Carolingian Empire

Overview

The Carolingian Empire was the Frankish realm at its greatest extent, ruled by the dynasty descended from Charles Martel. Its foundational moment was the imperial coronation of Charlemagne (Charles the Great) by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800 in Rome, reviving a Western Roman imperial title. At its height around 814 the empire covered approximately 1.2 million km² with a population estimated between 10 and 20 million. The capitals were principally Aachen (Charlemagne's favored residence) and Metz.

Charlemagne (king 768, emperor 800–814) conquered the Lombard Kingdom (774), subjugated the Saxons in decades of brutal warfare, annexed Bavaria (788), and destroyed the Avar Khaganate. He was succeeded by his son Louis the Pious (814–840), whose reign saw the Ordinatio Imperii of 817, an attempt to regulate the succession by making the eldest son Lothair co-emperor while giving subordinate kingdoms to his brothers. The birth of a fourth son, Charles the Bald, by Louis's second wife Judith upset this arrangement and triggered a series of civil wars from 829 onward.

After Louis's death in 840, the empire descended into roughly three years of civil war, culminating in the Treaty of Verdun (10 August 843), which Britannica describes as "the first stage in the dissolution of the empire of Charlemagne." It partitioned the empire among Louis's three surviving sons: Lothair I received the imperial title and Francia Media (Middle Francia); Louis the German received Francia Orientalis (East Francia), the land east of the Rhine; and Charles the Bald received Francia Occidentalis (West Francia). This was the first of four partition treaties (followed by Prüm 855, Meerssen 870, and Ribemont 880). The empire was briefly reunited under Charles the Fat (emperor from 881, ruling all Carolingian kingdoms by 884), but his perceived incompetence — notably his failure against the Vikings besieging Paris — led to his deposition by the nobility on 17 November 887; he died in 888. The empire immediately fractured, with regional nobles electing non-Carolingian or, in the east, illegitimate Carolingian kings.

Legacy

The Carolingian Renaissance revived learning, standardized the Latin liturgy, developed Caroline minuscule script, and set the template for medieval European kingship and the later Holy Roman Empire.