Pope John XI held the position of pope in 931 AD until his death in 935 or 936 AD. However, much of his life was spent under the thumb of his notorious mother Marozia and his brother (or step-brother) Alberic II. John XI’s origins and childhood were shrouded in scandal as papal biographers could not establish who his father was from the different men his mother had been with. According to the Frankish chronicler Flodoard of Rheims, he was the son of Marozia and her husband, the Lombard Duke of Spoleto, Alberic I. But according to the Liber Pontificalis and Bishop Liutprand of Cremona’s Antapodosis sive Res per Europam gestae, Pope Sergius III fathered John XI by his former mistress, Marozia. He is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History and the beginning of the 9th century AD.
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Theodora, Marozia’s mother, was considered to be the most powerful lady in Rome (or even Italy) in the late 9th century. She apparently passed the baton to her daughter during the early 10th century. Marozia became the mistress of Pope Sergius at the age of 15, but married Alberic I four years later. The future Pope John XI was born the next year in 910 AD, while his brother Alberic II was born in 911 or 912. Alberic I died in 924 and his widow promptly married Guy (Guido) of Tuscany in the same year or in 925 AD. The couple deposed Pope John X, imprisoned him in Castel Sant’Angelo (where he later died), and took over Rome. She appointed Leo VI and Stephen VII as figureheads, and then replaced him with her son in 931 AD after the death of Stephen VII.
Pope John XI
Meanwhile, Guy of Tuscany died in 929 AD. Marozia, fearful of becoming powerless, decided to marry her deceased husband’s brother, Hugh (Hugo) of Provence. The equally ambitious Hugh had been planning to dominate Rome as its ruler. So he accepted Marozia’s proposal immediately. Things did not go as planned when during the wedding celebration, Marozia’s teenaged son Alberic II accidentally poured water on the hands of his step-father. This annoyed Hugh of Provence which earned Alberic II a slap on the face. The young Duke of Spoleto then stormed out of the festivities and angered a Roman crowd by pitting them against Hugh of Provence. The angry mob arrived with Alberic as the wedding celebration continued and forced Hugh to escape from Rome. Alberic then ordered for his mother and Pope John XI to be imprisoned.
Pope John XI was nothing more than a puppet for his mother, and he became more so when his brother ruled as the tyrant of Rome. Alberic dominated the frightened citizens of Rome for 20 years. While the equally powerless John XI had no personal independence. There were only a few significant acts that John XI did. One was the confirmation of the privileges of the Cluny Abbey on the condition that a sum of 10 solidi be contributed to the papal coffers every five years. The other was to confirm similar privileges to other monasteries, but apart from these, John XI performed nothing important during his time as pope.
Pope John XI died in December of 935 or January of 936 AD.
Pope Leo IV was the son of a man named Radowald (Radwald), a Roman who was of Lombard descent. He is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History around 847 AD. The young boy was educated at the monastery of Blessed Martin in Rome where he grew up and became a devout follower of Christ. Pope Gregory IV later had him transferred to the Lateran Palace and ordained him as cardinal-priest of the Basilica of Santi Quattro Coronati on the Caelian Hill. He later had the same church renovated when he became pope and had the relics of the saints buried in the catacombs to be dug up and deposited inside the basilica.
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The sudden death of Sergius II on January 24, 847 left the pope’s throne vacant. The Cardinals hastily elected Leo as pope for fear that no one would lead them during a critical time when Saracen pirates attacked Rome. He became Pope Leo IV, and it was said that he accepted the election with a heavy heart. The Romans met the announcement of his election with jubilation. This annoyed the Frankish emperor Lothair as he was not consulted during the process. Leo VI was consecrated on April 10, 847 AD even without a letter of approval from Lothair nor his son, Louis II.
As Pope
The most important challenge Leo IV faced as a pope was the constant attack of the Saracen pirates. In 848 AD, he decided to counter this with an order to repair the city walls, watchtowers, and gates—a task which he personally supervised by going around on horseback or on foot. As an added precaution, he ordered for two watchtowers to be built on each bank of the Tiber river beside the Gate of Portus so each side could throw a chain to block incoming Saracen ships.
The Frankish king Lothair supported the construction of the fortifications, and he even sent some money to cover the cost of the repairs. Lothair himself suggested the fortification of Rome’s walls to the pope and he also sent additional soldiers to Italy to help defend the people against the Saracen pirates. Pope Leo IV ordered everyone—from the townspeople to the monastery workers—to help in building the fortifications of the city. The various inscriptions on the city’s walls showed that each section was built by different people in the Roman society.
The enclosed portion (which included the Vatican) was called Leonine City after it was finished in 852 AD. It was then blessed by the Pope, and the people celebrated its completion with a procession. It was just as well that they fortified the city walls as even before it was finished, the Saracens had stepped up their attacks in 849 AD. Luckily, the fleet of Amalfi, Naples, and Gaeta arrived in Rome just as the Saracens were preparing to attack the city. The arrival of the combined fleet at the harbor first made the Romans worried, but the commanders explained to Pope Leo IV that they were there to help the people defend the city. The Romans breathed a collective sigh of relief at the timely arrival of the allied fleet as the Saracens sailed into Rome the following night.
“The Battle of Ostia in an 1829 engraving.”
The Romans and their allies successfully defended the city and defeated the Saracens at the Battle of Ostia. A strong wind had separated the Saracen fleet while some of their ships were dashed on the shore; many of the Saracen sailors drowned, and some survivors were executed on the spot or were imprisoned. Others were hanged while some survivors were conscripted to work on the fortifications. The Battle of Ostia was an epic victory for Leo IV and Rome’s allies that it was immortalized later on by the Renaissance artist Raphael as a painting in the Apostolic Palace inside the Vatican.
Pope Leo IV also ordered that the mouth of the Tiber river be fitted with new gates and had the walls near it fortified. The Corsican refugees who were driven out of their homes when the Saracens attacked their island volunteered to serve the pope in exchange for protection. To this end, he gave them land to settle on, as well as cattle and vineyards for their loyalty. Moreover, he ordered the fortification of the Tuscan cities of Horta and Armeria and rebuilt the Centumcellae, the harbor city originally commissioned by Emperor Trajan. All these were done while he had St. Peter’s Basilica and the Lateran Palace restored and redecorated.
The New Kingmaker
In 850, Leo anointed Louis II of Italy (Lothair’s son) and crowned him as emperor. This ceremony was followed by a mass wherein Leo proclaimed Louis II as king of the Franks. The official title the new king preferred was Emperor of the Romans and not the Holy Roman Emperor. Louis departed from Rome after his proclamation. Both men remained on good terms with each for the rest of their reign. One of the most significant changes that occurred between these long-time allies was that the Frankish rulers now had a say in many church issues, such as the consecration of bishops in any town that was under the rule of the emperor.
The king of Wessex traveled to Rome in 853 AD on a pilgrimage with his young son, Alfred, in tow. It was said that Pope Leo IV anointed Alfred as King of Wessex while they stayed in Rome. This was later refuted as the young prince had three elder brothers and a letter from Leo showed that the boy was only anointed as consul. The prince later became the legendary King Alfred the Great who defended Wessex from the Vikings.
The church in Rome and in Constantinople continued to drift apart after Pope Leo IV refused to accept a pallium (narrow circular band of cloth worn around the shoulders and usually conferred by a pope to an archbishop) sent by Patriarch Ignatius upon his accession in 846. The supposed sign of goodwill stung Pope Leo IV and worsened the already strained relationship between the two.
Death
Pope Leo IV died in 855 AD, but not before his last days were marred by the accusations that the pope conspired with the Greeks to overthrow the Frankish king Louis II. The charges were hurled against Leo by the magister militum called Daniel, but he was unable to prove them in front of the emperor. Leo was buried in the papal tombs of St. Peter’s Basilica on July 17, 855 AD.
References: Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5177419
Gibbon, Edward, and D. M. Low. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1960.
Mann, Horace K. The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. 2. Vol. II. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1906.
Pope Stephen IV (V) was one of the popes whose reign was extremely short. He is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History between 816 – 817 AD. He was the elected pope from the death of his predecessor, Pope Leo III, in June of 816 AD up to his own death six months later. He was the son of a Roman named Marinus. He descended from a noble family which produced three popes, including himself, Sergius II, and Adrian III. All his life, Stephen was groomed to be a pope as he grew up in the Lateran Palace under the papacy of Pope Adrian I; Pope Leo III later ordained him as sub-deacon.
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The senior priests immediately elected him as pope as soon as the news of Leo’s death reached them on the 12th of June, 816 AD, and Stephen’s consecration occurred ten days later. Since his rather hasty election was done by the senior priests so that no one—not even the Charlemagne’s heir and now Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious—would interfere with their choice of pope. Nonetheless, they were eager for Louis to acknowledge their choice of a pope (and for the emperor to continue as the Pope and the Church’s protector), so Stephen’s first task upon his consecration was to assure Louis of the Romans’ loyalty. He compelled the Romans to take an oath of loyalty to Louis. Stephen also sent the emperor a letter to inform him of his election.
“Pope Stephen IV (standing first on the right) crowns the emperor Louis the Pious”
Coronation of Louis the Pious
Bernard, King of Italy, accompanied Pope Stephen to meet Louis the Pious in the city of Rheims. They were warmly received upon their arrival in October, 816 AD. Just like his predecessor Pope Leo III and Charlemagne, Pope Stephen anointed Louis as the Holy Roman Emperor and placed Emperor Constantine’s alleged golden crown upon his head during the mass. He also proclaimed the emperor’s wife Ermengarde as Augusta during the same ceremony.
Louis returned the courtesy and sent gifts to the Pope including a part of an estate he owned called Villa Vendopera. Stephen also asked the Emperor to pardon the exiled men who attempted to mutilate Pope Leo III and for them to accompany him on his return to Rome. The Holy Roman Emperor granted his request and Stephen’s entourage reached Rome before the end of November.
Pope Stephen died on the 24th of June, 817 AD and was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica.
After the fall of Italy to the Lombards in the 6th century, the task of defending the Church and the Papacy fell to the distant Byzantine emperors. The Byzantine rulers never set foot in Italy after the country fell to the Lombards and the attacks of the Saracens made any trip to Italy next to impossible. However, the emperors in Constantinople still had the power to confirm or reject a pope’s election. The Lombards ruled a large portion of Italy, which left out tiny bits of land that the Pope and the Emperor in Constantinople (ruled on his behalf by the exarch of Ravenna) divided among themselves. The border lines would shift again after the rise of the Frankish king Charlemagne, the man who helped shape Europe into what it was during the Medieval Period. Charlemagne’s ascent as Holy Roman Emperor would not have been possible if not for the presence of another man: Pope Leo III. He is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History at the end of the 7th century AD.
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The deceased Pope Adrian was buried on December 26, 795 AD. On the same day, the senior priests elected Leo, a cardinal-priest of Santa Susanna, as the new Bishop of Rome (Pope). He was a veteran of the church after he served at the papal treasury at a young age and rose to prominence as vestiarius or the chief of the pontifical treasury some years later. His election was unanimous. He was consecrated immediately without the confirmation of the Byzantine emperor since, at that time, the papacy was largely independent of Constantinople.
Pope Leo was the son of Romans Atyuppius and Elisabeth. Biographers note that perhaps his family was of plebeian (commoner) origin and his father a barbarian which probably played a role in future conspiracies against him. The church of Santa Susanna on the Quirinal flourished under Leo after he was ordained as a priest there. He steadily rose through the ranks until he reached the position of the Pope. He was generally well-regarded by his successors and papal biographers. He was also described as eloquent, well-versed in Scriptures, and generous to the poor.
He immediately informed Charlemagne of his election in a letter he sent in 796 AD. As a sign of his recognition of the king’s power and his own regard for Charlemagne, he also sent the keys to the confession of St. Peter and the banner of the city of Rome. It was also Leo’s way of saying that he considered the king as his own defender, as well as the Church’s. Charlemagne replied to this with a letter of congratulations and sent the newly-elected pope the gifts he was supposed to send to Pope Adrian when he was still alive. Angilbert (Charlemagne’s son-in-law and envoy) delivered these presents to Leo in the same year which included another congratulatory letter from the king’s advisor, Alcuin of York.
This undoubtedly pleased Pope Leo, so he commissioned an exquisite mosaic of himself, Charlemagne, and Apostle Peter in the Lateran Palace called the Triclinium (Triclinio Leoniano—since restored and can still be viewed there today). Pope Leo and the Frankish king had a good diplomatic relationship throughout their lives, and both benefited from this very well.
Mosaic of Pope Leo III
The Conspiracy Against Leo
In 799 AD, a high official of the papal administration named Paschal conspired with Campulus and some disgruntled members of the military aristocracy to attack the pope. Paschal was Pope Adrian’s nephew and his motivation for attacking the Pope was perhaps rooted in ambition or envy. The fact that Leo was born from plebeian parents and that he rose through the ranks equal to Pope Adrian I probably made Paschal envious. The possibility that Leo showed favoritism to a particular group while neglecting the people Paschal favored was another reason for his rebellion. In any case, his motivation for attacking Leo was never really established even after Charlemagne tried the group.
The attack occurred during the procession of the Great Litanies on the 25th of April. The procession led by Pope Leo left by the Flaminian Gate and ended at St. Peters. The armed men sent by Paschal attacked the pope as they walked with the intention of cutting off his tongue and removing his eyes. The pope’s attendants fled when they saw that he was attacked, while his attackers also escaped from the scene without checking if they had carried out the mutilation successfully. Pope Leo was luckily alive but bloodied on the street while his attackers soon returned and proceeded to cut his face. They dragged him inside the church of Saint Sylvester but later transferred him to the monastery of Saint Erasmus where they kept him under watch.
Luckily, the pope had friends inside the monastery who smuggled him outside and sent him back to St. Peter’s Basilica. After his recovery from the botched mutilation attempt, Leo traveled north to the city of Paderborn where Charlemagne held his court at that time. The pope was warmly received by the king and his noblemen. Charlemagne invited him to stay in Paderborn temporarily. After some time, Leo decided to return to Rome; he left Paderborn with the king’s blessing, and an escorte by the Frankish counts and bishops. The citizens of Rome welcomed him back to the city, and the entourage stayed at the pope’s official residence, the Lateran Palace. Charlemagne’s envoys put on trial some of the people who were involved in the plot to mutilate the pope, found them guilty, and sent them to exile in France.
The Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor
Charlemagne arrived in Rome several days before Christmas Day of 800 AD and stayed there with his entourage. The Pope welcomed him just as warmly as Charlemagne received him a year before in Paderborn. After a few days, they went to St. Peter’s to attend an assembly where the King announced his intention of seeing whether the charges against Pope Leo were true. None of the accusations against the pope were proven true, so Charlemagne condemned all those involved in the attack to death. Leo, however, begged the king for his attackers to be spared, so they were exiled to France instead.
On December 25, 800 AD, Charlemagne, as well as all the Frankish noblemen in his entourage, went to St. Peter’s Basilica to attend the Christmas Day mass. The king knelt at the confession, and when mass began, Pope Leo stood up, approached the king, and placed a crown on his head. He then proclaimed Charlemagne as Imperator et Augustus (emperor and Augustus) or Holy Roman Emperor to all the people who attended the mass. This act made Charlemagne not just the king of the Franks, but also recognized him as the most powerful man in Europe at that time. After the proclamation, the newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor presented the Pope some lavish gifts including a cross adorned with gems.
The pope’s motives were a mix of political and personal. The first was that there was no other ruler who could provide adequate protection against his enemies at that time except Charlemagne. He also did it to protect the people of Rome from the raids of Muslim and Viking raiders who terrorized Europe at that time. Leo could easily ask the Byzantine rulers for support against their enemies, but he did not as Constantinople’s track record for defending Rome against past barbarians had been dismal. In addition, Pope Leo essentially turned Charlemagne from a simple Frankish king to a Roman emperor who was responsible for Leo’s personal and territorial protection.
This arrangement between the pope and the Frankish ruler increased Charlemagne’s power in Europe, but not his territory. Leo’s snub of Constantinople had little political effect on the Byzantine rulers. Because of this, even the neighboring kingdoms looked up to Charlemagne now that he had the title of emperor. The “One Church and One State” scheme united the Carolingian Empire with the Church. However, ecclesiastical authority was still off-limits to Charlemagne. While the pope could also give his advice to the emperor and the responsibility of defending Rome from its enemies fell upon Charlemagne, this did not make either of them master of each other.
Charlemagne stayed for a year in Italy to take care of state business (his son Pepin was king of Italy) and left in Easter of 801 AD. The Saracen navy threatened to overrun Italy in the years that followed, so Charlemagne advised the pope to set up a fleet to protect them against the invaders. Pope Leo followed his advice, and he soon recovered some patrimonies (land) between Gaeta and Garigliano. This harmonious diplomatic relationship continued even after Charlemagne’s death in 814 AD, and well into the reign of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne’s son.
Charlemagne died in 814 AD after a 47-year reign. The crown passed on to his son Louis the Pious. The people mourned over Charlemagne’s death, but it was Leo III who felt the effects of the absence of the emperor’s advice and protection. News of a plot to kill him reached Leo in 815. This time, the pope was not as lenient for he had the plotters executed immediately. The pope later fell ill in the same year, and chaos immediately descended upon Rome as the private armies of some noblemen ransacked homes and farms. The chaos was only quelled by the Duke of Spoleto by order of Bernard, King of Italy. Leo died in June, 816 AD and was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica on the 12th of the same month.
An antipope is a person who claimed the title of the pope but was not elected as one by the relevant council. He may also be a person elected as one but in opposition to the legitimate pope. Many of these antipopes received the support of cardinals and sometimes, by kings who used them for political purposes. Chrisophorus usurped the chair in 903 AD, where he is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History.
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The 3rd-century theologian Hippolytus of Rome was considered as the first antipope after he headed a group of dissenters against Pope Calixtus I. According to the church historian Eusebius, a priest named Natalius became a bishop of a group considered as heretical during the reign of Pope Zephyrinus around 200 AD. Natalius received a salary of 150 denarii from the group, but he did not last long in his papacy after he was “scourged by holy angels, and punished severely through the entire night.” Natalius returned to Zephyrinus and begged his forgiveness after this episode. Novatian, another 3rd-century priest, and theologian was considered as one of the first well-known antipopes after he had a falling out with Pope Cornelius between 250 to 251 AD.
“Antipope Christopher”
The Usurpation of Antipope Christopher
Christopher was the son of a Roman citizen named Leo, but there was no other available information about his background beyond his father’s name. Before he became a pope (or considered an antipope), he served as a cardinal of St. Damasus under the Pope Leo V, who was removed from his office and imprisoned in October of 903 AD. The pope died in the same year, and Christopher was proclaimed as the new pope from October, 903 AD until January, 904 when he was deposed by Pope Sergius III.
Roman Catholic historians were divided whether Christopher, indeed, was the legitimate pope or not. His name, however, appeared in all major lists of official popes and his portrait sat alongside other popes in the Basilica of St. Paul. Images of Christopher were also painted on frescoes in the church of San Pietro a Grado in the city of Pisa. While his successors also acknowledged him as a pope. It was only in the 20th century that Christopher was officially removed from the Annuario Pontificio or list of popes.
According to 11th century Roman Catholic scholar Hermann of Reichenau, Christopher was compelled to resign from the position in 904 AD, while the Italian priest and scholar Eugenius Vulgaris wrote that Sergius III ordered Christopher’s imprisonment and murder.
The Byzantine Empire had a troubled relationship with the Papacy in Rome since Emperor Leo III’s controversial prohibition of the worship of icons (iconoclasm) in the middle of the eighth century. Pope Leo III’s appointment of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor more than 60 years after Leo’s iconoclasm only intensified the tensions between them. As far as the rulers of Constantinople were concerned, Italy was still a part of the greater Roman Empire. Constantinople remained the true bastion of Christianity in Europe. A series of events that involved the troublesome Byzantine royal family, a couple of Patriarchs, and the Pope finally severed the cord between the Greek church in Constantinople from the Papacy in Rome in 867 AD. This event is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History during that time.
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Emperor Michael and the Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople’s relationship was never great in the first place after the patriarch and Michael’s mother Theodora disapproved of his liaison with his long-time mistress Eudokia Ingerina (he was already married to another woman chosen by his mother at that time). Tensions rose when Michael became displeased with Ignatius after the latter refused the rite of communion to his uncle and regent, Bardas, in 858 AD. Bardas convinced Michael that Ignatius was involved in a plot against his rule, so the emperor ordered the patriarch to be deposed and exiled to the Prince Island. Michael then appointed the layman Photius as the new Patriarch of Constantinople on Christmas Day in 858. Ignatius, nevertheless, refused to abdicate nor acknowledge the appointment of Photius, while the Studion monks even continued to support him and refused to submit to the new Patriarch.
“Pope Saint Nicholas I”
Photius sent a letter to Pope Nicholas I in Rome in an attempt to inform him of his appointment as Constantinople’s new patriarch and get him to break the insubordination of the Studion monks. When Nicholas heard of the conflict between the former and the newly-appointed Patriarch, he sent his legates (Papal representatives) to Constantinople to determine whether he should recognize Photius as Patriarch or not. The synod in Constantinople reached a decision: the legates recognized Photius’ appointment and confirmed the removal of Ignatius. Ignatius appealed to Nicholas to overturn the decision made by the legates and the pope, unhappy with the turn of events, excommunicated Photius at the Lateran Synod in 863 AD.
In 867 AD, Photius answered the excommunication with an encyclical (a letter of the Patriarch) addressed to the patriarchs of the East. The encyclical contained a list of the Byzantine complaints against the Roman Papacy, as well as an announcement of the deposition and anathematization (powerless as it was) of the Pope. He also announced that he considered the doctrines of the West heretical.
The Frankish king Charlemagne accomplished much during his 46-year reign (768-814 AD – which is where he is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History). He not only subdued the Franks’ neighbors in northern, western, and eastern Europe to enlarge the Frankish empire but also helped restore the remnants of the Western Roman Empire after he was crowned its Emperor (Imperator) and Augustus. One unfortunate event in Rome, which involved Pope Leo III, would lead to Charlemagne’s rise as the most powerful man in Europe and protector of the Christian Church as Holy Roman Emperor.
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The Roman Leo III succeeded the deceased Adrian as pope in 795 AD. Upon his election, he sent the Frankish king Charlemagne the keys of the Confession of St. Peter and the banner of the city of Rome. Charlemagne was undoubtedly the most powerful man in Europe and the gifts meant that Leo had put his trust in the Frankish king as his protector. Charlemagne answered this with a congratulatory letter and treasures from the booty the king seized from the Avars in Pannonia which Leo added to the Holy See’s wealth.
“Statue of Charlemagne by Agostino Cornacchini”
On April 25, 799 AD, relatives of the deceased Pope Adrian plotted to gouge out the eyes and cut off the tongue of Pope Leo III while he was on his way to the Flaminian Gate during the procession of the Greater Litanies. Perhaps they wanted revenge or were driven by ambitions (the real motivation behind this act was never established), but it was clear that they wanted to make the pope unfit for the priesthood by mutilation (Leviticus 21:16-23). The plot to mutilate Leo did not succeed, and he escaped to the monastery of St. Erasmus with cuts on his face but with his eyes and tongue unharmed.
He stayed in the monastery for a few months and then fled with his supporters to the Frankish territory of Paderborn where Charlemagne met him. Leo made Paderborn his temporary home, but he returned to Rome a few months later accompanied by Charlemagne’s envoys and guards. The king’s envoys arrested the people who tried to mutilate Leo, and they were exiled to France after their trial. Charlemagne visited Rome in 800 AD and on the 25th of December in the same year, both Leo and the king attended the Christmas Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. Leo got up and crowned Charlemagne as Imperator (Emperor) Augustus while the king knelt at the Confession of St. Peter—an act which meant Leo relied on and trusted the most powerful man in Europe at that time to be his protector. Charlemagne, as Holy Roman Emperor, also became the protector of the Church and Christianity in Europe. With this act, Pope Leo severed the ties of the Byzantine authority from the Roman Catholic church.
Charlemagne was one of the greatest unifiers of Europe during the Medieval Period, but it was his son Louis the Pious and his grandsons who would carve the vast Carolingian Empire into what is now modern France and Germany. This led to the Treaty of Verdun which is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History during 843 AD.
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Charlemagne split the Frankish Empire between his three sons by Hildegard in 806. Only Louis the Pious was alive in 811 AD. The Frankish emperor had no choice but to appoint Louis as sole ruler of the empire who ruled as a sub-king of Aquitaine for some years now. Charlemagne died in 814 AD, and Louis, the newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor also partitioned the Frankish domain between his sons: the oldest, Lothair, crowned as king of Italy; another son, Louis, received Bavaria; and Pepin, the youngest of the three, received his father’s territory of Aquitaine.
The Carolingian Empire, at the time of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious’ reign, stretched from the Atlantic coast of present-day France to Bavaria in the east, and from Saxony in the north up to the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento in the south. The empire’s massive size made communication difficult, its cities easy pickings for marauders, and harder to defend from invaders. Charlemagne also conquered people of different ethnicities and languages, so it made sense that these peoples had different ethnic loyalties—a situation ripe for civil war by the time Louis divided the empire between his three sons. But Louis’ marriage to Judith of Bavaria (after his first wife’s death in 818) and the birth of their son Charles in 823 (later nicknamed the Landless) became the catalyst for the empire’s final division.
“The parting of Carolingian Empire by the Treaty of Verdun in 843.”
Domestic Troubles and Civil War
Louis was fond of his youngest son, so he took away a sizable portion of Lothair’s land located north of Italy known as Alemannia and gave it to the young prince. Lothair was enraged with this new arrangement, so he convinced his brothers to go up against their father, and a civil war erupted in the Carolingian Empire in 830 AD. The brothers overpowered their father in 833 AD, and sent him, as well as Charles and Judith, to different monasteries in the kingdom. But Louis the Pious had another trick up his sleeve. He negotiated with Pepin and Louis to side with him in exchange for more land. The brothers agreed to Louis’ proposal. When the news that his brothers turned on him reached Lothair, he finally agreed to retreat to his own territory in Italy.
Louis also gave Charles his own land in Neustria. Civil war once again erupted between the brothers after his death in 840 AD. Casualties from all sides piled up as war ravaged the empire, while crops failed or were destroyed during this period. This situation was compounded by the arrival of the Viking pirates and the invaders from Al-Andalus. The brothers saw the futility of the war they waged on each other after three years, so they came together and once again divided the Frankish empire between them. This agreement would be known as the Treaty of Verdun which they signed in 843 AD, and the empire was divided into three different territories.
Charles the Landless – West Francia (comprised of Neustria, Gascony, Aquitaine, Septimania, parts of Burgundy, and into the Spanish Marches)
Lothair – Middle Francia (the richest and most prestigious of the three which was comprised of Alsace, Lorraine, northern parts of Italy, and a portion of Burgundy)
Louis the German – East Francia (comprised of Bavaria, Carinthia, East Saxony, Alemannia, and Austria)
Effects of the Treaty of Verdun
Charlemagne and Louis the Pious’ Frankish empire was made up of people of different ethnicities and languages. The Treaty of Verdun gave birth to the distinct identity of the French in West Francia and the Germans in East Francia. Lothair’s realm of Middle Francia was more ethnically and linguistically diverse with the occupation of the Flemish-speaking people in the north, the Franks in the middle, and the Italian in the south. It also shifted the power center from the Franks’ capital of Aachen to different cities in each domain. Without the Treaty of Verdun, Paris would not emerge as an intellectual, trade, and political center of modern France. The political importance of Frankish kings also declined during this period. They were replaced by landholding noblemen (dukes, counts, etc.) who emerged in the Medieval Period.
References:
Picture By Scan made by Olahus – Histoire Et Géographie – Atlas Général Vidal-Lablache, Librairie Armand Colin, Paris, 1898., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5247494
Bradbury, Jim. The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare. London: Routledge, 2004.
Detwiler, Donald S. Germany: A Short History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1976.
Einhard. “Einhard: The Life of Charlemagne.” Internet History Sourcebooks. Accessed August 30, 2016. http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/einhard.asp.
Goldberg, Eric Joseph. Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German, 817-876. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006.
Thatcher, Oliver J., and Edgar Holmes McNeal. “A Source Book for Medi忙val History; Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age.” Internet Archive. Accessed August 30, 2016. https://archive.org/stream/asourcebookform03mcnegoog#page/n8/mode/2up.
Charlemagne split the Frankish Empire between his sons even before they became adults. After years of steady conquests across the vast lands of Europe. Louis, the Holy Roman Emperor’s fourth son by his wife Hildegard, received the domain of Aquitaine and lived there since his childhood. By 813 AD, Charlemagne was on the brink of death. The only son left alive was Louis the Pious of Aquitaine (Pepin of Italy died in 810 and followed by Charles in 811). Charlemagne summoned Louis, as well as the Frankish noblemen by his side when he felt that death was near. He then appointed Louis as emperor of the Franks in front of the witnesses. Charlemagne died on January 28, 814 AD at the age of 72 and was buried in the Aachen Cathedral on the same day. These events led to Germany (East Francia) during 843 AD according to the Bible Timeline Poster with World History.
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Louis acceded the throne as the new Holy Roman Emperor and took a page from his father’s book by dividing the empire between his own sons. His eldest son, Lothair, received Italy and became his father’s co-emperor; another son named Louis received Bavaria; while Pepin, the youngest, got Aquitaine. Louis’ first wife died in 818 AD, and he took another woman, Judith, as his second wife in 820. His new wife gave birth to their son, Charles (later nicknamed the Bald and the Landless) in 823 AD. He was so fond of the boy that he chipped away at Lothair’s domain and gave little Charles the lands of Alemannia.
“Location of Germany (dark green)– in Europe”
Lothair was understandably furious, so he convinced his brothers, Louis of Bavaria and Pepin of Aquitaine, to rebel against their father. They fought their father in a war which lasted for three years until they captured Louis, as well as Charles, and imprisoned them in different monasteries as punishment. While he was imprisoned in a monastery, Louis sent his sons an offer they could not refuse: he would give them more land and in exchange, the brothers would join him and turn against Lothair. The brothers agreed to their father’s deal, and Lothair (who did not expect this turn of events) was forced to sign a peace treaty with his father.
One of his sons, Pepin of Aquitaine died in 838 AD, so Louis handed his territory over to Charles the Landless. The people of Aquitaine rebelled when they heard the news that the land had been passed over to Charles, so they installed Pepin’s son, Pepin II, as ruler of the territory. Before he died in 840 AD, Louis gave Neustria to Charles the landless to compensate for his loss.
The Birth of Germany
A bloodier civil war led by the troublesome Lothair once again erupted in the Frankish empire after Louis’ death. The civil war that flared up became so vicious that all sides lost many warriors during the battles, while invaders from Al-Andalus and Viking pirates pillaged the countryside. The brothers finally realized the futility of the civil war after they saw the destruction of their kingdoms, so they came together in 843 AD, and shifted the border lines of the Frankish Empire into what was called the Treaty of Verdun. Charles the Landless took Western Francia, Lothair received Middle Francia, and Louis the German took Eastern Francia which was an area that later gave birth to modern Germany.
Mysterious people who built the Stonehenge settled in the island of Britain around 2500 BC. They were soon followed by the Celtic people from continental Europe later called the Britons. These groups of people spread throughout the island. They jostled with the Picts and Caledones who lived in what is now present-day Scotland for territory. The Romans followed and invaded around 43 AD, settled around the island, and continued the wars against the northern barbarians starting in 55 AD. This later led to the founding of England which is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History during 827 AD.
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By the middle of the fifth century, the northern tribes continued the raids south into the lands of the Britons. The helpless Roman rulers of the island were also isolated and cut off from any Roman support from the continent. The leaders of the Britons met and appointed a chieftain named Vortigern as their leader to fend off the attacks of the Picts. Vortigern sent the Magister Militum of the Roman army Aetius a letter asking for his assistance against the northern tribes. The Romans were unable to send soldiers abroad when barbarians, such as the Goths and Vandals, threatened Italy itself. When Vortigern realized that help would not arrive, he came up with a plan to invite their Saxon allies into Britain and help them drive off the northern tribes. He appealed to the Saxons who lived in Germany for help and they accepted his invitation. They sailed to Britain with their closest allies, the Angles and the Jutes, to join the battle against the northern tribes.
The combined Briton, Roman, Saxon, and Angle armies defeated the Picts, so Vortigern allowed the Saxons to settle in Kent in return for their help. The Saxons saw that the island was ideal for farming, so they sent messages to their kinsmen in mainland Europe to sail over to Britain and settle there. They slowly invaded the southern and southwestern portions of Britain, while the Angles migrated to the southeastern coast and stayed there permanently. The steady Anglo-Saxon settlement on the island took the Britons by surprise. War soon flared up between the former allies; it was not until 455 AD when Vortigern and his troops defeated the Saxons after years of destructive wars in their territories.
“Location of England (dark green)– in Europe”
The new settlers continued the war for domination of the island. Ambrosius Aurelianus, one of the last Roman noblemen in the island, also continued the struggle against the Anglo-Saxon invaders after Vortigern’s death. Ambrosius Aurelianus and his allies were initially unsuccessful, but they won in the Battle of Mount Badon in 485 AD and drove off the defeated Anglo-Saxons away to the shores of their homeland in Europe. But this temporary defeat did not deter the Anglo-Saxons from coming back to Britain which they finally did in 491 AD. They started a renewed invasion in the same year and kicked it off with a massacre of the inhabitants of the British fortress of Anderida.
The Saxons, as well as the Angles, eventually overpowered the Britons. By the 6th century, they had conquered the whole eastern and southern coast of Britain. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms split apart and evolved into a Heptarchy (seven domains with seven different rulers) over the years which included:
Northumbria
Mercia
East Anglia
Essex
Kent
Sussex
Wessex
The Saxons had dug deep roots in their new country and dominated the island with their culture, but they still practiced paganism at this point. Pope Gregory I decided to bring the island back into the fold of Christianity, so he sent some monks on an evangelical mission to the pagan Saxons and Angles.The monks landed in Kent which was ruled at that time by the pagan Saxon king Ethelbert. He was later baptized by the monks’ leader Augustine. Many Saxons converted to Christianity in the late 6th century, and England became a Christian nation in 664 AD.
The Vikings
The Saxons were known as mighty warriors, but nothing could have prepared them for the arrival of the ferocious Viking pirates who had sailed from their homeland in Scandinavia. They first terrorized the Frankish Empire, Russia, and even raided in some cities along the Mediterranean Sea. They eventually found themselves in Britain after the Franks built bridges on the banks of the River Seine to prevent them from sailing inland. They first sacked the monastery of Lindisfarne in 793 AD and continued the raids into the British mainland starting in 800 AD.
The Vikings also reached Ireland in 795 AD. They started to settle on some parcels of lands in both islands around 830 to 840 AD. Over the years, the Vikings had removed the king of East Anglia from his throne, ruled his territory, and fought against Ethelred, king of Wessex. The king was supported by Alfred, his younger brother, who took up the struggle against the Vikings and won in 878 AD in the battle at Edington. The Vikings were forced to sign a peace treaty (Treaty of Wedmore) and convert to Christianity after their defeat. Alfred also divided England between Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings who governed their people with their own laws and customs called Danelaw.
A United England
England, during Alfred’s reign, was far from united with the Vikings entrenched deeply on the east and the Anglo-Saxon territories on the southwest (not to mention the Welsh on the western edge of the island). Alfred’s son Edward the Elder managed to unite the peoples of the island (Welsh, Scoti, Danes, and English) under his rule after a series of conquest that he completed in 924 AD. His son, Athelstan, succeeded him as Anglo-Saxon king. He arranged a marriage between the Viking ruler Sihtric of Northumbria and his sister to cement an alliance. When Sihtric died, Athelstan invaded Northumbria and claimed it as part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom through his sister.
The Vikings did not take this very well, so they sent an offer of alliance to the Scots and some renegade Anglo-Saxon noblemen—which they accepted—and met Athelstan in battle in 936 AD. He defeated this Viking-Anglo-Saxon-Scots alliance, and for the first time, an Anglo-Saxon king could finally claim that he had united the different kingdoms that made up England.
References:
Picture By Blank_map_of_Europe.svg: maix¿?derivative work: Alphathon /’æɫfə.θɒn/ (talk) – This file was derived from Blank map of Europe.svg: , CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18497754
Bury, J.B, and Henry Melvill Gwatkin, eds. The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. II. Cambridge: University Press, 1913.
Edward Hasted. “General history: Britons and Saxons,” in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 1, (Canterbury: W Bristow, 1797), 44-62. British History Online, accessed August 29, 2016, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol1/pp44-62.
Geoffrey of Monmouth. History of the Kings of Britain. Translated by Aaron Thompson. Edited by J.A. Giles. Medieval Latin Series. Cambridge, Ontario: In Parentheses Publications, 1999. Accessed August 31, 2016. http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/geoffrey_thompson.pdf.
Gwatkin, Henry Melvill., J.B. Bury, J.P. Whitney, and J.R. Tanner, eds. The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. I. Cambridge, Eng.: Macmillan; The University Press, 1911.
“Inventory of Roman London: The defences, introduction,” in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in London, Volume 3, Roman London, (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1928), 69-82. British History Online, accessed August 16, 2016, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/london/vol3/pp69-82.
Nennius. “Historia Brittonum, 8th Century.” Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Accessed August 31, 2016. http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/nennius-full.asp.
