Abstract | Paper -a:
In the 9th century wars were always present to the people. To achieve peace between the different parts of medieval Francia, the ruling parts were forced to communicate with each other and with their entourage. In the Carolingian era writing was predominantly a privilege of the clergy and most of the population could neither read nor write. For that, rituals were created and used from the ruler to communicate with his people. In my work, I want to demonstrate that ritual acts appeared not only as rare events in the political life in the 9th century but that they were regularly and often used to stabilise the relationships between the members of the Carolingian family and between the ruler and his entourage, as well as to reestablish peace and maintain the stability of the Frankish empire.
Paper -b:
This paper investigates the significance of the Carolingian court's purity during times of political crisis. While other studies focus on the 9th century, this paper concentrates on the summer of 799, as Charlemagne prepared to receive Pope Leo III after Roman nobles attempted to depose him. While reading Augustine's City of God, Alcuin wrote letters interpreting this crisis as a conflict between God's city and Babylon. In Ep. 175, citing Augustine, he warned a leading courtier, Angilbert, about compromising the integrity of a household closely tied to Charlemagne's palace by patronizing actors, heightening the dangers confronting the imperium christianum.
Paper -c:
The Austrasian Letters are among the most interesting and important documents surviving from the early Middle Ages. They provide crucial evidence for relations between the eastern Roman Empire and the Frankish kingdoms, and for how people in the West thought of and with empire in the 6th century. In this paper I examine how and when they were put together, and what this tells is about contemporary archival and diplomatic theory and practice.
Paper -d:
When Pepin the Short became king of the Franks and overthrew the last Merovingian ruler, Pope Zachary was a key figure: He gave his permission to this act of revolution. The Frankish rulers that followed him had equally strong links to the bishops of Rome: To become emperors, they had to be crowned by the pope in Rome. Some sources tell us about the Frankish kings, who were invited to their own coronation. Now it is time to ask: Was an invitatio really necessary for becoming an emperor in the early Middle Ages?
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