ABSTRACT
The Vikings certainly did not discriminate between Carolingian and Anglo-Saxon targets; and English and Frankish chronicles track the hostile Viking armies back and forth across the Channel, recording their movement from one kingdom to another when pickings were richer and more easily obtained elsewhere. During the reign of Charles's grandfather and namesake, the relationship between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and Francia had taken on new dimensions. The evidence of the later eighth century reveals a number of Anglo-Saxons in close proximity to the Frankish king. The sheer numbers of Anglo-Saxon men and women travelling to Rome led to the growth of an English enclave in Rome between St Peter's and the Tiber. By the end of the eighth century the status of the Carolingian king had grown to such an extent that it is unlikely that any important Anglo-Saxon envoy would have travelled to Rome without taking in the Carolingian court wherever it was based.
