1. Charlemagne, the Carolingian Empire, and Carolingian Renaissance

2. Charlemagne (king of Franks, 768-814; Roman Emperor, 800-814) and the Carolingian Renaissance Charlemagne, sometimes called ‘Father of Europe,’ did much to define the shape and character of medieval Europe and presided over the Carolingian Renaissance Reign dominated by continuous military expeditions to expand territory and to gain plunder (including slaves) Revived Roman and Byzantine art; arts were inspired from Rome and Ravenna Promoted Church reform Sponsored revival of study of Latin and a new and clearer scripts (Carolingian miniscule) Manuscripts of Latin classical literature copies and preserved in monasteries. Promoted education of royal officers, lay and ecclesiastical, in the liberal arts (Palace School headed by the Englishman Alcuin) Itinerant kingship but established capital’ at Aachen (because he loved bathing in its hot springs), where he had built a royal palace and chapel modeled after Justinian’s church of San Vitale in Ravenna.

3. Equestrian statue and coin of Charlemagne

4. Short bio of Charlemagne (Charles the Great) Charlemagne was the son of Pepin the Short, the first “Carolingian” king of the Franks. (Carolingian comes from Carolus, the Latin version of the name Charles.) When Pepin died in 768, his kingdom was divided between Charlemagne and his younger brother Carloman. Relations between the two were tense, and when Carloman died suddenly in 771, Charlemagne seized his brother’s share of the realm. Carloman’s widow and young children fled to the court of the King of Lombardy (northern Italy) for protection. When the pope requested Charlemagne’s aid in 773 to protect the papal states (established by King Pepin) against the Lombards, Charlemagne killed two birds with one stone, conquering the Lombard kingdom and adding it to his empire and getting rid of future rivals. Charlemagne’s nephews disappear from history at this point; they were probably tonsured and sent into monasteries. Charlemagne spent much of the first three decades of his reign on military campaigns to expand his kingdom. He invaded pagan Saxony in 772 with the intention of adding it to Francia and converting its people. What followed was 32 years of periodic rebellions, which Charlemagne brutally put down. These were in part religious wars. Charlemagne forcibly ordered the conversion of the Saxons, making the failure to accept baptism punishable by death. The rebellions involved the burning of the churches he had built and the killing of priests, which led to brutal retaliations. In 782 Charlemagne ordered the massacre of 4,500 Saxon nobles and followers whom he had summoned to Verden to answer the charge that they had conspired to ambush a Frankish army. The final rebellion was put down in 804. In 778, he invaded northern Spain, then controlled by the Moors. Between 780 and 800, Charlemagne added Bohemia to his empire and subdued the Hun-like Avars in the middle Danube basin to form a buffer state for the eastern border of his empire. In 800 a rebellion against Pope Leo III began. Charlemagne went to his aid in Rome and defeated the rebellion. As a token of thanks, Leo crowned Charlemagne on Christmas Day that year, declaring him emperor of the Romans. Although this did not give Charlemagne any new powers, it legitimised his rule over his Italian territories and attempted to revive the imperial tradition of the western Roman emperor. Charlemagne insisted that his subjects take new oaths of loyalty to him as emperor as well as king. The immense territories which Charlemagne controlled became known as the Carolingian empire. Charlemagne introduced administrative reforms throughout the lands he controlled, establishing key representatives in each region and holding a general assembly each year at his court at Aachen. He standardised weights, measures and customs dues, which helped improve commerce and initiated important legal reforms. He also attempted to consolidate Christianity throughout his vast empire. He persuaded many eminent scholars to come to his court and established a new library of Christian and classical works.

5. Europe 600 CE

6. Europe 800

8. Merovingian Francia, sixth and seventh centuries

9. Carolingian Empire

10. THE WARS OF CHARLEMAGNE From Nicholas Hooper & Matthew Bennett, Cambridge Illustrated History. Warfare: The Middle Ages 768- 1487. Cambridge U. Press, 1996

11. Seventh- and Eighth-Century Anglo-Saxon and Irish Monasteries in Francia Illustrations from 11 th -century life of St. Boniface from monastery of Fulda

12. Carolingian Cavalry and Siege Warfare from the St. Gall ‘Golden Psalter’ St. Gallen: Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 22 (Soissons/St. Gallen 883–900 CE)

13. Carolingian or Late Antique cavalry and foot soldiers? Stuttgart Psalter, 820X830: based on 6 th -century models

14. Carolingian Renaissance

15. Lorsch Abbey gatehouse, c. 800, an example of the Carolingian architectural style

16. 14-12 Palace Chapel of Charlemagne, Aachen, Germany (792-805; Odo of Metz, architect)

17. Palace Chapel of Charlemagne, Aachen, Germany (792-805; Odo of Metz, architect)

18. San Vitale in Ravenna (527-547)

19. Nave of Palace Chapel, Aachen (left) and Church of San Vitale in Ravenna (right) After visiting Ravenna in 787, Charlemagne wrote to Pope Hadrian I requesting "mosaic, marbles, and other materials from floors and walls" in Rome and Ravenna, for his palace

20. Charlemagne’s Aachen (reconstruction)

21. Abbasid Calipjh Al-Mansur ordered construction of new capital Baghdad in 762. Al Mansur looked to Persia for inspiration in the design of his city, which he called Medina al Salaam; the city of peace. Based perhaps on the model of some Persian royal cities, Mansur’s Baghdad was planned as a circular city with a diameter of some 1.7 miles. Two major thoroughfares passing through its double circuit wall at four domed gates situated at the cardinal points and met in the centre, where a mosque and palace were constructed. Others see the influence of Greek learning and the geometry of Euclid in the city’s dimensions

22. Anglo-Saxon Influences on the Carolingian Renaissance: Alcuin (c. 735-804) Alcuin of was an Anglo-Saxon scholar, ecclesiastic, poet and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York. At the invitation of Charlemagne, he became a leading scholar and teacher at the Carolingian court in the 780s and 790s, and revolutionized the Palace School by introducing the study of the seven liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy). In this role as adviser, he tackled the emperor over his policy of forcing pagans to be baptised on pain of death, arguing, "Faith is a free act of the will, not a forced act. We must appeal to the conscience, not compel it by violence. You can force people to be baptised, but you cannot force them to believe." His arguments seem to have prevailed – Charlemagne abolished the death penalty for paganism in 797. He wrote many theological and dogmatic treatises, as well as a few grammatical works and a number of poems. He was made Abbot of Tours in 796, where he remained until his death. "The most learned man anywhere to be found", according to Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, he is considered among the most important architects of the Carolingian Renaissance. Among his pupils were many of the dominant intellectuals of the Carolingian era.

23. Charlemagne, in his 789 Admonitio Generalis, ordered the adoption of a new more uniform and more legible script for copying texts to replace the various, and often nearly illegible, regional styles. This script, Carolingian (or Caroline) minuscule, was based on the Merovingian and Germanic scripts and the Roman half-uncials. Most importantly, and this was kind of the point, Carolingian minuscule set a new standard for legibility. Merovingian Frankish scriptCarolingian Miniscule

24. Carolingian books Majuscules (capitals): based on Roman inscriptions; were used for formal writing, title, headings, and the finest manuscript Minuscules (now called lowercase letters): used for more rapid writing and ordinary texts Media: vellum or parchment (made of very fine animal skins such as calf) Cover of gospel books: cross, crucifixion, evangelists, saints

25. Cover of the Lindau Gospels: Crucifixion with Angels and Mourning Figures (c. 870-80) Ivory plaque book cover from Reims, late 9 th century

26. Gellone Sacramentary: Early Carolingian Miniscule, c. 790

27. Ebbo Gospels (c. 816-40): Page with St. Matthew the Evangelist.

29. Charles the Bald (grandson of Charlemagne, reigned as King of West Francia 840-77; emperor 875-77) Count Vivian presentation Bible /Psalter of Charles the bald