Rome’s shared history with North Africa goes back to the time of the Republic when it was involved in a series of wars with the city of Carthage. The Phoenician city lost out to Rome during the First Punic Wars (264-241 BC). But its dominance saw a brief resurgence in the Second Punic Wars which was led by one of the greatest military commander in history, Hannibal Barca. He led the Carthaginian army and their war elephants across the rugged terrain of the Italian Alps in 218 AD. The series of wars he started against Rome resulted only in a stalemate. More than 60 years later, the Third Punic War flared up between Rome and Carthage and resulted in the total destruction of Carthage in 149 AD. Many of the Carthaginians were sold into slavery, while a great portion of the population starved or fought to death during the siege. The Romans took over Carthage in the same year, and its merchants now had full access (as well as control) to the profitable Mediterranean trade routes. Moreover, the Roman politician and military leader Pompey added many portions of North Africa during his campaigns in the region in the time of the Republic. Rome conquered North Africa between the dates of 300 – 600 AD according to the Biblical Timeline with World History.
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The Republic was on its way out during the political and military domination of Julius Caesar. His affair with the Egyptian princess Cleopatra further cemented Roman rule over Egypt and North Africa and declared himself dictator for life upon his return to Rome. Political strife hounded Julius Caesar in his homeland, and he died in 44 BC after he was assassinated in the Roman Senate.
Under the Roman Empire
By 30 BC, the Roman Empire had dominated most of North Africa, as well the major cities that dotted the Mediterranean coast. The province became Africa Proconsularis which was governed by a proconsul that represented the Roman government. Numidia became Rome’s client kingdom, while African cities such as Hadrumetum, Byzacena, Hippo Regius, and Utica become thoroughly Romanized. Mauretania was added in 41 AD and at its peak, Rome’s African territory spanned from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Libya in the east (Egypt was a separate province).
“His affair with the Egyptian princess Cleopatra further cemented Roman rule over Egypt and North Africa”
The Roman era in North Africa was relatively peaceful and prosperous—a golden age which historians called Pax Romana. The Roman-style architecture and arts dotted the North African landscape while Jupiter, Saturn, Minerva, and a whole slew of Roman gods replaced the ancient Phoenician pantheon. The Romans also built magnificent temples all over the cities of the province while their lifelike sculptures of the gods were worshiped by the native peoples. Some of Rome’s greatest legacies in North Africa were the network of roads built throughout the province which allowed the troops to easily come in and out of a city, as well as enabled the merchants to transport their goods across the land. In addition, remains of Roman-style villas can still be seen in Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya—silent remnants of a long-gone golden age.
Rome also resettled many of its citizens (especially its veterans) in the fertile farmlands across the province. These resettled peoples became farmers who cultivated wheat and olive trees, as well as raised livestock. The province became Rome’s primary source of grain which made farmers and merchants very rich. Meanwhile, native North Africans also rose and became senators, military commanders, and eventually, emperors of Rome. A fine example of social mobility in Roman North Africa was Septimius Severus who was born in the city of Leptis Magna (modern Libya) and became the first Roman emperor of native North African descent. He was followed by his sons Caracalla and Geta, as well as other emperors who were born in North Africa.
Christianity spread from Palestine to Rome and finally to North Africa in the second century. Converts to the new religion were targeted for persecution, and many died in the magnificent El Djem amphitheater for not renouncing their faith. The repressions and the killings stopped when Emperor Constantine the Great adopted Christianity as his religion. Christianity later became a state religion in 380 AD under Emperor Theodosius I and the population of Christians in the province increased during the next 200 years. Saint Augustine, one of the faith’s leading theologians, was born in the African city of Thagaste and became bishop of the city of Hippo.
Decline of Roman Rule and Muslim Conquest of North Africa
During the last years of the empire, various barbarians sacked Rome and even spilled over to North Africa. Some of the most ferocious of these barbarians were the Vandals who managed to cross from Hispania to North Africa and besieged Carthage. They successfully captured the city, but the Byzantine general Belisarius took it back for Constantinople in 533 AD and henceforth was under the control of the Byzantine Empire. Its hold on North Africa would not last long as in 642 AD; Muslim Arabs captured the North African cities from the Byzantine Empire after their conquest of Egypt.
The Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, also known as the Second Council of Constantinople, was held on the fifth of May to the second of June in 553 AD according to the Bible Timeline Poster with World History. This was during the reign of Emperor Justinian. The ecumenical council presided by the Patriarch of Constantinople Eutychius was the fifth of the seven assemblies held in the city since 381 AD. At least 151 bishops from Greece and North Africa attended the event, but Emperor Justinian decided it would be better if he left out the Italian bishops. Pope Vigilius was at Constantinople at that time and initially attended on the first day, but declined to attend on the second day because of his ill health.
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The council was assembled to confirm the edict of anathematization (condemnation) issued by Emperor Justinian to the Three Chapters between 543 and 544 AD. The condemned Three Chapters included:
* Theodore of Mopsuestia (350-428 AD) and his writings
* some writings of Theodoret (393-458 AD) against Cyril of Alexandria
* the letters of Ibas, the bishop of Edessa (435-457 AD) to Maris, the Bishop of Hardaschir
“Jesus depicted as the Good Shepherd”
Theodore and Theodoret both supported Nestorianism which was considered as heresy at that time, while it was only rumored that Ibas supported this kind of belief. Nestorianism, the Christological belief that Christ only had one nature (which was a fusion of human and divine), directly opposed the Chalcedonian Christology that Justinian supported, which upheld the belief that Christ had distinct human and divine natures. The bishops who gathered in the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople agreed to confirm the emperor’s anathematization of Nestorianism after several sessions and condemned the works of the second-century theologian Origen of Alexandria as well.
Pope Vigilius initially rejected the anathematization of the Three Chapters and stood his ground for six months. He only changed his mind (or was forced to) around 554 AD. Justinian allowed him to return to Rome in the same year, but he never arrived in Rome as he died at Syracuse in 555 AD. The anathematization caused a major rift between the bishops of Constantinople and others (particularly in North Africa and Italy) who rejected the council. Vigilius’ death also forced Justinian to appoint the deacon Pelagius as pope to force the Italian bishops to accept the council’s ruling on the Three Chapters.
References:
Picture By Stained glass: Alfred Handel, d. 1946[2], photo:Toby Hudson – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10163206
Kelly, Joseph F. The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church: A History. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009.
“Medieval Sourcebook: Fifth Ecumenical Council: Constantinople II, 553.” Fordham University Medieval Sourcebooks. Accessed August 06, 2016. http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/const2.asp.
Just like Gregory the Great who came before him, the second Pope Gregory came from a noble and wealthy family. He was the son of Marcellus and Honesta, but apart from their names, everything else about his family was shrouded in mystery. He was cared for by the popes in his youth and appointed by Pope Sergius as a subdeacon years after. He worked as a treasurer for the church, chief administrator of the Vatican library, and then elevated as deacon after many years. Finally, he was appointed as the Pope on May 19, 715 AD which is where he is recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History.
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One of the first tasks he undertook after his proclamation as Pope was to fortify the walls of Rome against the Lombards who had penetrated deep into Italy, as well as the Saracens (Muslims) who had dominated Hispania at that time. The task, however, was stopped when the Tiber river rose and flooded the city for eight days.
There was an increase of Anglo-Saxon pilgrims during Gregory II’s pontificate after their conversion to Christianity during the time of Gregory the Great and Augustine of Canterbury. Two of the most prominent of these pilgrims were the Abbot Ceolfrid and King Ina of Wessex. Ceolfrid brought Gregory II a copy of the Bible as a gift, while King Ina visited Pope Gregory and retired in the city of Rome after his abdication. Ina built a school named Schola Saxona in the city. It was established to enable the Anglo-Saxon pilgrims to learn more about church doctrine while they stayed in the city.
Pope Gregory II
Theodo, the Christian Duke of Bavaria, also visited Pope Gregory and asked him to convert his people to Christianity. Pope Gregory was all too happy to comply with this request and immediately dispatched Bishop Martinian, Dorotheus, and other church officials to Bavaria to accompany the Duke. The delegates converted the Bavarians and later on, established a local church hierarchy in Theodo’s duchy.
Meanwhile, Gregory had reiterated the importance of marriage, as well as forbade the practice of magic and witchcraft. He also tried to wean the people off from their belief in astrology, as well as lucky and unlucky days that were popular at that time. He also convinced Corbinian, the Frankish monk, to take a break from his life as a hermit and help in the conversion of Bavaria. He was later consecrated as a bishop and began his ministry in Bavaria in 724 after he was sent there by Gregory.
Gregory authorized church repairs and improvement of church decorations during his tenure as pope. He established monasteries in Italy (he even turned his own ancestral house into one) and restored the broken-down sections of the monastery at Monte Cassino between 717 and 718 AD. These parts of the monastery were destroyed by the Lombards during the early years of their invasion.
In spring of the year 721, Gregory called for a synod in Rome that dealt specifically with the subject of marriage. In this council, they agreed to forbid marriage for priests, nuns, and others who were “consecrated to God,” as well as the union between close relatives. Two years later, Gregory helped reconcile the Patriarchs of Grado and Aquileia after a spat between the two. The pope had sent the pallium to the Bishop Serenus, the Patriarch of Aquileia, who took it as a sign of higher authority and then started to meddle on the territory of Bishop Donatus, the Patriarch of Grado. Incensed, the Patriarch of Grado sent a letter to Pope Gregory and informed him about his complaint, so the pope sent letters to both men with a gentle admonition to submit to each other in humility.
The Lombards in Italy
Pope Gregory had a good diplomatic relationship with the Lombard king Liutprand, but he was still worried that Italy would fall completely into the hands of the Lombards. He supported Duke John of Naples in his campaign to regain the ancient city of Cumae and negotiated later with Liutprand for the return of the port of Classis to the Exarch of Ravenna. However, he failed to convince the Frankish mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, to help him completely get rid of the Lombards in the Italian peninsula.
Conflict with Byzantine Emperor Leo III
In Constantinople, the Emperor Leo III had issued a decree that all icons in his domain be destroyed. It was met with hostility by the citizens of Constantinople which later spread to Greece and other Byzantine-dominated cities. The fight for and against the icons was especially bitter in Greece where a short-lived revolt was immediately suppressed. Still, Leo went on with his destruction of images which would later reach Rome and Pope Gregory. He sent the Byzantine emperor a letter in which he told Leo to stay away from formulating church doctrines and focus on ruling the empire but Leo was adamant and iconoclasm continued in the east, while religious flourished in the West during the medieval period.
Pope Gregory died in early 731 AD and was replaced by Gregory III as pope in the same year.
Ravenna is a city located in northeastern Italy along the Adriatic coast. It was first inhabited by Italic peoples, and they were soon followed by the Etruscans, Gauls, and Romans by the 2nd century BC. The city’s location along the Adriatic coast made it an ideal harbor for ships that came in from the Mediterranean in the ancient times but by 402 AD, the emperor Honorius made Ravenna the Western Roman Empire’s capital to escape the barbarian invasion in Mediolanum (Milan). The marshes that surrounded the city made it initially difficult for various barbarian invaders to break through the city walls, although it was breached by barbarians a number of times during the Medieval Period. The Exarch of Ravenna ruled from 476 – 538 AD where it is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History.
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It was the Western Empire’s capital from 402 AD to 476 AD, but it finally fell to the barbarians during the reign of King Odoacer and Theodoric the Great. By 551 AD, the Lombards ended the Ostrogoth domination of Italy and continued their push toward the southern part of the country. These barbarians first started out as mercenaries hired by general Narses during the war with the Ostrogoths and they were promised land in Pannonia in exchange for their skills in the battlefield.
“Location of Exarchate of Ravenna”
Once they had settled in Pannonia, they found that the land was already overpopulated by other barbarian tribes, and they needed to move out if they were to survive. The Lombards, led by fierce warrior-king Alboin, turned west to the rich but ravaged land of Italy. They stopped at nothing to get the land they needed. They first took the cities in the Liguria region including Milan and Pavia but failed to take Ravenna, Rome, and other fortified cities in Italy. After the death of Alboin in 572 AD, the cities in the Italian peninsula (except for Ravenna, Rome, and others still held by the Byzantine Empire) crumbled into various duchies ruled by its own Lombard duke.
Exarchate of Ravenna
Ravenna proved resilient and withstood the Lombard invasion for many years. It remained the only place where the Byzantines still held power and the city became an exarchate—a place where the Byzantine emperor Maurice ruled through his representative, the exarch. The exarch initially had full command of the troops loyal to Byzantium, but over the years, his responsibilities expanded to the administrative, judicial, and religious branches of the city. He had unlimited power over Ravenna, as well as the towns from the southern border of Venice and to the coastal city of Rimini. The Byzantine-allied dukes and Magister militum who governed other cities submitted to his authority. Except for the Lombard dukes who ruled Spoleto, Benevento, and Pavia. The threat of the Vandals also pushed the emperor to establish the Exarchate of Africa later on.
The conflict over iconoclasm that started in Constantinople spilled over to Italy in 727 AD and a bloody revolution over the icons in Italy ended with the death of Ravenna’s Exarch Paul and his followers. Eutychius replaced Paul as the exarch. He ruled the city until the Lombards completely captured Ravenna in 751 AD. The position of the exarch also ended in the same year.
Jesus laid down the basic tenets of Christianity in first century Palestine, but the Catholic Church expanded these doctrines during the Middle Ages as a response to the people’s spiritual issues at that time. Some of the issues addressed by church fathers during this period included the sins committed by Christians, the corresponding punishments for these transgressions, and the way these punishments could be reduced in this life and beyond. The Sale of Indulgences became a Church doctrine around 700 AD according to the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History.
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These sins later evolved into indulgences which, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.” It is also defined as the “the partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin.” Swiss theologian and historian Philip Schaff defined it simply as the “remission of the temporal (not the eternal) punishment of sin (not of sin itself), on condition of penitence and the payment of money to the church or to some charitable object.”
History of Indulgences
“The Pope as the Antichrist, signing and selling indulgences, from Luther’s 1521 Passional Christi und Antichristi”
The idea of paying an indulgence goes back to the Roman era as remissio tributi and abolito as amnesty or pardon granted by the emperor during special occasions. The bishops who attended the Council of Epaone (held in 517 AD in the Kingdom of Burgundy) later expanded the idea of indulgence with an edict that shortened or lightened the penance of the apostates. In 668 AD, Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury authorized the monetary payment to him and the church in lieu of penance and absolution in his Penitential. This marked the first instance that Christians in England offered monetary compensation for the remission of their sins.
The money the church received from the Christians in Europe were then sent to Rome and the sale of indulgences increased during the chaotic years of the Crusades. Indulgences became a regular source of income for the church. It was not until the time of Martin Luther that the validity of indulgences was challenged.
The Council of Whitby convened in 664 AD according to the Bible Timeline with World History. It was held in the Kingdom of Northumbria many years after Pope Gregory sent a successful mission to England back in 596 AD. From its initial base in Kent, the Christianity that the monk Augustine (later Archbishop of Canterbury) brought to the shores of England spread to Northumbria, Scotland, and well into Ireland. The doctrines of Christianity, however, evolved and became so complex over time that by 664 AD the Kingdom of Northumbria found itself in a debate over when they should celebrate Easter and other Christian holidays.
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Attempts to resolve the issue about the date started as early as 325 AD in the Council of Nicaea, but the debates continued for many years in Christian-dominated cities in Europe, Asia Minor, and North Africa. Another attempt was made 200 years later by Dionysius Exiguus to calculate and reconcile the date of the Easter which was later adopted by the Church of Rome. This was the date that the monk Augustine took with him to England. It was later used by the English converts for when they celebrated the Easter.
“Location of Northumbria”
But the Celtic Christians (Breton and Irish) used another date which they inherited from the Romans. They received the date from the early Christians and practiced it before communication between the island and Rome was cut off by the invasion of the barbarian tribes. The date that they followed in observance of the Easter was a week earlier than the Roman Catholic one, but there were instances when the date fell much later than the Roman. This, in turn, also affected the celebrations of other Christian holidays.
A House Divided
The royal family of the Kingdom of Northumbria was also divided on this issue: the Kentish-born Queen Eanfleda and her son, King Alchfrid on the Roman side and her husband, the King Oswiu on the Celtic/Ionan side. To settle the issue once and for all, King Oswiu invited bishops, clerics, and members of his own family to a meeting in the Abbey of Whitby in Northumbria. Abbess Hilda of Whitby presided the council and church authorities from both sides attended the meeting.
Those who favored the Roman date for Easter included the Irish missionary Ronan, Wilifrid (Abbot of Ripon), King Alchfrid, James the Deacon, a priest named Agatho, and Bishop Agilbert of Wessex. Abbot Coleman of Lindisfarne, various clerics, Abbess Hilda, and Cedd, the Bishop of Sussex made up those who favored the Celtic/Ionan date. The speakers included Abbot Colman and Abbot Wilifrid, but the Roman side won over the course of the discussion. Colman and his followers initially refused to accept the ruling and retreated to the abbey in the island of Iona where they kept the Celtic/Ionan tradition for many years. Meanwhile, the rest of England followed the decision of the Council of Whitby and celebrated Easter on the Roman calculation.
For the first 300 years of Christianity’s existence, the Roman government teetered between toleration and active persecution of the religion. Many Christians were imprisoned, driven out of their homes or churches, and their properties confiscated during this period. At its worst, they were tortured and killed by Romans who viewed Christianity as a threat to the empire’s unity. It was not until the reign of Constantine that Christianity was gradually accepted in the Roman world, and most persecutions stopped. After his conversion to Christianity, Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan which included an authorization to return properties confiscated by the government from the Christians in the previous years. The Popes secured the Independence of their territories after this which is dated at 568 AD according to the Biblical Timeline with World History.
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According to a document called the “Donation of Constantine”, the emperor himself increased the Christian church’s land holdings with various donations. These were soon followed by donations from other wealthy Roman families. The document was presented by Pope Stephen II hundreds of years later to the Frankish king Pepin the Younger to justify the church’s possession of Rome and other lands in Italy. It was alleged to be a forgery since there were no records of the document during the time of Emperor Constantine, but the document suited their needs at that time, so Pepin left the territories to the pope.
Pope Gregory and the Lombard Invasion of Rome
Christian leadership also evolved over the years. In the 6th century AD, the Popes of Rome became the supreme head of the Catholic Christians, but beyond the religious realm, they also played a great part in the empire’s politics. Rome was not the power center of Italy during this period, and a greater portion of the peninsula was held by the Byzantine emperor through an exarch stationed in the capital of Ravenna.
Saint Gregory
The Lombards had invaded Italy, and their army threatened Rome, which was then under the administration of the Pope Gregory. Gregory was a former diplomat; he was a part of the delegation the former Pope Pelagius sent to emperor Maurice in Constantinople. They begged the emperor to send additional troops to Rome that would help deliver the Romans from the Lombards. The emperor refused since he did not have the troops nor the money to send to them. Gregory became a monk after this, but he was once again pushed into the spotlight after the leaders of the city wrote to the Byzantine emperor and requested Gregory’s appointment as pope after the death of Pope Pelagius II. Gregory felt that he was more suited for a life inside the monastery, but the Romans felt that they had no choice, and there was no one else fit to lead the city during a time of great crisis.
Gregory’s protests did not help as his appointment as pope was confirmed some time later in 590 AD. He was unwilling but according to historical accounts of this period, Gregory did his best in protecting the citizens of the city from the Lombard invasion. Once again, he begged Emperor Maurice for relief troops, but none arrived. He was forced to pay the troops from church funds, as well as negotiate with and pay off the Lombard king to break the siege of Rome. His strategy paid off, and the Lombard king agreed to retreat from Rome after a prolonged siege.
From Pope to City Administrator
In the meantime, the patrimonies—the lands donated to the church and under the administration of the pope—increased in parts of Gaul, Dalmatia, Italy, Sicily, and North Africa. The patrimonies generated revenues which were then sent back to the pope in Rome by the administrators of these estates and the revenues gave the pope a measure of independence to rule their territories. It did not help that the Byzantine emperor who controlled a small portion of Italy at that time was busy warding off the Persian and Avar invaders in his own domain. The pope used the revenues to fund the construction and maintenance of churches and convents; he also needed to respond beyond the spiritual needs of the people now that the distant Byzantine government did not have the money nor the inclination to help them out. Revenues from the patrimonies were used to pay for the construction of hospitals and orphanages, as well as provide food for the Romans. As the Byzantine hold over the Roman popes faded, the territories under the church became more independent from the Eastern Empire as years passed.
The Franks entered Roman history just as the empire was on the brink of destruction. They were a part of the foederati—Germanic allies of the Romans who first appeared during the time of Julian the Apostate at a time when the empire faced the Persian threat in the east and barbarian invasions in the west. Julian knew that it would be disastrous for the Roman army to face both enemies at the same time, so he came up with a solution that would benefit them all: he allowed the Franks and other Germanic tribes to settle in some portions of Gaul (as well as claim the privilege of Roman citizenship and all the rights that came with it) and in exchange, foederati warriors would fight as Roman soldiers. The Franconian Kingdom lasted from 487 to 843 AD as recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History.
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The Franks were made up of smaller groups which were led by their own chieftains, but the tribe was ultimately led by the more powerful, long-haired Salian Franks. One of the greatest Salian kings was Merovech, a semi-legendary Frankish king who fought with the Romans and the Goths against Attila the Hun during the height of the Hunnic invasion. What remained of the fragile Roman domination in Gaul was erased by the Salian Franks in 457 AD. In the same year, they established a dynasty which they named Merovingian (after king Merovech). He was succeeded by his son Childeric who further strengthened the Frankish domination over Gaul versus Saxon and Alemanni invaders, as well as the last of the Western Roman kings.
Childeric’s son, Clovis, succeeded him as king. He spent the next ten years taking territory after territory from neighboring tribes. He married the Christian Burgundian princess Clotilde in 493 AD. She was instrumental in Clovis’ conversion from paganism to Christianity during a battle against the Alemanni. Just like the Emperor Constantine many years ago, Clovis prayed to and bargained with Christ for victory against the Alemanni and in return, he would convert to Christianity. The prayer was effective and the Alemanni surrendered to the Franks soon after. Mass conversion of Franks to Christianity soon followed and the new religion would hold them together as a new nation.
“Julian the Apostate presiding at a conference of sectarians”
Clovis defeated the Arian Visigoth king Alaric II in the Battle of Vouillé and captured the city of Toulouse in 507 AD. The weakened Visigoths abandoned the city and fled to Hispania. The intervention of the Ostrogothic royal family and their troops drove the Franks out of the Visigoth’s Mediterranean territory of Septimania. To celebrate his victory over the Visigoths and his near-total domination of Gaul, Clovis established a new city as his capital: Lutetia Parisiorium, which would later become the present-day Paris. He also eliminated all other Frankish chieftains to consolidate his power and his sons—as well as the kings who succeeded them—would be known as the princes of the Merovingian dynasty.
King Clovis died in 511 AD and the crown, as well as his territories, passed on to his four sons: Theuderic claimed Reims; Childebert ruled Paris; Chlodomer received Orleans, and Chlothar took Soissons. In the years that followed, the three eldest brothers died from violence or illness, which left only the youngest, Chlothar I, as the ruler of the Frankish domain. He died in 561 AD. His territory was up for grabs for his four sons—a remnant of an old tribal rule that Frankish heirs would receive their territories through merit (most of the time, through violent means) and not through inheritance.
The struggle for domination in the Frankish territories took on a new meaning with the arrival of the Visigothic princess Brunhilda and her younger sister Galswintha. In 567 AD, one of Chlothar I’s son, Charibert, died and his territory was seized and divided by his three remaining brothers: Sigebert took Austrasia; Guntram ruled Burgundy, and Chilperic ruled Neustria. Sigebert then decided to strengthen his rule by making an alliance with the Visigoths down in Spain and proposed a marriage between himself and the Visigothic princess Brunhilda to her father, king Athanagild.
When he saw that his brother Sigebert made a formidable alliance with the Visigoths, Chilperic also made an offer to king Athanagild for the younger princess Galswintha. Eager to make another alliance with a powerful king up north, Athanagild sent Galswintha to her groom but this was a mistake she would later pay dearly with her life. Chilperic married a woman named Fredegund some time earlier, but he conveniently sent her out of the Neustrian court to accommodate his new wife. Apparently, Fredegund was still very much present in the king’s life and to Galswintha’s dismay, Fredegund freely entered the palace and showed up inside Chilperic’s chambers. The Visigothic princess was found dead in her room one day and rumors swirled around the kingdom that Chilperic and Fredegund arranged Galswintha’s death.
War broke out between Neustria and Austrasia when news of Galswintha’s death reached Queen Brunhilda. This went on for seven years and the situation worsened when Fredegund hired assassins to poison Sigebert in Austrasia. The assassins successfully carried out this mission, which left Brunhilda in charge of Austrasia as a regent for her young son Childebert II. To enlarge their territory, Queen Brunhilda also persuaded the heirless Guntram of Burgundy to leave his kingdom to her son after his death and she proved to be a good ruler of both courts.
Meanwhile in Neustria, Chilperic died and Fredegund rose to rule his kingdom upon his death. He died without an heir, but some time later, Fredegund announced that she was pregnant with Chilperic’s son, Chlothar II. Childebert II also received the kingdom of Burgundy upon Guntram’s death and he ruled it (plus Austrasia) with his mother. When Childebert II died, his mother once again assumed the position of regent for her young grandchildren who divided Burgundy and Austrasia between them. Chlothar II and her mother Fredegund took advantage of Childebert’s death and tried to take Paris but were unsuccessful; Fredegund died later and her son was left to rule Neustria on his own.
It seemed that Brunhilda’s “meddling” became too much for one of her grandchildren as Theudebert II threw her out of the kingdom after he was proclaimed king of Austrasia. She sought refuge in Burgundy, in the court of her younger grandchild Theuderic II and once again dominated the Burgundian court. She masterminded several assassinations of noblemen and officials, as well as meddled in Theuderic’s marriage to a Visigothic princess. Theuderic was exasperated and he was eager to get rid of his grandmother for good, but could not do something about it. Instead, he joined forces with his cousin Chlothar of Neustria and went to war against his brother, Theudebert of Austrasia. The cousins invaded Austrasia, killed the king’s son, and imprisoned Theudebert, while Brunhilda later had Theudebert killed in prison in revenge for driving her out of Austrasia.
Nobody benefited from all the scheming and violence in the end as Theuderic died without an heir less than a year after the invasion. Brunhilda was also executed by Chlothar II after Austrasia and Burgundy’s mayors of the palace (Warnachar and Rado) invited him into the kingdoms to prevent the old queen from recovering her power. With Brunhilda gone, Chlothar now ruled all three Frankish kingdoms but the mayors of the palace worked out a deal with him that allowed them to rule each kingdom independently. In 615 AD, Chlothar issued the Edict of Paris, a law that proved to be disastrous for the Merovingian dynasty as it included conditions that the king was not allowed to meddle in the affairs of the mayors of the palace and that they could not be kicked out from their positions. Through the Edict of Paris, Chlothar essentially gave away most of his powers over Burgundy and Austrasia.
Change of Hands: The Kingdom Under the Mayors of the Palace
The Neustrian king Chlothar sought to establish a presence in Austrasia by installing his son Dagobert as king of Austrasia, but the real power was in the hands of the mayor of the palace: Pepin the Elder. After Chlothar died, a younger son named Charibert attempted to rule Neustria but was thwarted by his brother Dagobert who later had him assassinated in Aquitaine. He continued to rule all three territories until his death in 639 AD; Neustria and Burgundy were then passed on to his son Clovis II while Sigebert III took Austrasia. But the position of the mayor of the palace also became hereditary after Pepin the Elder passed it down to his son Grimoald—a departure from the rule that the mayors of the palace should be appointed by the king.
Grimoald turned out to be more ambitious than his father when started to convince the Merovingian king Sigebert III to adopt his son, but this plot was thwarted upon the birth of Sigebert’s son. When Sigebert died, Grimoald organized a coup and banished the dead king’s heir, Dagobert II, to a monastery in England; he then declared his son (later named as Childebert the Adopted) as the ruler of Austrasia. This gave Clovis II of Neustria and Burgundy an excuse to invade Austrasia; Grimoald and the unfortunate usurper Childebert were executed during the invasion.
The banished Dagobert II never got the chance to reclaim his throne after Clovis II declared himself king of Austrasia and appointed his own official, Erchinoald, the mayor of the palace. The throne of Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy passed on to Clovis’ very young sons and for the rest of their reigns, the kings remained only as mere puppets (roi fainéant) for the more-powerful mayors of the palace.
Pepin II of Herstal, Pepin the Elder’s grandson, became the mayor of the palace in 680 AD after the death of the Merovingian ruler of Austrasia. He became the ruler of Austrasia since the throne was vacant and he shrewdly refused to elect another candidate for the king’s role. This was an act which provoked the Merovingian ruler of Neustria, Theuderic III who immediately organized an invasion into Austrasia. His troops were defeated by Pepin’s army and Theuderic was forced to concede the position of mayor of the palace of all three Frankish kingdoms to Pepin.
Now, nothing stood in Pepin’s way and he promptly crowned himself the duke and prince of the Franks. Although the Merovingians still ruled Neustria and Burgundy, it was Pepin alone who held all the real power over the Frankish lands. His death in 714 AD left the position of the mayor of the palace vacant (his legitimate sons died before him) but Charles Martel, an illegitimate son born to his concubine, contested the claim of Plectrude, Pepin’s legitimate wife, that her young grandsons should inherit the position. Plectrude had Charles imprisoned to prevent him from becoming the mayor of the palace, but he escaped and spent the years that followed fighting Plectrude and other claimants for the position.
It was not until 717 AD that he eliminated all other claimants to the position and succeeded as mayor of the palace. Charles Martel also went on to lead the combined forces of Aquitanian and Frankish forces to defeat the Arab-Berber army in the Battle of Tours-Poitiers in 732. By 737 AD, the Merovingian puppet king he appointed years before had died and Charles Martel was the sole ruler of the Frankish kingdom.
After Charles’ death in 741 AD, his sons Carloman and Pepin the Younger rose as mayors of the palace. Unlike the Merovingian brothers before them, the siblings did not go to war for territories as Carloman relinquished his kingdom, had himself consecrated as a monk, and spent the rest of his life in the monastery of Monte Cassino. In 751, Pepin removed the last of the Merovingian king from the throne and declared himself the king of the Frankish kingdom. He sent the deposed Merovingian king, Childeric III, to a monastery where he died years later and marked the end of the domination of the Merovingian dynasty.
Carolingian Dynasty
Pepin the Younger died in 768 AD and the territories were divided between his sons Charles (Charlemagne) and Carloman. The realm was now divided into two: Charles ruled the northern section of the land and Carloman ruled the southern portion that bordered Al-Andalus. Charles also strengthened his rule with his marriage to a Lombard princess but discarded his first wife for a thirteen-year-old Alemanni girl after one year. His brother, Carloman, died in 771 AD which meant that Charles was now the sole ruler of the Frankish empire.
Charlemagne subdued the Saxons in 772 AD and ended the domination of the Lombards in Italy in the years that followed. He sent the Lombard king Desiderius to a monastery (a punishment the Frankish rulers seemed to favor) and crowned himself king of Lombard Italy in its capital Pavia. He made an ill-advised treaty with the administrator of Al-Andalus in an effort to take back the city of Zaragoza from the Muslims, but Charlemagne and his troops were forced to march back to Frankish lands in humiliation after the administrator changed his mind. He besieged the Vascones who lived on the rugged Pyrenees in his humiliation, but he paid the price for his miscalculation when his troops were massacred by the tribe in revenge as they marched home. The loss of his men was so devastating that he never ventured south into Al-Andalus for the rest of his life.
Charlemagne was involved in a conflict with the Byzantine empress Irene after she broke off the engagement of her son Constantine VI to the Frankish king’s daughter Rotrude. In a bid to strengthen his own rule, Pope Leo crowned Charlemagne as the emperor and Augustus of Rome. This was a direct hit to Empress Irene who, as ruler of the Byzantines, claimed to be the rightful and legitimate heir of Rome and its former territories. The empress could do nothing and Charlemagne claimed more of Europe in the years that followed. His realm spanned from Sweden in the north to the border of Al-Andalus in the southern end, as well as the former territories of the Lombards in Italy. Before his death, he divided the kingdom between his sons but all except Louis the Pious (the ruler of Aquitaine) had died by 813 AD. Louis found himself the sole ruler of the vast Frankish kingdom consolidated by his father after his death.
Louis the Pious had planned to snip off some lands from Lothair’s (one of his sons by his first wife) domain so he could give them to a younger, more favored son by his second wife. Furious, Lothair and his brothers united against their father and the civil war which raged between them for three years unraveled all of Charlemagne’s efforts to unite the Frankish land. Louis was forced to make concessions to his other sons and left the reduced domain of Neustria to his child by his second wife, Charles the Bald, when he died in 840 AD. Civil war once again erupted between the brothers and they were forced to divide the land once again in 843 AD in the Treaty of Verdun.
References:
Picture By Edward Armitage – Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1207772
Bradbury, Jim. The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare. London: Routledge, 2004.
Costambeys, Marios, Matthew Innes, and Simon MacLean. The Carolingian World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1927.
Wood, I. N. The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751. London: Longman, 1994.
The Goths were known as fierce warriors who were part of the tribes that migrated from their homeland in Scandia into the frontiers of the Eastern Roman Empire in Late Antiquity. The Huns later invaded the Goths in their temporary settlement and drove them out of the Black Sea region, desperate and just as hungry as they were when they left Scandia. To ensure that their people would survive, the Gothic leaders sent envoys to Emperor Valens to negotiate a treaty that would allow their people to settle in Moesia or Thrace. In exchange, they would submit to the emperor and convert to Christianity—an arrangement that suited the Emperor Valens just fine but would come to regret later. He accepted and allowed them to settle in Moesia and Dacia Ripensis. In return, the Goths helped convert their neighbors to Arianism, the Ostrogoths, and the Gepids. These events led the Visigoths to invade Gaul and Spain between 415 – 711 AD according to the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History.
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Famine and the greed of Roman officials who handled the funds derailed the treaty between the Goths and Emperor Valens. Many of the Goths went hungry or were enslaved. This situation worsened when the Roman general Lupicinus plotted to have the Goths’ leader Fritigern killed during a banquet. The plot did not succeed, but the die was cast. The Goths felt understandably betrayed. They rampaged through the city because of this slight. This was the Goths’ entry into the fragmented Roman Empire and start of the two peoples’ complicated relationship through the years of the empire’s collapse. The Goths themselves would split into two: the people who settled near the Black Sea were called Ostrogoths while those who ventured west into Gaul and Hispania were known as Visigoths.
“Map showing the migrations of the Vandals from Germany through Dacia, Gaul, Iberia, and into North Africa, and their raids throughout the Mediterranean.”
To the West: Visigoths in Gaul and Hispania
The Visigoths went on to become some of the most feared barbarians that descended into the remnants of the Western Roman Empire. As years passed and the promise of a homeland became out of their reach, the Visigoths (who were led by the great King Alaric) rampaged into Italy and sacked Rome in 410 AD. King Ataulf later succeeded Alaric upon his death and the king’s marriage to Emperor Honorius’ sister Galla Placidia gave the Visigoths a glimmer of hope that they would soon share in the empire’s land and riches (or what remained of it).
Ataulf knew that another attack into Italy seemed far-fetched for the moment, so he set his sights on conquering Gaul which was then ruled by the usurper Constantine III. Honorius sent soldiers to Gaul to assassinate Constantine III. Ataulf took advantage of the chaos in the territory to invade in 413 AD. The Visigoths seized Narbonensis from the beleaguered Roman soldiers and made the city of Toulouse their new kingdom’s capital. The Visigoths extended their territory into northern Hispania, but for Ataulf, this did not seem enough. He longed to be a part of Roman empire, so he appointed a former Roman senator named Attalus as emperor in his territory
The act angered emperor Honorius, so he sent soldiers from Ravenna to besiege the Visigoths in Gaul and kill Attalus—which the Roman soldiers did with great success the moment they arrived in Hispania. The Visigoths were back to where they started—hungry and besieged. They were unhappy with the turn of events. Ataulf was murdered in 415 AD by a resentful member of his tribe. He was succeeded by a Visigoth warrior named Wallia (Ataulf’s murderer also crowned himself as king, but he was killed by Wallia after seven days of reign). Wallia proposed a treaty to Honorius for him to leave them in peace. This was in exchange for the hostages Alaric took from Rome years before. Which included Galla Placidia and a young boy named Aetius (who later rose as one of the Western Empire’s greatest general).
Hispania: Vandals, Suebi, and the Visigoths
Honorius agreed to the truce and left the Visigoths alone to conquer Hispania. Which, by then, was ruled by the Vandals. The Vandals later left Hispania, sailed off to North Africa, and established Carthage as their own territory; they were replaced by another barbarian tribe, the Suebi, who were easily overpowered by the Visigoths during their conquest of Hispania. There they became more powerful as the rulers of the Western Roman Empire fought off other barbarians. The empire was further weakened from internal strife. By the middle of the fifth century, the Visigoths had pushed the Suebi to a small territory on the northwest corner of Hispania and claimed almost all of the peninsula for themselves. The Visigoths then had something that they yearned for many years: a homeland.
The Visigoths reached the height of their power in Gaul and Hispania during the middle of the sixth and seventh centuries. Various kings rose and fell. The Visigoths played their cards very well against the Franks and Suebi. One Spanish Visigoth princess, Brunhilda, rose to such greatness in Austrasia after she married the Frankish prince Sigebert. Her sister, the younger Galswintha, married Sigebert’s brother and ruler of Neustria, Chilperic. But Chilperic married a woman named Fredegund some time earlier. It was alleged that the couple murdered Galswintha in Neustria so they could be together again.
The death of her sister was something Queen Brunhilda never forgave, and she spent the years that followed plotting revenge against the killers of her sister. She proved to be a capable regent for her son after the death of her husband, which the Frankish noblemen and clergy took as meddling into the affairs of the state. Brunhilda had her childless brother-in-law, Guntram of Burgundy, adopt her son which consolidated his smaller territory into Austrasia after his death. Brunhilda, however, outlived her son and continued to manipulate her grandchildren until her death.
Collapse of Visigothic Rule in Hispania and Gaul
The Visigoths went on to rule for many years until the rise of a new power in the Arabian Peninsula. The combined Berber and Arab forces, as well as the succession problems that plagued the Visigoth royal house, became their downfall. While the Visigoths were busy with their succession problems, a large Muslim army crossed from the tip of what is now Morocco into the southern coast of Spain. The divided Visigoths, now ruled by Ruderic, were easily defeated by the Arabs and Berbers in the Battle of Guadalete.Almost all noblemen who joined Ruderic in battle also perished. This left the Spanish throne vacant. With almost all Visigothic noblemen gone, the Arabs and Berbers easily overran Spain. They claimed the Iberian Peninsula as their own and named it Al-Andalus.
References:
Picture By User:MapMaster – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1234669
Bauer, Susan Wise. The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010.
Heather, Peter J. The Visigoths: From the Migration Period to the Seventh Century. Woodbridge: Boydell, 1999.
“JORDANES.” THE ORIGIN AND DEEDS OF THE GOTHS. Accessed July 19, 2016. http://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html.
Riess, Frank. Narbonne and Its Territory in Late Antiquity: From the Visigoths to the Arabs. Ashgate Publishing Group, 2013.
The Lombards migrated out of their homeland in Scandia (modern Scandinavia) during the great migration period between the fourth and ninth centuries AD. The Lombards capital at Pavia was recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History starting in the 6th Century AD. The Romans were aware of the tribe’s presence as early as the 9th century AD, but the Lombards were part of the later tribes which streamed into Italy much later after its collapse. They were, however, some of the most resilient and successful groups that invaded Italy. They outlasted other barbarian tribes who came before them, such as the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Vandals.
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The Lombards first settled near the Danube in 487 AD after their migration from Scandia and later crossed the river to settle in overcrowded Pannonia in 526 AD. They were now at the gates of the old Roman empire. They needed to fight for available land to settle on and farm—something Pannonia did not have in abundance. As the Western Roman Empire continued to collapse, the Lombards took advantage of its weakness and closed in on Italy in the years that followed. Their domination of Italy would not have been possible if not for the sheer will and ferociousness of one man: the Lombard king Alboin.
Alboin was one of the greatest kings in Lombard history. He reigned from 560 until his death in 572 AD. He was known for his victory over the Gepids and the death of the tribe’s king Cunimund, after which he married the dead king’s daughter Rosamund. Alboin then led the Lombards from Pannonia to capture the northern part of Byzantine Italy on April 2, 568 AD. His troops entered the city of Milan (Mediolanum) in the same year. According to Paul the Deacon, they besieged and took almost all of the cities in Liguria except for the southern coastal cities.
“Alboin is killed by Peredeo while Rosamund steals his sword”
The citizens of Pavia, however, put up a valiant fight for three years while Alboin rampaged through the Italian countryside up to Tuscany. Rome, Ravenna, and other fortified cities withstood the sieges, but Alboin and the Lombards took city after city in northern Italy in such a short time. The fact that the Italians were afflicted with the bubonic plague some years before and much of the citizens were dead by the time of the invasion did not help them. In addition, the famine which occurred before the arrival of the bubonic plague worsened the people’s situation.
Lombards Capture Pavia
After three years of relentless fighting, the citizens of Pavia (then named Ticinum) finally surrendered to the Lombards. Alboin, however, would not live to see the day that Pavia would be the capital of the Lombards. He was assassinated in Verona after three years in Italy. This was done with the help of his own Queen Rosamund, the daughter of the fallen Gepid king Cunimund, as revenge for the death of her father. Rosamund fled with the king’s assassin Helmichis (who also happened to be her lover) and Alboin’s daughter by his first wife to Ravenna where they were welcomed by Longinus, the Byzantine ruler of the city. (Rosamund and Helmichis were later found dead in Ravenna after an apparent murder-suicide. Before their death, Longinus offered to marry Rosamund if she would get rid of Helmichis and she agreed to this plot. She offered a poisoned drink to Hemlichis, but her new husband figured out her plan and forced her to drink the poison before killing himself.)
The Lombard dukes voted Cleph as the king in 572 AD to succeed Alboin, but he died two years later, and the Dukes did not replace him with another king. Instead, the lands which the Lombards wrested from the Byzantines were divided into duchies and Pavia, now the capital of the Lombards was held by a duke named Zaban. The Dukes would not elect a king until ten years later and by 620 AD, Pavia was the capital of Lombardy as well as its most powerful city.
