Charles the Great

Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, became the undisputed ruler of Western Europe, â€Å"By the sword and the cross.† (Compton†s 346) As Western Europe was deteriorating Charlemagne was crowned the privilege of being joint king of the Franks in 768 A.D. People of Western Europe, excluding the church followers, had all but forgotten the great gifts of education and arts that they had possessed at one time. Charlemagne solidly defeated barbarians and kings in identical fashion during his reign. Using the re-establishment of education and order, Charlemagne was able to save many political rights and restore culture in Western Europe. Charlemagne was born in 742 A.D., to a very famous and well-known family. Charlemagne†s grandfather was Charles Martel, the man who was responsible for the defeat of the Saracens. Charlemagne was also the eldest son of Bertrade (also known as Bertha Greatfoot) and Pepin the Short, the first to become king of the Franks. With the almost full extinction of schools in the 8th century, many historians say that Charlemagne received very little education, but did learn the art of reading from Bertrade. The one thing that kept Charlemagne motivated throughout his entire life was his deep devotion to the church. Charlemagne was a tall young man with light blond hair, and was described by his secretary as, â€Å"face laughing and merry. . . his appearance was always stately and dignified.† (World book 452) Charlemagne had great wit, but was stern at times. He had simple and moderate tastes; he enjoyed hunting, riding and swimming. Charlemagne had a large wardrobe with many Frankish dresses, linen shirts and breeches, silk-fringed tunics, hoses wrapped with bands, and for the winter he had coats made of otter or marten skins. Charlemagne asked his people to improve their lifestyles, but he divorced two of his four fives without any given cause. In 768 A.D., Charlemagne at the age of 26, along with his brother Carloman inherited the kingdom of Franks. However, in 771 A.D. Carloman died, making Charlemagne the sole ruler of the kingdom. At this time the northern part of Europe was out of order and unruly. In the south, the Roman Catholic Church was asserting itself alongside the Lombard kingdom in Italy. While in Charlemagne†s own kingdom, the people were becoming and acting as barbarians and neglecting education and faith. But Charlemagne was determined to make his kingdom as strong as possible. In 772 A.D., Charlemagne put forth a 30-year campaign to conquer and Christianize the extremely mighty Saxons in the north. He charged over the Avars, a large tribe on the Danube. He forced the Bavarians to surrender to him. When possible Charlemagne attempted to settle his conflicts peacefully. However, he was forced to use brute in some situations. For instance, Charlemagne offered to pay Desiderius for the return of lands to the pope, but after Desiderius refused, Charlemagne seized the kingdom of Desiderius and restored the Papal States. The most important aspect of Charlemagne†s conquests was his uncanny ability to organize. Charlemagne sent out more than 50 military missions during his time in power and he led the missions as commander more than half of the time. He was able to lead his troops through vast lands in unprecedented times, but his every move was planned ahead of time. Before every crusade, he informed all those involved the number of men needed, the weapons required, and he even went as far as to tell what should be in the supply wagons. These tactics were later studied and used by another great man, Napoleon. One of the smallest campaigns undertaken by Charlemagne became on of the most well known. In 778 A.D., Charlemagne led his troops into Spain and laid an attack on Saragossa. The movement failed and upon their recoil they were attacked from the rear and Count Roland one of the leaders of the group was killed in that battle. Roland went on to become a hero in medieval songs. By 800 A.D. Charlemagne was the sole ruler of Western Europe. His immense kingdom included what are now France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. It also covered half of present-day Italy and Germany, part of Austria, and the Spanish March. This Spanish March stretched to the Ebro River. Through his establishment of a single government over the entire Western Europe, Charlemagne re-established much of the old Roman Empire, which paved the way for the progress of present-day Europe. It was on Christmas Day in 800 A.D. that while praying in St. Peter†s in Rome, Pope Leo III approached Charlemagne with a golden crown and placed it on the head of the king. The crowd in the church shouted concurrently, â€Å"To Charles the August, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, long life and victory!† (Compton†s 347) It is said that Charlemagne was surprised by what happened and stated that he would not have come into the church had he known the pope†s plan. However, other historians say that the pope would not have gambled doing what he did without Charlemagne†s knowing about it. (Compton†s 347) Charlemagne was a very noble man and he had great compassion for the peasant people and had a belief that that government was in place to benefit those that it governed. When Charlemagne came into power many of the people working under him were very careless and sometimes unfair. To change the ways of these people Charlemagne expanded their work, wrote down everything they did and forced them to work in groups of people. This helped those lacking in their work effort to restore some law and order. Two times a year Charlemagne would summon the leading man in the kingdom to talk about the happenings going around. Charlemagne always had the final word in everything including church matters. Charlemagne was determined in establishing improvement in lives of his people. By setting up money values he encouraged trade, he attempted to build a Rhine-Danube canal, and gave advice on different farming techniques. Charlemagne preached the most on education and Christianity to his people. He was responsible for the restoration of Palace School at Aachen, his capital. He also set up other schools for noble boys as well as peasants. Charlemagne was very devoted to education and he never stopped studying himself. He brought in scholars of many languages to his courts. He learned to read in Latin, some Greek, however, he was not too keen of mastering writing. During his dinners, he preferred to have men reading books to him rather than having jesters performing. For his churches, Charlemagne sent his monks to Rome to learn to sing. For his art collections, Charlemagne brought some valuable pieces from Italy. In the cathedral at Aachen there is a large monument, which stands in loyalty to Charlemagne for his religious devotion. Charlemagne built and was buried in the cathedral in Aachen. At the time of Charlemagne†s death in 814 A.D. only one of his three sons, Louis, was alive. Louis had a weak ruling after his father, which brought on many civil wars and rebellions. Charlemagne brought back order to Western Europe; he led his people to many victories and was responsible for the rise of Western Europe. Charles the Great Charles the Great, or Charlemagne as he is more commonly known, was born a Frank, a member of the Carolingian bloodline. He was born in 742, the illegitimate son of Pepin III and an Austrasian noblewoman. He served as the king of the Franks from 771-814, and during that time, during a campaign that lasted nearly 30 years, extended his rule through Western Europe. In the year 800, on Christmas Day, he was crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo, and he served as such until his death fourteen years later. Upon his father’s death in 768, Charlemagne and his brother Carloman inherited joint ruler hip of Francia.However, his brother died three years later, and Charlemagne exiled his family and claimed sole rulership. While he was one of a line of what became known as warrior chiefs, he strived to stretch past that with his broader mind that craved contact with â€Å"men of religion, learning and culture, not just as officials who could help him run his empire, but for themselves. † It was his belief in God that helped to make him such a formidable leader, and kept him focused on his objectives with the determination and faith that would help him to become a legend.The year after Carloman’s death found Charlemagne engaged in the Saxon Wars. The relationship between the Franks and the Saxons had long been tense, with the Saxons periodically attempting to expand to accommodate an ever growing population in finding more hospitable lands to inhabit. Border clashes were common, with peace in between being tenuous and short-lived. What also added to the tension was the fact that the Saxons believed in pagan gods, which inevitably added more tension with the Christian Franks. Biography Page 2 of 5 Charlemagne’s first action against the Saxons was to take on both military andreligious connotations. He marched his army into Saxony and captured the castle of Eresberg and then traveled further to destroy a Saxon idol known as the Irminsul, which was a giant tree trunk that was considered a shrine, believed to be one of the pillars of heaven. It was considered to ensure the protection of the gods, and it was considered a demonstration of defiance to the Franks. Thus, by striking in such a way, Charlemagne made a strong statement about his determination to strike both at the Saxon people and at their religion, which is something that he considered to be his duty as a Christian.Following this blow to the Saxons, Charlemagne was called in by Pope Hadrian I to help defuse a situation with Lombardy. There had long been conflict between them, and so Charlemagne decided to put an end to it once and for all, marching his army in autumn of 773, making haste to cross the Alps before it started to snow. He divided his army in two, sending each in different directions. Desiderius, the Lombardy leader, could not split his smaller forces to meet both sections of the Frankish forces, and so he was forced to withdraw back to his capital.Charles and his army followed and laid siege, and, much to Desiderius’ surprise, he settled his troops in for the winter instead of falling back. This time demonstrated the true leadership abilities of Charlemagne. His men were far from home, and forced to fight in inhospitable conditions. But they remained loyal and followed their king, remaining there through spring of 774. However, those in Parvia suffered more than those involved in the siege, hunger and disease rampaging them. Desiderius stubbornly held strong against them until midsummer of that year, whenBiography Page 3 of 5 he finally had to sue for peace. Charlemagne, instead of demanding tribute from Desiderius, instead took the Iron Crown of Lombardy, and sent the Lombardy ruler and his family back to Francia as prisoners. With that, Charlemagne increased the size of his empire, becoming King of Lombardy as well as King of Francia. A large part of Charlemagne’s rule was that of protector of the Church. He did this not only out of loyalty to the Church and the pope, but also because he needed the support of the Christians.The support of the Church took him farther than he might otherwise have gone, helping to instill a loyalty of him into the people, particularly the nobles. However, he made it rather clear that he would not allow the pope any political power, nor would he allow him to dictate his will upon Charlemagne. The king had his own plans, and he was not to be foiled by anyone who might want to interfere, including the pope himself. Charlemagne would once again become involved in a campaign against the Saxons, and he decided that he must find a long-term solution to the problem.He had to confront the problem of a â€Å"war on several fronts and the concomitant drain it imposed on the nation’s resources. † However, he set goals for himself, and he committed himself to achieving those goals, which kept him in conflict with the Saxons until 785. It was slow going, as he wou ld advance into Saxon territory and take land and hostages, but the agreements that came from this were broken by the Saxons as winter came along, and they would regain some of the ground that they lost. However, they were not to regain it all, and so slowly Charlemagne gained more and more of their territory, advancing hisBiography Page 4 of 5 own borders. He garrisoned territory that was taken, and he left clergy with these garrisons to help advance the Christian religion as well. It became clear during these wars that the only acceptable outcome to staunch the flow of hostility and war from the Saxons was complete and total victory. In 782, Charlemagne added new laws and restrictions to what were already imposed upon the Saxon people, focusing again on conversion and attempting to force the new converts however he could to not reneging on their conversions and instead seeking penance for their misdeeds.The laws against crimes against Christians incurred penalties of death, and th e people were expected to supply both land and slave labor to the churches. At first, the results were not as Charlemagne wished. As he was elsewhere, a revolt broke out after Saxon forces killed twenty of Francia’s leading noblemen. When Charlemagne heard this, he marched east with his troops with such ferocity that the Saxons exiled Widukind, who was the leader of the revolt, and handed 4,500 men over to Charlemagne.Each of these was beheaded in a demonstration of Charlemagne’s anger. The knowledge that, so long as Widukind was a heroic figure for the Saxon people, he could not have complete victory, led Charlemagne to offer peace to him as well as gifts and a promise of pardon. There was also the possibility of an official position in Francia as well, and so Widukind accepted baptism and peace with his long-time enemy, and this ended the first phase of the Saxon wars. The next years saw the conquering of Bavaria and a renewal of the Saxon wars.The peace with the Sax ons lasted ten years, and then the Saxons once again started to show defiance to Charlemagne’s rule. His empire continued to grow, however, and â€Å"was Biography Page 6 of 5 bounded almost entirely by sea and neutralized marches. † Despite this success, he was never able to completely bring all of his empire under one system of legislation, which was a large failure for the emperor. It was in 800 that Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as emperor.After gaining this role, he worked to educate himself, learning to read Latin and Greek, although writing eluded him. He attempted to better educate himself, and also worked to better the lives of his subjects, including working on an improvement in commerce. Russell describes him as â€Å"the pioneer of the Middle Ages and the world is indebted to him for invaluable improvements in the manner and ways of exchange. † He made a point of reforming the monetary system and also worked to introduce universal coinage.While Ch arlemagne will always be known as an impressive military leader, his influence goes far beyond that. His dedication to his religion was a key part of his life, as was his insistence on bettering the education of both himself and the clergy. He promoted â€Å"the spread of a competence in written Latin among the clergy,† believing that social reform would not work if the clergy were illiterate. All of these things together contributed to Charlemagne becoming one of the most renowned and respected leaders in history.Leaders from generations after, all over the world, would work to learn from his example and attempt to mirror his many successes in their own times, using his failures as well to help guide them. Very few leaders had the prowess in so many ways that Charlemagne did, and it was perhaps the fact that he was so well-rounded in his achievements that make his legacy so great. Works Cited Heer, Friedrich. Charlemagne and His World. New York: Macmillan Publishing Col, Inc . , 1975. Russell, Charles Edward. Charlemagne: First of the Moderns. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930. Wilson, Derek. Charlemagne. New York: Doubleday, 2006.