Table of contentsContext/Historical contextRise to powerGreat military campaignsHoly Roman EmperorNew administrationCarolingian RenaissancePersonal lifeHeritageDiscussionWorks cited“I am the successor, not of Louis XVI, but of Charlemagne.” Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed it during his coronation as Emperor of France in 1804. This was a thousand years after Pope Leo crowned Charles I, commonly known as Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor in 800, and it reveals the lasting legacy he left behind. It is easy to see this legacy in the titles his people often called him: Carolus Magnus (“Charles the Great) and Europae pater (“father of Europe”). Charlemagne greatly influenced future generations through his military campaigns, administrative reforms, and cultural renaissance, which brought a period of unity and prosperity to the early Middle Ages, laying the foundation for modern Europe. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayBackground/Historical BackgroundCharlemagne's father, Pepin III (the Brief), was not always the king of Francia. Initially, the Merovingian dynasty held the Frankish throne and Pepin III was only the mayor of the palace. Originally, the mayors of the palace were only meant to oversee the house and its vast domains, but, over time, they gained more power; the role has become closer to that of a prime minister today. Power began to shift in 732 after Charles Martel, Charlemagne's grandfather, stopped the invading Muslim army from encroaching further into Europe at the crucial Battle of Tours, earning the respect of the nobility and people. When Charlemagne was born, the Merovingian king Childeric III was little more than a figurehead. In 751, any illusion of Merovingian power disappeared after Pepin III staged a coup and seized the throne with the approval of Pope Zachery, giving him the legitimacy to succeed. To secure the pope's support and essential legitimacy, Pepin III accepted a false copy of the Donation of Constantine, which essentially stated that the king received his power from the pope. Additionally, in the Donation of Pepin, Pepin III gave large portions of land to the papacy, forming the basis of the Papal States, and pushed the Lombards from their southern borders. Rising to powerIn the midst of this political turmoil in 742, Charlemagne's mother, Bertrada de Laon, gave birth to Charlemagne. Surprisingly, historians don't know much about Charlemagne's childhood. Even Einhard, biographer and contemporary of Charlemagne, knew nothing about it. He wrote: "It would be madness, I think, to write a word about the birth and childhood of Charles, or even about his childhood, for nothing has ever been written on the subject, and there is no no one alive now who can give information on this subject. it." It can be assumed that he received military training in to prepare him for his role as a warrior king, but no concrete evidence exists to support this hypothesis. Despite the general lack of information available on the childhood of Charlemagne, historians have recorded two specific events. The first event was the oath that Charlemagne took at the age of six, in which he pledged to protect the papacy and Christianity, and the second to the. age 15, where he reiterated his oath to the papacy and to Christianity. The influence of these oaths is evident in his many military decisions and conquests, especially in relation to his campaigns against the pagans of Saxony and his opposition. to Muslims. In 768, Pepin III died.leaving his kingdom divided between his two sons: Charlemagne and Carloman. Tension rises almost immediately between the two brothers. The inciting incident, however, was the rebellion in the province of Aquitaine in 769, which Charlemagne's father had previously put down. Charlemagne wanted to use the army to suppress the rebellion, but Carloman did not support this. Charlemagne still marched his troops towards Aquitaine, crushing the rebellion and thus seizing part of the neighboring province of Gascony. Tensions further increased after Charlemagne repudiated and divorced the daughter of Desiderius, king of the Lombards. Furious, Desiderius approached Carloman to overthrow Charlemagne. A civil war was brewing when Carloman mysteriously died, leaving his kingdom to Charlemagne. Major Military Campaigns Charlemagne's military campaigns greatly expanded Francia, expanding its borders to encompass modern France, northern Spain, northern Italy, and modern Germany. Charlemagne's first great military success was his conquest of the Lombard kingdom. It began around 771 when Pope Hadrian I used the Frankish protectorate status of the papacy and appealed to Charlemagne for protection. Charlemagne led an expedition to Italy in 773, quickly overwhelming the Lombards and achieving victory in less than a year. The Lombard king Desiderius was banished for life and his son expelled from Italy. Charlemagne returned all the territories lost by the papacy to Pope Adrian I and seized the rest of the territory, establishing his son Pepin Carloman as king of this sub-kingdom. Charlemagne's military expansion continued in 778, invading the Umayyad rulers of northern Spain. This campaign, however, ended in total disaster and his army was forced to retreat. Ironically, poets commemorated this defeat in the epic poem The Song of Roland, ignoring Charlemagne's many victories. This defeat did not deter Charlemagne, however, and by 796 he controlled Muslim territory from the Pyrenees to the Ebro, which created a buffer zone between his kingdom and the Muslims called the Spanish March. Its hardest-won and most controversial territory, however, was the region of Saxony, which it took 18 separate invasions and 30 years to completely conquer. Charlemagne's casus belli for war with the Saxons was the burning of a church at Deventer (modern Netherlands) in 772. Interestingly, the Franks and Saxons had good diplomatic relations and often made trade between them before the fire of the Deventer church. , leading some to believe that Charlemagne organized the raid in order to have a reason to invade. Many cite his intolerance towards pagan religions as a possible motivation. In 772, Charlemagne burned the sacred tree of the Saxons, Irminsul, in retaliation for the burning of the church. He then led a campaign of burning, looting and massacres across the country. In response to this, in 777 the Saxons rallied to the warrior leader Widukind as leader of their resistance, although he could do little against Charlemagne's army. However, he was able to negotiate with the king of Denmark to allow Saxon refugees into his kingdom. The war reached its climax in 782 at the Verden Massacre, when Charlemagne beheaded 4,500 Saxons in an attempt to break the Saxons' will to fight; despite this carnage, the Saxons continue to fight. Finally, around 784, Widukind extended an olive branch to Charlemagne and agreed to be baptized. Although it is recorded that he was baptized, the war continued until 802. The Holy Roman Emperor While Charlemagne's kingdom enjoyed successmilitary after military success, the papacy was in turmoil. In 799, the Romans, who believed that Pope Leo III was guilty of tyranny and "personal misconduct", brutally attacked him, forcing Leo to flee to Charlemagne's court in search of protection. In response, Charlemagne sent his army to escort Leo to Rome, then went to Rome himself to preside over Leo's trial in 800. Charlemagne had the charges against Leo dropped in exchange for Leo publicly swearing an oath that atoned for all charges. against him. The next morning, on Christmas Day in the year 800, Charlemagne was on his way to St. Peter's Basilica for mass when Pope Leo placed a crown on his head, proclaiming "Charles Augustus crowned great and bringer of peace." Emperor of the Romans, life and victory! » Interestingly, Einhard states that Charlemagne "would never have set foot in the church that day...if he could have seen the Pope's design." Many historians observe, however, that Charlemagne's coronation as Holy Roman Emperor was greatly beneficial to both parties and more than likely planned. This new title gave Charlemagne the power to punish those who acted against the Church, officially recognized him as the guardian of Christianity, and put him on the same level as other revered emperors like Constantine. In return, the pope strengthens his status as protectorate of France while creating the illusion of power since it is he who crowns Charlemagne. Whether or not Charlemagne was aware of the pope's plans to crown him, Charlemagne used and defended his new title to great effect, going so far as to declare war on Byzantium and cede most of his territory on the coast Dalmatian to be recognized by Byzantium as Emperor of the West. Not only did Charlemagne wage physical warfare against the Byzantines, but he also engaged in theological warfare, influencing the icon controversy and opposing the Eastern Orthodox version of the Nicene Creed. These actions and Charlemagne's position as emperor greatly increased tensions between Rome and Constantinople, eventually leading to a complete split in the Church in 1054. New administration Becoming Holy Roman Emperor caused Charlemagne to change his focus constant military campaigns toward administration, diplomacy, and religious reform. . Charlemagne retained his original governmental structure. This structure divided his kingdom into central regions, where his rule was strong and more direct, and outer regions, where each county was ruled by a trusted earl or earl. Additionally, he retained the Frankish tradition of summoning all local rulers from across the empire to Marchfield each year. Most of his new reforms and decrees took the form of missi dominici, Charlemagne's royal agents who traveled his empire to enforce and announce his laws, as well as to gather information on local rulers to report to Charlemagne. With Charlemagne's new power as Holy Roman Emperor, these laws could now affect clergy and Church officials, as well as lay leaders. Charlemagne's decrees were based on the creation of perfect Christianity, which resulted in many just and righteous laws like those of his general capitulary. for the Missis. For example, he charged Church leaders “not to oppress their subjects with severe tyranny, but to guard with sincere love the flock entrusted to them with mercy and charity.” Furthermore, he charged judges to “judge fairly, according to the written law, and not according to their own will.” In accordanceto his desire to create perfect Christianity, but in sharp contrast to the sense of justice and fairness towards all that permeates his general capitulary for the Missi, Charlemagne has no tolerance towards those who do not convert to the Christianity. He condemns anyone who “formed a conspiracy with the pagans” and any Saxon who was not baptized to death. Carolingian Renaissance While the Carolingian Renaissance spanned more than Charlemagne's reign and its influence is best seen after his death, Charlemagne was the key figure in bringing it to fruition. The Carolingian Renaissance was the greatest revival of scholarship, literature, art, and architecture since Rome. Charlemagne's desire to create a Christian identity in Europe, in order to resist Muslim influence, fueled this renaissance. Accordingly, Charlemagne gathered the best scholars in his capital at Aachen, whom he concentrated around Alcuin of York, England, whom he appointed director of his court school. Scholarship also centered around monasteries where monks copied both classical and Christian manuscripts, which preserved them for others to learn from and greatly increased the amount of manuscripts available in surrounding libraries. Charlemagne's educational policies, which required all teaching to be in Latin, and the royal scriptorium, which created a new, simpler writing system known as Carolingian minuscule, further promoted learning and cultural unity. These changes led to many advances in architecture (Palatine Chapel of Aachen), technology (iron horseshoe) and agriculture (triple crop rotation system) . Additionally, they lead to new poems, hymns, stories, musical treatises, and theological commentaries. Personal Life With all of Charlemagne's accomplishments, it is easy to forget his humanity. Einhard, however, paints a vivid picture of him, describing him as "majestic and dignified", despite his "thick and somewhat short neck" and his "rather prominent" belly. Charlemagne rarely wore ornaments, preferring clothing reminiscent of that worn by commoners. Even the most beautiful foreign robes would not tempt Charlemagne; he only wore them twice (both times at the request of the pope). Einhard adds that Charlemagne was illiterate and could not read himself. He often listened to music or reading while eating, and he particularly loved the books of Saint Augustine such as The City of God. In addition, Charlemagne's house was huge, he had at least 18 children divided between his four wives and three mistresses. Charlemagne married his first wife, daughter of King Desiderius, for political advantage and at the insistence of his mother. Less than a year later, however, Charlamagne suddenly refused to associate with her or even acknowledge her, and subsequently divorced her, much to the dismay of his mother and King Desiderius. He then married Hildegard. She was his most notable wife as she bore him nine children, five sons and four daughters, during their nine years of marriage before she died at the age of 26. After Hildegard's death, he married Fastrada, daughter of an Austrian count. She gave two daughters to Charlemagne, but she died in 794 after only eleven years of marriage. That same year, Charlemagne remarried again, this time to Luitgard of Alamannia. The court loved her and praised her as "good and pious", but she too died without ever having children after only six years of marriage. Legacy In January 814, Charlemagne fell ill with a fever and died after living 72 years and reigning 47 years. Charlemagne decreed in 806 that upon his death his.