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The contemporary Royal Frankish Annals routinely call him Carolus magnus rex ('Charles the great king'). As an epithet, it is certainly attested in the works of the Poeta Saxo around 900, and it had become commonly applied to him by the year 1000. Charlemagne was named after his grandfather Charles Martel.
- Overview
- Early years
Charlemagne was an 8th-century Frankish king who has attained a status of almost mythical proportions in the West. Among other things, he was responsible for uniting most of Europe under his rule by power of the sword, for helping to restore the Western Roman Empire and becoming its first emperor, and for facilitating a cultural and intellectual renaissance, the ramifications of which were felt in Europe for centuries afterward.
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How did Charlemagne become emperor of the Holy Roman Empire?
Charlemagne was crowned “emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III in 800 CE, thus restoring the Roman Empire in the West for the first time since its dissolution in the 5th century. Charlemagne was selected for a variety of reasons, not least of which was his long-standing protectorate over the papacy. His protector status became explicit in 799, when the pope was attacked in Rome and fled to Charlemagne for asylum. The ensuing negotiations ended with Leo’s reinstallation as pope and Charlemagne’s own coronation as Holy Roman emperor.
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Around the time of the birth of Charlemagne—conventionally held to be 742 but likely to be 747 or 748—his father, Pippin III (the Short), was mayor of the palace, an official serving the Merovingian king but actually wielding effective power over the extensive Frankish kingdom. What little is known about Charlemagne’s youth suggests that he received practical training for leadership by participating in the political, social, and military activities associated with his father’s court. His early years were marked by a succession of events that had immense implications for the Frankish position in the contemporary world. In 751, with papal approval, Pippin seized the Frankish throne from the last Merovingian king, Childeric III. After meeting with Pope Stephen II at the royal palace of Ponthion in 753–754, Pippin forged an alliance with the pope by committing himself to protect Rome in return for papal sanction of the right of Pippin’s dynasty to the Frankish throne. Pippin also intervened militarily in Italy in 755 and 756 to restrain Lombard threats to Rome, and in the so-called Donation of Pippin in 756 he bestowed on the papacy a block of territory stretching across central Italy which formed the basis of a new political entity, the Papal States, over which the pope ruled.
When Pippin died in 768, his realm was divided according to Frankish custom between Charlemagne and his brother, Carloman. Almost immediately the rivalry between the two brothers threatened the unity of the Frankish kingdom. Seeking advantage over his brother, Charlemagne formed an alliance with Desiderius, king of the Lombards, accepting as his wife the daughter of the king to seal an agreement that threatened the delicate equilibrium that had been established in Italy by Pippin’s alliance with the papacy. The death of Carloman in 771 ended the mounting crisis, and Charlemagne, disregarding the rights of Carloman’s heirs, took control of the entire Frankish realm.
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Mar 25, 2019 · Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, is most famous for uniting most of Western Europe through his military conquests and for his significant educational and ecclesiastical reforms that laid the groundwork for the development of modern European nations.
- Joshua J. Mark
- Born to power. Charlemagne was born under the name of Carolus sometime in the 740s AD, the grandson of Charles “the hammer” Martel, the man who had repelled a series of Islamic invasions and ruled as de facto monarch until his death in 741.
- Carolingian Kings and the Papacy. Much of the power of the Carolingian Kings rested on their close relationship with the Pope. It was he, in fact, who had elevated Pepin from Mayor to King, and this divinely ordained power was an important political as well as religious aspect of Charlemagne’s reign.
- The warrior king. He was truly a warrior king in a way that is almost unmatched before or since, spending almost the entirety of his thirty-year reign at war.
- Holy Roman Emperor. His greatest accomplishment was yet to come. In 799 another squabble in Rome lead to the new Pope, Leo, taking refuge with the Frankish King and demanding his restoration.
- Dhwty
- Charlemagne’s Early Life. Charlemagne was born during the decade of 740 AD. He was born either in Liège in modern day Belgium or in Aachen of modern day Germany.
- Military Campaigns. Following Pepin’s death in 768 AD, the kingdom was divided between Charlemagne and his younger brother, Carloman. Following Carloman’s death in 771 AD, Charlemagne became the sole ruler of the Kingdom of the Franks.
- Emperor of the Romans. In 800 AD, Pope Leo III was facing a rebellion, and was attacked on the streets of Rome, hence was compelled to seek the aid of Charlemagne.
- The Carolingian Renaissance. It was also under Charlemagne’s rule that the so-called ‘Carolingian Renaissance’ occurred. Einhard wrote that Charlemagne was interested in learning.
Jun 27, 2023 · End of a dynasty. During the final year of his reign, Charlemagne crowned his son, Louis the Pious, king of Aquitaine, as co-emperor. When he died in 814, Louis became the sole emperor, ending a ...
Nov 24, 2022 · Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, ruled over the vast Carolingian empire that spanned Europe during the Dark Ages. He became king of the Franks in A.D. 768 and conquered...
