Charlemagne

I

Introduction

Charlemagne (742?-814), in Latin Carolus Magnus (Charles the Great), king of the Franks (768-814) and emperor of the Romans (800-814). During his reign, Charlemagne built a kingdom that included almost all of western and central Europe and he presided over a cultural and legal revival that came to be known as the Carolingian Renaissance. His empire did not long survive his death, but its two main territories, East and West Francia, later became the major parts of two important European entities: West Francia became modern-day France, and East Francia became first the Holy Roman Empire and then the modern state of Germany. Charlemagne’s close alliance with the popes, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, also established a precedent for subsequent ties between medieval popes and kings.

II

Background and Early Life

Charlemagne was born about 742, the elder son of the Frankish leader Pepin the Short. Pepin held the ancestral title of mayor of the palace under the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings. However, in the wake of a long line of increasingly weak Merovingian kings, Pepin abandoned this lesser title and in 751 assumed the kingship of the Franks. In order to legitimate his rule, Pepin sought the support of the pope. In exchange for a promise to protect the pope’s lands in Italy from an invasion, Pope Stephen II officially crowned Pepin in 754. Besides crowning Pepin, the pope anointed both Charlemagne and his younger brother Carloman.

During his father’s reign, Charlemagne accompanied the Frankish army on campaigns to defend the pope against the Lombards, a Germanic people who controlled northern and central Italy, and on missions to conquer the region of Aquitaine in what is now southern France. As a result, Charlemagne learned at an early age the importance of both strong leadership on the battlefield and of close links between secular power and the Roman Catholic Church.

III

King and Emperor

On Pepin’s death, his kingdom was divided between his two sons. For three years Charlemagne shared rule of the kingdom with his brother, Carloman. After Carloman died suddenly in 771, Charlemagne became sole king of the Franks, and immediately afterward traveled to Rome and assured the pope of his continued support. Charlemagne then began a lengthy series of military campaigns to expand the Frankish kingdom.

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A

Campaigns Against the Saxons

Charlemagne’s first move came against Saxony (Sachsen), a region in what is now northwestern Germany. The Saxons, the last non-Christian and independent tribe of central Germany, had long harassed the Franks with raids against their borders. Charlemagne regarded the Saxons as a serious threat to his empire, and he wanted to convert these pagan peoples to Christianity.

Although Charlemagne first invaded Saxony in 772, he did not completely conquer the Saxons until 32 years later. In 782 Charlemagne organized Saxony as a Frankish province and established the Christian Church there, but insurrections broke out regularly. Charlemagne had to conduct several fierce campaigns and capture the Saxon chieftain before he could firmly impose his rule. He introduced Frankish political institutions and forced his new subjects to convert to Christianity. When rebellions again broke out in 792, Charlemagne deported many Saxons, bringing in Franks to replace them. Charlemagne completed the conquest of Saxony in 804.

Using methods similar to those he employed in Saxony, Charlemagne annexed Bavaria and some of the border territories between Germany and the Slavic and Avar countries to the east. Between 791 and 795 he forced the Slavs and Avars to pay him tribute; their lands, which included parts of modern Austria, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia, formed buffer states on the eastern frontier of his empire.

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