Lectures 31 -34

Question 1

The Vandals

Answer 1

Germanic people who crossed the Rhine in 406, raided in Spain for a generation, crossed to North Africa, practiced piracy in the Mediterranean, and fell to Justinian (see Biographical Notes) in 532–534.

Question 2

Ostrogoths

Answer 2

Germanic people who built a kingdom in Italy under their king, Theodoric (r. 493–526), only to fall to the armies of Justinian (see Biographical Notes).

Question 3

Lombards

Answer 3

Germanic people who entered Italy in 568 and gradually built a strong kingdom with rich culture, especially in law, only to fall to the more powerful Franks in 773–774.

Question 4

Franks

Answer 4

Germanic peoples who gradually moved south from the Rhine mouth toward Paris, and built powerful kingdoms under the Merovingian and Carolingian families of kings.

Question 5

Anglo-Saxons

Answer 5

Catchall name for various peoples from northern Germany and southern Denmark who settled in England from 450 to 600 and built small kingdoms.

Question 6

Offa of Mercia

Answer 6

(r. 757–796)

Anglo-Saxon bretwalda who was first to call himself “King of the English.”

Question 7

bretwalda

Answer 7

Contemporary name for early Anglo-Saxon kings who claimed some wide-ranging authority: “broad-wielders” or “Britain-wielders.”

Question 8

Clovis

Answer 8

(r. 486–511)

Greatest Frankish king of the Merovingian dynasty who consolidated Frankish rule in Gaul, defeated the Visigoths in 507, and accepted Roman Catholicism.

Question 9

Bede

Answer 9

(673–735)

Anglo-Saxon monk and scholar at Wearmouth-Jarrow who wrote biblical commentaries, a book on time reckoning, and history. Greatest scholar of his day.

Question 10

Charlemagne

Answer 10

(747–814)

Greatest member of the Carolingian (see Glossary) dynasty. King from 768 to 800; emperor from 800 to 814. Secured frontiers of the Frankish kingdom, promoted cultural and institutional reform, formulated ideology of Christendom.

Question 11

Carolingians

Answer 11

Dynasty of Frankish rulers whose most famous member was Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus). Became kings in 751 and ruled until 911 in Germany and 987 in France.

Question 12

Pippin III

Answer 12

(r. 751–768)

First Carolingian (see Glossary) to become king. He allied with the popes, defeated the Lombards in Italy, and fostered church and cultural reform.

Question 13

Alcuin

Answer 13

(735–804)

Anglo-Saxon scholar, product of Bede’s (q.v.) intellectual revival in Northumbria, who came to Charlemagne’s court circa 786 and promoted intellectual reforms. Abbot of Tours from 796 to 804.

Question 14

Einhard

Answer 14

(770–840)

Author of many works but best known for a biography of Charlemagne modeled on Suetonius’s (q.v.) Lives of the Twelve Caesars.