General Notes

Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, CAROLINGIAN king of the FRANKS, came to rule over most of Europe and assumed (800) the title of Roman emperor. He is sometimes regarded as the founder of the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. In 768 he and his brother Carloman inherited the Frankish kingdom (most of present-day France and a part of western Germany) from their father PEPIN THE SHORT. The entire kingdom passed to Charlemagne when Carloman died in 771. He inherited great wealth and a strong military organization from his father and brother. He used these assets to double the territory under Carolingian control. In 772 he opened his offensive against the SAXONS, and for more than three decades he pursued a ruthless policy aimed at subjugating them and converting them to Christianity. Almost every year Charlemagne attacked one or another region of Saxon territory. --4,500 Saxons were executed on a single day in 782--and deportations were used to discourage the stubborn. The Saxons proved to be a far more difficult enemy than any of the other peoples subjugated by Charlemagne. For example, the LOMBARDS were conquered in a single extended campaign 773-74), after which Charlemagne assumed the title "king of the Lombards." In 788 he absorbed the duchy of Bavaria, and soon thereafter he launched an offensive against the AVAR empire. The Avars succumbed within a decade, yielding Charlemagne a vast hoard of gold and silver. After one disastrous campaign (778) against the Muslims in Spain, Charlemagne left the southwestern front to his son Louis, (later Emperor LOUIS I) who, with the help of local Christian rulers, conquered Barcelona in 801 and controlled much of Catalonia by 814. On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne accepted the title of emperor and was crowned by Pope LEO III. For several years after he regarded the imperial title of being of little value. Moreover, he intended to divide his lands and titles among his sons, as was the Frankish custom. At his death on Jan. 28, 814, however, only one son, Louis, survived; Louis therefore assumed control of the entire Frankish empire.

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ADMINISTRATION
The internal organization of Charlemagne's empire varied
from region to region. In much of what is today France, and
especially in the south, the old Roman civitates (fortified
cities) served as the focus of most important aspects of
political, military, religious, and social organization. Both
the count of the city, appointed by Charlemagne as his
representative, and the bishop made their respective
headquarters in the civitas. The count or his agent led the
local army, and the walls of the civitates afforded protection
for the inhabitants both of the city and the nearby
countryside. In those parts of the empire that had not been
part of the Roman world, Charlemagne made an effort to impose a
similar system. He divided newly conquered lands into pagi
(districts), which were placed under the jurisdiction of counts
who exercised the same kind of administrative powers of their
counterparts to the west. Charlemagne also sought to establish
these new pagi as dioceses. In frontier areas, Charlemagne
often established districts that were essentially military in
their purpose and organization; these were called marks or
marches. Local customs were everywhere perpetuated by
recognition of traditional laws. The laws, some unwritten, of
each of the various peoples of the Carolingian empire, such as
Salian Franks, Ripuarian Franks, Romans, Saxons, Lombards,
Bavarians, Thuringians, and Jews, were codified and/or modified
if local codes already existed, they were recognized. This
judicial autonomy enjoyed by the several peoples of the empire
indicates the diversity that not only existed but also
flourished under Charlemagne. The emperor did, however,
legislate to provide a system by which these various peoples
could interact with each other. The central administration of
the empire, like the local administrations, was rudimentary. A
palatine court followed Charlemagne on his numerous campaigns;
during the later years of his life, when he remained at Aachen,
the court stayed there. Charlemagne also sent missi dominici,
high-ranking agents of the central government, from the court
to see that his orders, often cast in the form of capitularies
(ordinances divided into capitula, or chapters), were enforced.
As part of his administrative efforts, Charlemagne sought to
standardize weights, measures, and coinage. He also made an
attempt to control and develop trade. To these ends he strongly
encouraged the development of Jewish communities.

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
Charlemagne's concern for administration and his interest
in seeing the church function effectively led him to encourage
a rudimentary educational system based in monasteries. Thus a
small group of clerical and lay administrators attained a
useful level of literacy. Charlemagne left the development and
implementation of this system largely to Alcuin. The latter's
work led to what some scholars have called the Carolingian
Renaissance. At Charlemagne's court a group of scholars was
gathered that included men from England, Spain, and Italy, as
well as native Franks and probably Jews.

EVALUATION
Charlemagne has been credited with great political and
humanitarian vision and a devout religious bent; as a result,
some have been led to think of his military ventures as
crusades. In fact, he was a gluttonous and superstitious
illiterate, or semiliterate, who had a considerable capacity
for brutality. His accomplishments were due mostly to the
energy with which he pursued his military goals and the
ruthlessness with which he treated any opponents. Nonetheless,
his achievements were considerable, and the effect of his
conquests was to spread Roman Christianity across central
Europe. - Bernard S. Bachrach, Grolier's Electronic
Encyclopedia. 1 2 3