Age of Vikings and Coronations 800
On Christmas Day 800, in St Peter's in Rome, Pope Leo III set an imperial crown on the head of Charles, King of the Franks. More than three hundred years after the fall of Western Rome, the West had an emperor again. But ever since the monastery of Lindisfarne had burned seven years earlier, dragon-headed ships had been coming down from the northern seas.
The shape of the age
Charlemagne's empire stretched from the Pyrenees to the Elbe, yet the king ruled it through counts and bishops and through the sworn retainers who had pledged him their loyalty. Loyalty was rewarded with benefices, grants of land that would become the roots of feudalism. That is why, in this era, the knight's place is taken by the sworn retainer, grants of land are called benefices, and the call to war goes out at the Marchfield assembly in May.
Beyond the empire lay a world less of states than of tribes and chieftains. Scandinavia had the kings of the Danes and the Svear and the petty kings of Vestfold and Hordaland; to the east were Slavic tribal confederations such as the Obotrites and the Veleti, and the Khazar Khaganate on the steppe. Britain was divided among Anglo-Saxon kingdoms such as Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, and in Iberia the Emirate of Córdoba faced the mountain kingdom of Asturias. The richest realms were still Byzantium in the east and the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad.
Great events in the game
- The Treaty of Verdun Charlemagne died in 814, and in 843 the three sons of Louis the Pious divided the empire into West, Middle and East Francia: the starting point of France and Germany.
- The Viking raids and the Danelaw In 845 Ragnar's fleet besieged Paris, and in 865 the Danes' Great Heathen Army landed in England. In 878 Alfred the Great won at Edington and split the island between Wessex and the Danelaw, and in 911 Rollo received the mouth of the Seine and founded Normandy.
- The Rus and the Magyars In 862 Rurik settled in Novgorod, and in 882 Oleg took Kiev. In 895 the seven tribes of the Magyars entered the Carpathian Basin and raided Western Europe for half a century, until Otto I broke them at the Lechfeld in 955.
- The Holy Roman Empire and the new Christian kingdoms In 962 Otto I was crowned emperor in Rome. Mieszko of Poland was baptised in 966 and Vladimir of Kiev in 988, and in 1000 Stephen became King of Hungary. In 1054 the churches of East and West excommunicated each other and split apart.
- 1066 England had three kings in a single year. Harold struck down Harald Hardrada, the last Viking king, at Stamford Bridge, but three days later William, Duke of Normandy, landed, and at Hastings the crown changed hands.
How to enjoy this era
The map is more finely divided than in any other era, full of tribal lands and petty kingdoms, which makes it a good era for starting on a small patch of land and founding a new realm. At first the Franks hold a great block of Western Europe, but inheritance soon splits it apart, so watch for the cracks.
Major powers
| Power | In the game |
|---|---|
| Kingdom of the Franks (Carolingian Empire) | The giant of Western Europe. After Charlemagne dies, it splits among his grandsons into West, Middle and East Francia. |
| Byzantium | The emperor in Constantinople. Facing the Bulgars, the Arabs and the ships of the Rus, it carries on the name of Rome. |
| Petty kings of the Danes, Svear and Norway | Home of the dragon ships. They gather silver by raiding and trading, and soon take land across the sea. |
| Anglo-Saxon kingdoms | Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria. Before the Danish invasions, Wessex binds England into one. |
| Córdoba and Asturias | The Islamic state of al-Andalus and the Christian kingdom of the northern mountains. Córdoba becomes a caliphate and then shatters into taifas. |
| Khazars, Bulgars and the Slavic tribes | Powers of the eastern steppe and forest. Between them, the Rus and the Magyars found new states. |
Life in the age
Most people lived as serfs or free peasants in small villages carved out of the forest. They owed labour on their lord's land and paid tithes to the church, and almost the only people who could read were monks. In Charlemagne's palace school and in monastic scriptoria, scribes copied the classics and the Bible in a newly spread rounded script, and much of the Latin literature that survives today was saved in this age. Events such as the palace school and the ransomed Gospel book capture this world.
In the north, free men gathered at an assembly called the thing to make law and settle disputes, and feuds were ended by paying blood money or by marriage. The Vikings were traders as well as raiders, and in the markets of Hedeby and Birka Arab silver, Frisian cloth, furs and slaves changed hands. It was a society in which a single mocking verse from a skald could destroy a man's honour, and in which a freed slave might begin a new life by pouring the freedom ale.