Western kingdoms

Merovingian society under clovis

Clovis converts to Christianity and is able to gain his control through
annointing clovis, one of the fundamental struggles in mideval society,
the power of the church and the power of the state
this merovingian society is centered in gaul (france) and very roman in
a lot of ways
people continue to speak latin , but in isolation of rome- it gradually
changes to french
we start to see new centers of populations and relics
a recognition of people who are holy
St. Martin, a monk and a bishop of tour
st martin is from france
these relic sites also become centers of commerce
it is a world where most people live on the edge of survival
when th weather cools down it is a regular occurance
Christianity AND Classical Culture
in ireland in the fifth century patrick was born in england, idnapped and
sold into slaver, converts to christianity in ireland
trained as a priest
ireland was never part f rome so they don’t speak latin
irish begin preserving the perfect form of latin
ireland also doesn’t hav cities, its not an urban place
ireland is a clan society
benadictine way of life
in ireland these monks are not going to be so moderate, they are overtly concerned of
sin
they do something to prevent themselves from sinning
as communication gets better the irish an the english reconcile and have some difficul-
ties reconciling their versions of christianity
the irish are very committed to the idea of cnfession, the english were not
once reconciled the english and the irish begin prosteletyzin
Visgoths and lombards
from 711 to 1492 we have portions of spain and portugal dominated by muslims,
it is tolerant of all religions though
another source of tension is going to be tension between the east and the
west
the byzantines consider themselves the heirs of the roman empires, the patriarch
claims authority over all christians
The pope in rome sees himself as the heir of st peteer and the ruler of all chris-
tians
the pope is a relatively weak charater
the carolongians come after the marovingians as a frankish aristocracy
 the name comes from charle Martel, he is the wone who defeats the muslim
forces in 732 @ portier
around 750 the carolingian empire is founded and charlemagne comes to power
in 768 who represents the height of carolinigian power and he is seen as the model ro-
man empire
he conquered a lot of land taking over militarily ad conversions that were forced,
make them christians and will educate them later
tries to unify kingdom by sending out Missi which are beareaucrats and make
sure people are following the law
one of the principle features of a government is to administer law, but it fails
the papacy is also struggling, they are trying to establish themselves as a legitimate
authority
they use a forged document called the donation of constantine, that supposedly
ceeded all of constantine’s land and pwer to the church
at the same timee the church still does not have an army
pope leo has himself in a bit of trouble he is an adulturer and liar
so pope leo turns to charlemagne for help
charlemagne comes into rome also in 799. on christmas day i the tyear
800, charlemagne the pope crowns him as the ruler of the franks and lobards this is
very symbolic of the church and the state
the pope needs charlemagne because he needs to control all of the hristians and he
can’t even protect his own tongue..
in cahrlemagne’s coronation it is divine, and therefore its legitimacy cannot be ques-
tioned
this is the beginning of the early holy roman empire
charlemagne also oversees the carolingian renaissance he wants to complete old texts
and did a lot of ork in terms of supporting people
what happens is that it doesn’t last that long
there is tradition among the franks that land should be divided equally among three
eldest mails
crummy idea eventually it gets divided and weakened one of the consequences
is that that law is changed
we also have other forces of dissentegration are vikings who go everywhere and rape
pillage and steal and they are an incredible source of instability and carolingians are
discredited. in the 9th century we see a group of vikiings who want to settle in france,
the present king cnnot protect his people, they strike a deal to protect parisans. “Nor-
mans” culturally distinct from the other inhabitants of france
things get really bad again
after the fall of the carolingians comes the dark ages 875-975 people are reduced to
thinking about very basic needs, no sense of security or real control
people are forced to find way to organixe ife