Introduction


Charlemagne (Charles the Great)
Charlemagne (Charles the Great) was the ideal medieval king. Tall, stately, and well spoken, he worked hard to make his kingdom an enlightened one for his time. He was King of the Franks from 768 until his death in 814. During that period, he expanded Frankish lands with conquests in Germany and Italy to create a Frankish Empire. Crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day in 800, Charlemagne united much of Europe and provided political stability for the first time since the fall of Rome in the fifth century. Charlemagne also oversaw a rebirth of learning and a revival of arts that was known as the Carolingian Renaissance. He left his mark on Western culture by giving diverse and squabbling kingdoms a single European identity.

Essential Facts

  1. Because Frankish law stipulated that all inheritance was to be divided equally between sons, Charlemagne initially shared power with his brother, Carloman. There was nearly war between the two men when Carloman died suddenly in 771. From that point on, Charlemagne ruled alone.
  2. Charlemagne spent much of his rule at war. He made himself the protector of the papacy, defeating the Lombards in Italy at the request of the Pope. He also waged war against the Spanish, Moors, Saxons, Bavarians, Avars, and Slavs. With his rule, he brought forced conversion to Christianity and thus began to unify European culture.
  3. We know much about Charlemagne because of a biography written about him shortly after his death. The writer, a monk named Einhard who had been in his service, provides a detailed description of Charlemagne’s physical appearance: “Charles was large and strong, and of lofty stature, though not disproportionately tall (his height is well known to have been seven times the length of his foot); the upper part of his head was round, his eyes very large and animated, nose a little long, hair fair, and face laughing and merry.”
  4. Charlemagne believed that to effectively rule and bring Christianity to those he conquered, his people needed to be able to read and write. He brought scholars from far and wide to his palace to make reforms in education. It was under his rule that many churches established schools for boys.
  5. Charlemagne was a legend even in his own lifetime, but his legend took on a life of its own after his death. In the Song of Roland (1130), a historically inaccurate by powerful epic poem, Charlemagne appears as a 200-year-old king who is wise beyond mere mortals.