General Notes

28. 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 general improvement,
reforming laws, advancing knowledge, and building churches and
monasteries. Christianity being one of the chief means to which he trusted
for the attainment of his grand objects. In this he was no less successful
than he had before been in war. With exception of the Eastern empire,
France was now the most cultivated nation in Europe, even Rome herself
sending thither for skillful workmen, while commerce, roads, and mechanics
must have been much advanced, as we may infer from the facility with which
marble columns and immense stone crosses were often carried through the
whole extent of France upon carriages of native construction. Luxury, too,
with its attendant arts had made considerable strides. Vases of gold and
silver richly carved, silver tables highly wrought, bracelets, rings, and
table cloths of fine linen, might be seen in the houses of the nobles. The
people must have been dexterous in working iron, for their superiority in
this respect is shown by the severe laws forbidding the exportation of
arms.


Charlemagne drove back the Arabs, reduced the Huns, and effectually
protected his long line of coast from the attempted invasion of the
Northmen. It is said, that upon one occasion he arrived at a certain port
just as the pirates were preparing to land; but the moment they learned of
the presence of the monarch, they immediately fled in great terror at the
mere mention of his name.


It was always an object of first importance with Charlemagne to support
the papal authority, as holding out the only means of spreading
Christianity, which he justly considered the most effectual instrument he
could employ to enlighten and civilize the world.


Charlemagne securely laid the foundations of his empire. He was vigilant,
judicious, and energetic, both as a ruler and commander. He fostered
agriculture, trade, arts, and letters with untiring zeal, clearing
forests, draining swamps, founding monasteries and schools, building
cities, constructing splendid palaces, as at Aix, Worms, and Ingelheim,
and drawing to his court scholars and poets from all nations, being
himself proficient in science, as well as all hardy accomplishments.


Charlemagne was tall and a commanding presence, and could speak and write
Latin as well as his native German. He fostered all learning and the fine
arts, studying rhetoric and astronomy. He reigned over France, half of
Germany, and four-fifths of Italy. The Caliph Haroun-al-Rashid sent an
embassy to the court of Charlemagne with gifts in token of good will.


Attacked with pleurisy he died after a short illness, in the
seventy-second year of age, and the forty-seventh of his reign, on January
28, 814. Some years later Charlemagne was canonized by the church.