![]() This is the setting for the Franks' bittersweet homecoming and Ganelon's trial and execution. It is the heart of Christianity and godly civilization. Whatever it refers to, France is always described as a beautiful place, fair, lush, and sweet, where the knights long to return. "France" sometimes means the land where the Franks live, but just as often it refers to Charlemagne's entire empire, including France and all the nearby lands he's conquered, like Saxony and Normandy. Geography is not this poet's strong point. ![]() For more on how 12th-century ideals make their way into the poem, head back up to "Why Should I Care?" France The Song of Roland reflects its 12th-century world just as much as its Carolingian setting. Yes, good knights fought God's enemies, but they also needed to look good at home-dress well, appreciate poetry, and woo lovely damsels. Meanwhile, in between managing statecraft and war, European courts started developing chivalric ideals. The second Crusades were kicking off as Christian Europe continued their fight for control of the Holy Land, pumping knights up with ideas of good v. By the time Turoldus wrote this poemdown, the Normans had invaded England and their Angevin successors ruled an Anglo-Norman kingdom with a different set of laws and government institutions. By that time, Charlemagne's empire had fractured into two big pieces, the Frankish kingdom (ruled by the Angevin kings, who were also rockin' the throne in England) and the remaining Holy Roman Empire (basically modern-day Germany).įriends, a lot of stuff can happen in 400 years. The action in the Song of Roland may take place in Carolingian Europe, but the Oxford manuscript was written at least 4 centuries later, between 11 C.E. On the other hand, being part of the Carolingian family meant they also reaped the benefits of the Carolingian Renaissance, a 9th- and 10th-century revival of scholarship, art, and literacy. They paid taxes and were recruited to fight in almost constant wars as the Franks continued expanding their lands. ![]() Others had to give up their own forms of government in order to adapt to Carolingian centralization. For non-Christian people, like the Saxons and the Normans, this meant immediate conversion to Christianity. Not such a shabby deal, right? But joining the Frankish Empire also meant joining the Frankish way of life. If they agreed to submit to the Franks' feudal conditions, they were allowed to keep ruling it as vassals. Most of the time they were already ruling the land when Charlemagne conquered it. These secondary rulers were called vassals. Through a system of feudal relationships, that granted local power to less-powerful kings and nobles in exchange for military service and political allegiance, Charlemagne and his Franks were able to keep control of their far-flung empire. Instead, the federal government outsources power to each state government, granting it the rights to make state laws, hire state police, form state schools, etc. had to govern every single state on their own, it would turn into the Disunited States of Chaos. Think of the Carolingian Empire as an even bigger, medieval United States. 9th-century Europe, meet the new Roman Empire.īut how did one man control so much geography? Answer: by outsourcing. of an enormous empire that stretched from the edges of Scandinavia down to Spain and Italy. In 481, when the Romans were still sputtering along, Frankish land was a dinky northern kingdom of zero interest to anyone.īut with the help of his land-conquering grandfather and father, Charlemagne was crowned emperor on Christmas Day, 800 C.E. Welcome to Carolingian Europe, folks, the next-best thing since the fall of the Roman Empire. France, Spain, Pyrenees Mountain Pass Big Picture
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