¹ Pirenne, H., A History of Europe (1958) I, 89–90: ‘Obliged to reckon with the aristocracy to whom they owed their crown, Pippin the Short and Charlemagne could not refuse it a place in the government. The magnates of the kingdom deliberated with them, assembling at court in a conventus at the feasts of Christmas and Easter As manifested and expressed. The royal power seems that of an absolute sovereign, but of one whose absolutism is doubly limited. It is limited, in the first place, by Christian morality, and it accepts this limitation. It is limited further by the necessity of avoiding anything that will displease the aristocracy, and to this limitation it submits.’ Google Scholar

² The narrative sources for the reign have been used in this study. They are to be found in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores I & II. In volume I are to be found: Einhardi Annales (EA), Annalium Bertinianorum Pars Prima (AB), Annales Laurissenses Minores (ALM), Annalium Bertinianorum Pars Secunda (PTA), Chronicon Moissiacense (CM), Fuldensis Annales Einhardi (FAE), and Annalium Fuldensium Pars Secunda (FAR). In volume II are found: Annales Xantenses (AX), Thegani Vita Hludowici Imperatoris (Thg), Vita Hludowici Imperatoris (Ast), Ermoldi Nigelli, Carmina (Erm), and Nithard: Historiarum (Nit).Google Scholar

³ For the legislation of Louis the Pious: Sickel. Acta Carolinorum, II; Böhmer: Regesta Imperii, I; Simson, , Jahrbücher des fränkischen Reiches unter Ludwig dem Frommen and in the MGH: Legum I, sectio 1, sectio 2 (Capitularia Regum Francorum I 2), section 3, and Concilia II, parts 1 & 2.Google Scholar

⁴ de Coulanges, Fustel, ‘Les transformations de la royauté pendant l'époque carolingienne’ Histoire des Institutions politiques de l'Ancienne France, 6. 341–65, for a discussion of the Carolingian council.Google Scholar

⁵ Warnkoenig, et Gerard, : Histoire des Carolingien (1862) II 29: ‘Louis tenait peut-être plus encore que son père à sa dignité imperiale et à ses prérogatives. Il était imbu de l'idée de la souveraineté personnelle, et considerait tout pouvoir comme soumis au sien’ Google Scholar

⁶ Fustel, , op. cit. 357. For a similar situation in regard to Anglo-Saxon England, cf. Oleson, , Witenagemot in the Reign of Edward the Confessor 31: ‘Had the chroniclers felt that there was a difference between the acts of the king and a few counsellors on the one hand, and those of the king and numerous counsellors on the other, might we not expect to find some trace of this feeling in the chronicles? But as I have said, there is no evidence for existence of a small court distinct from the witenagemot’ and on page 61: ‘In a very real sense, then, there is no such thing as a witenagemot, there are only witan. There is no council, there is only counsel.’ Google Scholar

⁷ Fustel, , op. cit. 356–412, passim, and especially 410-12.Google Scholar

⁸ There is nothing unusual about this year, except the absence of a (designated) assembly. Louis spent more of the year in ‘France’ than in ‘Germany.’ Google Scholar

⁹ Ast, , 637 (page in the MGH).Google Scholar

¹⁰ On the Carolingian fisc, cf: Thompson, J. W., Dissolution of the Carolingian Fisc in the Ninth Century (1935).Google Scholar

¹¹ The Orleans assembly of 832 was held because Louis felt it necessary, after years of unrest, to visit Aquitaine again. The Chalons assembly of 839 was also chosen so the troublesome south of France could be watched.Google Scholar

¹² We know from English history that it took about a century of parliamentary development before there came to be a recognized distinction between the laws made with the consent of the estates and those without.Google Scholar

¹³ Fustel, , op. cit. 357 Google Scholar

^13a Warnkoenig, et Gerard, , op. cit. 21, ‘Les affaires traiteés dans ces réunions étaient ou ecclésiastiques, civiles, politiques, ou mixtes; aussi distinguai-t-on trois espèces de capitulaires: les capitulaires ecclésiastiques, les capitulaires mondains et les capitulaires généraux. Les assembleés relatives aux affaires de l'Église étaient en même temps des conciles nationaux.’ Google Scholar

¹⁴ Fustel, , op. cit. 407.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Erm, 489–90, and Ast, 623: ‘Habitoque Venedis generali conventu.’ Google Scholar

¹⁶ EA 205: Liudewitus was ‘superbia elatus.’ Google Scholar

¹⁷ AE 206: ‘Conventus ibidem habitus, in quo de Liudewiti defectione deliberatum est, ut tres exercitus simul ex tribus partibus ad devastandam eius regionem atque ipsius audaciam coercendam mitterentur.’ Google Scholar

¹⁸ AE 207: ‘De bello Liudewitico tractatum, ac tres exercitus ordinati qui futura aestate perfidorum agros per vices vastarent.’ Google Scholar

¹⁹ Ast 630-32: Aizo was a chronic troublemaker along the Spanish borders, and his exploits, working with the Saracens against Christians when it suited him, etc, provide a realistic glimpse of a chapter of history which we know mainly from the Cid.Google Scholar

²⁰ AE 206-7 (for 819) and AE, 209 (for 822): ‘Peracto conventu quod Attiniaci habetur Hlotharium vero filium suum in Italiam misit’ Google Scholar

²¹ AE 217.Google Scholar

²² AE 218: ‘Hlotharium quoque filium suum, finito illo conventu, in Italiam direxit.’ Google Scholar

²³ Ast 638-9, and AB, 427.Google Scholar

²⁴ Amid the confusion surrounding the deposition and reinstatement of Louis it is not surprising to discover that the assemblies were other than the usual business meetings.Google Scholar

²⁵ Fustel, , op. cit. 372.Google Scholar

²⁶ Ibid. 385.Google Scholar

²⁷ Erm 501.Google Scholar

²⁸ Ast 626 (for 821): ‘Imperatoris porro clementia, cum in aliis semper admirabilis claraverit rebus, in hoc quammaxime conventu, quanta eius inesset pectori, manifestissime patuit.’ Google Scholar

²⁹ AE 210: ‘Duo fratres, reges videlicet Wiltzorum, controversiam inter se de regno habentes, ad praesentiam imperatoris venerunt’ Google Scholar

³⁰ Ast 631.Google Scholar

³¹ FAE 360: Louis publicly received the Empress back into his favor only after she had purged herself in public of the charges against her. Also, Ast 635. In 839 Louis went through one of these scenes with Lothair, Nit 839: Lothair ‘una cum patre coram omni populo ita se velle annuntiavit. Hinc autem pater fratres, prout valuit, unanimes effecit, rogans et deprecans, ut invicem se diligerent, et ut alter ab altero protegeretur adortans exortat.’ Google Scholar

³² Fustel, , op. cit. 385.Google Scholar

³³ Ast 622: ‘Imperator in eodem placito filium primogenitum Hlotharium coimperatorem appellari et esse voluit’ Google Scholar

³⁴ ALM 122.Google Scholar

³⁵ CM 312.Google Scholar

³⁶ CM 312: and the chronicler continues: ‘Sedem regiam, id est episcopos, abbates, sive comites et maiores natu Francorum; et manifestavit eis mysterium consilii sui’ Google Scholar

³⁷ Ast 625.Google Scholar

³⁸ Ast 643-44: The Aix decision: ‘Sed quia inofficiosa remansit, a nobis quoque silentio premitur.’ Google Scholar

³⁹ FAR 361, and PTA 432.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Nit 654-55.Google Scholar

⁴¹ This is what one would expect, in view of the concept that ‘law was customary law “the law of one's fathers.”’ Cf. Kern, F., Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages 70.Google Scholar

⁴² Ast 622; AE 205; Ast 629; AB 428; Ast 642; PTA 430-31; Ast 646 (‘et tam ecclesiasstica quamque publica suo more disposuit.’).Google Scholar

⁴³ EA 201, and FAE 356: ‘Ad iusticias faciendas et oppressiones popularium relevandas legatos in omnes regni sui partes misit, et erepta per vim patrimonia multis restituit.’ Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Fustel, , op. cit. 385.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ AB 426: ‘Fidelitatemque promiserunt’ (to Lothair, in this instance, in 834).Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Nit 651.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Thg 593: FAE, 357 (‘Quae in regno suo corrigenda invenire potuit, corrigere atque emendare curavit’); AB 427-28; Thg 596.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ AE 202, 203-4 (for 815), 216 (for 827).Google Scholar

⁴⁹ AE 216.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ AE 218; Ast, 632.Google Scholar

⁵¹ AB 426 (for 832), ‘dona annualia more solito suscipiens;’ PTA 429, ‘In quo cum dona annualia more solito reciperet, ac Lotharium operiretur’; PTA 430, ‘annualia dona recipiens.’ Google Scholar

⁵² Warnkoenig, & Gerard, , op. cit. 27: ‘Le pouvoir de l'empereur était bien souverain, en ce sens que sa volonté officiellement manifestée faisait loi; mais dans toutes les grandes affaires, les ordonnances impériales ou royales n'étaient decretées qu'àpres déliberation avec les grands, ecclésiastiques et laïques, réunis en assemblée générale.’ Also, cf. Fustel, , op. cit. 407-12.Google Scholar

⁵³ Ibid. 407 n. 1.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ EA 204: ‘Generalem populi sui conventum Aquisgrani more solito’ Google Scholar

⁵⁵ EA 208.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ EA 209.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ AB 425, and CM 312: ‘Conventum populi de omni regno vel imperio suo Tunc omni populi placuit tunc tribus diebus ieiunatum est ab omni populo’ Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Ganshof, , ‘Louis the Pious Reconsidered,’ History 42 (October 1957) 176–7, ‘During the reign of Louis the Pious, the assemblies became distinct from the concerns of the army. Their character as an institution in their own right was emphasized, and one might say they acquired a more administrative stamp. From 816 to 828 there were generally two a year, and sometimes even three. The attendance does not seem to have been equally numerous at all of them. One suspects, for a few of them, an effort at specialization. We may believe that the emperor was seeking more frequent contacts with his ecclesiastical and secular officers, and especially with those most concerned with the settlement of the immediate practical problems.’ Google Scholar

⁵⁹ AE 209 (for 822): ‘Generali conventu congregato, necessaria quaeque ad utilitatem orientalium partium regni sui pertinentia more solemni cum optimatibus quos ad hoc evocare iusserat, tractare curavit. In quo conventu omnium orientalium Sclavorum id est Abodritorum, Soraborum, Wiltzorum, Boheimorum, Marvanorum, Praedenecentorum et in Pannonia residentium Avarum legationes cum muneribus ad se directas audivit.’ Also, for 823, AE 210: ‘Mense Maio conventus in eodem loco habuit, in quo non universi Franciae primores, sed de orientali Francia atque Saxonia, Baioaria, Alamannia atque Alamanniae contermina Burgundia et regionibus Rheno adiacentibus adesse iussi sunt.’ Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Louis had a penchant for staging private business before an audience, and one suspects a touch of masochism, and the desire for public self-degradation: wooing, penance, forgiveness, reunions, etc.Google Scholar

⁶¹ AB 424, and Ast 633-34.Google Scholar