Carolingian Dynasty Essay
Although the reign of the Carolingian dynasty occupied brief part of the medieval era, the Carolingian Empire that was established made both a historical and cultural impact on medieval society that would resonate for centuries to come. The Carolingian House of the Franks and their expanding empire initially brought stability and progress to most of Europe, as well as pioneering a cultural and intellectual renaissance that influenced the remainder of the Middle Ages. Although there were various Carolingian rulers who aided these advances, Carolingian developments reached their peak during the reign of Charlemagne, a leader and reformer of the church who appreciated the importance of learning and education. Throughout his reign, he established
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himself, as a ruler, and his empire as an example that subsequent kings would aim to obtain and uphold. In addition, Charlemagne, who created the Holy Roman Empire, which would last until Napoleon I, created a cultural legacy allowing the empire to prosper and form links between the Medieval world and the Ancient world. In spite of this, throughout the Middle Ages there was never one single phenomenon that caused society to develop in a specific way. So, with this in mind, this essay will explore the positive aspects of the Carolingian legacy and the ways in which they influenced the development of medieval society, focusing on the most significant successes of Charlemagne. However, it will also touch upon the limits of the Carolingian developments within an expansive medieval society.
In general, the Carolingian rulers were successful in the expansion of Frankish authority throughout Western Europe, bringing with them a sense of peace and security after the Germanic invasions in the Western Roman Empire. However, it is likely that this peace and security did not span across all of society as many historians talk of the medieval period as a time of lawlessness and violence, in which the judicial system did control violence and chivalry praised violent knights. The Carolingians intended to restore most of the economic and cultural importance that was once experienced in Europe before the fall of the Roman Empire, despite the power of the Byzantine Empire in the East who received all of its wealth. Over time as developments continued, their empire became not only a cultural and economic entity, but also religious, spiritual, political and social entity. Such advances were apparent as each of the several Carolingian monarchs set out to associate themselves with various superior intellectuals of the era. Charlemagne enlisted the help of Alcuin of York, an English scholar, to establish a school and administrative system. Even Charles the Bald, who ruled whilst the Carolingian empire risked dissolution, relied on Irish scholar John Scotus Erigena to orchestrate his actions as ruler. Louis the Pious brought in the monastic reformer Benedict of Aniane to bring forward Benedictine monasticism as a means of civilizing Western Europe. The outcome of such continual collaboration between political powers and intellectual powers allowed the Carolingians to instigate a huge growth in cultural awareness and learning that outweighed the initial extent of their power as rulers.
In order to discuss the contributions made by the Carolingians to medieval society in greater detail, it is best to consider the Carolingian renaissance as one of the most important developments made by the dynasty.
Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, orchestrated this Renaissance. He wanted to be ‘worthy of the inheritance of Rome and the Christian Church, and make his kingdom pleasing to God’ (David, 2006, p.143) so initiated a revival and rebirth of culture based on the thriving Christian legacy of the Roman Empire under Constantine. In light of this, the Carolingians can be considered the founders of the Holy Roman Empire that was of utmost importance during the whole medieval period. Although the art itself was an important cultural revival within medieval society, with advances seen in the visual arts and architecture ‘appropriate to the new, increasingly imperial, culture of the north’ (McKitterick, 2002, p.190), this essay will consider the arts as a developmental factor that impacted society the most through education. With this in mind, Charlemagne wrote his royal decrees, otherwise known as his ‘manifestos’: Admonitio generalis (789) and Epistola de litteris colendis (c.794-797), which was a letter to Abbot Baugulf of Fulda, outlining legislations establishing the foundations of the Renaissance. Throughout both texts, he discusses his desire for religious reform and the resurgence of learning. Quoting heavily from Holy Scripture and using Josiah as a model of kingship, he calls for moral and spiritual reform in order to lead the empire to salvation. Charlemagne also calls for the reform of the priesthood who, under the guidance of the bishops, became responsible for upholding the beliefs and practices of the church, as well as creating a program of education (Michael Frassetto, 2003, p.1). Monks and bishops were accountable for the establishment of schools in which the ultimate objective was teaching boys to read and write to spread
the word of the Christian faith. Charlemagne made schools a place where his people could learn to pray properly, wanting everyone to be able to recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed. As Rosamond McKitterick (2001) states, ‘Rome and the Bible underpinned the Carolingian Renaissance, but Rome [also] stood for classical culture [and] power.’ (p.190) The outcome of the union of education and the church under the model of the Roman Empire proved to be, much like the roman legacy, one of the most important pillars of future medieval Europe; as societies continued to improve their literary proficiency under the influence of the Church, the outcome allowed for greater communications amongst and within empires and ultimately, greater gains in societal power.
Before Charlemagne took the throne, the Merovingian dynasty had already set up ‘scola palatina’, a palace school that prepared young Frankish nobles for assuming political roles. However, literary education was neglected in favour of religious education, and as R.H.C. Davis (2006) states, Charlemagne ‘considered it his duty as a Christian king not only to protect his subjects but to educate them’ (p.143), so he greatly increased the duties of these palace schools and as a result, they became an essential repository of learning and the hub for educational reform. Charlemagne and Alcuin of York, the new head of the palace school, provided moral and intellectual training of the monastic and secular clergy, urging the clergy to study Latin in order to comprehend Christian doctrine but also to improve poorly written, ‘vulgar Latin’, communications between himself and his monasteries. Once the clergy had mastered the Latin language, Charlemagne ordered them to then teach everyone who was able and willing to learn. He opened up education to a broader sector of society, most notably making education available to all children in his empire, regardless of whether or not their intentions were to become a member of the clergy. In addition to this, although men always remained at the forefront of the Carolingian Renaissance, women were permitted to assume an active role: various study programs were implemented within female monasteries and women also took on roles as teachers outside of their religious communities. However, although Charlemagne did open up education to a certain extent, it still remained an upper class privilege and closed off to the poorer sort of people who had to work from a young age to support themselves and their families. Ultimately, as a result of Charlemagne’s efforts, the empire saw a distinct rise in Latin literacy. It is for this reason that the Carolingians were responsible for providing a common language and writing style throughout Europe. As a result of this rise in Latin literacy, relations between countries and empires flourished, opening up trade opportunities allowing empires to become more prosperous and fund the production of more literary materials. All of which continued into later medieval times.
Charlemagne’s school curriculum also spread beyond the domain of religious education and introduced students to classical authors and initiated them to the seven liberal arts; grammar, dialectic, arithmetic, rhetoric, astronomy, geometry and music. Charlemagne, by expanding the outreach and content of education, was responsible for the creation and grooming of a new generation of scholars. Those produced are many and aside from copying manuscripts, Carolingian scholars composed their own works such as textbooks, dictionaries, glossaries, biblical commentaries and spelling handbooks. With regards to the success of scholars, a significant body of hagiographical literature dates back to the Carolingian revival. Latin poetry also flourished, with thousands of pages of original Latin poetry produced by Carolingian authors such as Walafrid Strabo (c.808-899), Sedulius Scottus (fl.848-874) and Lupus of Ferrières (c.805-862) to name a few. In the 770’s, a group of monks from Corbie Abbey, France developed their own rounded, compact and legible script that became known as ‘Carolingian miniscule’ and would replace the cumbersome scripts inherited from the Romans. It was introduced to the palace school by Alcuin and quickly spread throughout the empire. Because it proved to be such a legible and functional script, it survived as the standard typewriter font even throughout the twentieth century and still to this day forms the basis of the computer font Times New Roman; another way in which the Carolingians shaped the dissemination of education. Thanks to Charlemagne and his descendants, the Frankish court became a centre of communication between scholars from all over Europe and the influence of the educational reforms established during the Carolingian Renaissance continued to bear relevance throughout the tenth century and even into the twelfth, as cathedral and monastic schools continued to base their curriculum on the liberal arts, Latin authors and the church fathers. These are the ways in which the Carolingians broadened the spectrum of education for their own empire and empires to follow and as R.H.C. David (2006) points out, ‘it is to the scholars of this period that we owe our knowledge of the classics’ (p.145) of Latin literature which provided new impetus and some of the greatest Latin literary achievements of the Middle Ages such as the secularization of the ‘hero’ and the rebirth of the epic.
Aside from the union of the church and education, the Catholic Church and the Carolingian Empire built a relationship based on mutual benefit and political convenience. Whilst the papacy provided the rule of the Frankish kings with spiritual legitimacy, the Frankish kings offered their military protection to the church. In doing so, they endeavoured to unify politics and religion in Western Europe. It was Pepin the Short who established the Carolingian empire by helping the papacy create its states around Rome, therefore freeing Rome from the control of the Byzantine Empire, which was greatly superior to Rome and most of Europe. However, although Constantine would always be the ruler responsible for bringing Christianity to the Roman Empire, Charlemagne is the Carolingian ruler who defended Christendom in Western Europe during the medieval period. Around the eighth century as the Catholic Church struggled in southern France against the Lombards, small parts of Northern Europe resisted Christianity and remained pagan. So, Charlemagne conquered the remainder of the Pagan north, Christianized it brought near complete order to the Frankish Kingdom (Joseph M. Woods, 1921). He helped the Church to consolidate its power and practices within a new western empire. In addition, Charlemagne created a central government bureaucracy that was organized and effective enough to maintain a growing empire. He restored civil structure and order to medieval society, preserving many civil and political rights as well as supporting and increasing church authority by running his empire with the help of ecclesiastical and lay governors. Even after the fall of the Carolingians, the role of the church lived on and Religious unity continued in the West. The spread of Christianity also played a role in Frankish military campaigns, as the change in power relationships that it offered encouraged Charlemagne to defend his empire against internal separatists and external adversaries and assert his kingship by claiming territory and booty. Although Charlemagne could never prevent the societal effects of such long territorial struggles, such as broken truces, mass killing, hostage tacking and pillaging, he successfully lengthened the frontiers of his empire and was able to establish stable relations with potential enemies such as the Danish kingdom, various Slavic tribes and the Muslims to name a few. It is for these reasons that Charlemagne, and the Carolingian Empire on the whole were vital to the development of Christendom and to a certain extent, military security within western medieval society.
In summary, although the Carolingian dynasty did not survive for very long as monarchs, the legacy of their empire influenced medieval society culturally, politically and economically during the medieval period and lasted until the nineteenth century. Charlemagne brought about the most success, his greatest being the unification of society under the Church as well as that of the Church, education and state. Furthermore, he instigated a cultural rebirth and revival that instigated a reform of the liturgy and restoration of the Latin language. But, to say that the Carolingians were key in the development of medieval society would be an oversimplification, without a doubt they played a significant role.
himself, as a ruler, and his empire as an example that subsequent kings would aim to obtain and uphold. In addition, Charlemagne, who created the Holy Roman Empire, which would last until Napoleon I, created a cultural legacy allowing the empire to prosper and form links between the Medieval world and the Ancient world. In spite of this, throughout the Middle Ages there was never one single phenomenon that caused society to develop in a specific way. So, with this in mind, this essay will explore the positive aspects of the Carolingian legacy and the ways in which they influenced the development of medieval society, focusing on the most significant successes of Charlemagne. However, it will also touch upon the limits of the Carolingian developments within an expansive medieval society.
In general, the Carolingian rulers were successful in the expansion of Frankish authority throughout Western Europe, bringing with them a sense of peace and security after the Germanic invasions in the Western Roman Empire. However, it is likely that this peace and security did not span across all of society as many historians talk of the medieval period as a time of lawlessness and violence, in which the judicial system did control violence and chivalry praised violent knights. The Carolingians intended to restore most of the economic and cultural importance that was once experienced in Europe before the fall of the Roman Empire, despite the power of the Byzantine Empire in the East who received all of its wealth. Over time as developments continued, their empire became not only a cultural and economic entity, but also religious, spiritual, political and social entity. Such advances were apparent as each of the several Carolingian monarchs set out to associate themselves with various superior intellectuals of the era. Charlemagne enlisted the help of Alcuin of York, an English scholar, to establish a school and administrative system. Even Charles the Bald, who ruled whilst the Carolingian empire risked dissolution, relied on Irish scholar John Scotus Erigena to orchestrate his actions as ruler. Louis the Pious brought in the monastic reformer Benedict of Aniane to bring forward Benedictine monasticism as a means of civilizing Western Europe. The outcome of such continual collaboration between political powers and intellectual powers allowed the Carolingians to instigate a huge growth in cultural awareness and learning that outweighed the initial extent of their power as rulers.
In order to discuss the contributions made by the Carolingians to medieval society in greater detail, it is best to consider the Carolingian renaissance as one of the most important developments made by the dynasty.
Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, orchestrated this Renaissance. He wanted to be ‘worthy of the inheritance of Rome and the Christian Church, and make his kingdom pleasing to God’ (David, 2006, p.143) so initiated a revival and rebirth of culture based on the thriving Christian legacy of the Roman Empire under Constantine. In light of this, the Carolingians can be considered the founders of the Holy Roman Empire that was of utmost importance during the whole medieval period. Although the art itself was an important cultural revival within medieval society, with advances seen in the visual arts and architecture ‘appropriate to the new, increasingly imperial, culture of the north’ (McKitterick, 2002, p.190), this essay will consider the arts as a developmental factor that impacted society the most through education. With this in mind, Charlemagne wrote his royal decrees, otherwise known as his ‘manifestos’: Admonitio generalis (789) and Epistola de litteris colendis (c.794-797), which was a letter to Abbot Baugulf of Fulda, outlining legislations establishing the foundations of the Renaissance. Throughout both texts, he discusses his desire for religious reform and the resurgence of learning. Quoting heavily from Holy Scripture and using Josiah as a model of kingship, he calls for moral and spiritual reform in order to lead the empire to salvation. Charlemagne also calls for the reform of the priesthood who, under the guidance of the bishops, became responsible for upholding the beliefs and practices of the church, as well as creating a program of education (Michael Frassetto, 2003, p.1). Monks and bishops were accountable for the establishment of schools in which the ultimate objective was teaching boys to read and write to spread
the word of the Christian faith. Charlemagne made schools a place where his people could learn to pray properly, wanting everyone to be able to recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed. As Rosamond McKitterick (2001) states, ‘Rome and the Bible underpinned the Carolingian Renaissance, but Rome [also] stood for classical culture [and] power.’ (p.190) The outcome of the union of education and the church under the model of the Roman Empire proved to be, much like the roman legacy, one of the most important pillars of future medieval Europe; as societies continued to improve their literary proficiency under the influence of the Church, the outcome allowed for greater communications amongst and within empires and ultimately, greater gains in societal power.
Before Charlemagne took the throne, the Merovingian dynasty had already set up ‘scola palatina’, a palace school that prepared young Frankish nobles for assuming political roles. However, literary education was neglected in favour of religious education, and as R.H.C. Davis (2006) states, Charlemagne ‘considered it his duty as a Christian king not only to protect his subjects but to educate them’ (p.143), so he greatly increased the duties of these palace schools and as a result, they became an essential repository of learning and the hub for educational reform. Charlemagne and Alcuin of York, the new head of the palace school, provided moral and intellectual training of the monastic and secular clergy, urging the clergy to study Latin in order to comprehend Christian doctrine but also to improve poorly written, ‘vulgar Latin’, communications between himself and his monasteries. Once the clergy had mastered the Latin language, Charlemagne ordered them to then teach everyone who was able and willing to learn. He opened up education to a broader sector of society, most notably making education available to all children in his empire, regardless of whether or not their intentions were to become a member of the clergy. In addition to this, although men always remained at the forefront of the Carolingian Renaissance, women were permitted to assume an active role: various study programs were implemented within female monasteries and women also took on roles as teachers outside of their religious communities. However, although Charlemagne did open up education to a certain extent, it still remained an upper class privilege and closed off to the poorer sort of people who had to work from a young age to support themselves and their families. Ultimately, as a result of Charlemagne’s efforts, the empire saw a distinct rise in Latin literacy. It is for this reason that the Carolingians were responsible for providing a common language and writing style throughout Europe. As a result of this rise in Latin literacy, relations between countries and empires flourished, opening up trade opportunities allowing empires to become more prosperous and fund the production of more literary materials. All of which continued into later medieval times.
Charlemagne’s school curriculum also spread beyond the domain of religious education and introduced students to classical authors and initiated them to the seven liberal arts; grammar, dialectic, arithmetic, rhetoric, astronomy, geometry and music. Charlemagne, by expanding the outreach and content of education, was responsible for the creation and grooming of a new generation of scholars. Those produced are many and aside from copying manuscripts, Carolingian scholars composed their own works such as textbooks, dictionaries, glossaries, biblical commentaries and spelling handbooks. With regards to the success of scholars, a significant body of hagiographical literature dates back to the Carolingian revival. Latin poetry also flourished, with thousands of pages of original Latin poetry produced by Carolingian authors such as Walafrid Strabo (c.808-899), Sedulius Scottus (fl.848-874) and Lupus of Ferrières (c.805-862) to name a few. In the 770’s, a group of monks from Corbie Abbey, France developed their own rounded, compact and legible script that became known as ‘Carolingian miniscule’ and would replace the cumbersome scripts inherited from the Romans. It was introduced to the palace school by Alcuin and quickly spread throughout the empire. Because it proved to be such a legible and functional script, it survived as the standard typewriter font even throughout the twentieth century and still to this day forms the basis of the computer font Times New Roman; another way in which the Carolingians shaped the dissemination of education. Thanks to Charlemagne and his descendants, the Frankish court became a centre of communication between scholars from all over Europe and the influence of the educational reforms established during the Carolingian Renaissance continued to bear relevance throughout the tenth century and even into the twelfth, as cathedral and monastic schools continued to base their curriculum on the liberal arts, Latin authors and the church fathers. These are the ways in which the Carolingians broadened the spectrum of education for their own empire and empires to follow and as R.H.C. David (2006) points out, ‘it is to the scholars of this period that we owe our knowledge of the classics’ (p.145) of Latin literature which provided new impetus and some of the greatest Latin literary achievements of the Middle Ages such as the secularization of the ‘hero’ and the rebirth of the epic.
Aside from the union of the church and education, the Catholic Church and the Carolingian Empire built a relationship based on mutual benefit and political convenience. Whilst the papacy provided the rule of the Frankish kings with spiritual legitimacy, the Frankish kings offered their military protection to the church. In doing so, they endeavoured to unify politics and religion in Western Europe. It was Pepin the Short who established the Carolingian empire by helping the papacy create its states around Rome, therefore freeing Rome from the control of the Byzantine Empire, which was greatly superior to Rome and most of Europe. However, although Constantine would always be the ruler responsible for bringing Christianity to the Roman Empire, Charlemagne is the Carolingian ruler who defended Christendom in Western Europe during the medieval period. Around the eighth century as the Catholic Church struggled in southern France against the Lombards, small parts of Northern Europe resisted Christianity and remained pagan. So, Charlemagne conquered the remainder of the Pagan north, Christianized it brought near complete order to the Frankish Kingdom (Joseph M. Woods, 1921). He helped the Church to consolidate its power and practices within a new western empire. In addition, Charlemagne created a central government bureaucracy that was organized and effective enough to maintain a growing empire. He restored civil structure and order to medieval society, preserving many civil and political rights as well as supporting and increasing church authority by running his empire with the help of ecclesiastical and lay governors. Even after the fall of the Carolingians, the role of the church lived on and Religious unity continued in the West. The spread of Christianity also played a role in Frankish military campaigns, as the change in power relationships that it offered encouraged Charlemagne to defend his empire against internal separatists and external adversaries and assert his kingship by claiming territory and booty. Although Charlemagne could never prevent the societal effects of such long territorial struggles, such as broken truces, mass killing, hostage tacking and pillaging, he successfully lengthened the frontiers of his empire and was able to establish stable relations with potential enemies such as the Danish kingdom, various Slavic tribes and the Muslims to name a few. It is for these reasons that Charlemagne, and the Carolingian Empire on the whole were vital to the development of Christendom and to a certain extent, military security within western medieval society.
In summary, although the Carolingian dynasty did not survive for very long as monarchs, the legacy of their empire influenced medieval society culturally, politically and economically during the medieval period and lasted until the nineteenth century. Charlemagne brought about the most success, his greatest being the unification of society under the Church as well as that of the Church, education and state. Furthermore, he instigated a cultural rebirth and revival that instigated a reform of the liturgy and restoration of the Latin language. But, to say that the Carolingians were key in the development of medieval society would be an oversimplification, without a doubt they played a significant role.