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Carolingian DynastyBrief Historical Summary
The name Carolingian comes from Charles Martel, who defeated the Moors at Poitiers in 732. The dynasty's most prominent member is Charlemagne. The dynasty is usually considered to have been founded by Arnulf of Metz, Bishop of Metz in the late 7th century, who wielded a great deal of power and influence in the Merovingian kingdoms. Pippin of Herstal, Mayor of the Palace of the Kingdom of Austrasia, was succeeded by his son Charles Martel as Mayor, who in turn was the father of Pippin III. Pippin had become king after having used his position as Mayor to garner support among many of the leading Franks, as well as Pope Zacharias, in order to depose the last Merovingian king, Childeric in 751. Charlemagne, Pippin's son, became King of the Franks in 768 and was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800. After the division of the empire among Charlemagne's three grandsons in the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the Carolingians initially continued to hold the throne in all three sections that were created. In the West, which was the nucleus of later France, they continued to be the ruling dynasty until a minor branch of the family, the Capetians, ascended the French throne in 987.
Carolingian Rulers
Pepin III (714 - September 24, 768) was a King of the Franks (751-768). He was born in 714 in Jupille, in what is today part of Belgium, but then a part of the kingdom of Austrasia. His father was Charles Martel, Mayor of the Austrasian Palace, and his mother was Chrotrud (690-724). In 740 Pepin married Bertrada of Laon. Of their children, two sons and one daughter survived to adulthood. Charles / Charlemagne (April 2, 747 - January 28, 814) Carloman (751 - December 4, 771) Redburga On the death of Pepin's father, Charles Martel, in 741, power was passed down to Charles' legimitate sons, Pepin and Carloman. Power may also have been intended for Charles' illegitimate son, Grifo, but he was imprisoned in a monastery by his two half-brothers. Carloman retired to a monastery in 747. This left France in the hands of Pepin as mayor for the Merovingian King Childeric III. Childeric had the title of King but Pepin had control over orders and actually had the power of the king. Pepin then went to ask the Pope who should be complete ruler; the person with the title of king, or the person who makes the decisions of king. The Pope agreed that the decision making was more important than the title. He succeeded in obtaining the support of the papacy, which helped to discourage opposition. He was elected King of the Franks by an assembly of the Frankish leading-men and anointed at Soissons, perhaps by Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz. During his reign, Pepin III's conquests gave him more power than anyone since the days of King Clovis. He added to that power after Pope Stephen II traveled to Paris to anoint King Pepin in a lavish ceremony at Saint Denis Basilica, bestowing upon him the additional title of Patrician of the Romans. As life expectancies were short in those days, and Pepin wanted family continuity, the Pope also anointed Pepin's sons, Charles (eventually known as Charlemagne) and Carloman.
Pepin's first major act was to go to war against the Lombard king Aistulf as a partial repayment for papal support in his quest for the crown. Victorious, he forced the Lombard king to return property seized from the church. In 759, he drove the Saracens out of France with the capture of Narbonne and then consolidated his power further by making Aquitaine a part of his kingdom. Pepin III died at Saint Denis in 768 and is interred there in the Saint Denis Basilica with his wife Bertrada.
Charlemagne (c. 742 or 747 � January 28, 814) was king of the Franks from 771 to 814, nominally King of the Lombards, and Holy Roman Emperor � Imperator and Augustus. Charlemagne's birthday was believed to be April 1, 742.
Arguably the founder of the Frankish Empire in Western Europe, Charlemagne was the elder son of Pepin the Short (714 � September 24, 768, reigned 751 � 768) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (720 � July 12, 783); he was the brother of the Lady Bertha mother of Roland. On the death of Pepin the kingdom was divided between Charlemagne and his brother Carloman. Carloman died on the 5th of December, 771, leaving Charlemagne the leader of a reunified Frankish kingdom. Charlemagne was engaged in almost constant battle throughout his reign. He conquered Saxony in the 8th century, a goal that had been the unattainable dream of Augustus. It took Charlemagne more than 18 battles to win this victory. He proceeded to force Catholicism on the conquered, slaughtering those who refused to convert. He dreamed of the reconquest of Spain, but never fully succeeded in this goal. In 797 (801?) the caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, gave Emperor Charlemagne the first historically recorded elephant in northern Europe. In 800, at Mass on Christmas day in Rome, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Imperator Romanorum (Emperor of the Romans), a title that had been out of use in the West since the abdication of Romulus Augustulus in 476. When Charlemagne died in 814, he was buried in his own Cathedral at Aachen. He was succeeded by his only son, Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's reign is often referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance because of the flowering of scholarship, literature, art and architecture. Most of the surviving works of classical Latin were copied and preserved by Carolingian scholars.
Louis the Pious, also known as Louis I, (April 16, 778 � June 20, 840) was Emperor and King of the Franks from 814 to 840. Born in Casseuil-sur-Garonne, in today's Gironde, France. The second son of Charlemagne, Louis was crowned king of Aquitaine as a child and sent there with regents and a court to rule in order to quiet rebellions which were forming after Charlemagne's defeat by the Moors in Spain. When Charlemagne's other sons Pepin (810) and Charles (811) died, he was crowned co-emperor with Charlemagne in 813. On his father's death in 814, he inherited the entire Frankish kingdom and all its possessions.He was crowned emperor by Pope Stephen V in Reims in 816. Shortly after his accession, he secured his position as emperor in a "moral purge," in which he sent all of his illegitimate half-brothers to monasteries and all of his unmarried sisters to nunneries. Louis used Benedict of Aniane, a Visigothic nobleman and monastic founder to help him reform the Frankish church. One of Benedict's primary reforms was to ensure that all religious houses in Louis' realm adhered to the Rule of St Benedict, named for its creator, Benedict of Nursia (AD 480-550).
In 817, Louis laid out plans for an orderly succession by dividing the empire between his three sons from his first marriage with Ermengarde: Lothar (who was crowned king of Italy and co-emperor), Pepin of Aquitaine (king of Aquitaine) and Louis the German (king of Bavaria). After Ermengarde's death, he remarried with Judith of Bavaria and had a fourth son, Charles, in 823. Louis' attempts to add Charles to his will met with the stiff resistance of his older sons, and the last decade of his reign was marked by civil war. In 829, he stripped Lothar of his position of co-emperor and banished him to Italy. In 830, the three brothers invaded their father's lands, forcing him to abdicate in favor of Lothar. Louis the Pious returned to power the next year and stripped Lothar not only of imperial title, but also of the kingdom of Italy, which he bestowed on Charles. Pepin revolted, followed by Louis the German in 832, and Lothar, with the support of Pope Gregory IV, joined the revolt in 833. The brothers defeated their father and imprisoned him along with Charles. Judith was sent to a nunnery, while Pepin and Louis the German both annexed formerly imperial lands. In 835, however, the family made peace and restored Louis to the imperial throne. When Pepin died in 838, Louis the Pious declared Charles the new king of Aquitaine. The nobles, however, elected Pepin's son Pepin II. When Louis died in 840, the dispute plunged the brothers into a civil war that was only settled in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun (843) which split the Frankish realm into three parts. Charles I (823-877), Holy Roman Emperor and king of the West Franks, was the son of the emperor Louis the Pious and his second wife Judith. He was born when his elder brothers were already adults who had been assigned their subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made by Louis the Pious to assign Charles a kingdom, at the expense of his half-brothers Lothair and Louis led to conflict against the emperor. The death of Louis I in 840 was followed by war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist Lothar. The war was brought to an end by the treaty of Verdun in August 843. The settlement gave Charles I the kingdom of the western Franks, which practically corresponded with what is now France, as far as the Meuse, the Sa�ne and the Rhone, with the addition of the Spanish March as far as the Ebro. The first years of Charles' reign, up to the death of Lothar I in 855, were comparatively peaceful. In 858, Louis the German, pressured by disaffected nobles to oust Charles, invaded the western Frankish kingdom. Charles' reign was so unpopular that he was unable to summon an army, and he fled to Burgundy. He was saved only by the help of the bishops, who refused to crown Louis king, and by the fidelity of the Welfs, who were related to his mother, Judith. In 860 he in his turn tried to seize the kingdom of his nephew, Charles of Provence, but was defeated. On the death of his nephew Lothar II in 869, Charles tried to seize Lothar's dominions, but by the treaty of Meerssen (870) was compelled to share them with Louis the German. In 875, after the death of the emperor Louis II, Charles I, supported by Pope John VIII, traveled to Italy, receiving the royal crown at Pavia and the imperial crown at Rome. Louis the German, who was also a candidate for the succession of Louis II, revenged himself for Charles's success by invading and devastating his lands. Charles was recalled to Francia and stayed there until the death of Louis. John VIII, who was menaced by the Saracens, continued to urge Charles to come to Italy. Charles again crossed the Alps, but died while crossing the pass of the Mont Cenis on the 5th or 6th of October 877. Charles was succeeded by his son, Louis. Louis the Stammerer (November 1, 846 � April 10, 879), also known as Louis II and Louis le Begue, was the son of Charles I and Ermentrude of Orl�ans. He married three wives and had four children. He and his first wife, Ansgarde of Burgundy, had two sons, Louis III and Carloman, both of whom were Kings of France. With his second wife, Adelaide Judith of Paris, had one daughter, Ermentrude, Princess of the West Franks. He and his third wife, Luitgrade of Saxony, had one son, Charles III, King of France, King of West Franks. Louis the Stammerer was said to be physically weak and outlived his father by only two years. He had almost no impact on politics. On his death his realms were divided between two of his sons, Carloman and Louis III. Louis III (c. 863 - August 5, 882) was king of France from 879 to 882. The son of Louis II and Ansgarde, he succeeded in 879 along with his brother Carloman. Out of the following partition of the country, Louis got Francia and Neustria. He achieved a victory against the Normans pirates at Saucourt-en-Vimeu, in 881. When he died without heir at Saint Denis in 882, his brother was left sole regent.
Carloman (died December 12, 884), king of Western Francia, was the eldest son of King Louis the Stammerer, and became king, together with his brother Louis III, on his father's death in 879. Although some doubts were cast upon their legitimacy, the brothers obtained recognition and in 880 made a division of the kingdom, Carloman receiving Burgundy and the southern part of France. In 882 upon the death of his brother Louis III, Carloman became sole king. Carloman met his death while hunting on December 12, 884.
Charles II also know as "the Fat" (c. 832�January 13, 888) was a King of France and Holy Roman Emperor. He was the son of Louis the German. Granted lordship over Swabia in 876, he became King of Italy in 879 upon the abdication of his older brother Carloman. Crowned Emperor in 881, his succession to the Kingdom of Saxony the following year reunited the entire Kingdom of the East Franks (Germany). Upon the death of Carloman, the King of the West Franks (France), on December 12, 884, he achieved that throne as well, thus reviving, if only briefly, the entire Carolingian Empire, aside from Burgundy.
His rise to power was accompanied by hopes of a general revival in western Europe, but he proved unequal to the task. Lethargic and inept�he is known to have had repeated illnesses which are believed to have been epilepsy�he conducted several unsuccessful expeditions in Italy against Saracen incursions, and purchased peace with Viking raiders in Paris in 886. Late in 887, a nephew, Arnulf, fomented a general rebellion and seized Germany in November. Charles did nothing to prevent the move and, retiring to Neidingen, died two months later, on January 13, 888. His empire broke apart. Arnulf retained Germany and Lotharingia, France was then ruled by Odo, Count of Paris. Odo (or Eudes) (c. 860 - January 1, 898) was a king of the Franks (888 - 898). He was a son of Robert the Strong, count of Anjou, and is sometimes referred to as duke of France and also as count of Paris. For his skill and bravery in resisting the attacks of the Normans, Odo was chosen king by the western Franks when the emperor Charles the Fat was deposed in 887, and was crowned at Compi�gne in February 888. He continued to battle against the Normans, whom he defeated at Montfaucon and elsewhere, but was soon involved in a struggle with some powerful nobles, who supported the claim of Charles, afterwards King Charles III, to the Frankish kingdom. To gain prestige and support Odo became a vassal of the German king, Arnulf of Carinthia, but in 894 Arnulf supported Charles. Eventually, after a struggle which lasted for three years, Odo was compelled to come to terms with his rival, and to surrender to him a district north of the Seine. He died at La F�re on January 1, 898.
Charles III "the Simple" (September 17, 879 - October 7, 929) ruled as King of France from 898 to 922. The posthumous son of King Louis II of France and Adelaide, Charles married Frederonne who died in 917 and he then married Eadgifu, the daughter of King Edward I of England, on October 7, 919. As a child, Charles was prevented from succeeding to the throne at the time of the death in 884 of his half-brother Carloman or at the time Charles the Fat was deposed in 887 after he had succeeded Carloman. Instead, Odo, Count of Paris, succeeded Charles the Fat. Nonetheless, Charles became king at the death of Odo in 898. The kingdom of Charles the Simple was almost identical with today's France, but he was obliged to concede what would become known as Normandy to the invading Norsemen. In 922 some of the barons revolted and crowned Robert I, brother of Odo, king. In 923, at the battle of Soissons, King Robert was killed, but Charles was also defeated. Rudolph, Duke of Burgundy was elected king, and Charles III was imprisoned. Charles III died on October 7, 929, in prison at P�ronne, Somme, France and was buried there at the L'abbaye de St-Fursy. His son with Eadgifu would eventually be crowned King Louis IV of France. Robert I (c. 865 - June 15, 923), king of France, was the younger son of Robert the Strong, count of Anjou, and the brother of Odo, or Eudes, who became king of the western Franks in 888. Appointed by Odo ruler of several counties, including the county of Paris, and abbot in commendam of many abbeys, Robert also secured the office of duke of the Franks, a military dignity of high importance. He did not claim the crown of France when his brother died in 898; but recognizing the supremacy of the Carolingian king, Charles III, the Simple, he was confirmed in his offices and possessions, after which he continued to defend northern France from the attacks of the Normans. The peace between the king and his powerful vassal was not seriously disturbed until about 921. The rule of Charles, and especially his partiality for a certain Hagano, had aroused some irritation; and, supported by many of the clergy and by some of the most powerful of the Frankish nobles, Robert took up arms, drove Charles into Lorraine, and was himself crowned king of the Franks at Reims on June 29, 922. Collecting an army, Charles marched against the usurper, and on June 15 923, in a battle near Soissons, Robert was killed. Robert left a son, Hugh the Great, duke of the Franks, and his grandson was Hugh Capet, king of France.
Raoul> or Ralph or Rudolph of Burgundy (died January 15, 936) was duke of Burgundy between 921/923 and King of Western Francia from this date to his death. Rudolph inherited the duchy of Burgundy from his father, Richard of Autun, but was elected king of France in 923, by an assembly of nobles, to substitute Robert I of France. Assuming the crown, he passed Burgundy to his younger brother, Hugh the Black, after only two years as duke. He married Emma of Paris, sister of Hugh Capet, count of Paris, but had no known descendants.
Louis IV King of France 936 to 954, was born September 10, 920 at Laon, Aisne, France, the son of King Charles III and Princess Eadgifu of England. He was only three years old when his mother took him "over the sea" to the safety of England after his father was imprisoned. On the death of his father in 936, Louis was summoned back to France and crowned king. Effectively, his sovereignty was limited to the town of Laon and to some places in the north of France, Louis displayed a keenness beyond his years in obtaining the recognition of his authority by his feuding nobles. Nonetheless, his reign was filled with conflict in particular with Hugh the Great, count of Paris. In 939 Louis became involved in a struggle with the Emperor Otto the Great on the question of Lorraine, but then married Otto's sister Gerberge (914�May 5, 984), Princess of Germany and they had two sons and a daughter. King Louis IV died September 10, 954 at Reims, Marne, France and is interred there at Saint-Remi Cathedral. He was succeeded by his son Lothair.
Lothair (941-986), king of France, son of Louis IV, succeeded his father in 954, and was at first under the guardianship of Hugh the Great, duke of the Franks, and then under that of his maternal uncle Bruno, archbishop of Cologne. The beginning of his reign was occupied with wars against the vassals, particularly against the duke of Normandy. Lothair then seems to have conceived the design of recovering Lorraine. He attempted to precipitate matters by a sudden attack, and in the spring of 978 nearly captured the emperor Otto II at Aix-la-Chapelle. Otto took his revenge in the autumn by invading France. He penetrated as far as Paris, devastating the country through which he passed, but failed to take the town, and was forced to retreat with heavy loss. Peace was concluded in 980 at Margut-sur-Chiers, and in 983 Lothair was even chosen guardian to the young Otto III. Towards 980, however, Lothair quarrelled with Hugh the Great's son, Hugh Capet, who, at the instigation of Adalberon, archbishop of Reims, became reconciled with Otto III. Lothair died on the March 2, 986.
King Louis V of France (ca. 967 � May 21, 987) is also known as Louis le Fain�ant ("Louis Do-Nothing", pron. "loo-ee leuh feh-ney-ahnt"), Louis the Indolent, and Louis the Sluggard. The son of the Frankish king Lothair and his wife Emma, a daughter of the King of Italy, Louis was crowned in June of 979 but did not actually assume power until Lothair's death in 986. Louis V was the last Carolingian king of France and reigned in Laon from March 2, 986 until his own death, at the age of 20, in 987. It may be because he reigned for only one year that medieval biographers awarded him the title "qui nihil fecit" -- "who did nothing". He inherited a battle between his father's line of elected kings, which had been interrupted twice by the Robertian kings, and the house of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. As defender of Rome, Otto had the power to name the clergy in Carolingian territory, and the clergy he had named were not supporting the Carolingians. One particular foe was Adalberon, bishop of Laon (Ascelinus), whom Otto I had elevated to the powerful archbishopric of Reims. During Lothair's time, Adalberon had tried to negotiate an alliance between the two houses; but the deal had gone bad, and Lothair had tried him for treason in 986. Hugh Capet, a cousin of Lothair and an ally of Adalberon, had stormed in, broken up the trial, saved Adalberon, and slain Lothair. Louis V inherited the throne Lothair's widow, Emma, married a descendant of Otto I, and Louis V received Adalberon again.
Louis died in late May of 987, either accidentally or of poisoning by his mother; at the time of his death, he was again trying Adalberon for treason. He left no heirs, so his uncle Charles, the Duke of Lower Lorraine, was advanced as the hereditary successor to the throne. But the clergy, including both Adalberon and Gerbert (who later became Pope Sylvester II), argued eloquently for Hugh Capet, who not only was of noble blood but had proven himself through his actions and his military might.
Capet was elected to the Frankish throne and Adalberon crowned him, all within two months of Louis V's death. Thus the Carolingian dynasty ended and the Capetian began.
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