Legacy and the Empire's End

Avatar Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney plus. It's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet. A true epic and completely jawdropping. This is the only pure thing in this world. Return to Pandora on Disney plus. It will be an adventure for the whole family and watch the Oscar winning phenomenon at home. This is sick ar Fire and Ash, now stream runun Disney pllus, rated PG thirteen It is Christmas Day eight hundred AD Heavy gray clouds fill the sky above the city of Rome, threatening rain A young nobleman glances up at the oppressive sky He is wearing a new dark green tunic and does not want to get it wet. But he cannot hurry undercover. Part of an orderly procession, he slowly makes his way into Staint Peter's Basilica, in the heart of the Holy city. At the head of the procession strides Charlemagne, King of the Franks Tall and heavily built, though his hair is graying, his body is still strong after years spent on campaign. Thanks to a string of victories over the past three decades, he is undoubtedly the most important ruler in Western Europe The Basilica's sturdy wooden doors swing open as the king approaches them, admitting him into the cavernous interior. Following behind, the young nobleman walks with the crowd amid thick coils of incense and smoke from hundreds of candles Crammed in on either side are thousands of Rome's inhabitants Even the hey frankincense can't fully mask the unpleasant tang of so many unwashed bodies As the nobles process through the grand Nave towards the altar, the flickering candlelight catches on the gilded mosaics decorating the walls and illuminates the soaring pillars The timbered gabled roof is so far overhead that it might as well be touching heaven At the altar ahead waits the Pope himself, Leo III Resplendent in white and gold silk vestments After filling the central aisle, the procession now comes to a halt, and the king alone mounts the steps to the high altar As Leo raises his hand in blessing, Charlemagne lowers himself to the ground the entire congregation following suit. The young nobleman prostrates himself, letting the familiar words of the mass wash over him as the Pope begins to chant But what he and all these people are really here for is what comes next. The real reason the king is celebrating Christmas in Rome At last, the Pope falls silent, and the congregations climb to their feet Then Leo steps forward, a thick circlet of gold raised high in both hands. The colorful jewels adorning the crown gleam in the candlelight as he gently places it on Charlemagne's head It is the moment they have been waiting for As one, the congregation raises its voice in acclamation. Chchanting the words that confirm H him as their great leader, crowned by God They repeat the phrase three times before the church is filled to the rafterfter with a deafening wave of cheers. But then, as the last shouts die away, something even more astonishing happens Amid murmurs of incredulity, the Pope himself, the inhabitant of the throne of Stt Peter, prostrates himself on the floor before Charlemagne For the first time in three hundred years, the eternal city has its own emperor A man to whom even the Holy Father We'll kneel Charlemagne or Charles the Great remains one of the towering figures of European history Through a series of astonishing feats of arms, he created for himself a vast territory that covered most of modern day France and Germany, encompassing the low countries, areas in Northern Spain and parts of Italy H imperial coronation on Christmas Day eight hundred AD was the culmination of his life's work But alongside his sometimes brutal military campaigning, Charlemagne was a devout and cultured leader He sponsored educational reforms, brought leading scholars from across Europe to his court at Akhen, and pursued diplomatic ties with far flung Christian and Muslim kingdoms alike But how was Charlemagne able to conquer such an enormous swathhe of Europe Why was this famous warrior so interested in spiritual and intellectual matters And what fate befell his mighty emmpire after his death I'm Johnopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is a short history of Charlemne The royal line to which Charmagne belongs is known now as the Carolingian dynasty named after his grandfather, Charles Martel who was born around six hundred eighty eight AD His home is part of a territory known as Frankcia, the kingdom of the Frankish people Their Christian realm covers much of modern day France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and large swathes of north central Germany, and is ruled by a dynasty known as the Merovingians Professor Matthew Gabriel is the co author of Oath Breakers, a recent book on the Carolingian dynasty and host of the American Medieval podcast When we want to talk about how Charlemagne came to power, we really have to start with a people that he belonged to, a group of people called the Franks. They solidified as Roman authority kind of pulled back under a dynasty called the Merovingians who ruled for about three hundred years. And then in the beginning of the eighth century and very powerful aristocratic family who become the Carolingans kind of rose to power under the Merovingian kings, mostly as kind of their war leaders By the start of the eighth century, the strength of the Merovingian kings is weakening much of their power held by the mayor of the palace in to a prrime Minister. By seven nineteen, Charlemagne's grandfather, Charles Martel, known as the Hammer, holds that position As he controls the region's military, he essentially controls the king his treasure And with it the entirety of the Frankish kingdom But When Mateel dies in seven hundred forty one, he has such power over the state that he is able to bequeath his ruling position to his two sons. Tip in alsoso known as PPA and Kalum Within a few years, Carleemont enters a monastery A career in the church is not unusual for the second sons of the Frankish nobility And Carleont is suddenly deeply pious someome sources suggest he faces pressure to step aside Whatever the truth, the move leaves Pippin as the sole mayor of the palace. But that is not the limit of his ambitions Peepin, unfortunately named Pein the Short, became king in seven hundred fifty one in basically a coup dtas. when he seized power from the Merovingians, kind of assigned them to a monastery so that they could live out their lives and seize power for himself With both his brother and the last Merovingian ruler now confined to religious houses, Pippin the short becomes Pippin III, the first Carolingian king Charlemagne or Charles as he was chrisoned, is Pippin's oldest son The grandson of Charles Martel But his exact birth date is unclear It's a really interesting question about when Charlemagne was born. We don't actually know because there's no sources from that period that recorded a birthdayate. There's no later sources which record kind of how old he is Sos really good scholarship has put his probably it's our best guess and it's probably a very good guess that he was born sometime around seven hundred forty one His mother was a woman by the name of Bertrada. We don't know a whole lot about Berttrada. She was probably a high ranking noblewoman, befitting someone of Pppin's station As with his childhood, Charlemagne's upbringing and education remain something of a mystery. is likely raised at court, taught by the group of scholars Batrada had gathered around herself. we can kind of guess from what the education of an elite Frankish man at that time would have been. And also from a biography that was later written about Charlemagne by a chronicler by the name of Einhard, who was a courtier who knew Charlemagne personally who lived at C There's some problems with the biography, of course. It's very highly stylized, and also it was written as political propaganda after Charlemagne's death That being said, is that it seems pretty clear that Charlmagne himself was pretty well educated He himself knew how to read, but he probably didn't know how to write, which seems maybe perhaps odd to us. But at the same time in early Middle agges, these two activities were actually held as distinct. You could learn how to read but not how to write. They were seen as kind of not part of one basket of literacy, but as He is raised to be king alongside his younger brother Calumore At the annual assemblies his father holds, he learns the arts of diplomacy and leadership. and he is also trained to be a warrior and to lead troops in battle But though Pibbin rules as a king, He still lacks the legitimacy that the Merovingians before him enjoyed. The sense of a true royal bloodline something that can only be bestowed by the Pope. But as Lat would have it, the Pope needs something from him. In seven hundred fifty four, Pippin strikes a deal. in exchange for military support against the Lombards who have long coveted papal lands He convinces the Pontiff to formally consecrate him as king of the Franks Charlemagne and Calomne are anointed in the same ceremony Though all three are now recognized as kings It is still very much Pippin who rules And sometime during his father's reign teenage Charlemagne starts considering a family of his own Sroman had no fewer than five wives, many more informal sexual partners who were women, and at least nineteen children course of his life. One of the reasons that it's a little bit squishy is because the idea of marriage was not the same as what we have now It's a much more informal process. Like we have no records of kind of what a wedding ceremony looks like from the early Middle Ages. We have no sense of what a marriage kind of entailed. It was probably some kind of agreement between families. But that also meant that they could be broken. very easily Though weddings are not yet a sacrament of the church, it is into this context that he marries a woman named Himiltru with whom he has a son named Pippin after his father By seven hundred sixty eight, Charlemagne is in his early twenties. A trained warrior with a wife and son He is ready to be king on his own terms On the twenty fourth of september seven hundred and sixty eight, Pippin III dies after a successful campaign in Aquitain in the south of France. It is a troublesome region of the Frankish Kingdom frequently attempting to assert its independence But as he leaves two equal heirs, the transfer of power is not straightforward When Pppinort dies in seven hundred sixty eight He follows very typical Frankish custom at the time and divides the kingdom between his two sons, his eldest son Charles, later Charlemagne, and then his younger son Carlman Charles gets kind of the heartland of Frankish power, kind of the western section of the Kingdom of Francia, and Carleman kind of gets the eastern side, including areas of Allemania, what's now modern Germany es like that. They are, shall we say, antagonistic towards each other throughout this entire time. They don't get along particularly well Charles has the great good fortune of having his brother die It seems like natural causes, there doesn't seem to have been kind of any foul play at that time Charles moves very quickly to secure the support of powerful aristocrats in Carleman's kingdom and establishes himself as kind of sole ruler of the Frankish kingdom. It is not inevitable that Charlemagne will inherit his brother's territory Calomon's widow Gerbga flees with her sons to Italy as soon as a husband dies possibly fearful of what her brother in law may do to secure the Frankish throne for himself Around the time of his brother's death, it is possible that Charlemagne briefly marries, or at least contemplates marrying an Italian princess daughter of the K king of Lombardy. A letter survives from the Pope, chastising him for considering such a match with the Lombards against whom he has had frequent clashes What is certain is that Charlemagne now marries a noblewoman from the Germanic Almagna tribe He marries a woman by the name of Hildegard, who is from a very prominent aristocratic family in his brother's kingdom in seven hundred seventy two meaneaning that he's forming alliance across the borders after his brother has died in order to cement aristocratic support for his takeover of his brother's kingdom Hildegard is only thirteen or fourteen when she weds the Frankish King who is at least a decade older Over the eleven years of their marriage, she will give birth nine times Three sons born to Hildegard and Charlemagne Charles, a second Pippin and Louis, as well as daughters Rotrude, Bertha, and Gazella will survive into adulthood. You know, one of my favorite things about summer is refreshing my wardrobe with pieces that are lighter, breathable, and more versatile I like wearing clothes that you can wear while running errands or an afternoon hanging with friends. And Quintince is the perfect destination to find high quality summer essentials that make you look and feel amazing all season long. They offer a wide selection of well made basics without the luxury markup Like their European linen pants and shirts are the perfect warm weather upgrade to add to your rotation, starting at justty four dollars. Their tees are soft and easy to wear, and their lightweight cotton sweaters are perfect for cooler summer nights. My personal favorite is their flow knit breeze pererformance polo that you can wear anytime to every occasion, with an excellent variety of colors. Trust me, you'll want more than just one. Everything at quQuince is priced fiftycent to eighty percent less than similar brands They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen, so you're paying for quality, not brand markup. And also, Qintince goes way beyond clothing, custom upholstered sofas, ceramic cookwear, premium bedding. It's the kind of brand you end up recommending to everyone for everything. So elevate your summer wardrobe, go to quinces dot com slash short history for free shipping on your order and three hundred sixty five day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's uInCE dot com slash short history for free shipping and three hundred sixty five day returns. quQuintinces dot com slash short history This is a paid advertisement from Indeed. If you're a small business, the right hire can be make or break. Hoping the right people see your job posting isn't the best growth strategy. When the pressure's on and you need the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed, sponsored jobs gets you quality candidates when you need the most Sponsored Jobs boosts your job post in search results so you can reach the people that help your business thrive. Plus, with indeed sponsored jobs, you only pay for results. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. less stress, less time More results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a seventy five dollars sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed dot com slash podcast. Just go to indeed dot com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast indndeed dot com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply Hiring, this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs Charlemagne has only been sol king for a few months when he launches a campaign against the Pagan Saxons on his northern border One of the fundamental pillars of Fankish rule is conquest, is warfare It was a way that kings established themselves as legitimate rulers, but also as a way of gathering plunder, gathering booty that they can distribute to powerful aristocrats in order to effectively buy their loyalty Military campaigns are built into the very fabric of kind of governance of the Frankish realm, Meing that every may first, the Franks would gather an army. usually the king would send out notices as to where that would be and then they would launch a campaign. So most of their campaigning was done to the northeast into an area called Saxon, which is a modern region in Germany as well But in Saxony, the poolythheeistic Saxons at the time had been kind of the long term enemies of the Franks for quite a while. And it was a way of demonstrating power. It was a way of asserting control, but also again a way of gathering plunder from non Christian enemies in order to redistribute that elsewhere The seven hundred seventy two campaign is a stunning success The Frankish army destroys the most sacred holy site of the Saxon people. and also captures a huge amount of treasure desespite the victory This is far from the last war he will wage in Saxony. which will not be fully subdued for another three decades But though Charlemagne's fight with the Saxons partly has its roots in his religiosity and his fervent desire to convert non believers He doesn't only fight pagans in places where they fought other Christians, there was a portrayal of the Franks as kind of the right kind of Christians and their enemies as kind of the wrong kind of Christians And one of the ways that they emphasized this was the Frankish alliance with the Papacy, the Bishop of Rome so that they had the backup of the Bishop of Rome and the entire church establishment on their side to help them justify the conquest of these other Christian peoples The first of these conquests of fellow Christians is the Northern Italian kingdom of Lombardy. At the request of the Pope, Charlemagne brings the region under his control in seven hundred seventy four dethroning the man who may have been his father in law, King Desiderius A few years later, he launches an expedition into Catalonia beginning the process of extending Carolingian control across the Pyrenees Though he will eventually conquer Barcelona This first campaign is blighted by a devastating ambush in the mountains. As his army makes its way home In the early seven eighties, the Frankish army suffers an even greater defeat back in Saxony while some groups have submitted to Charminne's authority Others continue to resist the foreign Christian invasion of their homeland One such group. Fighting back against forced Baptism and the destruction of their sacred sites defeat one of his Frankish forces in seven hundred eighty two when he hears of the loss King is furious. gathering an army He rides hard to Saxony to exact his revenge. It is october seven hundred eighty two In Saxony, Northern Germany, a man in a filthy tunic stumbles along a riverbank His hands bound tightly behind his back with rough cord. He struggles to maintain his balance The rope chafs the soft skin on the insides of his wrists, and he can feel angry welts forming As he steps onto a particularly treacherous patch of ground, it is only the tightly packed bodies around him that prevent him from pitching forward into the mud Like him, the hands of these men are also tied several thousand Saxon prisoners being herded along this riverbank like livestock. To add insult to injury, the armed men marching alongside, striking them if they stumble are their countrymen Prisoner glares at the nearest guard It is traitors like him, Saxons who have allied themselves with Charlemagne and taken their own kind captive, who should be the ones in bondage. Too soon, the prisoner arrives at his destination A large open field beside the river fringed with ancient trees. And in the center, something that makes his heart sink Even from this distance, he can see that the small mounted party awaiting his arrival is heavily armed Breastplates flash dullly under heavy cloaks, and swords are visible at their hips Arayed behind them are lines of cavalry, the horses shifting and tossing their manes Further back are hundreds of infantrymen, all equipped with round wooden shields and long spears The wickedly sharp tips, gleaming in the insipid autumn light The leaders of the Saxon party order the prisoners and their guards to halt before crossing the field to speak to the men on horseback. The rebel watches, as these Saxon turncoats bow their heads deferentially to one of them. The man he assumes must be the hated Charlemagne. After a short conversation, the Frankish King gestures to his soldiers, who begin to march across the field towards the captives Within minutes, the prisoners are encircled by a wall of frankish infantrymen. Panic rises among the bound men, but there is no escape Charlemne rides up and dismisses the Saxon guards, who nod and depart, leaving their bound compatriots alone with the Franks Despite the wall of spears, the prisoner can see the king clearly, sitting proudly on a dappled grrey horse In a loud voice, he accuses them of treason for their unlawful uprising and their slaughter of his Frankish soldiers on the field at Zuntel There is only one fitting punishment Death The prisoner lets out a shuddering breath All around him, his fellow Saxons are in uproar. Some shout, others sob or plead for mercy The Charlemne sits impassive on his horse as his soldiers begin to slide from their saddles, hands going to their swords As the first prisoners are hauled away and forced to their knees by the banks of the river, the man closes his eyes to pray. It is not clear if the gods will hear him, over the screams and the sickening sound of metal meeting flesh In retaliation for the Saxon revolt in seven hundred eighty two Chharnaman kills four and a half thousand rebels before pillaging the surrounding countryside The toll exacted is so steep that Saxon resistance then melts away In later years, a contemporary source records that the king is able to travel through the region on empty roads wherever he chooses Charlm Magnee's actions have been described by some historians as a form of genocide The Saxons really were the most intransigent enemies, and the ones in which very frankly, the greatest number of vacivities were, but also the greatest atrocities were committed. And the sources record massacres of thousands of people at times at the end of campaigns destruction of polytheistic or pagan temples, if you prefer. And in fact, forced migration in which thousands of Saxons were forcibly relocated into Francia, and then Frankish nobles and Frankish freemen were put into their place in order to finally subdue the subjugated population The Saxony will not be fully incorporated into the Carolingian Empire until eight hundredh four But these actions precipitate its end as an independent pagan region of Europe Meanwhile, Charleamagne continues his ruthless quest for domination In seven hundred eighty eight, he seizes Bavaria from his cousin, Tesilo. and sends him his wife and his children to religious houses. to remove them from the political arena. After that, he moves on to modern day Hungary, where he crushes the pagan Avas takes their wealth for his own But he is also forced to suffer his own losses in these years. After his wife, Hildegard dies in childbirth, he marries again This time to Fastrad with whom he fathers two more daughters But within a decade, she is also dead When she passes away, he remarries another woman at the age of fifty, by the name of Ludgard, who they don't have any children together. But interest first among them, he is having relationships and having children as well In eight hundred, Challemne reaches the pinnacle of power On Christmas Day, he is crowned Emperor by the Pope in Rome the first to hold the title in the West since the fifth century. In the early medval period, Rome is whacked by political turmoil is frequently subject to the whims of secular elites Charlemagne's coronation is thanks, at least in part, to the Pope's reliance on him and his military might In seven hundred ninety nine, the Pope in Rome, Leo III is attacked during a procession. He's captured, and he manages to flee the city of Rome. There's dramatic accounts of him scaling the walls and jumping outside and then running north to Pderbourne in modern Germany to meet Charlemagne there Charlemagne sends an army south and then marches south as well, reestablishes the Pope in Rome, establishes justice, puts the perpetrators of this attack on trial. And then on Christmas Day in the year eight hundred, Leo rewards him by putting a crown on Charmagne's head and claiming him as Roman emperor. This is at least how the story goes According to one contemporary biography of Charmagne, he is unaware of the Pope's plan until the imperial crown is laid on his head But the events seem too stage managed for this to be a convincing explanation The actual reality is a little bit more complicated because Charlmne had probably been planning to become emperor for some time beforehand Being Roman Emperor does, it allows him equal footing to negotiate with the Byzantine emperor with the Eastern Roman Emperor in the east, but also allows him jurisdiction in Italy in and around Rome and then further to the south as well And this was an important part of his expansionistic plans in order to demonstrate that this marriage between the papacy between the church and the state had kind of finally come to fruition, but' also allow him to push further south into the rich heartlands of southern Italy, which he was very much interested in doing After his coronation, he uses his new authority as Roman emperor to exert his influence throughout Italy. launching a new series of military expeditions He turns his attention to the Duchy of Beneventa. the remaining fragment of Lombardy in the south of the country as well as fighting with the Byzantine Empire over the remnants of their Italian territory. By the early years of the ninth century, Charlemagne has expanded the lands he inherited from his father in almost every direction The emperor of much of Western Europe He is, without a doubt its most powerful ruler Having built himself an empire, Charmagne is now faced with the challenge of ruling it Twice a year, Frankish nobles traveled to the emmperor's court, bringing with them their military retinues, and mountains of precious gifts for their emperor At these assemblies, major decisions about Francia's governance are made. Though Charlemagne has the last word, it is a space where ecclesiastical and secular elites can make their voices heard. and from this hub His commands are carried across every part of his territory He relies a lot on centralizing his authority, establishing basically a capital at the city of Oken, which is in modern Western Germany As he gets older and as he starts to take on the trappings of empire, he starts to send out Missi Dominici, basically messengers of the Lord, in which they are charged by the king himself, sometimes maybe with written orders, law codes that are promulgated at Ain itselflf and then making sure that the establishment of justice is being done that people are aware of the new regulations and records that are being put forth at the Capitol are known about in southern Italy or in in Bavaria or kind of wherever this goes back to why expansion is so important, whyy plunder, why loyalty of his high aristocrats are so important, because they become effectively representatives of him out in the rest of the empire as well. And they become kind of visible signs of the reach of the Frankish Empire extent kind of everywhere across this vast expanse of land Starting or growing your own business can be intimidating and lonely at times. Your to do list may feel endless with new tasks, and lists can easily begin to overrun your life. So finding the right tool that not only helps you out, but simplifies everything as a built in business partner can be a game changer For millions of businesses, that tool is Shopify Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and ten percent of all e commerce in the US, from household names like Gymshark, Rare Beauty, and Heinz to brands just getting started Shopify has hundreds of ready to use templates that can help you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand's style. And you can tackle all the important tasks in one place, from inventory to payments, to analytics and more No need to save multiple websites or try to figure out what platform is hosting the tool that you need. And if people haven't heard about your brand, you can get the word out like you have a marketing team behind you with easy to run email and social media campaigns to reach customers wherever they're scrolling or strolling Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing Sign up for your one dollar per month trial today at shopify. com slash realM. to Shopify. com slash realm That's shhopify dot com slash realm Right now, get up to fifteen percent off select Storage Solutions Put heavy duty HDX totes to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid impact resistant design prevents cracking, and the clear basein sides make items easy to find even when the totes are stacked. Find select shelving and tote storage up to fifteen percent off at the Home Depot to organize every room in your home from your garage to your attic Visit HomeDepot. com how Doers Get More D Historians know little about the people over whom Charlemagne and his nobles rule But aspects of their lives can be glimpsed in official sources as well as archaeological finds What we can tell is that it was heavily agricultural, It was tied very much to place, really dependent upon harvests and the rhythms of the season One of the really interesting things is that teeth quality actually improved in the early Middle Ages as opposed to Rome and to the later Middle Ages, which means that they actually had a better balanced diet than earlier and before Generally the standard of life was maybe kind of a especially in rural areas, was actually a little bit higher than it was in late Rome, which I think kind of goes against our expectations. Christianity plays a large role in everyday life with the religious houses Charlemagne patronizes serving as important outposts of his authority. by installing sympathetic abbbots and bishops who then owe him their loyalty He establishes a network of eyes and ears throughout Frana. even in harder to reach rural areas. and pushes his preferred expressions of faith And so Charlemagne fought not only to expand his own territory, but to standardize the practice of Christianity, which led to at his court, new translations of the Bible into Latin and the dissemination of proper translations a standardization of the mass of the liturgy that would be performed so that ideally every church within his empire would be having the same kind of Christian experience Meanwhile, as he continues to extend his political and ecclesiastical control across the empire Charlemagne's wives and daughters have their own roles to play closer to home He relied upon his wives, the quQeens to be important political figures as well And so this is absolutely true of Kildegard, his third wife She was absolutely a political deal maker in her own right. He was off campaigning a lot at the same time. And so she was in charge of the court. She was the person his woman at the court who was in charge of maintaining the proper functioning of court. If you wanted to get to Charlemagne, you had to go through his queen A times And we know this because actually there's a really interesting coin. that was struck at one of his royal mints, which has the name Carolus Rex, Charles the King on one side, and then Festrada Reaggina, Festrada the Queen on the other side. This is almost unheard of It acknowledges this relationship between the king and the queen, that she is not just a woman who's sitting by his side, but a power in her own right. Outside of Frana, Charmamagne must maintain diplomatic relations with a dizzying array of countries Some like the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Mercia are fairly close to his borders But he is also enmeshed in long distance communication with other foreign rulers, including the Abbasid Caliph based in Baghdad with whom he exchanges messages gifts It is july eight hundred o two at Charlemagne's newew palace at Arken The sun burns brightly in a shockingly blue sky Harirrying across the courtyard outside the stables, a man ducks through a creaking wooden door into a small room It is a little cooler inside, and he finds a pitcher and basin have been laid out for him on a wooden table He splashes water onto his face and neck, scrubbing off the accumulated sweat and grime from his long journey His name is Isaac, and despite his Jewish heritage, he is one of Charlemagne's emissaries He has just returned from an arduous voyage to the court of the Muslim Abbasid Caliph, where he was entrusted with a mighty gift for the emperor A gift Charlemagne is anxious to receive Quickly drying himself with a cloth, Isaac runs a comb through his curls, grimacing at how dusty his hair feels There is a fresh tunic here too, and he hastily shucks off his dirty one and pulls it on. It's as clean as he can get without keeping the emperor waiting. His stomach rumbles, a reminder that he has not eaten for hours, but that will have to wait too Clinging the door open, he heads back out into the stable courtyard, a sudden burst of sunlight making his eyes ache His squints at the group of servants gathered anxiously around the emmperor's gift, whispering and staring, and shouts at them to get moving At his instruction, two of them run off to get a large trough of water Isaac moves towards the beast that now dominates the courtyard. He has become accustomed to it over the course of their long journey together across land and sea. But now that it stands outside the palace, he feels its incongruity again Its skin is tough and gray, ridged and rough to the touch as he lays a hand on its flank. Its large ears flap as though in recognition, and its long trunk continues to scuffle about on the dirty floor, searching for something to eat Its trumpets happily when the trough of fresh water is placed in front of it When the elephant has drunk its fill, Isaac instructs an attendant to take hold of its lead robe. Then, with servants holding other boxes containing an assortment of other offerings, the procession is ready Isaac himself leads it bearing a letter from the caliph Behind him, men bearing wooden chests, and bringing up the rear the astonishing, exotic beast, the most anticipated gift of all. Now they set out for the larger courtyard in front of the palace where the emperor and his courtiers are gathered When they emerge through the gateway, many of the nobles surrounding Charlemagne gasp in surprise, or draw back in fear as the strange beast lumbers towards them with heavy footsteps But all Isaac can see on the emperor's own face is an expression of pure joy and amazement As he takes in the precious gifts he has been sent from the East. After its arrival in eight oh two, the elephant lived at Arken for almost a decade. His journey and even his name, Abul Abbas are recorded in the prolific histories and annals produced at Charlemagne's Court This literature is part of a broader program of intellectual pursuit and educational reform encouraged by the emperor As well as being a warrior, he is a learned man supporting a renewal of the scholarly culture of antiquity For a long time, scholars used to talk about the Carolingian Renaissance, this period kind of in the late eighth, early ninth century, in which there seemed to be kind of a reflowering of learning after a long decline And that's still kind of true, though, the term itself has fallen out of fashion As a central aspect of this program, Charlemagne gathers the best and brightest scholars of the day to his court Some of them travel across Europe to reach Arken drawn to the side of the pious and academic emperor. One of the things that Charlemagne did was not to kind of do something new, but to consolidate a lot of the learning that had been happening elsewhere And what I mean by that is that one of the most famous figures of this period, this so called Carolin Rennaissance was a guy by the name of Alcuin Alcuin from Northumbria g'w up kind of around York, also known as Alcuin of York It wasn't that he suddenly became kind of brilliant once he showed up at Charlemagne's court. He had been a very learned scholar and he was attracted to this kind of center that Charlemagne was establishing around his court. The written word is crucial to Charlemagne's reign and legacy Before his rule, textual forms vary from scribe to scribe and monastery to monastery hindering legibility and the transfer of ideas. part of his reforms and perhaps under the supervision of Alcuin. A standardized text is developed with rounded letters and consistent punctuation and spacing With everything from law codes to histories to bureaucratic records now written down and stored in libraries. But he also encourages a flourishing of art and poetry and has strong views on education. Schools are set up throughout the empire to promote the training of clerics and to improve their Latin literacy and a palace school is founded at Aken. where the sons of the nobility are sent to be trained. Educational standards absolutely, without question seem to rise there aristocratic men from all over want to be sent or have their sons sent to the Pal school, to be educated there, but also of course to be in proximity to the king, to maybe gain a favor from him, to go on campaign with him, to catch his eyes so that they can be rewarded with some of the plunder or land or a title, to be named a missi Dominicci to be sent out to the Netherlands on the king's behalf as well There is, of course, a heavily religious element to Charlemagne's enthusiasm for education It wasn't just kind of a side interest in education. And by education, we should say, not just secular education, but religious education as well Charlemagne cared about Christianity. He really did. like he wanted people to worship proper way, he wanted people to be converted And it wasn't just an element of political control, but the role of King as he seemed to understand it was to be a shepherd of souls Whatever his motives, it is thanks to Charmagne's patronage that many important early medieval scholars are able to work many classical texts copied and preserved for future generations. good so good, so good. New summer arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Get ready to save big with up to sixty percent off brands like Rag and Bone, Levi', Adidas, and Free People. Join the Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack Study and play! come together on a Windows eleven PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the unreal college deal, everything you need to study and play with select Windows eleven PC's. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft three hundred sixty five premium and a year of Xbox GamePass ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller Learn more at windows. com slash student offffer. while suppupplies last ends june thirtieth terms at aka. ms slash collllege PC As he ages, Charlemagne increasingly remains in his capital at Arken Rather than heading out on the annual campaigns that dominated his younger years Though his forces have, by the early ninth century, fully secured what was once Saxon territory This extension of his northern border brings him into direct contact with a new enemy Kings pitched battles between the two are largely avoided through diplomacy. Charlemne recognizes the threat of maritime incursions and sets about building a massive system of naval defenses Using a combination of watch toowers, signal fires, and his own ships guarding the coast and river mouths successfully deters any major land invasion in his lifetime But he also starts thinking about his legacy His eldest son, with Himilrud has by now been confined to a monastery following a failed rebellion. But his sons with Hildegard are given pieces of the empire to rule Though the emperor retains primary authority His eldest son with Hildegard, Charles the Younger, is appointed co king of Francia by the Pope. with the understanding that he will inherit most of his father's territory when he dies Meanwhile, Pippin is made king of Lombardy, Louis is given acquitaine and his daughters begin to take over the reins at court. Eespecially his eldest daughter the name of Btha, she seems to have been the power at court She was the one who distributed patronage, who allowed access to the king in his old age and stuff like that and basically ran things in his absence. Though we might imagine medieval princesses to be married off strategically as little more than pawns in their fathather's diplomatic games Charlmagne's daughters remain unwed his biographer Einhard He claims that the emperor loves his daughters too much to ever let them leave home But a more likely explanation is a concern that making in laaws of another noble family dilute his own power. He is also possibly worried about his daughters producing male heirs. challenge his own son's inheritance The lack of diplomatic arranged marriages does not stop his daughters from entering into romantic relationships with courtiers I don't know if the daughters themselves, in every case wanted to marry. They were very happy establishing themselves at court They had power And again, based upon what we know about marriage patterns and the legitimacy of marriage Their relationships, which oftentimes we know they had long term relationships, like, why are we saying that's illegitimate? We're saying it's illgitimate because some of them did produce children andly didn't want them to be kind a potential threat. It didn't seem like anybody at the court or anybody in the period kind of thought of those as inappropriate in any way, shape or form Though Charlemagne may imagine himself in his later years surrounded by his daughters and grandchildren with his three sons ready to rule parts of his empire after his death has other plans in eight ten his son Pippin King of Lombardy dies Charles, the younger follows him to the grave a year later Only Louis remains And in eight hundred thirteen he was crowned co emperor by his father. Then the next January Charlemagne himself passes away in his early to mid sixties. By now, Louis is far away ruling Aquitaine. He is only informed of his father's death after the funeral at Arken has taken place Louis is very aware of his tenuous position at this time And so he marches very, very slowly with an army back towards the court because he doesn't know what's going to happen. Seems very clear he's expecting maybe a fight in order to take the empire. And the person who would organize that fight is his sister Once Louis finally does arrive at court, the first thing he does is he exiles all of his sisters, every single sister. He has a couple of noblemen killed for treason. It seems very clear that they were the partners of some of his sisters whether they were actually kind of plotting his demise or not, that seems very up in the air And then also some of his cousins and his half brothers, his illegitimate brothers, if you will, sending them off to monasteries, exiling them from court, and then that allows him to finally kind of take over Louis continues in his campaign to secure his position a ruthlessness that marks him out as his father's son In eighteen seventeen, after his nephew attempts to regain control of the Lombard kingdom that had been bequeathed to his brother Pippin Louis has the upstart blinded. a procedure from which he dies two days later But his attempts to exert control over the entirety of Francia are ultimately fruitless. Louis spent much of his reign warring with his own sons Men who after his death in eight hundred forty continue to fight amongst themselves Eventually, in eight hundred forty three Carolingian Empire is formally divided. Today, this event is considered the catalyst that establishes France and Germany as separate countries. It is also the death knell for the unified European Empire Charmagne fought so hard to create His empire may not have lasted But Charlmagne's legacy lives on. It's largely thanks to his efforts to preserve and copy ancient texts that so much writing from ancient Rome survived and the standardized script that was developed under his rule formed the basis of much of our modern writing His control of European territories remained unmatched for a thousand years until the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte And though his often barbaric methods might not win him any accolades today, He is remembered annually with the Charlemagne prize awarded to recognize those who advance the cause of European unity with past recipients including Winston Churchill, Bill Clinton, and Angela Mercy as a warlord, political figurehead, defender of the Christian faith, or religious unifier Charlemagne retains his place in history. as an emperor for the ages us today He becomes incredibly important because he seems like the first, especially to nineteenth and early twentieth century scholars, kind of the founder of Europe in a real way Charlemagne created this empire and then it was lost in the subsequent generations. And then it led to all this dissension of the European religious wars of the early modern period. the W Wars of something like that, if we had only kept onto that unity. We would have had peace, we would have had modernity in an early period as well Next time on Short History, we'll bring you a Short History of Jacques Couustea He embodies adventure under the sea and he is still the name that comes to mind. when so many people talk about where they got their inspiration from the sea, Jacques Custau will come up And it's because his films are still out there on the internet, his books are still out there and available and because his principles are stronger than ever. the need to look after the oceans