Christmas Special 2022
Transcript:
Christmas Special 2022:
I decided not to make all of you wait six weeks for something new! I know, I should take a break, but I do pretty much just think about history all the time. Plus, I ended up having a bit of free time to record, so I hope you all appreciate this little Christmas present, hopefully I can make this an annual thing! This will also be giving you all a sneak peak of something coming in the new year, I’ll save the full reveal for then.
Since I think everyone listening is bit of a history nerd I’m going to assume that most of you have noticed the 25th of December is a rather special day. The most important event on this day historically is of course the coronation of Charlemagne in 800. While now he’s considered the first Holy Roman emperor in his time he was crowned Emperor of the Romans, Imperator Romanorum, as the successor of Constantine VI. Charlemagne being crowned on this day set a bit of a trend.
Now, Charlemagne wasn’t related to Constantine VI in any way. Plus, Constantine’s successor, his mother Irene, had already been named and was ruling in Byzantium. You may have noticed though that Irene was different from her son and Charlemagne in one very specific way, she was a woman, and they were men. Irene was actually the first woman to rule any part of Rome as empress. In shocking news the pope at the time, Leo III, was a strict adherent to gender norms and did not approve of this woman ruling. This isn’t Irene’s story, but things did end poorly for her, she was overthrown in 802 and sent into exile on the island of Lesbos where she died a year later.
Back to Charlemagne. The Catholic Church used the theory of Translation imperii, literally transfer of rule, to transfer the rule of the Roman Empire from Constantine to the Carolingians. Pope Leo claimed that the Byzantine throne was vacant because women can’t rule, obviously. It was also so lucky for Pope Leo that he got to crown whoever who chose as successor, because then the church has the final say on who is ruling, and the church isn’t going to complain about having more power. Those Byzantines weren’t even really following the Catholic Orthodoxy at this point anyway, might as well just start again. Oh yes, this is when the Byzantines were struggling with two opposing ideologies, the veneration of holy images versus the destruction of holy images, the iconophiles versus the iconoclasts. This is a rather fascinating period of religious history, but not our topic for today, I just thought you might enjoy hearing a little about it. Please check out The History of Byzantium Podcast for more details. Anyone who has been to a Catholic church or even the Vatican knows how the Catholic church feels about holy images (ignoring the whole graven images thing seems to be a common theme in this period, at least in Europe).
In shocking news the Byzantines did not recognise Charlemagne, at least not until 812, though they referred to Charlemagne and his successors as the Frankish Emperors. A later Holy Roman Emperor, Otto II, married a niece of the Byzantine Emperor in 972, so at least that bit seemed to work out in the long run.
So, why did the church pick Charlemagne? Well, he was rather powerful at the time, he had been king of the Franks for 32 years, king of the Lombards for 26. This meant that he controlled almost all of modern France, Germany, and the northern half of Italy. He had gained most of that territory in his own, at least in the sense of building on what his father had left to him and using his military power to grow his holdings. So, he was a powerful military leader, which can intimidate those religious types. In Pope Leo’s case it wasn’t intimidation that was to lead to his decision to crown Charlemagne, it was protection from others. In 799 Pope Leo had been attacked by supporters of his predecessor including said predecessor’s family, they saw Leo as too ambitious or that he was reaching too high for a common man. He was saved while unconscious by two of Charlemagne’s men. The two met and seemed to get along, there’s even an epic poem written about this, Karol’s Magnus et Leo Papa. With Charlemagne’s protection and support Leo was able to banish, literally, his opponents. Charlemagne’s father, Pepin the Short had also been a defender of the Catholic church, so it was nothing new for this family.
Einhard, Charlemagne’s biographer, said the entire event on Christmas was a surprise. Charlemagne had just come into the church to celebrate mass on a rather important day only to be surprised with an imperial crown! That is a good Christmas present Leo, and Charlemagne did choose to accept the appointment. Pope Leo actually interrupted mass to put the crown on Charlemagne’s head. It may have been like one of those public proposals where the person being proposed to feels pressured to say ‘yes’. By crowning Charlemagne Leo was likely hoping that the protection of Charlemagne would keep the Byzantines, who literally controlled territory just to the south of Rome, from coming knocking. Plus, they were such good buds at this point.
While Charlemagne, or more Leo set a trend for crowning kings on Christmas day, he wasn’t the first imperial individual to be elevated on that day. On the 25th of December 333 Constantine the Great elevated his youngest son, Constans, to the title of Caesar, the equivalent of ‘crown prince’ in the Roman Empire. While Augustus may have called himself Caesar as a title for emperor later Emperors use Augustus a their imperial title.
Charlemagne would rule as emperor for 14 more years. Now, his death presented a bit of a problem with inheritance. The Merovingian kings, the line that had preceded Charlemagne’s line in France, practiced partable inheritance. Meaning lands and title were divided equally among all his surviving sons. This is great if you’re the fourth son who was unlikely to get anything due to having three surviving older brothers (it would have helped Henry II a lot a few centuries later). It’s not so great if a king wants stability after he’s gone, and it’s very bad if a country wants stability. While the Carolingian line, that that Charlemagne’s father started, may not have been in favour of partable inheritance the nobility of France, who’s support they needed was. So, they were stuck using it. Charlemagne and his own brother, Carloman, would have had a disastrous time with this partable inheritance had Carloman not died of ‘natural’ causes three years into his reign. Charlemagne had at least four legitimate sons who survived childhood. While he had plenty of land to split between them there was one thing he could not divide. His imperial title. He got out of the hard choices because three of his sons predeceased him, though one got to be king of Italy before dying. So, instead of having to divide his kingdom it was inherited as a whole by his youngest surviving son, Louis. He did do one more thing to promote stability, he prevented all of his daughter’s from marrying (though, oddly, was okay with them having affairs and illegitimate children). This would avoid their potential husbands from vying for power. At least he wasn’t bad at planning.
I think next Christmas I’ll discuss one of the other kings who was crowned on Christmas day, there’s a bit of a list. Thank you for joining me for Christmas, I do hope you’re all having a lovely holiday. I’m looking forward to all the new episodes in the new year.
Sources:
https://wou.edu/history/files/2015/08/Monica-Fleener.pdf
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/icon/hd_icon.htm (includes some great pictures of icons)
