Charlemagne: Encyclopedia - Charlemagne

Charlemagne

• Pippin the Elder (615-629)
• Grimoald (650-661)
• Pippin the Middle (679/687-714)
• Charles Martel (714/719-741)
• Carloman (741-747)
• Pippin the Younger (741/747-751)

• Pippin the Younger (751-768)
• Carloman (768-771)
• Charlemagne (771-814)
• Louis the Pious (814-840)

• Lothair I
  (Middle Francia)
• Charles the Bald
  (Western Francia)
• Louis the German
  (Eastern Francia)

Charlemagne (c.742 or 747–28 January 814) (also Charles the Great; from Latin, Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus) was the king of the Franks from 768 to 814 and king of the Lombards from 774 to 781. He was crowned Imperator Augustus in Rome on Christmas Day, 800 by Pope Leo III and is therefore regarded as the founder of the Holy Roman Empire, a reincarnation of the ancient Western Roman Empire. Through military conquest and defence, he solidified and expanded his realm to cover most of Western Europe and is today regarded as the founding father of both France and Germany.

Charlemagne - Background

The Franks, originally a pagan, barbarian, Germanic people who migrated over the River Rhine in the late fifth century into a crumbling Roman Empire, were, by the early eighth century, the masters of Gaul and a good portion of central Europe east of the Rhine and the protectors of the Papacy and the Roman Catholic faith. However, their ancient dynasty of kings, the Merovingians, had long before descended into a state of complete disutility. Their chief officers, the mayors of the palace, had, practically-speaking, usurped all government powers of any consequence in those Dark Ages. The final dynasts were called rois fainéants, do-nothing kings, and for a period of five years (737-742), the mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, governed without one on the throne.

It was from these mayors of the palaces that the Franks were to draw more useful monarchs. Charles Martel was the illegitimate son of the Mayor Pippin of Heristal, who himself was the son of a Mayor Ansegisel and his wife, Saint Begga. It is through the fathers of Ansegisel and Begga, St Arnulf of Metz and Pippin of Landen respectively, that Martel's dynasty received its name, that of Arnulfings or Pippinids. Martel died before he could place a new puppet king on the throne and he was succeeded by his son Pippin the Short, the father of Charlemagne. Pippin promptly placed a puppet on the throne and refusing to play any part in such a charade as his father's, he called for the pope, Zachary, to give the man with the royal power the royal title. This the pope did and Pippin was crowned and consecrated king of the Franks in 751.

As a consequence of this, Pippin's eldest son, Charlemagne, immediately became heir to the great realm which already coverred most of western and central Europe. It was not the old name of Pippin of Landen or Ansegisel that was to be immortalised, however. From his Latin name, Carolus, the new dynasty which was to bequeath the world France and Germany is called the Carolingian.

Charlemagne - Date and place of birth

Charlemagne's birthday was believed to be April 1, 742; however several factors led to reconsideration of this traditional date. First, the year 742 was calculated from his age given at death, rather than attestation within primary sources. Second, 742 precedes the marriage of his parents (in 749), yet there is no indication that Charlemagne was born out of wedlock, and he inherited from his parents. Another date is given in the Annales Petarienses, April 1, 747. In that year, April 1 is Easter. The birth of an Emperor on Easter is a coincidence likely to provoke comment, but there is no such comment documented in 747, leading some to suspect that the Easter birthday was a pious fiction concocted as a way of honoring the Emperor. Other commentators weighing the primary records have suggested that the birth was one year later, 748. At present, it is impossible to be certain of the date of the birth of Charlemagne. The best guesses include April 1, 747, after April 15, 747, or April 1, 748, probably in Herstal or Jupille (where his father was born), both close to Liège, in Belgium, the region from which both the Meroving and Caroling families originate. Other cities have been suggested, including Prüm, Düren, or Aachen.

Charlemagne - Life

Charlemagne - Early life

Charlemagne was the eldest child of Pippin the Short (714–24 September 768, reigned from 751) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (720–12 July 783), daughter of Caribert of Laon and Bertrada of Cologne. He was the elder brother of Carloman and Gisela. Some sources indicate that he was the brother of Redburga, wife of King Egbert of Wessex, and Bertha, mother of the famous Roland, but he is only ever recorded as having one sister named Gisela.

On the death of Pippin, the kingdom of the Franks was divided—as per tradition—between Charlemagne and Carloman. Charles took the outer parts of the kingdom, bordering on the sea, namely Neustria, western Aquitaine, and the northern parts of Austrasia, while Carloman retained the inner parts: southern Austrasia, Septimania, eastern Aquitaine, Burgundy, Provence, and Swabia, lands bordering on Italy. Perhaps Pippin regarded Charlemagne as the better warrior, but Carloman may have regarded himself as the more deserving son, being the son, not of a mayor of the palace, but of a king.

Charlemagne - Joint rule

On 9 October, immediately after the funeral of their father, both the kings withdrew from Saint Denis to be proclaimed by their nobles and consecrated by their bishops, Charlemagne in Noyon and Carloman in Soissons.

The first event of his reign was the rising of the Aquitainians and Gascons, in 769, in that territory split between the two kings. Pippin had killed in war the last duke of Aquitaine, Waifer. Now, one Hunold—perhaps the same Hunold who was father to Waifer, but perhaps someone else—led the Aquitainians as far north as Angoulême. Charlemagne met Carloman, but Carloman refused to participate and returned to Burgundy. Charlemagne went on the warpath, leading an army to Bordeaux, where he set up a camp at Fronsac. Hunold was forced to flee to the court of Duke Lupus II of Gascony. Lupus, fearing Charlemagne, turned Hunold over in exchange for peace. He was put in a monastery. Aquitaine was finally fully subdued by the Franks.

The brothers maintained not-so-friendly, not-so-hateful relations with the assistance of their mother Bertrada, but Charlemagne signed a treaty with Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria and married Ermengarda, daughter of King Desiderius of the Lombards, in order to surround Carloman with his own allies. Though Pope Stephen III first opposed the marriage with the Lombard princess, he would have little to fear of a Frankish-Lombard alliance in a few months.

Charlemagne repudiated his wife and quickly married another, a Swabian named Hildegard. The repudiated Ermengarda returned to her father's court at Pavia. The Lombard's wrath was now aroused and he would gladly have allied with Carloman to defeat Charles. But before war could break out, Carloman died on 5 December 771. Carloman's wife Gerberga (perhaps a daughter of Desiderius herself) fled to Desiderius' court with her sons for protection. This action is usually considered either a sign of Charlemagne's enmity or Gerberga's confusion.

Charlemagne - Conquest of Lombardy

At the succession of Pope Hadrian I in 772, he demanded the return of certain cities in the former exarchate of Ravenna as in accordance with a promise of Desiderius' succession. Desiderius instead took over certain papal cities and invaded the Pentapolis, heading for Rome. Hadrian sent embassies to Charlemagne in Autumn requesting he enforce the policies of his father, Pippin. Desiderius sent his own embassies denying the pope's charges. The embassies both met at Thionville and Charlemagne upheld the pope's side. Charlemagne promptly demanded what the pope had demanded and Desiderius promptly swore never to comply. The invasion was not short in coming. Charlemagne and his uncle Bernard crossed the Alps in 773 and chased the Lombards back to Pavia, which they then besieged. Charlemagne temporarily left the siege to deal with Adelchis, son of Desiderius, who was raising an army at Verona. The young prince was chased to the Adriatic littoral and he fled to Constantinople to plead for assistance from Constantine V Copronymus, who was waging war with the Bulgars.

The siege lasted until the spring of 774, when Charlemagne visited the pope in Rome. There he confirmed his father's grants of land, with some later chronicles claiming—falsely—that he also expanded them, granting Tuscany, Emilia, Venice, and Corsica. The pope granted him the title patrician. He then returned to Pavia, where the Lombards were on the verge of surrendering.

In return for their lives, the Lombards surrendered and opened the gates in early summer. Desiderius was sent to the abbey of Corbie and his son Adlechis died in Constantinople a patrician. Charles, unusually, had himself crowned with the Iron Crown and made the magnates of Lombardy do homage to him at Pavia. Only Duke Arechis II of Benevento refused to submit and proclaimed independence. Charlemagne was now master of Italy as king of the Lombards. He left Italy with a garrison in Pavia and few Frankish counts in place that very year.

There was still instability, however, in Italia. In 776, Dukes Hrodgaud of Friuli and Gisulf of Spoleto rebelled. Charlemagne whisked back from Saxony and defeated the duke of Friuli in battle. The duke was slain. The duke of Spoleto signed a treaty. Their co-conspirator, Arechis, was not subdued and Adelchis, their candidate in Byzantium, never left that city. Northern Italy was now faithfully his.

Charlemagne - Saxon campaigns

Charlemagne was engaged in almost constant battle throughout his reign, with his legendary sword Joyeuse in hand. After thirty years of war and eighteen battles—the Saxon Wars—he conquered Saxony, a goal that had been the unattainable dream of such figures of the past as Caesar Augustus, and proceeded to convert the conquered to Roman Catholicism, using force where necessary.

The Saxons, it should be noted, were divided into four subgroups in four regions. Nearest to Austrasia was Westphalia and furthest away was Eastphalia. In between these two kingdoms was that of Engria and north of these three, at the base of the Jutland peninsula, was Nordalbingia.

His first campaign was in the year 773. He forced the Engrians to submit and cut down the pagan holy tree Irminsul near Paderborn. This was cut short when he was called to Italy, where he conquered.

His second campaign came in the year 775. Then he marched through Westphalia, conquering their fort of Sigiburg, and crossed Engria, where he defeated them again. Finally, in Eastphalia, he defeated them and their leader Hessi converted to Christianity. He returned through Westphalia, leaving encampments at Sigiburg and Eresburg. All Saxony but Nordalbingia was under his control, but the recalcitrant Saxons would not submit for long.

It was after that campaing that Charlemagne entered Italy to subdue the dukes of Friuli and Spoleto. He returned very rapidly to Saxony for the third time in 776, when a rebellion destroyed his fortress at Eresburg. The Saxons were once again brought to heel, though one Widukind, a leader among them, fled instead to the Danes. He built a new camp at Karlstadt. In 777, he called a national diet at Paderborn to integrate Saxony fully into the Frankish kingdom. Many Saxons were baptised.

In 779, he again went into Saxony and conquered Eastphalia, Engria, and Westphalia. He then returned to Italy and, surprisingly, there was no revolt. He returned in 782 to Saxony and instituted a code of law and appointed counts. The laws were Draconian, especially against paganism. This stirred a renewal of the old conflict. That year, at Verden in Lower Saxony, he allegedly ordered the beheading of 4,500 Saxons who had been caught practising paganism after converting to Christianity in one day at the Bloody Trial of Verden. Modern research has cast doubt upon this allegation, as no archeological evidence of such a massacre has been found and the original source may have mistakenly said of "beheading", meaning "exiling".

Charlemagne - Spanish campaign

To the Diet of Paderborn had come representatives of the Moslem rulers of Gerona, Barcelona, and Huesca. Their masters had been cornered in the Iberian peninsula by Abd ar-Rahman I, the Umayyad emir of Córdoba. The Moorish rulers offered their homage to the great king of the Franks in return for military support. Seeing an opportunity to extend Christendom and his own power and believing the Saxons to be a fully conquered nation, he agreed to go to Spain.

In 778, he led the Neustrian army across the Western Pyrenees, while the Austrasians, Lombards, and Burgundians passed over the Eastern Pyrenees. The armies met at Zaragoza and received the homage of Soloman ibn al-Arabi and Kasmin ibn Yusuf, the foreign rulers. Zaragoza did not fall soon enough for Charles, however. He could not trust the Moors, nor the Basques, whom he had subdued by conquering Pamplona. He turned to leave Iberia, but as he was passing through the Pass of Roncesvalles one of the most famous events of his long reign occurred. It was not a pleasant occurrence for him. The Basques fell on his rearguard and baggage train, utterly destroying it. Among the famous dead were the seneschal Eggihard, the count of the palace Anselm, and the warden of the Breton March Roland, inspiring the subsequent creation of the Song of Roland (Chanson de Roland).

Charlemagne returned to Aquitaine only to discover that the Saxons had rebelled and ravaged much of his land under a returned Widukind.

Charlemagne - Imperator

In 797 (or possibly 801), the caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, presented Charlemagne with an Asian elephant named Abul-Abbas and a mechanical clock.

In 800, at Mass on Christmas Day in Rome, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Imperator Romanorum (Emperor of the Romans). Though this, according to the sources, occurred against his intentions, Charles thus became the renewer of the Western Empire, which had expired in the 5th century. To avoid frictions with the Eastern Emperor, Charles later called himself not Imperator Romanorum (a title reserved for the Eastern Emperor), but rather as Imperator Romanum gubernans Imperium (Emperor ruling the Roman Empire).

Charlemagne - Administration

Pursuing his father's reforms, Charlemagne did away with the monetary system based on the gold sou. Both he and King Offa of Mercia took up the system set in place by Pippin. He set up a new standard, the livre (i.e. pound)— both monetary and unit of weight— which was worth 20 sous (like the solidus, and later the shilling) or 240 deniers (like the denarius, and eventually the penny). During this period, the livre and the sou were counting units, only the denier was a coin of the realm.

Charlemagne applied the system to much of the European Continent, and Offa's standard was voluntarily adopted by much of England.

Charlemagne organized his empire into 350 counties, each led by an appointed count. Counts served as judges, administrators, and they enforced capitularies. To enforce loyalty, he set up the system of missi dominici, meaning 'Envoys of the Lord.' In this system, one representative of the church and one representative of the emperor would head to the different counties and every year report back to Charlemagne on their status.

Charlemagne - Death

When Charlemagne died in 814, he was buried in his own Cathedral at Aachen. He was succeeded by his only son to survive him, Louis the Pious, after whose reign the empire was divided between his three surviving sons according to Frankish tradition. These three kingdoms would be the foundations of later France and the Holy Roman Empire.

After Charlemagne's death, continental coinage degraded and most of Europe resorted to using the continued high quality English coin until about 1100.

It is difficult to understand Charlemagne's attitude toward his daughters. None of them contracted a sacramental marriage. This may have been an attempt to control the number of potential alliances. After his death the surviving daughters entered or were forced to enter monasteries. At least one of them, Bertha, had a recognized relationship, if not a marriage, with Angilbert, a member of Charlemagne's court circle.

Charlemagne's mother tongue was the Old High German dialect called Frankish. He also spoke Latin and understood some Greek.

Charlemagne - Cultural significance

Charlemagne's reign is often referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance because of the flowering of scholarship, literature, art, and architecture. Most of the surviving works of classical Latin were copied and preserved by Carolingian scholars. The pan-European nature of Charlemagne's influence is indicated by the origins of many of the men who worked for him: Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon; Theodulf, a Visigoth; Paul the Deacon, a Lombard; and Angilbert and Einhard, Franks.

Charlemagne enjoyed an important afterlife in European culture. One of the great medieval literature cycles, the Charlemagne cycle or the Matter of France, centers around the deeds of Charlemagne's historical commander of the Breton border, Roland, and the paladins who served as a counterpart to the knights of the Round Table; their tales were first told in the chansons de geste. Charlemagne himself was accorded sainthood inside the Holy Roman Empire after the 12th century. His canonization by Antipope Paschal III was never recognized by the Holy See. He was a model knight as one of the Nine Worthies.

It is frequently claimed by genealogists that all people with European ancestry alive today are probably descended from Charlemagne. However, only a small percentage can actually prove descent from him. Charlemagne's marriage and relationship politics and ethics did, however, result in a fairly large number of descendants, all of whom had far better life expectancies than is usually the case for children in that time period. They were married into houses of nobility and as a result of intermarriages many people of noble descent can indeed trace their ancestry back to Charlemagne. Charlemagne's genealogical tree was quite extensive, and can be traced almost completely up to modern times; among the well known direct descendants of Charlemagne are William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States, American actor Tyrone Power, the British actor Christopher Lee, and Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He is without a doubt an ancestor of every royal family of Europe.

Another interesting note about Charlemagne was that he took a serious effort in his and others' scholarship and had learned to read in his adulthood, although he never quite learned how to write. His handwriting was bad, from which grew the legend that he could not write. This was quite an achievement for kings at this time, of whom most were illiterate.

Charlemagne - Charlemagne's personal appearance

Charlemagne's personal appearance is not known from any contemporary portrait, but it is known rather famously from a good description of Einhard, who wrote his biography Vita Caroli Magni. He is well known to have been tall, stately, and fair-haired, with disproportionately thick neck. As Einhard tells it in his 22nd chapter:

The Roman tradition of realistic personal portraiture was in complete eclipse at this time, where individual traits were submerged in iconic typecastings. Charlemagne, as an ideal ruler, ought to be portrayed in the corresponding fashion, any contemporary would have assumed. The images of enthroned Charlemagne, God's representative on Earth, bear more connections to the icons of Christ in majesty than to modern (or antique) conceptions of portraiture. Charlemagne in later imagery (as in the Dürer portrait) is often portrayed with flowing blond hair, due to a misunderstanding of Einhard, who describes Charlemagne as having canitie pulchra, or "beautiful white hair", which has been rendered as blonde or fair in many translations. The Latin word for blond is flavus, and rutilo, meaning auburn, is the word Tacitus uses for the Germans' hair.

Charlemagne - Family

Charlemagne - Marriages and Heirs

• His first wife was Himiltrude, married in 766. The marriage was never formally annulled. By her he had:
  • Pippin the Hunchback (767-813)

• His second wife was Ermengarda (often erroneously called Desiderata or Desideria), daughter of Desiderius, king of the Lombards, married in 768, annulled in 771. By her he had:

• His third wife was Hildegard of Savoy (757 or 758-783 or 784), married 771, died 784. By her he had:
  • Charles the Younger (772 or 773-811), king of Neustria from 781
  • Adelaide (773 or 774-774)
  • Carloman, baptised Pippin (773 or 777-810), king of Italy from 781
  • Rotrude (or Hruodrud) (777-810)
  • Louis (778-840), twin of Lothair, king of Aquitaine from 781 and emperor and king of the Franks from 814
  • Lothair (778-779 or 780), twin of Louis
  • Bertha (779-823)
  • Gisela (781-808)
  • Hildegarde (782-783)

• His fourth wife was Fastrada, married 784, died 794. By her he had:
  • Theodrada (b.784), abbess of Argenteuil
  • Hiltrude (b.787)

• His fifth and favourite wife was Luitgard, married 794, died 800 childless.

Charlemagne - Concubinages and Bastards

• His first known concubine was Gersuinda. By her he had:
  • Adaltrude (b.774)

• His second known concubine was Madelgard. By her he had:
  • Ruodhaid (775-810), abbess of Faremoutiers

• His third known concubine was Amaltrud of Vienne. By her he had:
  • Alpaida (b.794)

• His fourth known concubine was Regina. By her he had:
  • Drogo (801-855), bishop of Metz from 823
  • Hugh (802-844), archchancellor of the Empire

• His fifth known concubine was Ethelind. By her he had:
  • Theodoric (b.807)

See also

• Franks (main history of Frankish kingdoms)
• List of Frankish Kings
• Carolingians
• Nine Worthies
• History of elephants in Europe

Charlemagne - Sources

• Oman, Charles. The Dark Ages 476-918. London, 1914.
• Santosuosso, Antonio. Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Ways of Medieval Warfare. Boulder, 2004.
• Painter, Sidney. A History of the Middle Ages 284-1500. New York, 1953.
• Einhard, translated by Samuel Epes Turner. The Life of Charlemagne. New York, 1880.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Charlemagne", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki