I.  The Franks:
    occupied Gaul by 481
    combined German & Roman cultures
    The Merovingians
   A. Clovis (481-511 A.D.) -- united the Franks
   B. Clovis converted  -- politics and Christianity

   C.  Decline of the Merovingians
       i.  Merovingian kings incompetent, weak rulers -- became figure heads
       ii.  succession -- kingdom divided among sons
       iii. counts acted in their own interests
       iv. power in the hands of the Mayors of the palace
       v. Charles Martel (the Hammer) in control in 714 A.D.
       vi. defeated  Muslims at Poitiers (732-733 A.D.) ending threat
         


    D. Pepin the Short 
        i.   legitimacy assured by pope -- coronation in 751 A.D.
        ii.  the donation of Pepin (the papal states in 756 A.D.)
        iii  alliance of Franks and pope
        iv. began tradition of church approval of kings
        v. coronation helped establish papal authority over kings
        vi. widened split with Byzantium

    E.  Charlemagne  (Carolus Magnus) 768-814 A.D.  
        i. the conquest and conversion of the Saxons
           the wars against the Spanish Muslims:   The Song of Roland

         
        ii.  the appeal from the pope and the defeat of  the Lombards
        iii. renewal of papal alliance
        iv. his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor in 800 A.D. by  Leo III
        v.  extended Christianity
        vi. moved the center of power to western Europe
        vii. the political structure of Charlemagne's empire
           


            a. Kingdom divided into counties and marks
            b. missi dominici -- king's envoys / agents
            c. **  feudalism:
            d. lord/ vassals  -- king assisted by local nobility
            e. homage -- investiture
            f. fief given in return for feudal obligations
            g. the church and feudalism

         viii. the Carolingian Renaissance
            a.  the The Life of Charlemagne   by Einhard
            b. Alcuin
            c.  palace school
            d.  scriptoria preserved ancient manuscripts

          
            e. education at monasteries
         
     F. Louis the Pious and his sons
         i. divided kingdom among sons -- led to civil war
         ii. Lothar
         iii. Charles the Bald
         iv. Louis the German

         v. the Strasbourg Oaths between Charles & Louis
         vi. the Treaty of Verdun 843 A.D. -- led to division of Europe
         vii. Charles the Bald and the loss of the west
         viii. the deposition of his successor -- Charles the Fat
         ix. power divided
           The Collapse of the Carolingian Empire
            weakened Frankish kingdoms easy prey for  Vikings, Magyars, Moors
            need for security
           The Rise of Feudalism