Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768,King of the Lombards from 774,and Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian Empire from 800,holding these titles until his death in 814. He united most of Western and Central Europe,and was the first recognised emperor to rule from the west after the fall of the Western Roman Empire approximately three centuries earlier. Charlemagne's reign was marked by political and social changes that had lasting influence on Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
Louis the German,also known as Louis II of Germany,was the first king of East Francia,and ruled from 843 to 876 AD. Grandson of emperor Charlemagne and the third son of Louis the Pious,emperor of Francia,and his first wife,Ermengarde of Hesbaye,he received the appellation Germanicus shortly after his death,when East Francia became known as the kingdom of Germany.
The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty,which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lombards in Italy from 774. In 800,the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III in an effort to transfer the status of Roman Empire from the Byzantine Empire to Western Europe. The Carolingian Empire is sometimes considered the first phase in the history of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne,descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The dynasty consolidated its power in the 8th century,eventually making the offices of mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum hereditary,and becoming the de facto rulers of the Franks as the real powers behind the Merovingian throne. In 751 the Merovingian dynasty which had ruled the Franks was overthrown with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy,and Pepin the Short,son of Martel,was crowned King of the Franks. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of the Romans in the West in over three centuries. Nearly every monarch of France from Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious until the penultimate monarch of France Louis Philippe have been his descendants. His death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and decline that would eventually lead to the evolution of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
Carloman II was the King of West Francia from 879 until his death. A member of the Carolingian dynasty,he and his elder brother Louis III,divided the kingdom between themselves and ruled jointly until the latter's death in 882. Thereafter Carloman ruled alone until his own death. He was the second son of King Louis the Stammerer and Queen Ansgarde.
Desiderius,also known as Daufer or Dauferius,was king of the Lombards in northern Italy,ruling from 756 to 774. The Frankish king of renown,Charlemagne,married Desiderius's daughter and subsequently conquered his realm. Desiderius is remembered for this connection to Charlemagne and for being the last Lombard ruler to exercise regional kingship.
Lothair II was a Carolingian king and ruler of northern parts of Middle Francia,that came to be known as Lotharingia,reigning there from 855 until his death in 869. He also ruled over Burgundy,holding from 855 just the Upper regions,and from 863 also the Lower Burgundy. He was the second son of Emperor Lothair I and Ermengarde of Tours. He was married to Teutberga,daughter of Boso the Elder.
Aistulf was the Duke of Friuli from 744,King of the Lombards from 749,and Duke of Spoleto from 751. His reign was characterized by ruthless and ambitious efforts to conquer Roman territory to the extent that in the Liber Pontificalis,he is described as a "shameless" Lombard given to "pernicious savagery" and cruelty.
Rosamond Deborah McKitterick is an English medieval historian. She is an expert on the Frankish kingdoms in the eighth and ninth centuries AD,who uses palaeographical and manuscript studies to illuminate aspects of the political,cultural,intellectual,religious,and social history of the Early Middle Ages. From 1999 until 2016 she was Professor of Medieval History and director of research at the University of Cambridge. She is a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and Professor Emerita of Medieval History in the University of Cambridge.
Hildegard was a Frankish queen and the wife of Charlemagne from c. 771 until her death. Hildegard was a noblewoman of Frankish and Alemannian heritage. Through eleven years of marriage with Charlemagne,Hildegard helped share in his rule as well as having nine children with him,including the kings Charles the Younger and Pepin of Italy and the emperor Louis the Pious.
East Francia or the Kingdom of the East Franks was a successor state of Charlemagne's empire ruled by the Carolingian dynasty until 911. It was created through the Treaty of Verdun (843) which divided the former empire into three kingdoms.
The Battle of Tertry was an important engagement in Merovingian Gaul between the forces of Austrasia under Pepin II on one side and those of Neustria and Burgundy on the other. It took place in 687 at Tertry,Somme,and the battle is presented as an heroic account in the Annales mettenses priores. After achieving victory on the battlefield at Tertry,the Austrasians dictated the political future of the Neustrians.
Thegan of Trier was a Frankish Roman Catholic prelate and the author of Gesta Hludowici imperatoris which is a principal source for the life of the Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious,the son and successor of Charlemagne.
Walter Ullmann was an Austrian-Jewish scholar who left Austria in the 1930s and settled in the United Kingdom,where he became a naturalised citizen. He was a recognised authority on medieval political thought,and in particular legal theory,an area in which he published prolifically.
Gerberga was the wife of Carloman I,King of the Franks,and sister-in-law of Charlemagne. Her flight to the Lombard kingdom of Desiderius following Carloman's death precipitated the last Franco-Lombard war,and the end of the independent kingdom of the Lombards in 774.
The Annals of Metz are a set of Latin Carolingian annals covering the period of Frankish history from the victory of Pepin II in the Battle of Tertry (687) to the time of writing. Sections covering events after 806 are not original writings but were borrowed from other texts and appended to the original annals in the 9th and 12th centuries.
The Treaty of Ribemont in 880 was the last treaty on the partitions of the Frankish Empire. It was signed by the German king Louis the Younger and the kings of West Francia,Louis III and Carloman.
The Treaty of Prüm,concluded on 19 September 855,was the second of the main partition treaties of the Carolingian Empire. As Emperor Lothair I was approaching death,he divided his realm of Middle Francia among his three sons.
Caroline Humfress,FRHS,FSLS,is a legal historian who is professor at the University of St Andrews and a former director of its Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research. In 2020 she was appointed L. Bates Lea Global Professor of Law,University of Michigan Law School,where she teaches on the history of the Civil Law tradition.
Erluin was a ninth-century Carolingian nobleman who became prefect of the palace at Ingelheim.
