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The Public Assembly in the Time of Louis the Pious

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

Joel T. Rosenthal
Joel T. Rosenthal*
Affiliation:
Roosevelt University Chicago
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Extract

The prominence of the public assembly is one of the most striking features of the reign of Louis the Pious. Both the chronicles and the imperial biographers refer again and again to the frequent public gatherings at which much of the business of the empire was transacted. This business varied in nature and importance, just as the assemblies varied in their location and duration. However, there seems to have been no major category of public business which was systematically kept from the purview of the public assembly.

Type
Articles
Information
Traditio , Volume 20 , 1964 , pp. 25 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Pirenne, H., A History of Europe (1958) I, 89–90: ‘Obliged to reckon with the aristocracy to whom they owed their crown, Pippin the Short and Charlemagne could not refuse it a place in the government. The magnates of the kingdom deliberated with them, assembling at court in a conventus at the feasts of Christmas and Easter As manifested and expressed. The royal power seems that of an absolute sovereign, but of one whose absolutism is doubly limited. It is limited, in the first place, by Christian morality, and it accepts this limitation. It is limited further by the necessity of avoiding anything that will displease the aristocracy, and to this limitation it submits.’ Google Scholar

2 The narrative sources for the reign have been used in this study. They are to be found in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores I & II. In volume I are to be found: Einhardi Annales (EA), Annalium Bertinianorum Pars Prima (AB), Annales Laurissenses Minores (ALM), Annalium Bertinianorum Pars Secunda (PTA), Chronicon Moissiacense (CM), Fuldensis Annales Einhardi (FAE), and Annalium Fuldensium Pars Secunda (FAR). In volume II are found: Annales Xantenses (AX), Thegani Vita Hludowici Imperatoris (Thg), Vita Hludowici Imperatoris (Ast), Ermoldi Nigelli, Carmina (Erm), and Nithard: Historiarum (Nit).Google Scholar

3 For the legislation of Louis the Pious: Sickel. Acta Carolinorum, II; Böhmer: Regesta Imperii, I; Simson, , Jahrbücher des fränkischen Reiches unter Ludwig dem Frommen and in the MGH: Legum I, sectio 1, sectio 2 (Capitularia Regum Francorum I 2), section 3, and Concilia II, parts 1 & 2.Google Scholar

4 de Coulanges, Fustel, ‘Les transformations de la royauté pendant l'époque carolingienne’ Histoire des Institutions politiques de l'Ancienne France, 6. 341–65, for a discussion of the Carolingian council.Google Scholar

5 Warnkoenig, et Gerard, : Histoire des Carolingien (1862) II 29: ‘Louis tenait peut-être plus encore que son père à sa dignité imperiale et à ses prérogatives. Il était imbu de l'idée de la souveraineté personnelle, et considerait tout pouvoir comme soumis au sien’ Google Scholar

6 Fustel, , op. cit. 357. For a similar situation in regard to Anglo-Saxon England, cf. Oleson, , Witenagemot in the Reign of Edward the Confessor 31: ‘Had the chroniclers felt that there was a difference between the acts of the king and a few counsellors on the one hand, and those of the king and numerous counsellors on the other, might we not expect to find some trace of this feeling in the chronicles? But as I have said, there is no evidence for existence of a small court distinct from the witenagemot’ and on page 61: ‘In a very real sense, then, there is no such thing as a witenagemot, there are only witan. There is no council, there is only counsel.’ Google Scholar

7 Fustel, , op. cit. 356–412, passim, and especially 410-12.Google Scholar

8 There is nothing unusual about this year, except the absence of a (designated) assembly. Louis spent more of the year in ‘France’ than in ‘Germany.’ Google Scholar

9 Ast, , 637 (page in the MGH).Google Scholar

10 On the Carolingian fisc, cf: Thompson, J. W., Dissolution of the Carolingian Fisc in the Ninth Century (1935).Google Scholar

11 The Orleans assembly of 832 was held because Louis felt it necessary, after years of unrest, to visit Aquitaine again. The Chalons assembly of 839 was also chosen so the troublesome south of France could be watched.Google Scholar

12 We know from English history that it took about a century of parliamentary development before there came to be a recognized distinction between the laws made with the consent of the estates and those without.Google Scholar

13 Fustel, , op. cit. 357 Google Scholar

13a Warnkoenig, et Gerard, , op. cit. 21, ‘Les affaires traiteés dans ces réunions étaient ou ecclésiastiques, civiles, politiques, ou mixtes; aussi distinguai-t-on trois espèces de capitulaires: les capitulaires ecclésiastiques, les capitulaires mondains et les capitulaires généraux. Les assembleés relatives aux affaires de l'Église étaient en même temps des conciles nationaux.’ Google Scholar

14 Fustel, , op. cit. 407.Google Scholar

15 Erm, 489–90, and Ast, 623: ‘Habitoque Venedis generali conventu.’ Google Scholar

16 EA 205: Liudewitus was ‘superbia elatus.’ Google Scholar

17 AE 206: ‘Conventus ibidem habitus, in quo de Liudewiti defectione deliberatum est, ut tres exercitus simul ex tribus partibus ad devastandam eius regionem atque ipsius audaciam coercendam mitterentur.’ Google Scholar

18 AE 207: ‘De bello Liudewitico tractatum, ac tres exercitus ordinati qui futura aestate perfidorum agros per vices vastarent.’ Google Scholar

19 Ast 630-32: Aizo was a chronic troublemaker along the Spanish borders, and his exploits, working with the Saracens against Christians when it suited him, etc, provide a realistic glimpse of a chapter of history which we know mainly from the Cid.Google Scholar

20 AE 206-7 (for 819) and AE, 209 (for 822): ‘Peracto conventu quod Attiniaci habetur Hlotharium vero filium suum in Italiam misit’ Google Scholar

21 AE 217.Google Scholar

22 AE 218: ‘Hlotharium quoque filium suum, finito illo conventu, in Italiam direxit.’ Google Scholar

23 Ast 638-9, and AB, 427.Google Scholar

24 Amid the confusion surrounding the deposition and reinstatement of Louis it is not surprising to discover that the assemblies were other than the usual business meetings.Google Scholar

25 Fustel, , op. cit. 372.Google Scholar

26 Ibid. 385.Google Scholar

27 Erm 501.Google Scholar

28 Ast 626 (for 821): ‘Imperatoris porro clementia, cum in aliis semper admirabilis claraverit rebus, in hoc quammaxime conventu, quanta eius inesset pectori, manifestissime patuit.’ Google Scholar

29 AE 210: ‘Duo fratres, reges videlicet Wiltzorum, controversiam inter se de regno habentes, ad praesentiam imperatoris venerunt’ Google Scholar

30 Ast 631.Google Scholar

31 FAE 360: Louis publicly received the Empress back into his favor only after she had purged herself in public of the charges against her. Also, Ast 635. In 839 Louis went through one of these scenes with Lothair, Nit 839: Lothair ‘una cum patre coram omni populo ita se velle annuntiavit. Hinc autem pater fratres, prout valuit, unanimes effecit, rogans et deprecans, ut invicem se diligerent, et ut alter ab altero protegeretur adortans exortat.’ Google Scholar

32 Fustel, , op. cit. 385.Google Scholar

33 Ast 622: ‘Imperator in eodem placito filium primogenitum Hlotharium coimperatorem appellari et esse voluit’ Google Scholar

34 ALM 122.Google Scholar

35 CM 312.Google Scholar

36 CM 312: and the chronicler continues: ‘Sedem regiam, id est episcopos, abbates, sive comites et maiores natu Francorum; et manifestavit eis mysterium consilii sui’ Google Scholar

37 Ast 625.Google Scholar

38 Ast 643-44: The Aix decision: ‘Sed quia inofficiosa remansit, a nobis quoque silentio premitur.’ Google Scholar

39 FAR 361, and PTA 432.Google Scholar

40 Nit 654-55.Google Scholar

41 This is what one would expect, in view of the concept that ‘law was customary law “the law of one's fathers.”’ Cf. Kern, F., Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages 70.Google Scholar

42 Ast 622; AE 205; Ast 629; AB 428; Ast 642; PTA 430-31; Ast 646 (‘et tam ecclesiasstica quamque publica suo more disposuit.’).Google Scholar

43 EA 201, and FAE 356: ‘Ad iusticias faciendas et oppressiones popularium relevandas legatos in omnes regni sui partes misit, et erepta per vim patrimonia multis restituit.’ Google Scholar

44 Fustel, , op. cit. 385.Google Scholar

45 AB 426: ‘Fidelitatemque promiserunt’ (to Lothair, in this instance, in 834).Google Scholar

46 Nit 651.Google Scholar

47 Thg 593: FAE, 357 (‘Quae in regno suo corrigenda invenire potuit, corrigere atque emendare curavit’); AB 427-28; Thg 596.Google Scholar

48 AE 202, 203-4 (for 815), 216 (for 827).Google Scholar

49 AE 216.Google Scholar

50 AE 218; Ast, 632.Google Scholar

51 AB 426 (for 832), ‘dona annualia more solito suscipiens;’ PTA 429, ‘In quo cum dona annualia more solito reciperet, ac Lotharium operiretur’; PTA 430, ‘annualia dona recipiens.’ Google Scholar

52 Warnkoenig, & Gerard, , op. cit. 27: ‘Le pouvoir de l'empereur était bien souverain, en ce sens que sa volonté officiellement manifestée faisait loi; mais dans toutes les grandes affaires, les ordonnances impériales ou royales n'étaient decretées qu'àpres déliberation avec les grands, ecclésiastiques et laïques, réunis en assemblée générale.’ Also, cf. Fustel, , op. cit. 407-12.Google Scholar

53 Ibid. 407 n. 1.Google Scholar

54 EA 204: ‘Generalem populi sui conventum Aquisgrani more solito’ Google Scholar

55 EA 208.Google Scholar

56 EA 209.Google Scholar

57 AB 425, and CM 312: ‘Conventum populi de omni regno vel imperio suo Tunc omni populi placuit tunc tribus diebus ieiunatum est ab omni populo’ Google Scholar

58 Ganshof, , ‘Louis the Pious Reconsidered,’ History 42 (October 1957) 176–7, ‘During the reign of Louis the Pious, the assemblies became distinct from the concerns of the army. Their character as an institution in their own right was emphasized, and one might say they acquired a more administrative stamp. From 816 to 828 there were generally two a year, and sometimes even three. The attendance does not seem to have been equally numerous at all of them. One suspects, for a few of them, an effort at specialization. We may believe that the emperor was seeking more frequent contacts with his ecclesiastical and secular officers, and especially with those most concerned with the settlement of the immediate practical problems.’ Google Scholar

59 AE 209 (for 822): ‘Generali conventu congregato, necessaria quaeque ad utilitatem orientalium partium regni sui pertinentia more solemni cum optimatibus quos ad hoc evocare iusserat, tractare curavit. In quo conventu omnium orientalium Sclavorum id est Abodritorum, Soraborum, Wiltzorum, Boheimorum, Marvanorum, Praedenecentorum et in Pannonia residentium Avarum legationes cum muneribus ad se directas audivit.’ Also, for 823, AE 210: ‘Mense Maio conventus in eodem loco habuit, in quo non universi Franciae primores, sed de orientali Francia atque Saxonia, Baioaria, Alamannia atque Alamanniae contermina Burgundia et regionibus Rheno adiacentibus adesse iussi sunt.’ Google Scholar

60 Louis had a penchant for staging private business before an audience, and one suspects a touch of masochism, and the desire for public self-degradation: wooing, penance, forgiveness, reunions, etc.Google Scholar

61 AB 424, and Ast 633-34.Google Scholar