Charlemagne was arguably one of the
most outstanding leaders of all times if expansion and change are to
be the measures of greatness. Indeed , Charlemagne, or Charles I, is
acknowledged and celebrated as Charles the Great, the King and later the emperor who
united western Europe in the Holy Roman Empire. Crowned King in 768,
within six years, he was celebrating the title of King of Italy. By 800, Pope Leo III declared
him Emperor of the Romans. He extended his power and authority and
unified Western Europe under his tutelage. The Empire that died three centuries
earlier was revived, restored , and adapted to meet the most expansive
ambitions of the new dynasty. Charlemagne was born around 747. His father Pepin the Short and his mother
Bertrada of Laon were King, and Queen of the Franks until
Pepin died in 768. Pepin divided his legacy between
Charlemagne and his brother Carloman who ruled jointly but controlled
their areas of influence. Charlemagne inherited the outer part of the
kingdom, including West Aquitaine, North Austrasia, and Neustria . At the same time, the younger brother
took the inner part, including southern Austrasia, Septimania, eastern Aquitaine,
Burgundy, Provence , and Swabia. The expectation was that each would continue to negotiate their responsibilities. However , it all changed with
the death of Carloman in 771. A New Beginning While Europe had wallowed in darkness
and despair, Charlemagne fixed the new beginning of a religious, educational,
and cultural transformation . His first task was
military expansion . He spent 30 years from 772 conquering
new lands, spreading Christianity and establishing unity
under his protection. Charlemagne led battles taking up his
position as leader of the Scara or military elite throughout his campaigns. The first and most significant of
Charlemagne’s crusades was the settling of the Lombards. The capture of the
lands to the north of Italy bore additional responsibility because of
assurances given by his father, Pepin. In 771, the new Pope Adrian I demanded
the return of lands only to see King Desiderius of the Lombards retaliate and
drive his way through papal cities, onto Pentapolis and Rome. Adrian appealed to Charlemagne to support
him and honour his fathers’ commitments. He called a conference at Thionville where
Charlemagne threw his weight behind the Pope and demanded
that Desiderius comply . The ensuing confrontation saw Charlemagne
and Bernard advance across the Alps. Together they drove the Lombards back to
Pavia before engaging with them and finally declaring their victory in 774 . Charlemagne firmly supported the Papacy
, upholding his father’s commitment and accepting the title of
patrician in a visit to the Pope . He returned to Pavia in triumph, granting
amnesty to those who opposed him and declaring his victory . His campaigning defined his future
ambitions for territorial expansion and established his future relationship
with the Church of Rome. The Saxon Wars and Beyond Charlemagne’s campaign of expansion and his
religious devotion did not stop with the victory over the Lombards. In 773, he set his sights on conquering
the Saxon lands and bringing the true Christian faith to the
many Saxons and beyond. He conducted no less than eighteen battles
and persevered for over thirty years to achieve this goal. His strength lay in his skills as a
military leader and meticulous planner and his investment in the preparation
and training of his troops. His Saxon campaigns
spanned the Germanic lands. His first victory was
against the Engrians in 773 . However , stretching his armies too thinly
halted his ambitions in the north for two years while he consolidated
his position in Italy. In 775, he regrouped and laid
siege to Westphalia at Sigiburg . Charlemagne marched through Engria to the
eastern borders with Eastphalia claiming further victory over the Saxons and bringing
the leader Hessi to the Christian faith. To establish dominance over
the area he set up permanent bases at Sigiburg and Freiburg. But Charlemagne’s interests
in Italy made it difficult for him to consolidate his hold over Saxony. While he was busy crushing the dukes of
Friuli and Spoleto, the Saxons were rising in rebellion under the
leadership of Widukind. Charlemagne returned not only to suppress
the uprising in 776 and set up a new camp in Karlstadt but to drive Widukind
away to Denmark and absorb Saxony into the Frankish Kingdom. He set up a new national assembly at
Paderborn and began the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity. But Charlemagne’s
ambition did not stop there. He pushed forward to Southern Germany,
defeated the Avars and invaded northern Spain, driving the
Moors into submission. By 800, he dominated an area over today’s
Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and parts of
Austria, Hungary, and Spain. He established a new united Europe under
the spiritual ascendancy of Christianity. The Coronation of 800 AD The next significant event for Charlemagne
was his Coronation as Emperor of the Romans. In 795, Pope Adrian died
and was succeeded by Pope Leo III . Leo, whose lack of popularity in Rome
forced him to hide behind the protection of Charlemagne, was eager to retain papal
authority within the expanding Carolingian empire. It was a
shrewd political move. By crowning Charlemagne as Emperor, he set
precedence for crowning all emperors and holding onto papal influence. At the same time, Charlemagne expanded
his authority across the newly established Holy Roman Empire. On Christmas day of the year 800,
Charlemagne found himself in Rome. The tale goes that he knelt to pray at
the altar of St Peter’s Basilica, and Leo placed a crown on his head
announcing Imperator Romanorum. In doing so, Pope Leo III declared the
reign of Empress Irene of Constantinople to be unfounded and the Byzantine
Empire to be without substance. As historian James Bryce writes: When
Odoacer compelled the abdication of Romulus Augustulus, he did not abolish the
Western Empire as a separate power. Still, he caused it to be reunited with
or sink into the Eastern, so that from that time there was a single undivided Roman
Empire … [Pope Leo III and Charlemagne], like their predecessors, held the Roman
Empire to be one and indivisible, and proposed by the coronation of
[Charlemagne] not to proclaim a severance of the East and West. Charlemagne humbly declared himself
surprised and unprepared for the accolade bestowed on him . However, he soon adapted to
the magnitude of his new role. His target was to embody the notion
of continuous Empire from Augustus to Constantine VI. His ambition was to
reunite Europe and was thwarted only by the equally prestigious Byzantine
Empire and its Empress Irene. She ruled despite the lack of acknowledgement
by the Pope and Charlemagne. The legacy lasted for almost a millennium
and alongside the Byzantine empire, which equally claimed rights
over the title of Emperor. Charlemagne never claimed sovereign
authority over the Byzantine Empire, and Byzantium never acknowledged his
sovereignty of the Holy Roman Empire. His coronation established two Empires
rather than one unbroken line from the days of Augustus to those
of Constantine VI. A united empire was unattainable
unless both power houses locked swords. Many supporters of Charlemagne argued
against the legitimacy of a Byzantine empire led by a woman. Byzantium equally felt threatened by
Frankish claims to the Roman Empire. East and West were set
apart and in conflict. Motivation When the Pope declared Charlemagne as
Holy Roman Emperor, there was an enormous shift in the power
base of Europe. Now the Pope and the leader of the Franks
collaborated and controlled lands as far south as Rome and challenged
the right of Byzantium. The Greeks dominated the Byzantine
Empire, and their power base lay in Constantinople. Traditionally they held the
title of Roman Emperor and exercised the only right to judge
over the Papacy . Declaring for Charlemagne, the Pope turned
his back on the authority of Byzantium and the power of Constantinople. Historian John Julius Norwich writes of
their motivation: By whom, however, could he [the Pope] be tried? In normal circumstances, the only
conceivable answer to that question would have been the Emperor at Constantinople;
but the imperial throne was at this moment occupied by Irene. The Empress was notorious for having
blinded and murdered her own son in the minds of both Leo and Charles, but this
fact was almost immaterial: it was enough that she was a woman. The female sex was thought to be incapable
of governing, and by the old Salic tradition, was
debarred from doing so. As far as Western Europe was concerned, the
Throne of the Emperors was vacant: Irene’s claim to it was merely an additional proof
if any were needed, of the degradation into which the so-called
Roman Empire had fallen. It may be that the Pope never really expected
to achieve harmony with Constantinople. Relationships between the Pope and
Byzantium were fractious since early in the century. By 750, the influence of the
Byzantines in Rome and Southern Italy was limited. The Papacy opposed the destruction
of Christian icons, which was central to the laws of Constantinople. And then, politically, the questionable
leadership of Irene led the Pope to declare that there was no living emperor
when he anointed Charlemagne. In crowning Charlemagne Emperor, Pope Leo
effectively gave the church authority over the Empire and turned
away from the Byzantines. Norwich further explains that by crowning
Charlemagne, the Pope arrogated to himself: “the right to appoint the Emperor of the
Romans, establishing the imperial crown as his gift, but simultaneously granting
himself implicit superiority over the emperor whom he had created…” And:
“…because the Byzantines had proved so unsatisfactory from every point of
view—political, military and doctrinal—he would select a westerner: the one man
who by his wisdom and statesmanship and the vastness of his dominions stood out head
and shoulders above his contemporaries.” Roman Emperor Faced with conflict and knowing that it
was unlikely that the Byzantines would even accept a Frankish King as their Emperor,
Charlemagne declared himself the “renewer” of the Roman Empire. A new unity based on Christian faith would
replace the unity of Roman citizenship. Throughout the Middle Ages,
the two empires remained opposed. The title of Emperor would pass
through the generations of Frankish Kings ordained by the Popes. Over time the Carolingians would lose their
supremacy through fights within their own, and their dominance
would subside . The Popes would look to other Italian
leaders who would happily endorse the power of the Papacy and
act as its protector. By 924, the title Holy Roman Emperor
was lost but revived in 962 by Otto I, who styled himself as the
heir to Charlemagne. And the title would remain
for a thousand years… To recap: Charlemagne was
determined to expand his realm and spread Christianity across Europe. To this end he embarked on a
thirty-year military campaign of conquest. By the year 800 he controlled Western
Europe, including present-day France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands,
Germany, and parts of Austria and Spain The Coronation in 800 AD extended his authority
and he used the circumstances to claim he was the restorer of the Roman Empire,
which would continue to exist for nearly a thousand years in the form
of the Holy Roman Empire. The Pope’s motivation for crowning
Charlemagne was to give the papacy and the church implicit authority over the
empire, and gain security from the emperor. Next up we will cover Charlemange’s reforms
and the beginning of Carolingian renaissance. If you enjoyed the video,
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