The Early Middle Ages | The Birth of France and Germany (Lecture 19)

Lecture 19: The collapse of the Carolingian Empire resulted in the emergence of the Capetians and the Ottonians as the new ruling dynasties in West Francia and East Francia, respectively. Royal authority in France was badly diminished in the 10th and 11th centuries, with actual power residing in the hands of local castellans or, occasionally, counts. In East Francia, on the other hand, the Ottonian dynasty managed to avoid the devolution of power. They even became, for a time, the strongest Christian dynasty on the European continent, and their kingdom became the cornerstone of the Holy Roman Empire when the Ottonians took the imperial title for themselves. As West Francia and East Francia separated and adopted their own ruling dynasties, they also began to adopt new identities as the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Germany.

Suggested Readings:
Benjamin Arnold. Medieval Germany, 500–1300: A Political Interpretation. University of Toronto Press, 1998.
Heinrich Fichtenau. Living in the Tenth Century: Studies in Mentalities and Social Orders. University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Karl Leyser. Rule and Conflict in an Early Medieval Society. Blackwell, 1979.

Lecture 20: https://www.bitchute.com/video/dR82cyXMs6I6/