Charlemagne

Charlemagne, portrait by Albrecht Dürer.

Charlemagne (2 April 742 or 747 – 28 January 814) (also Charles the Great^[1]; from Latin, Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus), son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, was the king of the Franks from 768 to 814 and king of the Lombards from 774 to 781. He was crowned Imperator Augustus in Rome on Christmas Day, 800 by Pope Leo III and is therefore regarded as the founder of the Holy Roman Empire, a reincarnation of the ancient Western Roman Empire. Through military conquest and defence, he solidified and expanded his realm to cover most of Western Europe and is today regarded as the founding father of both France and Germany. His was the first truly imperial power in the West since the fall of Rome.

Background

A Frankish king (center), like Charlemagne, depicted in the Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (about 870).

The Franks, originally a pagan, barbarian, Germanic people who migrated over the River Rhine in the late fifth century into a crumbling Roman Empire, were, by the early eighth century, the masters of Gaul and a good portion of central Europe east of the Rhine and the protectors of the Papacy and the Roman Catholic faith. However, their ancient dynasty of kings, the Merovingians, had long before descended into a state of complete disutility. Their chief officers, the mayors of the palace, had, practically-speaking, usurped all government powers of any consequence in those Dark Ages. The final dynasts were called rois fainéants, do-nothing kings, and for a period of five years (737-742), the mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, governed without one on the throne.

It was from these mayors of the palaces that the Franks were to draw more useful monarchs. Charles Martel was the illegitimate son of the Mayor Pippin of Heristal, who himself was the son of a Mayor Ansegisel and his wife, Saint Begga. It is through the fathers of Ansegisel and Begga, St Arnulf of Metz and Pippin of Landen respectively, that Martel's dynasty received its name, that of Arnulfings or Pippinids. Martel died before he could place a new puppet king on the throne and he was succeeded by his son Pippin the Short, the father of Charlemagne. Pippin promptly placed a puppet on the throne and refusing to play any part in such a charade as his father's, he called for the pope, Zachary, to give the man with the royal power the royal title. This the pope did and Pippin was crowned and consecrated king of the Franks in 751.

As a consequence of this, Pippin's eldest son, Charlemagne, immediately became heir to the great realm which already covered most of western and central Europe. It was not the old name of Pippin of Landen or Ansegisel that was to be immortalised, however. From his Latin name, Carolus, the new dynasty which was to bequeath the world France and Germany is called the Carolingian.

Date and place of birth

Charlemagne's birthday was believed to be April 1, 742; however several factors led to reconsideration of this traditional date. First, the year 742 was calculated from his age given at death, rather than attestation within primary sources. Another date is given in the Annales Petarienses, April 1, 747. In that year, April 1 is Easter. The birth of an Emperor on Easter is a coincidence likely to provoke comment, but there is no such comment documented in 747, leading some to suspect that the Easter birthday was a pious fiction concocted as a way of honoring the Emperor. Other commentators weighing the primary records have suggested that the birth was one year later, 748. At present, it is impossible to be certain of the date of the birth of Charlemagne. The best guesses include April 1, 747, after April 15, 747, or April 1, 748, probably in Herstal or Jupille (where his father was born), both close to Liège, in Belgium, the region from which both the Meroving and Caroling families originate. Other cities have been suggested, including Prüm, Düren, or Aachen.

Personal appearance

Portrait of Charlemagne, whom the Song of Roland names the "King with the Grizzly Beard"—Facsimile of an engraving from the end of the sixteenth century.

Charlemagne's personal appearance is not known from any contemporary portrait, but it is known rather famously from a good description of Einhard, who wrote his biography Vita Caroli Magni. He is well known to have been tall, stately, and fair-haired, with disproportionately thick neck. As Einhard tells it in his 22nd chapter:

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. Thus his appearance was always stately and dignified, whether he was standing or sitting; although his neck was thick and somewhat short, and his belly rather prominent; but the symmetry of the rest of his body concealed these defects. His gait was firm, his whole carriage manly, and his voice clear, but not so strong as his size led one to expect.

The Roman tradition of realistic personal portraiture was in complete eclipse at this time, where individual traits were submerged in iconic typecastings. Charlemagne, as an ideal ruler, ought to be portrayed in the corresponding fashion, any contemporary would have assumed. The images of enthroned Charlemagne, God's representative on Earth, bear more connections to the icons of Christ in majesty than to modern (or antique) conceptions of portraiture. Charlemagne in later imagery (as in the Dürer portrait) is often portrayed with flowing blond hair, due to a misunderstanding of Einhard, who describes Charlemagne as having canitie pulchra, or "beautiful white hair", which has been rendered as blonde or fair in many translations. The Latin word for blond is flavus, and rutilo, meaning auburn, is the word Tacitus uses for the Germans' hair.

Dress

Charlemagne wore the traditional, inconspicuous, and distinctly non-aristocratic costume of the Frankish people, described by Einhard thus:

He used to wear the national, that is to say, the Frank, dress-next his skin a linen shirt and linen breeches, and above these a tunic fringed with silk; while hose fastened by bands covered his lower limbs, and shoes his feet, and he protected his shoulders and chest in winter by a close-fitting coat of otter or marten skins.

He accessorised too, wearing a blue cloak and always carrying a sword with him. The typical sword was of a golden or silver hilt. However, he wore fancy jewelled swords to banquets or ambassadorial receptions. Nevertheless:

He despised foreign costumes, however handsome, and never allowed himself to be robed in them, except twice in Rome, when he donned the Roman tunic, chlamys, and shoes; the first time at the request of Pope Hadrian, the second to gratify Leo, Hadrian's successor.

He could rise to the occasion when necessary. On great feast days, he wore embroidery and jewels on his clothing and shoes. He had a golden buckle for his cloak on such occasions and would appear with his great diadem, but he despised such apparel, according to Einhard, and usually dressed as the common people.

Life

Much of what is known of Charlemagne's life comes from his biographer, Einhard, who wrote a Vita Caroli Magni (or Vita Karoli Magni), which translates The Life of Charlemagne.

Early life

Charlemagne was the eldest child of Pippin the Short (714 – 24 September 768, reigned from 751) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (720 – 12 July 783), daughter of Caribert of Laon and Bertrada of Cologne. He was the elder brother of Carloman and Gisela. Some sources indicate that he was the brother of Redburga, wife of King Egbert of Wessex, and Bertha, mother of the famous Roland, but he is only ever recorded as having one sister named Gisela.

Einhard says of the early life of Charles:

It would be folly, I think, to write a word concerning Charles' birth and infancy, or even his boyhood, for nothing has ever been written on the subject, and there is no one alive now who can give information on it. Accordingly, I determined to pass that by as unknown, and to proceed at once to treat of his character, his deed, and such other facts of his life as are worth telling and setting forth, and shall first give an account of his deed at home and abroad, then of his character and pursuits, and lastly of his administration and death, omitting nothing worth knowing or necessary to know.

That format is the general format of this article.

On the death of Pippin, the kingdom of the Franks was divided—following tradition—between Charlemagne and Carloman. Charles took the outer parts of the kingdom, bordering on the sea, namely Neustria, western Aquitaine, and the northern parts of Austrasia, while Carloman retained the inner parts: southern Austrasia, Septimania, eastern Aquitaine, Burgundy, Provence, and Swabia, lands bordering on Italy. Perhaps Pippin regarded Charlemagne as the better warrior, but Carloman may have regarded himself as the more deserving son, being the son, not of a mayor of the palace, but of a king.

Joint rule

On 9 October, immediately after the funeral of their father, both the kings withdrew from Saint Denis to be proclaimed by their nobles and consecrated by their bishops, Charlemagne in Noyon and Carloman in Soissons.

The first event of his reign was the rising of the Aquitainians and Gascons, in 769, in that territory split between the two kings. Pippin had killed in war the last duke of Aquitaine, Waifer. Now, one Hunold—perhaps the same Hunold who was father to Waifer, but perhaps someone else—led the Aquitainians as far north as Angoulême. Charlemagne met Carloman, but Carloman refused to participate and returned to Burgundy. Charlemagne went on the warpath, leading an army to Bordeaux, where he set up a camp at Fronsac. Hunold was forced to flee to the court of Duke Lupus II of Gascony. Lupus, fearing Charlemagne, turned Hunold over in exchange for peace. He was put in a monastery. Aquitaine was finally fully subdued by the Franks.

The brothers maintained not-so-friendly, not-so-hateful relations with the assistance of their mother Bertrada, but Charlemagne signed a treaty with Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria and married Gerperga, daughter of King Desiderius of the Lombards, in order to surround Carloman with his own allies. Though Pope Stephen III first opposed the marriage with the Lombard princess, he would have little to fear of a Frankish-Lombard alliance in a few months.

Charlemagne repudiated his wife and quickly married another, a Swabian named Hildegard. The repudiated Gerperga returned to her father's court at Pavia. The Lombard's wrath was now aroused and he would gladly have allied with Carloman to defeat Charles. But before war could break out, Carloman died on 5 December 771. Carloman's wife Gerberga (perhaps a daughter of Desiderius himself) fled to Desiderius' court with her sons for protection. This action is usually considered either a sign of Charlemagne's enmity or Gerberga's confusion.

Conquest of Lombardy

See Battle of Pavia (773).

The Frankish king Charlemagne was a devout Catholic who maintained a close relationship with the papacy throughout his life. In 772, when Pope Hadrian I was threatened by invaders, the king rushed to Rome to provide assistance. Shown here, the pope asks Charlemagne for help at a meeting near Rome.

At the succession of Pope Hadrian I in 772, he demanded the return of certain cities in the former exarchate of Ravenna as in accordance with a promise of Desiderius' succession. Desiderius instead took over certain papal cities and invaded the Pentapolis, heading for Rome. Hadrian sent embassies to Charlemagne in Autumn requesting he enforce the policies of his father, Pippin. Desiderius sent his own embassies denying the pope's charges. The embassies both met at Thionville and Charlemagne upheld the pope's side. Charlemagne promptly demanded what the pope had demanded and Desiderius promptly swore never to comply. The invasion was not short in coming. Charlemagne and his uncle Bernard crossed the Alps in 773 and chased the Lombards back to Pavia, which they then besieged. Charlemagne temporarily left the siege to deal with Adelchis, son of Desiderius, who was raising an army at Verona. The young prince was chased to the Adriatic littoral and he fled to Constantinople to plead for assistance from Constantine V Copronymus, who was waging war with the Bulgars.

The siege lasted until the spring of 774, when Charlemagne visited the pope in Rome. There he confirmed his father's grants of land, with some later chronicles claiming—falsely—that he also expanded them, granting Tuscany, Emilia, Venice, and Corsica. The pope granted him the title patrician. He then returned to Pavia, where the Lombards were on the verge of surrendering.

In return for their lives, the Lombards surrendered and opened the gates in early summer. Desiderius was sent to the abbey of Corbie and his son Adlechis died in Constantinople a patrician. Charles, unusually, had himself crowned with the Iron Crown and made the magnates of Lombardy do homage to him at Pavia. Only Duke Arechis II of Benevento refused to submit and proclaimed independence. Charlemagne was now master of Italy as king of the Lombards. He left Italy with a garrison in Pavia and few Frankish counts in place that very year.

There was still instability, however, in Italia. In 776, Dukes Hrodgaud of Friuli and Gisulf of Spoleto rebelled. Charlemagne whisked back from Saxony and defeated the duke of Friuli in battle. The duke was slain. The duke of Spoleto signed a treaty. Their co-conspirator, Arechis, was not subdued and Adelchis, their candidate in Byzantium, never left that city. Northern Italy was now faithfully his.

Saxon campaigns

See main article at Saxon Wars.

Charlemagne was engaged in almost constant battle throughout his reign, with his legendary sword Joyeuse in hand. After thirty years of war and eighteen battles—the Saxon Wars—he conquered Saxony, a goal that had been the unattainable dream of such figures of the past as Caesar Augustus, and proceeded to convert the conquered to Roman Catholicism, using force where necessary.

The Saxons, it should be noted, were divided into four subgroups in four regions. Nearest to Austrasia was Westphalia and furthest away was Eastphalia. In between these two kingdoms was that of Engria and north of these three, at the base of the Jutland peninsula, was Nordalbingia.

His first campaign was in the year 773. He forced the Engrians to submit and cut down the pagan holy tree Irminsul near Paderborn. This was cut short when he was called to Italy, where he conquered.

His second campaign came in the year 775. Then he marched through Westphalia, conquering their fort of Sigiburg, and crossed Engria, where he defeated them again. Finally, in Eastphalia, he defeated them and their leader Hessi converted to Christianity. He returned through Westphalia, leaving encampments at Sigiburg and Eresburg. All Saxony but Nordalbingia was under his control, but the recalcitrant Saxons would not submit for long.

It was after that campaigning that Charlemagne entered Italy to subdue the dukes of Friuli and Spoleto. He returned very rapidly to Saxony for the third time in 776, when a rebellion destroyed his fortress at Eresburg. The Saxons were once again brought to heel, though one Widukind, a leader among them, fled instead to the Danes. He built a new camp at Karlstadt. In 777, he called a national diet at Paderborn to integrate Saxony fully into the Frankish kingdom. Many Saxons were baptised.

In Summer 779, he again went into Saxony and conquered Eastphalia, Engria, and Westphalia. At a diet near Lippe, he divided the land into missionary districts and himself assisted in several mass baptisms (780). He then returned to Italy and, surprisingly, there was no Saxon revolt. From 780 to 782, the land had peace.

He returned in 782 to Saxony and instituted a code of law and appointed counts, both Saxon and Frank. The laws were Draconian on religious issues, and the native paganism was gravely threatened. This stirred a renewal of the old conflict. That year, in Autumn, Widukind returned and lead a revolt which resulted in much assaults on the church. In response, at Verden in Lower Saxony one day, Charlemagne ordered the beheading of 4,500 Saxons who had been caught practising paganism after converting to Christianity. To this day that event is called the Bloody Trial of Verden or Massacre of Verden. The massacre led to two straight years of constant warfare (783-785). It was with the conclusion of this war that Charlemagne can have claimed to have conquered Saxony, the land had peace for the next seven years, though revolts continued sporadically until 804.

The Saxons maintained the peace for seven years after the great war of 783-785, but in 792, the Westphalians rose up against their masters. The Eastphalians and Nordalbingians joined them in 793, but the insurrection did not catch on as previous ones and was completely put down by 794. An Engrian rebellion followed closely in 796, but Charlemagne's personal presence and the presence of loyal Christian Saxons and Slavs immediately crushed it. The last insurrection of the independently-minded people occurred in 804 more than thirty years after Charlemagne's first campaign against them. This time, the most unruly of them all, the Nordalbingians, found themselves effectively disempowered to rebel. It is constructive now to quote Einhard on the closing of such a grand conflict:

The war that had lasted so many years was at length ended by their acceding to the terms offered by the King; which were renunciation of their national religious customs and the worship of devils, acceptance of the sacraments of the Christian faith and religion, and union with the Franks to form one people.

Spanish campaign

See Battle of Roncevaux Pass.

Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne; from a manuscript of a chanson de geste.

To the Diet of Paderborn had come representatives of the Moslem rulers of Gerona, Barcelona, and Huesca. Their masters had been cornered in the Iberian peninsula by Abd ar-Rahman I, the Umayyad emir of Córdoba. The Moorish rulers offered their homage to the great king of the Franks in return for military support. Seeing an opportunity to extend Christendom and his own power and believing the Saxons to be a fully conquered nation, he agreed to go to Spain.

In 778, he led the Neustrian army across the Western Pyrenees, while the Austrasians, Lombards, and Burgundians passed over the Eastern Pyrenees. The armies met at Zaragoza and received the homage of Soloman ibn al-Arabi and Kasmin ibn Yusuf, the foreign rulers. Zaragoza did not fall soon enough for Charles, however. He could not trust the Moors, nor the Basques, whom he had subdued by conquering Pamplona. He turned to leave Iberia, but as he was passing through the Pass of Roncesvalles one of the most famous events of his long reign occurred. It was not a pleasant occurrence for him. The Basques fell on his rearguard and baggage train, utterly destroying it. Among the famous dead were the seneschal Eggihard, the count of the palace Anselm, and the warden of the Breton March Roland, inspiring the subsequent creation of the Song of Roland (Chanson de Roland).

Charlemagne returned to Aquitaine only to discover that the Saxons had rebelled and ravaged much of his land under a returned Widukind (see above).

Charles and his children

During the first peace of any substantial length (780-782), Charles began to appoint his sons to positions of authority within the realm, in the tradition of the kings and mayors of the past. In 780, he had disinherited his eldest son, Pippin the Hunchback, because the youth had joined a rebellion against him. Pippin was duped, through flattery, into joining a rebellion of nobles who pretended to despise Charles' treatment of Himiltrude, Pippin's mother, in 770. He baptised his son Carloman as Pippin to keep the name alive in the dynasty. In 781, he made his oldest three sons each kings. The eldest, Charles, received the kingdom of Neustria, containing the regions of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. The second eldest, Pippin, was made king of Italy, taking the Iron Crown which his father had first born in 774. His third eldest son, Louis, became king of Aquitaine. He tried to make his sons a true Neustrian, Italian, and Aquitainian and he gave their regents some control of their subkingdoms, but real power was always in his hands, though he intended each to inherit their realm some day.

The sons fought many wars on behalf of their father when they came of age. Charles was mostly preoccupied with the Bretons, whose border he shared and who insurrected on at least two occasions and were easily put down, but he was also sent against the Saxons on multiple occasions. In 805 and 806, he was sent into the the Böhmerwald (modern Bohemia) to deal with the Slavs living there (Czechs). He subjected them to Frankish authority and devastated the valley of the Elbe, forcing a tribute on them. Pippin had to hold the Avar and Beneventan borders, but also fought the Slavs to his north. He was uniquely poised to fight the Byzantine Empire when finally that conflict arose after Charlemagne's imperial coronation and a Venetian rebellion. Finally, Louis was in charge of the Spanish March and also went to southern Italy to fight the duke of Benevento on at least one occasion. He took Barcelona in a great siege in the year 797 (see below).

It is difficult to understand Charlemagne's attitude toward his daughters. None of them contracted a sacramental marriage. This may have been an attempt to control the number of potential alliances. Charlemagne certainly refused to believe the stories (mostly true) of their wild behaviour. After his death the surviving daughters entered or were forced to enter monasteries by their own brother, the pious Louis. At least one of them, Bertha, had a recognised relationship, if not a marriage, with Angilbert, a member of Charlemagne's court circle.

During the Saxon peace

In 787, Charlemagne finally directed his attention towards Benevento, where Arechis was reigning independently. He besieged Salerno and Arechis submitted to vassalage. However, with his death in 792, Benevento again proclaimed independence under his son Grimoald III. Grimoald was attacked by armies of Charles' or his sons' many times, but Charlemagne himself never returned to the Mezzogiorno and Grimoald never was forced to surrender to Frankish suzerainty.

In 788, Charlemagne turned his attention to Bavaria. He claimed Tassilo was an unfit ruler on account of his oath-breaking. The charges were trumped up, but Tassilo was deposed anyway and put in the monastery of Jumièges. In 794, he was made to renounce any claim to Bavaria for himself and his family (the Agilolfings) at the synod of Frankfurt. Bavaria was subdivided into Frankish counties, like Saxony.

In 789, in recognition of his new pagan neighbours, the Slavs, Charlemagne marched an Austrasian-Saxon army across the Elbe into Abotrite territory. The Slavs immediately submitted under their leader Witzin. He then accepted the surrender of the Wiltzes under Dragovit and demanded many hostages and the permission to send, unmolested, missionaries into the pagan region. The army marched to the Baltic before turning around and marching to the Rhine with much booty and no harassment. The tributary Slavs became loyal allies. In 795, the peace broken by the Saxons, the Abotrites and Wiltzes rose in arms with their new master against the Saxons. Witzin died in battle and Charlemagne avenged him by harrying the Eastphalians on the Elbe. Thrasuco, his successor, led his men to conquest over the Nordalbingians and handed their leaders over to Charlemagne, who greatly honoured him. The Abotrites remained loyal until Charles' death and fought later against the Danes.

Avar campaigns

In 788, the Avars, a pagan Asian horde which had settled down in what is today Hungary (Einhard called them Huns), invaded Friuli and Bavaria. Charles was preoccupied until 790 with other things, but in that year, he marched down the Danube into their territory and ravaged it to the Raab. Then, a Lombard army under Pippin marched into the Drava valley and ravaged Pannonia. The campaigns would have continued if the Saxons had not revolted again in 792, breaking seven years of peace.

For the next two years, Charles was occupied with the Slavs against the Saxons. Pippin and Duke Eric of Friuli continued, however, to assault the Avars' ring-shaped strongholds. The great Ring of the Avars, their capital fortress, was taken twice. The booty was sent to Charlemagne at his capital, Aachen, and redistributed to all his followers and even to foreign rulers, including King Offa of Mercia. Soon the Avar tuduns had thrown in the towel and travelled to Aachen to subject themselves to Charlemagne as vassals and Christians. This Charlemagne accepted and sent one native chief, baptised Abraham, back to Avaria witht he ancient title of khagan. Abraham kept his people in line, but soon the Magyars had swept the Avars away and presented a new threat to Charlemagne's descendants.

Charlemagne also directed his attention to the Slavs to the south of the Avar khaganate: the Carantanians and Slovenes. These people were subdued by the Lombards and Bavarii and made tributaries, but never incorporated into the Frankish state.

The Saracens and Spain

The conquest of Italy brought Charlemagne in contact with the Saracens who, at the time, controlled the Mediterranean. Pippin, his son, was much occupied with Saracens in Italy. Charlemagne conquered Corsica and Sardinia at an unknown date and in 799 the Balearic Islands. The islands were often attacked by Saracen pirates, but the counts of Genoa and Tuscany kept them at bay with large fleets until the end of Charlemagne's reign. Charlemagne even had contact with the caliphal court in Baghdad. In 797 (or possibly 801), the caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, presented Charlemagne with an Asian elephant named Abul-Abbas and a mechanical clock.

In Hispania, the struggle against the Moors continued unabated throughtout the latter half of his reign. His son Louis was in charge of the Spanish border. In 785, his men captured Gerona permanently and extended Frankish control into the Catalan littoral for the duration of Charlemagne's reign (and much longer, it remained nominally Frankish until the Treaty of Corbeil in 1258). The Moslem chiefs in the northeast of Spain were constantly revolting against Cordoban authority and they often turned to the Franks for help. The Frankish border was slowly extended until 795, when Gerona, Cardona, Ausona, and Urgel were united into the new Spanish March, within the old duchy of Septimania.

In 797, Barcelona, the greatest city of the region, fell to the Franks when Zeid, its governor, rebelled against Córdoba and, failing, handed it to them. The Umayyad authority recaptured it in 799. However, Louis of Aquitaine marched the entire army of his kingdom over the Pyrenees and besieged in for two years, wintering there from 800 to 801, when it capitulated. The Franks continued to press forwards against the caliphs. They took Tarragona in 809 and Tortosa in 811. The last conquest brought them to the mouth of the Ebro and gave them raiding access to Valencia, prompting the Caliph al-Hakam I to recognise their conquests in 812.

Imperator

File:Charlemagnecrown.jpg

Coronation crown of Napoleon I
sometimes called the Charlemagne Crown after the original crown of that name destroyed during the French Revolution.

Matters of Charlemagne's reign came to a head in late 800. In 799, Pope Leo III had been mistreated by the Romans, who tried to tear out his tongue and eyes. He was deposed and put in a monastery, but Charlemagne did not recognise this, as his advisor, Alcuin of York, advised. He went down to Rome in November 800 and held a council on December 1. On December 23, Leo swore an oath of innocence. At Mass, on Christmas Day (December 25), the pope crowned Charlemagne Imperator Romanorum (emperor of the Romans) in Saint Peter's Basilica. Einhard says that Charlemagne was ignorant of the pope's intent and did not want any such coronation:

he at first had such an aversion that he declared that he would not have set foot in the Church the day that they [the imperial titles] were conferred, although it was a great feast-day, if he could have foreseen the design of the Pope.

The Coronation of Charlemagne from the Grandes Chroniques de France, illustrated by Jean Fouquet.

Charlemagne thus became the renewer of the Western Roman Empire, which had expired in the 476. To avoid frictions with the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Emperor, Charles later styled himself, not Imperator Romanorum (a title reserved for the Byzantine emperor), but rather Imperator Romanum gubernans Imperium (emperor ruling the Roman Empire).

The iconoclasm (heresy) of the Isaurian Dynasty and resulting religious conflicts with the Empress Irene, sitting on the throne in Constantinople in 800, were probably the chief causes of the pope's desire to formally resurrect the Roman imperial title in the West. He also most certainly desired to increase the influence of the papacy, honour his saviour Charlemagne, and solve the constitutional issues then most troubling to European jurists in an era when Rome was not in the hands of an emperor. Thus, Charlemagne's assumption of the title of Augustus, Constantine, and Justinian was not an usurpation in the eyes of the Franks or Italians, but not so in Greece, where it was protested by Irene and the usurper Nicephorus I, neither of whom had any great effect in enforcing their protests.

The Byzantines, however, still held several territories in Italy: Venice (what was left of the exarchate of Ravenna), Reggio (Calabria, the toe), Brindisi (Apulia, the heel), and Naples (the Ducatus Neapolitanus). These regions remained outside of Frankish hands until 804, when the Venetians, torn by infighting, transferred their allegiance to the Iron Crown of Pippin, Charles' son. Nicephorus ravaged the coasts with a fleet and the only instance of war between Constantinople and Aachen, as it was, began. It lasted until 810, when the pro-Byzantine party in Venice gave their city back to the emperor in Byzantium and the two emperors of Europe made peace. Charlemagne received the Istrian peninsula and in 812 Emperor Michael I Rhangabes recognised his title.

Danish attacks

After the conquest of Nordalbingia, the Frankish frontier was brought into contact with Scandinavia. The Danes, "a race almost unknown to his ancestors, but destined to be only too well known to his sons" as Charles Oman eloquently described them, inhabiting the Jutland peninsula had heard many stories from Widukind and his allies who had taken refuge with them about the dangers of the Franks and the fury which their Christian king could direct against pagan neighbours. In 808, the frightened king of the Danes, Godfred, built the vast Danevirke across the isthmus of Schleswig. This defence, last employed in the Danish-Prussian War of 1864, was at its beginning a 30 km long earthenwork rampart. The Danevirke protected Danish land and gave Godfred the opportunity to harass Frisia and Flanders with pirate raids. He also subdued the Frank-allied Wiltzes and fought the Abotrites. He invaded Frisia and joked of visiting Aachen, but was murdered before he could do any more, by Hemming. Hemming concluded a peace with Charlemagne and sent ambassadors to meet him in late 811.

Death

Europe at the death of Charles The Great, 814. -"A School Atlas of English History" ed. by Samuel Rawson Gardiner, M.A. LL.D.

In 813, Charlemagne called Louis, his only surviving legitimate son, to his court. There he crowned him as his heir and sent him back to Aquitaine. He then spent the autumn hunting before returning to Aachen on 1 November. In January, he fell ill. He took to his bed on the 22 January and as Einhard tells it:

He died January twenty-eighth, the seventh day from the time that he took to his bed, at nine o'clock in the morning, after partaking of the holy communion, in the seventy-second year of his age and the forty-seventh of his reign.

When Charlemagne died in 814, he was buried in his own Cathedral at Aachen. He was succeeded by his only son to survive him, Louis the Pious, after whose reign the empire was divided between his three surviving sons according to the custom. These three kingdoms would be the foundations of later France and Germany.

Administration

As an administrator, Charlemagne stands out for his many reforms: monetary, governmental, military, or ecclesiastical.

Monetary reforms

Autograph of Charlemagne.

Pursuing his father's reforms, Charlemagne did away with the monetary system based on the gold sou. Both he and the Anglo-Saxon King Offa of Mercia took up the system set in place by Pippin. He set up a new standard, the livre (from the Latin libra, the modern pound)—a unit of both money and weight—which was worth 20 sous (from the Latin solidus, the modern shilling) or 240 deniers (from the Latin denarius, the modern penny). During this period, the livre and the sou were counting units, only the denier was a coin of the realm.

Charlemagne applied the system to much of the European continent, and Offa's standard was voluntarily adopted by much of England. After Charlemagne's death, continental coinage degraded and most of Europe resorted to using the continued high quality English coin until about 1100.

Learning

See Carolingian Renaissance.

A part of Charlemagne's success as warrior and administrator can be traced to his admiration for learning. His reign and the era it ushered in are often referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance because of the flowering of scholarship, literature, art, and architecture which characterise it. Most of the surviving works of classical Latin were copied and preserved by Carolingian scholars. Indeed, the earliest manuscripts available for many ancient texts are Carolingian and it is almost certain that a text which survived to the Carolingian age, survives still. The pan-European nature of Charlemagne's influence is indicated by the origins of many of the men who worked for him: Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon from York; Theodulf, a Visigoth, probably from Septimania; Paul the Deacon, a Lombard; and Angilbert and Einhard, Franks.

Charlemagne took a serious interest in his and others' scholarship and had learned to read in his adulthood, although he never quite learned how to write, he used to keep a slate and stylus underneath his pillow, according to Einhard. His handwriting was bad, from which grew the legend that he could not write. This was quite an achievement for kings at this time, of whom most were illiterate.

Charlemagne's mother tongue was the Old High German dialect called Frankish. He also spoke Latin and understood some Greek.

Writing reforms

See Carolingian script.

Page from the Lorsch Gospels of Charlemagne's reign.

During Charles' reign, the Roman half uncial script and its cursive version, which had given rise to various continental minuscule scripts, combined with features from the "insular" scripts that were being used in Irish and English monasteries. Carolingian minuscule was created partly under the patronage of Charlemagne (hence Carolingian). Alcuin of York, who ran the palace school and scriptorium at Aachen, was probably a chief influence in this. The revolutionary character of the Carolingian reform, however, can be over-emphasised; efforts at taming the crabbed Merovingian and Germanic hands had been under way before Alcuin arrived at Aachen. The new minuscule was disseminated first from Aachen, and later from the influential scriptorium at Tours, where Alcuin retired as an abbot.

Political organisation

In the first year of his reign, Charlemagne went to Aachen (in French, Aix-la-Chapelle) for the first time. He began to build a palace twenty years later (788). The palace chapel, constructed in 796, later became Aachen Cathedral. Charlemagne spent most winters between 800 and his death at Aachen, which he made the joint capital with Rome, in order to enjoy the hot springs. Charlemagne organised his empire into 350 counties, each led by an appointed count. Counts served as judges, administrators, and enforcers of capitularies. To enforce loyalty, he set up the system of missi dominici, meaning "envoys of the lord". In this system, one representative of the church and one representative of the emperor would head to the different counties and every year report back to Charlemagne on their status.

The division of the empire

In 806, Charlemagne first made provision for the traditional division of the empire on his death. For Charles the Younger he designated the imperial title, Austrasia and Neustria, Saxony, Burgundy, and Thuringia. To Pippin he gave Italy, Bavaria, and Swabia. Louis received Aquitaine, the Spanish March, and Provence. This division may have worked, but it was never to be tested. Pippin died in 810 and Charles in 811. Charlemagne redrew the map of Europe by giving all to Louis, save the Iron Crown, which went to Pippin's (illegitimate) son Bernard.

Cultural significance

Coronation of Charlemagne by Raphael

Charlemagne, being a model knight as one of the Nine Worthies, enjoyed an important afterlife in European culture. One of the great medieval literary cycles, the Charlemagne cycle or the Matter of France, centers around the deeds of Charlemagne and his historical commander of the Breton border, Roland, and the paladins who are analogous to the knights of the Round Table or King Arthur's court. Their tales constitute the first chansons de geste.

Charlemagne himself was accorded sainthood inside the Holy Roman Empire after the twelfth century. His canonisation by Antipope Paschal III, to gain the favour of Frederick Barbarossa in 1165, was never recognised by the Holy See, which annulled all of Paschal's ordinances athe the Third Lateran Council in 1179. However, he has been acknowledged as cultus confirmed.

It is frequently claimed by genealogists that all people with European ancestry alive today are probably descended from Charlemagne. However, only a small percentage can actually prove descent from him. Charlemagne's marriage and relationship politics and ethics did, however, result in a fairly large number of descendants, all of whom had far better life expectancies than is usually the case for children in that time period. They were married into houses of nobility and as a result of intermarriages many people of noble descent can indeed trace their ancestry back to Charlemagne. He is without a doubt an ancestor of every royal family of Europe.

Family

Charlemagne and Pippin the Hunchback. Tenth century copy of a lost original from about 830.

Marriages and Heirs

• His first wife was Himiltrude, married in 766. The marriage was never formally annulled. By her he had:
  • Pippin the Hunchback (767-813)

• His second wife was Gerperga (often erroneously called Desiderata or Desideria), daughter of Desiderius, king of the Lombards, married in 768, annulled in 771.

• His third wife was Hildegard of Savoy (757 or 758-783 or 784), married 771, died 784. By her he had:
  • Charles the Younger (772 or 773-811), king of Neustria from 781
  • Adelaide (773 or 774-774)
  • Carloman, baptised Pippin (773 or 777-810), king of Italy from 781
  • Rotrude (or Hruodrud) (777-810)
  • Louis (778-840), twin of Lothair, king of Aquitaine from 781 and emperor and king of the Franks from 814
  • Lothair (778-779 or 780), twin of Louis
  • Bertha (779-823)
  • Gisela (781-808)
  • Hildegarde (782-783)

• His fourth wife was Fastrada, married 784, died 794. By her he had:
  • Theodrada (b.784), abbess of Argenteuil
  • Hiltrude (b.787)

• His fifth and favourite wife was Luitgard, married 794, died 800 childless.

Concubinages and Bastards

• His first known concubine was Gersuinda. By her he had:
  • Adaltrude (b.774)

• His second known concubine was Madelgard. By her he had:
  • Ruodhaid (775-810), abbess of Faremoutiers

• His third known concubine was Amaltrud of Vienne. By her he had:
  • Alpaida (b.794)

• His fourth known concubine was Regina. By her he had:
  • Drogo (801-855), bishop of Metz from 823
  • Hugh (802-844), archchancellor of the Empire

• His fifth known concubine was Ethelind. By her he had:
  • Theodoric (b.807)

Notes

1. ^ His name in English, Charlemagne, is identical to the French from, which in turn comes from the Latin. The French translation of Charles the Great is Charles le Grand, which is used. In German, he is called Karl der Große or Karl der Grosse, which means Charles the Great. His name in other Romance languages, like Italian and Spanish Carlomagno, is derived, of course, from the Latin. In other Germanic languages and Slavic languages, it is usually a translation of Charles the Great (Carolus Magnus). Many of the Slavic languages took their word for king from the German name for Charlemagne, Karl: Czech král, South Slavic (such as Slovenian or Serbo-Croatian) kralj, Polish król, etc.

See also

• Franks (main history of Frankish kingdoms)
• List of Frankish Kings
• Carolingians
• League of the Holy Court
• Einhard
• Chanson de Roland
• Matter of France
• Nine Worthies
• History of elephants in Europe

Sources

• Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages 476-918. London, 1914.
• Santosuosso, Antonio. Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Ways of Medieval Warfare. Boulder, 2004.
• Painter, Sidney. A History of the Middle Ages 284-1500. New York, 1953.
• Einhard, translated by Samuel Epes Turner. The Life of Charlemagne. New York, 1880.

Further reading

• Barbero, Alessandro. Charlemagne, father of a continent. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004. ISBN 0-520-23943-1
• Pirenne, Henri. Mohammed and Charlemagne. 1937.
• Langston, A.L. and Buck Jr, J. O. (ed) Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants. Cottonport, 1974, for the Order of the Crown of Charlemagne in the USA, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 42-11037.

External links

• The Life of Charlemagne by Einhard. At Medieval Sourcebook.
• Vita Karoli Magni by Einhard. Latin text at The Latin Library.
• A reconstructed portrait of Charlemagne, based on historical sources, in a contemporary style.
• House of Pepin: Genealogy of Charlemagne.
• Charlemagne Chronology.