EMA 19.2 | How the Carolingians Spent 90 Years Replacing Merovingian Legitimacy скачать в хорошем качестве

EMA 19.2 | How the Carolingians Spent 90 Years Replacing Merovingian Legitimacy

In 661, Grimoald tried to seize the Frankish throne from the Merovingians and was executed. In 751, Pepin did the same thing — and no one objected. The difference was a ninety-year political strategy that replaced sacred bloodline with Christian divine sanction, built through monastic networks, papal alliance, and one perfectly staged letter to Rome. This video traces how the Carolingian family dismantled the Merovingian theory of kingship and constructed an entirely new basis for royal authority — a shift from inherited sanctity to earned, Church-endorsed legitimacy that would define European politics for centuries. Key concepts covered: • Legitimacy as a political concept: the difference between de facto power and de jure authority, and why raw military control was not enough to replace the Merovingians • The Merovingian mystique: how sacred bloodline, mythic ancestry, and uncut hair sustained a dynasty of figurehead kings for generations • The papal crisis of the 8th century: Lombard invasion, Byzantine withdrawal, Iconoclasm, and why Rome looked north for a new protector • Irish peregrinatio and Benedictine structure: how two monastic traditions combined to create uniquely mobile missionaries who expanded Carolingian influence east of the Rhine • Saint Boniface as the linchpin: converting Germanic populations, reforming the Frankish Church, and serving as the living bridge between the Carolingian court and the papacy • Pepin's letter to Pope Zacharias: a masterclass in political theater, framing a question that could only have one answer • The tonsuring of the last Merovingian king in 751 and the literal shearing away of dynastic sacred power • Pope Stephen II crossing the Alps in 753: the first papal visit to northern Europe and the civilizational pivot from the eastern Mediterranean to transalpine Europe • The Carolingian-papal alliance and its long-term consequences: Charlemagne's imperial coronation in 800, the Holy Roman Empire, and the intertwined relationship between Church and State throughout the medieval period • The fundamental shift from "who you are" to "what you do" as the basis for royal legitimacy in Western political history ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SOURCE MATERIALS The source materials for this video are from    • 19. The Early Middle Ages, 284--1000: Char...