John S. Ott (c2019, 2020. 2021, 2024)
Department of History
Portland State University
HST 354U - Early Medieval Europe
Reading Guide 6:
(1) Carolingian documents (Einhard, Saxon Capitulary, Pepin's Anointing);
(2) Dhuoda, Manual for Her Son; Alcuin's Poems, Freculf's dedication of his book
Background to the readings on Carolingian law and politics
For today's class we are reading across a number of quite different historical texts.
- 'The Elevation of Pepin the Short' is in fact a selection of yearly entries in a work known as the Annales of the Kingdom of the Franks (or Royal Frankish Annals). The entries, for 750, 751, and 754, describe in a summary fashion some of the important steps in establishment of a new royal dynasty, the Carolingians. As we will see, the ancestors of the first Carolingian king, Pepin (or Pippin, either is fine) 'the Short', had been ruling the kingdom of the Franks in fact if not in name for some time prior to 751. This brief texts offers an 'official' accounting of the transition from one Frankish regime to another.
- 'The Reanointing of Pepin in 754' is a narrative text better known as the 'Little Clause on Pepin's Anointing.' It dates to 767 -- so some 15 years after the events it describes -- and exists as an addition to a book of Gregory of Tours' miracle stories. It describes a second anointing of Pepin, this time with his sons, Carloman and Charles (Charlemagne) in 754.
- 'Pope Stephen Scolds Charlemagne and Carloman' offers the text of a papal letter from Pope Stephen III (r. 768-772), and was composed in 769 or 770. Charlemagne and Desiderata (or Ermengarde), the daughter of the Lombard king Desiderius (d. c. 786), were in fact married in 770. By this marriage, Charlemagne secured an alliance with a political rival bordering Carloman’s half of the Frankish kingdom. It seems probable that Charlemage accomplished this with his mother Bertrada’s knowledge and aid. Not long after, Carloman (b. 751), the younger of the two brothers, died in 771. It is clear from the letter that Stephen does not know which brother has been lined up to marry Desiderata (it was Charles); he also warns them against giving their sister, Gisela, to one of Desiderius’s sons. Charles set Desiderata aside after one year of marriage (Einhard, c. 18), perhaps because his political strategy re: the Lombards had changed.
- Einhard's Life of Charlemagne (in Latin, the Vita Karoli) is the most important biography composed concerning Charles, and is an invaluable piece of Carolingian historiography. It is also the first purely secular biography (excluding Ammianus' portrait of Emperor Valens) that we have read this term. Einhard was a courtier who entered Charles' service late in the emperor's life, and who then also served under his son, Louis. He wrote the Life in 826, twelve years after the emperor's death in 814. It presents a carefully constructed depictions of the transfer of power from the Merovingian to Carolingian Franks. Note, however, that this portrayal should be read as an 'official' rendering of events, and thus treated with care. Einhard was deeply educated and part of a circle of literate elites, court officials, and ecclesiastical leaders. The Roman historian Suetonius' work on the lives of the caesars was one textual model he utilized in writing his account.
- 'The Capitulary on the Saxon Territories' was a law code promulgated between 775 and 790 to address the neighboring Saxon territories, against which Charlemagne campaigned off and on for some three decades. It gives us an idea of how the extension of Carolingian power into neighboring territories was carried out following the armed suppression of Saxon resistance. Note that the Saxons were newly Christianized, and that Saxony had been and remained an active zone for the efforts of Christian missionaries, many originally from Britain, in the eighth and early ninth centuries.
Questions
1) As you read the short accounts that start our readings, keep an eye on how each legitimizes the Caroligian ascent to power. How do they stress Carolingian political legitimacy? Why do you think the first Carolingians (Pepin and his sons) sought papal affirmation of their coup?
2) Why might the pope(s) have taken a direct interest in the dynastic succession of the Carolingians? How does Stephen try to sway the marriage decision-making of Charles and Carloman? Did the Carolingians need the pope more than the other way around?
3) How does Einhard organize his biography of Charles? With what does he begin the account, and in what order does he arrange its details? Why?
4) Using Einhard's biography and the Saxon capitulary as a starting point, how might we characterize the king/emperor’s place in his empire? What are his duties? What are his expectations of his subjects? What is the role of the church and its officials to be?
5) What role did the Christianization of the Saxons play in the assertion of Carolingian political and legal authority over the Saxon territory? How does the process of conversion compare in this document to other conversion accounts we have seen, such as the Life of Martin?
Background to readings on medieval emotion (Dhuoda, Alcuin)
Dhuoda may have been the daughter of Sancho I, the duke of Gascony, although this is uncertain. She and Bernard of Septimania -- the duke of Septimania (southwestern France), count of Barcelona, and the godson of Emperor Louis 'the Pious' (r. 814-840), Charlemagne's son and successor -- were married in 824 at Aachen. William was born in 826; a second son, Bernard, in 841. In 829, Bernard (the Elder) was appointed Louis' chamberlain, essentially second only to the emperor, and Louis' young son Charles was entrusted to his protection and care. While at court, Bernard was quickly caught up in intrigue and became the subject of rumors that he was having an affair with Louis' second wife, the Empress Judith. Although he fled the palace and his enemies, over the course of the next fifteen years Bernard was stripped of his office and plotted with and against Louis and his son, Charles the Bald (r. 840-877).
In the course of these intrigues, in 841, Dhuoda learned that her husband had given over their son, William, as a hostage to Charles the Bald in order to secure Bernard, her husband’s, good conduct. Shortly afterward, Dhuoda's infant son (Bernard) was taken from her as well. Both Bernard (and William) were dispossessed of their offices by Charles in 842. It was during this time of tumultuous civil war that she dictated and sent the Manual to her son William in 842/43. Shortly after, in 844, Charles the Bald had her husband executed. William, who subsequently rebelled against Charles, was eventually killed by Charles' supporters in Barcelona in 850. The date of Dhuoda's death is uncertain.
The Manual is an exceptional source from the early Middle Ages, composed as it was by an elite laywoman. In form and content, it draws from existing genres (including Mirrors for Princes) and models of Christian motherhood. There can be little doubt as to Dhuoda's emotional suffering at being cut off from her children, however. The Manual survives in only a couple of much later manuscript copies.
Alcuin of York (735-804) was the leading scholar and intellectual of the Carolingian court school under Charlemagne. He came to Charles' attention while both were in Italy in 781, and was recruited to lead the palace school from 782-790 and from 792-800. He was responsible for educating both Charles and his children, and was the architect of many educational reforms. He was also a polymath and prolific writer. Hundreds of his letters survive, along with poems, works on grammar, theology, rhetoric, astronomy, mathematics, and poetry. He trained many of the leading intellectuals of the next two generations, and was made abbot of Marmoutier, outside Tours.
Questions
(1) How, and in what circumstances, did medieval people express emotion? What emotions are portrayed in our texts? When are they given license to be expressed?
(2) Do Dhuoda and Alcuin feel a similar sense of responsibility to their dependents (children and students)? If so, what is the nature of that responsibility? What do they expect in return?
(3) How does the expression of emotion in our readings compare with expressions of emotion – private and/or personal – in public life in modern U.S. culture?
(4) How would you characterize the kinds of moral education Dhuoda and Alcuin seek to instill in their dependents (we'll follow up on Carolingian learning next week, too)?