The Carolingians From Employee to Emperor I Life in Francia 7th and 8th Centuries Life was hard starvation was ramped and the government wasn t helping War fair was the only way to get money Food was lacking during this time and there was little trade throughout Francia o Control of Land The Merovingian held control over the lands as Kings but the kingdom is going down because of Divided Succession and the land being split up so much o Violence and Societal Structures Groupings o Lack of nearly everything II Decline of the Merovingian Meroving Kingdom o Fractured Kingdom 1 Neustria Controlled by Merovingian and allies 2 Austrasia Controlled by Carolings 3 Burgundy Controlled by Burgundies III Rise of the Carolingians Carolings 2 Reasons They are the stealers of the groups and they gather warrior groups by giving up land and these groups would only fight for them o Palace Mayors This was set up by the Merovingian to stop the Carolings from gaining too much power but this back fired because they grow and gain power over time A Palace Mayor is a Caroling that ran the Kingdom went the king couldn t or if the King was away or sick or there was a power struggle Because of the battles between Merovingians it meant that the Carolings most always held the Kingdom under their control and this was passed down through the family now and Carolings could only hold this spot from now on o Pepin of Haristal He becomes a Palace Mayor and he drives to gain power to be king he raises powers and over throws the king in Neustria and now they control 2 3 of Francia He wants to control all of it so he heads south and tries to attack the Burgundy After that battle he now controls everything and the kingdom is now organized and under control but he dies and he passes his power to Charles Martel Battle of Tertry This was the battle where Pepin takes complete control of the military and he controls all the land but he is not the king and he doesn t over throw the king at the time and now they control all of Francia A Caroling Kings 1 Charles Martel He is the new power in Francia and he stops the Muslim army from advancing into Europe and he advances the blue print of the Carolings and they now protect the church and are warriors for them He had to sons and with this leads to a 200 year on no troubles with successions both get equal parts of the kingdom o Battle of Tours Poitiers At this battle Martel stops the Muslims and it ends any problem by the Muslims but also stops and advances the Muslims would bring 2 Carloman He is the older of the two sons and agrees to rule Francia with his brother for 6 years He was not interested in ruling and he joins the monastery 3 Pepin the Short He is the younger and agrees to rule with his brother and it lasted for 6 years His brother gains all the power from his brother and he doesn t like the fact that he wasn t the king because he had all the power So he gets rid of the Kings that were in power Merovingians He does try to kill the kings but he does it in a more civilized way this was by writing to the Pope Pope Zacheria and he leads up to dethroning the king and the pope knows this and gives him the power to do this but there are conditions a You can t kill them all Send them all to monasteries b Zacheria wants a protector for himself c He has to take the Italian Peninsula d Set up a Pope Kingdom that he would have control over After taking out the enemies he gives a donation Pepin s Donation and this was 1 3 of the land taken after the war for the Pope Kingdom This shows that there is alliance between the two groups and it shows that the Pope has control over Europe and not the people At this same time Manorialism starts up in Europe o Manorialism is an economic structure that organizes and control the labor forces There are two groups that now in the kingdom Aristocratic Land owners they control all the land and the wealth The other group is the Commoners this is divided into three groups Slaves they were the workers without pay Serf people bound to the land they had to work on land and give back the wealth to their leaders and Free Peasant the largest group they held land but didn t move around a lot and still paid taxes and fee to their leaders The Demesne is the land that a Land Lord and it was under his control and he got all the wealth of that land 4 Charlemagne the most famous Caroling of all time he uses the resources of the kingdom and reunites most of Western Europe under one leader He fights many battles and becomes the master of all Europe and the Pope at the time was concerned and he crowns him the Emperor of the Romans and this creates the Holy Roman Empire This at the time was to control his power and it also shows the Pope has power in his mind because he controls who will become Emperor This also affects the Byzantine Empire because they called themselves Romans and the Emperor of the Empire says he was the Emperor because he has the crown and sigil of Rome This strains the friendship between them The Charlemagne out laws Polygyny this was if a man had a wife he could have mistresses this gained his power by the pope and it stopped the divided succession problem that was going on in the Empire IV The Holy Roman Empire Key Terms Palace Mayors Pepin the Short Charles Martel Battle of Tertry Austrasia Ostmark Saxons Charlemagne Pepin s Donation Polygyny Pepin of Haristal Battle of Tours Poitiers Neustria Burgundy Spanish March Leo III Demesne