John S. Ott
Portland State University
HST 354U - Early Medieval Europe, 300-1000
(c) 2020
Reading Guide 8:This week we will be looking into the reign of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's son, and the period following the Carolingian Empire's breakup. Louis was Charlemagne's sole surviving legitimate male heir, and plans were made for his succession before the old emperor died. While Louis continued to rule as his father had and sought to make manifest the unbroken continuity from father to son, he also departed from his father in important respects, and had to contend immediately with the courtiers, favorites, and family members that had remained at the Carolingian court. When he came to the throne, he also already had three sons of his own, who pressured him to establish a clear succession and give them lands of their own to rule. It was not long before Louis faced open revolt from his sons in 830, a condition that would plague the remaining years of his reign and lead to his forced abdication in 833 at the "Field of Lies." The Empire lasted as a territorial unity only until 840-1 (less than three decades after Charlemagne's death), when it was partitioned into three separate kingdoms by the emperor's grandsons, the surviving sons of Louis the Pious (r. 814-840): Lothar, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald.
Week IX: The Later Carolingian Empire and Age of Vikings
One of our sources for the reign of Louis and his sons is Thegan's Deeds of Emperor Louis. Little is known about Thegan, other than that he seems to have come from the Rhine-Moselle region and was appointed bishop of Trier by 825. He died before 853. Thegan clearly detested Ebbo, the powerful archbishop of Reims (northeast of Paris), a counselor of Louis, and their rivalry marks the pages of Thegan's history, written in the late 830s. Ebbo had been raised by Louis and entrusted with a series of Scandinavian missions. When Louis’ sons first rebelled in 830, he remained loyal. But he defected at the "Field of Lies" in 833 and presided at the synod in Soissons which deposed Louis, accusing him of numerous crimes. When Louis was eventually restored, Ebbo was deposed and went over to Louis' son, Lothar. The second text, also a narrative of Louis' reign titled The Life of Emperor Louis, was composed by a writer known to us only as the Astronomer. (The name refers to the author's tendency to refer to heavenly signs and from his own stated expertise in reading them.) His text was composed in late 840 / early 841. He was clearly familiar with Louis’ court, had access to works like the Royal Frankish Annals (in their continuation, the Annals of Saint-Bertin), and made clear allusions to classical literary tropes (e.g., in calling the events of 833 a “tragedy,” a term rarely used at the time). Louis is likened to Christ, and the events of his life to Christ’s life on earth. His one apparent fault is his excessive clemency (mildness or mercifulness), which was repeatedly taken adavantage of – an indicator, in the Astronomer's eyes, of the “perversity” of the times, rather than a character flaw of Louis.
Complicating the ability of the later Carolingians and other ninth- and tenth-century dynasties to govern was regular raiding by the "Northmen" (that is, Vikings, seaborne raiders and traders), Magyars (nomadic peoples from Hungary), and Mediterranean pirates based in Italy and North Africa. While periodic raiding began in the early ninth century during the reigns of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, it intensified in the later ninth century and continued throughout the tenth. Aachen, Charlemagne's palace and court chapel, was burned and plundered in 881. While raiding could be quite devastating locally, it is worth reading closely our narrative sources (mostly annals written by monks, whose monasteries sometimes bore the brunt of these raids) and comparing them with the chapter from Anders Winroth's book chapter on "Networks of Trade" in The Conversion of Scandinavia (on course reserves). While annals and chronicles often give the impression of being straightforward narratives of the events, it is important to read them with the same critical eye we bring to other, more discursive and literary, sources.
The Annals of Xanten (covering the years 844-862) were composed by two separate writers, a former courtier of Louis the Pious (writing down to 852, perhaps Gerward, his chaplain and court librarian) and, secondly, a cleric at Cologne (852-862), close to Xanten. The Obodrites, mentioned in the text, were a West Slavic people who frequently allied with the Carolingians (as early as Charlemagne) against the Saxons; they were a confederation of tribes that settled in northern Germany (Holstein and Mecklenberg). They did not fully convert to Christianity until the 12thc. We also annals from Saint-Vaast, in Arras, in modern northern France, and an account, originally written in poetry, depicting the siege of Paris by Viking raiders in 885-886. We have here two accounts of the same event -- the siege -- which gives us a chance to compare narratives. Finally, the Wandering Monks of Saint-Philibert describe the response of one monastic community to persistent raiding of their house, Noirmoutier, which sat on a narrow isthmus that jutted out into the Atlantic.