Introduction: A New Sacred Kingship

On a momentous day in 751, the Frankish realm witnessed a revolutionary transformation. In the monastery of Saint-Denis, bishops anointed Pippin III with holy oil, marking not merely the accession of a new king but the birth of a new conception of monarchy. This ritual, unprecedented in Frankish history, established the principle that royal legitimacy derived not from blood alone but from divine sanction mediated through the Church. The Carolingian dynasty that Pippin founded would push the boundaries of Frankish power to their greatest extent, revive the imperial title in the West, and create institutional and cultural frameworks that would influence European civilization for centuries.

The Carolingians—named after their most illustrious member, Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus)—began their rise to power not as kings but as mayors of the palace under the later Merovingians. Through three generations of careful political maneuvering, military success, and strategic alliance-building, they transformed themselves from royal servants to royal replacements. Their success story illuminates fundamental changes in early medieval society: the growing importance of cavalry warfare, the deepening alliance between secular and ecclesiastical power, and the emergence of new forms of government that combined Roman administrative ideals with Frankish military structures.

Yet the Carolingian achievement proved as fragile as it was spectacular. The empire that Charlemagne built began fragmenting within a generation of his death, victim to the same forces of regional particularism and dynastic division that had weakened the Merovingians. By the late ninth century, the Carolingian realm had permanently divided into distinct kingdoms that would evolve into France and Germany. In West Francia—the kingdom that would become France—the later Carolingians faced challenges from Vikings, ambitious nobles, and ultimately a new dynasty that would outlast them all.