Charlemagne
Charlemagne in his youth, with diadem, orb, and sword on a horse.
1492
King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Boulogne.
1594
Portrait of Charlemagne in medallion inside a rectangular frame with ornaments, Nicolaes de Bruyn, Anonymous, 1594.
1594
Portrait of Charlemagne in medallion inside a rectangular frame with ornaments, Nicolaes de Bruyn, 1594.
1724
The Imperial Coronation of Charles the Great by Pope Leo III in 800, 1724.
Emperor Charlemagne and his wife. Detail from an illuminated manuscript page.
Charles the Great. Illumination. Upper Austria, 15th century, around 1450.
Charlemagne
Painting depicts the coronation of Charlemagne as king of Lombardy at Pavia in 774.
Oil portrait of Charlemagne by Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) in the German National Museum, Nurnberg, Germany.
Charlemagne
Relief depicting French King Louis IX, English King John I, Equity and the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne.
The envoys of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid offering a clock to Charlemagne, 1660. Found in the collection of Musée des Beaux-Arts de Cambrai. Artist : Jordaens, Jacob (1593-1678).
Charlemagne in his youth, with diadem, orb, and sword on a horse.
St. Peter presents Leo III with the stole and Charlemagne with the flag as a sign of spiritual and secular rule.
Charlemagne (Charles the Great) 747-814, king of the Franks; crowned Christian emperor of the west in St Peter's, Rome on Christmas Day 800. Copperplate engraving.
King Pippin III (714-768) first king of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty and the father of Charlemagne.
Illumination depicting Saint Charlemagne from the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry (The Beautiful Hours) an early 15th-century illuminated manuscript book of hours. Dated 15th Century.
Coronation of Charlemagne. Nineteenth-century Trade Card Chromolithograph.
Painting titled "Charlemagne and the Meeting at the Golden Gate" by Jean Hey (1480-1500) an Early Netherlandish painter. Dated 15th Century.
Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, was King of the Franks, here he receives Harun al-Rashid of Baghdad, historical illustration.
Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, was King of the Franks. Imperial Coronation at St. Peter, historical illustration.
Miniature by Jacques Besan on or Bourdichon (15th century), representing the king Louis XII praying under the protection of Charlemagne.
Departure of Charlemagne from Aquisgran to Santiago de Compostela.
Wittekind or Witikind, Saxon warrior and commander surrendered to Charlemagne at Paderborn in 785. Reinstated on condition he converted to Christianity. Nineteenth-century Trade Card Chromolithograph.
Arthur, Charles the Great (Charlemagne), Godfrey of Bouillon, 1515-1517. Creator Lucas van Leyden (Dutch, 1494-1533).
1492
King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Boulogne.
1594
Portrait of Charlemagne in medallion inside a rectangular frame with ornaments, Nicolaes de Bruyn, Anonymous, 1594.
1594
Portrait of Charlemagne in medallion inside a rectangular frame with ornaments, Nicolaes de Bruyn, 1594.
1724
The Imperial Coronation of Charles the Great by Pope Leo III in 800, 1724.
Emperor Charlemagne and his wife. Detail from an illuminated manuscript page.
Charles the Great. Illumination. Upper Austria, 15th century, around 1450.
Charlemagne
Painting depicts the coronation of Charlemagne as king of Lombardy at Pavia in 774.
Oil portrait of Charlemagne by Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) in the German National Museum, Nurnberg, Germany.
Charlemagne
Relief depicting French King Louis IX, English King John I, Equity and the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne.
The envoys of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid offering a clock to Charlemagne, 1660. Found in the collection of Musée des Beaux-Arts de Cambrai. Artist : Jordaens, Jacob (1593-1678).
Charlemagne in his youth, with diadem, orb, and sword on a horse.
St. Peter presents Leo III with the stole and Charlemagne with the flag as a sign of spiritual and secular rule.
Charlemagne (Charles the Great) 747-814, king of the Franks; crowned Christian emperor of the west in St Peter's, Rome on Christmas Day 800. Copperplate engraving.
Illumination depicting Saint Charlemagne from the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry (The Beautiful Hours) an early 15th-century illuminated manuscript book of hours. Dated 15th Century.
Coronation of Charlemagne. Nineteenth-century Trade Card Chromolithograph.
Painting titled "Charlemagne and the Meeting at the Golden Gate" by Jean Hey (1480-1500) an Early Netherlandish painter. Dated 15th Century.
Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, was King of the Franks, here he receives Harun al-Rashid of Baghdad, historical illustration.
Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, was King of the Franks. Imperial Coronation at St. Peter, historical illustration.
Miniature by Jacques Besan on or Bourdichon (15th century), representing the king Louis XII praying under the protection of Charlemagne.
Departure of Charlemagne from Aquisgran to Santiago de Compostela.
Wittekind or Witikind, Saxon warrior and commander surrendered to Charlemagne at Paderborn in 785. Reinstated on condition he converted to Christianity. Nineteenth-century Trade Card Chromolithograph.
Arthur, Charles the Great (Charlemagne), Godfrey of Bouillon, 1515-1517. Creator Lucas van Leyden (Dutch, 1494-1533).
King Pippin III (714-768) first king of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty and the father of Charlemagne.
monarch king of the Franks King of the Lombards Emperor of the Romans
Charlemagne was born around 742, the son of Bertrada of Laon (died in 783) and Pepin the Short (died in 768), who became king of the Franks in 751. Charlemagne’s exact birthplace is unknown, although historians have suggested Liege in present-day Belgium and Aachen in modern-day Germany as possible locations.
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. As an adult, he displayed a talent for languages and could speak Latin and understand Greek, among other languages.
After Pepin’s death in 768, the Frankish kingdom was divided between Charlemagne and his younger brother Carloman (751-771). The brothers had a strained relationship; however, with Carloman’s death in 771, Charlemagne became the sole ruler of the Franconians.
Charlemagne moved aggressively, especially in Italy, to remove those who threatened his power. He immediately attacked and defeated King Desiderius of the Lombards. Shortly thereafter Charlemagne was crowned king of the Lombards at Pavia. The Frankish conquest of Italy - first of Lombardy in the north and later Benevento in the south - brought new wealth and people into his kingdom.
During his Italian operations, Charlemagne also declared war against the Saxons, a Germanic tribe who threatened the northeastern frontier of Francia. Begun in 772, this cruel and bitter war finally ended in 804. Francia absorbed the land of Saxony and enforced the Christian religion on the Saxon tribes.
On his eastern frontier, Charlemagne defeated Tassilo, the duke of Bavaria. To his empire, Charlemagne added the Bavarian duchy, or territory controlled by a duke. He divided the western portion of the duchy into counties, each controlled by a count loyal to the king.
Further to the east the major power and ultimate threat to the Frankish realm was the vast Slavic kingdom of the Avars, or Huns, an Asiatic tribe that had settled along the upper Danube River. Between 791 and 795, Charlemagne crushed the power of the Avars and added their kingdom as a state. This victory opened the entire Danubian Plain to German colonization and the eastern expansion of Christianity - the beginning of the Drang nach Osten, or push to the East.
By 800 Charlemagne had succeeded in greatly extending his power while crushing several enemies. He ruled all of the Christianized western provinces, except the British Isles, that had once been part of the Roman Empire. As the sworn protector of the Church, Charlemagne was in fact the political master of Rome itself. The papacy, or office of the pope, also recognized Charlemagne's power. The pope crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day, 800.
Charlemagne attempted to create unity and harmony within his vast realm and to support laws and promote learning that would achieve his goals of the empire. Charlemagne, in contrast to his Merovingian predecessors (who constantly traveled throughout their realms), attempted to create a fixed capital to rival that of Byzantium, an ancient culture legendary for its beauty and wealth.
In 806, at the age of sixty-four, Charlemagne took measures to provide for the succession of his empire. He divided the realm among his three sons - Charles, Pepin, and Louis. But the death of Charles in April 810 was soon followed by that of Pepin. The remaining son, Louis, later called "the Pious," the least warlike and aggressive of the three, was left as the sole heir to the empire. He was crowned by his father in 813.
The last years of Charlemagne's reign saw difficult times. Civil disorder increased as did disease and famine (drastic food shortages). Additionally, there were troubles on the frontiers. In many respects, the future looked dark. In 811 Charlemagne made his final will, giving a more sizable portion of his treasures to various churches of the realm than to his own heirs. He died on January 28, 814, and was buried at his palace at Aachen.
Charlemagne's effort to adjust traditional Frankish ideas of leadership and the public good to new currents in society made a crucial difference in European history. His renewal of the Roman Empire in the West provided the ideological foundation for a politically unified Europe. His feats as a ruler, both real and imagined, served as a standard to which many generations of European rulers looked for guidance in defining and discharging their royal functions. His religious reforms solidified the organizational structures and the liturgical practices that eventually enfolded most of Europe into a single "Church."
Charlemagne's definition of the role of the secular authority in directing religious life laid the basis for the tension-filled interaction between temporal and spiritual authority that played a crucial role in shaping both political and religious institutions in later western European history. His cultural renaissance provided the basic tools - schools, curricula, textbooks, libraries, and teaching techniques - upon which later cultural revivals would be based. The impetus he gave to the lord-vassal relationship and to the system of agriculture known as manorialism (in which peasants held land from a lord in exchange for dues and service) played a vital role in establishing the seignorial system (in which lords exercised political and economic power over a given territory and its population); the seignorial system, in turn, had the potential for imposing political and social order and for stimulating economic growth.
Once in power, Charlemagne sought to unite all the Germanic peoples into one kingdom, and convert his subjects to Christianity. In order to carry out this mission, he spent the majority of his reign engaged in military campaigns. Soon after becoming king, he conquered the Lombards (in present-day northern Italy), the Avars (in modern-day Austria and Hungary), and Bavaria, among others.
Charlemagne waged a bloody, three-decades-long series of battles against the Saxons, a Germanic tribe of pagan worshippers, and earned a reputation for ruthlessness. In 782 at the Massacre of Verden, Charlemagne reportedly ordered the slaughter of some 4,500 Saxons. He eventually forced the Saxons to convert to Christianity and declared that anyone who didn’t get baptized or follow other Christian traditions be put to death.
In 1165, under Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1122-1190), Charlemagne was canonized for political reasons; however, the church today does not recognize his sainthood.
What is most striking about Charlemagne's rule was that he was able to maintain, largely through the strength of his own personality, a centralized state wherein royal authority came first. Charlemagne also maintained a small group of the best warriors, the vassi dominici, who helped him enforce his authority. During the course of his reign, Charlemagne sent a number of written instructions to his officials. These enactments, known as the Capitularii had the force of law and were executed directly by the royal agents. They are extremely valuable as sources in understanding the social and legal structure of Carolingian France.
Charlemagne's reign was a period of internal calm and prosperity because of his military and political ability. He succeeded, through diplomatic negotiations, in having his imperial title recognized by the Byzantine emperor. Through his program of cultural revival and changes to the Church, he succeeded in improving the level of civilization in the West.
The distinguishing mark of Charlemagne’s reign was his effort to honor the age-old customs and expectations of Frankish kingship while responding creatively to the new forces impinging on society. His personal qualities served him well in confronting that challenge.
Charlemagne facilitated an intellectual and cultural golden age during his reign that historians call the Carolingian Renaissance - after the Carolingian dynasty, to which he belonged. Charlemagne peopled his court with renowned intellectuals and clerics, and together they fashioned a series of objectives designed to uplift what they perceived as the flagging Christian populace of Europe. Improving Latin literacy was primary among these objectives, seen as a means to improve administrative and ecclesiastical effectiveness in the kingdom. A completely new writing system called Carolingian minuscule was established; libraries and schools proliferated, as did books to fill and be used in them; and new forms of art, poetry, and biblical exegesis flourished. The effects of Charlemagne's cultural program were evident during his reign but even more so afterward, when the education infrastructure he had created served as the basis upon which later cultural and intellectual revivals were built.
The ideal warrior chief, Charlemagne was an imposing physical presence blessed with extraordinary energy, personal courage, and iron will. He loved the active life but he was no less at home at court, generous with his gifts, a boon companion at the banquet table, and adept at establishing friendships. Never far from his mind was his large family: five wives in sequence, several concubines, and at least 18 children over whose interests he watched carefully. Although he received only an elementary level of formal education, Charlemagne possessed considerable native intelligence, intellectual curiosity, a willingness to learn from others, and religious sensibility - all attributes which allowed him to comprehend the forces that were reshaping the world about him. These facets of his persona combined to make him a figure worthy of respect, loyalty, and affection; he was a leader capable of making informed decisions, willing to act on those decisions, and skilled at persuading others to follow him.
As emperor, Charlemagne proved to be a talented diplomat and able administrator of the vast area he controlled. Charlemagne ruled from a number of cities and palaces but spent significant time in Aachen. His palace there included a school, for which he recruited the best teachers in the land.
In addition to learning, Charlemagne was interested in athletic pursuits. Known to be highly energetic, he enjoyed hunting, horseback riding, and swimming. Aachen held particular appeal for him due to its therapeutic warm springs.
Physical Characteristics: Einhard, a Frankish scholar and contemporary of Charlemagne, wrote a biography of the emperor after his death. In the work, titled "Vita Karoli Magni (Life of Charles the Great)," he described Charlemagne as "broad and strong in the form of his body and exceptionally tall without, however, exceeding an appropriate measure… His appearance was impressive whether he was sitting or standing despite having a neck that was fat and too short, and a large belly."
In his personal life, Charlemagne had multiple wives and mistresses and perhaps as many as 18 children. He was reportedly a devoted father, who encouraged his children’s education. He allegedly loved his daughters so much that he prohibited them from marrying while he was alive.
King Pippin III (714-768) first king of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty and the father of Charlemagne.
