An Empire of Memory : The Legend of Charlemagne, the Franks, and Jerusalem Before the First Crusade

Beginning shortly after Charlemagne's death in 814, the inhabitants of his historical empire looked back upon his reign and saw in it an exemplar of Christian universality - Christendom. They mapped contemporary Christendom onto the past and so, during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, the borders of his empire grew with each retelling, almost always including the Christian East. Although the pull of Jerusalem on the West seems to have been strong during the eleventh century, it had a more limited effect on the Charlemagne legend. Instead, the legend grew during this period because of a peculiar fusion of ideas, carried forward from the ninth century but filtered through the social, cultural, and intellectual developments of the intervening years. Paradoxically, Charlemagne became less important to the Charlemagne legend. The legend became a story about the Frankish people, who believed they had held God's favour under Charlemagne and held out hope that they could one day reclaim their special place in sacred history. Indeed, popular versions of the Last Emperor legend, which spoke of a great ruler who would reunite Christendom in preparation for the last battle between good and evil, promised just this to the Franks. Ideas of empire, identity, and Christian religious violence were potent reagents. The mixture of these ideas could remind men of their Frankishness and move them, for example, to take up arms, march to the East, and reclaim their place as defenders of the faith during the First Crusade. An Empire of Memory uses the legend of Charlemagne, an often-overlooked current in early medieval thought, to look at how the contours of the relationship between East and West moved across centuries, particularly in the period leading up to the First Crusade. Beginning shortly after his death in 814, the inhabitants of Charlemagne's historical empire looked back upon his reign and saw in it an exemplar of Christian universality—Christendom. They mapped contemporary Christendom onto the past and so, during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, the borders of his empire grew with each retelling, almost always including the Christian East. Although the pull of Jerusalem on the West seems to have been strong during the eleventh century, it had a more limited effect on the Charlemagne legend. Instead, the legend grew during this period because of a peculiar fusion of ideas, carried forward from the ninth century but filtered through the social, cultural, and intellectual developments of the intervening years. Paradoxically, what happened was that Charlemagne became less important to the Charlemagne legend. The legend became a story about the Frankish people, who believed they had held God's favor under Charlemagne and held out hope that they could one day reclaim their special place in sacred history. Indeed, popular versions of the Last Emperor legend, which spoke of a great ruler who would reunite Christendom in preparation for the last battle between good and evil, promised just this to the Franks. Ideas of empire, identity, and Christian religious violence were potent reagents. The mixture of these ideas could remind men of their Frankishness and move them, for example, to take up arms, march to the East, and reclaim their place as defenders of the faith during the First Crusade Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 9 List of Images......Page 11 Abbreviations......Page 12 Introduction: Looking for Charlemagne......Page 14 I. THE FRANKS REMEMBER EMPIRE......Page 24 1. The Birth of a Frankish Golden Age......Page 26 The Franks after Charlemagne......Page 28 Religious Houses and their Charlemagnes......Page 36 The Expanding Empire......Page 43 A Donation to St. Andrew on Monte Soratte: c.970......Page 54 The Foundation of Charroux: c.1095......Page 57 A Capetian Translatio: c.1080......Page 64 The Relationship among the Sources......Page 73 II. JERUSALEM......Page 84 Jerusalem and the West before the Eleventh Century......Page 86 Jerusalem and Pilgrimage from the West during the Eleventh Century......Page 92 III. THE FRANKS RECREATE EMPIRE......Page 108 4. The Franks’ Imagined Empire......Page 110 A Christian Realm......Page 111 The Empire to Come......Page 120 The Franks at the End of History......Page 128 5. The Franks Return to the Holy Land......Page 142 Frankish Identity in the Eleventh Century......Page 143 Calling the Franks to Holy War: Ideas Become Action......Page 152 Appendix 1: Legend for Figure 1.1......Page 173 Bibliography......Page 177 B......Page 206 C......Page 207 E......Page 208 G......Page 209 H......Page 210 L......Page 211 P......Page 212 R......Page 213 V......Page 214 Z......Page 215 Using the legend of Charlemagne, an often-overlooked current in early medieval thought, 'An Empire of Memory' looks at how the contours of the relationship between East and West moved across centuries, particularly in the period leading up to the First Crusade Birth of a Frankish golden age The narratives of Charlemagne's journey to the East before 1100 New Jerusalems and pilgrimage to the East before 1100 The Franks' imagined empire The Franks return to the Holy Land.