Balance of power in the north

While Abd al-Rahman was a fugitive in North Africa, power shifted decisively in Europe. The last major Germanic barbarian invasion came from the east and had settled in the Italian Alps with a capital at Pavia. The Langobards, or Lombards, did not quickly blend in with natives as some Germanic invasions had done. They were not Catholics, either; they were Arians who rejected and challenged the Pope. They were also recklessly fey fighters and deeply feared. Charles Martel had worked at allying with them to keep things quiet on his east.

But in the time of Charles’ son and grandson, the Popes began positioning the Franks as their shield wall against the Lombard threat. The first step came in 751: Pope Stephen deposed the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, and pronounced King Pippin I and Queen Bertrada. (He also, apparently, pronounced them properly married, a step they had missed.) Pippin was not the oldest son of Charles Martel, but his brother had chosen monastic contemplation, while Pippin was secular, crafty, and aggressive. In exchange for being allowed to set aside pretense that he was merely a Steward, King Pippin agreed to set aside Frankish alliances with Lombards. He led an army to defeat them, stopping their advances on the Pope’s heartland.

So in the same few years, three new dynasties came to power: the Abbasids in Baghdad, the line of Abd al-Rahman (Umayyad-Berbers) in Cordoba, and the Pippinid line of Charles’s in Aachen. Dynasties are usually most powerful in their first three generations, since they depend on the physical and mental prowess of the founder, and the genetic blessing often lasts into his grandsons. All three dynasties were on the same timing: between 750 and 850, three huge regions of the Mediterranean world were ruled by the first four generations of these dynasties. At least some of what we remember as the Golden Age of the Dark Ages came about because power was so perfectly balanced.

At the same time, Popes in Rome broke away from the Patriarchs of Constantinople decisively. The Pope didn’t need an overlord as long as he could call on the Franks. And here began a long process of turning the Franks into good Catholics. Until this time, they were nominal Catholics, but their kings saw no problem with incest and polygamy. The Pope needed a virtuous shield wall, not a semi-barbarian one.

Frankish tradition at that time left lands divided among heirs, which often led to fraternal wars to re-unite estates and kingdoms. The system may have been good for the dynasty, since it allowed the strongest son to prevail. For several generations, the kingdom had been divided into inheritances roughly along the modern French/German border. When Pippin I died in 768, Carolus inherited Austrasia (Germany) and Carloman inherited Neustria (France). Neustria was the richer territory, but Carloman began a contest of power with his older brother that ultimately led to his downfall.

Unlike Pippin, Carolus (later Charlemagne) was tall: 6′ 3″. He was not nearly as well-educated as the dynastic founders in Baghdad and Cordoba, but he was interested in books and could speak and read Latin. He had a good understanding of the political changes around him, too. Like Abd al-Rahman, he had the gift of political and military genius. His brother Carloman seems not to have been quite as able at playing the game.

Both of them named their oldest sons “Pippin,” implying a greater right to the dynastic founder’s name. But Carloman refused to help defend against a rebellious Duke of Aquitaine although Aquitaine was directly part of Neustria. Instead, he began to form secret alliances with the Lombards. Carolus put down the Aquitainian rebellion alone, and came out of it stronger. Then he allowed his mother to set up a marriage alliance of his own with the Lombards. In the pragmatic manner of the early Franks, he set aside his wife and married a Lombard princess who was half his age. When his brother Carloman died in 771, civil war preparations stopped. The King of Austrasia moved swiftly: he declared himself King of Neustria, leaving his brother’s widow and infant sons to flee. He divorced the Lombard princess, since he no longer needed the alliance. We don’t know anything about her personal history or even her name.

Now king of united Frankia, Carolus allied himself firmly to the Pope. The Pope rewarded him by discarding the rights of his baby nephews, while Charlemagne (we can now use his modern moniker) declared the Franks ready to stand by Catholic rules. He didn’t take back his first wife, but when he remarried a third time, he stayed with this one until she died. He began to enforce monogamy and no-incest among his nobles. In fact, for a long time they went too far, since Roman tradition counted degrees of relationship differently and nobody explained to the Franks that the rules weren’t really intended to bar truly distant cousins. (Divorce was strictly prohibited, but ambiguity about cousins provided one possible out for the determined.)

The new lines of power were drawn: Baghdad, Rome, Aachen/Paris, and Cordoba. For a century, this balance was basically stable. In fact, a look at the map suggests where the next dynastic crack might occur: Egypt, the place in the Mediterranean circle that was farthest from any of these centers. But for now, we’ll focus on Cordoba, Baghdad, and Aachen as the new dynasties interacted.