The Age of Charlemagne, Essay Example

Weber points out that the production of iron is the reason why Northern Europe was more powerful than Southern Europe.  The Carolingian Empire ruled by Charlemagne’s father and then by him, is also a significant reason as he ruled from Northern Europe and expanded the power of the church through money from iron production. The benefit iron production had for Northern Europe was that it enhanced military power which allowed the Carolingians to orchestrate strategic attacks on other regions, through raids and invasions. Following the death of Charlemagne, the Carolingian Empire was divided among Charlemagne’s sons, but they were incompetent. They began to fight each other and when this happened their empire was sacked periodically by Scandinavian Vikings, Hungarians, and the Saracens Muslim Arabs took power it marked the end of the Carolingian Empire. In the end local leaders who maintained a little order and organized resistance  Erd was the count of Paris, Rolo in Normandy, and Henry the Duke of Saxony and his son Auto,  gained power after the fall of the Carolingian Empire.

The main problems Charlemagne identifies in his letter is the problem of writing letters, specifically having an illiterate population. “Now since we are very desirous that the condition of our churches should constantly improve, we are endeavoring by diligent study to restore the knowledge of letters which has been almost lost through the negligence of our ancestors, and by our example we are encouraging those who are able to do so to engage in the study of the liberal arts (Sherman & Salisbury, 221).”The steps did he take to correct these problems?

Charlemagne goes on in his letter to note that he has made corrections to the bible “In this undertaking we have already, with the aid of God, corrected all the books of the Old and New Testament, whose texts had been corrupted through the ignorance of copyists (Sherman & Salisbury , 221)” The textbook goes on to state that, “more-over, inspired by the example of our father, Pippin, of blessed memory, who introduced the Roman chants into the churches of his realm, we are now trying to supply the churches with good reading lessons (Sherman & Salisbury, 221).”

Paul the Deacon played a major role in these reform efforts according to Charlemagne, as he states, “Accordingly we have commanded Paul the Deacon, our beloved subject, to under- take this work; that is, to go through the writings of the fathers carefully, and to make selections of the most helpful things from them and put them together into a book, as one gathers occasional ?owers from a broad meadow to make a bouquet (Sherman & Salisbury, 221).” The developments that stemmed from these reforms was an expansion of the documented recognition of power held by Charlemagne. His empire reached from areas in Northern Spain to the North Sea, to the English Channel, stretching into parts of Germany (Sherman & Salisbury, 216).

Based upon The Abbasid Caliphate and Charlemagne (textbook) Explain:

When one addressing the question why and how the empire of Charlemagne disintegrated despite the fact that it was so powerful, the textbooks points out that “To the sophisticated Muslims, Charlemagne must have ranked among the minor rulers who exchanged goods with Harun al-Raschid, whose name means “the well guided (Sherman & Salisbury, 220).” This demonstrated that he had foresight in trade and economic expansion. The text goes on to note that the ?nal disintegration of Charlemagne’s empire took place after Louis’ death, when his kingdom was divided among his surviving three sons: Charles the Bald (r. 843–877), Lothair I (r. 840–855), and Louis the German (r. 843–876) ( Sherman & Salisbury,223).” History goes on to show that his children later fail at maintaining his legacy or sustaining the empire, due to fighting amongst each other.