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• King allocated proceeds of war through a network of personalised, privatised relationships of dependence that replaced public agencies if control and exploitation expand or die with externa flows needed grant out bits of fisc, inherently weak and unstable and different from Roman world, 840-77 C the B doomed to faiure, lacked institutional means to extract wealth, no longer lead successful plundering raids, nor keep aristos happy with share outs.
• BUT

  range of things could be tapped in the economy polyptychs gradually

  rising population in the 9^th century seems workable
• Manorial

  system evidence of in C the B’s heartland surpluses etc need to be sold,

  and thus need for market implied.
• Cash

  prevalent, some labour enterprise from peasants, productivity and

  population grow implies economic growth., cash, markets and coinage.
• Charles

  the Bald taxed more than his L the P or C King impinging on the economy

  in a new way, raise money for Viking defences, 877 tax in peasants favour

  public exactions on economy at large, peasant economy able to sustain

  this.
• Charles

  exploited Church wealth in a scale greater that his predecessors needed

  church prepared to put money where its mouth was back state institutions

  best way of defending ecclesiastical interests. Churches administrative structures extensive infrastructure

  that King could tap into to.
• Own

  communication network, utilised old Roman roads staging posts etc, granted

  25 charters authorising markets gain extra revenue, easier to tax he

  taxed even the small traders in 860 at threat of Vikings houses, all

  their stock valued and on that basis a rate was assessed and required.
• Coinage

  rates increase 100 mints, millions of coins, not debased at previously

  50% purity, but up to 90% - total output seems to have increased in the

  course of the reign larger proportion of half pennies after 864. Monasteries needed coinage permits in

  865 Bishop of Chalons sur Marne to set up a mint short of coin peasants

  relied on monasteries spending- in issuing coinage large scale Charles

  meeting widely felt needs of the private interests.
• Benefits

  King as well, King of course owns large amounts of land and it benefits

  him to exact rents etc, extraction tools, benefits from the conversion of

  other currencies as Charles coins accepted throughout the realm see very

  little foreign coinage in Francia Scandinavia plenty of international

  coins, trade existed King made money
• 864

  renovatio monetate debasement and lack of confidence as main reasons

  not for tribute paying as little tribute paying made between 866 and 876

  and why mint pennies? Certainly

  effective as coin finds show not debased.
• Circulation

  within and between Neustria, Burgundy and Francia not so much in

  Aquitaine
• Recoinage

  massive realm wide form of taxation peasants pay him more easily,

  recoinage, like the moneyer, gave the King a cut of the proceeds

  evidence for high quality currency 864 to 877 suggest recoinage a success.
• Revalued

  currency remarkable demonstration of political will and effectively

  generated user confidence
• Do

  with money? Father and grandfather

  large-scale construction projects cash for Compiegne building

  programme. Needed cash to pay

  warriors, even Vikings, for defensive wars as these did not appeal to

  Frankish nobles
• Novelty

  of Charles freedom of manoeuvre much broader diffusion of entrepots

  not just Charlemagne’s funnelling of trade through Dorestad spent time

  in civitates increased economic activity in this area.
• Impact

  of the Vikings used great rivers to penetrate deep into Charles’

  kingdoms did Vikings systematic destruction” or market-men stimulants

  of social movement, releasers hoarded wealth, agents and prime moves of

  economic growth this period It was the best of times, it was the worst

  of times…”
• Peasant

  migration, as shown by Edict of Pitres ordered peasants who had fled the

  Vikings should not be oppressed by Counts in new kingdoms where ands

  lost by churchmen as in Aqutaine main beneficiaries seem to be the local

  aristocracy.
• Vikings

  not too much different to the Franks in economic terms even when Franks

  living off land expensive Vikings provided a market but also a threat.
• All

  the above points specific to north-east Francia east of Rhine, in

  kingdom Louis the German no mints much less evidence for markets and

  traders why different West Francia can it be Charles the Bald? Causes of increased monetary use and

  commercial acitivt out of his control, he knew where and how wealth was

  being generated intent on exploiting that wealth systematically

  renovitio monetae does not just happen conceived off and then planned

 

CONTEXT OF POLITICS

·       

Nilthard saw good relationships between Kings

Charlemagne and Charles and nobility good faith hallmark of nobility and

displayed most clearly in fidelity to your King. Horizontally, nobles shared values as well as status.

·       

Individual interests of nobility: benefices should be

distributed justly, also a collective interest should rein in aggression of

warriors, especially of young men, punish crime, court a place of peace,

inhibit oppositin within the realm, fair in patronage to forestall defection

·       

Hincmar depicts palace Government of the Palace

emphasises role of the entire family compare treatment of women by

Charlemagne and Charles the B, an apparatus efficiently designed and maintained

keep young nobility happy and loyal.

·       

Assemblies held the realm together in two main ways

sociological vertical way, gaining consent of minores

·       

C the B open with the minroes, listening to grievances

is this consensus politics King uses assemblies, like regional distribution

of people at court, to defuse trouble in the regions rumblings of discontent,

complaints, injustices were to be dealt with before they escalated into

rebellion.

·       

Modern secondary literature refers to aristocracy in in

C the B’s reign as greedy, boorish, incapable of sharing higher aspirations of

king or clergy, Michael Wallace-Hadrill repulsively realistic. hairy nobleman”

blame on collapse Carolingian state on nobility, too peaceful at church and

don’t fight

·       

Dhuoda, Nilthard and Hincmar saw Chalres as able and

willing to control nobility Pop Gregory the Great taming the wild unicorn.

·       

How did the King administer? Regional differences,

incorporating the aristocracy

·       

Charles the Bald’s predecessors was to look after royal

estates and royal incomes, second to lead vassi or benefice holders from within

the county, third he exercised jurisdiction over pagenses men of the poagus

or county, county assemblies existed

·       

Charlemagne complained of counts helping themselves

with too frequent assemblies. Missi

continued under Charles the Bald

·       

If Charles the Bald profited from increased resources

generated by ninth century economy so did the power of the aristocracy at expense

of royal power? Montesquieu says yes

Charles the Bald’s institutionalisation of hereditary countships in 877 as

clinching the case. tendency to do this before C the B inherent in a social

organisation where power and property in general inherited. Did King have any choice in appointing a

count or missu kinsmen or an outsider Charles did intevrne in politically

and militarily important regions.

·       

Dhondt C the B remains the villain of the piece

archsquanderer of the fisc allowed amassing of countships by great regional

magnates good point ancestors great houses 12^th century found

among recipients Charles’ favour.

Breaks in the line however Robert the Storng two sons disinherited,

yes form Capetians but only recover Neustrian honroes after C the B’s death

certainoy important individuals in C the B’s time, did not concert action with

groups of kinsmen.

·       

Mobilty kin group large king can’t support them all,

competing regna in differing regnum, no time to put down territorial roots. Kongisnahe King’s itinerary varied

footloose quality of potentes belies Dhondt’s tidy territorial model.

·       

As with royal predecessors dispositions of honroes and

patronage, above or outside regional aristoc or with powerful local families

crucial instruments of royal power in the regions.

·       

Contingents arranged by the church formed large part of

Carolingian army Hincmar proud to have done this.

·       

Archbishops, abbots exerting large amount of local

power Rheims, Rouen, Sens Bourges Archbishops assume function of greater

countships” could King appoint in these positions> - YES.

·       

Charlemagne limited benfices to counts to stop too much

power greedy eye but such mediatisation not occur until after C the B’s

death.

·       

Charles the Bald not totally adverse to violence

leaves a trail of destruction in marches wake.

·       

Episcopal sees were filled by royal appointment C the

B did this effectively throughout his reign lay abbacies deployed by Charles

with a new frequency regular abbot ran the community’s liturgical work and

day-to-day upkeep from the inside outside lay aristocratic managed lands,

divisions King secures political and military service without loss of fisc,

also strictly a life-tenant so not hereditary problems - contribute significantly to maintenance of

royal poweer Se. Denis 867 Charles himself abbot.

·        Prime concern I that of the aristocratic elite

·       

Church had an institutional existence the frail

aqudecut” across which late Roman administrative practice, with its

geographical divisions into provinces and dioceses passed to early medieval

successor states Charlemagne and Louis the Pious and counsellors had

strengthened the authority of archbishops, promoted regular meetings of

councils continued with C the B

·       

Pseudo Isidorean

- great collection canonical law only could have occurred in western

part of the empire western part Charlemagne’s empire particular comination of

conditions, persisting Roman administrative and legal practices, well-organised

provincial churches, long christianised local elites favours storng corporate

awareness and activity on part of church men own corporate self-consciousness

and distinctive goals Charles the Bald did not simply exploit the church

within his kingdom, he had to work with not against the ecclesiastical grain

he himself educated by church men, shared ideals and aims.

·       

Charles the Bald, in West Francia more than anywhere

else, responded to Papacy’s pleas for help, and also aggressively o where he

saw as Papal interference

·       

Ramshackle state still existed in 9^th

century capable of being operated by a skilful king

·       

Court society not where nobility bought to heel,

elite world where shared poltical convention political conflict contained,

and consensus reformed and re-enacted personal relationships counted for

great deal more than structures Konigsnahe fallen had little hope for

unless he could find an alternative royal patron.

·       

Conflict between royal kin rivalry virtually

inescapable Charlemagne lucky as his own brother died early 771 owns sins

one rebelled incarcerated others fiven own kingdom

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