![]() This is a link between two very powerful and very distant empires, the two of the three that we’ve described as, in some sense, heirs to the Roman classical empire and civilization. In 801, there arrived an elephant at the court of Charlemagne, a gift from the caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, the caliph who figures in the Arabian Nights entertainments. TREATY OF VERDUN FULLBut Charlemagne’s rule had been so successful, so full of accomplishments, he was a ruler such prestige, that even the difficult last ten years or so of his reign can’t quite eclipse that. We always can see signs of decline coming after. Nevertheless, there’s no sense hastening the signs of decline. The beginnings of the Viking invasion, which we will be talking about after the break, occur before Charlemagne’s death in 814. Infrastructure in a sense of not just towns, roads, communications, but social infrastructure, the lack of an idea of obeying the state or obeying the ruler, and a tendency, therefore, to mix private and public interest, and to the benefit of the powerful. Part of it, however, as you will have read in the Fichtenau reading is its lack of infrastructure and economic development. Part of the problem with the Carolingian Empire is its size. But those empires are able to manage with this weakness for quite some time. We’ve already said that the Abbasid Caliphate has this flaw. So when we say that it has certain flaws, like size, well, we already said that the Roman Empire had this flaw. The empire of Charlemagne is an empire that does not last that long. It’s not just that we’re compressing lectures or in a hurry. Professor Paul Freedman: So we’re going to talk today, now, about Carolingian decline. The Early Middle Ages, 284–1000 HIST 210 - Lecture 21 - Crisis of the CarolingiansĬhapter 1: End of Charlemagne’s Rule ![]()
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