Charlemagne: Great Capitulary

Context

The Capitulary of 802, along with dozens of other capitularies, was issued in an ongoing effort by Charlemagne to consolidate power over his domains and to introduce administrative and ecclesiastical reforms throughout the empire. The formation of that empire was the work of Charlemagne's life. The last time any sort of unity had been imposed on Europe was under the Roman Empire, but that empire collapsed in western Europe in the fifth century. The withdrawal of the Romans left behind a large number of essentially tribal peoples who vied for ascendancy, including many “pagan” tribes, such as the Huns, the Visigoths, the Angles, the Saxons, the Celts, and particularly the Franks, who occupied the region the Romans had called Gaul.

In the wake of the Roman withdrawal, various kings rose to power in a region referred to by the Latin name Francia, but these kings followed a tradition of dividing their kingdoms among their sons upon the kings' deaths. The effect was to leave the Frankish lands fragmented, for the sons often did not get along, competed for power, sponsored assassinations, and went to war with one another. Accordingly the geography of Francia continually changed, with seats of power in various cities—Reims, Paris, Orléans, and Soissons. Adding to the instability was the kings' lack of meaningful authority, with true power wielded behind the scenes by so-called mayors of the palace. Further, Francia often felt pressure from the tribes on its borders, notably the Germanic Saxons, and in the eighth century the realm faced a threat from Muslim Arab invaders, though they were turned back by Charlemagne's grandfather Charles Martel, himself a mayor of the palace who became king in everything but name.

This state of affairs prevailed under the Merovingian kings, who ruled from the fifth century until 751, when Charlemagne's father, Pépin III, deposed the last of the Merovingian monarchs, Childeric III, inaugurating the Carolingian Dynasty. Pépin, also a mayor of the palace, was able to accomplish this takeover because he had the backing of the pope, who was threatened by an Italian tribe called the Lombards. The pope welcomed Pépin's military efforts on his behalf and rewarded him by crowning him king of the Franks—an act that the pope could get away with in an age dominated by religious faith. Under Pépin, however, the practice of dividing the kingdom between or among sons continued, so after Pépin's death in 768 rule of the Frankish kingdom was apportioned between his two sons, Charles and Carloman. The two sons cooperated in launching a joint expedition against the Lombards and put down a revolt in a region called Aquitania. The issue of divided power, however, and the friction it could cause was resolved in 771 with the death of Carloman, leaving Charles as the sole ruler of the Frankish domains.

Charlemagne spent almost his entire career expanding his realms. In the east he conquered Bavaria and defeated the Slavs in Hungary. In the south he subdued much of Italy. By the turn of the century he had forged an empire that encompassed virtually all of western Europe and much of central and southern Europe. It was under Pope Leo III that he assumed the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Leo had been under virtual siege by the Romans and feared for his life. He faced considerable competition from the Byzantine Empire—the eastern portion of the old Roman Empire and the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church. In his extremity the pope invited Charlemagne, the most powerful figure in Europe, to Rome to enlist his aid. There, on December 25, 800, he crowned Charlemagne imperator romanorum, or emperor of the Romans. Charlemagne's contemporary biographer, Einhard, wrote in The Life of Charlemagne that Charlemagne did not want the title, but modern-day historians disagree, noting that in imperial decrees from 801 onward, he styled himself “Charles, most serene Augustus crowned by God, the great, peaceful emperor ruling the Roman empire.” In other words, he used the pope's coronation to position himself as the embodiment of a new Roman Empire with hegemony over Europe. In an effort to assert that hegemony, to enforce Christianity, and to impose standards of rectitude over the secular and ecclesiastical administrative apparatus of his realms and over the people he ruled, he issued the decrees at the Council of Aachen that resulted in the Capitulary of 802.