The Franks Flashcards
What held society together?
Informal social networks
Kinship and family
Private vengeance
Religion
What was kingship based on?
Inherited status.
Kingship had an aura of prestige and sacredness which made it impossible for a non-Merovingian to rule. This is partly due to Clovis’ own prestige who was seen as the father of his people.
What did Frankish followers require?
They required land and plunder to maintain their loyalty.
The king had to reward his followers. His followers did not have an abstract concept to be loyal to, but were loyal for practical reasons.
What problems could arise from the leader-follower relationship?
Required constant warfare to reward and maintain loyalty.
If no warfare occurred, royal lands were required to be given away. This weakened the revenue of the long and eroded his power.
What was Frankish kingship like?
A leader-follower relationship rather than an absolute ruler. This is shown in Gregory of Tours when Clovis had to consult his men over the distribution of plunder, specifically over a silver bowl taken from a church. This shows that his power had limitations.
Followers were important and powerful.
Leadership was personal with a kind of tribal sense of democracy.
Merovingian kings must be acclaimed by warrior assembly and have loyalty oaths made at that event.
Can one call Charlemagne’s empire a state?
This depends on one’s appreciation of the effectiveness of its key state institutions, such as capitularies, public courts of law, public offices of the counts and the missus dominicus.
What was the state of the Merovingian government?
A fairly sophisticated administration
Rulers collected taxes according to written records
Gold coinage
Public land, royal revenue
Kings are concerned with bishop employment
When did Clovis die and what was the result?
511
He left 4 sons => 4 separate Frankish kingdoms.
This trend continued, weak candidates were killed or coerced into joining monasteries.
What about the mayor of the palace?
They were the highest officials of the Merovingian court and their power steadily increased due to the erosion of the Merovingian monarchy and its civil wars. They commanded their own resources which made them difficult to dislodge.
The were a kind of prime minister of leader of the soldiers and the title tended to be hereditary.
What was the Pippinid family?
A family in Austrasia which had monopolised the office of the mayor of the palace.
Their power base was formed due to their extensive possessions in the Ardennes.
Shortly before 700, took over the office in Neustria also.
Who was Charles Martel?
Held the mayor of the palace positions in both kingdoms. He ruled without a king in the last few years of his mayoralty.
He expanded Frankish rule. Defeated a Muslim army.
military successes brought him loyal followers and supporters.
The fact that he did not claim the kingship shows that the kingship in the Frankish world was more than just supremacy of physical force, they possessed a sacred legitimacy passed on through their lineage.
How did the Carolingian monarchs reward some warriors?
Some lands which they used to reward warriors can from church lands. The ruler Cld request land to be made available to warriors provided that the church was financially compensated.
What was a Christian king?
God’s chosen protector of the faith which allowed him to be concerned with the affairs of the Church.
Why did the Merovingian dynasty erode?
They had stopped expanding. They did not have the opportunities to keep their source of income going and they lost the ability to reward their followers.
Decline of Inherited Roman administration, literacy and organisation, ability to tax the population dwindled.
Also rewarding followers with tax exemptions soon eroded sources of revenue.
Who did Charlemagne conquer?
Lombard in Italy in 774
Avars in the 790s
Bavarians
Saxons 774-806
Parts of Spain against the Muslims.
