Hello everyone and welcome back to the Viking Age podcast. My name is Lee and this is episode 24,

The Rise of Charlie the Hammer. And this is part two of our series on the Carolingian Viking Age.

All right, so happy new year, everyone. It's been a while, but I could not be happier to be back in front of the microphone with you all today.

In honor of that, let's skip the plugs this week and get right on with the history. I do have a couple of announcements, but I'll save those for the end of

this episode, and I'd ask you to consider sticking around to hear what I have to say. All right.

So last time, we introduced the Carolingian Viking Age, and then we explored the rise of the kingdoms of the

Franks, which all began with the unification of vast swathes of the former Roman province of Gaul,

under the Frankish King Clovis in the early five hundreds. Then we shifted our attentions to

the rule of the royal dynasty which Clovis founded,

a dynasty known to history as the Merivindians.

By exploring the career of one particular ruler, Queen Brunhild of Austrasia,

we were able to gain some understanding as to the nature of Merivangian rule

in this era. What we found was a political system where, due to some wonky inheritance rules,

over the generations, the land of the Franks was consistently carved up into many kingdoms, each ruled by their own Meravingian ruler.

Throughout Brunhild's long reign, we saw how this division could too easily lead to

constant quarreling, scheming, and bloodshed amongst the descendants of Clovis.

The Maravingians just were not too keen on the whole brotherly love thing.

That said, in spite of their division,

we also witnessed how the Frankish kings and queens of this period were largely able to operate as strong and

effective leaders. They improved their kingdoms, building roads, churches, and monasteries.

They led their armies to war, and they fought to maintain a constant balance of power

between their own prerogatives and those of their leading magnates.

...