ABSTRACT
In the course of the ninth century, the Carolingian Empire collapsed, mainly for the same reasons that many past empires have not survived: it was too big, and due to its reliance on personal power that, again, was based on personal relationships between central rulers and local magnates, it lacked the kind of formal bureaucracy that could hold it together in a situation wherein, after the death of a strong leader, weak successors were faced with bids for independence by their subordinates. After several divisions between successive generations of Charlemagne’s heirs, the former unity was lost and Carolingian Europe was fragmented into a number of warring principalities.1
