Chapter 3 - Warfare

Summary

Warfare played an important social and cultural role in the Carolingian period. The Franks had long had a reputation as a warrior people. Annals were structured around annual campaigns, and warfare was a key aspect of a king’s role. Much poetry dealt with warfare, from the De conversione Saxonum carmen of 777, through to Abbo’s work at the end of the ninth century; the liturgy of warfare also developed considerably in the period.

This Frankish culture of warfare was, like those in most periods, overwhelmingly male, although occasionally royal women directed military operations. In theory, warfare and the use of weapons were lay prerogatives: several texts refer to weapons and marriage as the two key markers of lay life. However, Friedrich Prinz showed that Charlemagne ‘institutionalised’ the military service of the higher clergy (bishops and abbots), making their participation in campaigns and warfare the norm, and weakening the canonical position that such men should not participate in war or carry weapons.