Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great or Charles I, was the king of the Franks from and the king of Italy from , and from was the first emperor in western Europe since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier.
The expanded Frankish state he founded is called the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne is considered to be the greatest ruler of the Carolingian Dynasty because of the achievements he made during what seemed like the very middle of the Dark Ages.
Charlemagne was the oldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon. He became king in following the death of his father, and initially was a co-ruler with his brother, Carloman I.
Charlemagne was determined to improve education and religion and bring Europe out of turmoil. To do this he launched a thirty-year military campaign from — of conquests that united Europe and spread Christianity.
Charlemagne was engaged in almost constant battle throughout his reign, often at the head of his elite scara bodyguard squadrons, with his legendary sword Joyeuse in hand. The first step that Charlemagne took in building his empire was to conquer new territories.
The first of these conquering campaigns was against the Lombards; Charlemagne came out victorious and won the Lombard lands to the north of Italy. At his succession in , Pope Adrian I demanded the return of certain cities in the former exarchate of Ravenna in accordance with a promise at the succession of Desiderius. Instead, Desiderius took over certain papal cities and invaded the Pentapolis, heading for Rome. Adrian sent ambassadors to Charlemagne in the autumn, requesting he enforce the policies of his father, Pepin.
Charlemagne demanded that Desiderius comply with the pope, but Desiderius promptly swore he never would. Charlemagne and his uncle Bernard crossed the Alps in and chased the Lombards back to Pavia, which they then besieged. The siege lasted until the spring of , when Charlemagne visited the pope in Rome. Some later chronicles falsely claimed that he also expanded them, granting Tuscany, Emilia, Venice, and Corsica.
After the pope granted Charlemagne the title of patrician, he returned to Pavia, where the Lombards were on the verge of surrendering. In return for their lives, the Lombards conceded and opened the gates in early summer.
Charlemagne and Pope Adrian I The Frankish king Charlemagne was a devout Catholic who maintained a close relationship with the papacy throughout his life. In , when Pope Adrian I was threatened by invaders, the king rushed to Rome to provide assistance.
Shown here, the pope asks Charlemagne for help at a meeting near Rome. In the Saxon Wars, spanning thirty years and eighteen battles, Charlemagne overthrew Saxony and proceeded to convert the conquered to Christianity. The Germanic Saxons were divided into four subgroups in four regions. Nearest to Austrasia was Westphalia, and furthest away was Eastphalia.
Engria was between these two kingdoms, and to the north, at the base of the Jutland peninsula, was Nordalbingia. Another version of Charlemagne appears in the 11th-century French epic, the Song of Roland. In the course of the poem he is visited by the Angel Gabriel; attends Mass in Aachen; and presides over festivities — a paragon of the church militant.
The Song of Roland became an iconic medieval epic, translated into numerous languages, including Castilian, Dutch, Norse and German, and it was supposedly recited by crusaders on their way to the Holy Land. Historically, Roland was killed by an ambush of the Vascones the mountain tribespeople identified with the Basques and Charlemagne was nowhere near the expedition.
For medieval Europeans, these tales continued to resonate all through the centuries of crusade and wars with the Ottoman Turks, re-told by the Renaissance poet Ariosto and re-imagined in the opera dei pupi ; while statues of the hero Roland were installed by the Hanseatic League in Northern Germany and in 15th-century Dubrovnik. European identity has its roots in epic tales: the Homeric epics about Troy were told around the continent, reimagined by bards as far as Scandinavia and Iceland, and medieval kings in France and England claimed Trojan ancestry to bolster their prestige.
The interconnectedness of European culture is revealed in many British epic tales, such as Beowulf, written down in Anglo-Saxon England but set in Denmark and Sweden, with digressions into Germany: these tales, predating concepts of nation states, expose the tangled roots on which our modern nationhood rests.
The Song of Roland fits this pattern: a tale written down in France, set mostly in Spain, ending in what is now Germany, involving knights from many other nations.
Travelling around Europe over the past couple of years, I learned about its enduring power. Not only is its narrative recalled in the Sicilian puppet operas, it also inspires an annual Basque demonstration at Roncesvalles, where songs are chanted and speeches delivered. This is a reminder that debates about separation and unification have a longstanding heritage in Europe. He was important for the concept of Europe and the development of a unifying culture, hinging aggressive evangelising Christianity to the recovery of our classical heritage.
He was important as the earliest of the Holy Roman Emperors although some quibble over the terminology. His own dynasty disintegrated, but the idea survived, emulated by succeeding Holy Roman Emperors as well as conquerors like Napoleon. But most importantly, Charlemagne established north-western Europe, the region around France and Germany, as the heart of European power.
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