The Normans

In an attempt to stop Viking raids on his territory in northern France, King Charles the Simple gave some land to a group of these northern invaders in 911.  Their new home was called Normandy ( the land of the northmen) and their leader Rollo became its first duke.  The Vikings fought on foot but the Normans as they became known, copied the French use of mounted knights and became formidable fighters.  When King Edward the Confessor of England died in 1066 his cousin Duke William of Normandy claimed he had been promised the English throne.  So he invaded with an army.  He defeated the new king, Harold, in battle near Hastings and brought knights castles and the feudal system to England.  At about the same time Norman adventures invaded parts of southern Italy and Sicily.

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Making a knight

At about age seven a boy of noble birth was usually sent away to be fostered at a nobleman’s household, often that of his uncle or a great lord. He became a page and learned how to behave and ride.  At 14 years of age he became a knights apprentice and served as a squire. He was taught how to handle weapons and how to look after his master’s armor and horses.  He even went into battle with the knight helping him to put on his armor and assisting him if he was hurt or unhorsed.  He learned how to shoot a bow and carve meat at the dinner table.  Successful squires were knighted when they were around 21 years old.<iframe src=”http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=hubp0e225-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0756630037&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr” style=”width:120px;height:240px;” scrolling=”no” marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″ frameborder=”0″></iframe>

The Franks were the strongest of all the western European peoples who struggled for land and power after the end of the Roman Empire in 476. Under their first great leader, Clovis, the Franks spread out from their homeland around the river Rhine. They fought their neighbours, such as the Visigoths and Burgundians, until, by 540, they had conquered most of the old Roman province of Gaul. Clovis defeated rival chieftains to bring all the Frankish tribes under his control. His family became known as the Merovingian dynasty, after his grandfather Merovich. Clovis became a Christian and ruled from Paris, governing his lands through Church bishops and noblemen. These nobles or lords held estates known as manors, on which peasants ploughed the fields. In battle, the Franks used a curved throwing axe called a francisca and a two-handed broadsword called a scramasax. Frankish leaders were always ready to defend their estates and to conquer new lands. This eagerness to ride into battle meant that the nobles and lords needed servants for military service. In return for this service, the servants were granted land – the beginnings of feudalism. Rival families jockeyed for the king’s favour and in the 600’s two rival clans, whose members held the important position of Mayor of the Royal Palace, fought for power. The winners were the Austrasians, who ousted the Neustrians, and their chief Pepin of Herstal founded a new ruling family. The Franks went of fighting. Pepin’s son Charles Martel, known as the Hammer, won an historic battle at Poitiers against Muslim invaders in 732. Although his title was Mayor of the Palace, Martel was effectively king, and expanded Frankish territory. His defeat of the Muslims checked the advance of Islam into central Europe. Martel’s son Pepin the Short established the Carolingian dynasty. He was the first Frankish king to be anointed by the pope in 754. The greatest of the Frankish rulers was Pepin’s son, the emperor Charlemagne.

The Feudal System

In Western Europe, feudalism was a form of contract in the European upper classes whereby power was wielded across different castle-dominated districts. In the Middle Ages, land was owned by a powerful lord or by the Church. The lord gave land to those who followed him and fought for him, who were called vassals. In return, a vassal promised to serve his lord by fighting for him and was collecting taxes from the people who lived on his land. This was the key idea behind feudalism. Feudalism developed among the Franks in the 700’s. There had been many years of fighting and confusion following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the late 400’s. The Franks thought that a warrior-chief should look after his followers and reward them in turn for their loyalty. Chiefs, or lords, held the land on which peasants lived. Instead of owning or renting their own land, peasant-farmers were bound to serve their lord. In return, the lord protected them. This was not a bad system in troubled times. Feudalism grew as kings granted more land to knights, the brave warriors on whose loyalty and fighting skills kings depended. It spread from France to England and Spain and was taken by the crusaders to the East. Each lord governed his own lands, where his word was law. If there was war, he had to supply soldiers to the king’s army. He acted as judge in disputes between his vassals, whether they were lesser nobles or humble peasants. The feudal system began to fall apart in the 1200’s. One reason was economic: people began to use money more and more, and preferred to pay rent for land rather than be bound by feudal service. In the 1300’s, new weapons such as crossbows, gunpowder and cannon changed the way wars were fought. Cannons could smash castle walls and crossbows could pierce armour. Feudal lords and knights became less powerful.

When the young Charlemagne inherited his share of the Frankish lands in 771 he intended to further the achievements of his grandfather Charles Martel and his father Pepin the Short. In fact he was responsible for establishing the largest empire in Europe since the demise of the Western half of the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD (Roberts, 1996 p. 107). As a consequence of military success Charlemagne had to alter how his territories were governed due to his imperial expansion not to mention the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed the military campaigns of Charlemagne meant that large areas of Western Europe came under his own personnel rule and his variation of erstwhile Roman administrative practices and Germanic customs (Sebag Montefiore, 2009 p. 73).

In many respects expansion meant that Charlemagne had to put a more coherent system of government into place. His system of government was based around the imperial court in his new capital city of Aachen (Lenman, 2004 p.374). At the court Charlemagne relied upon aristocratic / military leaders as well as senior members of the clergy to ensure that all parts of his empire were run according to his wishes (Roberts, 1996 p. 110). As was usually the case in Medieval Western Europe the backbone of Charlemagne’s military strength had been his original Germanic subjects especially the aristocracy, which formed the nucleus of his heavy cavalry units (Marsh & Carrick, 2007 p.530).

There were practical reasons, which explain why Charlemagne’s system of government was based upon a mixture of Germanic customs and also Roman laws. Charlemagne was a man who viewed the establishment of a stable system of government as a means of controlling his diverse imperial territories during his own reign and in the reigns of his future successors (Roberts, 1996 p. 112). Ironically this system relied upon originally pagan Germanic practices and secular Roman laws as a means of strengthening Christianity, which in turn Charlemagne was determined to make the main ingredient in binding his empire together. Charlemagne hoped that the Christian religion would reinforce his subjects’ loyalty towards him as their king and later as the Holy Roman Emperor (March & Carrick, 2007 p. 531).

Charlemagne’s system of government made wide use of the Christian church and its most senior clergy, as these were the people that were well – educated. Charlemagne spread Christianity to the previously pagan parts of his new empire and then used senior clerics to effectively administer those areas (Sebag Montefiore, 2009 p. 73). The Roman Catholic Church were content to assist with Charlemagne’s system of government after all this powerful king’s conquest of Saxony and victories against the Lombards in Italy had spread Christianity and also strengthened the Papacy (Roberts, 1996 p. 110).

Bibliography

Lenman B, (2004) Chambers Dictionary of World History, Edinburgh

Marsh & W B & Carrick B, (2007) Great Stories From History, Icon Books UK & Totem Books USA

Roberts J.M, (1996) A History of Europe, Penguin, London

Sebag Montefiore S, (2009) Heroes – History’s Greatest Men and Women, Quercus, London

The Dark ages were a period between the Fall of Rome and the rebirth of progress called the Renaissance. These times were defined by Feudalism, plague and growth in the Catholic Church. One of the largest remnants the Roman Empire. 

One of the most prominent Kingdoms during the Dark ages was  the Frankish Empire. The founder of the Kingdom and all famous Merovingian dynasty was Clovis. A once pagan ruler turned Catholic who protected Christendom and  spread his empire. At about fifteen years of age, he took a small band of warriors that he had inherited. With these men he began to conquer each of the local tribes. One by one. Eventually, his once small kingdom stretched almost the size of Modern France.  Clovis was known as a brutal ruler. At any sign of a rebellion, he slaughtered any involved. Despite his brutality, Clovis offered  stability for his loyal subjects. In a time such as the Dark Ages, this spark of civilization was welcome.

Back in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire, Constantinople was still flourishing. Trade, education and progress was still active. The Emperor Justinian and his wife, Empress Theodora dreamed of reuniting the Empire by re-conquering the Latin West. Legions were sent to the old territory and were successful at re-conquering Italy and a few other regions in the West. However, at the death of the Emperor and his wife, the Eastern Empire pulled troops out of the newly re-conquered territory.  This was the end of any attempt to retake and revive the old Empire. 

In the ninth century, the speakers are built on the right bank to protect the parishes of Saint-Gervais and Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois (now located near the Louvre). The walls of Saint-Gervais should be roughly at the level of street roads, de Rivoli and the Tacherie. In the ninth century, the Vikings plundered and spread terror along the coasts of the Channel, through their drakkars, ships which draft easy to maneuver, they travel up the rivers far inland. They come for the first time to Paris in 845. The city was abandoned by its inhabitants and looted, King Charles the Bald payed 7 000 pounds of silver to evacuate the city. The Counts of Paris, the heriditay dynasty of the Robertiens had much to do as the Viking came back from 856-857 and burned all the churches with the exception of Saint-Denis, Saint-Etienne and Saint-Germain-des-Prés which remained because they were paid a high ransom. But yet they take it into 858. In 861, the abbey and the city is burned. In 865-866, Saint-Denis is falling victim to a fire. In 870, the king decides to organize the defense of the city in 885, Gozlin, Bishop of Paris, repaired the Gallo-Roman wall just before a new attack and the people took refuge in the Ile de la Cité. The left side is completely destroyed by the Normans during the attack in 885 during a siege of a year. Raids do end with the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte which was concluded in 911

When the crown falls to the Capetians line of kings in 987, Paris is one of the two major cities of the French region their field staff for the kings leave Orleans but rmove to Paris. Their ancestors Eudes had shown he was good leader in defending the Paris from the Vikings. Hugues Capet fixed his residence in the Island of the City but spent little time in Paris. By contrast, his son and successor Robert the Pious lived frequently in Paris confirming its leadership and its role as the capital. He went about restoring the palace of the Town and abbeys. The city of Paris became an important center of religious teaching in the early eleventh century.

One of Charlemagne’s reasons for being called great is that he was a great military leader, which is a quality of a leader; to be smart with attacking and protecting the empire. Charlemagne conquered the Saxons, which were a large group of barbarians. However, he overcame them and defeated them. He helped the pope when the Lombard’s tried to regain their land, and this is what led him to becoming emperor. He also invaded the Muslims. He conquered a lot of these territories, and this shows how Charlemagne must’ve been a smart, good, and strategic military leader.

Charlemagne improved and shaped many things in the empire, like government, education, and culture. A quality of a leader is to be able to improve and control your empire and be able to sustain it. Charlemagne noticed how the Franks were not as educated as other civilizations. He set up a school in his palace as well as building schools throughout the empire. His students learned Latin, music, arithmetic, and literature. In culture, he made many things like Rome. He had forums, baths, theatres, and aqueducts. He mostly modeled his capital city, Aachen, after Rome. He also made a basilica in Aachen and decorated it beautifully, because he was religious. He added to the culture with adding many churches throughout the empire. The government he made was shaped when he was crowned emperor of the Roman Empire and when he controlled his empire after Pepin, Martel, and Charles. The way he improved his empire and molded it definitely is in the reason for why he deserves to be called great.

The final reason is that he united much of Europe under his rule and controlled his empire. Europe hadn’t been united since the fall of the Roman Empire. He added land to Pepin, Martel, and Charles’s kingdom and his empire covered much of western and central Europe. A quality of a good leader in this area is to be able to unite the people and have control. Later in his rule, he was also crowned emperor of the Roman Empire, which gave him more power and the authority to rule such a mass. And it was all this land and conquests which gave him all this that gave him the title of great in the first place. This obviously puts in a lot to why he should be called great.

Charlemagne ruled over all his land, and was a very good ruler indeed. He was given the title Charlemagne, Charles the great, for a reason, and he deserved it. He is a good military leader, which is needed to be able to protect and expand an empire, he improved and shaped his empire, and emperors need to be able to sustain and improve their empires, and he united much of Europe and had his empire united, which is important to keep order and make your empire stay together and not break up and dissipate. Charlemagne definitely should have been given the title Charles the Great