The Story Of Charlemagne And His Saxon Nemesis | Charlemagne | Timeline

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] in the 8th Century Charlemagne seized power over the entire Frankish Kingdom he went to Northern Italy conquered Pavia and had himself crowned King of the Lombards there [Music] the only thing Charlemagne had to worry about were the sons of his deceased brother who could have made a claim for the throne Charlemagne had them abducted from their mother's hands foreign at the same time to the east of the Kingdom the Saxons were fighting the Franks at first Charlemagne managed to win important battles but then the rebel leader vedokind grew into an enemy who resisted bitterly he's been us all [Music] against all advice Charlemagne rushed to help the governor of Saragosa he was hoping to expand his kingdom all the way to Spain [Music] but the plan went wrong the city Gates remained closed and Charlemagne had to retreat at the same time the Saxons exploited the absence of the Frankish Army and rebelled once again under their leader vidukind [Music] now Charlemagne was prepared to do whatever it took he ruthlessly forced the Saxons into submission and had thousands of rebels beheaded but their leader Voodoo Kint kept escaping capture written Only Imagine video king became Charlemagne's nightmare everything depended on whether he succeeded in capturing the rebel leader thereby breaking the Saxon resistance for good thank you [Music] thank you [Music] blessed and Coast is guys I stand further is [Music] red [Music] so we had understood again [Music] on to meet him [Music] Charlemagne's mother betrada and his wife Hildegard died in the same year [Music] Charlemagne ruled out his son from his first marriage papine the hunchbackers heir to the throne in favor of hildegard's sons thank you if you love history then you will love history hit our extensive library of documentary features everything from the ancient origins of our earliest ancestors to the daring mission to Sink the Bismarck history hit has hundreds of exclusive documentaries with unrivaled access to the world's best historians we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and timeline fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code timeline at checkout [Music] Charlemagne was definitely someone who we can't relate to that's because of his personal attitude to life and the juxtaposition of the very brutal actions he performed as a ruler and the great personal charm and Charisma which he undoubtedly must have possessed foreign [Music] going in Alexander is there was unfortunately of your [Music] country's statements are the only contemporary descriptions of Charlemagne's appearance the only other information about the real stature of the Frankish King comes from his mortal remains in his Shrine in aachen Cathedral the shrine was opened in 1988 for research and restoration purposes Joachim schleifing was the Anthropologist charged with making an assessment at the time the conclusions were merely drawn from the Bone's appearance the strong bone structure and a large diameter of the pelvis was striking two long bones suggested a height of more than one meter 80. various ossifications indicated an age at death of 60 to 70 years [Music] it surprised me given what we know about Charlemagne's age that his skeleton was in a condition that I describe as top fit for his Advanced age he had very few degenerative changes in his knee joint and heel bone no indications of breaks or injuries his skeleton wasn't surprisingly good shape for his age he was an athletic man of above average height his bones were quite robust foreign [Music] the emperor's Cranium is also in arkhan's Cathedral Treasury and can be examined [Music] the sutures confirm Charlemagne's ripe old age of 66. that means he exceeded the average life expectancy of a Frank in the Early Middle Ages by 37 years [Music] by performing a medical analysis on his shin bone in the treasury the scientists have completed the initial findings about Charlemagne size and health [Music] the chemist Bernhard blumish and the medical expert Frank Worley performed bone density measurements and magnetic resonance imaging [Music] the examinations of Charlemagne's Shin bones yielded various results and that allows us to get a better picture of him reconstruct his height and we believe he was around 1 meter 84 which is tall for that time but not abnormally at all not very robust [Music] the computer tomography reveals a relatively healthy bone without major pathologies [Music] 1200 years after his death modern medicine has confirmed that Charlemagne was in rude health yeah [Music] just a few months after hildegard's death Charlemagne married an East Frankish noblewoman named fustrada she was described as clever and self-confident and made quite a few enemies in the male-dominated society at the same time in Saxony there was fighting yet again the thought exactly inside my food Supreme the immersion encounters too the message [Music] Charlemagne was firmly expecting the last judgment and like most of his contemporaries he was probably scared of it he knew that every person would stand alone in front of his judge and he knew that a king would also be punished for the sins of his subjects that's scary I think Charlemagne will have been scared about death and there's a lot of the energy to reform his realm came from this fears oh in 785 Charlemagne had a meeting with his greatest opponent the Saxon leader of vidukind it was the first time the two had come face to face [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] had himself baptized and Charlemagne was his Godfather Charlemagne's acting as Godfather to vedukent was an act of friendship of friendliness and recognition it's paying tribute to the defeated [Music] [Music] the long-term story was a successful one the Saxons who who had never been very different from the Franks except in terms of religion and not having kings that was important but their material culture was very similar to that of the Franks and they understood each other literally understood each other so but they integrated and and einhardt says that the Franks and the Saxons became one people video Kane's price for peace was high and despite the empty State coffers vidykin's conversion to Christianity was worth several precious items to Charlemagne the Museum of decorative arts in Berlin has one of them the Bursa it's said to be one of the baptismal gifts given to the Saxon Prince by Charlemagne foreign Charlemagne waged the war against the Saxons Under The Motto baptism or death chose baptism that means he foreswore all further resistance and subordinated himself to Charlemagne that he got something from Charlemagne in return is also true in some sense he was a Victor because he got his Saxon Estates back and was able to return home after he'd spent a long time away Charlemagne and video Kent forged a peace treaty with which the Saxon nobility grew more influential in the Frankish Realm the leader of the rebels was later glorified as a mythical being as an advocate of Christianity vedokind is said to have founded anger Abbey in Westphalia it's believed that this is also where he found his final resting place the chiseled Tombstone depicts him in the regalia of a priest king [Music] [Music] the Saxon Wars exhausted the Frankish Realm there were frequent rebellions that Charlemagne put down brutally it took a long time to realize that it would take more than tough action and oppression to obtain the Loyalty of his new subjects foreign the Frankish Empire achieved hither two unknown Dimensions during Charlemagne's Reign it became the superpower in Europe even the powerful duchy of Bavaria was annexed along with parts of the avar kingdom in the east furthermore most of the bordering regions were politically dependent on the Franks [Music] these days we see Charlemagne as the father of Europe or one of the fathers of Europe but politically you can't transfer the term Europe to the time of the Cairo lingians even though poets sang hymns of Praise about Charlemagne at the time and called him the beacon of Europe This was always a purely geographical term Charlemagne got his name because he ruled over the largest part of the Christian West [Music] in order to rule over his huge realm Charlemagne was always on the go with his Entourage [Music] unlike Hildegard Queen fustrada usually remained at court to support Charlemagne from there the two were in constant contact via the Royal military Postal Service foreign [Music] was in charge of business it's a responsibility Charlemagne wouldn't have given his previous wives [Music] is the only wife of whom a letter from Charlemagne to her survives and again it's a letter that's couched in um in terms which are affectionate but which also imply how politically important she was Charlemagne's third wife fastrada who presumably wasn't as young as Hildegard when she married Charlemagne seems to have been more important to him politically he included her more than he did Hildegard we know that she's mentioned in the capitulare de villes and she was to be kept informed about the proceeds of the Royal Estates just like the Kings einhardt who evidently didn't like her blames her for the rebellion of Charlemagne's eldest son Pepin the hunchback thank you often wrecks its laws Amazon observation please [Music] Johannes foreign [Music] had become the main Royal residence when the young einhardt came to court [Music] Charlemagne surrounded himself with European scholars in arkhan einhardt was the only Frank among them foreign [Music] took advantage of different political opportunities to attract Scholars from other countries to his court or to impose on them and stay at his court I'm thinking of Paul the Deacon but he also had a definite policy of attracting Scholars there's alken for example who became one of the most outstanding Scholars of the Frankish world [Music] foreign the device having an item folks this is Charlemagne wanted to use the scholars to advance the culturally backward Frankish Empire by implementing an educational reform Charlemagne important people realized that the formal education Mastery of the Latin language the ability to read and write Latin texts had suffered greatly in the Frankish realm the Anglo-Saxon missionaries in the mid 8th century were the first to realize this is the first efforts to remedy the situation occurred under his father Pepin but Charlemagne really focused on it and I think it's one of his most significant achievements that he felt he could fix this decline in education not by relying on the Franks alone but by getting the support of educated foreigners [Music] it is a upshift in killing with Russian priest again Bonifacio is in the early days of Charlemagne's Reign the various scripts within the Frankish Kingdom were quite different that's why Charlemagne who wanted to send out his decrees in writing all over the realm was interested in having a uniform simple easily legible alphabetes and this was then implemented [Music] one of the most important achievements of the educational reform came from Charlemagne's highest court scholar the alkaline Bible written in carolingian minuscule the new script of small letters this made a joined up simple way of writing possible for the first time it's the precursor of our current writing [Music] the oldest surviving book in the German language also mentions Charlemagne's campaign for better education in the Frankish Kingdom the Codex abrogance was a first dictionary of terms used in church Latin priests and lay people were to really understand what Christian texts talked about [Music] one of the greatest achievements we can attribute to Charlemagne and his court Scholars because you always have to see him together with his entourage is his educational reform which is also known as the carolingian Renaissance it expresses Charlemagne's desire to improve knowledge of writing and the Latin language and so the carolingian Renaissance was a firm part of Charlemagne's government program and his social reforms associated [Music] in September 796 Charlemagne's son Pepin returned Victorious from his campaign against the avars in what is now Hungary [Music] but foreign [Music] the Supreme command in the other campaign that was definitely a test passed this test with flying colors the victory against the avas was a huge success the booty was plentiful and it greatly increased Charlemagne's standing follow God is the other treasure gave Charlemagne the means to implement his Visions he founded Bishop Pricks all over his Empire and made them centers of his educational reform he also planned the construction of a magnificent residence in Arkansas religion meets their Carl sites in Houston about the wondershare location silver Stone is hmm if it is in power leads the corner and soil news was an episode the pub states that together the motor coaches [Music] the palace was by far the most elaborate building of the carolingin era a royal Hall as the seat of government a Garrison and courtrooms and the still extant octagon a magnificent Palace Chapel based on the Roman Byzantine model foreign [Music] even 200 years after its construction the church done was to be the highest north of the Alps [Music] the symbolism of the central building speaks for itself an octagon as a representation of heavenly Jerusalem that was how Charlemagne expressed his entitlement to rule the whole world [Music] placing the throne on the gallery put the king in the most elevated position into a special sphere by the 15th century it had been the coronation Throne of 31 German rulers [Music] the palace Chapel the Octagon which still exists as aachen cathedral was influenced by a model in Ravenna that's evident but it's not at all clear how much he copied Roman buildings in general there are certain documents but there by no means clear performance isn't our kindness weeks during the reign of Charlemagne aachen fulfilled a part of what Rome once meant to the Roman emperors [Music] wasn't some kind of replica of Rome in Charlemagne's day the stormy days of Charlemagne's youth were behind him now he focused more on seeking insights and gathered the leading Scholars of Europe in arkhan to create philosophical circles the participants called themselves after ancient and biblical role models foreign I slide the description is [Music] the Scottish Village foreign Charlemagne's plans have to have come together a while before the year 800. the first signs of them can be found in the Royal annals if you just look at who Charlemagne was communicating with at the time suddenly from 797 all the great rulers are suddenly gathered around not just the emperor and by Santiam the Khalif in Baghdad the Emir in Cordoba but also the Lesser rulers even from North Africa and Italy suddenly everyone's represented within the next five years they're all listed in the Royal annals that's a rule acting like a world ruler in April 799 an incident occurred in Rome that Charlemagne used to his political advantage the pope was physically attacked men from his closest Circle were involved they accused Leo III of fornication adultery and perjury in addition he wasn't from Roman aristocratic circles [Music] open wanted to make him unfit to hold office by blinding and mutilating him but things didn't turn out that way foreign [Music] servant helped the pope escape to the care of Royal Frankish Messengers who led him across the Alps to the only conceivable place of Refuge to Charlemagne the patron of the Roman Church the trip across the Alps took eight weeks then the pope accompanied by Charlemagne's Messengers reached the Royal Palace in paderborn e meeting took place in paderborn Far in the north and Charlemagne definitely didn't hold it there at random he wanted to demonstrate to the pope what he had done for Christianity for the spread of Christianity that's why the meeting took place in newly conquered Saxony when Leo III arrived Charlemagne let him feel his power all right foreign [Music] foreign foreign s who suspect that this whole story was staged by Charlemagne so that he could present himself as emperor in Rome I personally don't believe that Charlemagne had had far too many successes already the most recent success against the Abbas in 795 made him the indisputable ruler of the West he controlled all the old Imperial residences in the west including Rome and I can't believe that such a man didn't have the idea all on his own I want to be emperor nobody in Rome suspected what Charlemagne really wanted to achieve as Supreme judge namely to acquit the Pope in a proper trial to do that he cleverly used a legal Dodge history schweiked stuff foreign [Music] [Music] moment where therefore I got that is [Music] Leo III reinstated as the pope was to show his gratitude to Charlemagne the next day is foreign [Music] foreign reported on Charlemagne's coronation as emperor in a very strange way he doesn't say when it happened he doesn't say where it happened he just said that Charlemagne had said later that if he had known of the Pope's intentions he wouldn't have gone to church that day even though it was an important holiday the common uh he probably didn't entirely like the pivotal role of the Pope because the Franks generally felt far superior to the Romans the interpretation that emerged for Charlemagne's Court was that he only got the Imperial title the Norman Emperor Taurus for something he had already achieved under his own steam that's probably the context of that story foreign [Music] on Christmas Day 800 Charlemagne became Augustus imperata romanum the noble emperor of the Romans [Music] this Act was to change the history of the world from this point on the pope would Crown Emperors for centuries [Applause] the events of Christmas day had far-reaching consequences that's when the medieval Empire was founded which was to continue in the form of the Holy Roman Empire up until the year 1806. at the same time this Empire was closely tied to the papacy even though Charlemagne mightn't have intended this out Charlemagne never returned to Rome he started focusing on domestic politics to secure the future of his huge Empire he implemented reforms he put uniform laws in place the silver Denarius was introduced as the empire-wide currency the cultivation of grains and fruits was to be improved Charlemagne issued economic regulations that he put into effect on all his Royal Estates [Music] as part of his comprehensive educational program Charlemagne made schools accessible to lay people his Maxim was first comes knowledge then action [Music] Charlemagne considered it his duty to guide his people to Salvation he had a Catholic and also a completely pragmatic understanding of his rule his capitularies addressed moral aspects since it was his god-given responsibility to make sure his entire people achieved blessedness [Music] there's no doubt about it in the admonitio generalis it was his job to lead his people to Salvation [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] Charlemagne died of pneumonia when he was 66. [Music] after a reign of 46 years he left his son Louis a huge Empire as Emperor Louis the pious he would continue his father's reform policies but he wouldn't be able to maintain the unity of the Frankish Empire [Music] just 30 years later the empire fell into three parts West Francia East Francia from which a German Empire emerged and middle Francia which would later split further [Music] but what's great about Charles there have always been conquerors but it has to be said that despite the Empire's domestic difficulties after Charlemagne's death especially during the reign of his son Louis the pious during which there was in a conflict the Empire stuck together he understood how to organize his Empire so that it stood as a whole a certain feeling of unity of us developed felt part of this us as did the Lombards is [Music] I personally consider the renewal of intellectual culture as outstanding he called it to renew to repair to restore he stored the intellectual culture Latin The Sciences to understand Faith properly and this restoration of science continued to have an effect it was a restoration of logic of reason of rational thinking and that was incorporated into European Society for the next 300 years until it was so deep-seated that it changed the world does this device [Music] Charlemagne was buried in arkhan some say he was cruel and power hungry others praise him as being wise and agreeable to God one thing that's certain is that as the first emperor of the medieval West Charlemagne shaped an entire era he ruthlessly forged an enormous Empire with his sword but he also made it flourished culturally foreign [Music] even his contemporaries stylized him as a figure of light while one created a literary Monument for him [Music] [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 106,328

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, timeline, timeline world history, timeline world history documentaries, timeline channel

Id: 6VUEgxrmP1w

Length: 52min 7sec (3127 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 20 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/MonsieurMcGregor]

This is an episode of mini-series "Karl der Grosse" from 2013, not 2022.

IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2659994/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_23_act

[u/acari_]

u/ginzalo_