Europe was in a critical moment of being surrounded on three sides, attacked not only by the Arabs in the south, but also by pirates in the north, and by the Magyars in the east. If it weren't for Charlie Matt preventing the Arabs from moving north in World War I, perhaps Europe today would not exist.
——Hou Jianxin
With Charlemagne at the center, we should also remember his dad and grandpa. His father was called Pepin (founder of the Carolingian dynasty), and it is said that Pepin was very short, so he was nicknamed "Pepin the Dwarf". Pepin conquered a place in Italy, rescued the Pope at the time, and gave the place to the Pope, which has since become the source of the Pope's sovereign state, which is today's Papal State, the Vatican State. Anyone who has been to the Vatican knows that although it is not a big place, it is a sovereign state. So this papal state existed before 800 AD, but it was larger than it is now. Through this incident, we can know that the relationship between the royal power and the clerical power at that time was very close.
Let's talk about Charlemagne's grandfather, Charlie Matt. We have said before that there was a period of darkness, violence, bloodshed, and disorder in Europe that began to change after Charlemagne's grandfather, Charlie Matt. Charlie Matt launched a reform called the "Matt Reform." What is the "Matt Reform"? The original unconditional reward was changed to a conditional sub-feudalism, and the implementation of the Caiyi system was carried out, that is, the warriors I sealed your land, and the meritorious people I sealed you Caiyi (Caiyi is the manor in the future), linking the battle with the land grant, which greatly improved his cohesion and helped him establish a new order, which is simply called the "feudal system" in simple terms. One of the cores of the "feudal system" is the vassalage of lords, which is a central concept of understanding European civilization and Understanding European history, and understanding it means understanding more than half of European history. However, the term "feudalism" only appeared after modern times, and it was said by Europeans themselves. At that time, it was known who was the lord and who was the vassal. Charlie Matt has a nickname called "Hammer Matt", indicating that he is a powerful figure. So, to whom did he hit the hammer? Hit the Arabs. Europe was in a critical moment of being surrounded on three sides, attacked not only by the Arabs in the south, but also by pirates in the north, and by the Magyars in the east. If it weren't for Charlie Matt preventing the Arabs from moving north in World War I, perhaps Europe today would not exist. In this battle on the borders of the Frankish kingdom, and the War of Arabia, Matt adopted a new way of organization, the combat effectiveness was greatly improved, and he used cavalry, cavalry is knight, knighthood after the Europeans had chivalric literature, chivalric tradition, martial spirit, etc., all of which are related to knighthood. With such a new way of organization, armed with such knights, he prevented the Arabs from going north and defeated the Arabs in World War I. After that, although the Arabs were able to carry out small-scale harassment, they no longer had the strength to attack Europe. So Charlemagne's grandfather was a key figure, known as the founder of feudalism, who ushered in a new order. Without his grandfather, there would be no glory of Charlemagne's Empire.
After Charlemagne, a new order began in Europe, but there were still twists and turns, one of which was the division of the Frankish kingdom. After the death of such a powerful figure as Charlemagne, no one could control the situation of the Empire, so his son divided the Frankish kingdom into three and became the source of today's France, Italy, and Germany, but people at that time called them West Francia, Middle Francia, and East Francia.
Here we briefly describe the general process before Charlemagne created a new stable order, which gave birth to many things in the future, such as its institutional characteristics, its relationship with the church, and its vassalship played a role in the later system. Europe's period of stability should have begun in the 11th century. There is a famous historian in Europe, called Brudel, who said that Europe ushered in the first adolescence in the 11th century, and after this century stabilized, Europeans found a new order. They accept this order, and under this order they constantly ferment the energy it contains.
The core problem of feudalism is the relationship between lords and vassals, and the direction of its civilization is extremely important to the connotation relationship given by the vassal relationship of lords. So, in the case of violence at that time, how to stabilize this lord's vassalage? Without a unified leadership, without a unified law, without a strong figure, all of them are strong and powerful, what should we do? The vassal will defect to a powerful local figure, and if this person has strength and style, he may gather more people. So it enters a new stage, this stage is more organized, what is organizational? That is, there is a certain contract, when the vassal defects to the lord, it should be a choice, a face-to-face choice, after he sits down with the lord, the two will have a ceremony, which basically means, I am loyal to you from now on, you give me land, give me security. However, this way of defecting to the lord is person-to-person, and both sides also have a certain status, both are knights and above. It also has certain conditions, the lord provides security, provides land, and the vassals provide what? First, the vassals had the obligation to make suggestions, that is, to make rationalized suggestions to the lords. Second, there is an obligation to accompany the lord to the court. A European tradition is peer trial, or peer trial, that is, only one level of people can judge, the nobles have the trials of the nobles, the tenants have the trials of the sharecroppers, and the vassals have the responsibility to accompany the lords to the court and participate in the trials. Third, vassals also have the obligation to show respect and loyalty. For example, when the eldest son of a lord becomes a knight, when the daughter of a lord marries, and so on, the vassal should show a loyalty, in fact, more of a relationship, a relationship of obedience and hierarchy. There is also an obligation, the duty to redeem the king. The kings of Europe are all fighting, in fact, much like when we were in the pre-Qin Dynasty, for example, when the King of Wu was in front of him, the king was often captured by the other side, and after being captured, he did not kill, but he had to redeem it with heavy money. The identity is different, the price is not equal, where does the money to redeem the king come from? It is his duty to come out of the vassals.
Historians in Europe believe that there is a certain reciprocity in lordship relations, that is, what you offer me, what I provide for you. But I think the most important point is that this reciprocity can also be found in other forms of civilization, but in this kind of civilization, there is a very, very important difference from other civilizations, that is, the vassal side also has an independent right, such as the vassal is not loyal to the lord, the lord can not be vassal, then the vassal thinks that the lord has not fulfilled his obligations, but also can betray the lord, which is legally reasonable. At that time, there was a famous word called "withdrawal of loyalty", which was not only available after modern times, but in the Middle Ages. Medieval literature records such words, and it also records such facts. If the lord fails to fulfill his duties, the vassal can withdraw his loyalty. So they also had the ritual of withdrawing from the vassalage of the lord, but there are very few such records, because when there is a revocation, it often becomes a kind of armed struggle. But there are many ceremonies in which vassals sign relationships with lords, and there are many written records.
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He is a senior professor of Tianjin Normal University, a doctoral supervisor, the deputy director of the Academic Committee of the University, the convener of the World History Discipline Review Group of the Degree Committee of the State Council, an expert of the National Social Science Foundation Review Group, and the president of the Chinese Society of World Medieval History. Distinguished Professor of Nanjing University. His research interests are: British and European economic and social history, European civilization, and the history of Chinese and foreign modernization. Representative monographs include: "A New Theory on the Origin of Capitalism", "Western Europe and China in the Period of Social Transformation", "Peasants, Markets and Social Change: Perspectives on the 11 Villages in Jizhong and Comparison with the English Countryside", "The First Cornerstone of Modernization: The Growth of Individual Peasant Power and Social Change in the Late Middle Ages", etc.
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Editor: Niu Yajie
Review: Gao Qiaoyan
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