(3) Germanic Kingdoms: Notable Concepts (inc. Legal Codes)

Includes both Frankish (Merovingian and Carolingian) and Anglo-Saxon (Heptarchy) Kingdoms as well as other Germanic Kingdoms

Code of Euric (All Facts) 

• Legal code issued by King Euric of the Visigoths, which

  • Was the first document published that recorded in writing Visigothic (German) law(s) into Latin 

  • Helped reassure his subjects that the Visigothic Kingdom was administered according to the rule of law  

  • Dealt with issues such as land tenure 

Lex Burgunidonum (All Facts) 

• Legal code issued by King Gundobad of the Burgundians, which

  • Brought the Romans and Burgundians under the same law

  • Was influenced by Roman law

  • Dealt with domestic laws concerning marriage and inheritance as well as regulating the Germanic practice of “weregild” and other penalties

Breviarium / Breviary of Alaric (All Facts)

• Legal code issued by King Alaric II of the Visigoths, which

  • Recorded the laws of the Romans into Latin 

  • Reassured nervous Romans that their legal rights were protected

  • Was his attempt to pacify the Roman population during his reign

  • Was inspired by the Theodosian Code 

• It is sometimes called the “Summary”

Barbarian / Germanic Court Trials (All Facts) 

• Procedure done by oath-swearing

• If tat failed, this procedure was done by ordeal through fire and water

• To prevent vendettas, compensation was paid to the families of crime victims 

Edictum Rothari (All Facts)

• Edict issued by the namesake King of Lombardy which codified all the laws of the Lombards into Latin for the first time

Liber Ludiciorium (All Facts)

• Published by Recesswinth, it

  • Aimed to achieve complete equality between all subjects, both Hispano-Romans and Goths

  • Was the first territorial law code that applied to everyone regardless of racial and/or cultural differences

  • Replaced or rendered obsolete the Breviarium / Breviary of Alaric

Mayor of the Palace (All Facts)

• These were the real rulers of the Merovingian Franks behind the face of the increasingly ineffectual Merovingian Kings

Campus Martius (All Facts)

• Inspired by the equivalent Roman model, Charles Martel used this system to give his vassals confiscated Church land to keep them loyal to him, which greatly angered the priests of the Church

Denier (All Facts)

• Currency of the Franks that began in the 600s

Sceatta (All Facts)

• Small and silver coin used in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom until the invention and minting of the penny

Penny (All Facts)

• Silver coin minted in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom following the use of the Sceatta coin

• Minted in London, Kent and the Kingdom of East Angles, it imitates the deniers of the Franks in size and weight

• Sometimes, they showed influence of Roman imperial designs

• King Offa of Mercia had his name always featured on the namesake coinage

  • This represented the growing wealth of the Anglo-Saxons and their kingdoms and their growing number of trading contacts with the rest of Europe

Capitulary of Herstal (All Facts)

• Issued by Charlemagne, it included an edict attempting to enforce the payment of tithes by each man to the Church

Admonitio Generalis / General Reminder (All Facts)

• Issued by Charlemagne, it was a decree of his plans for the encouragement of learning throughout his dominion as part of a wider program to revive scholarship and education and culture and the arts

• Decree which led to Charlemagne and the Carolingian Franks having

  • Many of the most learned men in Europe come to his court in Aachen

  • Established a school for the education of his sons, young nobles, and talented poor boys

  • Encouraged the writing of books

  • Developed a standardized script that was being adopted by monastic scribes

  • Created an educated clergy with a proper understanding of the Bible and Christianity

Offa’s Dyke (All Facts)

• Massive 150-mile-long dyke constructed and completed during the reign of the namesake king to mark the border between the namesake ruler’s Kingdom of Mercia and the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms he conquered or subdued and the territories or kingdoms of the various Welsh groups

  • Extended from the Severn to the Dee Estuary

  • For long distances, it ran above the 1000-foot contour line

Partible Inheritance (All Facts)

• Frankish Kingdom custom to divide all controlled property between all direct male heirs in equal proportion

• Practiced by most of the Frankish rulers including Clovis and Charlemagne

Ordonatio Imperii (All Facts)

• Issued by Louis, it was a plan in which he divided up the Carolingian Empire between his multiple sons as per the Frankish tradition of Partible Inheritance, while simultaneously retaining its notional unity under a single emperor, which would be his son and successor

Education under Emperors Charlemagne and Louis of the Carolingian Empire (All Facts)

• During the namesake emperor’s reign, the Carolingian Empire

  • Offered an education for

    • Potential Clerics

    • The Aristocracy

    • Gifted Poor Children

  • Provided children education by

    • Giving them a good grounding in reading, writing, and math

    • Introducing them to Latin and rhetoric

    • Teaching them geometry, astronomy, and music

  • Provided ordinary folk education by delivering sermons by local priests in churches

    • This was the option for those who were not fortunate enough to attend a charitable school

Court of Aachen (All Facts)

• Court in which scholars under Louis of the Carolingian Empire performed specific tasks including

  • Tutoring his children

  • Serving as his religious advisors

Lingua Romana (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the language of early modern French, which Louis the German used to address Charles II’s (Gallic-speaking Frankish) army prior to the Battle of Fontenoy during the Carolingian Civil War

• Thus, this language became the basis for modern Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian (Romance languages)

Lingua Teudisca (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the language of early modern German, which Charles II used to address Louis the German’s (German) army prior to the Battle of Fontenoy during the Carolingian Civil War

• Thus, this language became the basis for modern German, English, and Dutch (Germanic languages)

• In (medieval) Latin, this term means “the people’s language” or “vernacular”

Burghs (All Facts)

• Defensive fortified towns created by King Alfred the Great of Wessex like Winchester and Buckingham to defend the Heptarchy against the Danes

Deutsch (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to the German language as German, first appearing in Saxony to distinguish the vernacular from the Latin used by Priests, around 786