General Notes

. Charlemagne, Charles the Great. With the consent of the great nobles, Charlemagne, Charles the Great, became
King of France and Holy Roman Emperor of the West from 771 to 814, following the death of his brother. He was born
April 2, 742, probably at Aix-La-Chapelle. When only twelve years old we find him commissioned to receive and
welcome the pontiff who came to implore his father's aid against the barbarians that threatened Rome. He probably
accompanied his father in his campaigns at an early age, but the first time that we really see him in the field, is on the
renewal of the war with the rebellious Duke of Aquitaine.

Upon the death of Pepin, in 768, Charlemagne and his younger brother Carloman succeeded to equal portions of one
of the most powerful of European kingdoms, bounded by the Pyrenees, the Alps, Mediterranean, and the ocean. But
this would hardly enabled the monarchs, even had they been united, to resist successfully the incursions of the
barbarous tribes on the German frontiers of France, which had commenced with the first establishment of the
Frankish dominion in Gaul; and which were kept alive by the constant pouring forth of fresh hordes from the
overpopulated north. The situation of Charlemagne was rendered yet more perilous by the massive enmity of his
brother, and the rebellion of Hunald, the turbulent Duke of Aquitaine. But fortunately Charlemagne had a genius equal
to the difficulties of his situation; though his brother refused to aid him, he defeated Huald; and no less illustrious by
his clemency than by his valor and military skill, he forgave the vanquished rebel.

Desiderius, the King of Lombardy, had made large encroachments upon the states of the Roman Pontiff, whose cause
was taken up by Charlemagne. This led to feuds, which Bertha, his mother, endeavored to appease by arranging a
marriage between her son and the daughter of the Lombard. But Charlemagne soon took a disgust to the wife thus
imposed upon him, and repudiated her, that he might marry Hildegarde, the daughter of a noble family in Swabia.
Thus he married Hildegarde of Swabia (Linzgau), Countess, born in 757/758, died April 30, 782/3.

In 771 Carloman died, and Charlemagne was elected to the vacant throne, to the exclusion of his nephews, whose
extreme youth made then incapable of wearing the crown in such troubled times. Gilberge, the widow of Carloman,
immediately fled, and sought refuse with Desiderius, the common retreat for all who were hostile to the Frankish
monarch.

From that time, sole ruler during a reign of forty-three years, he waged incessant wars on all his borders, subduing
rebellions, extending his domains and at the same time advancing Christianity. In 772 he began a thirty-year war with
the determined Saxons, after the successful opening of Charlemagne was called to the assistance of Pope Hadrian I.
against Desiderius, King of the Lombards. Charlemagne marched two armies over the Alps and conquered Lombardy
in 774; returned and beat the Saxons again and hastened into Spain, in 778, to help the Arabian rulers of that country
against the Osman Caliph of Cordova. It was in this war that Roland, the hero of romance, fell in the pass of
Roncesvalles.

In 799 the Romans revolted against Pope Leo III., and were again brought into subjection by Charlemagne. In return,
while he was praying on the steps of St. Peter's Church, he was crowned by Leo with the iron crown of the Western
Empire, successor of the Roman Caesars, unexpectedly to him, as he pretended, on Christmas Day, 800, amidst the
popular acclamations, "Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific Emperor of the
Romans!"

The extensive domain of Charlemagne was rendered secure only by ceaseless vigilance and warfare. The short intervals
of peace which ere allowed him, he employed in endeavoring to educate and civilize his people. He made a tour
through his dominions, causing local and gene