Charlemagne's last march: The political culture of Carolingian Catalonia, 778–987

Cullen J Chandler, Purdue University

Abstract

In the period 778–814 the Frankish empire of the Carolingians (Charlemagne and his successors) expanded its political reach south of the Pyrenees into Spain. This study seeks to determine the impact of Frankish rule on the area, now known as Catalonia, especially since it possessed an established, Visigothic Christian culture that pre-dated the Muslim conquest of the early eighth century. Frankish kings and emperors sought to maintain order by allowing many aspects of Visigothic culture to survive and flourish, most importantly the old law code, and maintaing the position of local elites. But the Carolingians were also keen that their subjects heed royal authority. Thus, this dissertaion argues, rulers began to assign Franks to positions of power in the area, defined a certain Gothic religious doctrine as a heresy and eliminated it, and invented new ways of making their power felt, especially the aprisio land grant. Using chronicles, royal grants and legislation, and court-sponsored religious writings, the first three chapters document the political organization and development of the Carolingian Spanish March, emphasizing the degree to which it became integrated into the empire, its Visigothic traditions notwithstanding. Later chapters leave aside the desires and acts of kings to address the question of how “Carolingian” Catalonia was during the ninth and tenth centuries, emphasizing local social structures and cultural conditions. This is achieved through the study of local sources: charters recording land transactions (published in modern editions) and manuscripts that survive in Barcelona's archives. This study concludes that Catalonian society was similar to that of the Franks in its agrarian basis and the importance of landed wealth, but differed in terms of the participation of women in networks formed by land ownership and in the roles monasteries played in society. The cultural achievements of Catalonia have a local flavor despite Carolingian influence. Bringing royal sources into the mix again, the study turns to the tenth century, when royal power faded and local leaders acted autonomously while paradoxically preserving the legal fiction of Carolingian sovereignty. The new Catalonian polity was a Carolingian creation, but the Frankish conquest had only slightly impacted its society.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Contreni, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Middle Ages|European history

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