Charlemagne: Three capitularies detailing military affairs in the Carolingian Empire

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Charles, most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great, pacific emperor and by the mercy of God king of the Franks and the Lombards, to Fulrad, abbot.

Be it known to you that we have arranged to hold our general assem-bly this year in Saxony, in the eastern part, on the river Bode, at the place called Stassfurt. Wherefore we command you that you must come to the aforesaid place with all your bovines, well armed and equipped, on 17 June, which is seven days before the mass of St John the Baptist. And you are to come with your homines to the aforesaid place equipped in such a way that you can go from there with the army to whichever region we shall command - that is, with arms, im-plements and other military material, provisions and clothing. Each horseman is to carry shield and spear, long-sword and short-sword, bow, quivers and arrows, and your carts are to contain implements of various kinds - axes and stone-cutting tools, augers, adzes, trenching-tools, iron spades and the rest of the implements which an army needs. And provisions in the carts for three months follow-ing the assembly, weapons and clothing for half a year. And this we command in absolute terms, that you see to it that whichever part of our realm the direction of your march may cause you to pass through you proceed to the aforesaid place in good order and without unruliness, that is, that you. presume to take nothing other than grass, firewood and water. And the homines of each of you should travel with, their carts and horsemen; each is to be with them at all times until the aforesaid place is reached, that his homines may not be given opportunity for wrong-doing by their lord's absence.

But as regards your gifts, which you ought to present to us at our assembly, send these to us in mid-May, to wherever we shall then be. If the direction of your march should perchance so shape itself as to enable you to present then to us in person during your journey, we greatly desire it. See to it that you show no negligence in these regards, as you wish to keep our favour.

Memorandum on military matters: Aachen, 811

Reasons why men are wont to neglect their military obligations.

2. That poor men complain that they are deprived of their property and make this complaint equally against the bishops, abbots and their advocates and against the counts and their hundredmen.

3. They also say that if a man refuses to give his allod to a bishop, abbot or count, or to a judex or hundredman, these seek opportunities whereby they can harm that poor man and make him go on every occasion to the army, until he is impoverished and hands over or sells his allod, like it or not, while others, who have handed theirs over, stay at home without any trouble.

6. The counts themselves say that some of the people in their counties do not obey them and refuse to fulfil the bannus of the lord emperor, saying that they have to answer to the missi of the lord emperor for the haribannus, not to the count ...

7. There are also others who say that they are the homines of Pippin and Louis and then, when the other people of the county have to go to the army, declare that they are going on their lords' service.

8. There are others again who do not go and say that their lords are staying at home and that their duty is to go with their lords to wherever the lord emperor shall have commanded. And there are others who for this reason commend themselves to those lords who they know will not be going to the army.

9. That above all the people in the counties are becoming more disobedient to the counts and having more frequent recourse to the missi than was previously the case

Capitulary of Boulogne: October 811

The articles which the lord emperor estabished at Boulogne, which is on the coast, in the forty-fourth year of his reign, in October, in the fifth indiction.

1. Any freeman who has been summoned to the army and has scorned to come is to pay the full haribannus, that is, sixty solids, or, if he does not have the wherewithal to pay this sum, to surrender himself as a pledge into servitude to the prince until in the course of time that bannus comes to be paid by him; and then he is to revert to his free status again. And if a man who has surrendered himself into servitude on account of the haribannus should die in that servitude, his heirs are to lose neither the inheritance which belongs to them nor their freedom; nor are they to be made liable for that haribannus.

2. That a count is not to presume to exact the haribannus in any circumstances, not for neglect of guard-duty or of service in a scare or garrison or of the obligation to billet troops or of any other bannus, but that our nissus is first to receive the haribannus on our behalf and then, by our order, to give him his third part of it. And the haribannus is not to be exacted in lands or mancipia but in gold and silver, cloth and arms, horses and livestock and such commodities as are of use.

3. Any homo holding our honores who has been summoned to the army and not come at the appointed time is to abstain from meat and wine for as many days as he will have been convicted of having arrived after the appointed time.

4. As regards the punishment of anyone returning from the army without the leave and permission of the prince - which action the Franks call herisliz - it is our will that the ancient ruling be observed, namely, sentence of death.

5. If someone from among those holding a benefice of the prince should fail his comrade-in-arms when he is going on campaign against public enemies and refuse to go or stay with him, he is to lose his honor and benefice.

6. That no one in the army is to invite his comrade-in-arms or any other man to drink. And whoever is found drunk in the army is to be segregated ['excommunicetur'] in such a way that he may have only water to drink until such time as he recognises that he has done wrong.

7. As regards vassals of the emperor who are known to have benefices yet still serve within the household, it has been decided that any of these who remain at home with the lord emperor are not to keep their enfeoffed vassals with them but are to suffer them to go with the count in whose district they dwell.

8. As to what must be furnished in going on campaign, it has been decreed that what is established by ancient custom is to be required and observed, that is, men are to have provisions for three months from crossing the border and arms and clothing for half a year. But it has been decided that this is to be observed as follows: the Loire is to be accounted the starting-point for provisioning for those who travel from the Rhine to the Loire; those who go from the Loire to the Rhine are required to have three months' provisions from the Rhine; those who live across the Rhine and march through Saxony are to know that the border is at the Elbe; and those who dwell across the Loire and have to advance into Spain are to recognise the mountains of the Pyrenees as their border.

9. Any free homo who is discovered not to have been in the army with his lord this year is to be compelled to pay the full haribannus. And if his lord or count left him at home, he is to pay that bannus for him; and as many haribanni are to be exacted from him as he left boraines at home. And since we have allowed every lord to leave two homines at home this year, it is our will that they make these homines known to our missi, for they alone are excused the haribannus by us.

10. It has been decreed that no bishop or abbot or abbess or rector or custodian of a church whatsoever is to presume to give or to sell a coat of mail or a sword to any outsider without our permission; he may bestow these only on his own vassals. And should it happen that there are more coats of mail in a particular church or holy place than are needed for the boraines of the said church's rector, then let the said rector of the church inquire of the prince what ought to be done concerning them.

11. That whenever we wish to dispatch a fleet the lords are to go on the ships and to be equipped for this.