"He was born in eastern Frank land, in the district that is called Moingewi, and it was the monastery of Fulda, in the school of Saint Boniface the Martyr, that his boyhood received its first training." (source)
Charlemagne was born April 2, 742 in Northern Europe, he was the oldest child of Pippin III and Bertrada of Laon. Throughout his education he read little, if any, books; though the few that he did read were extremely intellectual. Even though he read little, he had the ability to speak old Teutonic and literary; he could also understand Greek. (source)
In 768 Charlemagne and his younger brother, Carloman, bequeathed the entire Frankish Kingdom. Though, in 771 when Carloman died, Charlemagne became the head ruler of the kingdom. During that time though, the Franks had begun to fall into barbarianism due to their neglect of religion and education. (source)
Once Charlemagne was head of government, he decided to expand his territory. In getting more land, he overthrew northern Italy, Bavaria, Spain, and Hungary. Though he had garnered up an empire, he did not give himself the title of emperor; instead, he referred to himself as the King of the Franks and the Lombard's. (source)
"An affecionate man, Charlemagne got along very well with his sister, Gisela, and their mother, Bertrada, treating both with great respect. Gisela was a nun, so she live in a convent, but Bertrada lived with Charlemagne. It was Bertrada who arranged for Charlemagne t omarry a daughter of King Desiderius of the Lombards ( a Germanic tribe whose kingdom was in Italy). But it seems this wife was not to Charlemagnes liking, because he soon ended the marriage and took a new wife named Hildegarde, with whom he had six children, according to Einhard. In 783, Charlemagne was twice bereaved when both Hildegarde and Bertrada died. Before long he found a new wife, Fastrada." (source)
"Charles has become known as Charles The Great or Charlemagne for very good reasons. His long reign changed the face of Europe politically and culturally, and he himself would remain fixed in the minds of people in the Middle Ages as the ideal king. In more recent times, many historians have taken his reign to be the beginning of the Middle Ages 'proper'. Yet in terms of territorial expansion and consolidation, of church reform and entanglement with Rome, Charlemagne's reign was merely bringing the policies of his father Pippin to their logical conclusions." (source)
"In 806, at the age of sixty-four, Charlemagne took measures to provide for the succession of his empire. He divided the realm among his three sons—Charles, Pepin, and Louis. But the death of Charles in April 810 was soon followed by that of Pepin. The remaining son, Louis, later called 'the Pious,' the least warlike and aggressive of the three, was left as the sole heir to the empire. He was crowned by his father in 813. The last years of Charlemagne's reign saw difficult times. Civil disorder increased as did disease and famine (drastic food shortages). Additionally, there were troubles on the frontiers. In many respects, the future looked dark. In 811 Charlemagne made his final will, giving a more sizable portion of his treasures to various churches of the realm than to his own heirs. He died on January 28, 814, and was buried at his palace at Aachen." (source)
Book 1
Book 2
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Justinian I
"Justinian I (Flavius Anicius Justinianus), the nephew of Justin I, was born at Tauresium in Illyria, the son of a Slavonic peasant, and was originally called Sabbatius. Educated at Constantinople, in 521 Justinian was named consul and in 527 was proclaimed by Justin his colleague in the empire. Justin died the same year and Justinian, who was then proclaimed sole emperor, was crowned along with his wife, Theodora." (source)
When Justinian became ruler of the Byzantine Empire, he ordered to have the preparation of the Corpus Juris Civilis. "These works have become known individually as the Code, which collected the legal pronouncements of the Roman emperors, the Institutes, an elementary student's textbook, and the Digest, by far the largest and most highly prized of the three compilations. The Digest was assembled by a team of sixteen academic lawyers commissioned by Justinian in 533 to cull everything of value from earlier Roman law. It was for centuries the focal point of legal education in the West and remains today an unprecedented collection of the commentaries of Roman jurists on the civil law." (source)
"Justinian reigned at Constantinople from 527 until his death. He recognized that Roman law was in a state of confusion—the no-actresses-for-senators law was a minor problem compared with the obfuscations and contradictions among old laws passed in the republic and early empire, subsequent decrees of the senate, and the writings of jurists who had been given the right to declare what was the law. Justinian therefore commissioned a group of distinguished scholars to come up with an imperial constitution free of contradictions. Following the success of this, he authorized a new commission to bring order into the rest of Roman law, publishing their results in 533. The president of the commission, Tribonian, recognized that an outline of the laws was required whereby future lawyers could learn their first lessons, no longer from ancient fables but from the new vantage point of codified legal learning. The result was the Institutes of Justinan, extracts from which follow. This summary of Roman law in the sixth century provides an insight into the type of humanistic principles that had established themselves in Roman society at this late period of the empire." (source)
"Justinian was anxious to end religious disunity within the empire. The chief theological issue of his day was the persisting Monophysite rejection of the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451) regarding the natures of Christ. Since the Monophysite religious dissent was linked with regional unrest, especially in Syria-Palestine and Egypt, the problem had wide political implications. Justinian repeatedly sought to end the dissension, either by some compromise formula or device or by arbitrary pressures. His policies alternated between extremes of conciliation and persecution. At Justinian's behest, the Fifth Ecumenical Council met (553) to ratify some of his measures. Yet, for all his exertions, a resolution of the issues seemed even less attainable at the end of his reign than at the beginning." (source)
"Although ecstatic and hopeful early in his reign, the mood at Constantinople had changed by the end of Justinian’s life to one of angry frustration. Justinian’s funeral pall was embroidered with scenes of his military triumphs in the 530s that must have seemed a grim anachronism to the mourners who laid him to rest." (source)
When Justinian became ruler of the Byzantine Empire, he ordered to have the preparation of the Corpus Juris Civilis. "These works have become known individually as the Code, which collected the legal pronouncements of the Roman emperors, the Institutes, an elementary student's textbook, and the Digest, by far the largest and most highly prized of the three compilations. The Digest was assembled by a team of sixteen academic lawyers commissioned by Justinian in 533 to cull everything of value from earlier Roman law. It was for centuries the focal point of legal education in the West and remains today an unprecedented collection of the commentaries of Roman jurists on the civil law." (source)
"Justinian reigned at Constantinople from 527 until his death. He recognized that Roman law was in a state of confusion—the no-actresses-for-senators law was a minor problem compared with the obfuscations and contradictions among old laws passed in the republic and early empire, subsequent decrees of the senate, and the writings of jurists who had been given the right to declare what was the law. Justinian therefore commissioned a group of distinguished scholars to come up with an imperial constitution free of contradictions. Following the success of this, he authorized a new commission to bring order into the rest of Roman law, publishing their results in 533. The president of the commission, Tribonian, recognized that an outline of the laws was required whereby future lawyers could learn their first lessons, no longer from ancient fables but from the new vantage point of codified legal learning. The result was the Institutes of Justinan, extracts from which follow. This summary of Roman law in the sixth century provides an insight into the type of humanistic principles that had established themselves in Roman society at this late period of the empire." (source)
"Justinian was anxious to end religious disunity within the empire. The chief theological issue of his day was the persisting Monophysite rejection of the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451) regarding the natures of Christ. Since the Monophysite religious dissent was linked with regional unrest, especially in Syria-Palestine and Egypt, the problem had wide political implications. Justinian repeatedly sought to end the dissension, either by some compromise formula or device or by arbitrary pressures. His policies alternated between extremes of conciliation and persecution. At Justinian's behest, the Fifth Ecumenical Council met (553) to ratify some of his measures. Yet, for all his exertions, a resolution of the issues seemed even less attainable at the end of his reign than at the beginning." (source)
"Although ecstatic and hopeful early in his reign, the mood at Constantinople had changed by the end of Justinian’s life to one of angry frustration. Justinian’s funeral pall was embroidered with scenes of his military triumphs in the 530s that must have seemed a grim anachronism to the mourners who laid him to rest." (source)
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