Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus), or Charles I

b. circa 742; d. 814

Son of Pepin le Bref, King of the Franks, and Emperor of the West. On his father's death in 768 he became king of Austrasia and Neustria and, on the death of his brother, Carloman, in 771, added his dominions, becoming supreme ruler of the whole Empire.

Charlemagne was an outstanding statesman, legislator, and soldier. His success was largely due to his championship of Christianity. His war against the Saxons lasted from 772 to 804, some of the chief incidents in the campaigns being the storming of Eresburg, the Diet at Paderborn in 777, and the submission of the Saxon leader Wittekind. The result was the complete subjugation and Christianisation (at the sword's point) of the Saxons.

Charlemagne divorced his first wife, daughter of Desiderius of Lombardy, and married a German princess, Hildegarde. (He married four times in all.) In 773 Pope Adrian I appealed to Charlemagne to crush Desiderius, and Charlemagne eagerly seized the chance to make himself king of Lombardy in 774. In 778 he fought against the Arabs in Spain. On his return he met with a reverse at Roncesvalles, where Roland and other famous paladins were slain by the Saracens. Then, between 788 and 800, he waged border wars against Lombards, Bavarians, Avars, Bretons and others.

In 800 Pope Leo III crowned him at Rome as Emperor of the West, with the title 'Caesar Augustus'. This act, which the Pope had no authority to perform, was greeted with contempt by the Byzantines of Constantinople where the Roman imperial succession continued. In 808 to 810 Charlemagne defeated the Danes, driving them back behind the Eider. To protect his kingdom he erected marks or margravates in the border districts. In 813 he associated his son, Louis the Pious, with him in the government. Louis was the only legitimate son who survived him, and became his successor.

Charlemagne's empire at its height stretched between the Elbe and the Ebro, reaching eastward to Hungary and south to Calabria. Charlemagne was a notable patron on music and learning, welcoming such scholars as Einhard and Alcuin to his court. Einhard's biography of Charlemagne, a model of its kind, is largely responsible for the traditional picture of Charlemagne as a devout Christian, brilliant man of action, and inspired legislator. Although this is true, it is also true that Charlemagne remained, in his personal character, much of a barbarian, and that, in fact, neither the empire he created nor the culture he patronised survived his death intact. He had, however, a genuine sense of religious mission; and the traditional picture of Charlemagne, as the protagonist of European unity, has had a profound influence on European history lasting to the present day. His descendants (and loosely, his immediate forebears) are known as Carolingians, forming the second dynasty of French kings.

© JM Dent/Historybookshop.com

Recommended reading

The New Cambridge Medieval History
McKitterick, Rosamond (ed.) — Hardback £100.00 —