The man known to history as Charlemagne,
meaning ‘Charles the Great’ in French, was born on the 2nd April 742 to 748 at
Liège or Herstal, in present-day Belgium, or alternatively Aachen in modern-day Germany. His mother was Bertrada of Laon, daughter of
Count Charibert of Laon, in present day Aisne in France and Gisela d'Aquitaine. Bertrada was
born sometime between 710 and 727. Her family founded the influential Prüm Abbey in 721, which
ruled over vast lands and would go on to have a seat and a vote on the key deliberative body
of the Holy Roman Empire, the Ecclesiastical Bench of the College of Ruling Princes of the
Imperial Diet. Charlemagne’s father was Pepin, or Pippin III, also known as Pepin the Short,
who had been the Mayor of the Palace serving the Merovingian kings, and yet went on to
wield power over a vast Frankish kingdom as King himself from 751 until his death in
768. Pepin became the first Carolingian King, a dynasty named after Pepin’s father, Charles
Martel, whose name means “Charles the War Hammer”. Pepin named his eldest son Charles, later known as
Charlemagne, after his own father, Charles Martel, perhaps to emphasise the legitimacy of the
dynastical line. Charlemagne was born into this Carolingian dynasty and would reign as
King of the Franks from the 9th October 768 to the 28th January 814, and as Emperor of the
Romans from the 25th December 800 -to the 28th January 814. Charles’ epithet, “the Great”, was
most likely not used during his lifetime. It was only around the year 1000 that chronicles like
the contemporary Royal Frankish Annals began calling him Carolus magnus rex, meaning “Charles
the great king” or Charlemagne. Although there are plentiful written records on Charlemagne’s later
life, there is some uncertainty surrounding his birth and early childhood. The year of his birth
is debated in various contemporary accounts but is most often given as the 2nd April 742. If
this birthdate is correct, it would mean that Charlemagne was born out of wedlock. His parents
had been bound by a Germanic form of marriage or private contract called Friedelehe, but their
union was not officially recognised until 744, after Charlemagne’s birth. The question of how
closely related his parents were, was perhaps what delayed the legalisation of their marriage. Some
sources, such as the Annales Petaviani, reported the year of Charlemagne’s birth as 747, perhaps
to emphasise his legitimacy. But this birth year seems unlikely given that 2nd April 747 was
Easter, a highly symbolic coincidence which would definitely have been reported by contemporary
chronicles seeking to enhance Charlemagne’s reputation, however this is not mentioned.
Charlemagne’s exact birthplace is also unknown. Both of the widely suggested locations - Liège
or Herstal, in modern-day Belgium and Aachen in Germany, were close to where the Merovingian and
Carolingian families originated and so are likely contenders. But other suggested locations are
also possible, including Düren on the Roer river, in western Germany, Gauting, near Munich,
Bavaria, Quierzy in north-east France, or Mürlenbach and Prüm, both in western
Germany near the Luxembourg and Belgium borders.
Charlemagne was the eldest of three children
who lived to adulthood, including Carloman, the second eldest and their younger sister
Gisela. There were also three children who didn’t reach adulthood, named Pepin, Chrothais and
Adelais. Commentators from the time have little to say about the early relationship between the
siblings, but Charlemagne’s close bond with his mother is mentioned by his childhood friend
and later courtier and biographer, Einhard, who said that Charlemagne never disagreed with
his mother, except once when he separated from the wife she had picked for him. His mother,
Bertrada was, for the first 41 years of his life, the greatest single personal influence on him and
was involved, as she had been when her husband had reigned, in the court and political life
of her son. Charlemagne, Carloman and Gisela were raised as Roman Catholics and the family had
close ties with the Papacy. Charlemagne received a minimal education at the palace school under
the guidance of Fulrad, the Abbot of St. Denis. He could understand several languages, including
Latin and Greek, but only learnt to read as an adult and apparently never mastered writing.
Multiple contemporary accounts have noted his tendency to keep a slate and stylus close at hand
to practise his letters, but poor handwriting hindered his progress. As a result, historians
have described him as semi-literate, though his enthusiasm for learning and his encouragement
of the scholarship of others was also noted. The education that really mattered for an early
medieval king was one that Charlemagne did receive. He was heavily involved in his father’s
court from a young age to ensure he developed the political, social and military experience that
was key to medieval leadership. At the age of 18, Charlemagne accompanied his father on a campaign
in Aquitaine, experiencing his first military victory. In 754, he participated in the anointment
of his father Pepin as King by Pope Stephen II, foreshadowing his own anointment as King
decades later. Although little is known about the specifics of Charlemagne’s childhood, it
was certainly one marked by momentous historical events which were to change his future and the
future of Europe. The Francia of Charlemagne’s childhood was not the France of the present-day
or even the Francia which Charlemagne would later reign over. Just under a decade after the
fall of the Western Roman Empire on the 4th of September 476 AD, Frankish territory
consisted of a region called Austrasia, which included modern-day Belgium, Luxembourg,
parts of western Germany, including Cologne and Aachen, and some of north-eastern France, such
as the region around Metz and the Somme river. This territory was vastly expanded over
the next four centuries so that by 814, the year of Charlemagne’s death, the Frankish
Empire covered all of modern France except the western Breton region, the Spanish March including
Barcelona, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, northern and central Italy,
most of Germany and Austria. People as far away as the Danube river and the Balkans
paid tribute to Charlemagne with the Croats, Serbs, Czechs and Avars of the Hungarian Plains
sending gold to Charlemagne. This huge expanse in territory and power was the result of key
developments both before and during Charlemagne’s childhood.
The Frankish Kingdom was first united under King
Clovis I of the Merovingian dynasty. Clovis ruled from 481-511 and oversaw the first great expansion
of Frankish territory. He is credited with being the first King of the Franks to unite all of
the Frankish tribes under one ruler and is seen in French history as the founder of France. Under
Clovis, Francia conquered Swabia a region between the Rhine and Danube rivers, which encompassed the
present-day city of Strasbourg in 502. Territorial expansion led to conflict with the neighbouring
Kingdom of Syagrius which controlled Neustria, the region around the Seine and Loire rivers,
including the cities of Paris and Reims, and in 486 Clovis defeated Syagrius the last Roman ruler
in the region. This victory led to direct conflict with new neighbours, the Visigoths, who ruled
their Kingdom from Toulouse. Aquitaine the western Atlantic region of present-day France was seized
from the Visigoths in 507 and would become a source of tension in Charlemagne’s own time. Like
Charlemagne centuries later, Clovis’s work went far beyond military expansion. The Frankish people
were Christianised in the 6th century, partly due to Clovis’s own conversion on Christmas Day 508.
This action resulted in religious unification across present-day France, the Low Countries and
Germany. With his conversion to Roman Catholicism, Clovis began a close relationship with the papacy
that was to last down to Charlemagne’s reign and beyond. The first codification of Salian Frank law
took place under Clovis, which combined Frankish and Roman law. But the greatest achievement of
Clovis’s reign - the unification of the Frankish people - was hindered by the division of the
kingdom amongst his four sons - Theuderic, Chlodomer, Childebert and Clotaire - upon his
death in 511. This practice of dividing up the kingdom equally between the sons of the king
would have serious ramifications for centuries to come. The sons would simultaneously
rule their own realms within the kingdom, but the Frankish kingdom was still considered
to be one entity and the imperial throne was given to the eldest son. This partitioning of
inheritance would cause frequent wars between the brother-kings, including between Clovis’s
sons. These frequent power struggles threatened overall Frankish unity and made the kings reliant
on the nobility and vulnerable to their demands. The division of the Frankish Kingdom between
Clovis’s four sons caused devastating competition and bloodshed, until Clotaire succeeded in
reuniting the kingdom under his own rule after his brothers’ deaths. Despite these partitions,
the Frankish Kingdom continued to expand, starting with the conquest of Burgundy, a huge
region centred around modern-day Lyon in 533, reaching the Mediterranean by 542. Successive
Merovingian Kings conquered territory in Thuringia now central Germany in 531, the
land south of Swabia in 536 and Frisia now in the north of the Netherlands and
north-west Germany in the year 734, as well as the southern territories of Septimania
which now stretches between north-east Spain, Andorra and southern France in 759, and Provence
in 736. Francia became the most powerful kingdom in Europe under the Merovingians and would
become seen as the successor of the Western Roman Empire. But this expansion was not
only the work of the Merovingian Kings. The Merovingians were nicknamed ‘rois fainéants’,
“do-nothing kings”, because they actually held little power. Their practice of subdividing
inheritance amongst their sons had weakened royal power over time. Real political power was
wielded by the King’s chief officer, the Mayor of the Palace, who was responsible for managing
the King’s household. The role of the Mayor of the Palace grew and by the 7th century included
advising the King on the appointment of counts and dukes, protecting the King’s wards and favourites,
appointing court personnel and commanding the royal army. These responsibilities gave the Mayor
of the Palace huge power over the allocation of privileges and patronage, which guaranteed the
loyalty of the elites. The status of the Mayor of the Palace rose from that of a key government
official to that of a regent or viceroy. The friction between the waning power of
the Merovingian Kings and the rising power of the Mayor of the Palace eventually ignited into
outright conflict. The Battle of Tertry in 687 saw Pepin of Herstal, Charlemagne’s great-grandfather
and Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia, victorious against King Theuderic III’s Neustrian
forces, led by the Neustrian Mayor of the Palace, Berchar. The conflict was the result of
a long feud between the Austrasian and Neustrian leaders for complete control over
the sub-divided Frankish territory. As well as Austrasia’s victory over Neustria to become
the central power in the Frankish Kingdom, Pepin of Herstal had won a personal victory over
King Theuderic. The King was forced to recognise Pepin's mayorship over Austrasia, Neustria
and Burgundy, ending the conflict between the Kings and their Mayors and from the time of
the Battle of Tertry onwards, the senior figure in Francia was the Mayor of the Palace - Pepin’s
descendant. In the late 7th century, the title of Mayor of the Palace became hereditary, making the
Carolingian family the power behind the throne. Charles Martel succeeded his father in 718
and, though he never took on the title, he ruled with the powers of a King. Frankish
Kings led as warrior kings - they were required to lead their men into battle, expand the
kingdom through force of arms and reward loyalty with riches. The Merovingian Kings
had proven successful as conquerors, but their victories had expanded the territory which
now encompassed more and more diverse people, making it more difficult to unify and rule.
And the demands of the Frankish aristocracy for more wealth and power could only be satisfied
by further territorial acquisition. Charles Martel and later his son Pepin III had built up support
for their family’s claim to power by using royal resources to reward loyal followers, like a
King handing out patronage to his courtiers, and wielding the vast royal administration to
establish control over the Kingdom. Charles Martel had developed a reputation
as a fearsome military leader, which had earned him the epithet “War Hammer”.
He led campaigns against the Saxons, Alamans, Thuringians and Bavarians east of the river
Rhine in what is today Germany. In the East, he fought in the independent duchy of Aquitaine,
in the former Frankish kingdom of Burgundy and the region of Provence. His victories against
encroaching Arab forces from the Iberian peninsula resulted in him being credited with pushing back
a Muslim invasion of Christian Europe. Charles Martel used extreme tactics to ensure victory,
from taking hostages to reneging on treaties. Though many of his advances were lost under his
successors, such as Aquitaine, Charles’s success in reversing the political fragmentation of the
Kingdom and expanding its borders was significant. Though Charles Martel never took on the title
of King, he was a hereditary ruler and passed on his titles of Mayor of the Palace and Duke and
Prince of the Franks to his sons upon his death in 741. Charles’s sons Carloman and Pepin the Short,
Charlamagne’s father, co-ruled over the extensive territory their father had unified. Pepin the
Short took on the titles of Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace of Neustria, while
Carloman became Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia. The two brothers put the last Merovingian King
on the throne - Childeric III - in 743, partly to deal with rising separatism at the edges of the
Kingdom. Fiercely independent regions, including Aquitaine, broke away once more during their
early reign so military campaigns were re-fought, not always successfully and soon rivalry between
the brothers began to threaten the political unity of the Kingdom.
In 746 a dynastic crisis was averted when
Carloman resigned his office as Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia and became a monk, possibly
under pressure from Pope Zacharias who had had an understanding with Pepin. Carloman’s son Drogo
ruled Austrasia as Mayor of the Palace for some time, but the relationship between the uncle
and nephew deteriorated after Pepin’s first son, Charlemagne, was born. Around this time
in 748, Drogo began openly opposing Pepin, until the Pope wrote to all the Frankish
nobles demanding that they support Pepin’s rule. Carloman returned to Francia
from his Italian monastery in 753, perhaps to petition his brother to confirm his son
Drogo’s position. But Pepin acted in opposition to his brother’s wishes. With the imprisonment of
Drogo in 753 and later Carloman in 755 achieved, Pepin ensured only his direct descendants would
inherit the right to rule, striking his nephew from the inheritance and line of succession.
Carloman died during his imprisonment and Drogo was forced into a monastery. These actions
suggest that by the early 750s Pepin had already gained the consent of the Frankish
nobility and, most certainly, the Church. The next step in Pepin’s rise to
total power required papal consent, since Clovis I had tied the role of Frankish
King to the support of both the Catholic Church and the people. Pepin approached Pope
Zacharias seeking papal support to legitimise the power he already exercised as Mayor of
the Palace. In particular, Pepin wanted a papal declaration on whether the Mayor of the
Palace, as the person who wielded real power, should be the legal ruler. Papal ascent would help
convince the Frankish bishops of the legitimacy of this new royal house and rubber-stamp the deposing
of the old Merovingian line. As Pepin had hoped, the Pope decreed that a man who held no royal
power could not be King. In 749 Pepin then disposed of the Merovingian puppet king Childeric
III who until this point, both he and his father had felt was necessary as a legitimizer. The
fact that Pepin and his brother had only put Childeric on the throne in 743 shows how fast
the situation was changing. In 750 the Pope declared that Pepin should be King, as he held
the powers of high office as Mayor of the People, and denounced Childeric as a “false king” and sent
him to a monastery. The Merovingian dynasty was at an end and the Carolingian dynasty, named
after Pepin’s father Charles Martel, began. In 750 Pepin was elected King of the Franks,
as was the custom, by an assembly of Frankish nobles. Traditionally, Frankish Kings relied
greatly on the support of the nobility, a situation confirmed by the fact that Pepin
kept his army on hand in case the nobles refused to honour the Papal bull, or decision.
These elections were not held frequently, as modern democratic leadership elections often
are, but were significant. They showed that noble men had the right to choose a new leader - an
ancient right that continued until the Kingdom became fully hereditary.
In 753 events in Rome gave rise to a useful
opportunity for Pepin. In 751 the Germanic Lombards, led by King Aistulf, had captured
the Exarchate of Ravenna, an enclave of the Eastern Roman Empire, which ended the common
East-West Catholic front against the pagan Lombards. When the Lombards then threatened Rome
in 753, the Pope had to rely on new allies and decided to flee to Francia. He asked Pepin for
assistance in repelling the Lombards in return for the legitimacy that only a Pope could grant.
Pepin accepted the Pope’s deal and was anointed, according to the Old Testament, as the Chosen
of the Lord. This papal sanction of the right of Pepin’s dynasty to the Frankish throne
was extended to Pepin’s sons, Charlemagne and Carloman, who were also anointed by the Pope. The
two brothers became royal heirs to a realm that now covered much of western Europe. In 754 Pepin
kept his promise to Pope Stephen and defeated the Lombards. Pepin continued to act as a defender of
Rome throughout his reign and brought his military to Italy when the Lombards made threats against
Rome in 755 and 756. In 756 the Donation of Pepin granted the Papacy a strip of land in northern
and central Italy, which included Ravenna - this land became the Papal States, making the Pope
a temporal as well as a spiritual leader. When Pepin died in 768, the kingship and
the realm was divided amongst his sons, Charlemagne and Carloman, as was the Frankish
custom. The two brothers were to reign as co-rulers, with Charlemagne responsible for
the primary Frankish territories of Austrasia and Neustria and the younger Carloman reigning
over the territories acquired by their father Pepin and their grandfather Charles the
War Hammer, including the Parisian basin, Burgundy, Alamannia, Provence and
Septimania. Carloman’s territories, although central and so easier to defend, were
surrounded by Charlemagne’s and were far poorer and less well integrated. Rivalry between
the brothers soon threatened the unity of the Frankish kingdom, with each believing
themselves to be the rightful heir to the full inheritance - Charlemagne as the eldest
son and Carloman as the one born legitimate. The ownership of Aquitaine was a particular source
of tension between the brothers. In 769 when an uprising broke out in the region, Charlemagne
invaded Aquitaine to quell any resistance and, after a quarrel near Poitiers, Carloman and his
forces were made to withdraw. One year later, Charlemagne united with their mother, Bertrada,
against Carloman. At his mother’s suggestion, Charlemagne formed an alliance with Duke
Tassilo III of Bavaria and Desiderius, King of the Lombards. Bertrada arranged
the marriage of her son Charlemagne to the Lombard King’s daughter, Desiderata.
This new alliance threatened the delicate balance of power established by
Pepin’s alliance with the Pope. But Charlemagne’s need for this alliance
was short-lived as Carloman died in 771. Charlemagne now took full control of the Frankish
Kingdom and, as his own father Pepin had done, excluded his nephew, also called Pepin, from his
royal inheritance. Charlemagne reneged on his alliance with the Lombards, annulled his marriage
to Desiderata and sent her back to Lombardy and then married his second wife, Hildegard von
Vinzgouw mother of the only son who had lived long enough to inherit his father’s throne - Louis
the Pious. Carloman’s widow and son also fled to Lombardy where the nobility and religious leaders
of Carloman’s kingdom decided to support the rule of Charlemagne over that of his nephew. By 771,
Charlemagne had taken control of the entirety of the Kingdom his father and grandfather had
created. Many historians have argued that without this unification of Frankish territory in
Charlemagne’s hands, the following conquests and expansions would never have been possible.
Military action under Charlemagne followed the
same aims as the conquests under his grandfather, Charles Martel: to defend the Kingdom
against internal and external enemies, conquer neighbouring lands and use the booty
from such conquests to reward loyal followers, spread Christianity and take advantage
of changing power relationships in the region. Some historians have argued that the
Frankish Kingdom was the only political entity, after the disintegration of the Western
Roman Empire, capable of taking advantage of power vacuums in the region by
continuously organising for warfare. Charlemagne had the impressive military reputation
of his grandfather, Charles the War Hammer, to live up to. Charles had developed his
reputation as a fearsome military leader during campaigns against the Saxons, Alamans,
Thuringians and Bavarians east of the Rhine river, the then independent duchy of Aquitaine,
Arab forces from the Iberian peninsula, the former Frankish kingdom of Burgundy and
the region of Provence. Charles had seen no problem with taking hostages, reneging on
treaties or using excessive force to bring the regions bordering the Frankish Kingdom
under his sway. But many of his advances, such as the seizure of Aquitaine, proved temporary
and were lost during the early rule of his sons, Pepin and Carloman. It was under Charlemagne
that these regions which Charles the War Hammer had brought into the Frankish sphere of influence
were finally subsumed into the Frankish Kingdom. After ending his alliance with King Desiderius
in 771, Charlemagne followed the example of his predecessors and realigned with Rome. He
answered the calls of Pope Hadrian I when Rome was threatened by further Lombard incursions. As well
as the desire to honour the alliance which his father had fostered, Charlemagne now had another
personal reason for involvement in Lombardy - his brother’s widow and legitimate son, Pepin,
had taken refuge there and so, Charlemagne’s forces were sent south to deal with the Lombard
threat. By 774, the Lombard royal city of Pavia, south of present-day Milan in northern Italy,
was besieged and Charlemagne himself joined the fray after an Easter visit to Rome to re-solidify
the Carolingian-Papal relationship and re-confirm Papal rights over the territories gifted by his
father. After Easter in 774 the siege ended with, unlike previous Frankish sieges of the
city, the full surrender of King Desiderius, his family and the royal treasure to Charlemagne.
Charlemagne annexed Lombardy and seized its crown in the name of Papal protection. From September
774 Charlemagne began using the title Rex Langobardorum (King of the Lombards), alongside
Rex Francorum, on documents not even related to Italy. The annexation of Lombardy and seizure
of the crown was somewhat unprecedented and the motives behind this decision are lost to history.
At the time, it was highly uncommon for the ruler of one ethnic group to take on the title of king
of another ethnic group. More often, 5th and 6th century conquests resulted in the elimination
of the defeated ethnic identity, such as with the Vandals, Sueves and Ostrogoths. Possibly the
Pope encouraged Charlemagne to ensure the final destruction of his rivals the Lombards during
his Easter visit to Rome in 774. But rebellion continued, including in 775 when a revolt was led
by Duke Hrodgaud of Friuli - the resistance often occurring when Charlemagne was away in Francia
or dealing with other campaigns in the 770s, such as those against the Saxons.
Following the example of his grandfather Charles
the War Hammer, Charlemagne waged war against the Saxons who had moved into the Rhine valley
area. Control over this region was at stake, and the Frankish-Saxon conflict wore on for a
century, starting with Charles the War Hammer’s first encounter with the Saxons in 720 and his
second more serious campaign in 738. Charlemagne’s own campaign began in 772, with the first targets
being a Saxon fort on the Lippe River in Eresburg and the plundering and destruction of a sacred
idol or shrine known as the Irminsul. The Irminsul is thought to have had both religious and
military significance as a shrine where offerings were left in the name of military successes - its
destruction and the looting of its treasure was a blow to Saxon morale. The Saxons responded in 774
by overrunning Eresburg and launching an attack on the Frankish fort of Syburg in the Ruhr valley.
Retaliation for the destruction of the Irminsul idol came in the form of a Saxon attack on the
monastery of Fritzlar in the Upper Weser valley, now in Germany, which had been established
by Boniface as a centre for evangelism. After returning from campaigning in Italy,
Charlemagne led his men in person from 775 to regain the forts lost in the region
during the previous year. A clear victory at the river Oker resulted in success for
Charlemagne, who was awarded hostages from, and an oath of loyalty by the Saxons.
But submission was only granted as long as the Saxons believed that Charlemagne was in a
position to enforce it. While away in Italy again, Charlemagne lost control of the region
once more. A cycle of Saxon defeat, submission and rebellion began. The Saxons were
not an easy force to vanquish because they had no single leader to defeat nor any key settlements
to destroy or capture. Their social and political organisation was loose, they had no central
authority or king, and they simply came together to fight a common enemy. But they were fewer in
number and less well-organised than the Franks. Charlemagne’s thirty years of campaigning
against the Saxons eventually resulted in the annexation of territory between the Rhine
and Elbe rivers. This conflict in particular was marked by mass killings, mass deportation
and broken truces. Draconian measures were used to force the local population to accept
Christianity. The allies of the Saxons, including the Frisians of the North Sea were also
forced to submit to Charlemagne. It is for this reason that Charlemagne’s legacy in Germany
is more controversial than in France. During the Nazi years, debates were held on whether
Charlemagne should be remembered negatively due to his massacring of Saxon people and the crushing
of their pagan religion, or positively on account of his example as a strong leader who ruled over
a united Europe - a useful precedent for Hitler. Neither the Saxon nor Lombard campaigns
were truly over when Charlemagne took formal submissions and left the region. Both conflicts
flared up again when Charlemagne was far away, so it might seem foolish, perhaps, that he then
decided to launch a military campaign in Spain. Like his father and grandfather, Charlemagne was
concerned with defending the southern Frankish border against Muslim attacks. Promises of help
from local Muslim leaders in northern Spain seeking to escape the authority of the Umayyad
ruler of Cordoba encouraged Charlemagne to act. Sulaiman Yaqzan ibn al-Arabi, a Saracen emir and
governor of Barcelona, his son and son-in-law had even travelled across the mountains to Saxony
personally to form an alliance with Charlemagne, seen as a king with an impressive reputation as
an undefeated conqueror. Charlemagne’s forces invaded Spain with the aim of overthrowing
the Umayyads in 778. It would prove to be an ill-considered venture, with the Franks suffering
defeat at the hands of local Basque forces. Of all of Charlemagne’s campaigns, it was this foray
into Spain that came the closest to complete disaster.
The Frankish army crossed the Pyrenees mountains
in two different places, using the tactics trialled during the Lombard campaign in 774.
One half of the army approached from the East, passing through Barcelona, and the other, led
by Charlemagne himself, came from the West of the mountains before turning back along the
Ebro river. Divisions between the Arab allies complicated matters and Frankish forces were then
refused entry to the territories between Barcelona and Zaragoza. The result was an embarrassing
retreat in the face of the advance of an Umayyad army. During this retreat, the Frankish rear-guard
was attacked by Basques who were unhappy with the thought of Charlemagne ruling over them and
several prominent officers of Charlemagne’s court were slain. To make matters worse, the
western Saxons again took advantage of the King’s absence and rose up in rebellion. The Saxons
reached the banks of the Rhine, destroying a new Frankish settlement on the Lippe river and razed
Charlemagne’s new imperial palace at Paderborn, in what is today north-eastern Germany. Charlemagne
campaigned once more against the Saxons, securing victory in 780 and forcing large numbers of
Saxons to accept a mass baptism on the river Oker. In 781, the decades-long conflict over the
region of Aquitaine came to a conclusion when Charlemagne created a sub-kingdom with his son
Louis as king. It was from this now secure base that Frankish forces launched more campaigns
southwards, eventually gaining control over the Spanish March, the land between the Pyrenees
mountains and the Ebro River). In the same year, Charlemagne returned to Italy for
the papal coronation of his two sons: Pepin as King of the Lombards and Louis as King
of the Aquitanians. As usual, the King’s absence resulted in another Saxon uprising, prompting
campaigns to quell the unrest in the years 782, 783, 784 and 785, as well as 774 and 778. With
royal power more firmly imposed on Saxony, Charlemagne turned his attention to the
semi-independent region between Saxony and Lombardy. Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria was
already subject to the Frankish king but had failed to attend assemblies and wielded a little
too much regional independence for Charlemagne to stomach. Accusations of treachery followed
Duke Tassilo’s non-attendance at a second assembly held by Charlemagne and in 788 he
was accused of conspiring with the Saxons, the Avars (who controlled the Hungarian plain)
and the Slavs. Eventually Tassilo confessed, whether guilty or not, and was imprisoned in
a monastery. The claims that he had conspired with the Avars seems unlikely given that
they invaded Bavaria twice in 788. Yet, in 794 a council at Frankfurt confirmed Tassilo’s
deposition and his dynasty’s loss of the title. As with previous conquests, the victory in Bavaria
opened the Frankish Kingdom up to new neighbours and adversaries. The Franks came face to face
with the Avars, who had built a large empire in the 6th and 7th centuries at the expense of the
Slavs of the Danube River. But the Avars did not prove to be a huge threat; by the 8th century the
Avar empire had weakened and defeats at the hands of the Franks in 791, 795 and 796 only quickened
its collapse. Charlemagne claimed the territory south of the Danube and opened up a new front for
missionary work which resulted in the conversion of the Avars and Slavs to Christianity.
The more conquests Charlemagne undertook, the
longer the Frankish frontier became - it was a growing entity which needed to be defended.
But Charlemagne did not only have the option of military force up his sleeve. From 794 he
campaigned in person less frequently and spent more time at his new palace complex at Aachen with
his courtiers and turned his mind increasingly to the power of diplomacy. Throughout his reign,
he successfully developed stable relations with potential enemies, including the Danish kingdom,
several Slavic tribes between the Baltic Sea to the Balkans, the old Lombard duchy of Benevento in
southern Italy and the Bretons in western France. But the pinnacle of Charlemagne’s diplomatic
success was still his relationship with the Papacy. As new neighbours since the annexation
of Lombardy, managing relations with the Papal States was critical, particularly as their leader,
the Pope, had no clearly defined political status relative to the Franks, who were the greater
power and acted as their protector. Charlemagne’s relations with the papacy, especially with
Pope Hadrian I, were positive. In return for his protection the Papacy offered him support for
his religious program. Charlemagne also developed friendly relations with rulers further afield,
for example the ʿAbbāsid caliph in Baghdad and the Anglo-Saxon kings of Mercia and Northumbria.
Charlemagne combined his fearsome reputation as a warrior king with a shrewd diplomacy based
on his excellent grasp of political realities; under his leadership the Frankish Kingdom
rose to a position of leadership in Europe. Internal stability was crucial for Charlemagne’s
successes on the European stage. The Frankish Kingdom had become harder and harder to control as
new ethnic, linguistic, legal and infrastructure divisions increased with every new conquest.
Charlemagne was not an innovator when it came to ruling strategies; he adopted the institutions
and administrative practices of the Merovingian Kings to rule the Kingdom effectively. The King
remained at the centre of the political system, with punishments dished out for disobedience.
For support, Charlemagne relied on a shifting collection of family members, advisers, courtiers
and ecclesiastical connections. Members of this inner circle were charged with performing
administrative tasks, carrying out justice and royal orders, conducting military campaigns,
going on diplomatic missions and advising the King. Like his warrior grandfather, Charles
Martel, Charlemagne redistributed land both within the Frankish Kingdom and in newly conquered
territories to reward supporters. Charles Martel had established a powerful landed elite class
which promised him loyalty and also gave out patronage to institutions and individuals of the
Church. His network of local landed elites helped him to centralise power across the disparate
regions of his expanding empire, even with a Merovingian still on the throne. And Charlemagne
copied his grandfather’s successful strategy. A critical pillar which held together the King’s
power was the army. All freemen were required to serve at their own expense when called up by the
King. Maintaining an effective and loyal military and especially an expensive cavalry required the
King to provide sources of income to make up for the lost income of those serving. Land grants,
judicial fees, the income from royal estates, tolls and taxes, gifts from the nobility and
the promise of war booty were all ways in which Charlemagne compensated his army.
The counts represented royal authority in the
territories and were responsible for imposing justice, raising troops, maintaining local
peace and collecting taxes. These officials came from a limited number of patronage-seeking elite
families, but the bishops also played an important role in the local government and as landowners.
Charlemagne maintained his control over these regional officials and bishops by expanding the
use of the traditional Frankish annual assembly. The assembly became a tool for strengthening
the King’s personal ties with local bishops, abbots, counts and other powerful magnates.
Here he listened to their concerns and advice, sharing his ruling commands in his own words,
and gained their support for his policies. All of Charlemagne’s subjects were required to
swear an oath of loyalty, peace and obedience, but powerful figures were further required to
accept the status of royal vassal in return for the privileges and patronage of office and
land grants. Local and central governments were better integrated through the use of royal
agents, who made regular circuits through the various territories to announce the King’s orders,
monitor the performance of local officials and investigate corruption. With the expansion of the
use of written documents, communication between central and local governments improved, meaning
royal orders were shared with greater uniformity. In terms of economic policy, Charlemagne showed
awareness of changes in economic and social conditions. Historians have noted his concern over
improving agricultural production. He also worked to increase trade by improving the monetary system
to allow for simpler exchange and standardising weights and measures. Trading ventures around the
North Sea and Baltic Sea were expanded. Efforts were made to protect merchants from excessive
tolls and robbery. The relationship between the lords and their vassals was now tempered by
royal legislation that was designed to act against exploitation. But Charlemagne also increased
the power of local lords over the population, a move which eventually resulted in the change
from a manorial system in which peasants held land from the lords in return for services and
dues, to the seignorial system which gave the lords increased political and economic power
over a given territory and everyone who lived there. Although Charlemagne’s motivation
was to promote order and stability and was perhaps guided by his moral convictions, his
reforms did help end the economic depression and social instability leftover from
the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The concepts of rulership had changed dramatically
from the start of the Carolingian dynasty. A spiritual element of kingship had been introduced
by Pepin the Short’s decision to gain papal confirmation for his elevation to King. The King’s
position was now bestowed by God. Charlemagne emphasised this religious element of kingship by
assuming responsibility for both the spiritual and the material well-being of his subjects.
Royal authority was expanded, and governmental priorities were reassessed. Charlemagne continued
his father’s devotion to the Catholic Church and took his role as its sole defender seriously.
The European Catholic world confronted the Islamic religion around the Mediterranean,
the Eastern Roman Empire was in decline due to internal divisions and Scandinavian, Slavic and
central Asian invaders threatened. His religious responsibility was one of the motivations behind
many of Charlemagne’s interventions, including removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy
and leading an invasion of Muslim Spain. Even his campaigning against the Saxons in the east had
a spiritual element as a key part of the peace negotiation involving the forced Christianization
of thousands of Saxons upon penalty of death. Some historians have pointed to the possible religious
motivation behind the Massacre of Verden, when Charlemagne himself ordered the death of
4,500 Saxons in October 782 - perhaps due to a Saxon refusal to convert or as punishment for
the Saxons breaking an oath of loyalty and peace. Christianity was on the rise across Europe and
Charlemagne’s sword arm was responsible for much of this expansion.
But the religious changes in motion at this time
required more than just a willingness to defend the faith with the sword. Religious renewal
was becoming more popular as intellectual and artistic developments looked nostalgically
back to the past. Charlemagne managed to combine age-old customs with new responses to societal
problems and a new religious reform program. He intensified the reforms started by his father,
Pepin, and his uncle, Carloman, and aimed to meet his royal religious responsibilities by
making spiritual life a key objective in his public policy and royal governance. A series of
synods of clerics and laymen gathered by royal order to set an agenda. The legislation that was
produced was to be enforced by royal officials and bishops. The legislation looked back to the
past, as the religious revival movement suggested, to find norms that would enhance Christian life
in the Scripture and earlier church councils. Charlemagne’s reforms focused on clarifying the
Church’s hierarchy and its responsibilities, improving the moral and intellectual quality of
the clergy, standardising liturgical practices, increasing pastoral care aimed at improving morals
and rooting out paganism. Over time the King’s religious authority increased, including the right
to discipline clerics, control ecclesiastical property and define religious doctrine. Despite
the increase in his own authority over spiritual matters, Charlemagne’s religious reforms were
welcomed by the Church, possibly because the King controlled the appointment of bishops, was
a major benefactor of the Church and was the guarantor of the Papal States. But the focus on
strengthening Church hierarchy and Charlemagne’s clear interest in improving morals would have
made his reforms appealing to most in the clergy. As well as religious reform, Charlemagne presided
over a cultural revival which was later called the Carolingian Renaissance. This cultural
development, which spread across Christian Europe, was driven by a circle of educated men in
Charlemagne’s court - mainly clerics from Italy, Spain, Ireland and England - the most influential
of which was the Anglo-Saxon cleric Alcuin. In response to lively interactions between this
circle, an increasing number of Frankish aristocrats and the King himself, Charlemagne
crafted a royal cultural policy which aimed to improve Latin literacy, an important step towards
improving the work of administrators and pastors. This policy required an improvement in the
Frankish education system and an increase in book publishing, which further stimulated cultural
developments. A royal library was built to foster Latin learning and religious scholarship. A
new Carolingian writing system was created to make copying and reading simpler. Court members
produced teaching material for the study of Latin, composed poetry, wrote histories and crafted
theological tracts. Charlemagne’s favourite royal residence, Aachen, became what Alcuin called
a cultural “New Athens”. It was here that a major building program began, which included the
impressive Palatine Chapel. Outside of the court, bishops revitalised existing ecclesiastical
schools, curricula and textbooks were developed and the number of libraries which were key in
protecting ancient texts increased. The major achievements of the Carolingian Renaissance
which Charlemagne encouraged included improved competence in Latin, an increase in the
use of written documents in civil and religious administration, enriched liturgy and
developments in architecture and the visual arts. Of all the many achievements in the
first thirty years of Charlemagne’s rule, contemporaries and historians have remembered
his coronation as Emperor of the Romans in 800 as the paramount and culminating event of
his long reign. But Charlemagne’s rise to emperor had not been planned, it was not the
goal of Charlemagne’s years of campaigning or his fostering of a positive relationship with the
Papacy. The coronation was the result of events in Rome and in Italy.
Pope Leo III was attacked on 25th April
799 and put in a monastery - partly due to his own unsavoury behaviour, he was
accused of fornication and perjury, and partly due to the envy of those who had lost
privileges with the election of the new Pope, in particular the two nephews of his predecessor.
But Pope Leo escaped and fled to Charlemagne who, although he likely knew of Pope Leo’s guilt, was
persuaded by his close advisor Alcuin that an appointed Pope cannot be judged in a secular court
or by a secular leader. Pope Leo was restored to Rome with Charlemagne’s support. Pope Leo then
made a public oath of innocence on 23rd December 800 and on Christmas Day, crowned Charlemagne
Emperor of the Romans in Old St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. The decision to crown Charlemagne emperor
was partly based on the view held amongst the King’s political and religious advisers that a new
community - an imperium Christianum - was forming under the King. They saw Charlemagne as the
“new Constantine”, a defender of the faith and, as a Pope-anointed King, the executor of God’s
will. The title formalised the role Charlemagne had already been playing as a defender of Rome
and strengthened the ties between Charlemagne and the Papacy. The Pope’s tenuous position
increased the impetus for bold action and the new title gave Charlemagne the legal authority to
punish those who had conspired against the Pope. Charlemagne’s years as emperor have
been remembered in two opposing ways. Some historians have seen the period as one
of crisis as the ageing Charlemagne could no longer lead military conquests, so reducing
the booty he could use to reward his followers, and also new external enemies appeared:
the Vikings and Saracens. There were also problems with the growing responsibilities of
the government and limited allocated resources. Meanwhile both lay and ecclesiastical elites were
discovering the political, social and economic power to be gained from their royal land grants,
privileges and immunities. But other historians have shown Charlemagne’s last years to be
ones of vitality, as royal administration was strengthened, diplomacy remained active and
religious reform and cultural renewal continued. How important the title of Emperor was to
Charlemagne is debated. He often used his title of ‘King of the Franks and of the
Lombards’ alongside the newer ‘Emperor Governing the Roman Empire’. He never took up
the protocols associated with imperial rule and planned to divide his realm between his
three sons in the traditional Frankish way, not seeing the imperial lands as indivisible. Yet,
Charlemagne put in military and diplomatic work to gain recognition of his title from the Eastern
emperor. He also attempted to unify the diverse legal systems within his empire and updated the
terminology and symbols used by his court. The design of his palace at Aachen was even updated
to include imperial motifs. Most importantly, in 813 Charlemagne bestowed the imperial crown
on his only surviving son, Louis the Pious. This coronation suggests that Charlemagne believed that
the office was valuable and wished to exclude the Papacy from the coronation - most likely because
he saw the imperial title as a personal award for his services to Christendom with which
he and his heirs could do as they saw fit. But the title proved to be more of a hindrance
than a help to Charlemagne and his successors.
Charlemagne had multiple wives throughout his life and had many children, including three legitimate
sons who survived infancy: Charles the Younger, Pepin and Louis the Pious. In 806 Charlemagne
divided his realm between his sons, preparing Charles the Younger for the role of Emperor
and King of the central lands of Neustria and Austrasia. Pepin was given Lombardy and Louis was
presented with Aquitaine and the nearby regions of Septimania, Provence and parts of Burgundy. Only
Louis lived long enough to inherit the Kingdom and title of Emperor from his father (and was crowned
co-emperor with Charlemagne in 813). In January 814 the 72-year-old Charlemagne developed a fever
after bathing in the warm springs at Aachen - he died one week later on 28th January 814, possibly
of lung disease and was buried at Aachen Cathedral in his imperial capital city. Louis inherited the
entire Frankish kingdom and all its possessions, but Pepin’s son, Bernard, retained Italy - the
sub-kingdom which had been ruled by his father. Following the death of Louis the Pious in 840, the
surviving adult Carolingians fought a bitter civil war which ended with the Treaty of Verdun and
the division of the empire into three regions, with imperial status and overall kingship
given to Lothair I. Carolingian control over these three regions was not long lived, and by
888 most had been displaced. In East Francia, the Carolingian dynasty continued on until
911 and in West Francia until 987. But the rise of electoral monarchy triumphed
over the Carolingians’ assertion of their hereditary and God-given right to
rule and strong alliance with the Church. Charlemagne’s legacy lived on beyond the
Carolingian dynasty. Not only was he a direct ancestor of many of Europe’s royal houses, such as
the French Capetian dynasty, the Ottoman dynasty, the House of Luxembourg and the House of Ivrea
in Burgundy, but his reign changed the face of Europe. He united western and central Europe for
the first time since the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and even brought together regions
that had not been under either Roman or Frankish rule. He provided the ideological foundation
for a politically unified Europe, an idea that has inspired Europeans sometimes with terrible
consequences across the centuries, and is still very much alive in Europe today. He is remembered
as Europae pater - the “father of Europe”. As a ruler, Charlemagne inspired many great
leaders who followed him, becoming a standard of leadership. The way he wielded secular authority
to direct religious life became a template for the all-powerful kings of the future who presented
themselves as divinely-ordained and controlled the religious lives of their subjects, even directing
the Church within, and sometimes outside, their borders. The influence of Charlemagne’s particular
kingship is highlighted by the development of language - just as the name Caesar inspired the
German and Russian words for “King,” kaiser and tsar, so too did Charlemagne’s name. In Polish
the Charlemagne-derived word for “King” is król, in Ukrainian it is ‘korol', in Czech and Slovak
kráľ, Hungarian király, Lithuanian karalius, Latvian karalis and in Turkish kral.
Charlemagne’s work promoting cultural revival
and religious reform paved the way for both a Europe-wide unified Church and further cultural
renaissances. The Carolingian Renaissance provided the essential tools - the schools, carefully
honed curricula, textbooks, libraries and teaching techniques - which drove later cultural revivals.
The cultural and intellectual activity he fostered in his court and in the Western Church revitalised
western European art, architecture, history, scholarship, the use of Latin and religious
practice. Despite only having received a basic level of education himself, Charlemagne’s
appreciation of scholarship, his curiosity and willingness to learn from others led him to
promote a climate in his court that was open to cultural and academic development. Charlemagne’s
religious conviction and desire to improve both the structure and practices of the Church
fuelled his religious reforms. He successfully solidified the Church hierarchy and standardised
liturgical practices - and both developments were rolled out across Europe. Charlemagne’s
services to the Roman Catholic Church, both as a religious reformer and as the protector
of the Papacy, resulted in his canonization by Anti-pope Paschal III - although this canonization
was later seen as invalid, and he is still regarded by some of the Catholic Church as having
been beatified, a step on path to sainthood. Yet not everything Charlemagne did received
praise. Some historians have pointed to the Frankish Kingdom’s vulnerability to future
Viking raids as a failing in Charlemagne’s last years as King. His political apparatus
proved fragile after his death, especially with the reassumption of the old Frankish
tradition of subdividing inheritance. The conflict between Charlemagne’s grandsons for
control over Frankish territory resulted in a bloody conflict and finally in the east-west
division that would become the basis for the modern-day border between France and Germany.
Charles the Bald became the first King of an independent France, Louis the German the first
King of Germany with Lothair I keeping the title of Emperor and the borderlands between the two
territories from the Low Countries down to Rome, a region that was later subsumed into
France in 890. The division of the Frankish Empire ensured no Frankish King
would become as powerful as Charlemagne. Charlemagne was undoubtedly a larger-than-life
figure. A warrior King who conquered much of western and central Europe, but also had the
support of the Papacy. He had a restless energy and an impressive ability not just to conquer but
also to unify his territories. In French history, the Merovingian Clovis I is remembered as
the first King of the Franks, the leader who unified the Frankish people in one religion,
but it was Charlemagne who unified Europe. What do you think of Charlemagne? Was
he deserving of his epithet “the Great” or was he a brutal conqueror who was simply in
the right place at the right time to win Papal blessing and rise to the status of greatness?
Please let us know in the comment section, and in the meantime, thank
you very much for watching.
