154 Carolingian Renaissance
a Merovingian figurehead nominally ruled. Up to 714, he
exercised the powers of a princeps.In 714 a heredity suc-
cession to the office of mayor of the palace took place,
when one of Pépin II’s illegitimate but worthy sons,
CHARLESMARTEL, became the mayor of the palace until
his death in 741.
BIRTH OF AN EMPIRE AND
CONSECRATION AS ROYALTYCharles Martel expanded the kingdom, especially toward
the south, taking control of AQUITAINE, Septimania, and
PROVENCE. To accomplish this, he considerably expanded
the number of vassals dependent on him personally. Such
an expansion of clientage required the appropriation of
some of the lands and privileges of the church, which
soon denounced Charles. Lay rulers now commandeered
property of the church. At the same time Charles cam-
paigned against the Muslims and favored MISSIONSto the
rest of Europe in conjunction with the PAPACY. This pol-
icy laid a foundation for future Carolingian alliances with
the papacy. At Charles’s death, the realm was partitioned
between two of his sons, and his heirs were treated as
receiving a normal inheritance.
The two sons, now mayors of the palace, Pépin III
the Short (r. 751–768) and Carloman (d. 754), strength-
ened the alliance with the papacy. The papacy allowed
Pépin to be consecrated king by BONIFACEand the Frank-
ish bishops in 751, after his election by the Frankish
nobility. In 754 Pope Stephen II (r. 752–757) traveled to
Francia and again consecrated Pépin, recognizing as his
successors his two sons, Carloman (d. 771) and Charles,
the later Charlemagne.
Charlemagne became sole monarch on the death of
his brother, Carloman, in 771 and began an expansion of
his realm. In 774 he defeated the LOMBARDSin Italy and
assumed their Crown, freeing the papacy of their influ-
ence. However, Charlemagne then put the Holy See
under his authority and tried to confine the pope to
exclusively ecclesiastical matters.
As the head of the CHRISTENDOM, Charlemagne
attacked the Muslims in Spain in 778 with little success.
On the other hand, between 772 and 797, he conquered
pagan SAXONYand completed their forced conversion.
The papacy crowned Charlemagne in Rome in 800, rec-
ognizing his special sovereignty. In 806 Charlemagne
partitioned his kingdom into three for the benefit of his
sons, but he did not pass on the imperial title. In
813 Charlemagne crowned as emperor LOUIS I THE
PIOUS, his sole surviving son, at AACHEN; then died on
January 28, 814.
DECLINEThe custom of partitioning patrimony and kingdom
among royal heirs continued, but the imperial title was
limited to one son and all the other sons sought it. In 817
Louis I the Pious associated his eldest son, Lothair I
(r. 840–855), with the imperial Crown and gave his other
sons, Pépin (d. 838) and Louis II the German (840-876),
subordinate kingdoms. The birth of a fourth son,
CHARLESI THEBALD, by his second wife provoked frater-
nal and parental conflicts that lasted until their father’s
death. By that time Pépin had died, but Louis and
Charles joined forces against the emperor Lothair I. In
843 the Treaty of VERDUNcreated two kingdoms. These
were fought over, often divided, and often reunited, for
the next half-century. These two kingdoms, linguistically
different, became the cores of modern France and Ger-
many. The wrangling and warfare of these dynastic con-
flicts freed the aristocracy and the church to restore their
strong roles in politics, which in turn eclipsed in for-
tunes, legitimacy, and power the family’s rule by 987.
See also CAPETIAN DYNASTY;CAPITULARY;CAROLIN-
GIANRENAISSANCE;FONTENAY,BATTLE OF;POITIERS,BAT-
TLE OF;VIKINGS.
Further reading:B. W. Scholz, trans., Carolingian
Chronicles; Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1972); Richard
Gereberding. The Rise of the Carolingians and the “Liber
Historiae Francorum”(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987);
Rosamund McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms under the
Carolingians, 751–987)(London: Longman, 1983); Pierre
Riché, The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe,
trans. Michael I. Allen (Philadelphia: University of Penn-
sylvania Press, 1993).Carolingian Renaissance This term encompasses the
cultural changes and accomplishments started by
CHARLEMAGNEin the eighth century. They centered at the
palace school at his capital at AACHENand were primarily
an effort to improve the educational standards of both the
clergy and the officials of his expanding government.
Charlemagne and his regime were concerned about con-
trol and a more thorough Christianization of the newly
subjugated peoples recently put under Frankish power.
To accomplish this Charlemagne and his successors
extended support to the most prominent scholars of the
era and drew them together to work to promote the pres-
tige of the Frankish Crown and to foster learning and
better educational standards. The capitularies and ecclesi-
astic synods during the period 750 to 850 often dealt
with educational reform and contained numerous admo-
nitions for its improvement.
This movement and government program also
involved the development and spread of a new form of
handwriting, Carolingian minuscule or Caroline, which
was much more readable. As part of the effort to improve
education, monastic scriptoria all over the kingdom
began to use this script in the ninth century. It made the
copying of manuscripts easier and produced more accu-
rate versions of texts. This effort to copy and disseminate
texts also led to the discovery and preservation of many