Charles the Great

Charlemagne, to a fault knget as Charles the Great, became the undis designateed normal of westerly atomic number 63, By the marque and the cross. (Comptons 346) As occidental Europe was deteriorating Charlemagne was backsheeshed the privilege of world joint fag of the Franks in 768 A.D. People of Western Europe, excluding the church followers, had exclusively scarce forgot x the great gifts of nurture and arts that they had possessed at one and and(a) time. Charlemagne solidly defeated barbarians and kings in identical fashion during his reign. developwork forcet the re-establish handst of education and order, Charlemagne was able to save human beingy political rights and restore close in Western Europe.Charlemagne was born in 742 A.D., to a very celebrated and easily-known family. Charlemagnes grand fuss was Charles Martel, the man who was responsible for the defeat of the Saracens. Charlemagne was likewise the eldest word of honor of Bertrade ( as well as known as Bertha Greatfoot) and Pepin the Short, the first to become king of the Franks. With the al nigh full extinction of schools in the 8th century, some(prenominal) historians hypothecate that Charlemagne received very little education, but did learn the art of tuition from Bertrade.The one thing that kept Charlemagne motivated through bring out his entire put to death was his deep devotion to the church. Charlemagne was a tall young man with slatternly blond hair, and was described by his secretary as, face laughing and merry. . . his bearing was al slipway stately and dignified. (World book 452) Charlemagne had great wit, but was stern at times. He had simple and moderate tastes he enjoyed hunting, riding and swimming. Charlemagne had a big(a) wardrobe with many Frankish dresses, linen shirts and breeches, silk-fringed tunics, hoses wrapped with bands, and for the overwinter he had coats do of otter or marten skins. Charlemagne asked his state 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. Howal ways, in 771 A.D. Carloman died, qualification 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 maintain itself alongside the Lombard kingdom in Italy. While in Charlemagnes own kingdom, the people were becoming and acting as barbarians and neglecting education and faith.But Charlemagne was pertinacious to make his kingdom as strong as possible. In 772 A.D., Charlemagne put forth a 30- social class campaign to conquer and Christianize the extremely aright Saxons in the north. He charged over the Avars, a large community on the Danube. He forced the Bavarians to surrender to him. When possible Charlemagne proveed to return his remainders quietudefully. However, he was forced to use brute in som e situations. For instance, Charlemagne offered to counterbalance 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 cardinal aspect of Charlemagnes conquests was his uncanny ability to organize. Charlemagne sent out much than 50 military missions during his time in power and he deal the missions as commander more than half of the time. He was able to lead his promenade through vast lands in unprecedented times, but his each move was planned ahead of time. Before every crusade, he informed all those problematic 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 simulated military operation were later studied and used by a nonher great man, Napoleon. angiotensin converting enzyme of the smallest campaigns undertaken by Charlemagne became on of the most well known. In 778 A.D., Charlemagne t ake his troops into Spain and laid an attack on Saragossa. The movement failed and upon their recoil they were attacked from the rear and reckon Roland one of the leading 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 excessively cover half of current Italy and Germany, part of Austria, and the Spanish March. This Spanish March sp take aimed to the Ebro River. done 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. Peters in Rome, pontiff king of beasts III approached Charlemagne with a golden crown and placed it on the head of the king. The crowd in the church shouted concurrently , To Charles the August, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, long life and mastery (Comptons 347) It is said that Charlemagne was surprised by what happened and stated that he would non have come into the church had he known the popes plan. However, other historians say that the pope would not have gambled doing what he did without Charlemagnes knowing about it. (Comptons 347)Charlemagne was a very dire man and he had great compassion for the peasant people and had a tone 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(p) in their work effort to restore some law and order. 2 times a twelvemonth Charlemagne would summon the leading man in the kingdom to talk about the happeni ngs going around. Charlemagne always had the final record 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 condition at Aachen, his capital. He likewise set up other schools for noble boys as well as peasants.Charlemagne was very devoted to education and he neer 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 excessively 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 worth(predicate) pieces from Italy. In the cathedral at Aachen there is a large monument, which stands in fast(a)ty to Charlemagne for his religious devotion. Charlemagne built and was buried in the cathedral in Aachen.At the time of Charlemagnes 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.Charles the GreatCharles the Great, or Charlemagne as he is more commonly known, was born a Frank, a member of the Carolingian bloodline. He was born in 742, the illegitimate son of Pepin III and an Austrasian noblewoman. He served as the king of the Franks from 771-814, and during that time, during a campaign that lasted approximately 30 years, extended his rule through Western Europe. In the year 800, on Christmas Day, he was crowned Em peror of the West by Pope Leo, and he served as such until his death fourteen years later. Upon his fathers death in 768, Charlemagne and his brother Carloman inherited joint ruler hip of Francia.However, his brother died three years later, and Charlemagne exiled his family and claimed sole rulership. While he was one of a line of what became known as warrior chiefs, he strived to stretch past that with his broader mind that craved contact with men of devotion, learning and culture, not just as officials who could help him run his empire, but for themselves. It was his belief in God that helped to make him such a formidable leader, and kept him centre on his objectives with the determination and faith that would help him to become a legend.The year after Carlomans death found Charlemagne engaged in the Saxon Wars. The relationship between the Franks and the Saxons had long been tense, with the Saxons periodically attempting to expand to accommodate an ever growing population in f inding more hospitable lands to inhabit. exhibit clashes were common, with peace in between being tenuous and short-lived. What also added to the tensity was the fact that the Saxons believed in pagan gods, which inevitably added more tension with the Christian Franks. Biography pageboy 2 of 5 Charlemagnes first action against the Saxons was to take on both(prenominal) military andreligious connotations. He marched his phalanx into comte de Saxe and captured the castle of Eresberg and then traveled further to destroy a Saxon idol known as the Irminsul, which was a giant tree system that was considered a shrine, believed to be one of the pillars of heaven. It was considered to ensure the protection of the gods, and it was considered a deduction of defiance to the Franks. Thus, by striking in such a way, Charlemagne made a strong statement about his determination to strike both at the Saxon people and at their religion, which is something that he considered to be his responsi bleness as a Christian.Following this blow to the Saxons, Charlemagne was called in by Pope Hadrian I to help defuse a situation with Lombardy. There had long been conflict between them, and so Charlemagne pertinacious to put an end to it once and for all, process his army in autumn of 773, making haste to cross the the Alps before it started to snow. He divided his army in two, sending each in different directions. Desiderius, the Lombardy leader, could not split his smaller forces to meet both sections of the Frankish forces, and so he was forced to withdraw back to his capital.Charles and his army followed and laid siege, and, much to Desiderius surprise, he settled his troops in for the winter instead of falling back. This time demonstrated the true leadership abilities of Charlemagne. His men were far from home, and forced to fight in inhospitable conditions. But they remained loyal and followed their king, remaining there through spring of 774. However, those in Parvia suffe red more than those involved in the siege, hunger and disease rampaging them. Desiderius stubbornly held strong against them until midsummer of that year, whenBiography scallywag 3 of 5 he finally had to sue for peace. Charlemagne, instead of demanding subsidy from Desiderius, instead took the Iron Crown of Lombardy, and sent the Lombardy ruler and his family back to Francia as prisoners. With that, Charlemagne increased the size of his empire, becoming King of Lombardy as well as King of Francia. A large part of Charlemagnes rule was that of guardian of the Church. He did this not only out of loyalty to the Church and the pope, but also because he needed the support of the Christians.The support of the Church took him farther than he might otherwise have gone, helping to instill a loyalty of him into the people, particularly the nobles. However, he made it rather clear that he would not consent to the pope any political power, nor would he allow him to dictate his will upon Cha rlemagne. The king had his own plans, and he was not to be foiled by anyone who might want to interfere, including the pope himself. Charlemagne would once again become involved in a campaign against the Saxons, and he decided that he must find a long-term solution to the problem.He had to demonstrate the problem of a war on several fronts and the concomitant spill it imposed on the nations resources. However, he set goals for himself, and he committed himself to achieving those goals, which kept him in conflict with the Saxons until 785. It was slow going, as he would advance into Saxon territory and take land and hostages, but the agreements that came from this were bemused by the Saxons as winter came along, and they would regain some of the ground that they lost. However, they were not to regain it all, and so slowly Charlemagne gained more and more of their territory, advancing hisBiography Page 4 of 5 own borders. He garrisoned territory that was taken, and he left hand c lergy with these garrisons to help advance the Christian religion as well. It became clear during these wars that the only acceptable outcome to staunch the flow of hostility and war from the Saxons was perform and total victory. In 782, Charlemagne added new laws and restrictions to what were already imposed upon the Saxon people, snap again on conversion and attempting to force the new converts however he could to not reneging on their conversions and instead seeking penance for their misdeeds.The laws against crimes against Christians incurred penalties of death, and the people were pass judgment to supply both land and slave labor to the churches. At first, the results were not as Charlemagne wished. As he was elsewhere, a revolt broke out after Saxon forces killed twenty of Francias leading noblemen. When Charlemagne heard this, he marched east with his troops with such ferocity that the Saxons exiled Widukind, who was the leader of the revolt, and handed 4,500 men over to C harlemagne.Each of these was beheaded in a demonstration of Charlemagnes anger. The experience that, so long as Widukind was a heroic figure for the Saxon people, he could not have complete victory, led Charlemagne to offer peace to him as well as gifts and a promise of pardon. There was also the possibility of an official position in Francia as well, and so Widukind authentic baptism and peace with his long-time enemy, and this ended the first phase of the Saxon wars. The next years saw the conquering of Bavaria and a renewal of the Saxon wars.The peace with the Saxons lasted ten years, and then the Saxons once again started to show defiance to Charlemagnes rule. His empire continued to grow, however, and was Biography Page 6 of 5 bounded closely entirely by sea and neutralized marches. Despite this success, he was never able to completely bring all of his empire under one system of legislation, which was a large failure for the emperor. It was in 800 that Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as emperor.After gaining this role, he worked to educate himself, learning to read Latin and Greek, although writing eluded him. He attempted to better educate himself, and also worked to better the lives of his subjects, including working on an improvement in commerce. Russell describes him as the broach of the Middle Ages and the world is indebted to him for invaluable improvements in the manner and ways of exchange. He made a point of reforming the monetary system and also worked to introduce universal coinage.While Charlemagne will always be known as an impressive military leader, his influence goes far beyond that. His dedication to his religion was a key part of his life, as was his insistence on bettering the education of both himself and the clergy. He promoted the spread of a competence in compose Latin among the clergy, believing that social reform would not work if the clergy were illiterate. only of these things together contributed to Charlemagne becomin g one of the most renowned and respected leaders in history.Leaders from generations after, all over the world, would work to learn from his example and attempt to mirror his many successes in their own times, using his failures as well to help guide them. Very few leaders had the prowess in so many ways that Charlemagne did, and it was perhaps the fact that he was so well-rounded in his achievements that make his legacy so great. Works Cited Heer, Friedrich. Charlemagne and His World. brand-new York Macmillan Publishing Col, Inc. , 1975. Russell, Charles Edward. Charlemagne First of the Moderns. Boston Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930. Wilson, Derek. Charlemagne. New York Doubleday, 2006.