LO-1 notes

Tonight’s Western Civilization assignment is to read and take notes on Ch. 10 LO-1. Here are my notes. The Frankish Kingdom started to fall apart in 700 A.D. Eventually, a man named Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer) won the throne in a civil war. This was the start of the Carolingian dynasty. Anyway, the Carolingian rebuilt the Frankish kingdom. Frankish rulers centered on rewarding followers (giving them land) and crushing opponents (conquering enemies). When it came to land distribution, the Franks never distributed gave out their own land because it was their source of wealth and power. Often, rulers would give out conquered land, or another source in Charles the Hammer’s case, that land was from the Church. However, he mostly took from noble families that he mistrusted. He thought, “It’s fine if I take land from people who are going to use it to oppose me.” All the influential people had sworn loyalty to the Merovingian descendants of Clovis, so it was difficult to attain any legal power. This lead to an alliance between the Frankish kings and the pope, since the pope now has the ability to transfer royal power. After Pepin, Charlemagne was next in line. His name meant “Charles the Great.” His rule lasted for 46 years. Charlemagne built an empire and he also gained the power to appoint bishops. Charlemagne ruled his empire by breaking it up into “counties” which were ruled by “counts.” A count was a representative of the king in his county. Eventually and inevitably, his empire was conquered by the Vikings or “Norsemen” (men of the North) as they called them.