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4 - The Frankish kingdoms, 814–898: the West

from PART I - POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Janet Nelson
Edited by
Rosamond McKitterick
Rosamond McKitterick
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

the problem of the succession was always paramount and often painful for an ageing medieval ruler. Charlemagne wept over the deaths of his two elder sons. By 813 he had only one legitimate son left: Louis, king of Aquitaine since 781. Charlemagne summoned Louis north to a large assembly at Aachen, and ‘asked everyone, from the greatest to the least, if it pleased them that he should hand over his imperial dignity to his son Louis, and they all replied enthusiastically that it was God’s choice.’ The following Sunday in the chapel at Aachen Charlemagne gave his son some fatherly precepts:

Love God; govern and defend God’s churches from wicked men; be merciful to your sisters, and to your younger brothers, and to your nephews and nieces and all your relatives; appoint loyal and Godfearing servants who will not take bribes; do not throw anyone out of his honor without good grounds for the decision.

Was Louis willing to follow these precepts? Yes. Then, and only then, did Charlemagne tell his son to take the crown from the altar and place it on his own head ‘as a reminder of all that his father had commanded’.

Keywords

CharlesAquitaineBald's realmCarolingianFranciaLouisFrankish KingdomsScandinaviansLothar
Type
Chapter
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The New Cambridge Medieval History , pp. 110 - 141
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1995

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