Culture

Friends with benefits

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No, not those friends with benefits. We’re talking about real benefits: the right to power and land. The granting of those rights formed the backbone of the Frankish economic, political, and social worlds.

The Germanic tribes, of which the Franks were one, had a custom in which war band leaders granted their faithful followers land or gold, both to reward them and to bind them to the leader in the future. By the 6th and 7th century this custom was practiced on a greater scale.1.Stephenson, Mediaeval Feudalism, pp.2 – 6. The essential elements remained the same: a man pledged himself to his lord (fealty and homage), and the lord in turn granted his new man something material in return, as well as the promise of protection.

By the 8th century under this tradition the king (or the mayors of the palace, acting in the king’s name) would grant usage of something valuable to one of his loyal followers. This grant, known as a benefice,2.From the Latin beneficium, a noun meaning a benefit. was made for, and in expectation of, past and future service to the king. The benefice could be fishing rights, a toll, an administrative office, or land.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Stephenson, Mediaeval Feudalism, pp.2 – 6.
↑2 From the Latin beneficium, a noun meaning a benefit.

Summary of the Carolingian arts

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Art, and the talk about art, reflect the culture that produces it. This was as true for the Carolingians as it is for us today.

This particular post won’t be going into all the arguments about the relative merits of the Hiberno-Anglo school of manuscript production compared to the Carolingian court school. That is for a later day. This post will be a simple summary of the types of art produced in the 8th century, and a few words about them.

First of all, as with all things early medieval, there is not a lot to work with. Most anything made of wood or cloth has not survived, which means we are missing out on those items which are cheapest and most easy to produce. Anything easy to produce would probably have reflected views not always sanctioned by the abbots, counts, and kings of the day. Thus the art we have reflects an elite or official view of the world, but it is what we have.

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What’s for dinner?

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Food is central to the daily life of everyone who has ever lived, and the Carolingians were no exception. What did they have available to eat? What was on the menu of a peasant, or a lord?

For this post I will rely heavily on secondary sources, as the primary sources simply don’t touch on food that much. Discerning patterns in food production and consumption requires a survey of historical and archaeological sources that span centuries and frontiers, and then coming up with inferences and suppositions based on experience and scholarship. I will leave that to the experts. But let’s see what they have to say.

Let’s start with what was available. The age of the hunter-gatherer had passed, and the populace lived a settled, agricultural life. Cultivated grains included wheat, barley, rye, and oats. While wheat produced more seed per plant, it was not as hardy as some of the others.1.Pearson, Early Medieval Diet, p.4. Growers of the time thought in terms of two types of vegetables. Legumina, or legumes, grew in the fields, and included beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas, and others. Olera, or roots, grew in a garden, and included leeks, garlic, carrots, onions, etc.2.Riche, Daily Life, p.173.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Pearson, Early Medieval Diet, p.4.
↑2 Riche, Daily Life, p.173.

Was Aeneas Charlemagne’s ancestor?

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“Let us set out the beginnings of the kings of the Franks and their origin and also the origins of the people and its deeds.”1.Liber Historiae Francorum, ch. 1.

Thus opens the Liber Historiae Francorum, one of the early medieval sources that relate an origin tale about how the people to be recounted came to their place in the world, and who their original ancestors were. I have found a half-dozen sources from the early medieval era that describe such origin stories. These stories come in two flavors: the first is a straight forward telling that usually starts with some sort of biblical, old testament epitome, continues with the Roman Empire, and then fits in the particular tribe or people.

This first model includes Gregory of Tours, who wrote in the sixth century. The first book of his History of the Franks is all distant history, beginning with the creation of the world. He paraphrases much of the genealogy of the Old Testament, then moves smoothly to the Roman emperors.2.Gregory of Tours, bk. 1. Gregory is usually a “just the facts” kind of writer; he doesn’t even include that fascinating story that Merovech, first king of the Merovingians, was fathered by a sea monster! So disappointing. Although he does include some other juicy tidbits.

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Footnotes

God wants us to kill Saxons

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The hand of God appears with remarkable frequency in the Royal Frankish Annals. In battle after battle the annalist notes that a battle was won “by the hand of God,” or “by God’s help.” (Oddly, these invocations don’t begin until Charlemagne assumes the throne. Didn’t God smile upon his father Pepin?). But the Saxon wars seem to have inspired God with particularly manifest miracles of aid.

The streams had all dried up during the hot summer in 772, when Charlemagne destroyed the Irminsul. But the job of destruction was not yet completed. What to do?

And there was a great drought, so that no water was to be had in the above-said place where the Irminsul stood. And while the aforesaid glorious king wanted to stay there for two or three days in order to destroy the sanctuary completely, but his men had no water, suddenly, by the bounty of divine grace, there poured forth along a particular watercourse – this was at midday, while the whole army was resting; no one knew what was happening – such an abundance of water that the whole army had sufficient.1.RFA, 772.

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Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 RFA, 772.