Italian History - timeline

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CHARLEMAGNE'S LOMBARDIA

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGIAN LOMBARDIA

789

789-90 Istria and Trieste - The Frankish lord Hunroch I of Friuli gives the Avar raiders chase and in the process captures the Byzantine territories of Istria and Trieste. They are both annexed into the Frankish kingdom. Istria is placed under a Count John of Istria, while Bishop Fortunatus of Trieste is granted temporal powers over his city and its immediate surroundings. To the chagrin of the local Latin-speaking population, the Franks proceed to repopulate the peninsula with Slavic colonists.



The Lombard duke Hildeprand of Spoleto dies. He is replaced by a Frank, who ascends as Duke Winiges of Spoleto

790

Armenian mutiny An attempt by teenager Constantine VI to free himself with the help of an armed guard prompts Empress Irene to demand that everyone now swear oaths of loyalty to her alone. The Armenian guard refuses and forcibly deposes Irene from the regency and acclaims the young Emperor Constantine VI as full and sole emperor.

- Byzantine Emperor Constantine VI

790 Charlemagne "authors" (with the help of Alcuin of York and Paulinus of Aquileia) the Capitulare adversus synodum, where he criticizes the Second Council of Nicea - criticizing Irene's right to call it since she was a woman; Tarasius’s sudden elevation from layman to patriarch; the council’s use of past conciliar decrees that they considered irrelevant; and the decision made in favor of the veneration of images, since nowhere in the Bible is the veneration commanded. He caps it off by criticizing the portions of Adrian’s synodica of 785. Charlemagne's effort is dismissed by Pope Adrian I. (See "Aside: Charlemagne's Theology")

790 - The Frankish subjugation of the Saxon uprising does not dissuade the Danes from dispatching auxiliaries to help the remaining Saxon rebels. Although the Franks set up a Danish march (around Holstein) to stem their landward incursions, the Danes use their sea power to sidestep it, landing expeditionary forces among their Frisian cousins and come up behind the Frankish rear. To prevent the landings, Charlemagne orders the invasion of Frisia. It is a swift affair.

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGIAN LOMBARDIA

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGIAN LOMBARDIA

791 - Avar Wars - The abortive Avar raid awakened Charles to the danger next door. Seeking to put an end to threats from that quarter, Franks launch an invasion of the Avar khanate. The Franks launch a two-pronged attack, Pepin with an Italian force and Charlemagne with a German one from Ems, into Avar territory. Pepin defeats the Avars in a pitched battle in August. Charlemagne goes on a scorched earth campaign of forty days through Pannonia, which he is only forced to break up when his horses give out and upon news of a coup back in Aachen.



792

Hungry Hungary - A bad drought brings on a famine in the Pannonian plains and dries up the grass and brings on pestilence. The scorched earth campaign fought on both sides doesn't help things. The Franks resume their two campaigns and seize much land until the famine forces them to turn back too. Avars revolt against their rulers, blaming the famine & Frankish humiliations on them. The campaign will be suspended for the next three years.

At exactly this time, with the bulk of his army in Avaria, Charles's eldest son, Pepin the Hunchback (not to be confused with his half-brother, Pepin of Italy), is persuaded into a pathetic conspiracy of high Frankish nobles to depose Charles. Charles catches wind of this and has Pepin disinherited, shorn and confined to a monastery.

On the theological front, Charlemagne reiterates his condemnation of the Council of Nicea with his Liber Carolini. That same year, he convenes the Ecclesiastical Council of Regensburg to condemn the adoptionist doctrine of the Archbishop of Toledo and Bishop Felix of Urgel.

[Note: Wary of Frankish control of the Catholic Church, the Spanish Kings of Asturias had been promoting this doctrine in order to "distinguish" the Spanish church from Frankish influence. 'Adoptionist' doctrine asserted that Christ was a man "adopted' by God - thus a variation of the old Arian heresy about different 'substances'.]

July, 792 Byzantine-Bulgar War Emperor Constantine VI declares war on the Bulgars and takes his army to the frontier. The Byzantines are crushingly defeated by a Bulgar army under Khan Kardam at the Battle of Marcellae. Byzantines sue for peace. Kardam demands an annual tribute in gold plus the restoration of Irene as empress. Overruling the opposition of his Francophobic confederates, Constantine VI releases and restores Irene as co-empress, giving her many of her old powers back. He also puts down a rebellion by his brother Nicephoros, and has him banished to a monastery.

August, 792 Charlmagne grants a charter confirming the privileges to Patriarch Paulinus II of Aquileia and partitioning the region of Friuli, Slovenia, Carinthia, etc. under the separate supervisory authorities of the the Partiarch of Aquileia and the Count of Friuli.

792-3 - Abetted by local Frankish lords, Gerona and other critical border counties on the Spanish Pyrenees defect to the Franks, while the Arab nobles of Zaragoza rise up against the Umayyads once again. Alarmed, the Umayyad army rushes up to subjugate the rebellion, then crosses over the Pyrenees to raid Septimania and kill its Frankish march-count.

793

Capitulare de Villis issued by Charlemagne detailing royal administration and intended to provide administrative order in the Frankish realm. (See aside on "Capitularies")



793 Viking Era begins. The first recorded raid on the Lindisfarne monastery in Northumbria, Britain.

- guess who?

[Khalid ibn Walid]

ASIDE: CHARLEMAGNE'S THEOLOGY

Charlemagne's Theology - Even while only a Frankish king, Charles envied the power of the Byzantine Emperor over the Greek church and sought to exert a similar influence over the Latin one. He firmly believed that he had the right to tell the Pope what Church dogma ought to be. In the 790s, Charles became particularly energetic about doing so.

With the help of Alcuin of Tours and Paulinus II of Aquileia, Charles wrote several tracts weighing in on theological matters like iconoclasm (he condemned image-worship, but also image-breaking), the adoptionist doctrines of Felix of Urgel (firmly against it) and the Nicene creed (insisted on the 'filioque'). Charles assembled ecclesiastical councils and synods on his own initiative which issued decrees on his authority.

Charles did not shy away from openly and directly accusing the Pope of error -- the Pope was expected to align himself to Charles's positions, not the other way around. On certain matters (e.g. adoptionism), the Pope conceded, but on others (e.g. iconoclasm), he held his ground.

In truth,the details of the disputes actually mattered very little. It was a trial of wills between King and Pope, a test to determine whom was ultimately the servant of whom.

[Khalid ibn Walid]

ASIDE: CHARLEMAGNE'S CAPITULARIES

793 - Capitularies The Capitulary de Villis (793) issued by Charles on royal administrationis merely one in a series of Carolingian documents intended to provide administrative order in the Frankish realm (some 65 capitularies, containing 1151 articles, were introduced during his reign).

- Charlemagne promulgating a 'capitulary'.

- Charlemagne's signature

Palaces

At the heart of the royal administration is the 'palatium' (palace court), several of which were set up throughout the realm, the most important of which is Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle in French, Aquisgrana in Italian), built in a hot springs spa by Pepin in the 760s. Other Frankish palaces include Quierzy, Ingelheim, Diedenhofen, Heristal, Ponthion, Nymwegen, Attigny, etc.


- Charlemagne's palace at Aachen
Charlemagne's throne (Aachen) (side view
Charlemagne's palatine chapel


- Map of Francia, showing location of the main royal palaces, archbishoprice and abbeys

Each palace is routinely attended by the landed counts and bishops of the region. The king and his itinerant retinue travels from palace to palace, collecting reports and dispensing instructions.

Each palace court has a permanent staff of royal officers, including:
- "count-palatine" (in charge of judicial matters),
- "grand chaplain" (head of the palace chapel, in charge of clerical matters),
- "chancellor" (head of notaries and clerks, keeper of the seals, often dependent on the grand chaplain)
- "chamberlain" (in charge of the king's treasury, assisted by a stable of accountants ('sacelliairi', 'fisci'))
- "seneschal"' (in charge of provisioning the palace court and servants ('domestici')),
- "constable" ( head of the palace's military, assisted by 'marshalls')

Charlemagne and a seneschal

Counties
.
The realm itself is divided into over two hundred counties, each under the joint jurisdiction of a count (charged with civil, judicial and military authority) and a bishop (responsible for spiritual affairs). Both count and bishop are appointed by the king. (Note that the extent of their jurisdiction is the same, just their jobs differ.

The counties are visited four times a year by 'missi dominici' (royal emissaries, usually another roving count-bishop pair), empowered to review their judgments and activities, receive any complaints and remedy any wrong-doing.

- missi dominici

Underneath the count & bishop are the centenari and vicars, assigned to every hundred-family district. Three times a year, assisted by a jury of freemen of the district and trained judges ('scabini') dispatched by the count, the centenarius holds a court day to judge all cases presented before him. Those cases that might involve the loss of life, liberty and property of the accused above a certain threshold are kicked upstairs to the count's own court-day.

A viscount wasn't a territorial lord yet, but a temporary count appoiunted when the actual count was absent or at war.

Marches

Charlemagne never trusted anyone with more than a county and did his utmost to get rid of the old German and Lombard dukes. The only exceptions were the march-counts ('margraves', 'marquises'), special regional lords instituted by Charles to oversee multiple frontier counties (a "March") and organize its defenses and support missionary work among foreign tribes. Carolingian marches include:

- Breton March (c.753), straddling Rennes, Nantes & Vannes, to contain & supervise the Celts of Brittany. Legendary paladin Roland (Orlando) was a margrave here.
- March of Gothia (c.759), Narbonne/Septimania, to contain Gascons from west and Spaniards from south. In 795, reorganized and elevated as a supermarch covering the Gascon and Spanish marches.
- Gascon March (c.782), originally the ring of Toulouse, Bordeux and Ferenszac, to contain and supervise the Basques/Gascons after the debacle at Roncesvalles. Later the name for the march covering western Pyrenees (Navarre, Sobarbe, Ribaguerza, etc.)
- Carantanian March (786) - covering Carantanian and southern Slavs (Croats, Slovenes).
- Avar March (796), originally an eastern bulwark against the Avars. Later expanded into Hungary itself.
- Spanish March (c.802), over the Catalonian counties (Barcelona, Gerona, Urgell, etc.) as a bulwark against the Spanish Moors.
- March of Friuli (803), new eastern bulwark complex composed of Friuli, Istria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Dalmatia.
- Saxon march (to contain saxons, evolved into Duchy of Saxony, covering Engern, Westfalia, Eastfalia and Northalbingia).
- Danish march (border against Danes, from which the name "Denmark" evolved).
- Sorb march (Elbe borderland against Slavic Sorbs)

Wary that powerful march-counts may turn against him someday, Charlemagne took the precaution of erecting regional sub-kingdoms to more closely supervise the powerful march-lords. The sub-kingdoms of Aquitaine, Italy and Bavaria were resurrected for that reason and invested in his own sons.

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGIAN LOMBARDIA

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGIAN LOMBARDIA


794

Synod of Frankfurt assembled by Charlemagne goes all out in the condemnation of the Council of Nicea, demands that the 'filioque' be inserted into the Christian creed and condemns adoptionism again.

Crisis of '94 Poor harvests and the exigencies of the Avar wars drove up the prices of foodstuffs and other necessities. Riots erupted in Frankish towns. Suspected of deliberate profiteering, merchants were assaulted by mobs and their stores raided. Seeking to restore public order and curb inflation, Charlemagne issued a capitulary setting maximum prices that could be charged on grain and other essential goods. Predictably, shortages immediately emerged, but the system of price controls was to remain a feature of Carolingian economy.

c.794 - Independence of Benevento - Grimoald III of Benevento takes up the title of "Prince" again, marries a niece of Emperor Constantine VI and goes openly into rebellion when he requests money and the title of "king" from his new in-laws. At the demand of the Pope, Charlemagne sends an army to bring the Beneventine pretender to heel, but the campaign fails. Benevento will continues as an independent Lombard principality.

- Benevento

- Grimoald III, Prince of Benevento

795

795 Emperor Constantine VI divorces his wife Maria in order to marry his concubine Theodota. Eastern bishops howl in protest. One of them, Theodore Studitas, is banished as a result.

Wary of the early Roncesvalles debacle, Charlemagne nonetheless orders a retaliatory raid on Spain, recovering the defecting Pyrenees counties from the Umayyads and reorganizes the March of Gothia (Septimania) to extend power over them. He appoints Count William I of Toulouse as its marquis.

- Septimania (Gothia, Languedoc)

December, 795 Death of Pope Adrian I, Charlemagne's estwhile ally. Election of Pope Leo III. Raised in the traditions of the Roman clergy, and not an aristocrat.

- Pope Leo III

796

Avar Wars renewed - With Avar state collapsing into civil war, Pepin of Lombardia renews the effort and leads a Frankish-Slavic army into the Avar state. The Bulgar Khan Khardam, who has a lull in his own war against Byzantium, decides to join in the fun. The Bulgars strike up an alliance with the Franks and attack the Avars from the south.

By the summer, Pepin captures Ring, the fortified camp that serves as the capital of the Avar khanate. Immense booty from the centuries of Avar raids is carted back to Francia. Avar power is permanently broken. Their borderland Slavic subject tribes, liberated from the Avar yoke, come under Frankish protection and are reorganized into the Avar March.

In the meantime, the Bulgars take the tribes of the south, greatly expanding their territory, leaving only a tiny rump Avar state in lingering in the center.

Council of Aquileia convened by Charlemagne's ally Paulinus II of Aquileia reaffirms the Carolingian theoleogical positions. The demand for the preservation of the 'filioque' in the creed steps up.

Simultaneously, Charlemagne convenes the Council of Frankfurt to condemn the Spanish 'adoptionist' heresy.

Around this time, the Archbishopric of Salzburg is raised and charged with converting the new eastern Slavic dominions. Aquileia howls in protest, claiming it should have authority there.

796 Under pressure from outraged bishops, Patriarch Tarasius of Constantinople condemns Emperor Constantine VI's divorce, but refuses to excommunicate him. However, he agrees to excommunicate the priest who performed the marriage. Constantine VI's angrily demands the reinstatement of the priest. When that is resisted, he launches a crackdown on the high clergy. Frightened bishops turn to his mother, the dowager-Empress Irene.

797

July, 797 Irene's Coup. Intriguing with courtiers and bishops alienated by the Emperor Constantine VIs divorce, his mother, the Byzantine dowager-empress Irene overthrows her son, and takes power on her own account. Constantine VI is mutilated and will eventually die of his wounds.

798

Bowing to Charlemagne's pressure, Pope Leo III condemns adoptionism, risking a schism with the Spanish church.

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGIAN LOMBARDIA

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGIAN LOMBARDIA

799

April - Pope Leo III is ambushed and mutilated by a party of Roman high officials connected with the previous papacy. But, with the help of the Duke Winiges of Spoleto, Leo manages to escape and flees to Charles's court in Paderborn. The Pope begs the Franks to escort him back to Rome and punish his assailants, but the Roman party has also dispatched an embassy to Paderborn and presented their case, levying serious charges of misconduct and corruption against the pope.

As Roman 'Patricius', Charles has the authority to adjudicate this dispute. The accusations against Pope Leo III are probably true, but the sponsorship of a persecuted pope can be most useful for an ambitious Frankish king. Under a royal escort led by the German prelates of Cologne and Salzburg, Pope Leo III returns to Rome by the end of the year.

Invasion of Croatia - The Frankish-Bulgarian lunge into the Avar khanate naturally alarmed the Byzantines, who prodded their Croatian allies into launching raids against the Frankish positions. In one raid, the Croatians ambush and kill the Frankish count Eric of Friuli. Charles orders the Franks to launch a full-scale punitive mission. It is a swift affair, their armies overwhelmed, the Croatians sue for peace and offer tribute and allegiance to the Frankish monarch. Frankish authority now stretches down the coast of Dalmatia.

800

Aghlabid Emirate of Ifriqiya After a half-century of chaos, the Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad give up trying to impose control over the province of Ifriqiya (North Africa west of Egypt). A local strongman, Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab, is allowed to rule as an independent Emir of Ifriqiya, only nominally suzerain to the Caliph. But the Aghlabids themselves , centered at Qairouan (Tunisia), are unable to reassert control over their anarchic hinterlands and their far-flung sub-provinces of Morroco and western Algeria spin away under other dynasties. The Aghlabids, largely limited to the coasts of Tunisia, turn towards the sea as their stomping ground, building up a formidable naval arsenal at Tunis and eyeing Sicily and other Byzantine holdings in the Mediterranean.

December, 800 EMPEROR CHARLEMAGNE After a Mayfield at Mainz, Charlemagne goes on his fourth trip to Rome, ostensibly to adjudicate the dispute between Pope Leo III and his accusers. Arriving in December, he assembles the bishops, who are reluctant to pass judgment. Charles himself disposes of the matter in favor of the Pope.

December 25, 800 Emperor of the West Charles makes his way to Christmas mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, dressed in the robes of a Roman 'Patricius'. During the services, as he rises from prayer, Pope Leo III places an imperial crown on Charles's head and the hails him 'Augustus', Emperor of the Romans. The people assembled in the basilica joined in the acclamation.

But Charlemagne has his own reservations about the surprise coronation. By receiving the crown by the hand of the Pope, is he 'Emperor' by the grace of the Pope, or in his own right? Charlemagne would have preferred a ceremony that emphasized his own achievements and affirmed his supremacy over the Latin Church (see aside on "Charlemagne's Theology"). But the Pope's pre-emptive coronation strike leaves the relative status of Emperor and Pope ambiguous.

Needless to say, the elevation doesn't bode well for his relations with the Byzantines. But Empress Irene, hoping to secure his support to hold on to her throne, makes the sudden offer of marriage to the recently-widowed Charlemagne, a union which would bring the two Empires back together!

- Charlemagne's coronation as Roman Emperor.

Charlemagne's coronation surprise (fresco in Aachen Rathaus)

801

Charlemagne's Diplomacy - Charlemagne's conquest of Lombardia, sponsorship of the Papal States and claims to Emperorship naturally put the Franks completely at odds with the Byzantine Empire (the brief romance with Irene notwithstanding). Around the Frankish-Greek rivalry, two natural international alliances formed, uniting the Franks, the Papal States, the Bulgars and the Abbasid Caliphate against the Byzantines, Benevento, the Avars and Umayyad Emirate in Spain, and we find them frequently swapping ambassadors and cooperating with each other.

Abbasid-Frankish relations had been good already since the time of Pepin, as the Umayyad Emirate in Spain naturally drew them together against a common enemy. Ambassadors were swapped and Frankish campaigns against Umayyad Spain were frequently urged and sometimes bankrolled by Baghdad.

The Abbasid Caliphs sent numerous exotic gifts to the Frankish monarchs, the most famous of which were a water-clock and, in 801, a white elephant (the first seen in Europe since Hannibal; it caused quite a stir in Italian cities as it made its way to Paderborn).

Abbasid ambassors in Charlemagne's court
Frankish ambassadors in Harun al-Rashid's court
Charlemagne contemplating the elephant of Harun al-Rashid

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGIAN LOMBARDIA

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGIAN LOMBARDIA

801

Capitolare Italicum issued by Charlemagne in Pavia, dismantling what remained of Lombard ducal structures and reorganizing the Lombard kingdom into a Frankish system of counts, bishops and missi. (See aside on "Carolingian Capitularies")

Conquest of Catalonia - In retaliation for yet another Umayyad attempt to retake Gerona, Charlemagne orders his son Louis the Pious of Aquitaine to lead a punitive attack (jointly with the capable Marquis William 'Small-Nose" of Toulouse-Septimania and allied Pyrennean lords). The Franks recover Gerona and capture Barcelona.

Charlemagne formally organizes the Spanish March, a collection of counties, nominally attached to the March of Gothia. The Gothic Count Bera of Roussillon is made the first count of Barcelona and marquis of Spain.



802

Constantinople is up in arms at the prospective offer by Empress Irene to marry Emperor Charlemagne and unite the two empires. Empress Irene is deposed by a Greek nationalist party of patricians and eunuchs who install her financial minister as Byzantine Emperor Nicephoros I who promises to pursue a more aggressive policy against the Franks, Bulgars and Arabs.

- Byzantine Emperor Nicephoros I

Nervous of his new position as Emperor, Charlemagne decides to demand yet another personal oath of fealty from all the free men of the realm. Diplomatic efforts also seal an alliance with the Abbasid Caliphate. (See aside on Carolingian Diplomacy)

Carolingian Coinage 798-802 marks the period when Charlemagne overhauled the coinage and weights into a unified "L.s.d" system of 1 libra (lira) = 20 solidus (soldo) = 240 denarius (denario). Only the 1 silver denarius coin will be actually minted through the Frankish empire (and for many centuries afterwards).
(See aside on "Carolingian coinage")

803 -

Pax Nicephori (Part 1) - Seeking a new war against the Abbasids to recover Irene's losses, but wary of Charlemagne's alliance with Baghdad, Emperor Nicephoros I negotiates a non-aggression pact with the Franks. Charlemagne recognizes Byzantium's authority over Venice and Dalmatia. The treaty does not recognize Charlemagne's imperial title, but at least promises that Byzantine intrigues and interference in Italy will cease.

March of Friuli - Charlemagne creates the Marcha Austriae Italiae, an eastern bulwark complex composed of Friuli, Istria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Dalmatia. He appoints Count Cadalaus of Friuli as marquis over the whole complex. The Patriarch of Aquileia is put in charge of the spiritual missions.

- Friuli

803 - Venetian Civil War - In Venice, the Galbaio doges and the pro-Byzantine faction of Heraclea have been having trouble with a nascent pro-Frankish faction led by the Patriarch of Grado and the Venetian clergy, who are pressing for a switch of Venetian suzerainity to Charlemagne. The old republican party of Malamocco, liking neither Frank nor Greek, presses for an independent course. All this comes to a head in 803, the Doge has the Patriarch murdered (he is thrown from his palace tower to his death) for refusing to invest a pre-Greek bishop in Olivolo. The pro-Frankish party, under Obelerio degli Antenori, takes up arms and the Galbaois are deposed. The confederation falls into factional feuding between hellenophile, francophile and republican factions. In the process, republican militia of Malamocco destroy and raze Heraclea, the pro-Byzantine stronghold.

804

End of Saxons - In a final campaign , the Saxons are finally completely defeated at long last. The Carolingian dominions now extend to the Elbe. Erection of the Danish March to defend against incursions from Danes and Slavic Aborites.

End of Avars - A renewed Frankish-Bulgar attack ends what remains of the Avar state in Pannonia. The Avars are virtually annihilated. The Bulgarian Khanate annexes most of the Avar domains, but leaves the northern Slavs (Bohemians, Moravians, Austrians and Croatians) under Frankish rules. The last Avar khan Zhodan agrees to accept Christian baptims under the name 'Theodore' and turns into a Frankish vassal. The Avars are history.

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGINIAN LOMBARDIA

798-805 - Carolingian Coinage - Commerce in the Frankish empire was greatly impaired by differing systems of weights and coinage which complicated merchants' calculations. This confusion was natural in so large an empire, but it had been made worse by the numerous half-completed attempts to reform the monetary system in the declining days of the Roman Empire. Around 802, Emperor Charles decided to cut through the mess by imposing a new system which was to prevail uniformly throughout the empire.

Central to this was the introduction of the Carolingian 'libra' (pound), a new measure of weight equivalent to about 489.6 grams (substantially larger than the old Roman pound). From a pound of silver, Charles ordered 240 silver 'denari' (pennies) to be struck. The silver denarius was to remain the sole circulating coin of Frankish Europe for centuries to come.

- a Carolingian denarius.

To help accounting, Charles also decreed that the pound was divisible into 20 'solidi' (so 1 solidus = 12 denari). And thus began the 'L.s.d.' accounting system (L.1 = 20s. = 240d). This system was used throughout most of Europe until well into the modern era, when it was finally replaced by the simpler centennial system (L.1 = 100d.). The United Kingdom stubbornly held on to L.s.d (pounds, shillings, pence) until the 1970s.

805 - Royal Monopoly on Minting - Capping his monetary reforms, in 805, Charlemagne issued a capitulary making the minting of coinage a royal monopoly. Private mints were closed down and draconian penalties imposed on counterfeiters. Only royal mints were to produce the silver pennies ('deniers') which had, by this time, become the sole circulating coins of the realm. As the Frankish economy was increasingly organized around self-sufficient agricultural manors, commmerce with the wider world was collapsing and precious metals became extremely scarce in Francia. The few silver mines still in operation were worked to exhaustion with Saxon slave-labor.

- minter

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGIAN LOMBARDIA

805 - Heribannum - The 'ban of arms' or 'heribannum' ('heriban', from 'Heerban' or 'lords' call' in old German) refers to the general mobilization of the free men of the realm (not just the king's vassals) for service in the king's summer military campaign. Traditionally, the raising of Frankish infantry levees ('host') was undertaken by individual counts. At the king's request, they issued a general call ('ban') among the free men of the county to appear with arms and supplies at a specified location ('Marchfield'). The count would then take command of the host and deliver them to the monarch's assembly ('Mayfield'), the starting point of the king's summer campaign. Military service was typically four months, allowing the men to return to their fields in time for the autumn harvests.

- The Ban of Arms (Heribannum)

In his Great Capitulary of Diedonhofen (Thionville) issued in 805, Charles set the formal terms for the heribannum into law. The minimum property requirements for service are set at four 'manse' (the manor (pl. manse) was the standard Frankish property unit). Large free land-holders with four or more manse (or their equivalent value in other assets) are expected to equip themselves and serve personally. Small land-holders have to combine their property assets until they reach this threshold, and then equip and send one man to the host. Those with less than half a manse in assets are exempted from this combining system altogether.

Fines for failing to heed the ban are also laid down in a graduated system - ranging from five solidi to a maximum of three libra -- depending on the wealth of the truant. These fines (confusingly also called 'heribannum') were supposed to be punitive. Only in later centuries would they be regarded as acceptable payments in lieu of service.

[Khalid ibn Walid]

CAROLINGIAN LOMBARDIA