The kingdom of Italy

The Carolingian kingdom of Italy occupied the northern and central peninsula down to Rome, with the sole exception of the nominally Byzantine duchy of Venice; the former exarchate and all the Lombard lands except Benevento (to be dealt with separately) were part of it. Charlemagne called himself “king of the Franks and the Lombards,” thus recognizing the separate identity of Italy inside the Carolingian empire. He left the Lombard dukes and gastalds in place unless they openly rebelled against him. Indeed, Italy was so much more tightly governed than Francia that to some extent it served as a model for Charlemagne’s governmental reforms. However, these reforms were intended for the entire empire, and, in general, the reign of Charlemagne in Italy (774–814) effected the slow integration of the latter into the political world of the Franks. Frankish names for institutions and offices replaced Italian ones; for example, dukes and gastalds became counts, gasindi (private military dependents) became vassi (“vassals”), and minor judicial officials were henceforth called scabini, as their counterparts were called north of the Alps. As in Francia, the church acquired greater political importance, for the Carolingians in Italy used bishops in their central and local administrations almost as much as they used counts. And, as long as the Carolingian empire remained united, its legislation, with some modifications, was as valid south of the Alps as it was to the north. The Frankish conquest began, then, a period of slow change rather than rupture; certainly, there was less rupture than with the Lombard conquest in 568. Few Franks, in fact, settled in Italy. These were mostly aristocrats, and indeed they made up almost the entire body of Italian counts appointed after about 800. The Lombard aristocracy, however, remained in the cities and supplied most of the bishops, and bishops were steadily gaining in political importance.

Carolingian government, which is better-documented than that of the Lombards, seems to have slowly increased in sophistication. Carolingian rule in northern and central Italy (774–887) brought a century of uninterrupted peace, and kings had time to perfect the already systematic ties between Pavia and the increasingly literate city-based administrations. The king’s messengers regularly brought royal commands to the cities, and appeals came back to a complex judicial network in Pavia. Locally, legal procedures became standardized and reliable, as surviving documents of court cases show. This does not mean that government or laws were equitable or just, and there is plenty of evidence to indicate they were not, but they were at least systematic. This administrative network remained, even after the crisis of royal power in the early 10th century.

For most of the 70 years after 774, the kings of Italy were either children or living in the north of Europe. Charlemagne rarely came to Italy; his son Louis the Pious (814–840) never did. Charlemagne was at least involved with Roman politics, and Pope Leo III crowned him emperor in 800; but this title held little practical significance until the German emperors reestablished it in 962, and Louis was anyway crowned emperor in Aachen (now in Germany), not in Rome, in 813. Louis’s brother Pippin was subking of Italy until his death in 810, and he was succeeded by his son Bernard (812–817). Louis, however, replaced Bernard with his own son Lothar I (817–855); Bernard revolted, but he was captured and blinded, and he died in 818. Lothar, like his father and grandfather, was more interested in Frankish politics, particularly during the Frankish civil wars of the 830s.

After the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the Carolingian empire began to be divided between the male heirs of the dynasty; West Francia (roughly, modern France), East Francia (roughly, modern Germany), and Italy were the major new kingdoms that emerged. Lothar’s son Louis II (844–875) was king-emperor only in Italy. Louis II, whose reign was in many ways the high point of the Carolingian kingdom in the peninsula, was an active interventionist king. He used both the Pavia administration and new legislation to restore royal authority, which had slipped a little during the civil wars in Francia. His laws of 850, in particular, directed against robbery and the abuse of power by the rich, attest to the seriousness of his intent. Louis, and an entourage of powerful bishops and lay aristocrats (notably the Supponids, relatives of his wife Engelberga), reestablished firm royal hegemony in northern Italy in the 850s.