General Notes

Frankish Emperor.
King of the Franks 768-800
King of the Lombards 774-800
Frankish Emperor 800-814
When Pepin III died in 768, his sons Carloman and Charles I (called Charlemagne towards the end of his reign) succeeded as Kings of the Franks. Carloman received the strong interior - Paris and Orleans, and Charlemagne received the rebellious states and border lands in a NW crescent around Carloman's kingdom. Either Pepin did this because he favored Carloman, or because he knew that Charlemagne was a better general and needed to be the one to face the rebellions.

In 769, Aquitaine rebelled and both brothers went to face the problem. Carloman marched back home without striking a blow, leaving Charlemagne to subdue Aquitaine on his own, which he did. The hatred between the brothers was temporarily settled by their mother, Bertrada. The Lombards were making many threats to Pope Hadrian, and so he called for the Frankish kings for protection. Carloman was pro-Lombard, so Charlemagne was again on his own. In 771, the Lombard king Desiderius invaded Rome and took much Papal land. At the end of that year, Carloman died, leaving Charlemagne the entire Frankish kingdom.

In 772, Charlemagne executed his first Saxon campaign, and while it was small it was a success. He planned for one the next year, but in January Hadrian sent envoys to Charlemagne formally asking for help. In May he gathered all his forces at Geneva and launched an Italian attack. He personally led the main force, and a smaller force was led by his uncle Bernard to attack the flank of the Lombard army. In June of 774, Pavia fell and Lombardy was completely conquered by Charlemagne. He sent Desiderius and his family to monasteries and took the crown for himself. Hadrian then crowned Pepin king of Lombardy with his father.

In 778, Charlemagne invaded Muslim Spain, taking Barcelona, Pampelona, and Saragossa. However, Charlemagne's army was ambushed and many generals were killed. In 781, after his defeat in Spain, Aquitaine was on the border of rebellion once again, so he put his son Louis as king there. In 793, the Saracens invaded Aquitaine under their Caliph Hisham. Two years later the Spanish March was created, with William as its Count. The next year King Louis and Count William secured the Spanish territories, and William conquered Barcelona, the Balearics, and all of Navarre.

Since 772, Charlemagne campaigned in Saxony almost every year. After much fighting he finally converted their king Widukind and incorperated Saxony into the Frankish empire, with Widukind as its first Duke. By gaining Saxony, Charlemagne received many attacks from the Slavs, but was able to not only defeat them but take much of their land in modern Germany, Austria, and as far east as Hungary.

On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne was in Rome for the crowning of his son Charles (designated to be his successor). The Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne before mass, saying "Carolo augusto, a Deo coronato, magne et pacifico imperatore romanorum, vita et victoria!" (To Charles, Augustus, crowned by God, great and peaceful Emperor, life and victory!) He then "adored" Charlemagne in the Byzantine manner by prostrating himself and touching the ground with his forehead three times. This Carolingian Empire did not last long, but it did lead to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages.

In 806, Charlemagne set up a will in which Charles, Pepin, and Louis would receive equal shares of the Empire on his death. In July of 810, Pepin died, and he was followed by Charles in December of 811. In 813 Byzantine nobles came to greet Charlemagne as Emperor. Louis was called from Aquitaine and crowned co-Emperor and designated successor to the imperial crown, then sent back to Aquitaine. That year, Charlemagne spent the entire month of October hunting, and in January of the next year, at the age of 70, died.


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Notes for CHARLEMassachusettsGNE, HOLY ROMassachusettsN EMPORER


Charlemagne King of Franks, Emperor of the Romans was born on 2 Apr 742
in Aachen. Died in 814 in Aix-La-Chapelle. Charlemagne, in Latin Carolus Magnus (Charles the Great) (742-814), king of the Franks (768-814) and Emperor of the Romans (800-14), who led his Frankish
armies to victory over numerous other peoples and established his rule in most of western and central Europe. He was the best-known and most influential king in Europe in the Middle Ages.Early Years
Charlemagne was born probably in Aachen (Aix-La-Chapelle), on April 2, 742, the son of the Frankish king Pepin the Short and the grandson of Charles Martel. In 751 Pepin dethroned the last Merovingian king and assumed the royal title himself. He was crowned by Pope Stephen II in 754. Besides anointing Pepin, Pope Stephen anointed both Charlemagne and his younger brother Carloman (751-71). Within the year Pepin invaded Italy to protect the pope against the Lombards, and in 756 he again had to rush to the pope's aid. From 760 on, Pepin's main military efforts went into the conquest of Aquitaine, the lands south of the Loire River. Charlemagne accompanied his father on most of these expeditions.
Campaigns
When Pepin died in 768, the rule of his realms was to be shared between his two sons. Charlemagne sought an alliance with the Lombards by marrying (770) the daughter of their king, Desiderius (reigned
757-74). In 771 Carloman died suddenly. Charlemagne then seized his territories, but Carloman's heirs took refuge at the court of Desiderius. By that time Charlemagne had repud- iated his wife, and Desiderius was no longer friendly. In 772, when Pope Adrian I appealed to Charlemagne for help against Desiderius, the Frankish king invaded Italy, deposed his erstwhile father-in-law (774), and himself assumed the royal title. He then journeyed to Rome and reaffirmed his father's promise to protect papal lands. As early as 772 Charlemagne had fought onslaughts of the heathen Saxons on his lands. Buoyed by his Italian success, he now (775) embarked on a campaign to conquer and Christianize them. That campaign had some initial success but was to drag on for 30 years, in which time he conducted many other campaigns as well. He fought in Spain in 778; on the return trip his rear guard, led by Roland, was ambushed, a story immortalized in The Song of Roland. In 788 he subjected the Bavarians to
his rule, and between 791 and 796 Charlemagne's armies conquered the empire of the Avars (corresponding roughly to modern Hungary and Austria).
Raffin: Between 782 and 785, hardly a year passed without confrontation with the Saxons. In 772, during the first major expedition, the Irminsuls were destroyed. That year also saw the beginning of a 30-year war against the Saxons as the Francs ravaged the Saxon land by steel and by fire. In 773, the Francs route the Lombards who seek refuge in Pavia, and Gerberge and her children take refuge in Verona, where Charles takes them prisoners. Didier's son, Adalgise, succesfully escapes the assaults and spends the rest of his life in Constantinople. On 5 June 774, Charles reclaims the title of King of
the Lombards and of the Francs -- Rex Francorum et Langobardorum, as he triumphantly enters Pavia. In 775 the castle of Siegburg and the castle of Eresburg were "reorganized". Near Hoxter, a large number of Westphalian Saxons are slaughtered in the Sachsen-graben. In 777, at Paderborn, an assembly inaugurated the ecclesiastical organization of Saxony, which divided the country into missionary zones. In 777, Charles had been visited by Solaman Ibn-al-Arabi, who had turned against his master, the Emir
Abd-al- Rahman and offered Charles the cities entrusted to his care. In 778, Charles crosses the Pyrenees, occupies Pampelune, and marches on Sarabossa. But upon learning that the Saxons had once more rebelled and were crossing the Rhine, he turned back. On 15 August, the rear guard, under the commandof the Seneschal Eginhard, the Count of the Palace Anselm, and of Roland, Duke of the Marche of Brittany, is attacked by Basques or Gascon forces. In the meantime, the Saxons ravaged the Frankish holdings from Cologne to the Moselle. In 779 and 781, Widukind, a Westphalian noble, defeated the
Frankish armies in the Sutel mountains. Charlemagne is reputed to have had 4,500 Saxons beheaded in Verdun. In 782, the country was divided into counties administered by Saxons. At Attigny, in 785, Widukind and his son-in-law Abbi submitted to Charlemagne who enforced their baptism and became their Godfather. In December, 795, Hadrian I was succeeded by Pope Leon III. By 797, Saxony was conquered. In a brilliant military campaign (773-774) he put an end to the Lombard Dynasty and took the
title King of the Lombards. He conquered Bavaria (781 - 788), and then the land of the Avares (792 - 799), a people related to the Huns. 797 proved to be ayear of diplomacy. In the early part of the year, several Sarasin chiefs (Zata, and Abdallah) gave homage to Charlemagne at Aix; and Gerona, Caserres and Vich became occupied by the Francs. While in Aix, Charlemagne also received the ambassador of the Emperor of Constantinople, Constantin VI arriving with offers of friendship. In Heerstall, later in the year, the Huns make peace. Charles also receives the ambassador from Alphonse=Alfonso, King of Galicia and of the Asturias. On 25 April 799, the Feast of St. Mark, the Pope is assailed by aristocrats loyal to Byzantium in front of the Church of Saint Stephen and Sylvester. He is thrown in the Monastery of Saint Erasmus, but escapes and seeks refuge under the protection of the Duke of Spoleto. On 23 December 800, according to the Liber Pontificalis, the Pope is cleared of all charges brought by the rebellious aristocrates. Charlemagne's task is to determine the appropriate punishment for those who have perpetrated the assault on the Holy Father. On 25 December 800, Pope Leon III crowned him Emperor
of the Occident. This was made possible because the Emperor Constantin VI had effectively been dethroned by his mother Irene, who had him blinded and then proclaimed herself the "Basileus". Unfortunately, a throne occupied by a woman according to the Nomen Imperatoris, is a vacant one. The day after the crowning, Pope Leon III proclaims the year 1 of the Empire, and the money is stamped with the Pope's image on one side and that of Charlemagne on the other. Coronation Having thus established Frankish rule over so many other peoples, Charlemagne had in fact built an empire and become an emperor. It remained only for him to add the title. On Christmas Day, in 800, Charlemagne knelt to pray in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. Pope Leo III  then placed a crown upon his head, and the people assembled in the church acclaimed him the great, pacific emperor of the Romans. Charlemagne's
biographer, Einhard, reported that the king was surprised by this coronation and that had he known it was going to happen, he would not have gone into the church that day. This report has led to much
speculation by historians. Charlemagne probably desired and expected to get the imperial title and he subsequently used it. In 813 he designated his sole surviving son, Louis, as his successor, and
personally crowned him.
Administration Charlemagne established a more permanent royal capital than had any of his predecessors. His favorite residence from 794 on was at Aix-La-Chapelle. He had a church and a palace constructed there, based in part on architectural borrowings from Ravenna and Rome. At his court he gathered scholars from all over Europe, the most famous being the English cleric Alcuin of York, whom he placed in charge of the palace school. Administration of the empire was entrusted to some 250
royal administrators called counts. Charlemagne issued hundreds of decrees, called capitularies, dealing with a broad range of topics from judicial and military matters to monasteries, education, and the
management of royal estates. The empire did not expand after 800; indeed, already in the 790s the seacoasts and river valleys experienced the first, dreaded visits of the Vikings. Charlemagne
ordered a special watch against them in every harbor, but with little effect. He died before their full, destructive force was unleashed on the empire.
Evaluation
Charlemagne is important not only for the number of his victories and the size of his empire, but for the special blend of tradition and innovation that he represented. On the one hand, he was a traditional
Germanic warrior, who spent most of his adult life fighting. In the Saxoncampaigns he imposed baptism by the sword, and he retaliated against rebels with merciless slaughter. On the other hand, he placed
his immense power and prestige at the service of Christian doctrine, the monastic life, the teaching of Latin, the copying of books, and the rule of law. His life, held up as a model to most later kings, thus embodied the fusion of Germanic, Roman, and Christian cultures that became the basis of European civilization. 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 ROMassachusettsN EMPIRE. Charlemagne was probably born in 742 at Aachen. In 768 he and
his brother Carloman inherited the Frankish kingdom (most of present-dayFrance and a part of western Germany) from their father PEPIN THE SHORT. The entire kingdom passed to Charlemagne when Carloman died in 771.
CONQUESTS
Charlemagne 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. Massachusetts executions-- 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. The latter (later Emperor LOUIS I), 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.
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 theseveral 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 developtrade. To these ends he strongly encouraged the development of
Jewish communities.
CULTURAL DEVELOPMaineNT
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 Bibliography: Almedingen, E. M., Charlemagne: A Study (1968); Bullough, Donald A., The Age of Charlemagne (1965); Chamberlin, Russell, The Emperor Charlemagne (1986); Fichtenau, Heinrich, The Carolingian Empire(1964); Ganshof, F. L., Frankish Institutions Under Charlemagne(1968);Heer, Friedrich, The World of Charlemagne (1975); Lamb, Harold, Charlemagne: The Legend and the Man (1954). See also: FRANCE, HISTORY OF; FRANKS; GERMassachusettsNew York, HISTORY OF. Picture Caption[s] Charlemagne (742-814), Carolingian king of the Franks, is sometimes regarded as the founder of the Holy Roman Empire. Charlemagne is depicted after his coronation as Roman emperor in this painting from the MetFrankish Emperor.