Hist Notes 4 22 Early Middel Ages 500 1000 The Franks Clovis and the Merovingians Charlemagne and the Carolingians imp legacy of the Church Fathers augustine Jerome and Ambrose and Benedict of Nursia and Gregory other two components that are essential to midevil civ are Roman even after 476 and the fall of W Roman Empire there are still ppl that could be identified as Romans bc they spoke latin and dressed Roman and their ancestors were roman citizens they too have prob accepted Roman religion so we have a large pop of roman citizens who were a part of the old empire beg in the 5th C these were ruled by Barbarian invaders and Volker we have two different mind sets and cultures merger of Ch and German cultures would define char of dark ages most imp of this group were the Franks these ppl est the longest lasting kingdom est France first Frankish dynasty begins around 500 the Merovingians 500 750 Carolingians from 750 1000 greatest of Merovingian kings is Clovis 489 511 and he est his authority over Frankish kingdoms by being a great warrior cheiftan but he will evolve into institutionalized king throughout but he initially succeeded through war and won a series of battles Clovis acquired more land and wealth through victories and est rule over many past Romans Clovis is SNEAKY send a message to an upcoming king saying should anything happen to your father il be your friend and you will be king so the guys basically kills his own father based on what clovis said and he becomes king and clovis is offered some treasure by this guy then his men go to receive it and they end up killing him so Clovis now becomes king and spreads his power SNEAKINESS more Clovis promises to give gold arm bands to an army if something should happen to their king they then BETRYA their king in order to get this gold Clovis trickery Clovis fights battle of Soissons hes about to fight a Rival King and the Bishop of Soisson comes to Clovis Clovis is a Pegan and followed German gods and says to Clovis if you win can we have this golden cup Bishop said this bc Bishops were imp ppl imp leaders in Ch church and lots of resp over a large pop had administrative duties and had lots of land so Clovis recognized it would be good to get support of Bishop and then too the Christians when Clovis wins and Clovis asks for the golden cup but one guy cuts the cup in half and says that s your share Clovis gives half cup to Bishop in order to maintain good relationship with large Ch population Clovis had a wife named Clothilde and she was a Ch and she sought to convert her husband to Christianity why would he convert if he is doing well in battles so they have a son and she baptizes him and this son gets sick and dies and Clovis doesn t buy into Ch they have a second son and baptized and then gets sick but this one LIVES one day when Clovis is fighting a battle and losing he then wins the battle because Clovis accepted baptism and fulfilled his duty to God Clovis became a Catholic Christian and apparently 3000 other soldiers converted with him Clovis built the Merovingian Kingdom and at times he was a brutal war leader he understood pol realities and he understood that there was a large Roman pop under him so he converted to Ch certainly his wife had a role in this but overall it just makes sense to convert when he died in good Germanic fashion would divide the Kingdom equally b w his 4 sons the division followed old Roman administrative organization and was not random shows us that Clovis was shaped by old Roman administrative elements as Germans moved into Roman empire they possessed an oral culture that they orally passed down into generations But Clovis had the Salic law written down the Romans had the practice of writing stuff down and so Clovis wrote down a Frankish law Clovis learns from Romans and applies what he learns the division among his sons causes weakness in the Kingdom end of 6th and early 7th C Fredegund and Brunhild were Merovingian Queens and it is said that these 2 women hated each other bc Chilperic Fred s husband was initially married to Galswintha bc one of his brothers married Brunhild and Brunhild and Galswintha were gothic princesses Brunhild gets married first then then he kills Galswintha bc he liked Brunhild so much whether or not these two women were locked in such great struggle these two women were involved in Mero politics and seeking to help their husbands by pol assassinations Fredegund organized murder of Brunhild s husband Fredegund was a great pol assassin apparently died peacefully in her own bed leaving Brunhild in charge who ruled through her sons and grandsons for awhile and then in early 700 s Clothar fred son s rose up in revolt against Brunhild and overthrew her and found her guilty for murder of 10 ppl and killed her here we see successive generations of MEro kings to struggle against own beg in second half of 600s to 750 the Mero faced crisis after crisis due to failure to provide clear line of succession how do we maintain the support of our soldiers as MEro kings give them land and money and we should get this land and money through conquest but if we are fighting our brother we cant do it but bc they have so much land they give out prop to soldiers to keep them happy this will weaken the Merovingians and over time this is going to erode ability to rule effectively civil war and gradual impoverishment will lead to downfall this lays foundation for emergence of a new dynasty out of pol chaos a new family emerges The Carolingian Dynasty they rose to power bc they possessed the office called mayor of the palace meaning they were in control of the money of the palace as mayor of the palace Pippen the Short ruled as the true King when he was mayor of the palace and made imp policy decisions as mayor of the palace he made imp allainces he was the real power behind MEro thrown in 750 he sent letter to Pope and approved the deposition of the Mero line and approving the usurpation and having Pippen being awarded King by his bishops shows that power comes form God Pippin is an imp figure bc he est Car dynasty and imp policy decisions with culture reform and Church in a sense Pippin is lost in the shadow of his son Charlemagne arguably one of the most imp rulers in European history 768 to 814 it was under Char that Car empire is formed and the great potential reach culmination he est model for pol rule for centuries and centuries to come and he sparked a cultural renaissance in 771 Char