DANISH JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, 2017 VOL. 6, NO. 2, 149–163 https://doi.org/10.1080/21662282.2017.1407177 RESEARCH ARTICLE Carolingian Pfalzen and law Egon Wamers Archaeologiches Museum Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY The palaces (Pfalzen) of the Carolingian period, which had developed from the Frankish royal manors, Received 1 June 2017; were a completely new form of building in the eastern Empire. Their architecture reflected central Accepted 16 November 2017 functions of the new kingship. In spite of all the variations in those palaces that have been the subject of archaeological research (for example Aachen, Paderborn, Ingelheim, Frankfurt), a constant triad of KEYWORDS worldly representation, religious cult practice and economical power is always discernible. This article Harald Halfdansson; Louis considers the question of the juridical character of the palaces: the extent to which they were the the Pious; Pfalz; Ingelheim; expression of the structures of power and law within the Carolingian Empire, in other words served a Frankfurt am Main; royal function within the court offices and the manorial system: the extent to which they functioned as the court; court office; villa; seats of law-making and judgement; and the extent to which their architectural iconography and palatium; aula regia; capella; manoralism; fiscus; servitium physicalsymbolismreflectsactsandformsofajuridical practice that had its roots in the roman law. regis; iudex; capitulare de (Translation: David Wigg-Wolf). villis; legal symbolism; throne On a June day in 826, the Emperor Louis the Pious influence in an unsettled Denmark on the north looked down the Rhine from his Pfalz at Ingelheim flank of the Empire. In the days that follow, near Mainz and was witness to an unusual display. Harald, together with his family, retinue and Two years later, as if he had been present himself, courtiers – there were probably several hundred Ermoldus Nigellus wrote in his panegyric to Louis: or so Danes – was to experience a court culture with extravagant ceremonies and, above all, Ecce volant centum per Rheni flumina puppes. Velaque candidolis consociata modis, splendid architecture that must have been over- – ’ Denorum populis oneratae munere, nec non whelming for them Ermoldus s flowery lan- Heroldum regem prima carina vehit, guage tells us how the Danes were in awe of the Te, Hludovice, petens ...1 splendour of the court. At the harbour in Ingelheim,theking,hiswifeandretinueare ‘Heroldus’ is Harald Halfdansson ‘Klak’,pre- met by Marshall Matfried with decorated mounts tender to the Danish throne, who visited the – a classic adventus – and received by the Roman Emperor Louis, son of Charlemagne, at Emperor in the ‘lofty hall’,thecesa aula, where one of the most important Pfalzen of the period. they were also entertained. Ingelheimissome15kmfromMainz,thevener- According to the Royal Frankish Annals (Annales able old capital of the Roman province of regni Francorum), the ceremonial baptism that followed Germania Superior and later one of the seats of was celebrated in St Alban’schurchinMainz,withthe the Merovingian kings (see Figure 1). The inten- Emperor’sfamilyasgodparentstotheDanishroyal tion behind this remarkable visit is Harald’scer- family (Rau 1968–1992,p.130ff.,324f.).Afterwards, emonial subordination to the Emperor as his Harald is dressed in purple embroidered robes, crown, vassal (‘Lehnsmann’), together with his investi- sword with cingulum,spurs,goldencloak,armringsand ture and baptism: Harald’s aim is to gain the white gloves – similarly Harald’s family and retinue. This Emperor’s political and military support in his is a classic investiture more Francisco, according to strugglefortheDanishthrone,whilethe Frankish tradition. A ceremonial mass then follows – Emperor hopes to exercise political and military CONTACT Egon Wamers [email protected] © 2017 The Partnership of the Danish Journal of Archaeology 150 E. WAMERS Figure 1. The Rhine-Main region with Mainz and the Pfalzen at Ingelheim and Frankfurt (after Google maps). still in Mainz – as well as a feast, after which they return intensive, intimate and personal experience of the to Ingelheim. The next day, they go hunting together on complex system of power in the new Roman Empire. one of the islands in the Rhine opposite Ingelheim. In the evening, on their return to the palace, the domus palatina, the formal commendation of Harald to Louis is Pfalzen and court offices during the Carolingian celebrated, with Harald kneeling before the King and period placing his hands between his.2 The ceremony also Pfalzen played a particularly important part in this involves the presentation of mounts and weapons to system. They were high-ranking seats of government Harald –‘according to old Frankish custom’, Francisco that served as imposing bases for the exercise of the more veterano – as well as the gift of the County of business of rule by the king on his travels Rüstringen in Frisia in fealty, and finally ‘wine-produ- (‘Reisekönigtum’) and were both factual and symbolic cing’ lands, presumably further south. While Harald, his manifestations of royal power.3 At the same time, they family and retinue return home in their richly laden were central institutions in the young Carolingian legal ships, one of his sons and a nephew stay at court, enter- system, forming what French scholars call a ‘système ing into service in the imperial bodyguard. palatiale’ (Barbier 1990). To be sure, Danish ambassadors will already have During the Carolingian period, Pfalzen primarily been acquainted with Carolingian palaces and court performed very much the same function as the royal ceremonial, having already visited palaces such as courts (‘Königshöfe’), the villae, which had existed Compiegne or Aachen or attended the Imperial since Merovingian times, and almost all Pfalzen were Diet at Frankfurt in 823. But this will have been either extensions or developments of villae (Jacobsen the first time that the Danish stirps regia, together 1999, p. 91 f., Zotz 2001b). Fine examples of this in with the highest nobility, will have enjoyed such East Francia are Aachen, Ingelheim, Paderborn and DANISH JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 151 Figure 2. Model of the Pfalz at Aachen, c. 830 (Narmer Architecture Studio, Budapest [Zs. Vasáros, G. Nagy], ArchaeoPlanRistow, Köln [S. Ristow]). After Ristow 2016). Frankfurt (see Figure 2). Villa and palatium are not always had a sacred connotation: places of holy power. always clearly differentiated in the written sources, As early as the Synod of Frankfurt, convened by and the distinction was a fluid one. In terms of their Charlemagne in 794, Italian bishops noted ‘in aula architecture, the Pfalzen were extensive complexes of sacri palatii’ and ‘capella sacri palatii’ (Libellus sacrosyl- buildings, the individual elements of which had dis- labus episcoporum Italiae [MGH Conc. 2] 130 f.: Orth tinct functions. In addition, the Pfalzen were also 1986,p.181f.,Zotz2001a, p. 21). spiritual institutions within the structure of power. According to Annie Renoux (2001,p.29f.),origin- The written sources use the Latin term palatium for ally during the Merovingian period, the palatium was ‘Pfalz’.4 ‘Palatium’ is the original name for the hill in above all a prestigious building manifesting the king’s Rome that from the Renaissance was known as the auctoritas, but under the Carolingians became ‘aroyal ‘Palatine’.HereRomulusispurportedtohavefounded attribute par excellence’ and served to legitimate the city of Rome, and from Augustus onwards, the power. ‘The Pfalzen formed a network composed of Roman emperors had their residence here (Ziegler places where the king exercised his power and which 1942, 1972). During the 2nd century, ‘palatium’ became he periodically visited during the course of the travels the standard term for the imperial residence and was he had to undertake. They served to establish the later extended to centres of imperial power such as regnum. This conceptual background was enriched by Milan, Pavia, Arles and Trier. In Late Antiquity, ‘pala- the king’s consecration and the renovatio imperii.The tium’ also came to be used more generally for the ‘court’ narrative and literary tradition presents the Pfalz as a as an institution. In the Merovingian period, north of the holy place where a holy personage resided. This con- Alps, the term increasingly replaced the old Roman term cept was reinforced by the increased sacralisation of for the official public building, the praetorium,withthe power and of the person of the emperor and king. The result that there were numerous palatia,seatsofroyal Pfalz is an anticipation of paradise’. power. From the late 8th century, it became the name for This is confirmed by the special position of the a concrete centre of power. capella, the court chapel, a college of literate clerics From the beginning, the Palatium (‘Palatine’), the known as the capellani.Thecapella (Fleckenstein 1959, legendary site of the foundation of Rome, was regarded p. 11 ff., 1991) accompanied the ruler from Pfalz to Pfalz, as a holy place around which Romulus had drawn the performed important administrative and programmatic sacred boundary of the pomerium.Aslateasthe3rd religious functions and composed the central adminis- century, a simple straw hut still stood among the splen- trative organ of the empire. The church in the palatium did villas. This was the casa Romuli, reputed to be is named after it: the chapel, the religious pole beside the Romulus’s original old house and revered as a holy worldly pole of the aula.Thecapella grew out of the site. For this reason, the term ‘Palatium’ (‘Palatine’) group of clerics who guarded the old Frankish relic, the 152 E. WAMERS cappa, the halved cloak of St Martin of Tours, the patron hunters),aswellasafalconarius (falconer). saint of the Franks. Since Chlodwig the cloak always had Subordinate to these ministers, who each had political to accompany the kings on their military campaigns and responsibility for their entire own domain (for exam- under the Carolingians from the early 8th century ple, the army or the state finances), were a larger onwards was kept permanently at court.