Charlemagne

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Charlemagne

(Charles the Great or Charles I) (shär`ləmān) [O.Fr.,=Charles the great], 742?–814, emperor of the West (800–814), Carolingian king of the Franks (768–814).

King of the Franks

Elder son of Pepin the ShortPepin the Short
(Pepin III), c.714–768, first Carolingian king of the Franks (751–68), son of Charles Martel and father of Charlemagne. Succeeding his father as mayor of the palace (741), he ruled Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence, while his brother Carloman (d.
..... Click the link for more information. and a grandson of Charles MartelCharles Martel
[O.Fr.,=Charles the Hammer], 688?–741, Frankish ruler, illegitimate son of Pepin of Heristal and grandfather of Charlemagne. After the death of his father (714) he seized power in Austrasia from Pepin's widow, who was ruling as regent for her grandsons, and
..... Click the link for more information. , Charlemagne shared with his brother CarlomanCarloman,
751–71, son of Pepin the Short. He and his brother, Charlemagne, shared the succession to their father's kingdom; Carloman ruled the southern portion. Attempts to end rivalry between the brothers failed, and when Carloman died Charlemagne seized his domain.
..... Click the link for more information. in the succession to his father's kingdom. At Carloman's death (771), young Charlemagne annexed his brother's lands, disinheriting Carloman's two young sons, who fled with their mother to the court of DesideriusDesiderius
, d. after 774, last Lombard king in Italy (756–74). The duke of Tuscany, he was chosen king with the support of the pope and of Pepin the Short, who was king of the Franks and whose son Charles (later Emperor Charlemagne) married Desiderius's daughter.
..... Click the link for more information. , king of the Lombards. When Desiderius conquered part of the papal lands and attempted to force Pope Adrian IAdrian I,
d. 795, pope (772–95), a Roman; successor of Stephen IV. At Adrian's urging, Charlemagne crossed the Alps and defeated the Lombard king, Desiderius, who had annexed papal territory. That defeat marked the end of the Lombard kingdom.
..... Click the link for more information. to recognize Carloman's sons, Charlemagne intervened (773) on the side of the pope and defeated the Lombards. At Rome, Charlemagne was received by Adrian as patrician of the Romans (a title he had received with his father in 754), and he confirmed his father's donation to the Holy See. Shortly afterward he took Pavia, the Lombard capital, and assumed the iron crown of the Lombard kings of Italy.

In 778 he invaded Spain, hoping to take advantage of civil war among the Muslim rulers of that kingdom, but was repulsed at Zaragoza. In later campaigns conducted by local counts, Barcelona was captured (801) and a frontier established beyond the Pyrenees. Charlemagne's struggle with the pagan Saxons, whose greatest leader was WidukindWidukind
or Wittekind
, d. 807?, leader of the Saxons against the Frankish king Charlemagne (later emperor of the West). In 782, when Charlemagne organized Saxony as a Frankish province and ordered forced conversion of the pagan Saxons, the Saxons under Widukind
..... Click the link for more information. , lasted from 772 until 804. By dint of forced conversions, wholesale massacres, and the transportation of thousands of Saxons to the interior of the Frankish kingdom, Charlemagne made his domination over Saxony complete. In 788 he annexed the semi-independent duchy of Bavaria, after deposing its duke, Tassilo. He also warred successfully against the Avars and the Slavs, establishing a frontier south of the Danube.

Emperor of the West

In 799 the new pope, Leo IIILeo III, Saint,
pope (795–816), a Roman; successor of Adrian I. He was attacked about the face and eyes by members of Adrian's family, who hoped to render him unfit for the papacy. Leo recovered and fled (799) to Charlemagne's protection at Paderborn.
..... Click the link for more information. , threatened with deposition by the Romans, appealed to Charlemagne. Charlemagne hastened to Rome to support Leo, and on Christmas Day, 800, was crowned emperor by the pope. His coronation legitimized Charlemagne's rule over the former Roman empire in W Europe and finalized the split between the Byzantine and Roman empires. After years of negotiation and war, Charlemagne received recognition from the Byzantine emperor Michael I in 812; in return Charlemagne renounced his claims to Istria, Venice, and Dalmatia, which he had held briefly. The end of Charlemagne's reign was troubled by the raids of Norse and Danes (see NorsemenNorsemen,
name given to the Scandinavian Vikings who raided and settled on the coasts of the European continent in the 9th and 10th cent. They are also referred to as Northmen or Normans.
..... Click the link for more information. ), so Charlemagne took vigorous measures for the construction of a fleet, which his successors neglected. His land frontiers he had already protected by the creation of marches. In 813, Charlemagne designated his son Louis ILouis I
or Louis the Pious,
Fr. Louis le Pieux or Louis le Débonnaire, 778–840, emperor of the West (814–40), son and successor of Charlemagne. He was crowned king of Aquitaine in 781 and co-emperor with his father in 813.
..... Click the link for more information. as co-emperor and his successor and crowned him at AachenAachen
, Aix-la-Chapelle
, or Bad Aachen
, city (1994 pop. 246,570), North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. One of the great historic cities of Europe, it is now chiefly important as a rail and road hub and as an
..... Click the link for more information. .

Achievements of His Reign

In his government Charlemagne continued and systematized the administrative machinery of his predecessors. He permitted conquered peoples to retain their own laws, which he codified when possible, and he issued many capitulariescapitularies
, decrees and written commands of the Carolingian kings of the Franks, so called because they were divided into capitula, or chapters. Both legislative and administrative, they were the chief written instrument of royal authority.
..... Click the link for more information. (gathered in the Monumenta Germaniae historicaMonumenta Germaniae historica
, comprehensive critical editions of the sources of medieval German history. The first society created to publish them was founded by Karl vom und zum Stein in 1819, and the first volume appeared in 1826. G. H.
..... Click the link for more information. ). A noteworthy achievement was the creation of a system by which he could supervise his administrators in even the most distant lands; his missi dominici were personal representatives with wide powers who regularly inspected their assigned districts. He strove to educate the clergy and exercised more direct control over the appointment of bishops and he acted as arbiter in theological disputes by summoning councils, notably that at Frankfurt (794), where adoptionismadoptionism,
Christian heresy taught in Spain after 782 by Elipandus, archbishop of Toledo, and Felix, bishop of Urgel (Seo de Urgel). They held that Jesus at the time of his birth was purely human and only became the divine Son of God by adoption when he was baptized.
..... Click the link for more information. was rejected and some of the decrees of the Second Council of Nicaea (see Nicaea, Second Council ofNicaea, Second Council of,
787, 7th ecumenical council, convened by Byzantine Empress Irene. Called to refute iconoclasm, the council declared that images ought to be venerated (but not worshiped) and ordered them restored in churches.
..... Click the link for more information. ) were condemned. He stimulated foreign trade and entertained friendly relations with England and with Harun ar-RashidHarun ar-Rashid
[Arab.,=Aaron the Upright], c.764–809, 5th and most famous Abbasid caliph (786–809). He succeeded his brother Musa al-Hadi, fourth caliph, a year after the death of his father, Mahdi, the third caliph.
..... Click the link for more information. . In 813, Charlemagne designated his son Louis ILouis I
or Louis the Pious,
Fr. Louis le Pieux or Louis le Débonnaire, 778–840, emperor of the West (814–40), son and successor of Charlemagne. He was crowned king of Aquitaine in 781 and co-emperor with his father in 813.
..... Click the link for more information. as co-emperor and his successor and crowned him at AachenAachen
, Aix-la-Chapelle
, or Bad Aachen
, city (1994 pop. 246,570), North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. One of the great historic cities of Europe, it is now chiefly important as a rail and road hub and as an
..... Click the link for more information. .

Charlemagne's court at Aachen was the center of an intellectual renaissance. The palace school, under the leadership of AlcuinAlcuin
or Albinus
, 735?–804, English churchman and educator. He was educated at the cathedral school of York by a disciple of Bede; he became principal in 766. Charlemagne invited him (781?) to court at Aachen to set up a school.
..... Click the link for more information. , became famous; numerous schools for children of all classes were also established throughout the empire during Charlemagne's reign. The preservation of classical literature was aided by his initiatives. Prominent figures of the Carolingian renaissance included Paul the DeaconPaul the Deacon,
c.725–799?, Lombard historian. He received a good education, probably at Pavia, and he learned Latin thoroughly and some Greek. He lived at Monte Cassino and at Charlemagne's court.
..... Click the link for more information. and EinhardEinhard
or Eginhard
, c.770–840, Frankish historian. Educated in the monastery of Fulda, he continued his studies at Charlemagne's palace school in Aachen and rose to high favor with the emperor. Emperor Louis I made Einhard tutor or adviser to his son Lothair.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Character and Influence

In his daily life Charlemagne affected the simple manners of his Frankish forebears, wore Frankish clothes, and led a frugal existence. He was beatified after his death and in some churches has been honored as a saint. Surrounded by his legendary 12 paladins, he became the central figure of a cycle of romance. At first, legend pictured him as the champion of Christendom; later he appeared as a vacillating old man, almost a comic figure. His characterization in the Chanson de Roland (see RolandRoland
, the great French hero of the medieval Charlemagne cycle of chansons de geste, immortalized in the Chanson de Roland (11th or 12th cent.). Existence of an early Roland poem is indicated by the historian Wace's statement that Taillefer sang of Roland's deeds
..... Click the link for more information. ) has impressed itself indelibly on the imagination of the Western world. The vogue of the Charlemagne epic ebbed somewhat after the Renaissance but was revived again in the 19th cent. by Victor Hugo and other members of the Romantic school. Charlemagne's creation (or re-creation) of an empire was the basis of the theory of the Holy Roman EmpireHoly Roman Empire,
designation for the political entity that originated at the coronation as emperor (962) of the German king Otto I and endured until the renunciation (1806) of the imperial title by Francis II.
..... Click the link for more information. ; it was his example that Napoleon INapoleon I
, 1769–1821, emperor of the French, b. Ajaccio, Corsica, known as "the Little Corporal." Early Life

The son of Carlo and Letizia Bonaparte (or Buonaparte; see under Bonaparte, family), young Napoleon was sent (1779) to French military schools at
..... Click the link for more information. had in mind when he tried to assume his succession in 1804.

Bibliography

Einhard wrote a contemporary biography of Charlemagne. See also H. Fichtenau, The Carolingian Empire (1949, tr. 1957); D. Bullough, The Age of Charlemagne (1966); J. Boussard, The Civilization of Charlemagne (tr. 1968); R. McKitterick, Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity (2008). For the literary aspect, see J. L. Weston, The Romance Cycle of Charlemagne and His Peers (1901).

Charlemagne

(Latin, Carolus Magnus). Born Apr. 2, 742; died Jan. 28, 814, in Aachen. Became king of the Franks in 768 and emperor in 800. The Carolingian dynasty is named after Charlemagne.

After the death of Pep in the Short (768), Charlemagne began to rule part of the Frankish state (his brother Carloman held the other part). In 771 he became the sole ruler of the reunified state. Charlemagne expanded the boundaries of his kingdom through numerous campaigns (against the Lombards in 773–74 and 776–77 against the Bavarian duke Tassilo in 788; intermittently against the Saxons from 772 to 804; against the Arabs in Spain in 778–79 and 796–810 against the Avars from 791 to 799; and against the western Slavic tribes from 789 to 806). He was crowned emperor in Rome in 800 by Pope Leo III. Charlemagne’s empire included various tribes and nationalities at different levels of social development. He undertook a number of measures to strengthen his borders (including the formation of marches) and strove to centralize power in the empire. The royal court became the center of state life.

Charlemagne attempted to organize systematic control over the counts (in whose hands local military and administrative power was concentrated) by means of “state envoys” (missi dominici). In order to bring the vast state under a single set of laws, he published numerous capitularies. He saw the Catholic Church as a source of support for the royal power: he awarded high posts and various privileges to its representatives, intervened in the appointment of bishops, and encouraged the compulsory conversion of conquered peoples. The feudalization of Frankish society was promoted by his internal policies: the establishment of the feudal land dependence of the peasantry, the growth of large-scale land ownership, and the increasing independence of the land-owning aristocracy. Charlemagne’s distribution of deeds of immunity to the aristocracy created, in spite of his own aspirations, the social and economic prerequisites of feudal fragmentation. The empire of the Franks disintegrated under Charlemagne’s successors. An upsurge in culture, the Carolingian Renaissance, was evident under Charlemagne.

REFERENCES

Halphen, L. Charlemagne et V Empire Carolingien. Paris, 1947.
Calmette, J. Charlemagne. Paris, 1951.
Serejski, M. H. Karol Wielki na tie swoich czśsow. [Warsaw] 1959.
Karl der Grosse …, vol. 1. Dusseldorf, 1965.
Tessier, G. Charlemagne. Paris, 1967.
Epperlein, S. Karl der Grosse. Berlin, 1971.

B. IA. RAMM

Charlemagne

(742–814) established the Carolingian empire. [Fr. Hist.: NCE, 507]See: Conquerors

Charlemagne

?742--814 ad, king of the Franks (768--814) and, as Charles I, Holy Roman Emperor (800--814). He conquered the Lombards (774), the Saxons (772--804), and the Avars (791--799). He instituted many judicial and ecclesiastical reforms, and promoted commerce and agriculture throughout his empire, which extended from the Ebro to the Elbe. Under Alcuin his court at Aachen became the centre of a revival of learning

Charlemagne

Char·le·magne

Charlemagne

Char•le•magne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne

King of the Franks

Emperor of the West

Achievements of His Reign

Character and Influence

Bibliography

Charlemagne

REFERENCES

Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Synonyms for Charlemagne

noun king of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor

Synonyms