1. Characteristic features of the political behavior of Charles I

Many historians point out that Charles I was "sadly unfit" for monarchical power: an unhappy childhood and the fact that he was the youngest son, who was not prepared to rule, influenced his character, which was an artificial combination of opposite elements: the desire to intervene authoritarianly in any details of the policy, and at the same time, the characteristic incompetence in it in a broad context. The English historian E. Hughes rightly notes that “Charles I combined a sense of personal danger with a high appreciation of royal power, and this gave rise to endless concern for loyalty, unity and hierarchy ... He was rude and inflexible with his advisers and contemptuous of to those who seemed to want to soften his policies. The decision to introduce a single prayer book in Scotland, which started the British turmoil, was entirely the decision of Charles I, and it naturally followed from his convictions about the nature of power, about Britain, about the church. At the heart of his actions was the belief that his power was from God, which led to the fact that any opposition was considered by him as illegal, as a result of the actions of selfish, corrupt populist groups. He writes at the dissolution of Parliament in 1629: “In their innovations (which we will never allow again), the members of the House, it is true, pretended to be acting in our interests, but in fact their desire was directed to ensure that by these by measures to destroy all respect for the government and all its connections and to appropriate to ourselves an all-round and dominant power that belongs only to us, and not to them. Charles I's conviction that kings should be obeyed without question led to a neglect of everyday political skills.

Hughes elaborates, "Charles I's policy was not a manifestation of the disorderly impulses of his unfortunate and unfortunate nature, but a perfectly understandable choice between different paths for the development of the English political system. So, for example, his fear of publicity was definitely a response to real social and political changes. His policies were harmful because they dealt (in the crudest way) with those long-term structural problems that had been generated or 'postponed' in previous reigns.

2. English Parliament

Whose interests were expressed by the members of parliament, which became the center of the opposition?

Of course, the House of Lords was formed from the aristocracy, and the lower house was mainly represented by the gentry, the untitled middle and small nobility. The House of Commons was most opposed: "... the order was met with due obedience in the upper house, but when it was reported by the speaker to the House of Commons, it immediately met with objections." And this is understandable, the actions of the king affected, first of all, representatives of the lower house. Gentry in the conditions of the agrarian revolution of the 16th-17th centuries. increased their landed property as a result of enclosures and the sale of secularized church property, often rented land to large farmers or themselves were directly engaged in agriculture and industrial activities, attracting hired workers, and invested in trading companies. Many politicians came out of the gentry - J. Gempden, J. Pym, O. Cromwell, as well as the leader of the Levellers, J. Lilburn.

Revisionists since the 1970s it has been argued that the criticism of royalty that was heard in parliament was simply a reflection of court rivalry. But many modern researchers, including those in Russian historiography, refute this. A detailed analysis of the tasks of activity from the moment of its occurrence is contained in the article by Kondratiev S.V. “Parliament in the Political and Legal Thought of Medieval England”, where, based on the work of foreign historians, the author notes that parliamentarians have always defended their rights and liberties and shows the role of parliament, which became opposition to the king, who encroached on his rights. And in another article, he characterizes the question of the social status and political orientation of English lawyers of the pre-revolutionary period, which did not receive sufficient coverage in the literature. It is also important for our work, since lawyers took an active part in the struggle between the king and parliament. S. V. Kondratiev cites the following table in the article:

Educational level of members of parliament (1563 - 1642)

Year	Total Members of Parliament	University graduates	Graduates of innov (specialized higher legal educational institutions)
1563	420	110 26%	103 28%
1584	460	145 32%	164 36%
1590	462	161 35%	197 43%
1640 -1642	552	276 50%	306 55%

The table shows the dynamics of growth in the prestige of higher education among MPs in general and legal education in particular. If in 1563 only half of the members of the House of Commons had higher education, then already in the Long Parliament all the commoners completed a course of study either at the university or at the Inn, and some, apparently, graduated from two higher educational institutions. Thus, the members of the House of Commons were quite knowledgeable in matters of state structure and law. Consequently, the bulk of the commoners did not simply follow the leaders, but consciously supported one of the warring parties. "The political position of a lawyer, especially sitting in parliament, primarily depended on whose interests he defended." Since the government most often tried to solve its financial difficulties at the expense of the provincial nobility, introducing compulsory loans, new customs duties, "ship money" - extortions, the legality of which was doubtful, its representatives in the House of Commons, who never broke ties with the gentry, belonged to such activities are strongly negative.

Thus, the parliament, especially its lower house, represented the interests of the society, which needed to create favorable conditions for commercial and industrial development. It mirrored the internal political reality. But the monarch could not and did not seek to take this into account.

Despite the government's repressive measures, grassroots protests against the existing tax system continued throughout the reign of the later Stuarts. Peasant performances. An important place in the history of popular movements in England during the period of restoration is occupied by peasant anti-government uprisings. Unrest of the peasants took place even before the return of the king to the country. This...

... ://www.vostokoved.ru/articles/2-articles/81--i-.html 45. Fadeeva I.L. Turkey. Confrontation of Islamism and secularism // Asia and Africa today. 2009. No. 6. P.48-51 46. Huntington S. Clash of Civilizations. M., 2006. "Six arrows of Ataturk's activity" - socio-political principles, de-facto adopted in the Republic of Turkey during the reign of Mustafa Kemal: Republicanism, nationalism, ...

Charlemagne and his politics

Introduction

The time of the greatest power of the Frankish state falls on the reign of the son and successor of Pepin the Short, Charles (768-814), nicknamed the Great. Charlemagne was the most prominent representative of the Carolingian dynasty (from his name she learned her name). He reigned for 46 years. Charles was a major commander and conqueror. Under him, the emerging Frankish feudal state pursued a particularly broad aggressive policy. As a result of numerous conquests, Charlemagne became the head of a vast state. Since the fall of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, there has not yet been such a large state, which included, in addition to the Franks, dozens of other tribes and nationalities.

“During his lifetime, he will receive nicknames: “Glorious”, “Brilliant”, “Victorious”, “Wise”; but one will soon prevail over the others and endure for ages: "Great." It is inextricably merged with the name. "Carolus Magnus" of Latin texts, "Karl der Grosse" of the Germans, "Charlemagne" of the French - this is how he will go down in legend, from generation to generation remaining the standard for royal imitators - Frederick Barbarossa in the XII century, Philip the Good - in the XV, Charles Fifth - in the XVI, Napoleon - in the XIX.

For a number of subsequent centuries, Charles acted as the hero of legends and tales. He was credited with feats that he did not accomplish, victories that he did not win. His very name has become synonymous with a mighty ruler. And just as in ancient times the Roman emperors appropriated the title "August" to themselves, the rulers of European states subsequently began to call themselves "kings" (in the Latin form of the name Charles - Karolus). This is explained primarily by the fact that during the centuries preceding and following the reign of Charlemagne, there were no political entities in the West that even formally united such a significant territory. The connection of the empire of Charles with the formation of three large European states - France, Germany and Italy was also essential. A well-known role in perpetuating the memory of Charlemagne was probably played by the fact that he was one of the very few major politicians of the early Middle Ages, about which the sources have preserved a relatively rich biographical material, sufficient to recreate any specific image.

The biographer of Charlemagne is Einhard (Einhard, Egingard (c. 770 - March 14, 840) - a Frankish scientist, figure in the "Carolingian Renaissance", historian, abbot of the Seligenstadt monastery, Alcuin's successor as head of the school at the court of Charlemagne. Along with numerous letters and religious treatises, the author of which is Eingard, the work “The Life of Charlemagne” (“Vita Caroli Magni”) has come down to us.

“Sometimes the role of Einhard at the court of Karl himself was exaggerated by his younger contemporaries. He himself, in the introduction to the Life of Karl, does not seek to emphasize his merits. Only twice Einhard happened to be a participant in important events: in 806 he was sent by the emperor on a mission to Pope Leo III, and in 813 he was one of those who persuaded Charles to crown his son Louis and make him co-emperor and heir, about which he himself Einhard is also silent (ch. 30). He does not write about his activities in the construction of the cathedral in Aachen (ch. 17 and ch. 26), nor in the construction of Charles's palace (ch. 22). Only once in his work is there a hint of personal participation in the difficult passage through the Alps (ch. 6).

But if we have second-hand and third-hand information about Charles’s wars, then the description of the emperor’s appearance, his state of health, character traits, lifestyle, and habits clearly belongs to Einhard himself.

“... Charles, the greatest of all the kings then ruling the peoples, who excelled everyone in prudence and greatness of soul, never backed down from difficulties and was not afraid of the dangers of those [wars] that he undertook or waged. On the contrary, he knew how to accept and lead each undertaking in accordance with its nature, not retreating in a difficult situation and not succumbing to the false flattery of luck in a favorable situation.

“The legend has forever preserved the image of a majestic old man with a huge white beard, dressed in a magnificent robe, crowned with a golden crown, with an unchanged scepter and orb in his hands.

The real Charles the Emperor, as follows from the descriptions of contemporaries, as well as several portrait images that have come down to us, had nothing to do with this decorative figure.

Charles was tall, but by no means a giant, and when he sat he seemed taller than when he stood. His neck was short, and his stomach was thick and protruded forward. He had a massive head, large lively eyes, a large nose and thick hair. According to the custom of the Franks, he let out a long mustache, but shaved his beard. His voice did not match his physique and seemed weak. In general, the illustrious emperor was neither handsome nor majestic, but he carried himself admirably, being able to inspire respect, and, if necessary, fear. At the heart of this was Karl's pronounced authoritarianism, which stemmed from a complete and unconditional conviction that he was right. He himself never experienced doubts and hesitation, he was endowed with a rare gift to inspire others to believe in the expediency of his ideas and actions. His character seems strong and even, he was unfamiliar with outbursts of rage inherent in Alexander or Napoleon. In the same way, senseless cruelty was alien to him, and if the chronicle left separate examples of Charles's merciless decisions, then they were caused only by necessity, as he himself imagined it.

He valued devotion and was available for friendship. Deprived of suspicion, even in the case when a loved one, who proved unfailing fidelity, made a mistake and even a misdemeanor, he did not punish him and did not deprive him of a good attitude. It is known that, upon learning of the death of Pope Adrian, whom, despite the tensions between them, he considered his friend, Karl wept, although it was not easy to tear a tear from the eyes of this iron man. His affection for Alcuin continued until the death of the scientist, accompanied by an expression of deep and constant affection, although he more than once allowed himself to criticize the actions of the emperor. He also loved many others from his entourage: Angilbert, Theodulf, Eingard.

All the wars waged by this ruler pursued only one goal - the expansion of the Christian world. During the reign of Charlemagne, the Franks made 53 military campaigns, 27 of them were led by Charles himself. Military operations allowed the monarch to double the size of the Frankish kingdom.

1. The aggressive policy of Charlemagne

.1 The conquest of the Lombard kingdom and the war with the Arabs

772 begins the era of great wars. From this moment on, we will find in the chronicle of the reign of King Charles no more than two or three "peaceful" years. The rest of the time will be filled with campaigns, invasions, sieges ... Every spring (usually May) is a military gathering near the place of planned operations. Then two or three months (and sometimes more) of continuous battles with the enemy: either the conquest of new territories, or the reconquest of previously conquered ones, or the suppression of recalcitrant rebellions. After that, there is often another campaign caused by some unplanned events. Then the dissolution of the army until next year and rest in one of the royal villas; great Christian holidays are celebrated here - Christmas and Easter; then - preparation for a new season of hostilities.

Charles continued Pepin's wars with the Lombards. His first campaign in Italy (774) led to the fact that the Lombard king Desiderius was deprived of the throne.

The Pope hoped that all the conquered Italian lands would be handed over to him. But Charles, although he confirmed the donation of Pepin to the pope, annexed the Lombard lands to his possessions, proclaiming himself "King of the Franks and Lombards." To further subjugate Italy, the Frankish armies crossed the Alps several more times. As a result of the conquest of the Lombard kingdom, the Lombards and the population of Northern Italy subject to them were included in the state of Charles, i.e. peoples who were alien to the Franks in language and did not have strong economic ties with them.

Charles also went on the offensive against Muslim Spain. True, his first campaign (778) in Spain was not successful: having reached Zaragoza, the Franks were forced to turn back and returned to Gaul with nothing. This unsuccessful campaign then served as the plot basis for the famous medieval French knightly epic "The Song of Roland". One of Charles's commanders, Roland, who died along with the rearguard of the Frankish army in the Pyrenees as a result of an unexpected attack by the Basques, became the central figure of the work, in which the history of this campaign is embellished with a number of fantastic details. In particular, the Basque Christians who attacked the Franks. in the Ronceval Gorge, turned into a poem in Muslim Arabs.

Subsequently, despite the attempts of the Arab counter-offensive, which began in the 90s of the 8th century, the Franks methodically moved south. In 801, Barcelona was taken from the Arabs. The influence of the Franks extended towards the end of the first decade of the ninth century. to the river Ebro.

On the territory of Northern Spain, the Spanish brand (border fortified area) was founded, the population of which was the Basques and Navarrese, later renamed the County of Barcelona. In order to strengthen control over the restless Aquitaine, Charles appointed another son as his governor here - Louis, with the title of King of Aquitaine.

1.2 Conquest of Saxony

Under Charlemagne, Saxony was conquered and annexed to the Frankish state. The conquest of Saxony lasted from 772 to 804 and cost the Frankish state great strain. “None of the wars begun by the people of the Franks was so long, terrible and requiring so much effort, for the Saxons, who, like almost all peoples living in Germany, are warlike by nature, devoted to the worship of demons and are opponents of our religion, did not consider it impious or violate nor transgress both divine and human laws. The capture of new lands east of the Rhine, and in particular the conquest of Saxony, was due to the fact that the middle landowners, who formed the basis of the military organization of the Carolingian state, needed new lands and labor hands to cultivate them. They could not count on land grants in the indigenous regions of the Frankish state, since all the free lands here had already been distributed. The fund of church lands, which at one time were turned into beneficiaries by Charles Martell, was also exhausted. Further allocation of beneficiaries at the expense of church lands was hampered by Pepin the Short's agreement with the church. The need for land of this layer of Frankish society could only be satisfied through conquest.

The Saxon tribes inhabited the area between the lower Rhine in the west, the Elbe in the east and the Eider in the north. At that time they were at the last stage of the primitive communal system, i.e. in terms of their social and political development, they were significantly lower than the Franks. True, they already had a significant social stratification and three main social strata stood out: the tribal nobility - the edelings, the simple free ones who formed the basis of the tribe - the frilings, and the semi-free ones - the lazzi, but the classes had not yet developed, tribal remnants played a large role, not was royalty. The Saxons were pagans.

The stubborn nature of the war between the Franks and the Saxons is explained by the fact that for the bulk of the Saxons the Frankish conquest meant enslavement. At first, the Saxon nobility supported the resistance of the masses to the Franks and their Christianization. But already in 777, a significant part of the Saxon Edelings recognized the authority of Charlemagne. After the betrayal of the nobility, the resistance of the masses to the Frankish conquest grew into a class struggle against the Frankish conquering feudal lords and against the feudalized Saxon nobility. During the uprising, paganism was usually restored as a symbol of the independence of Saxony.

The uprising of the Saxons, which broke out in 782, was especially strong. The Saxons defeated the Frankish army at Mount Züntel, killed the Frankish commanders, counts and Christian missionaries. The uprising quickly spread throughout Saxony and spread to neighboring Frisia. Karl decided to take emergency measures. After defeating the Saxons on the Weser, he defiantly executed 4,500 Saxon hostages. At the same time, the so-called Capitulary for Saxony Affairs (Capitulare de partibus Saxoniae) was published, which established the death penalty for the slightest crime against the church and the king, obliged the population to pay tithes in favor of the church, and generally created a regime of terror in the country.

“7. Whoever burns the body of the deceased according to the pagan rite and turns his bones into ashes, will be executed by death.

Whoever from the Saxon tribe will continue to evade baptism, will not appear to perform this sacrament over him, wanting to remain in the pagan faith, will be executed by death.

. ... give the church and the clergy a tenth of their property and earnings ... "

In 785. A law was passed making the adoption of Christianity obligatory. In the same year, Widukind, a prominent representative of the Saxon nobility, who had previously been one of the organizers of the resistance to the Franks, went over to the side of Charles and was baptized. As a reward for their treason, Widukind and other Saxon Edelings received from Charles rich gifts and lands in Saxony on a par with his Frankish vassals.

After that, the extreme north-eastern regions of Saxony became the center of the struggle, where ordinary Saxons most fiercely and for a long time resisted the conquerors. In order to achieve a final victory, Charles entered into an alliance with the Polabian Slavs - encouraged, long-standing enemies of the Saxons. The military victories of Charles and his allies were accompanied by exceptional measures - the mass expulsion of the Saxons from their country. They were settled in various places of the Frankish state, and their lands were distributed to the Franks and encouragers, and some districts lost up to one third of their former population. In 804 the Saxon wars were finally over. The regions of the Saxons, divided into counties, were included in the Frankish state and given into the hands of counts and bishops. The cruel regime of capitulary in 782 was softened. As a result of the conquest of Saxony, under the rule of Charles was also the Saxon tribe, which differed from the Franks both in language and in its social system and finally embarked on the path of feudalization only after the Frankish conquest.

.3 Subjugation of Bavaria and war with the Avars

If the expansion of Charles's possessions to the northeast was completed by the conquest of Saxony, then in the southeast the annexation of Bavaria had the same significance. In 788, Charles, with the support of the Frankish nobility, abolished the ducal authority in Bavaria, divided this region into counties ruled by counts appointed by him. Thus, he included another nationality in his kingdom - the Bavarians, who, although to a lesser extent than the Saxons, also lagged behind the Franks in terms of the development of feudal relations.

Together with Bavaria, Carinthia (Horutania) also fell into the orbit of Frankish influence - an area inhabited by Slavic tribes of Horutans (Slovenians), which used to be dependent on Bavaria.

The capture of Bavaria brought Charles face to face with the Avar Khanate that had taken shape in the 6th century. in Pannonia. Remaining a nomadic people, the Avars exploited the agricultural Slavic tribes and undertook predatory raids on their neighbors. In 788, the Avars invaded the Frankish state. Protracted Avar wars began, lasting intermittently from 788 to 803. “The war with the Slavs was followed by the largest, with the exception of the Saxon, war of all that Karl waged, namely [the war] launched against the Avars or the Huns . Charles waged this war more cruelly than others, and with the longest preparations. Charles himself, however, conducted only one campaign in Pannonia (for this people then lived in that province), and instructed his son Pepin, prefects of the provinces, as well as counts and even ambassadors, to conduct the rest of the campaigns. Only in the eighth year that war was finally completed, despite the fact that it was fought very decisively. How many battles were fought, how much blood was shed - evidence that Pannonnia became completely uninhabited, and the place where the kagan's residence was is now so deserted that there is no trace that people lived here. All the noble Huns died in that war, all their glory was cut short. All the money and treasures accumulated over a long time were captured [by the Franks]. In human memory, not a single war that arose against the Franks remained, in which the Franks would have been so enriched and increased their wealth. The wars could not be crowned with lasting success until the Franks united in their actions with the southern Slavs, who suffered a lot from the Avars. The campaign of 796 was organized by the Khorutan prince Voinomir in alliance with the Franks; it ended with the complete defeat of the central ring-shaped fortress of the Avars, and rich booty was captured. Just as the Franks successfully completed the Saxon wars only in alliance with the Polabian Slavs (Obodrites), so the wars in the south led to a complete victory thanks to the joint actions of the Franks and the South Slavs. The forces of the Avars were broken, their power, which had terrified its neighbors for so long, fell apart, the devastated Pannonia fell into the hands of the Slavs. In the future, all the attention of Charles on the Danube was directed to strengthening the Danubian-Pannonian border, which was supposed to cover Bavaria and Friul.

.4 Declaring an empire and fortifying borders

The conquest of vast territories greatly expanded the boundaries of the Frankish state. Now they stretched from the Ebro and Barcelona to the Elbe and the Baltic coast, from the English Channel to the Middle Danube and the Adriatic, including almost all of Italy and part of the Balkan Peninsula. The empire created by Charlemagne thus occupied a significant part of the territory of the former Western Roman Empire, including its capital, Rome.

The royal title no longer satisfied the Frankish king. Charles was only waiting for an opportunity to proclaim himself emperor. Such a case presented itself when the weak and impersonal Leo III (since 795) appeared on the papal throne, causing (against himself the opposition of the Roman nobility. Pressed by the nobility, the pope fled to Charles, from whom he sought protection. Charles gave the pope reliable protection, and himself In gratitude for this help, the pope crowned the Frankish king with the imperial crown in St. Peter's at the end of 800. Thus a new empire was established in the West. This event caused a sharp conflict between Charles and Byzantium, whose emperors considered themselves the only Byzantine emperor Michael I formally recognized the title of emperor for Charles only in 812. This agreement was finally confirmed after the death of Charles. international relations.

Obtaining the title of emperor significantly strengthened the position of Charlemagne both domestically and internationally. Ambassadors from England, Scotland, Denmark, Asturias, the Caliphate of Baghdad and other states began to come to Charles. In the year of the coronation, the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent Charlemagne the keys to the "Holy Sepulcher". Thus, the "holy places", which were previously under the care of the Byzantine Empire, now passed under the patronage of the empire of Charlemagne. Charlemagne, in turn, sent embassies to the emperor of Byzantium and to the kings of other states. “He increased the glory of his reign also thanks to the friendship he made with some kings and peoples. Alphonse, King of Galicia and Asturias, he tied with such a close alliance that when he sent letters or ambassadors to Charles, he ordered to call himself nothing more than "belonging to the king." He acquired such a disposition of the kings of the Scots, captivated by his generosity, that they called him nothing more than master, and themselves - his subjects and slaves. Letters sent from them to Karl have been preserved, in which such feelings for him are expressed. With King Aaron of Persia, who, with the exception of India, owned almost the entire east, Charles had such an agreement in friendship that he preferred his favor to the friendship of all the kings and rulers that are in the whole circle of the earth.

Charles chose his new capital, Aachen, as his permanent seat. From here, he continued to direct the domestic and foreign policy of his empire. The main focus now was on fortifying new lines of defense and for further conquest. In the west, Brittany and Spanish stamps were created. in Italy southern borders the Franks were covered against the Byzantine possessions by the semi-independent Duchy of Benevent.

The most difficult thing was to strengthen the eastern border, which stretched for many hundreds of kilometers. Throughout its length from the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea, the Franks encountered numerous Slavic tribes. From the north to the Ore Mountains stretched the lands of the Polabian Slavs: Obodrites, Lutiches, Lusatian Serbs; further to the Danube were the possessions of the Czechs and Moravians; South Slavic tribes lived from Pannonia to the Adriatic: Slovenians (Horutans) and Croats. With each of these tribes and tribal unions, relations with the Frankish state developed differently. With some of them, for example, with Obodrites, Horutans and Croats, alliances were made against a common enemy; border wars were fought with others. The Franks repeatedly invaded the borders of the Lutichs, Lusatian Serbs and Czechs; the Slavs responded with reverse invasions. The Lutici burned and destroyed the Frankish fortresses on the lower Elbe, the Serbs devastated South Saxony and Thuringia. Sometimes the northern Polabian Slavs united against the Franks with the Danes.

Charles paid great attention to strengthening the eastern borders. In the north, near Schleswig, the Danish mark was laid, which was supposed to separate the Danes from the Slavs and cover Saxony from the north; further south, through Nordalbingia, the Saxon frontier stretched, threatening the Baltic Slavs. From the Elbe to the Danube stretched for hundreds of kilometers created in the first decade of the 9th century. Serbian border. It was a fortified line (with the cities of Bardovik, Magdeburg, Erfurt, Forgeim, Regensburg and Lorch), the strongholds of which served at the same time as places of trade between the Franks and the Slavs. On the middle Danube, the Eastern, or Pannonian, mark was laid, reaching the Vienna Woods - the core of the future Austria. She was supposed to threaten the Czechs and the Pannonian Slavs. In the extreme south, the line of fortifications was closed by the Friulian mark, which covered Northern Italy.

From the north and south, the Frankish state was washed by the seas. Here since the beginning of the IX century. a new enemy appeared: Norman and Arab pirates. Normans (mainly Danes) in the first decade of the 9th century. devastated Frisia and the banks of the Channel, North African Arabs - the coast of Italy and nearby islands. Karl actively engaged in the fight against pirates. The Frankish fleet in the Mediterranean launched a counteroffensive and in a short time cleared Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands from the Arabs. Frisia and the mouths of the rivers flowing into the North Sea and the English Channel were protected from the Normans by special fortifications. Frankish patrol boats also circulated here. So far, the strong Frankish state has successfully repelled the raids of the Normans and Arabs; they will become a terrible disaster only later, at the end of the 9th-10th centuries, when the Carolingian empire itself weakens and disintegrates.

At the beginning of the ninth century the empire outwardly seemed strong and well fortified on the borders. Charles enjoyed great influence not only within the empire, but also beyond its borders. He interfered in the internal affairs of England. His patronage was sought by the kings of Scotland and neighboring Asturias with the Spanish brand, the leaders of the tribal Irish principalities.

Charles was proclaimed not the emperor of the Franks, but the emperor of the Romans, although the Romans as a people had long since ceased to exist. After some time, the title of "Basileus" (the Greek name of the emperor) was forced to recognize Charles and the eastern, Byzantine emperor, who at first stubbornly resisted this. The famous Baghdad caliph Harun al-Rashid also exchanged embassies with the emperor with Charles.

2. Domestic policy of Charlemagne

.1 Organization of the administrative-judicial power

The management of a vast state required Charles to reorganize the administrative apparatus of the empire. He sought to create a centralized state, which would be governed by officials, by issuing special imperial decrees with more or less systematic control over local authorities. “In the laws of this sovereign, we find the spirit of foresight, which comprehends everything, and the power that carries everything with it. The reasons for the evasion of subjects from the performance of their duties were eliminated, negligence was punished, corrective or preventive measures were taken against abuses. He knew how to punish, but even better he knew how to forgive.

The center of control of Charlemagne was the royal palace - palatia. The highest officials concentrated their activities in the palace: the chamber count (chief judge and deputy emperor in his absence), the archchancellor (head of the imperial office), chamber arias (head of the royal treasury), constable (horseman who was in charge of the royal cavalry), and others. major officials were counts - heads of administrative districts, vicars or vice-counts (count's deputies), scabins - royal judges, etc.

The population was subordinate to the royal servants and performed state duties. The entire territory of the state was divided into counties, headed by royal commissioners - counts. They were in charge of judicial and administrative affairs, convened a military militia and commanded it, collected taxes and other fees in favor of the king. As a reward for their service, the counts kept 1/3 of the fines in their favor and received benefices from the king. The counties were divided into hundreds, headed by centenaries (centuries), who exercised judicial-administrative and fiscal power in the field. Centenaries were appointed by the royal court, but were directly subordinate to the counts. The hundred included several villages that had their own communal self-government.

In the conquered border areas, Charlemagne created stamps - fortified military administrative districts that served as outposts for attacking neighboring countries and organizing defense. The margraves, who were at the head of the stamps, had extensive judicial, administrative and military powers. They had a permanent military force at their disposal.

Bishops, who were personally appointed by Charles, also played a large judicial and administrative role in the empire. As controllers of local authorities, the so-called royal envoys (missi dominici), who usually traveled two people together to survey the situation in the counties and receive complaints from the population against counts, bishops and other officials. The emperor's decrees, which were drawn up in writing, were called capitulars (from the Latin words sarit - head, as they were divided into special paragraphs). About 250 decrees of Charlemagne have come down to us.

The main legislative monuments and judicial codes in the Frankish state remained the barbarian truths, the main of which was the Salic Truth. Separate chapters were published in addition to its obsolete provisions. Most of the capitularies of Charlemagne relate to the affairs of the royal administration ("capitularies to the messengers"). The punitive measures of the state were significantly strengthened, administrative fines were increased. The emperor in his capitularies obliged the servants to treat the common people more strictly, to force them to obedience and fulfill their duties. At the same time, he tried to prevent the growth of the independence of royal officials and increase their responsibility to the king.

“... by his own insidious design, let no one dare to violate the established laws, as many usually do ...

... And our messengers themselves, in order not to lose the mercy of God, having violated the oath given by them, must carefully investigate whether anyone complains about the injustice caused to him, everywhere and forcing everyone to act according to the law and justice ...

...Weapons, i.e. shields, spears and armor should not be worn inside the state. In the event of a quarrel, let them sort out which of the two quarreling opposes reconciliation - and, in extreme cases, reconcile them even by force; send them to us if they persist in their refusal to reconcile. If one of them, after reconciliation, kills the other, he pays for the murdered head and loses the hand with which he committed perjury, and above all he pays a fine in favor of the state.

All these facts point to the well-known bureaucratization of the administrative apparatus under Charlemagne. In contrast to the primitive apparatus of the Merovingians and the first Carolingians with their retinues and servants - ministerials, who performed the simplest administrative, financial and judicial functions on behalf of the king, a permanent bureaucracy was developing in the empire of Charles. The organization of the bureaucracy of Charlemagne was undoubtedly influenced by the Roman tradition. The official language of the royal-imperial offices was Latin, the language of the Romans.

However, in reality, a centralized, bureaucratic state under Charlemagne could not have happened. The empire was in the process of feudalization. The feudal order, of course, was reflected in the political system. Despite his military power and the glory of the largest conqueror, Charlemagne himself was dependent on the agricultural nobility. This was reflected primarily in the growth in the importance of the congresses of magnates, usually convened by the emperor in the fall. All the most important chapters were discussed at these congresses. In contrast to these autumn congresses of the nobility, which had real political significance, the old spring, so-called May fields - meetings of soldiers, a relic of the ancient German people's meetings - turned under the Carolingians into simple military reviews, in which only decrees already approved by the emperor were announced for information.

Along with the strengthening of the activities of the royal courts (skabins and other royal court officials who replaced the archaic people's court, reflected in the Salic Truth), Charlemagne had to practice a system of so-called immunities, when the local landowner, secular or ecclesiastical, was given freedom from visiting his territory royal officials, judges, etc. Moreover, such immunity letters were also issued, by virtue of which local landowners themselves received the right to collect government taxes and duties for their own benefit not only dependent on them, but also the free population. Under Charles, the system of military benefices also continued to develop. The peasants were less and less called upon to carry out military service due to the weakening and decline of the free peasantry. But the beneficiaries themselves also only partly depended on the emperor. Most of them were vassals of large magnate farmers, who usually brought whole detachments of "their faithful people" to the war. Thus, the army of Charlemagne in reality was not his army, but the army of large feudal lords, who were becoming more and more clearly formed - the owners of numerous estates, who had wide political rights and having, depending on themselves, numerous small knights.

As an example of the vivid feudalization of the administrative apparatus already under Charlemagne, one should point to the desire of the counts to turn their positions and the lands associated with them into their hereditary family possessions. Charlemagne took great pains to retain the right to appoint counts.

2.2 Arrangement of Carolingian estates

The main income of Charlemagne was income from his estates, the royal land fund was scattered throughout the state and consisted of hundreds of large and smaller estates.

“The basis of Charles's power was his vast private lands - the ancestral domains of the Carolingians. They have evolved over the centuries. This included the confiscations of Charles Martel and the acquisitions of Pepin the Short. Charlemagne, with his wars and punitive actions, greatly increased the domain funds of the ancestors. We do not have exact data on his personal possessions; sources mention only about three hundred units, but the list compiled on the basis of these references, of course, cannot claim to be exhaustive. The main place among the lands of Charles was occupied by palatia or palatia, each of which had a palace (palatium), where the emperor stopped during his endless movements. Aachen, which turned into the capital of the empire, grew out of a similar palation. The same Palatinate residences were Duren, Thionville, Quercy, Atginy, Niemwegen, Paderborn. Actually estates (villas) sources number a hundred and a little; about a hundred more objects should be added to them - cities, villages, towns, individual yards, farms, forest areas, wastelands. Thanks to the reports of the royal auditors, we have a description of a number of palatine and villas. The center of each palatine was the sovereign's mansions - a vast stone house-palace with several ceremonial chambers and dozens of chambers. In the palace - an abundance of all kinds of furniture, dishes, utensils, clothes, linen; most of these items are carefully packed in massive chests and crates. The master's yard, surrounded by a strong fence with stone gates, is full of outbuildings; among them are kitchens, bakeries, barns, grape presses, stables, cowsheds, pigsties, sheepfolds, poultry houses. Behind the estate there is usually a garden planted with fruit trees and all kinds of plants. Several villas - estates are drawn to the Palatinate. Each of the villas also has a master's yard and house, but smaller and, as a rule, not stone, but wooden; around the courtyard is a village inhabited by peasants; several farms and isolated courtyards are subordinated to the villa.

Monasteries were very large landowners under Charlemagne. One of the Parisian monasteries, St. Herman (or Saint-Germain), owned over 100 thousand serfs. Undoubtedly, the secular nobility also had numerous large estates, although inventories of their lands have not come down to us. The main sources for studying the Carolingian estates are Charlemagne's "Capitulary on the Estates" and the so-called polyptic of Abbot Irminon (an inventory of the lands and the serfs of the Saint-Germain monastery who sat on them). Based on these sources, it is possible to reconstruct the picture of the early feudal estate. First of all, we find in them the local division of land into two parts, typical of the Middle Ages: into the master's - dominal (domain) and the peasant's - allotment. The latter was owned by the peasants. These allotments were called mansi. The serfs cultivated the lord's land with their labor and with the help of their working cattle and implements. Technique of tillage - three fields. In addition to arable farming, the estates paid great attention to cattle breeding (in the royal estates, in particular, horse breeding, which was of great military importance). In the sources there are references to viticulture and horticulture. The Carolingian estate appears before us with the features of a clear subsistence economy. Especially illustrative material on this issue is provided by the Capitulary on the Estates, where it is emphasized several times that the products produced on the estates are intended for the needs of the royal family and the royal retinue.

“We want our landed estates, which are intended for our own use, to serve exclusively for the satisfaction of our needs, and not for anyone else.

So that the rulers do not dare to use our servants for their service ... "

But, perhaps, the most interesting thing in the Carolingian documents about the estate is the data on the composition of the serfs themselves at that time. This material is especially vividly given by the polyptic of the Saint-Germain monastery. Serfs appear in it under different names: columns, litas, slaves. Columns are even called "free" in comparison with litas and slaves. But their "freedom" is very relative. In fact, they are almost no different from "not free". They are also attached to their allotments and also perform "non-free" duties in the form of rationed corvée, dues in kind and the payment of a small amount of cash rent. It can be seen that this division of the peasants into different categories (as well as the division into three groups of the peasant allotments-manses themselves) was already at that time a relic of antiquity. In fact, the Franks already by this time had managed to develop a mass of serf peasantry, in which the former differences in the past of a free, semi-free (litas) or unfree (slave) state really disappeared.

“Allotments were free (semi-free) and not free; all of them, however, were within the boundaries of the estate, depended to a greater or lesser extent on the patrimony. For the use of the allotment of land, forest, pastures allotted to him, the peasant was obliged to serve corvee in favor of the landowner ... namely, various foot and horse services - the first with the help of cattle, draft work, the second - manual. Among them, the most important were field work on the cultivation of the lord's land, i.e. that part of the estate that was cultivated at the expense of the feudal lord - sowing, plowing the land, harvesting grain, threshing, etc. ”

“Evidently, the church property was cultivated best of all… Agricultural implements looked extremely sad even in the villas of Charlemagne. Whole estates had only one horse; wagons - as expressly stated in the Capitulare de villis ("Capitular of the estates") - were only for military purposes; plows and harrows are not mentioned at all. They used only shovels and pickaxes, and on the whole estate there were only a dozen or three sickles and seven hoes and no more tools.

3. Religious and cultural policy of Charlemagne

.1 Relationship to the church

Karl never doubted that he received authority from God. Having assumed the imperial title of "God's grace", he constantly called himself a monarch "by God's mercy", "crowned by God", etc. The same idea was inspired by Alcuin (Alcuin (or Albin), Anglo-Saxon, a native of Nordumbria and a pupil of the York Episcopal School, which he graduated from under the guidance of the famous preachers Ecbert and Elbert, impressed Charles with his knowledge already at the first meeting, which took place in 781 year.The monarch immediately invited the Englishman to cooperate, and he did not hesitate to appear at the Frankish court.Being not only a comprehensively educated scientist, but also an excellent organizer, he contributed to the rapid planting of primary and secondary schools throughout the country, and in Aachen he created something like an elite school , which received the name of the Court Academy.), when he wrote: “... By the will of the Almighty, Charles reigns and governs the city of eternal peace, built by the precious blood of Christ ... Divine power armed Charles with two swords as an amazing and special gift of God, for with fiery zeal he tries to protect the churches Christ's from the devastation of the Gentiles and cleanse from the teachings of the unbelievers ... "

Through all the legislative activity of Karl, the striving to plant in any way - whether it be persuasion or coercion - the "holy truth", unity and eternal peace. He himself titles himself a "great peacemaker", his agents must everywhere "search for and fulfill the truth of the sovereign, the church, widows, orphans, minors and other people." A huge number of circulars, capitularies, decrees are directed to the search for and protection of this "truth".

Speaking of "holy truth", Karl means the complete and unconditional triumph of the Christian Church. His “two swords”, in the words of Alcuin, are, on the one hand, the desire to put an end to paganism in all the expanses of the conquered lands, on the other hand, to ensure and consolidate the unshakable position of the “church of Christ” where it already has deep and old roots. How stubborn he was in "converting" the pagans is evident from the example of the Saxons and Avars. Here, a sensible man and not at all evil, he did not stop at any cruelty, preferring to exterminate the "infidels" rather than see them as "misguided." And it is not for nothing that the next generations have appreciated (from their point of view) this perseverance. Emperor of the XII century Frederick Barbarossa, one of the most aggressive founders of the "Holy Roman Empire", wrote in his diploma, referring to Charlemagne: "... he was a strong fighter and a true apostle in spreading the Christian faith and converting pagan peoples, as the Saxons testify, Frisians, Westphalians, Spaniards and Avars, whom he converted by word and sword to the Christian faith.

Karl paid no less attention to strengthening the positions of the church in the inner regions of the state, where Christianity had been established since the time of Clovis and his successors. Caring for the well-being of the church and the expansion of its fields seems to Karl a hereditary duty; he orders his sons to defend "her truth", "as our grandfather and father once took upon themselves this duty." Even more than his ancestors, he cares about observing church canons, ordering the clergy of the empire to live according to them with a special circular and accordingly correct every wrong deed of clergy and laity: ; monks ... would spend their lives sacredly keeping their vows; secular people would properly fulfill the laws, refraining from all unrighteousness and deceit, living in peace and love with each other "

Charles did his best to turn the clergy into conduits for his ideas. Deeply convinced that he was preparing the salvation of Christian society, entrusted to his care, he tripled the number of monasteries during the period of his reign. Having appropriated the right to appoint abbots, he constantly took care of the unification of the monastic rules of conduct on the model of the Benedictine rule. Here, his main assistant was the son of the Gothic count of Magellona Vitiza, who founded the monastery in Aniana in 782 and took the spiritual name of Benedict. Educated at the "Court Academy", Benedict of Anian, thanks to his assertiveness and energy, managed to introduce a new charter in many abbeys of Aquitaine, Septimania and Provence. No less capable conductor of the ideas of Charles was Angilbert, appointed in 789 as abbot of the monastery of Saint-Riquier. Through his efforts, the monastery was turned into a genuine "holy town" - a kind of laboratory of the Carolingian monastic business.

“Although Charles devoted so much energy to the expansion of the kingdom and the conquest of foreign peoples and was constantly busy with such deeds, in various places he began many works related to the decoration and improvement of the kingdom, and even completed some. Among them, in all fairness, the Basilica of the Holy Mother of God in Aachen, a building of amazing work, can be called outstanding ... But it is especially important that if he learned about churches that had collapsed from old age, no matter where they were in his kingdom, he ordered the bishops and pastors in whose jurisdiction they were, to restore them, and he himself followed through the messengers so that his orders were carried out "

“Whoever breaks into the church by force, or takes something from there by force or secretly, or burns the church itself, let him be executed by death.

... Let no one dare to offend the churches of God ... and take away their property by force or deceit, for the sovereign emperor himself, after the Lord God and the saints, was appointed their protector and patron ”

3.2 "Carolingian revival"

Charlemagne was a fairly enlightened man for his time. He knew Greek and latin languages(although he learned to read and write only in adulthood) and appreciated education. “Not content with only his native speech, he tried to study foreign languages. He learned Latin in such a way that he usually spoke [ogage] in it as if in his native language, but in Greek he understood more than he spoke. At the same time, he was so verbose that he even seemed talkative. ”Scientists from different countries. Among them, the Anglo-Saxon Alquia, who studied at the York Episcopal School (in the north of England), stood out in particular.

It was here that Alcuin approved the “seven liberal arts” in teaching, which later settled in medieval universities - the “trivium”, which included grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, and the “quadrivium”, which included arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Instructing his students, the teacher suggested topics for discussion, encouraging them to study Greek and Roman authors and imitate them in verse and prose by his own example. The emperor himself, members of his family and gifted young men from the courtiers diligently studied at the Academy; among them were young talents formed here - the poet Angilbert and Eingard. Then other prominent writers of that time also lived at the court: Pavel Dyakov from Lombardy, Theodulf, a Visigoth from Spain, and others. Of the Franks themselves, young Einhard stood out for his education, who later wrote a very lively biography of Charlemagne. With the help of these scientists, Karl organized a number of schools at episcopal residences, mainly for the training of competent clergy and officials (scribes, etc.) for the imperial offices: life and conversations about the holy faith, those to whom God gave to contribute to the study, would still be diligent in scientific studies and would teach (others) as far as they can ... ". By order of Charles, ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts were collected. In large scriptoria, dozens of scribes simultaneously copied the most valuable manuscripts. In this way, many ancient authors were preserved for later generations.

Charles patronized literature and the sciences in every possible way, loved books and could quote whole passages from the writings of St. Augustine by heart. Attracting outstanding theologians, grammarians and poets to the court, he dreamed of creating a "New Athens" around him. Descendants will even dub his efforts and successes in this area as the "Carolingian Renaissance".

The rounded, clear handwriting of the Carolingian scribes stands out for its beauty, not only in comparison with the older handwriting that preceded them, but also with the subsequent medieval Latin script. At the court, a kind of learned society was formed, which, according to the ancient example, was called the "Academy". Karl himself also took part in the activities of the society. Members of the "Academy" read Latin authors, prose writers, and poets and occasionally performed their own imitations of them. However, the Carolingian Renaissance did not at all mean the revival of antiquity in the true sense of the word. From antique. only a very small part of the inheritance was taken. The very worldview of the scientists who gathered at the court of Charles (as well as the worldview of himself) was not at all that rationalistic, philosophical, secular worldview, which is usually characterized by ancient classical culture. These were learned Christian monks whose world outlook was of a narrow ecclesiastical character. The most "pagan" ancient culture was for them a means of clarifying and deepening Christian dogma. A purely medieval religious worldview, which has nothing in common with genuine antiquity, is felt in Alcuin's textbook, compiled by him for the education of royal princes: “What is life? - the teacher asks there and answers: - ... joy for the happy, sorrow for the unfortunate, expectation of death for both. Another question: "What is a man?" The answer was: "A slave of death, a guest in his house, a passing traveler ...".

The circle of people affected by Carolingian enlightenment was very narrow. Even the court nobles of Charlemagne remained overwhelmingly illiterate. In practice, the events of Charlemagne gave impetus only to the development of church episcopal schools, on the basis of which, however, medieval universities later grew.

Conclusion

The Carolingian era occupies a special place in the history of early medieval Europe. In the VIII-IX centuries. a feudal system was taking shape. Political unity is replaced by fragmentation; the agrarian revolution is completed, which led to the emergence of a class of dependent peasantry and the spread of patrimonial land ownership; a system of vassal relations is being formed; the union of state and church, which reached its apogee during the reign of Charlemagne, under his successors turns into the first attempts to establish a papal theocracy.

Charlemagne died in 814 at the age of 72 and was buried in Aachen, in the vicinity of which he lived for the last years. To contemporaries, the Carolingian state, especially under Charlemagne, seemed brilliant and majestic, the image of this emperor was glorified, and then entered into many legends and songs of the Middle Ages. Contemporaries admired the truly outstanding personality of Charles, his tireless energy, the desire to delve into all the details of the administration of a vast state, military and diplomatic affairs, develop education and culture, and his successes in military campaigns. The image of Charles was strongly idealized by the subsequent medieval tradition, and through it by Western historiography: “Everything was united by the power of his genius. He constantly led the nobility on one campaign or another, leaving her no time for any plans, forcing her to serve her own goals. The empire was held together by the greatness of its head: Charles was a great sovereign and an even greater man.

After the death of Charlemagne, the imperial rank passed to his eldest son Louis, who had previously been the king of Aquitaine for a long time during his father's lifetime. The empire of Charlemagne did not last long after his of death. It was a military multi-tribal early feudal monarchy, which did not have, above all, a sufficient economic base for genuine centralization. The dominance of subsistence farming in individual estates, the isolation of individual regions and districts, the poor development of cities and trade - all this led to the inevitable collapse of the empire. The feudal lords themselves, who finally took shape under Charlemagne as owners of serf estates and acquired as a result of his wars a large number of new lands, no longer needed a strong central government. Gradually seizing full influence in the localities, they sought, on the contrary, to weaken their dependence on the center. On the other hand, the grandiose wars of Charlemagne finally broke the strength of the remaining free Frankish peasantry. Thus, the king was deprived of the support of the most important social grouping, with the help of which the Austrasian mayordoms actually rose up.

In 843, an agreement was concluded in Verdun on the division of the empire of Charlemagne between his grandsons - Lothair, Louis the German and Charles the Bald. The first, retaining the title of emperor, received Italy (except the south, belonging to Byzantium) and intermediate territories between the West Frankish and East Frankish states, the first of which went to Charles the Bald, and the second to Louis the German. Thus, the division was made mainly along ethnic lines. On the territory of the newly formed states, three Western European nations subsequently formed - French, German and Italian.

Literature

karl conquest subjugation politics

1. L.M. Bragina, E.V. Gutnova, S.P. Karpov and others. History of the Middle Ages. In 2 vols. T. 1-M., 1990.495 p.

2. K.O. Jejula. History of France - K., 1954,654 p.

3. History of the Middle Ages. Ed. N.F. Kolesnitsky - M., 1980.576 p.

History of France. Volume 1. Ed. A.Z. Manfred - M., 1972,359 p.

A book to read on the history of the Middle Ages. Ed. P.G. Vinogradova - M., 1901,446 p.

E.A. Kosminsky. History of the Middle Ages. Volume 1 - M., 1952.748 p.

THEM. Kulisher. Lectures on the history of economic life Western Europe- Petrograd, 1920,360 p.

8. A.P. Lewandowski. Charlemagne - M., 1999. #"justify">. C. Montesquieu. Charlemagne // Theory of the feudal law of the Franks in its relation to the changes that took place in their monarchy // On the spirit of laws #"justify">. M.S. Petrov. Einhard // Historians of the Carolingian era - M., 1999, With.223-238 #"justify">. V.F. Semenov. History of the Middle Ages - M., 1949.424 p.

Sidorov A.I. Rise and fall of the Carolingians // Historians of the Carolingian era - M, 1999, p. 189-222 #"justify">13. V. Sklyarenko, Ya. Baty, N. Vologzhina, M. Pankova. 50 famous royal dynasties - Kharkiv, 2009, 511 p.

Tutoring

Need help learning a topic?

Our experts will advise or provide tutoring services on topics of interest to you.
Submit an application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.

Of all the wars that Charles waged, he was the first to undertake the Aquitanian, begun by his father, but not finished. Charles could end this war quickly, even during the life of his brother Carloman. And Karl completed, thanks to endurance and constancy, with an excellent end what he planned to do 16 .

Having put things in order in Aquitaine and ended that war, Charles, heeding the requests and entreaties of the bishop of the city of Rome Adrian, undertook a war against the Lombards. This war had been started even earlier with great difficulty (at the humble request of Pope Stephen) by Charles's father. However, at that time the war against the king was started and ended very quickly. Charles, having started the war, completed it no earlier than he accepted the surrender of King Desiderius, tired of a long siege, his son Adalgiz, on whom the hopes of everyone seemed to be turned, forced him to leave not only the kingdom, but even Italy. He returned everything taken from the Romans, suppressed Ruodgaz, the ruler of the duchy of Friul, who plotted a coup, subjugated all of Italy to his power and installed his son Pepin as king at the head of conquered Italy.

For Charles, who entered Italy, crossing the Alps and overcoming impassable places, mountain ranges and rocks rising to the sky was very difficult.

So, the end of that war was the conquest of Italy: King Desiderius was banished into eternal exile, his son Adalgiz was removed from Italy, and the property taken by the Lombard kings was returned to the ruler of the Roman church, Adrian.

After the end of that war, the Saxon war began again, which seemed already completed. None of the wars begun by the people of the Franks was so long, terrible and requiring so much effort, for the Saxons, who, like almost all peoples living in Germany, are warlike by nature, devoted to the worship of demons and are opponents of our religion, did not consider it impious to violate, nor transgress both divine and human laws 17 . There were other reasons why not a day passed without breaking the peace, since the borders of the Saxons almost everywhere adjoined on the plain, with the exception of a few places where large forests and wedged cliffs of mountains separated the fields of both by a reliable border. Otherwise, murders, robberies and fires would not be slow to reappear there either. The Franks were so angry that, in order not to endure any more inconvenience, they decided that it was worth starting an open war against them. 18 That war was started and fought for thirty-three years with great courage on both sides, but with more damage to the Saxons than to the Franks. It could have ended sooner if not for the perfidy of the Saxons. It is difficult to say how many times the vanquished surrendered, promised that they would follow orders, gave hostages, sent by them without delay, received ambassadors sent to them. And several times they were so subdued and weakened that they even promised to turn to the Christian religion and leave the custom of worshiping demons. But as many times they promised to do it, as many times they broke their promises. But the strong spirit of the king and his constant constancy, both under unfavorable and favorable circumstances, could not be defeated by the fickleness of the Saxons and were not exhausted by the undertakings undertaken. Charles did not allow those who did something like this to get away from punishment. Charles himself took revenge for treachery and appointed them a well-deserved punishment, himself standing at the head of the army, or sent his counts. It was believed that the war, which had been waged for so many years, ended under the condition put forward by the king and accepted by the Saxons: the Saxons, having rejected the veneration of demons and leaving their fatherly rites, accept the sacraments of the Christian faith and religion and, having united with the Franks, form a single people with them. 19

In the course of that war, although it dragged on for a very long time, Charles himself faced the enemy in battle no more than twice: once at a mountain called Osneggi, in a place called Teothmelly, and the second time near the river Haza. In those two battles, the enemies were so crushed and completely defeated that they did not dare to challenge the king, nor to oppose him with their advance, unless they were in some place protected by fortifications. In that war, many who held the highest posts, both from the Frankish nobility and from the nobility of the Saxons, were killed. And although the war ended in the thirty-third year, in the course of it, in various parts of the country, so many other most serious wars arose against the Franks, which the king masterfully waged, that, considering them, it is difficult to decide what in Charles should be more surprised - steadfastness in difficulties or his luck. For he began the Saxon war two years before the Italian, and did not cease to wage it, and none of the wars that were fought anywhere else was stopped or suspended at any stage because of difficulties. Since Charles, the greatest of all the kings then ruling the peoples, who excelled everyone in prudence and greatness of soul, never retreated before difficulties and was not afraid of the dangers of those wars that he undertook or waged. On the contrary, he knew how to accept and lead each undertaking in accordance with its nature, not retreating in a difficult situation and not succumbing to the false flattery of luck in a favorable situation.

Thus, during a long and almost uninterrupted war with the Saxons, he, having placed garrisons along the frontier in proper places, went to Spain only after he had made the best preparations for war. Having overcome the gorge of the Pyrenees, he achieved the surrender of all the cities and castles that he approached, and returned with an unharmed army. On the way back, on the Pyrenees itself, he had to experience the treachery of the Basques. The Basques, setting up an ambush and starting a battle, killed everyone and plundered the convoy, and then scattered in different directions. In this case, the ease of armament and the nature of the area in which the case took place helped the Basques; on the contrary, heavy weapons, and the ruggedness of the place made the Franks unequal in everything to the Basques. In this battle, with many others, the steward Eggihard, the palace manager Anselm and Ruodland, the prefect of the Breton March, died.

Charles also conquered the Britons, who lived in the West, on one of the outskirts of Gaul, on the ocean, and did not obey his orders. Sending an army to them, he forced them to hand over the hostages and promise that they would do what he ordered them to do. After that, Charles again invaded Italy with an army and, passing through Rome, attacked Capua, the city of Campania. Having set up a camp there, he began to threaten the Benevents with war if they did not surrender - Aragis, their duke sent his sons Rumold and Grimold to meet the king with large gifts. He invited Karl to accept his sons as hostages, and he promised that he would carry out the order together with his people, except that he would be obliged to appear before the eyes of the king.

The king, after that, paid more attention to the benefit to the people than to the inflexibility of the duke. He accepted the hostages offered to him and agreed, as a great favor, not to force Aragis to appear before him. Charles left the younger son of the duke as a hostage, but returned the eldest to his father, and, sending ambassadors in all directions so that they took an oath of allegiance from Aragis and the people, he went to Rome. After spending several days there venerating the holy places, he returned to Gaul.

The Bavarian War, which began suddenly, then ended quickly. It was caused at the same time by the arrogance and carelessness of the Duke of Tassilon, who, succumbing to the persuasion of his wife (the daughter of King Desiderius, who wanted to avenge her father's expulsion with the help of her husband), entered into an alliance with the Huns, the former neighbors of the Bavarians from the east, and tried not only not to fulfill the orders of the king , but also to provoke Charles to war. The king, whose pride was wounded, could not endure the obstinacy of Thassilon, therefore, having summoned soldiers from everywhere, Charles set off with a large army to the Lech River with the intention of attacking Bavaria. That river separated the Bavarians from the Alamans. Before invading the province, Charles, having set up camp on the banks of the river, decided through ambassadors to find out about the intentions of the duke. But he, considering that stubbornness would not benefit either him or his people, with a plea personally appeared before the king, providing the required hostages, including his son Theodon. Moreover, he swore an oath that he would not give in to any incitement to rebellion against the royal authority. So, that war, which seemed to be a long one, was put to the quickest end. However, later Thassilon was called to the king without permission to return back; the administration of the province which he owned was entrusted not to the next duke, but to several earls. Gorelov M.M. Decree op. S. 213. .

After those unrest were settled, another war was started with the Slavs, who are usually called Wilts. The reason for the war was that the obodrites, who had once been allies of the Franks, were disturbed by the Wilts with frequent raids and could not be restrained by orders.

In just one campaign, which he himself led, Charles so defeated and tamed the Velatabs that later they believed that they should no longer refuse to obey the orders of the king.

The war with the Slavs was followed by the largest, with the exception of the Saxon, war of all that Charles waged, namely the war launched against the Avars or Huns.

Charles waged this war more cruelly than others, and with the longest preparations. Charles himself, however, conducted only one campaign in Pannonia, and ordered the rest of the campaigns to be carried out by his son Pepin, provincial prefects, as well as counts and even ambassadors. Only in the eighth year that war was finally completed, despite the fact that it was fought very decisively. How many battles were fought, how much blood was shed - evidence because Pannonnia became completely uninhabited, and the place where the kagan's residence was is now so deserted that there is no trace that people lived here. 21 All the noble Huns died in that war, all their glory was cut short. All the money and treasures accumulated over a long time were captured by the Franks. In human memory, not a single war that arose against the Franks remained, in which the Franks would have been so enriched and increased their wealth. Only two of the noble Franks died then: Heirik, Duke of Friuli, was killed from an ambush in Liburgia by the townspeople of the seaside city of Tarsatica, and Herold, prefect of Bavaria in Pannonia, while he was building an army before the battle with the Huns. Otherwise, that war was bloodless for the Franks and had the most favorable end, although it dragged on for quite some time. After this war, the Saxon campaign also came to an end, corresponding to its duration. The last war was started against the Normans, called Danes. At first they engaged in piracy, then with the help of a large fleet they ravaged the coasts of Gaul and Germany. The Norman king Godfried hoped to rule all of Germany. Frisia, like Saxony, he considered only his provinces. He had already subjugated his Obodrite neighbors, making them his tributaries. Killed by his own bodyguard, he put an end to both his life and the war he unleashed.

Such were the wars waged by the king in various parts of the earth for 47 years. In those wars, he so thoroughly expanded the already large and powerful kingdom of the Franks, received from Pepin's father, that he added to it almost double the amount of land. Charles, in the wars mentioned, first subjugated Aquitaine, Vasconia, and the entire range of the Pyrenees up to the Iber River, which begins at the Navars and cuts through the most fertile fields of Spain, pouring into the Balearic Sea under the walls of the city of Dertosa. Then he annexed all of Italy, stretching for a thousand or more miles from Augusta Pretoria to southern Calabria, where, as the borders of the Greeks and the Benevents meet. Then he annexed Saxony, which is no small part of Germany, and is thought to be twice as wide as the part inhabited by the Franks, though perhaps equal in length; after that, both Pannonia, Dacia, located on the other side of the Danube, as well as Istria, Liburnia and Dalmacia, with the exception of coastal cities, which, as a result of friendship and the alliance concluded, Charles allowed the Emperor of Constantinople to own. Finally, he so pacified all the barbarian and savage peoples that inhabit Germany between the rivers Rhine, Visula, as well as the ocean and Danube (the peoples are almost similar in language, but differ greatly in customs and appearance), which made them tributaries. Among the latter are the most remarkable peoples: Velatabs, Sorabs, Obodrites, Bohemians; with them Charles fought in the war, and the rest, whose number is much larger, he accepted into submission without a fight.

He increased the glory of his reign also thanks to the friendship he made with some kings and peoples. Alphonse, king of Galicia and Asturias, he tied with such a close alliance that when he sent letters or ambassadors to Charles, he ordered himself to be called nothing more than "belonging to the king." He acquired such a disposition of the kings of the Scots, captivated by his generosity, that they called him nothing more than master, and themselves - his subjects and slaves.

The internal policy of Charlemagne is aimed mainly at centralization government controlled(this was especially evident in the organization of regional and local government, in the introduction of the institution of royal messengers, etc.).

The most important reason for all the successes of Charlemagne was the support he enjoyed from the nobility. Karl continued the distribution of beneficiaries, honorary positions, gifts. Einhard. Decree op. p. 112 The political system created under Charles, which was based on the strengthening of vassal ties, contributed to the strengthening of the nobility. The obligation of vassals to serve the king was formalized by contracts and oaths of allegiance; ordinary free people also had to take an oath of allegiance, since 789 lists of those who took the oath were compiled.

Le Goff says that the church council at Tours, convened in 811, noted: "In many places, by various means, the property of poor people is greatly curtailed, and this is the property of those who are free, but live under the rule of powerful persons." Further, Le Goff says that church magnates and landowners are becoming the new owners of this property. Le Goff cites as an example a polyptic compiled in the ninth century at the behest of Hermione, abbe of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, an inventory of land holdings and duties of land holders. It describes twenty-four properties, nineteen of which were located in the Paris region, between Mantes and Château-Thierry. This economic power opened the way to public power for the landed magnates, largely through the process initiated by Charlemagne and his heirs. As already mentioned, Charlemagne increased the number of beneficiary gifts, obliged him to take an oath and enter into vassal relations. This was done in order to strengthen the Frankish state, Karl hoped to tie to himself not only significant people, land magnates, but also smaller landowners by vassal ties, so he encouraged his vassals to also have vassals, and ordered all the free to choose a lord. Carl's actions had almost the opposite effect. Charlemagne's Capitulary of 811 states that "the poor complain of being deprived of their property, they complain alike of bishops and abbots and trustees, counts and their centurions." Peasants went bankrupt due to church tithes, heavy taxes, high court fines

Charlemagne maintained an alliance both with the pope and with the local church hierarchy. Providing energetic assistance to the spread of Christianity, patronizing the clergy and setting a tithe for him, being in best regards with the pope, Charles retained, however, full power in church administration: he appointed bishops and abbots, convened spiritual councils, and passed decisions on church affairs at the diets. Charles himself was diligently engaged in the sciences; ordered to compile a grammar of the national language, in which he established the Frankish names of the months and winds; ordered to collect folk songs. He surrounded himself with scientists (Alcuin, Paul the Deacon, Einhard, Raban Moor, Theodulf) and, using their advice and assistance, sought to educate the clergy and people. In particular, he took care of the organization of schools at churches and monasteries; at his court, he set up a kind of academy for the education of his children, as well as courtiers and their sons.

Charles made an attempt to reform monasticism in accordance with the Benedictine charter, at the same time a reform of the liturgy was carried out and a single collection of sermons was compiled. In general, the attitude of the church towards him was servile, this is evidenced by the fact that Pope Leo III, after his election to the papal throne, sent Charles the keys of St. Peter and the papal banner in recognition of his authority. Sidorov A.I. The Rise and Fall of the Carolingians - M., 1999. P. 112 Charles became the defender of orthodoxy in the West, he wanted to protest the decision of the Council of Nicaea in 787.

Regarding the church, Charles issued many capitularies. One of them says that they do not offend or plunder the holy churches of God, or orphans, or pilgrims, since the emperor himself, after God and his saints, is declared their protector and patron. In many capitular acts, Charlemagne reminds the counts and bishops that their behavior must be pious: let them forgive the debts of their debtors, ransom the captives, help the oppressed, protect widows and orphans.

Charlemagne carried out a new military reform. Now only relatively wealthy free landowners who had 3-4 allotments were required to serve in the army. All mene wealthy people, primarily free peasants, had to unite in groups and put up one armed warrior at a common expense.

Thus, military power was strengthened by regularizing the collection of the militia, and Charlemagne strengthened the borders by the military organization of the marks, ruled by the margraves. He destroyed the power of the people's dukes, which seemed to him dangerous for the king.

After the military reform carried out by Charles, four peasants had to pool one warrior. Such a practice was not only ruinous for the peasantry in itself, but also for a long time tore it away from the economy, and since Charlemagne pursued an active policy of conquest, such military practice was constant. Ruined peasants gave their possessions to land tycoons in exchange for patronage and protection, the practice of transferring land to a precarium, which began under the Merovingians, was especially widespread - land ownership that the tycoon transferred to a ruined peasant on condition that certain duties were performed: military service, corvée or payment of dues - this contributed to the strengthening of the land magnates, it is precisely with this that, as Le Goff writes, "From 811, Charlemagne complained that some refuse military service under the pretext that their lord was not called up for it and they must stay with him." The situation was aggravated by such a phenomenon as immunity, which consisted in the fact that the magnate in the territories belonging to him received the right to collect taxes and taxes, used the supreme judicial power and was the leader of the military militia convened on his territory. Unable to prevent this process, the state legalized it with special letters, according to which the immune lands were no longer subject to the counts. This practice, which became widespread under the Carolingians, began, however, as early as the time of the Merovingians. In addition, after the judicial reform of Charlemagne, free peasants were deprived of an active role in the court, so they could not prevent the strengthening of the magnates through the state judiciary. "The freedom of these people ceases to imply full rights." Le Golf. Civilization of the Medieval West - M., 1992. S. 260 Often they united and revolted, however, this was ineffective, and they could not stop the "offensive" of the magnates. Charles in many of his capitularies prescribed not to allow the oppression of the peasants, however, this did not have the desired effect. If we talk about the economy associated with the processes described above, then during the reign of Charles - from the end of the 8th to the middle of the 9th century, the trend of economic growth was prevalent, as evidenced by the existence of excess products on large estates that were sold on the market, which is confirmed by a certain revival of those who had the Roman roots of cities, compared to their decline during the Late Roman Empire. The number of mints increased several times, which prompted Charles to limit the right of cities to mint coins. The growth of the money supply indicates a large scale of trade.

Connecting with the issue of land, on the orders of Charles, swamps were drained, forests were cut down, monasteries and cities were built, as well as magnificent palaces and churches (for example, in Aachen, Ingelheim).

Started in 793, the construction of a canal between Rednitz and Altmühl, which would connect the Rhine and Danube, Northern and Black Sea, remained unfinished.

In 794, on the spot thermal spa Celts and Romans in Aachen, Charles began the construction of a huge palace complex, completed in 798. Having first turned into the winter residence of Charles, Aachen gradually became a permanent residence, and from 807 - the permanent capital of the empire.

Carl strengthened the denier, which began to weigh 1.7 grams. Charles's fame spread far beyond his realm; embassies from foreign lands often appeared at his court, such as the embassy of Harun al-Rashid in 798.

The cultural aspirations of Charles were connected with politics - the culture of the Frankish state had to correspond to the name "empire". Karl himself was very educated for his, in many ways still barbaric time: “Not content with only his native speech, he tried to learn foreign languages. He studied Latin in such a way that he usually spoke it as if in his native language, but in Greek he understood more than he spoke." Le Golf, op. op. p. 280

Cultural reforms began with the establishment of a single canonical text of the Bible, and were generally carried out in alliance with the church.

Charlemagne purposefully encouraged secular culture, inviting philologists, architects, musicians and astronomers from all over the empire, as well as from Ireland and England, to his capital Aachen. Under the guidance of the great Anglo-Saxon scholar Alcuin, who was actually the “minister of education” of the empire for Charles (in 796, having retired from the court, he became the abbot of Tours), and with the participation of such famous figures as Theodulf, Paul the Deacon, Eingard and many others (all of them were part of the informal "Palace Academy") actively revived the education system, which received the name of the Carolingian Renaissance.

Karl himself took an active part in the work of the academy he founded: on his initiative, the correct text of the Bible was compiled; the monarch collected ancient German legends and songs (the collection, unfortunately, is almost lost); he instructed scholars to compile the grammar of his native Frankish language (this command was not carried out).

Under him, the study of classical Latin was revived, annalism was encouraged, and a whole stream of imitative poetry poured out from the pen of talented courtiers. Charles himself took grammar lessons from Alcuin and began compiling a grammar of the Germanic language. He also worked on correcting the texts of the Gospels and already in his advanced years tried to learn the difficult art of calligraphy (the mention of this fact in Eingard's biography of Karl was the basis for the false idea that he allegedly could not write). The collection of traditional short German heroic poems ordered by him, unfortunately, has not been preserved. Everywhere, new schools were opened at monasteries and churches, and provision was made for the education of the children of the poor. Under the leadership of Alcuin, scriptoria (rooms for correspondence and storage of manuscripts) were revived or established in the monasteries, where a magnificent font called "Carolingian minuscule" was used for correspondence, and copying was carried out at such a rapid pace that the lion's share of the entire heritage of antiquity has come down to us through the efforts of precisely that era. The impulse given to learning by Charlemagne continued for a full century after his death.