Charlemagne and the Resurgence of the Imperial Idea in the West
6.2.1 Charlemagne and the End of the Lombardian Kingdom
Charlemagne (768-814), the son of Pepin the Short, defeated the Lombards so resoundingly that, after his victory over Desiderius, he was recognized as King of the Lombards in 774 (Costambeys et al.
2011, 66-67). That same year the Carolingian king reached Rome itself, where he was solemnly received by Pope Adrian I (772-795). In his dual role as King of the Franks and the Lombards, Charlemagne confirmed his father Pepin the Short’s donation of the Papal States to the pope, in return for which Adrian I legitimized his dual royal title. The alliance between the Franks and popes was proving very beneficial for both parties.6.2.2 The Appearance of the Kingdom of Italy
The enthronement of the Frankish dynasty in Lombardy did not mark the end of the Lombardian kingdom, but only its transformation into the Kingdom of Italy (Barbero 2004, 38), whose first ruler was Charlemagne’s son, Pepin, crowned in Rome in 781. Central Italy also fell under the influence of Charlemagne, including the Exarchate, Pentapolis, and the Duchies of Rome and Spoleto. The exception was the Duchy of Benevento, whose lords took advantage of the conflict between Charlemagne and the Byzantine Empire to maintain a de facto independence. Naples, Sicily and Calabria remained, at least theoretically, under the rule of Byzantium, though in reality their respective dukes were virtually independent.
6.2.3 The Reappearance of the Imperial Idea in the West
Charlemagne’s new position in Italy reinforced his alliance with the papacy to the point that when Leo III (795-816), suffered a revolt by the Roman aristocracy, the pontiff accused of adultery and perjury, he took refuge at the Frankish court (799). Once there, the deposed pope convinced Charlemagne to personally head up a military expedition which enabled him to recover the papal throne.
A grateful Leo crowned Charlemagne as Emperor of the West in St. Peter’s Basilica.Charlemagne's coronation is considered pivotal in western constitutional history because with it Byzantium lost its imperial monopoly, and the western part of the former Roman Empire recovered the importance it had lost in 476. Hence, the “emperor of the flowery beard” is widely considered one of the founders of Europe (Ullmann 2009, 105).
Despite its importance, we know little about how the coronation happened. Collins (2005, 52) reminds us that Einhard, in his Vita Karoli (written around ad 830), states that the king of Italy went to Rome in 800 “to restore the very disturbed state of the Church” and spent most of the winter there. However, he does not give any detail about how Charlemagne came to receive the imperial title. The nature of the proceedings and the rituals involved in this process of emperor-making are not described at all, and even the location and exact date of his elevation are implied rather than stated explicitly. Tradition maintains that Charlemagne was crowned as the new Emperor of the West on Christmas Day. However, this date may be merely symbolic, as it was also Christmas Day on which Clovis had converted to Christianity and been baptized.[204]
6.2.3.1 The Pope vs. the Emperor: The Eminently Christian Nature of the New Western Empire
What we do know, also as indicated by Einhard, is that Charlemagne was not pleased at all with the coronation, to the point that he protested that he would never have entered St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Christmas Day 800, had he known the symbolically damaging protocol the pontiff was going to employ during his crowning (McKitterick 2011, 26), as he realized that receiving the imperial crown from Leo III did imply a formal recognition of the pope’s supremacy.[205] When Charlemagne wished his son Louis the Pious crowned emperor 13 years later to assure his succession, he organized the ceremony according to an entirely different protocol: the ceremony was held in the Palatine Chapel at Aachen, Louis was acclaimed not by the Romans but by the Franks, and the new emperor did not kneel before the pope, but was crowned by his father, or, according to another chronicler, placed the crown on his own head (Barbero 2004, 94).
Charlemagne was from the beginning, fully aware that the new Empire was not the same as its Roman namesake which had disappeared in 476.
In Rome, the emperor’s power had been based on the support of the people, the Senate, and the army, while in the case of Charlemagne it depended on papal legitimation. As Maglio (2006, 39) points out, the reappearance of the new Empire was not only the result of military action and the political machinations of the Carolingians, but was largely a project of papal inspiration. The dilemma facing the new Western Empire, therefore, was that it possessed two heads, which would prove to be a source of endless conflict.6.2.3.2 The Question of Succession and the Precarious Nature of the Carolingian Empire
The new Carolingian Empire was quite fragile, not only because of its formal subjection to the papacy, but because Charlemagne sought to gain formal recognition of his Empire from Byzantium (Fichtenau 1991, 71), and the Franks harbored a patrimonial conception of monarchy. Proof of this is that Charlemagne, 6 years after his coronation, organized his succession through a division of his kingdoms (divisio regnorum) among his legitimate children: Charles, Pepin and Louis (McKitterick 2011, 96-102). This distribution did not, however, materialize because when Charlemagne died in 814, he was survived only by Louis, entitled to the entire paternal inheritance.
The new emperor, who for his devoutness was dubbed “Louis the Pious”, sought to amend the rule of succession in the interest of unity. In the year 817, he enacted an ordinatio imperii (Ganshof 1971, 273-276) through which he ceded the Empire to his eldest son, Lothair, who was crowned King of Italy and, as such, entitled to inherit the imperial throne by virtue of this designation.[206] However, Lothair’s two brothers, Charles and Louis, did not accept the change in the rules of succession after their father’s death, and fought to overthrow their brother, which they did on June 25, 841, at the Battle of Fontenoy in Puisaye, in the heart of modern-day France.[207]
6.2.3.3 The Treaty of Verdun and the Disintegration
of the Carolingian Line
The disputes between the brothers ended up being resolved through the Treaty of Verdun (843), which established the division of the Carolingian Empire into three areas: the western zone (approximately the territory of present-day France), was assigned to Charles; the eastern (Germania) to Louis; and the territories between the two, plus the title of Emperor, to Lothair.[208] The agreement reached at Verdun has even been called the “birth certificate” of modern Europe (Riche 1993, 168).
6.2.3.4 A Virtual Empire
As a result of this division, the title of Emperor no longer denoted a “universal state” and took on a merely symbolic meaning, ceasing to imply effective control over all the territories of Charlemagne’s empire.[209] The imperial idea, however, did not disappear in the West.
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