Treaty of Verdun

The Dissolution of Carolingian Unity

The Treaty of Verdun, signed in 843 AD, stands as a decisive moment in the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and the shaping of the political map of medieval Europe.

Following the death of Charlemagne in 814, the unity of the Frankish realm, which had briefly coalesced around his powerful figure, began to unravel. Charlemagne’s only surviving son, Louis the Pious, struggled to maintain the integrity of the empire throughout his reign, facing civil wars and internal discord that erupted between him and his own sons, particularly after attempts were made to revise the laws of succession.

Upon the death of Louis the Pious in 840, the succession crisis deepened into open conflict among his three sons: Lothair I, Louis the German, and Charles the Bald. Lothair, the eldest at forty-five years of age, claimed imperial supremacy over his brothers, a claim that provoked fierce resistance from Louis the German and Charles the Bald.

The ensuing warfare shifted alliances and solidified the fissures within the Frankish aristocracy. In 842, Louis the German and Charles the Bald united their forces against Lothair, sealing their alliance with the Oaths of Strasbourg.

These oaths were sworn in early forms of the German and French languages, a linguistic divergence that signalled the emerging distinct national identities within the empire. The conflict culminated in the Treaty of Verdun, which formalised the division of the vast Carolingian territory.

The Tripartite Division

The Treaty of Verdun ended the prolonged warfare by partitioning the empire into three separate kingdoms, a division that laid the geopolitical groundwork for the modern nations of France and Germany.

Lothair I retained the imperial title, though it became largely honorific without the unified authority exercised by Charlemagne.

He received Middle Francia, a long and geographically complex corridor stretching from the North Sea down to Italy. This central kingdom was inherently unstable and became a region frequently contested by its neighbours in subsequent centuries.

Louis the German received East Francia, comprising the largely German-speaking lands east of the Rhine. This territory would eventually evolve into the Kingdom of Germany and the core of the Holy Roman Empire.

Charles the Bald was awarded West Francia, which encompassed the mostly Frankish and Gallo-Roman regions to the west. These later political, linguistic, and cultural entities became the Kingdom of France, the myriad German States, and the semi-autonomous kingdoms of Burgundy and Lotharingia.

The partition at Verdun marked the first formal division of Western Europe along linguistic and cultural lines. While the Merovingians had treated their kingdom as single yet divisible, often partitioning it among heirs, the Carolingian division at Verdun proved permanent in a way that shattered the imperial ideal.

The empire’s division weakened its collective ability to defend against external threats, such as the incursions of the Vikings and the Muslims. Internal fragmentation and dynastic rivalry continued for generations, setting a precedent for the feudal order and undermining imperial centralisation.

Frankish Identity and Legal Traditions

The fragmentation of the empire at Verdun must be understood against the backdrop of Frankish identity and legal traditions.

The Franks had forged their identity through a blend of Germanic customs and Roman administrative structures. Under the Merovingians, the Lex Salica or Salic Law was established, codifying customs and emphasising the value of the individual through the wergeld system.

This legal code reinforced Frankish identity by making their legal customs the prevalent law over the peoples of the realm, including the Gallo-Romans.

The Carolingians, however, sought to create a more encompassing identity through the use of capitularies, legislative decrees that applied to all subjects and emphasised Christian unity and loyalty to the emperor.

Charlemagne used these legal instruments to instil a sense of collective purpose, conflating service to the king with service to God. The capitularies aimed to create a Christian empire that transcended tribal divisions, transforming the Franks into the self-proclaimed heralds of Western Christendom.

Yet, the Frankish custom of partible inheritance, which treated the kingdom as a patrimony to be divided among heirs, ultimately worked against this unifying political vision. The Treaty of Verdun was the ultimate expression of this custom, overriding the imperial unity that Charlemagne and the churchmen of his court had striven to establish.

The Religious and Imperial Dimension

The division of the empire also had profound implications for the relationship between the Frankish rulers and the Papacy. The Carolingians had risen to power through a symbiotic alliance with the Popes, legitimised by the deposing of the Merovingians and the anointing of Pepin the Short.

This partnership culminated in the coronation of Charlemagne in 800, an act that challenged the legitimacy of the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople and asserted a new Western imperial identity.

The Franks used their political and military power to interfere in doctrinal matters, such as the imposition of the Filioque clause in the Creed, which Charlemagne championed despite the resistance of Pope Leo III.

This theological wedge was used to undermine the authority of Constantinople and assert Frankish superiority. With the fragmentation of the empire after Verdun, the power of the Franks over the Papacy was weakened, though not broken.

The dissolution of central authority allowed the Papacy to assert its own claims to universal sovereignty more aggressively, eventually leading to the Gregorian reforms and the assertion of papal supremacy over secular rulers.

The imperial title retained by Lothair I after Verdun became increasingly theoretical as the material basis of his power diminished.

The Carolingian experiment, which sought to recreate the Roman Empire in the West, ultimately failed to achieve lasting political unity. The structure of the empire, dependent on the personal authority of the monarch, proved fragile in the face of dynastic rivalry.

The division at Verdun ensured that Europe would remain a mosaic of rival states rather than a unified political body, a condition that persisted throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era.

The Legacy of Fragmentation

The Treaty of Verdun institutionalised the divisions that would shape Western Europe for centuries. By creating distinct West and East Frankish kingdoms, it laid the foundation for the divergent histories of France and Germany.

The middle kingdom, lacking a cohesive geographic or cultural identity, disintegrated into smaller territories like Lotharingia and Burgundy, becoming a source of perpetual conflict.

The end of the united empire left the continent vulnerable to external incursions and internal discord, fostering the rise of feudalism as local lords assumed the powers of defence and administration that the fractured central government could no longer provide.

Feudalism arose as a defensive reaction to the breakdown in central authority, characterised by the splintering of state sovereignty among a mass of small owners of property.

Government ceased to be a matter of the state machine and became part of the patrimony of powerful men, bound together by personal oaths of loyalty rather than obligation to a common weal.

The fragmentation begun at Verdun thus accelerated the transition from the centralised administration attempted by Charlemagne to the localized, militaristic society of the feudal age.

In summary, the Treaty of Verdun was the death knell of the Carolingian dream of a unified Christian empire in the West.

It acknowledged the cultural and linguistic realities that were pulling the Franks apart and established the political boundaries that would define the nation-states of Europe.

While the Carolingian dynasty continued for a time in the separate kingdoms, the unity of the Frankish realm was irretrievably lost, replaced by a competitive system of rival sovereignties that would characterise European history for the next millennium.