The Carolingian Moment

Abstract This chapter examines the eighth-century emergence of the Carolingian dynasty in context. The breakdown of consensus around the Merovingians as kings of the Franks created the conditions for political competition where appeals to Christian identity and ritual innovation were frequent. These were features not just of the early Carolingian polity but also of their Bavarian and Lombard rivals, influenced by ideas from elsewhere, especially the Byzantine and Insular worlds. It took time for the Carolingians to establish themselves securely as undisputed kings; anointing was one method used both to sacralize and to appeal to the wider political community, understood as the Christian people. This link between the polity and the Church explains the growing prevalence of ideas of empire at the court of Charlemagne, who was crowned emperor in 800 to address the needs of the papacy and a growing Carolingian sense of responsibility for the universal Church.