Divine And Secular:The Construction Of Kingship In The Middle Of Ninth Century West Francia

This dissertation takes the concept of the West Francia kingship which formed in the middle of the 9th century and the practice of defending and protecting of the kingdom as the main object of the study.To be specific,it was the West Francia kingship that formed after the division of the Carolingian Empire continued to develop the theory of kingship in the early times of the dynasty.The kingship of the West Frankland has become more Christianized both theoretically and practically,and the superior clergy of Franks holds the interpretation of knowledge,especially the right to interpret the theory of monarchy.Through the unction and coronations ritual of the king,the Frank kingship was framed in the scope of the Christian monarchy,which laid the basic manifestations of medieval kingship in Western Europe during the early and mid-term period,and became a different and classical kingly behavior and cognitive model.After the Carolingian dynasty flourishing on behalf of Merovingian,the alliance of state and religion with the Holy See,especially through the mid 8th century to the middle of the 9th century,which ruled under the Carolingian kings Pippin the short,the Charlemagne and Charles the Bald,reached its peak.The church gradually became a key element in the Frankish king making and gave the Frankish princes the legitimacy and sanctity coat of the kingship.The Christian Church became an important tool and means which the Franks kings relyed on.In the process,the church profoundly shaped and constructed the Frankish kingship,which is prominently reflected in the theoretical explanation of Frankish kingship,and in the practice of royal rights in maintaining national stability and social justice,at the meantime,the church had played a key role.In addition,the mainstream relationship of Frank church's relationship with the secular monarchy under the turbulent West Frankish kingdom in the middle of the 9th century,went through the model of compromise,competition and even conflict.Based on this,this article further believes that in the middle of the 9th century,the West Frank kingdom split from the Carolingian Empire inherited all aspects of the Empire's achievements in the political system,as well as its ideology and culture,and became a typical example for many later Western European countries,as well as the origin of political thought and system civilization.Under this logic,the main structure of the text is designed as follows.The first two chapters focus on the two aspects of the "divine" nature of West Frank's kignship,namely,the theoretical and practical aspects,and the Christian-directed theoretical construction of royal theory.The first chapter mainly examines the pamphlets of the Carolingian author's theory of kingship: the main culture and historical background of the writing of the “Mirrors for Princes”,especially the relationship between the construction of the sacred kingship theory and the needs of the times,and the nuances of the main subject of this kind of books.From this,we can find the cultural origins between the kingship of West Frankland and the classical era,the Latin godfather,and the Irish writers.This helped to explore the polyphyly and diversity characters of the Frankish kingship on the whole.The exploration of the generality and individuality of the theme of the subject,will help to find the characteristics of the sacred monarchy theory that the church writers tried to regulate in this era.The second chapter focuses on the crown ritual of the West Francia,especially the Archbishop of Hincmar who crowned the king Charles in 869 at the Metz,which was considered as a major event in the clergyzation of the medieval monarchy and in the development of the concept of divine right of king theory.Chapters 3 and 4 are mainly concerned with the manifestation of the secularity of the simultaneous presence of sacredness in the kingship of West Francia.The main reason is that the Frankish rulers safeguarded the stability and peace of the Christian kingdom through legislation and military means which also fit with what the church scholars expected through the reign of Frankish kingship.The secular ruler also uses these two methods to construct the king's own understanding of the kingship.Chapter 3 will examine the relationship between royal authority and legislation,and the Germanic factor that is an important component of West Frank's royal authority,namely,the public meeting system,taking the most representative of the many orders,namely the P?tres edict,which was issued during the reign of Charles the Bald.The fourth chapter is based on the example of fortified bridge which was built in Pont de l`Arche,will explore the military efforts made by the West Frank's king.As a result,The military engineering maintain the security of the kingdom in the middle of the 9th century,and involved the reforms attempts in this process.Both of these are not only the method and means through which the church scholars construct the ideal kingship,but also the manifestation of the secular nature of West Frank's kingship.The fifth chapter mainly explores the process of the construction of the Western royal authority in the middle of the 9th century,the idealism kingship under the actual practice was coupled with the church,but it also conflicted with the secular power.Thus,although the concept of Christianity-directed kingship gradually gent deep into the texture of the royal authority of West Frank.In practice,the secular royal rights showed many aspects of break-up and defiance.In particular,in the middle of the 9th century,the representative event of the struggle between the king and bishops and archbishops,that is,the great historical event that Charles bald king dismantled Hincmar,the Bishop of Laon in 871.This event truly and comprehensively reflected the actual relationship between royal power and religious rights.Finally,I will summarize the full text.Throughout the mid-ninth century,the West Frankish kingship inherited the sacred and the secular ideals of of the kingship in the the early days of the Carolingian dynasty.The Western Fkingship ideology and the king's claims embody the changing pattern of the times in the 9th century.The characteristics laid the basic form and basic pattern of the royal powers of later generations in France and even in Western Europe.In short,exploring the ideals and realities of Western Frankish kingship in the middle of the 9th century enabled us to sort out the development path of Western thought history and political history,and lay a solid foundation for us to understand the early political changes in the West Europe.