŚ ŐĞƐĐŚƺƚnjƚ ŝƐƚ͘ ƌůĂƵďƚ ŝƐƚ ĂďĞƌ ĚĂƐ >ĞƐĞŶ͕ ĚĂƐ ƵƐĚƌƵĐŬĞŶ ĚĞƐ dĞdžƚĞƐ͕ ĚĂƐ ,ĞƌƵŶƚĞƌůĂĚĞŶ͕ ĚĂƐ ^ƉĞŝĐŚĞƌŶ ĚĞƌ ĂƚĞŶ ĂƵĨ ĞŝŶĞŵ ĞŝŐĞŶĞŶ ĂƚĞŶƚƌćŐĞƌ ƐŽǁĞŝƚ ĚŝĞ ǀŽƌŐĞŶĂŶŶƚĞŶ ,ĂŶĚůƵŶŐĞŶ ĂƵƐƐĐŚůŝĞƘůŝĐŚ njƵ ƉƌŝǀĂƚĞŶ ƵŶĚ ŶŝĐŚƚͲ ŬŽŵŵĞƌnjŝĞůůĞŶ ǁĞĐŬĞŶ ĞƌĨŽůŐĞŶ͘ ŝŶĞ ĚĂƌƺďĞƌ ŚŝŶĂƵƐŐĞŚĞŶĚĞ ƵŶĞƌůĂƵďƚĞ sĞƌǁĞŶĚƵŶŐ͕ ZĞƉƌŽĚƵŬƚŝŽŶ ŽĚĞƌ tĞŝƚĞƌŐĂďĞ ĞŝŶnjĞůŶĞƌ /ŶŚĂůƚĞ ŽĚĞƌ ŝůĚĞƌ ŬƂŶŶĞŶ ƐŽǁŽŚů njŝǀŝůͲ ĂůƐ ĂƵĐŚ ƐƚƌĂĨƌĞĐŚƚůŝĐŚ ǀĞƌĨŽůŐƚǁĞƌĚĞŶ͘ Prosopographica VII Constance B. Bouchard FAMILY STRUCTURE AND FAMILY CONSCIOUSNESS AMONG THE ARISTOCRACY IN THE NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES* There can be no question that the period from the ninth to eleventh centuries in westem Europe was one of political upheaval and change for the aristocracy. Charlemagne’s empire was invaded, fought over, divided into new kingdoms and principalities. Fief-holding, vassalage, and castles first became widespread. Even the sorts of men who wielded power changed as new lineages first of counts and then of castellans appeared and married into previously established lines1. This political change, it is generally agreed, was accompanied by some sort of change in the family structure of the aristocracy, but there has been a good deal of debate over exactly what this change entailed. In this paper, I shall reexamine the question of noble family structure in this period, trying first to define some of the parameters of the discussion and then making suggestions on the nature of the changes in family consciousness, suggestions quite different from the conclusions many have drawn in the last twenty-five years. I shall do so using concrete examples drawn from three different lineages or family groups. -
Selected Ancestors of the Chicago Rodger's
Selected Ancestors of the Chicago Rodger’s Volume I: Continental Ancestors Before Hastings David Anderson March 2016 Charlemagne’s Europe – 800 AD For additional information, please contact David Anderson at: [email protected] 508 409 8597 Stained glass window depicting Charles Martel at Strasbourg Cathedral. Pepin shown standing Pepin le Bref Baldwin II, Margrave of Flanders 2 Continental Ancestors Before Hastings Saints, nuns, bishops, brewers, dukes and even kings among them David Anderson March 12, 2016 Abstract Early on, our motivation for studying the ancestors of the Chicago Rodger’s was to determine if, according to rumor, they are descendants of any of the Scottish Earls of Bothwell. We relied mostly on two resources on the Internet: Ancestry.com and Scotlandspeople.gov.uk. We have been subscribers of both. Finding the ancestral lines connecting the Chicago Rodger’s to one or more of the Scottish Earls of Bothwell was the most time consuming and difficult undertaking in generating the results shown in a later book of this series of three books. It shouldn’t be very surprising that once we found Earls in Scotland we would also find Kings and Queens, which we did. The ancestral line that connects to the Earls of Bothwell goes through Helen Heath (1831-1902) who was the mother and/or grandmother of the Chicago Rodger’s She was the paternal grandmother of my grandfather, Alfred Heath Rodger. Within this Heath ancestral tree we found four lines of ancestry without any evident errors or ambiguities. Three of those four lines reach just one Earl of Bothwell, the 1st, and the fourth line reaches the 1st, 2nd and 3rd. -
Charlemagne and Europe
Journal of the British Academy, 2, 125–152. DOI 10.5871/jba/002.125 Posted 3 December 2014. © The British Academy 2014 Charlemagne and Europe Raleigh Lecture on History read 12 November 2013 JINTY NELSON Fellow of the Academy Abstract: This paper, ‘Charlemagne and Europe’, is a revised and expanded form of the lecture I read on 12 November 2013. I begin by asking what Europe has meant to medieval historians in recent times, focusing on some answers given in the 1990s and around the year 2000, and reflecting on the different ways Charlemagne is being com- memorated in different parts of Europe now, 1,200 years after his death. I then re- examine Charlemagne through evidence from his own time, as a ruler of a recognisably European empire, and, in the light of recent research and new approaches, I recon- sider his record as a political figure. A brief survey of his posthumous reputation as man and myth in the middle ages, and after, leads into a closer look at the roles assigned to him in post-war rhetoric. Finally I ask whether Charlemagne has, or might have, anything to offer Europeans today. Keywords: Charlemagne, Europe, empire, commemoration, myth To be invited to give the Raleigh Lecture is, as it has been since it was endowed almost a century ago, a tremendous honour. It also presents a new challenge, for the British Academy is changing with the times, and today’s Raleigh Lecturer is now invited to connect the Academy with a broad public. The occasion has become part of the Academy’s opening-wide of its doors. -
Law, Liturgy, and Sacred Space in Medieval Catalonia and Southern France, 800-1100
Law, Liturgy, and Sacred Space in Medieval Catalonia and Southern France, 800-1100 Adam Christopher Matthews Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2021 1 ©2021 Adam Christopher Matthews All Rights Reserved 2 Abstract Law, Liturgy, and Sacred Space in Medieval Catalonia and Southern France, 800-1100 Adam Christopher Matthews With the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom, the judges of Catalonia and southern France worked to keep the region‘s traditional judicial system operable. Drawing on records of judicial proceedings and church dedications from the ninth century to the end of the eleventh, this dissertation explores how judges devised a liturgically-influenced court strategy to invigorate rulings. They transformed churches into courtrooms. In these spaces, changed by merit of the consecration rite, community awe for the power infused within sacred space could be utilized to achieve consensus around the legitimacy of dispute outcomes. At the height of a tribunal, judges brought litigants and witnesses to altars, believed to be thresholds of Heaven, and compelled them to authenticate their testimony before God and his saints. Thus, officials supplemented human means of enforcement with the supernatural powers permeating sanctuaries. This strategy constitutes a hybridization of codified law and the belief in churches as real sacred spaces, a conception that emerged from the Carolingian liturgical reforms of the ninth century. In practice, it provided courts with a means to enact the mandates from the Visigothic Code and to foster stability. The result was a flexible synthesis of law, liturgy, and sacred space that was in many cases capable of harnessing spiritual and community pressure in legal proceedings. -
Gender and Moral Authority in the Carolingian Age (2016)
NOTICE: The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of reproductions of copyrighted material. One specified condition is that the reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses a reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement. RESTRICTIONS: This student work may be read, quoted from, cited, for purposes of research. It may not be published in full except by permission of the author. 1 INTRODUCTION The common people call the place, both the spring and the village, Fontenoy, Where that massacre and bloody downfall of the Franks [took place]: The fields tremble, the woods tremble, the very swamp trembles… Let not that accursed day be counted in the calendar of the year, Rather let it be erased from all memory, May the sun’s rays never fall there, may no dawn ever come to [end its endless] twilight. -Englebert, 8411 The Battle of Fontenoy in 841 left the Carolingian Empire devastated. It was the only battle of a three-year civil war that left too many dead and the survivors, shattered. During this period of unrest, from 840-843, an aristocratic woman, Dhuoda, endured the most difficult years of her life. The loyalty of her absentee husband, Bernard of Septimania, was being questioned by one of the three kings fighting for an upper-hand in this bloody civil war. To ensure his loyalty, his and Dhuoda’s 14-year old son, William, was to be sent to King Charles the Bald as a hostage. -
''Was There a Carolingian Italy?'' Politics Institutions and Book Culture
”Was there a Carolingian Italy?” Politics institutions and book culture François Bougard To cite this version: François Bougard. ”Was there a Carolingian Italy?” Politics institutions and book culture. Clemens Gantner; Walter Pohl. After Charlemagne: Carolingian Italy and its Rulers, Cambridge University Press, pp.54-82, 2020, 9781108840774. 10.1017/9781108887762.007. halshs-03080753 HAL Id: halshs-03080753 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-03080753 Submitted on 16 Jul 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. [paru dans: After Charlemagne: Carolingian Italy and its Rulers, éd. Clemens Gantner et Walter Pohl, Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2020, p. 54-82.] François Bougard ‘Was there a Carolingian Italy?’ Politics, institutions, and book culture* ‘The Carolingians in Italy’ is a literary myth. In order to account for the installation of the Franks on the Italian peninsula, our manuals have clung to a received vulgate. They assert that Pippin the Short and then Charlemagne allied themselves with the papacy, at the pope’s request, in order to stave off the Lombard threat against the Exarchate of Ravenna and defend the interests of the Holy See. But at the end of the tenth century, south of Rome, the story included other elements. -
Carolingian Propaganda: Kingship by the Hand of God
Isak M. C. Sexson Hist. 495 Senior Thesis Thesis Advisor: Martha Rampton April 24, 2000 Carolingian Propaganda: Kingship by the Hand of God Introduction and Thesis Topic: The Carolingians laid the foundation for their successful coup in 751 very carefully, using not only political and religious alliances, but also the written word to ensure a usurpation of Merovingian power. Up until, and even decades after Pippin III’s coup, the Carolingians used a written form of propaganda to solidify their claims to the throne and reinforce their already existent power base. One of the most successful, powerful and prominent features of the Carolingians’ propaganda campaign was their use of God and divine support. By divine support, I mean the Carolingians stressed their rightful place as rulers of Christiandom and were portrayed as both being aided in their actions by God and being virtuous and pious rulers. This strategy of claiming to fulfill Augustine’s vision of a “city of God” politically would eventually force the Carolingians into a tight corner during the troubled times of Louis the Pious. The Word Propaganda and Historiography: The word propaganda is a modern word which did not exist in Carolingian Europe. It carries powerful modern connotations and should not be applied lightly when discussing past documents without keeping its modern usage in mind at all times. As Hummel and Huntress note in their book The Analysis of Propaganda, “‘Propaganda’ is a 1 word of evil connotation . [and] the word has become a synonym for a lie.”1 In order to avoid the ‘evil connotations’ of modern propaganda in this paper I will limit my definition of propaganda to the intentional reproduction, distribution and exaggeration or fabrication of events in order to gain support. -
The Personal and the Public in the Epitaphium Arsenii MAYKE DE JONG
For God, king and country: the personal and the public in the Epitaphium Arsenii MAYKE DE JONG Paschasius Radbertus’s Epitaphium Arsenii is a lively and polemical dialogue that takes us straight into the controversies within the court-connected and competitive elite of the 850s. The latter’s membership, ecclesiastical as well as secular, measured each other against the yardstick of public service, and used failure to live up to this as a means of attack. On the one hand, the Epitaphium is a highly personal text, aimed at a restricted audience; on the other, it addresses the shared values of the Carolingian political leadership. This was not a world dominated by ‘the Church’, but one in which many ‘churches’ (monasteries) and their abbots actively participated in the political arena. The Epitaphium Arsenii is not for the fainthearted. It is a highly idiosyncratic and often polemical dialogue between three monks of Corbie, presented as a funeral oration (epitaph) for Charlemagne’s 1 cousin Wala, nicknamed ‘Arsenius’. Wala (d. 836) was a controversial 1 Paschasius Radbertus, Epitaphium Arsenii, ed. E. Dümmler, Abhandlungen der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Philosophische und historische Klasse 2 (Berlin, 1900), cited henceforth as EA; also available in PL 120 (Paris, 1852), cols 790–865. On this text: D. Ganz, ‘The Epitaphium Arsenii and Opposition to Louis the Pious’, in P. Godman and R. Collins (eds), Charlemagne’s Heir. New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious (Oxford, 1990), pp. 537–50; C. Verri, ‘Il libro primo dell’Epitaphium Arsenii di Pascasio Radberto’, Bulletino dell’Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo 103 (2001/2), pp. -
11 Map 1. the Counties of Late-Carolingian Catalonia
11 Key: • city episcopal see — county boundary ····· pagus boundary approximate frontier Map 1. The Counties of Late-Carolingian Catalonia 12 Introduction Aims, Historiography and Method This thesis aims to answer, as fully as possible within the constraints of the evidence and of the limits of space, a set of important questions about the exercise and experience of power in one of the most peripheral areas of the Carolingian Empire. As Frankish royal power declined in the late-ninth and tenth centuries, the Spanish March of the Empire was, patriots argue, propelled unwillingly to independence.1 On the other hand, as a safe place for rebel Marquises since Bernard of Septimania, 2 an open frontier for expansion (if not, at this stage, outright conquest) and a zone where royal officials rarely went, 3 its effective independence was many years ahead of its eventual rejection of Capetian rule. 4 Whilst not cut off from the outside world by any means, those who held power in late-Carolingian Catalonia answered, with only the rarest exceptions, to local interests only. 5 Although their ultimate authority rested, 1 This is the key argument of R. d’Abadal i de Vinyals, Els Primers Comtes Catalans , Biografies Catalanes: sèrie històrica 1 (Barcelona 1958; 1980), which is still the best introduction to the area’s political history in this period, though see also J. M. Salrach i Mares, El Procés de Formació Nacional de Catalunya (segles VIII-IX) , Llibres de l’Abast 136 & 137 (Barcelona 1978), 2 vols, or more recently, M. Zimmermann, En els orígens de Catalunya: emancipació política, afirmació cultura (Barcelona 1989).