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SECTION 1

Clovis

SECTION 2

Charles the Hammer

SECTION 3

Charlemagne

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Places to Locate

• Charles Martel • Pepin

• Charlemagne

• Roland

• Louis the Pious

• Paris

Terms to Learn• converted

• anointed

• counts

• lords

• serfs

• minstrels

• Clovis

People to Know

• Tours • Aachen

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Clovis• During this period, a Germanic people

called Franks, who lived along the Rhine River, began to build a new civilization.

• The Franks were divided and without a common ruler until 481, when one Frankish group chose Clovis as king.

• Clovis brought all the Franks under one rule, and part of his kingdom later became France, which took its name from the Franks.

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Clovis (cont.)

• Clovis was the first Germanic king to accept the Catholic religion when, after a battle victory, he and 3,000 of his soldiers converted, or changed religion, to Christianity.

• Before long, all the people in Clovis's kingdom practiced the same religion, spoke the same language, and felt united.

• Clovis extended his rule over what is now France and western Germany and set up his capital in Paris.

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• The Frankish kings who followed Clovis were weak rulers who divided the kingdom among their sons.

• The sons lost much of their power to local nobles, and the Franks began to accept the leadership of a government official known as the “Mayor of the Palace.”

• Charles Martel, known as “The Hammer” because of his victory at Tours, was the most powerful Mayor, and he had the support of the Church.

Charles the Hammer

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• Pepin was the first Frankish king to be anointed, or blessed with holy oil, by the Pope.

• Pepin helped the Pope by leading an army into Italy when he was threatened by a group of Germans known as Lombards.

• Pepin defeated the Lombards and gave the land they held in central Italy to the Pope, making him the political ruler of much of the Italian Peninsula.

• When Charles Martel died, his son Pepin became Mayor of the Palace.

Charles the Hammer (cont.)

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Charlemagne• When Pepin died in 768, his kingdom was

divided between his two sons. • His son Carloman died within a few years;

the other son, Charles, better known as Charlemagne (“Charles the Great”), became king of the Franks.

• One key warrior in Charlemagne’s army was a soldier called Roland.

• By 800, Charlemagne had created a large empire.

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Charlemagne (cont.)

• This empire included most of the Germanic peoples who had settled in Europe since the early 400s.

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• Both Charlemagne and the Pope wanted a new Christian Roman Empire in western Europe.

• On Christmas day in 800, the Pope declared Charlemagne as the new Roman emperor.

• Charlemagne was a wise and just ruler who issued many laws and chose officials called counts to run the courts, stop feuds, protect the poor and weak, and raise armies for Charlemagne.

A Christian Empire

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• Charlemagne ruled his empire from Aachen, but he often journeyed throughout the empire with his advisers and servants.

• Such visits ensured the loyalty of local officials and people to Charlemagne’s government.

A Christian Empire (cont.)

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• Charlemagne appreciated learning, believed in education, and was proud of his own ability to read Latin.

• As Charlemagne wanted his people to be educated, he encouraged churches and monasteries to found schools.

• One of the many tasks of the scholars was to copy manuscripts which led to the model for the lowercase letters used today.

Education

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• Descendents of Frankish warriors and Roman landowners known as lords, or nobles, were the most powerful people in Charlemagne's empire.

• Farmers lived in simple wooden houses on the estates and worked in the fields owned by the lords or on small pieces of land the lords had given them.

• The farmers gradually did more for the nobles and less for themselves, becoming serfs, or people bound to the land.

Estate Life

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• Neither the nobles nor the farmers had much time to learn to read or write or to think about religion daily.

• Both groups accepted Christianity, but the new religion had little to do with their daily lives.

• Yet, on religious holidays, both rich and poor sang, danced, feasted, and listened to traveling musicians called minstrels.

Estate Life (cont.)

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• The glory of the empire did not last long after Charlemagne's death in 814.

• Many counts and lords refused to obey Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's son.

• Louis the Pious weakened the empire further when he divided it among his three sons.

• In 843, the brothers agreed to the Treaty of Verdun.

The Collapse of the Empire

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• The brothers were weak rulers who allowed the counts and nobles to have most of the power and divided Europe again into smaller territories.

The Collapse of the Empire (cont.)