The Dark Ages: Men of the North

We need to cross the Channel and search out those powerful Dark Age creatives, the Carolingians – rulers of the Franks.

The Franks were the ancestors of the modern French. Originally, they were Germans, just like the Anglo-Saxons, but they arrived in Gaul on one of those expansionist, barbarian waves that we saw earlier. And early in their story, the Franks converted to Christianity, and they became particularly fierce defenders of the faith.

Plenty of Dark Age societies liked their art to sparkle. A taste for gold is one of the Dark Ages’ defining characteristics. But when it comes to religious bling, the Frankish Christians were top of the charts.

If you have ever wondered why the French sometimes conduct themselves as if they were the chosen people, it’s because that’s exactly what they thought they were. In 732 A.D., the Franks, led by the heroic Charles Martel, Charles the Hammer, defeated an invading Muslim army, which had come up from Spain hoping to conquer Europe.

The Franks believed that God had chosen them to save Europe from Islam. They were his chosen people. And their art seems particularly aware of the special position in God’s good books.

Charlemagne

The mightiest of the Frankish kings, Charles the Great, or Charlemagne as he is usually called, came from the dynasty called the Carolingians. He was crowned in 768, and with typical Frankish modesty, pushed himself right to the front of Dark Age politics.

Charlemagne was determined to expand the Frankish Empire. After all, it was God’s chosen Empire, and the Carolingians were God’s chosen leaders. This expansion of Charlemagne’s Christian Empire, was achieved with deep brutality. In Germany, the Saxons, who were still pagans, were given a very simple choice – convert to Christianity, or die. If they didn’t become Christians, they were killed. That was Charlemagne’s choice.

In 800 A.D., in Rome, on Christmas Day itself, the Pope rewarded Charlemagne for his efforts on behalf of Christianity by crowning him as the holy Roman Emperor. Charlemagne was now the leader of the largest empire Europe had seen since the fall of the Romans. The centre of gravity of Europe had shifted, and it had shifted to the north.

Aachen Chapel

This is the chapel that Charlemagne built, here in Aachen on the Belgian borders. And from here, he ruled his new Christian Empire.

This is actually the marble throne on which he sat. There is a spooky simplicity to Charlemagne’s throne… Four slabs of ancient marble, four metal clamps. Six marble steps and that’s it. A gold-loving Emperor is pretending to be a simple man.

Charlemagne began building this chapel in 786 A.D. and at exactly the same time, in Spain, the Muslims were building the Great Mosque, in Cordoba, which I hope you remember. Such inventive, and dramatic architecture, with those nimble, double arches, and that gorgeous forest of columns.

Charlemagne’s chapel, this chapel, was intended to be a deliberate riposte to the Muslims. A Christian answer to the Cordoba mosque. Look up there, at the arches, see how they have these alternating bands of cover, just like the arches in the Cordoba mosque.

But in Aachen, the stripy arches don’t float or soar… nothing does. This is architecture drawn with the biceps, not the wrist… effortful, and ponderous. I don’t like this building, it feels brutal, clunky. This round shape, was based originally on a Roman mausoleum, and you can still sense the doom and cold atmospheres of the mausoleum in here.

Gloomy, expensive, intense. Frankish Christianity bulldozes the senses. But it doesn’t really pleasure them, at least I don’t think so. In the battle of the Northern Christians, give me Anglo-Saxon art, any day.