Editing Carolingian Empire (section)

==History==

=== Rise of the Carolingians (732–768) ===
{{See also|List of Frankish kings|Carolingian dynasty}}Though [[Charles Martel]] chose not to take the title of king (as his son [[Pepin III]] would) or emperor (as his grandson [[Charlemagne]]), he was the absolute ruler of virtually all of today's continental [[Western Europe]] north of the [[Pyrenees]]. Only the remaining Saxon realms, which he partly conquered, [[Lombardy]], and the [[Marca Hispanica]] south of the Pyrenees were significant additions to the Frankish realms after his death.

Martel cemented his place in history with his defense of Christian Europe against a Muslim army at the [[Battle of Tours]] in 732. The Iberian [[Saracen]]s had incorporated Berber light horse cavalry with the heavy Arab cavalry to create a formidable army that had almost never been defeated. Christian European forces, meanwhile, lacked the powerful tool of the [[stirrup]]. In this victory, Charles earned the surname ''Martel'' ("the Hammer").<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Magill |first=Frank |title=Dictionary of World Biography: The Middle Ages, Volume 2 |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-5795-8041-4 |pages=228, 243}}</ref> [[Edward Gibbon]], the historian of Rome and its aftermath, called Charles Martel "the paramount prince of his age".

Pepin III accepted the nomination as king by [[Pope Zachary]] in about 741. Charlemagne's rule began in 768 at Pepin's death. He proceeded to take control of the kingdom following his brother Carloman's death, as the two brothers co-inherited their father's kingdom. Charlemagne was crowned Roman Emperor in the year 800.{{Sfn|McKitterick|2008|p=23}}
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===Reign of Charlemagne (768–814)===
[[File:Dorestad Brooch AvL.JPG|thumb|150px|The Dorestad Brooch, Carolingian-style [[cloisonné]] jewelry from c. 800. Found in the [[Netherlands]], 1969.]]
The Carolingian Empire during the reign of Charlemagne covered most of Western Europe, as the [[Roman Empire]] once had. Unlike the Romans, whose imperial ventures between the [[Rhine]] and the [[Elbe]] lasted fewer than twenty years before being cut short by the disaster at [[Battle of the Teutoburg Forest|Teutoburg Forest]] (9&nbsp;AD), Charlemagne defeated the [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] resistance and extended his realm to the Elbe more lastingly, influencing events almost to the Russian Steppes.

Charlemagne's reign was one of near-constant warfare, participating in annual campaigns, many led personally. He defeated the [[Kingdom of the Lombards|Lombard Kingdom]] in 774 and annexed it into his own domain by declaring himself 'King of the Lombards'. He later led a failed campaign into Spain in 778, ending with the [[Battle of Roncevaux Pass]], which is considered Charlemagne's greatest defeat. He then extended his domain into Bavaria after forcing [[Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria]], to renounce any claim to his title in 794. His son, Pepin, was ordered to campaign against the [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]] in 795 since Charlemagne was occupied with Saxon revolts. Eventually, the Avar confederation ended in 803 after Charlemagne sent a Bavarian army into Pannonia. He also conquered Saxon territories in wars and rebellions fought from 772 to 804, with such events as the [[Massacre of Verden]] in 782 and the codification of the [[Lex Saxonum]] in 802.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Jennifer |title=Charlemagne's Practice of Empire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-3163-6859-6 |pages=25}}</ref>

Prior to the death of Charlemagne, the Empire was divided among various members of the [[Carolingian dynasty]]. These included King [[Charles the Younger]], son of Charlemagne, who received [[Neustria]]; King [[Louis the Pious]], who received [[Aquitaine]]; and King [[Pepin of Italy|Pepin]], who received Italy. Pepin died with an illegitimate son, [[Bernard of Italy|Bernard]], in 810, and Charles died without heirs in 811. Although Bernard succeeded Pepin as king of Italy, Louis was made co-emperor in 813, and the entire Empire passed to him with Charlemagne's death in the winter of 814.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Joanna |last=Story |title=Charlemagne: Empire and Society |publisher=Manchester University Press |date=2005 |isbn=978-0-7190-7089-1}}</ref>

===Reign of Louis the Pious and Civil War (814–843)===
{{further|Carolingian civil war}}
[[File:Droysens-21a.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The Carolingian Empire at its greatest extent (814) and its later partition with the [[Treaty of Verdun]] (843)]]

Louis the Pious' reign as Emperor was unexpected; as the third son of Charlemagne, he was originally crowned King of Aquitaine at three years old.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Kramer |first=Rutger |title=Rethinking Authority in the Carolingian Empire: Ideals and Expectations During the Reign of Louis the Pious (813-828) |isbn=978-9-0485-3268-1 |date=2019 |pages=31–34|publisher=Amsterdam University Press }}</ref> With the deaths of his older siblings, he went from 'a boy who became a king to a man who would be emperor'.<ref name=":3"/> Although his reign was mostly overshadowed by the dynastic struggle and resultant civil war, as his epithet states, he was highly interested in matters of religion. One of the first things he did was 'ruling the people by law and with the wealth of his piety',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ernold |title=Carmen |volume=lib. I, 11, 85-91 |pages=10–11}}</ref> namely by restoring churches. "The Astronomer"{{Efn|name=Astronomer|An unknown anonymous author, see ''[[Vita Hludovici]]''}} stated that, during his kingship of Aquitaine, he 'built up the study of reading and singing, and also the understanding of divine and worldly letters, more quickly than one would believe.'<ref>{{Cite book |author=Astronumus (the Astronomer) |title=[[Vita Hludowici]] |chapter=Chapter 19 |page=336 |isbn=}}</ref> He also made significant effort to restore many monasteries that had disappeared prior to his reign, as well as sponsoring new ones.<ref name=":3"/>

Louis the Pious' reign lacked security; he often had to struggle to maintain control of the Empire. As soon as he heard of the death of Charlemagne, he hurried to Aachen, where he exiled many of Charlemagne's trusted advisors, such as Wala. Wala and his siblings were children of the youngest son of Charles Martel, and so were a threat as a potential alternative ruling family.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=De Jong |first=Mayke |title=The Penitential State: Authority and Atonement in the Age of Louis the Pious, 814-840 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2009 |location=Cambridge |pages=20–47}}</ref> Monastic exile was a tactic Louis used heavily in his early reign to strengthen his position and remove potential rivals.<ref name=":4"/> In 817 his nephew, King Bernard of Italy, rebelled against him due to discontent with being the vassal of Lothar, Louis' eldest son.<ref>"Revolt of Bernard of Italy", ''The Cambridge Medieval History Series'' volumes 1-5, Plantagenet Publishing</ref> The rebellion was quickly put down by Louis, and by 818 Bernard of Italy was captured and punished - the punishment of death was commuted to blinding. However, the trauma of the procedure ending up killing him two days later.{{sfn|McKitterick|1983|p=}} Italy was brought back into Imperial control. In 822 Louis' show of penance for Bernard's death greatly reduced his prestige as Emperor to the nobility – some suggest it opened him up to 'clerical domination'.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Knechtges |first1=David R. |last2=Vance |first2=Eugene |title=Rhetoric and the Discourses of Power in Court Culture |date=2005 |publisher=University of Washington Press |author-link1=David R. Knechtges |isbn=978-0-2959-8450-6}}</ref> Nonetheless, in 817 Louis had established three new Carolingian kingships for his sons from his first marriage: [[Lothair I|Lothar]] was made King of Italy and co-Emperor, [[Pepin I of Aquitaine|Pepin]] was made King of Aquitaine, and [[Louis the German]] was made King of [[Bavaria]]. His attempts in 823 to bring his fourth son (from his second marriage), [[Charles the Bald]] into the will was marked by the resistance of his eldest sons. Whilst this was part of the reason for strife amongst Louis' sons, some suggest that it was the appointment of Bernard of Septimania as chamberlain which caused discontent with Lothar, as he was stripped of his co-Emperorship in 829 and was banished to Italy (although it is not known why; The Astronomer simply states that Louis 'dismissed his son Lothar to go back to Italy'<ref>{{Cite book |author=The Astronomer (anonymous) |chapter=The Life of Emperor Louis |title=Charlemagne and Louis the Pious: Lives by Einhard, Notker, Ermoldus, Thegan, and the Astronomer |translator=Thomas F. X. Noble |date=2009 |page=275 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-2710-3715-8}}</ref>) and Bernard assumed his place as second in command to the emperor.<ref name=":4"/> With Bernard's influence over not only the emperor, but the empress as well, further discord was sowed amongst prominent nobility. Pepin, Louis' second son, too, was disgruntled; he had been implicated in a failed military campaign in 827, and he was tired of his father's overbearing involvement in the ruling of Aquitaine.<ref name=":4"/> As such, the angry nobility supported Pepin, civil war broke out during Lent in 830, and the last years of his reign were plagued by civil war.

Shortly after Easter, his sons attacked Louis' empire and dethroned him in favour of Lothar. The Astronomer stated Louis spent the summer in the custody of his son, 'an emperor in name only'.<ref name=":4"/> The following year Louis attacked his sons' kingdoms by drafting new plans for succession. Louis gave Neustria to Pepin, stripped Lothar of his Imperial title and granted the Kingdom of Italy to Charles. Another partition in 832 completely excluded Pepin and Louis the German, making Lothar and Charles the sole benefactors of the kingdom, which precipitated Pepin and Louis the German revolting in the same year,<ref name=":4"/> followed by Lothar in 833, and together they imprisoned Louis the Pious and Charles. Lothar brought Pope Gregory IV from Rome under the guise of mediation, but his true role was to legitimise Lothar and his brothers' rule by deposing and excommunicating Louis.<ref name=":4"/> By 835, peace was made within the family, and Louis was restored to the Imperial throne at the church of St. Stephen in Metz. When Pepin died in 838, Louis crowned Charles king of Aquitaine, whilst the nobility elected Pepin's son [[Pepin II of Aquitaine|Pepin II]], a conflict which was not resolved until 860 with Pepin's death. When Louis the Pious finally died in 840, Lothar claimed the entire empire irrespective of the partitions.

As a result, Charles and Louis the German went to war against Lothar. After losing the [[Battle of Fontenoy (841)|Battle of Fontenay]], Lothar fled to his capital at [[Aachen]] and raised a new army, which was inferior to that of the younger brothers. In the [[Oaths of Strasbourg]], in 842, Charles and Louis agreed to declare Lothar unfit for the imperial throne. This marked the east–west division of the Empire between Louis and Charles until the Verdun Treaty. Considered a milestone in European history, the Oaths of Strasbourg symbolize the birth of both France and Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-07-21 |title=Die Geburt Zweier Staaten – Die Straßburger Eide vom 14. February 842 &#124; Wir Europäer &#124; DW.DE &#124; 21.07.2009 |url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3840415,00.html |access-date=2013-03-26 |publisher=Dw-world.de}}</ref> The partition of Carolingian Empire was finally settled in 843 by and between Louis the Pious' three sons in the [[Treaty of Verdun]].{{sfn|Goldberg|2006|p=}}

===After the Treaty of Verdun (843–877)===
{{Main|Treaty of Verdun}}
Lothar received the imperial title, the kingship of Italy, and the territory between the [[Rhine]] and [[Rhône River|Rhone]] Rivers, collectively called the [[Middle Francia|Central Frankish Realm]]. Louis was guaranteed the kingship of all lands to the east of the Rhine and to the north and east of Italy, which was called the [[East Francia|Eastern Frankish Realm]] which was the precursor to modern Germany.{{sfn|Reuter|2013|p=91-92}} Charles received all lands west of the Rhone, which was called the [[West Francia|Western Frankish Realm]].

Lothar retired Italy to his eldest son [[Louis II of Italy|Louis II]] in 844, making him co-emperor in 850. By the [[Treaty of Prüm]] (855), Lothar divided his kingdom into three parts: the Italian territory already held by Louis remained his, the territory of the former Kingdom of [[Burgundy (region)|Burgundy]] was granted to his third son [[Charles of Burgundy, son of Lothar|Charles of Burgundy]], and the remaining territory for which there was no traditional name was granted to his second son [[Lothar II]], whose realm was named [[Lotharingia]].{{sfn|West|2023|p=}}

Louis II, dissatisfied with having received no additional territory upon his father's death, allied with his uncle [[Louis the German]] against his brother Lothar and his uncle Charles the Bald in 858. Lothar reconciled with his brother and uncle shortly after. Charles was so unpopular that he could not raise an army to fight the invasion and instead fled to Burgundy. He was only saved when the bishops refused to crown Louis the German king. In 860, Charles the Bald invaded Charles of Burgundy's kingdom but was repulsed. Lothar II ceded lands to Louis II in 862 for support of a divorce from his wife, which caused repeated conflicts with the pope and his uncles. Charles of Burgundy died in 863, and his kingdom was inherited by Louis II.

Lothar II died in 869 with no legitimate heirs, and his kingdom was divided between Charles the Bald and Louis the German in 870 by the [[Treaty of Meerssen]]. Meanwhile, Louis the German was involved in disputes with his three sons. Louis II died in 875, and named [[Carloman of Bavaria|Carloman]], the eldest son of Louis the German, his heir. Charles the Bald, supported by the pope, was crowned both king of Italy and emperor. The following year, Louis the German died. Charles tried to annex his realm too, but was defeated decisively at [[Andernach]], and the Kingdom of the eastern Franks was divided between [[Louis the Younger]], [[Carloman of Bavaria]] and [[Charles the Fat]].