Notes: McKitterick (various)
Sources:
McKitterick, R., Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2008)
McKitterick, R., The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751-987 (London: Longman, 1983)
McKitterick, R., History and Memory in the Carolingian World (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004)
Any comments in square brackets are mine rather than the author’s.
| Work | Page | Note |
|---|---|---|
| CM | Charlemagne – The Formation of a European Identity | |
| CM | 13 | Louis the Pious disinherited Bernard of Italy in 817 (Ordinatio imperii). |
| CM | 22 | Charlemagne forbade Louis the Pious from becoming a monk. |
| CM | 24 | Poeta Saxo: Charlemagne wanted to divide the kingdom to present his sons from quarrelling. This also stresses the right fullness of Bernard's claim to Italy. |
| CM | 26 | Einhard: Charlemagne would not have entered St Peters if he had known what Leo III would do. |
| CM | 53 | Charlemagne's eldest son Charles was to get the lion's share in the Divisio of 806. |
| CM | 54 | Annales regni francorum: Charlemagne gave Italy to Bernard, after his death, Louis the Pious gave gifts to Bernard. |
| CM | 54 | 813: Louis the Pious was recognised as the sole and was crowned by his father. |
| CM | 82 | How Charlemagne and Carloman secured their positions: support from lay and ecclesiastical magnates; confirmed their fathers grant two major ecclesiastical institutions… |
| CM | 83 | … but did not guarantee them. |
| CM | 84-85 | Charlemagne and Carloman were already intervening in Italy by 771 – helped the Pope against Benevento... |
| CM | 86 | … but there was also a plot by Frankish nobles in Rome to kill the Pope. |
| CM | 85 | Charlemagne's mother Bertrada played a role in arranging the marriage between either Charlemagne or Carloman with Desiderius' daughter. |
| CM | 86 | Pope Stephen III objected to the marriage and also that of Charlemagne's sister Gisela to Archis (son of Desiderius). Failure of these marriage plans. |
| CM | 87 | After the sudden death of Carloman at the end of 771, his widow flees to the Lombards in Italy. |
| CM | 88 | After Carloman's death, Charlemagne met with his men. |
| CM | 95 | 781: the three-year-old Pépin of Italy made sub-king of the Lombards and anointed by Hadrian I. |
| CM | 96 | On the same day as Charlemagne was crowned emperor, Charles the Younger was anointed king. |
| CM | 96 | The whole process of the Divisio regnorum was unprecedented. |
| CM | 97 | Map 2: the Divisio regnorum. |
| CM | 97 | The Divisio was designed to allow all three brothers access to Italy. Charles the Younger was to get everything except sub-kingdoms already allocated to his brothers. |
| CM | 98 | Details of how Charlemagne attempted to control events after he had died and so prevent fraternal strife. |
| CM | 101 | Map 3 shows the papal lands as part of the Empire. |
| CM | 102 | The death of Pépin and Charles the Younger in 810/811 left attenuated models of the Divisio , With the understanding that Pépin's Italy was to remain autonomous: 812, Bernard recognised as King of Italy and sent there to govern it. |
| CM | 102 | 813: Louis the Pious crowned emperor by his father. After the death of Charlemagne in January 814, Louis the Pious arrives from Aquitaine a month later. |
| CM | 108 | The takeover of the Lombard kingdom was more a political coup than an aggressive conquest. Franco-Lombard relations were shifting and complex: e.g. Pépin the Bref was anti-Aistulf but pro-Desiderius. |
| CM | 109 | The elective nature of the Lombard kingdom gave scope for Frankish interference. There was partial Lombard support for Charlemagne's coup. |
| CM | 109 | More details of political intrigue: was Desiderius trying to separate Carloman from Charlemagne. Was taking over the Lombard kingdom a pre-emptive strike? |
| CM | 110 | Papal anxiety about Desiderius after the death of Carloman; Charlemagne was reluctant to fight the Lombards but Desiderius seized parts of the Exarchate. |
| CM | 111 | Charlemagne initially tried to diplomacy before invading. Frankish sources say that he was welcomed by all except by Desiderius and his family. |
| CM | 111-113 | The noticia italica was simply a set of guarantees aimed at winning over the Lombards (February 776). |
| CM | 113 | The Franks appointed counts in cities captured after Hrotgaud's rebellion. |
| CM | 113 | 779: the Duke of Spoleto accepts Charlemagne and by 781, Charlemagne was secure enough to install the four-year-old Pépin as king. |
| CM | 113-114 | Charlemagne's attempts to control Benevento were ultimately unsuccessful. |
| CM | 114 | Charlemagne's initial coup took years to settle down. Charlemagne ignores the Pope's attempts to control his activities in Italy. Coup led to continued involvement in Italian politics. |
| CM | 114 | Charlemagne only spent 14 months in Italy in a Reina 46 years – and half of that time was in Rome. He was made emperor on his fourth and last visit. |
| CM | 115 | Nobody knows who instigated the coronation but both Pope and emperor took advantage of it. |
| CM | 116-117 | Was Charlemagne's title a challenge to the Byzantine Empire? |
| CM | 118 | Frankish sources indicate that Charlemagne regarded title is peculiar to him. The Divisio makes no mention of the title passing on – but things change once Louis the Pious became the sole heir. He became heir to the title as well as the kingship (with the exception of Bernard's Italy). |
| CM | 118 | Under Louis the Pious the imperial ideology developed. Pépin and Bernard had Bavaria and Italy but the 817 Ordinatio imperii gave Italy to Lothar (son of Louis the Pious) and Bavaria to Louis the German. |
| CM | 118-127 | Account of Charlemagne's annexation of Bavaria. |
| CM | 137 | In the post-Roman Empire period, political power and location were more decentralised. |
| CM | 137 | Carolingian rule: a plurality of political and administrative centres and maintenance of communications between them. |
| CM | 153 | According to the Astronomer: Charlemagne consolidated his father's's conquest of Aquitaine by setting up counts and abbots 'and many others too who are commonly called "vassals"'. |
| CM | 155 | Adalhard/Hincmar: delegated kingship and strongly organised palace serving as a fixed point |
| CM | 171 | The itinerant nature of the Ottonian and Salian kingships of the 10th and 11th centuries which emphasised the institutionalised presence of the king's physical presence. Important definition from Bernhardt. |
| CM | 171-172 | Their limited use of writing in government led to poor communications which made the physical presence of the king necessary. |
| CM | 172 | The importance of strategically placed monasteries as staging posts for royal travels – especially those presided over by female royalty. |
| CM | 174 | McKitterick doubts that the Carolingian's practised itinerant kingship à la Ottonians. |
| CM | 178 | The need to move around to meet magnates was more a phenomenon of Louis the Pious and his successors than Charlemagne. |
| CM | 179 | Charlemagne's stays in Italy reflect the conquest of the Lombards and subsequent political/military interventions in the Lombard kingdom, Benevento and the papacy. |
| CM | 180 | Charlemagne's visits to Italy: 773-4, 776, 781, 786-7, 800-1. [This contradicts the statement on page 114 that Charlemagne was crowned on his fourth visit]. |
| CM | 180 | The most part, Charlemagne ruled from within the Frankish heartlands. |
| CM | 182 | Charlemagne could travel approximately 30 km per day. |
| CM | 187 | Need for appropriate facilities for places used for assemblies. |
| CM | 188 | Many of Charlemagne's travels were for military or religious reasons. [I.e. not itinerant for normal government functions]. |
| CM | 189 | Italian business carried out at Quierzy (north-east of Paris). |
| CM | 192 | Dates and places of charters do not necessarily reflect the presence of the King. |
| CM | 199 | Many of Louis the Pious's early charters were confirmations of grants made by Charlemagne or Pépin le Bref. |
| CM | 203 | The King was not necessarily involved in the process of charter validation. |
| CM | 203 | Charlemagne's methodology for charters reflects the continuity of Roman practice and also the model for records and organisation of royal administration in the Middle Ages. |
| CM | 211 | A great deal of day-to-day business in the name of the King was carried out in his absence. |
| CM | 213 | Charlemagne's solution to royal control: combination of itinerancy and stability with a complex network of officials empowered to act on his behalf (counties/missatica (administrative district) inspected by missi dominici whose numbers and powers increased. Dependence upon agents and the use of communications without the presence of the king. |
| CM | 214 | Charlemagne relied on the effectiveness of his officials and above all on the ability to communicate with them: assemblies, capitularies, missi dominici (drawn from church or higher laity). |
| CM | 214 | The government of the whole was complemented with measures for particular regions [i.e. conforming with local traditions]. |
| CM | 215 | The expansion of the Empire cause problems of cohesion due to the diversity of the populations/identities – communications alone could not solve. |
| CM | 216 | An Italian document of the 10th century consists of letters to counts and missi giving instructions on how and when to meet. Missi were required to report how regions were obeying royal instructions and make intelligence reports. |
| CM | 217 | Counts did not like people making their complaints to missi [the fundamental conflict between local leader and visiting 'expert' from headquarters]. There was a perception amongst locals that missi out ranked the counts. |
| CM | 218 | Missi required counts to provide them with information. |
| CM | 219 | Palace officials could respond to missi. |
| CM | 220-221 | Formularies: collections of model documents (templates) especially that of Marculf (Merovingian origin but all extant copies are Carolingian). |
| CM | 222 | High number of copies as well as variants in other places – clear indicator of usefulness of the collection. |
| CM | 222-223 | Assemblies were used to pass information as well as being the ruler's relation with the community. Also the networking and policy formulation. |
| CM | 226 | Were also symbols [vehicles?] of political cohesion. |
| CM | 227 | Regular, general meetings and smaller meetings of elites for special items of interest – e.g. 813 to settle the succession of the Empire on Louis the Pious. |
| CM | 227 | Terms used: synodus, placitum, conventus indicate the presence of both lay and ecclesiastical participants… |
| CM | 228 | … also mallus – local assembly or court. |
| CM | 229 | Assemblies were convened by the kings. |
| CM | 245 | Incorporation of Italy was a gradual process due to the fact that it was the sudden acquisition of an entire and well-established polity. |
| CM | 246 | Capitulary of Mantua (781) sets out rules for administration and justice – defers to existing customs – but also echoes of the transport of transalpine regulations. |
| CM | 246 | Capitulary of Mantua (781) was created in association with an assembly as a PR exercise to indicate that the Franks brought peace and order. Charters giving grants or confirming privileges to ensure loyalty – more numerous there than elsewhere in Francia. |
| CM | 246-247 | Gradual accommodation of the Franks to Lombard practice as officials went native… |
| CM | 247 | … not so much in Charlemagne's time but more later. Frankish rule brought the incorporation of communications and administrative strictures (counts and missi) – Charlemagne was rarely in Italy. Officials both locals and expats (in the higher ranks) but locals were also counts. |
| CM | 248 | Early acceptance of Charlemagne's rule – local notaries confirmed in office. |
| CM | 249 | The Lombards adopted the Frankish capitulary system. |
| CM | 257 | 802: Capitulary defines tasks of missi ((arch-) bishops, venerable abbots and pious laymen). |
| CM | 258 | The missi system had been part of the Carolingian government machinery since at least the 770s. |
| CM | 259 | Initially, the role of missus was intermittent but from 802 (at least) one clerical and one lay missus jointly acted in a specific territory (missaticum). Note: the term 'missus' could also mean ambassador or messenger. |
| CM | 259 | (Arch-) bishops: potential conflict between spiritual and lay duties. |
| CM | 260 | Missi dominici could act as judges as well as being carriers of royal authority/inspectors. |
| CM | 260 | The missi system was used across the whole empire. |
| CM | 261 | The 802 capitulary text only survives in a 10th century Italian copy in a compilation of Lombard law, et cetera… |
| CM | 262 | … it did not originate in Pavia – could then be a statement of how Italy was to be governed by Pépin of Italy. |
| CM | 262 | The missi system depended upon the communication system [royal court – missi – counts – and back again]. |
| CM | 266 | The effectiveness of the communication system space is shown by the wide distribution of capitularies. |
| CM | 266 | Missi played a large role in greater coherence and administrative links throughout the empire. |
| CM | 276 | Different sets of laws were recognised for different regions… |
| CM | 277 | … but could be updated as well. |
| CM | 299 | Bishops' power and influence were crucial elements in the integration of ecclesiastical and lay matters in the eighth and ninth centuries. |
| CM | 379 | The expansion of the Empire so far to the north, east and south, and inclusion and many new peoples created problems of order, control, identity and cohesion. The system of communication was not enough. A unifying ideology was needed. |
| FK | The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians | |
| FK | 87 | The whole kingdom was divided into counties (comitati) – adapted from pagus/civitas and consisted of the civitatis and the surrounding area. It was a geographical term from the 8th century onward. There were between 110 and 600 counties (high-end most likely). Ducatus was not a fixed region until the end of the Carolingian period; before it was a temporary military arrangement. |
| FK | 87 | One innovation was the invention of the march which was particularly responsible for defence. |
| FK | 87 | A county was divided into centenae or vicariates. The head of a county was the comes or count. Originally, this was an official sent out by the one but it became customary to nominate a local magnate. |
| FK | 88 | In theory, the count could be removed but gradually the post tended to remain in the family and it became customarily hereditary by the late 9th or beginning of the 10th centuries. |
| FK | 88 | Duties of the count: justice, collection of tolls and customs, levying of a military force, maintenance of roads, bridges etc. Counts were inspected by missi. They were not paid but could take a percentage from fines etc. and they also got one third of the revenue from the land attached to his office. They were obliged to swear an oath of fidelity. |
| FK | 89 | The system of counties was everywhere except Bavaria. The idea was that they would be of a size manageable by a single person. Not much detail is known but not all counts behaved appropriately. |
| FK | 91 | Sometimes a duke was appointed in a position between the king and the counts – this was more common from the mid-ninth century. There were also sub- kings (e.g. Pippin of Italy). These provided a strong link with the overall ruler. |
| FK | 93 | Missi had existed under the Merovingians but Charlemagne made them regular as a means of asserting his authority. Their role was strengthened after the imperial coronation to increased his authority. Missi were royal agents. |
| FK | 94 | Missi could work in tandem – one cleric, one Lehman – and had responsibility for large areas as well as additional duties. |
| FK | 95 | Missi were attached to particular districts. |
| FK | 96 | Missi only really operated in the Carolingian heartland: Austrasia, Neustria, Burgundy. |
| FK | 97 | There were three principal administrative divisions: the Carolingian heartland supervised by missi; an intermediate region with Frankish administrators (non-Frankish territories but with Frankish tradition); outlying marches, gradually integrated into regular regna. |
| FK | 97 | Placita were used to distribute news or to give advice to the king. Similar smaller local assemblies were used by the counts. |
| HM | History and Memory in the Carolingian World | |
| HM | 269 | In 817, Louis the Pious devolved the succession of Italy to Lothar BUT in 806, Charlemagne had given it to Pippin of Italy. Pippin predeceased Charlemagne and Louis the Pious's act in 817 overruled Charlemagne's wishes as is admitted all reference to Bernard. This was not a popular decision and was at the root of Bernard's rebellion. Einhard states that when Pippin died, Charlemagne ensured that Bernard succeeded to his father's throne. |
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