Germanic Kingdoms

Small Germanic kingdoms replaced Roman provinces.
The borders of these kingdoms changed constantly due to war.
The Church as an institution survived the fall of the Roman Empire, providing order and security.

Roman society was unified by loyalty to public government and written law.
Germanic society was held together by family ties and personal loyalty, rather than citizenship.
They lived in small communities governed by unwritten rules and traditions.
Every Germanic chief led a band of warriors who pledged loyalty to him.
In peacetime, warriors lived in their lord's hall.
The lord provided warriors with food, weapons, and treasure.
Warriors fought to the death for their lord.
Germanic warriors felt no obligation to a king they didn't know and would not accept taxation from a distant emperor.
The Germanic emphasis on personal ties made it impossible to establish orderly government for large territories.

In the Roman province of Gaul, the Franks, led by Clovis, held power.
Clovis brought Christianity to the region.
His wife, Clothilde, convinced him to convert to Christianity.
In 496, Clovis appealed to God before a battle, promising to believe if he was delivered from his enemies.
The Franks won the battle, and Clovis and 3,000 of his warriors were baptized.
The Church in Rome supported Clovis's military campaigns against other Germanic peoples.
By 511, Clovis had unified all Franks.
His partnership with the Church initiated a powerful alliance.

By the 600s, the Church, with the help of the Franks, had converted many Germanic people.
New converts settled in Rome's former lands.
Missionaries traveled and spread Christianity, often risking their lives.
In southern Europe, fear of Muslim coastal attacks spurred people to become Christians.
The Church built monasteries to adapt to rural conditions.
Monasteries were home to monks, Christian men who gave up private possessions to serve God.
Women lived in convents and were called nuns.
Benedict, an Italian monk, wrote a book describing rules for monasteries.
Benedict’s sister, Scholastica, headed a convent and adapted the same rules for women.
These guidelines became a model for religious communities in western Europe.

In 590, Gregory I (Gregory the Great) became pope.
He broadened the authority of the papacy (pope’s office) beyond its spiritual role.
The papacy became a secular power involved in politics.
Gregory used church revenues to raise armies, repair roads, and help the poor.
He believed his responsibility extended from Italy to England and from Spain to Germany.
Gregory strengthened the vision of Christendom, a spiritual kingdom from Rome to distant churches.
This idea of a churchly kingdom ruled by a pope became a central theme of the Middle Ages.

By 700, the major domo (mayor of the palace) had become the most powerful person in the Frankish kingdom.
Officially in charge of the royal household and estates, unofficially he led armies and made policy, essentially ruling the kingdom.
Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer) (719):
- Mayor of the palace (more powerful than the king).
- Expanded the reign of the Franks north, south, and east.
- Defeated Muslim raiders from Spain at the Battle of Tours in 732.
  - Significant for Christian Europeans because if Charles had lost, Islam might have spread across all of Europe.
  - This victory made him a Christian hero.
When Charles died, he passed his power to his son, Pepin the Short.
- Pepin planned to become king and cooperated with the pope to win favor.
- Pepin agreed to fight the Lombards, who had invaded central Italy and threatened Rome, on behalf of the Church.
- In exchange, the pope anointed Pepin “king by the grace of God.”
- This began the Carolingian Dynasty, which ruled the Franks from 751 to 987.

Pepin died in 768 and left his kingdom to his two sons, Carloman and Charles.
Carloman died in 771, and Charles adopted the name Charlemagne (Charles the Great).
- He was an imposing figure, standing at over 6 foot 4 inches, while the average height of men at the time was 5 foot 8 inches.
Charlemagne extended Frankish rule.
- Built an empire greater than any since ancient Rome.
- Fought Muslims in Spain and tribes from other Germanic Kingdoms.
- Conquered new lands to the south and east.
- Spread Christianity as he conquered.
- By 800, Charlemagne’s empire was larger than the Byzantine Empire.
In 800, Charlemagne traveled to Rome to crush an unruly mob that had attacked the pope.
The pope crowned Charlemagne emperor in gratitude.
- A pope claimed the political right to confer the title “Roman Emperor” on a European king.
- This event signaled the joining of Germanic power, the Church, and the heritage of the Roman Empire.

Charlemagne strengthened his royal power by limiting the authority of the nobles.
- He sent out royal agents to ensure that the powerful landholders, called counts, governed their counties justly.
One of his greatest accomplishments was the encouragement of learning.
- He surrounded himself with scholars.
- He opened a palace school for his children.
- He also ordered monasteries to open schools to train future monks and priests.

Charlemagne named his only surviving son, Louis the Pious, as his heir a year before his death.
Louis was devoutly religious but not an effective leader.
Louis left three sons: Lothair, Charles the Bald, and Louis the German.
- They fought to gain control of Europe.
- In 843, they signed the Treaty of Verdun, dividing the empire into three kingdoms.
- Carolingian kings lost power, and central authority broke down.
- The lack of strong rulers led to feudalism.

The division of the Frankish realms resulted in:
- Charles the Bald's Kingdom
- Ludwig the German's Kingdom
- Lothair l's Kingdom
- Independent Territories