Martha
Raup 1/28/06 HIST 04B Foothill College-Dr. Konnilyn Feig

8.
Emergence of a Distinctly European Society.

It is said that between 733, when the Muslims were defeated at Tours, and the division of
Charlemagne's empire in 843, a distinctly European society emerged. Three of
the main developments of this new society were Charlemagne's empire, the rise
of feudalism, and an intellectual revival.

Discuss this new Europe by describing each of
these developments.

Was this a unique new society?

In what ways was this society different from that of Roman times?

What Distinguishes a Society from Another?

Societies are held together by the glue of a unifying
culture, the cement of common necessities and environment, and the spirit of
common purposes.  European society
in the Middle Ages achieved that acme of success.  With the expansion and consolidation of
Charlemagne’s Carolingian Empire, the emergence and eventual prosperity
of feudalism, and the revival of intellectual endeavors and aspirations, the
mingling and marauding tribes of Europe
coalesced into a clearly-distinguishable society of
“Europeans”.  That
identity, of course, was not how it was experienced by the Medieval Europeans,
for they did not know such a society existed.  Yet just as one can see a city from high
in the sky when the residents may only perceive a series of neighborhoods, just
so the distance of time allows us to see a picture of what prevailed in that
era and rightly conclude that, “Yes, a European society existed.”  And, we can say with a fair amount of
security that that new society emerged in the time period from 733, when the
Muslims were defeated at the Battle of Tours and the division of
Charlemagne’s empire to his 3 grandson’s in 843.

What is Distinctive about Europe
in the Middle Ages?

Europe in the 700s was a
collection of tribal units, with different languages, coinage, customs,
religions, institutions – and they differed one from another in just any
way imaginable!  Just reading the
text and discovering there were Angles and Jutes, Franks and Saxons, Gauls and
Lombardians and Bergundians, Ostrogoths and Visigoths, Vandals and Vikings
– it’s enough to make one’s head spin!  And that’s only the short list!!  This co-existence of multiple ethnic and
cultural entities was a far different situation than what existed under the Romans. Not only were there different cultures, but their
modus operandi was fundamentally oppositional.  For instance, some of the believers were
Catholic Christians, some were Arian Christians, and many others not Christian
at all!  In fact, the accusation
that they were “pagan”, or “barbarian”, just means they
were not acceptable at all (to the culture doing the name-calling)!

What are the 3 Main Characteristics of European Society in
the Middle Ages?

Charlemagne’s Empire

First, the Bad News

Charlemagne entered into this lion’s den and added
order to chaos, and harmony to dissonance.
Or at least that’s how the simple story goes.  In many ways, Charlemagne simply carried
on the terror tactics of his Grandfather, Charles “the Hammer”
Martel.  He subdued the tribes
around him, and he dominated the cultures in ways unimaginable to any modern
leader.  He
“Christianized” the pagans, he defeated the Saxons and Bergundians,
he crushed the Lombardians, invaded the land of the Bavarians, and…  Well, the point is made: in many ways,
he was not a nice man (certainly not to those who stood in his way!).

Now, Let’s Have Some GOOD
News

And yet, there was a “softer” side to Charles the
Great, and even, perhaps, a hidden genius.

Learning and Literacy Expanded

He was interested in learning, and preserving the Roman
culture.  “For the most part,
the rival of classical studies and the efforts to preserve Latin culture took
place in the monasteries, many of which had been established by the Irish and
English missionaries of the seventh and eight centuries.”[1] He
fostered the activities of the monks in creating scriptoria where they copied
Latin classical manuscripts. Charlemagne himself spoke Latin, and understood
some Greek. And he encouraged the spread of a new script, the Carolingian minuscule,
which made it easier to read and write.
Charlemagne, it was said, learned to read as an adult, but never learned
to write very well.[2]  However, he had learned from his mother
Bertha, and he passed on his intellectual interests to create what some say was
a Carolingian
Renaissance.  He
brought the learned monastic scholar Einhard
to his court in the early 790s, and this monk later served his son Louis the
Pious as private secretary.

Empire United

Administratively, Charlemagne allowed local tribes to decide
internal matters according to their own customs.  However, he knew the dangers of simply
conquering territory and tribes and then delegating power and authority.  “In an effort to gain greater
control over his kingdom, Charlemagne attempted to limit the power of the counts.  They were required to serve outside
their own family lands and were moved about periodically…”[3]  To maintain control over his vast
domain, Charles issued many capitularies
(rules and regulations!), and sent personal representatives known as missi dominici at least once a year to
all parts of the kingdom.

Economy Increased

It’s true that King Charles appropriated all the lands
of the realm for himself.  But he
was apparently very wise about “giving it away” – to the
right people, and in the right way, such that order was maintained, and a
system existed that clearly delineated who owns what, and who dominates
whom.  I’m not saying I would
have liked to live in this land that he subdued!  However, as an outsider, and with the
advantage of “past-sight”, I can admire the administration of his
kingdom.  Certainly the effects were
felt for many years.

Innovations A-Plenty

Along with King Offa of Mercia (in today’s England), “Charlemagne did
away with the monetary system based on the gold sou…”[4]
and set up a new monetary system, minting silver “pennies”.  In this way he standardized the money (a
process with the Euro the continent is just getting back to!), and unified the
empire economically.

SOMETHING ELSE!

Roman Empire Emulated

“It would appear that Charlemagne and his advisors had
it in their mind to recreate the power, prestige, and culture of the Western Roman Empire.”  So says Lynn Harry Nelson in an
interesting conversation about the Carolingian Empire.[5]  He asserts that Charlemagne and the Carolingians
did this in at least 5 ways:

Encouraged the growth of a local land-owning
aristocracy, with his appointed “margraves, counts, and dukes to
place some limits on this autonomy.”

Considered the King as “the steward of the
people of the realm.”

Issued orders and standards throughout the realm
via capitularies, and established traveling inspectors, the missi dominici, “to determine
whether his orders were being observed and whether local officials were
discharging their duties properly.”

Established a common currency, the silver penny,
and ensured it matched the value of the Muslim coinage, thereby
encouraging trade.

Strengthened the Frankish army by engaging them
in regular campaigns, and involving them in the conquering of lands that
they must then defend.

Ideological Battles Won

To my mind, the most extraordinary endeavor of Charlemagne
was how he won the hearts and minds of the populace unconsciously.  Two things stand out in what I’ve
read:

He established his capital in Aachen,
an old rest-and-rehabilitation location used by the Roman army on the Rhine, and the palace he placed there resembled the
old Roman palaces, whose ruins still lay around the countryside.

He built his palace chapel along the same lines
as the San Vitale church in Ravenna, the
scene of the overthrow of the Roman Empire
so many years ago.  He even
“imported Roman columns and marbles with which to build it”!

Truly, this was an extraordinary individual.  But, that’s just the problem!  When he died, there was no one to carry
on in quite the same capacity.
Sure, he left the lineage intact.
His son Louis the Pious passed it on to his three sons.  However, when Louis passed on, the lands
were split amongst his 3 sons, as was the Frankish custom.  Lothair got Italy,
Louis the German got Bavaria, and Charles the
Bald got Aquitaine.  But this Treaty of Verdun in 843 was
after some internecine rivalry that brought back shades of the past!

The Rise of Feudalism

This topic has been discussed in response to Section I.  Suffice it to say, any economic system
which operated at such a grand scale as the lands left behind by Charlemagne
was bound to be a unifying factor for years to come.  In a way, though, this is almost as much
an indication of the failures of Charlemagne’s term of office as it was
of his successes.  For had he
constructed a system, or what we would call a “state”, then the
vassals and knights would not necessarily have been subjected to the need of  forming personal bonds between one
another (even though it was for mutual benefit!).

The Revival of Intellectual
Endeavors

It feels like this essay answer has gone on long enough, so
I will present just a summary conclusion.
Already I’ve noted the emergence of monastic endeavors and
educational enterprises that re-vitalized the European Empire that Charlemagne
molded.  Here I’ll simply
quote the article from Answers.com: “Charlemagne’s court at Aachen was the center of
an intellectual renaissance.  The
palace school, under the leadership of Alcuin, became famous; numerous schools
for children of all classes were also established through the empire during
Charlemagne’s reign.  The
preservation of classical literature was aided by his initiatives.  Prominent figures of the Carolingian
renaissance included “Paul the Deacon and Einhard.”[6]  Later on, the article goes on to say
that the “pan-European nature of Charlemagne’s influence is
indicated by the origins of many of the men who worked for him: Alcuin, an
Anglo-Saxon; Theodult, a Visigoth; Paul the Deacon, a Lombard; and Angilbert
and Einhard, Franks.”[7] Reading
that sentence reminded me of the current best-seller by Doris Kearns Goodwin about
Lincoln called
the Team of Rivals.  It seems Charlemagne had some of the
same qualities of emotional intelligence and personal perspicacity as our own
beloved Abe Lincoln!

Was this a unique new society?

Here I need not go
into detail.  I’ll simply show
three map images that tell the tale:

The Migrations of Europe
in the 4th and 5th Centuries

The Frankish Empire in 814,

At Charlemagne’s Death

The European Continent in 880,

After the Treaties of Verdun and Mersen

Charlemagne
inherited an Empire of tribes, and turned it into a Empire of Europe.  History is only now returning to the
dream he set out so long ago – but it’s being achieved now in a
manner far more to our liking!

In what ways was this society different from that of Roman times?

It seems the most
significant difference between the Pax Roma and Holy Roman
Empire is that the one carried on for generations, and the other was
gobbled up in decades.  The source
of trouble lies in the fundamental difference between the two societies: one
was an administrative, even hierarchical system, and the other was a personal
achievement, miraculous though it may have been.  It kind of reminds me of the fate of
most small businesses – it’s only the rare one-third that gets
passed on to the next generation, and fewer than 1 in a dozen (figuratively
speaking, for I’m no expert!) get past the third.  Such is the limit of personalized
endeavors.  Without the charismatic
individual, the followers, no matter how dedicated or able, are likely to fail
at the task at hand.  Just look at
how the “Christians” mangled their faith of their fathers!  Conversion by decimation and conformity
by Inquisition can hardly qualify as a civilizing, much less a Christianizing
influence!

In spite of all
this, and barbarians, plagues, and vandals, somehow the human race has
survived.  I think individuals such
as Charlemagne are inevitable in human history.  I just hope we can learn to improve upon
his personal model, and implement smarter systems of governance.  And I hope it doesn’t take as long
as the European example!

I can not end
without mentioning the crowning of Charles in 800 by Pope Leo III, for a symbolic
and significant unification between the secular and spiritual realms.  E.L. Skip Knox from Boise
State University says, “…the coronation of Charlemagne marks the
beginning of ‘European history’ in the strict sense, for only now
do we begin to have something like a Europe.  The people of the Middle Ages called it
Christendom, a term that could include or exclude the East depending on the
usage.  But it is the immediate
ancestor to Europe.”[8]  We are all the inheritors of this legacy
and the influence of the reign of Charlemagne lives on yet today.

[1] Western Civilization, A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 by: Spielvogel, Jackson J;  Thompson Learning, Inc, Belmont CA,
2005. p 138.

[2] “Life
of Charlemagne by Einhard, in Medieval Sourcebook at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/einhard1.html.  Accessed 1/19/06

[3]
Spielvogel, p. 136.

[4]
Wikipedia, “Charlemagne”.

[5]
“The Carolingian Empire”, at http://www.ku.edu/kansas/medieval/108/lectures/carolingian_empire.html.  Accessed 1/27/06.

[6]
Wikipedia, p. 3

[7] Ibid, p.
7.

[8]
“The Carolingian Empire: Significance of the Coronation,” by E .L.
Skip Knox, http://history.boisestate.edu/westciv/charles/21.shtml.
Accessed 1/19/06.