Vikings
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COUPLAND:

w         Attacks from 790s. Threatened to overwhelm. Longships suited to surprise rapid coastal raids. Danes attacked Frisia and Norwegians coming from Ireland attacked Aquitaine.

w         Frisian trading centres (esp. Dorestad, first sacked 834); ASB ‘ravaged everything …’ Louis the Pious stationed garrisons but local counts were uncooperative.

w         Attacks highly profitable à Vikings started wintering abroad instead of returning home, permanent occupation of Aquitaine. Viking armies in continual state of flux (composition / leadership) + travelling further + further in search of fresh targets. Greater penetration à increased pol threat, exploitation of internal pol disputes.

w         Attempts to buy off with tributes / even baptise some Vikings, but they were perceived as being unreliable. Also fortification - e.g. Charles the Bald blocked river passages with bridge fortifications.

w         What did the Vs want? Pol conquest? (no - ruled large tracts of Frisia for long periods without trying to colonise - sought tributes > pol power) Pagan crusade? Looting? (likely - accounts for choice of targets / avoidance of battle). No V record of motivation.

w       Magyars and Arabs also posed threats late C9.

w       Vikings always launching assaults on some area – concentration on different places at different times.

w       Less evidence for Danish influence in Francia than in England

w       Destabilised Baltic (piracy etc.) à raiders are those who did not find success in Scand pol / econ climate; displaced princes etc. loot Frankish churches / towns.

6.      Carolingian ideas:

a)       Kingship of the people of the Lord

Wormald:

Carolingians seen as champions of Frankish Christianity v. triumphant Islam (which was penetrating S Gaul) – repelled esp by C Martel at Poitiers. Ideological struggle important, but should not obscure pol realities. Charlemagne’s campaigns fought in the name of God, but also revival of traditional Germanic themes – satiated appetites for expansion of a warrior people.

Nelson:

Pirenne saw transformation in presentation of kingship due to augmented authority of church (e.g. new decrees re marriage à new guidelines for conduct + self-control) and consequences of imposing church canon as law.

b) Roman inheritance

Car royal ideology reflected turmoil of post-Roman world; concern with justice and judgement from ancient law texts / ideas of state responsibilty from late antiquity / appreciation of military prowess from barb past. Eclectic ideas of power. Long-term change beginning with Merovingians. Basis in a people and rels between ruler and ruled.

Pippin required papal + popular legitimisation in 751. Prayers for sharing of favour of God between king + people. Expansion under Charlemagne à firmer territorial identity - law became rule over area not people. New notions of lordship and reciprocal duty in his own rule. From texts, importance of: universitas (collective body), honor (meant high office). Attempts to involve contemporaries in shaping the future.

Social memory [McKitterick]:

·         Carolingians had sense of an immediate history related to construction of longer past.

·         Assumed knowledge of own history - this from oral circulation of information / itinerant royal entourage / letters / monastery network, but also systematic dissemination of information. Annals + Thegan + Astronomer + Einhard, often together as a history book, were disseminated across whole F empire, esp during time of Charlemagne’s grandsons.

·         These sources provide interpretative gloss; reliance on audience memory – this is selective and serves present concerns. Historically minded society - interest in audiences of posterity.

·         Libraries (e.g. Fulda) – diverse texts (classical / Bede / Jewish / Christian histories. Read (monasteries + noble households) for social awareness / education of young nobles / by kings for inspiration. Influence of biblical history, esp God’s hand in royal fortunes.

Other Notes in this Category

1. Basis of Power
2. Carolignian Geneaology
3. Carolignians and Italy
4. Chronological Analysis
5. Church
6. Communications
7. Did growth lead to a more systematic style of government?
8. Domestic government and power bases
9. Ideology of Power
10. Importance of the West 814 - 898
11. Kingship and Royal Government - Janet Nelson
12. Logistics of Power
13. Nobility and Expansion Dynamic
14. Nobility and Expansion Dynamic - Effect on surrounding peoples
15. Plunder and Tribute in the Carolignian Empire
16. Society and Politics
17. Sociology of Power
18. The Carolignian Experiment - EF James
19. Vikings

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