Three capitularies detailing military affairs in the Carolingian Empire
Capitularies are decrees promulgated by a ruler, and are usually divided into articles. They sometimes applied to only a specific region or dealt with one subject, or could be wide-ranging works that were meant for the entire state. The first cartulary translated below is an order for alert for a forthcoming campaign, and is of high value for its information on the organizational practicalities of campaigning. The second document is a report on military recruitment problems, and it may have been written as a basis for discussion at a forthcoming assembly which was held that year in Boulogne. The resulting resolutions from the assembly at Boulonge can be found in the third capitulary.
Mobilization alert: Aachen,mid-April
806
In the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Charles, most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great,
pacific emperor and by the mercy of God king of the Franks and the Lombards, to
Fulrad, abbot.
Be it known to you that we have arranged
to hold our general assem–bly this year in Saxony, in the eastern part, on the
river Bode, at the place called Stassfurt. Wherefore we command you that you
must come to the aforesaid place with all your bovines, well armed and equipped,
on 17 June, which is seven days before the mass of St John the Baptist. And you
are to come with your homines
to the aforesaid place equipped in
such a way that you can go from there with the army to whichever region we shall
command - that is, with arms, im–plements and other military material,
provisions and clothing. Each horseman is to carry shield and spear, long-sword
and short-sword, bow, quivers and arrows, and your carts are to contain
implements of various kinds - axes and stone-cutting tools, augers, adzes,
trenching-tools, iron spades and the rest of the implements which an army needs.
And provisions in the carts for three months follow–ing the assembly, weapons
and clothing for half a year. And this we command in absolute terms, that you
see to it that whichever part of our realm the direction of your march may cause
you to pass through you proceed to the aforesaid place in good order and without
unruliness, that is, that you. presume to take nothing other than grass,
firewood and water. And the homines
of each of you should travel with, their carts and horsemen; each is to be with
them at all times until the aforesaid place is reached, that his
homines may
not be given opportunity for wrong-doing by their lord's absence.
But as regards
your gifts, which you ought to present to us at our assembly, send these to us
in mid-May, to wherever we shall then be. If the direction of your march should
perchance so shape itself as to enable you to present then to us in person
during your journey, we greatly desire it. See to it that you show no negligence
in these regards, as you wish to keep our favour.
Memorandum on military matters: Aachen (?), 811
Reasons why men are wont to neglect their military obligations.
2. That poor men complain that they are deprived of their property and make
this complaint equally against the bishops, abbots and their advocates and
against the counts and their hundredmen.
3. They also say that if a man refuses to give his allod to a bishop, abbot
or count, or to a judex or hundredman, these seek opportunities whereby
they can harm that poor man and make him go on every occasion to the army, until
he is impoverished and hands over or sells his allod, like it
or not, while others, who have
handed theirs over, stay at home without any trouble.
6. The counts themselves say that some of the people in
their counties do not obey them and refuse to fulfil the bannus of
the lord emperor, saying that they have to answer to the missi of the
lord emperor for the haribannus, not to the count ...
7. There are also others who say that they are the homines of Pippin
and Louis and then, when the other people of the county have to go to the army, declare that they are going on their lords'
service.
8. There are others again who do not go and say that their lords are staying
at home and that their duty is to go with their lords to wherever the lord
emperor shall have commanded. And there are others who for this reason commend
themselves to those lords who they know will not be going to the army.
9. That above all the people in the counties are becoming more disobedient to
the counts and having more frequent recourse to the missi than was
previously the case
Capitulary of Boulogne: October 811
The articles which the lord emperor estabished at Boulogne, which is on the
coast, in the forty-fourth year of his reign, in October, in the fifth indiction.
1. Any freeman who has been summoned to the army and has scorned to come is
to pay the full haribannus, that is,
sixty solids, or, if he does not have the wherewithal to pay this sum, to
surrender himself as a pledge into servitude to the prince until in the course
of time that bannus comes to be paid
by him; and then he is to revert to his free status again. And if a man who has
surrendered himself into servitude on account of the haribannus
should die in that servitude, his heirs are to lose neither the inheritance
which belongs to them nor their freedom; nor are they to be made liable for that
haribannus.
2. That a count is not to presume to exact the haribannus
in any circumstances, not for neglect of guard-duty or of service in a scare
or garrison or of the obligation to billet troops or of any other bannus,
but that our nissus is first to receive the haribannus
on our behalf and then, by our order, to give him his third part of it. And
the haribannus is not to be exacted in
lands or mancipia but in gold and silver, cloth and arms, horses and livestock
and such commodities as are of use.
3. Any homo holding our honores who has been summoned to the army and not come at the
appointed time is to abstain from meat and wine for as many days as he will have
been convicted of having arrived after the appointed time.
4. As regards the punishment of anyone returning from the army without the
leave and permission of the prince - which action the Franks call herisliz
- it is our will that the ancient ruling be observed, namely, sentence of
death.
5. If someone from among those holding a benefice of the prince should fail
his comrade-in-arms when he is going on campaign against public enemies and
refuse to go or stay with him, he is to lose his honor and benefice.
6. That no one in the army is to invite his comrade-in-arms or any other man
to drink. And whoever is found drunk in the army is to be segregated ['excommunicetur']
in such a way that he may have only water to
drink until such time as he recognises that he has done wrong.
7. As regards
vassals of the emperor who are known to have benefices yet still serve within
the household, it has been decided that any of these who remain at home with the
lord emperor are not to keep their enfeoffed vassals with them but are to suffer
them to go with the count in whose district they dwell.
8. As to what
must be furnished in going on campaign, it has been decreed that what is
established by ancient custom is to be required and observed, that is, men are
to have provisions for three months from crossing the border and arms and
clothing for half a year. But it has been decided that this is to be observed as
follows: the Loire is to be accounted the starting-point for provisioning for
those who travel from the Rhine to the Loire; those who go from the Loire to the
Rhine are required to have three months' provisions from the Rhine; those who
live across the Rhine and march through Saxony are to know that the border is at
the Elbe; and those who dwell across the Loire and have to advance into Spain
are to recognise the mountains of the Pyrenees as their border.
9. Any free homo
who is discovered not to have been in
the army with his lord this year is to be compelled to pay the full haribannus.
And if his lord or count left him at
home, he is to pay that bannus
for him; and as many haribanni
are to be exacted from him as he
left boraines at
home. And since we have allowed every lord to leave two homines at
home this year, it is our will that they make these homines
known to our missi, for they
alone are excused the haribannus
by us.
10. It has been
decreed that no bishop or abbot or abbess or rector or custodian of a church
whatsoever is to presume to give or to sell a coat of mail or a sword to any
outsider without our permission; he may bestow these only on his own vassals.
And should it happen that there are more coats of mail in a particular church or
holy place than are needed for the boraines of the
said church's rector, then let the said rector of the church inquire of the
prince what ought to be done concerning them.
11. That
whenever we wish to dispatch a fleet the lords are to go on the ships and to be
equipped for this.
These texts were first translated in Charlemagne: Translated Sources, by P.D. King (Kendal, 1987). We thank Professor King for his permission to include these items.