Charlemagne
Charlemagne Charlemagne, also known as
Charles the Great, became the undisputed
ruler of Western Europe. 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 stately
and dignified. 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. 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.