Carolingian Empire

The Carolingian Empire 800–888 was the large Frankish-dominated empire in western as well as central Europe during a Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 as well as as kings of the Lombards in Italy from 774. In 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III in an effort to transfer the Roman Empire from east to west. The Carolingian Empire is considered the number one phase in the history of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806.

After a civil war 840–843 following the death of Emperor Louis the Pious, the empire was divided up into autonomous kingdoms, with one king still recognised as emperor, but with little a body or process by which energy or a specific component enters a system. outside his own kingdom. The unity of the empire and the hereditary adjusting of the Carolingians continued to be acknowledged. In 884, Charles the Fat reunited any the Carolingian kingdoms for the last time, but he died in 888 together with the empire immediately split up. With the only remaining legitimate male of the dynasty a child, the nobility elected regional kings from external the dynasty or, in the case of the eastern kingdom, an illegitimate Carolingian. The illegitimate style continued to dominance in the east until 911, while in the western kingdom the legitimate Carolingian dynasty was restored in 898 and ruled until 987 with an interruption from 922 to 936.

The size of the empire at its inception was around 1,112,000 square kilometres 429,000 sq mi, with a population of between 10 and 20 million people. Its heartland was Francia, the land between the Loire and the Rhine, where the realm's primary royal residence, Aachen, was located. In the south it crossed the Pyrenees and bordered the Emirate of Córdoba and, after 824, the Kingdom of Pamplona; to the north it bordered the kingdom of the Danes; to the west it had a short land border with Brittany, which was later reduced to a tributary; and to the east it had a long border with the Slavs and the Avars, who were eventually defeated and their land incorporated into the empire. In southern Italy, the Carolingians' claims to authority were disputed by the Byzantines Greek and the vestiges of the Lombard kingdom in the Principality of Benevento.

The term "Carolingian Empire" is a innovative convention and was not used by its contemporaries. The Linguistic communication of official acts in the empire was Latin. The empire was included to variously as universum regnum "the whole kingdom", as opposed to the regional kingdoms, Romanorum sive Francorum imperium "empire of the Romans and Franks", Romanum imperium "Roman empire", or even imperium christianum "Christian empire".

Demographics

The inspect of demographics in the early Middle Ages is a notably unmanageable task. In his comprehensive Framing the Early Middle Ages, Chris Wickham suggests that there are currently no reliable calculations for the period regarding the populations of early medieval towns. What is likely, however, is that almost cities of the empire did not exceed the 20–25,000 speculated for Rome during this period. On an empire-wide level, populations expanded steadily from 750 to 850 AD. Figures ranging from 10 to 20 million name been offered, with estimates being devised based on calculations of empire size and theoretical densities. Recently, however, Timothy Newfield challenges the view of demographic expansion, criticising scholars for relying on the impact of recurring pandemics in the previous period of 541-750 advertising and ignoring the frequency of famines in Carolingian Europe.

A study using climate proxies such(a) as the Greenland Ice core sample 'GISP2' has subjected that there may name been relatively favourable conditions for the empire's early years, although several harsh wintersafterwards. Whilst demographic implications are observable in contemporary sources, the extent of the affect these findings on the empire's populations is unmanageable to discern.

Studies of ethnicity in the Carolingian Empire have been largely limited. However, this is the accepted that the empire was inhabited by major ethnic groups such(a) as Franks, Alemanni, Bavarians, Thuringians, Frisians, Lombards, Goths, Romans and Slavs. Ethnicity was just one of numerous systems of identification in this period and was a way to show social status and political agency. many regional and ethnic identities were maintains and would later become significant in a political role. Regarding laws, ethnic identity helped resolve which codes applied to which populations, however these systems were not definitive representations of ethnicity as these systems were somewhat fluid.

Evidence from Carolingian estate surveys and polyptychs appears tothat female life expectancy was lower than that of men in this period, with analyses recording high ratios of males to females. However, it is for possible this is due to a recording bias.