House of Carolingian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolings,
or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family with its origins in the
Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century. The name "Carolingian",
Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High
German *karling, kerling (meaning "descendant of Charles", cf. MHG
kerlinc), derives from the Latinised name of Charles Martel: Carolus.
The family consolidated its power in the late 7th 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 throne. By 751, the Merovingian dynasty which until
then had ruled the Franks by right was deprived of this right with the
consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy and a Carolingian, Pepin the
Short, was crowned King of the Franks.
Traditional historiography has seen the Carolingian assumption of
kingship as the product of a long rise to power, punctuated even by a
premature attempt to seize the throne through Childebert the Adopted.
This picture, however, is not commonly accepted today. Rather, the
coronation of 751 is seen typically as a product of the aspirations of
one man, Pepin, and of the Church, which was always looking for powerful
secular protectors and for the extension of its temporal influence.
The greatest Carolingian monarch was Charlemagne, who was crowned
Emperor by Pope Leo III at Rome in 800. His empire, ostensibly a
continuation of the Roman Empire, is referred to historiographically as
the Carolingian Empire. The traditional Frankish (and Merovingian)
practice of dividing inheritances among heirs was not given up by the
Carolingian emperors, though the concept of the indivisibility of the
Empire was also accepted. The Carolingians had the practice of making
their sons (sub-)kings in the various regions (regna) of the Empire,
regna which they would inherit on the death of their father. Following
the death of Louis the Pious, the surviving adult Carolingians fought a
three-year civil war ending only in the Treaty of Verdun, which divided
the empire into three regna while according imperial status and a
nominal lordship to Lothair I. The Carolingians differed markedly from
the Merovingians in that they disallowed inheritance to illegitimate
offspring, possibly in an effort to prevent infighting among heirs and
assure a limit to the division of the realm. In the late ninth century,
however, the lack of suitable adults among the Carolingians necessitated
the rise of Arnulf of Carinthia, a bastard child of a legitimate
Carolingian king.
The Carolingians were displaced in most of the regna of the Empire in
888. They ruled on in East Francia until 911 and they held the throne of
West Francia intermittently until 987. Though they asserted their
prerogative to rule, their hereditary, God-given right, and their usual
alliance with the Church, they were unable to stem the principle of
electoral monarchy and their propagandism failed them in the long run.
Carolingian cadet branches continued to rule in Vermandois and Lower
Lorraine after the last king died in 987, but they never sought thrones
of principalities and made peace with the new ruling families. It is
with the coronation of Robert II of France as junior co-ruler with his
father, Hugh Capet, the first of the Capetian dynasty, that one
chronicler of Sens dates the end of Carolingian rule.
Carolingian dynasty
Pippinids
Pippin the Elder (c. 580640)
Grimoald (616656)
Childebert the Adopted (d. 662)
Arnulfings
Arnulf of Metz (582640)
Chlodulf of Metz (d. 696 or 697)
Ansegisel (c.602before 679)
Pippin the Middle (c.635714)
Grimoald II (d. 714)
Drogo of Champagne (670708)
Theudoald (d. 714)
Carolingians
Charles Martel (686741)
Carloman (d. 754)
Pepin the Short (714768)
Carloman I (751771)
Charlemagne (d. 814)
Louis the Pious (778840)
After the Treaty of Verdun (843)
Lothair I, Holy Roman Emperor (795855)
(Middle Francia)
Charles the Bald (823877)
(Western Francia)
Louis the German (804876)
(Eastern Francia)
