John Bailey
BA History
and Archaeology
The 4th of December is the anniversary of the death of
Carloman (751 – 771), the not so famous younger brother of Charlemagne.
Carloman only lived until he was 20 and, before the new King of the Franks
could do anything with the position he inherited, he died under ‘suspicious
circumstances’ at a time when a war with his brother was growing more likely by
the day. The cause of his death was unknown, but it was concluded he had died
from a ‘severe nosebleed’. This is something that doesn’t seem lethal and probably
was a symptom of something else. It is possible that the king had underlying
health issues; this is something we would know little about due to the lack of
recovered information from the period. Charlemagne could have had something to
do with his death, or it could just have been another chance event in history:
the medieval period was very prone to this, as popes and kings had a habit of
dying at the worst possible times, thus thwarting their effort to accomplish
developments and changes. However, it was extremely convenient for his older
brother Charlemagne who could now take the lands inherited by his brother from
their father Pepin the Short.
The two brothers kept contending for power and what little
actions we know Carloman took during his short reign were mostly to undermine
his brother. He attempted to provoke rebellions with King Desiderius of Italy
at his side, who was the king of the Lombard kingdom of Italy in Northern Italy
at the time. Carloman’s death was sudden and unexpected after the new-found
support he gained from Desiderius to use against his brother. With an all-out
war being so likely, it didn’t take long for Charlemagne to take advantage of
his brother’s death. He seized his lands after being invited to by Carloman’s
‘faithful nobles’, therefore betraying Carloman’s wife and two sons by giving
away the kingdom.
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| Fig. 1: Territories of Charlemagne (red) and Carloman (blue) (source: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/ 190002 4820964502/?lp=true). |
Their father certainly knew of their rivalry from a young age, splitting
his kingdom in two after he had fallen ill and thus forcing them to cooperate
in order to make both kingdoms prosper and be successful. This is demonstrated
on the adjacent map, where Carloman’s
territories are denoted in blue and Charlemagne’s (Charles) in red. The latter
gained kingship over the Austrasians (and possibly Neustria), while the younger
Carloman was given the kingdoms of Burgundy, Provence, Septimania, Alsace and
Alemannia. Aquitaine was divided between them. The theoretical power the two
brothers had was enormous and relatively equal, making
them both unhappy with their inheritance, both
desiring more than the other brother. However, despite Carloman’s
best efforts he didn’t live long enough to contend with his brother and, due to
this, would always be Charlemagne’s number two. Allegedly, Charlemagne was also
more physically imposing than his brother and had a stronger personality thus
often overshadowing his brother. However, whilst this impression could stem
from clergymen wanting to elevate Charlemagne, this enshrined the image of his
superiority over his brother from childhood onwards. Carloman possibly even
feared his brother and probably did plot against him due to the fact that he
was so insecure in his own position, believing that Charlemagne would take
military action against him soon. Carloman died too swiftly and prematurely to
rival his brother’s legend of creating an empire, and thus is why little is
said about the brother of Charlemagne.
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