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Y202: Charlemagne 768–814

  • 8 subtopics
  • 20 things to know
  • Unit group 2
  • Non-British period study, one unit of twenty-four

What Y202: Charlemagne 768–814 covers

Charlemagne 768–814 is unit Y202 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-four options in unit group 2, the non-British period study; a student sits one of them. Its four key topics are war and conquest, administration and internal affairs, the Carolingian Renaissance, later kingship and imperial rule. 293 recall questions across 8 subtopics.

Where it is assessed

Unit group 2

Non-British period study, one unit of twenty-four.

Check the OCR specification ↗

The 8 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Why was the Church indispensable to Charlemagne's government?

Key term

Why was the division of the kingdom with Carloman in 768 so dangerous?

Who and when

What threat did the Danes pose in Charlemagne's later years?

Key term

How were capitularies enforced across the empire?

Key term

What did Alcuin contribute to Charlemagne's programme?

Process

Give two reasons why an imperial title was available and attractive in 800.

Process

Explain how Charlemagne's motives for war changed over the reign.

Key term

What happened at the pass of Roncesvalles?

Key term

Name three of the royal centres associated with Charlemagne's court.

Key term

Define the term capitulary.

Who and when

Why did Charlemagne pay for scholarship and the copying of books?

Key term

What is the lasting importance of the Carolingian copying programme?

Key term

Describe what happened in St Peter's on Christmas Day 800.

Who and when

How did the deaths of Charlemagne's sons change the succession?

Key term

How was Louis made emperor in 813, and why was the manner significant?

Key term

How was the succession dispute with Carloman resolved?

Key term

Explain why the missi were sent out in pairs of one layman and one churchman.

Who and when

Why did Charlemagne impose Roman chant on his churches?

Who and when

Why did Einhard claim Charlemagne would not have entered the church had he known what Leo intended?

Key term

Give three reasons for seeing Charlemagne's last years as a period of decline.

Take Y202: Charlemagne 768–814 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • Capitulary vs Missi dominici

    Capitulary: a royal ordinance issued in numbered chapters and sent out to be enforced. Missi dominici: the pairs of envoys, one lay and one clerical, sent to inspect the counties.

  • Admonitio Generalis vs Divisio of 806

    Admonitio Generalis: the great reforming ordinance of 789 setting standards of conduct and learning for the clergy. Divisio of 806: the plan for dividing the empire between the emperor's three sons.

  • Carolingian minuscule vs Programmatic Capitulary of 802

    Carolingian minuscule: the clear rounded script developed to make texts legible and accurately copied. Programmatic Capitulary of 802: the ordinance requiring an oath of loyalty from every free man and setting out the duties of office.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was the state of the Frankish lands when Charlemagne came to the throne in 768?

    Model answer

    He inherited a large, wealthy and militarily aggressive kingdom recently consolidated by his father Pippin, but one that was divided with his brother and whose outlying peoples such as the Aquitanians and Saxons were only loosely controlled.

  2. 2

    Why was the division of the kingdom with Carloman in 768 so dangerous?

    Model answer

    The two brothers received interlocking territories rather than clean blocks, so neither had a defensible realm, and Carloman refused to help suppress the Aquitanian revolt, leaving the two courts openly hostile.

  3. 3

    How was the succession dispute with Carloman resolved?

    Model answer

    Carloman died suddenly in 771, and Charlemagne immediately took over his lands and won over his followers before the claims of Carloman's young sons could be pressed.

  4. 4

    Explain how Charlemagne's motives for war changed over the reign.

    Model answer

    Early campaigns were driven by plunder, tribute and the need to reward and occupy his aristocracy, but from the 770s conquest was increasingly justified as the defence and expansion of Christendom, with conversion becoming an aim in itself.

  5. 5

    What triggered Charlemagne's invasion of the Lombard kingdom in 773?

    Model answer

    Pope Hadrian I appealed for help against Desiderius, who was pressing on papal territory and sheltering Carloman's family.

  6. 6

    How did the Lombard kingdom fall?

    Model answer

    Charlemagne besieged Desiderius in his capital at Pavia through the winter of 773 to 774 until the city capitulated, after which Desiderius was deposed into a monastery and Charlemagne took the title King of the Lombards.

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Y202: Charlemagne 768–814 revision questions

What does Y202: Charlemagne 768–814 cover in OCR A-Level History A?
8 subtopics: war and conquest: situation in the frankish lands and wars against the saxons, war and conquest: later campaigns, methods of warfare and reasons for success, administration and internal affairs: aims and methods of control and organisation, economic policies, administration and internal affairs: importance of the church to effective government, the carolingian renaissance: motives for patronage, minuscule, chant and the schools, the carolingian renaissance: work of scholars and extent of a cultural revival, later kingship and imperial rule: leo iii and the imperial coronation of 800 and later kingship and imperial rule: relations with byzantium and consolidation or decline in later years. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Y202: Charlemagne 768–814 organised?
By the OCR H505 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

Every question in Y202: Charlemagne 768–814, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

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