Charlemagne (or Charles the Great) was king of the franks from 768 to 814, king of the lombards from 774 to 814, and emperor from 800 to 814. The son of King pepin iii and Bertrada, he was born in 747 or 748 and died on Jan. 2, 814. Little is known about Charlemagne's youth. He received religious training from his mother and from Abbot Fulrad of St. Denis, a confidant of his father. He learned to read Latin but never to write. While he was still a child, his father was elected king by the Frankish nobles, a momentous step taken with papal approval that led to the deposition of the last Merovingian king. Charlemagne first appeared in the historical record in late 753 and early 754, when he played a role in the ceremonies organized to welcome pope stephen ii on the occasion of the pope's visit to Francia. That visit resulted in an alliance between the papacy and the Franks that would play an important role in Charlemagne's future career. During the course of his stay in Francia in 754 Stephen II anointed King Pepin III, Queen Bertrada, Charlemagne, and his younger brother, carloman, thereby providing further legitimacy for the newly founded royal dynasty. Along with his father and brother Charlemagne also received from the pope the title patricius Romanorum, which implied an imprecise obligation to serve as protector of Rome and the Romans. Infrequent bits of information in the sources suggest that while growing up Charlemagne and his brother were involved in their father's military campaigns and court life, learning from those experiences what was needed to prepare them for their future role as kings.
In accord with Frankish custom the kingdom of the Franks was divided between Charlemagne and Carloman when Pepin III died in 768. A period of rivalry between the brothers ensued which threatened to undo Pepin III's work in unifying the Frankish kingdom. One consequence of this fraternal rivalry was the marriage of Charlemagne to the daughter of desiderius, king of the Lombards, a union negotiated by Bertrada that some viewed as a move to isolate Carloman and as a threat to the papacy and the Papal States whose chief enemy was the Lombard king and whose well-being Pepin III and his sons had pledged to defend. But the potential crisis stemming from fraternal rivalry ended with the death of Carloman in 771. Charlemagne moved decisively to set aside
the claims of Carloman's heirs and to assume sole kingship over the entire Frankish kingdom.
Charlemagne's Military Accomplishments. As sole ruler Charlemagne launched an extraordinarily active career which involved him in a wide range of activities. Central to his 45-year reign were his military activities, continuing a tradition in Frankish history that reached back to clovis (ruled 481–511). Some of his wars ended with the submission to Frankish rule of peoples over whom the Franks had long claimed lordship but who constantly sought autonomy, such as the Aquitainians and the Bavarians. Others were aimed at subduing external peoples perceived to threaten the Frankish kingdom. Most notable among those were the Saxons, whose repeated raids had long menaced the eastern frontier of the kingdom. Beginning in 772 Charlemagne set out to end that threat by subjugating the Saxons and incorporating them into the Frankish kingdom. That end, not achieved until 804, required repeated campaigns, many prompted by Saxon repudiation of peace treaties. Some of the Frankish expeditions ended in defeat, and others witnessed mass killings and forced deportation of rebellious Saxons. Saxon resistance was stiffened by the Frankish insistence that the Saxons accept Christianity, a demand that was accompanied by forced conversions and by draconian laws punishing those who refused to convert or who after conversion resisted such Christian practices as tithing. In the course of the long Saxon wars the neighboring Frisians became involved and were conquered.
At intervals during the Saxons wars Charlemagne conducted other military operations. One of them drew him into Italy. Shortly after he became sole king of the Franks, he repudiated his Lombard wife, thereby breaking his alliance with the Lombard king, Desiderius. In response to appeals from Pope Adrian I beseeching him to live up to the promise made by his father to protect the Papal States, Charlemagne invaded Italy in 773–774, forced Desiderius to surrender, and assumed the title of king of the Lombards. That victory gave him possession of most of Italy, but required subsequent campaigns to retain control. In 778 he led an expedition into Spain in an attempt to take advantage of internal dissension among the ruling Muslims by establishing a Frankish presence south of the Pyrenees that would hinder Muslim incursions into Frankish territories in southern Gaul. That venture ended in a disastrous Frankish defeat at the hands of Gascon (Basque) forces at Roncevalles, an episode immortalized in The Song of Roland, an epic poem composed later. But Charlemagne persisted and eventually succeeded in conquering an Frankish enclave, called the Spanish March, between the Pyrenees Mountains and the Ebro River. The final submission of the Bavarians in 788 brought the Franks into contact with the Avars to whom the Bavarians allegedly had turned for assistance against the Franks. The Avar Empire had originally been shaped north of the Danube in the sixth century by Asiatic nomads who established dominance over the indigenous Slavic population and who often proved to be a formidable challenge to the eastern Roman Empire during the seventh century. By the eighth century the Avar power was in decline, providing an inviting target for the Franks. A succession of brilliantly conducted campaigns in 791, 795, and 796 destroyed the Avar state, allowed the victors to seize vast booty, and opened the way for the annexation of a large bloc of territory in the Middle Danube Valley. Military victory was accompanied by the effective extension of a missionary effort, already begun by the Bavarian clergy, aimed at converting the inhabitants of the Avar Empire.
Charlemagne's military victories greatly extended the frontiers to be defended and raised concerns among peoples faced with the arrival on their borders of an aggressive major power. In protecting Frankish frontiers and in dealing with apprehensive neighbors Charlemagne combined military means with effective diplomacy. The conquest of Saxony brought the Franks into contact with several Slavic tribes living east of Elbe and with the Danish kingdom. Against any Slavic tribe which showed hostility toward the Frankish state Charlemagne directed punitive raids which usually ended up with the exaction of tribute; those who preferred peace were permitted to become vassals of the king with some assurance of Frankish protection. During the first stages of the Saxon wars the Danes often lent aid to the Saxons; Charlemagne responded by strengthening the fortifications in the frontier area facing Denmark. Before his death internal problems in the Danish kingdom lessened the Danish threat and provided opportunity for diplomatic exchanges that led to peaceful relations and the promise of increasing Frankish influence in Denmark. The most ominous development on the northern frontier was the beginning of raids on Frankish territory along the North Sea coast by seagoing Danes, a threat Charlemagne sought to counter by creating a Frankish fleet. To protect the new frontier mapped out by the victories over the Avars Charlemagne created militarized marches under the command of trusted officials based in Bavaria and northern Italy. The interactions between the Franks and the Slavic peoples along a frontier extending from the Baltic Sea to the Balkan peninsula set in motion a chain of events that would soon transform the Slavic world. The creation of marcher zones was also adopted against the Muslims facing the Frankish enclave in Spain and the hostile Bretons and Gascons in Gaul. Charlemagne's annexation of the Lombard kingdom did not assure complete control of Italy. In the southern part of the peninsula independent Lombard princes, especially the dukes of Benevento, continued to threaten peace in the Frankish kingdom of Italy and had to be restrained with military campaigns. The Papal States, whose boundaries remained problematic and whose political status with respect to Charlemagne' kingdom of Italy was not clearly defined, complicated the Italian scene. The Frankish position in Italy also led to confrontations with the Byzantine Empire. A complex series of diplomatic negotiations, sometimes punctuated by military encounters in Italy and along the Dalmatian coast, ensued. In general, Charlemagne's diplomatic encounters with the emperors in the East allowed him to strengthen his position vis-à-vis the Byzantine Empire. Charlemagne established diplomatic ties with the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, Harun-al-Rashid, a relationship nurtured by the fact that these two rulers shared common enemies, the Byzantine emperors and the Umayyad caliphs in Spain. Charlemagne enjoyed a vague role as protector of the Christian establishment in Jerusalem. And his presence was felt in the affairs of Anglo-Saxon kings of Mercia and Northumbria in England. Through successful warfare and effective diplomacy Charlemagne had become a world figure.
Government Structure. Military and diplomatic concerns did not distract Charlemagne from concerns about the governance of his realm. In general, he was not a political innovator, being content to retain the political institutions and techniques inherited from his merovingian predecessors. His aim was to improve these institutions and to adapt them to serve a more sophisticated concept of the nature and purposes of government than had guided his predecessors. The royal government continued to be served at the local level by counts, each charged with acting in the name of the king in a specific territory to administer justice, raise troops, collect revenues due the king, and keep the peace. Steps were taken to improve the administration of justice at the local level by attaching individuals learned in the law, called scabini, to each court under the jurisdiction of the count to assure judgments in accord with law. Counts were rewarded for their services by income from lands attached to their offices, charges made for public services performed, fines, and royal gifts. Bishops continued to be entrusted with important political functions, particularly in administering justice, caring for the poor, and restraining law breakers. The central government consisted of the king's personal entourage, called the palatium (palace), made up of trusted lay and ecclesiastical companions of the king who discharged a variety of functions associated with managing the royal resources, mustering and leading armies, conducting diplomatic missions, producing written documents required for carrying on administrative activities, rendering justice in major cases, and counseling the king in shaping policy. At both the local and central levels of government careful attention was given to assuring a regular royal income, derived primarily from the produce of royal estates, war booty, tolls on commercial activity, and obligatory gifts imposed on rich subjects, and only secondarily from direct taxation. Income from war booty was especially valuable in allowing Charlemagne to attract as officials at all levels individuals drawn from a limited number of aristocratic families interlocked by kinship ties who were eager to serve the king in return for the prestige, the power, and the material rewards derived from holding office and enjoying royal favor.
Charlemagne was most innovative as a ruler in extending and strengthening the linkages between his person and his court and the local centers of power. He exploited the shared interests and the kinship ties of powerful aristocratic families, chiefly from Austrasia where the Carolingian dynasty had its roots, from which most office holders were drawn as a means of establishing consensus within the ruling elite whose reach extended across the entire realm. He continued the traditional annual assemblies which brought together in the presence of the king himself most of the counts, bishops, abbots, and powerful aristocrats of the realm in a setting where complaints could be aired, advice sought, new policies announced, and personal ties cemented. He regularized and extended the use of missi dominici, royal agents sent out in pairs to make regular circuits around specifically defined territorial entities embracing several counties for the purpose of making the king's will known, ascertaining how well local officials were discharging their duties, correcting abuses by those officials where necessary, trying particularly difficult judicial cases, and meting out punishment to lawbreakers. To improve communications between his court and local units of government Charlemagne sought to expand the use of written documents in dealing with administrative matters. Especially important were his capitularies, written documents dispatched across the kingdom to inform interested parties of the king's will and to direct how his programs were to be carried out. He greatly expanded the use of vassalage and benefices as a means of establishing personal bonds between the king and powerful subjects. Those willing to accept vassalage swore under oath to accept the king as their overlord and to be loyal to him; in return they were rewarded with benefices in the form of offices or grants of land to be exploited for their personal benefit as long as they remained loyal and served their lord. Charlemagne even required all free men in his realm to swear an oath obligating them to be faithful in obeying and serving the ruler.
Managing Subjugated Lands. Although conquest was not new in Frankish history, Charlemagne's success as a conqueror gave some urgency to the governance of conquered peoples. He was certainly aware that diversity was a reality in his vast realm, precluding the possibility of a unitary system of governance, with one notable exception: his conquered subjects must accept Christianity, which meant that the ruler must do whatever was needed to mount a missionary effort, to put in place an ecclesiastical organization, to recruit and train clergy to meet the spiritual needs of the new converts, and to provide the physical and monetary resources required to sustain Christian worship. Charlemagne's acceptance of diversity was evidenced by the fact that everywhere in his realm he allowed his subjects to be judged by the law under which they were born. In 781 he created the subkingdoms of Italy and Aquitaine, each ruled by one of his sons, a step that clearly recognized the unique traditions prevailing in those areas. With the passing of time he sought to efface that uniqueness by filling secular and ecclesiastical offices with Frankish aristocrats and by making inhabitants of Italy and Aquitaine subject to royal legislation. In Saxony Charlemagne sought to put in place political and religious structures that duplicated those prevailing in Francia, a policy that led to the rapid assimilation of the Saxons into the Frankish world. In the somewhat ill-defined border regions facing the Bretons, the Muslims, the Slavs in the Danube Valley, and the Danes, Charlemagne established marches directed by dukes who were entrusted with considerable political autonomy, especially in military affairs; the powerful officials were drawn from the king's most trusted followers. Taken together, these measures allowed a considerable number of people to be incorporated into the Frankish realm without serious threat to the internal order. But the system also created a situation where local potentates entrenched in various regions for the purpose of ruling them in the name of the Frankish king could develop a power base that eventually enabled them to resist the royal government.
Charlemagne Redefines Kingship. Charlemagne's efforts to improve traditional techniques of government were accompanied by a subtle change in the concepts defining the purpose of government and the role of the king. Charlemagne inherited from his Merovingian predecessors a concept of kingship based on the king as a warlord who had the power to command his subjects to do what he willed as long as he retained the power to enforce his commands. He did not abandon that model of rulership, especially insofar as his power to command was concerned. But as his reign progressed, the scope of that power was extended. His own legislation and the pronouncements of his chief counselors on the art of ruling began to add a religious dimension to what it meant to rule and to be a subject. Increasingly prominent was the idea that in a Christian society he who ruled "by the grace of God" had an obligation to rule according to the commands of God, and his subjects had a duty to respect the law of God in their conduct. By that definition the ruler must become an agent serving to realize the will of God, a duty that required that he direct his efforts toward assuring the salvation of his subjects. Kingship began to take on a ministerial dimension which mandated that a ruler be both priest and king, dedicated to assuring both the spiritual and material well-being of his subjects. This concept of kingship, which drew its substance chiefly from the Old Testament model of kingship and from St. Augustine's ideas on the nature of the city of God, began to blur the distinction between the sacred and the secular, between the Church and the state, and to bestow on the secular leader the authority to direct both spheres.
Despite the boldness of Charlemagne's political program, there were signs by the end of his reign that it was overly ambitious. Those signs suggested that during his reign the scope of government greatly expanded due to his conquests and to the new range of responsibilities emerging from a redefinition of the function of government and its leader, but that the means of coping with that expansion did not materialize. The human resources needed to enact his political program were lacking, being limited to a narrow range of families that had long enjoyed a central place in the Carolingian world. The material resources to support royal enactments were insufficient, especially after the cessation of military conquests during the last part of Charlemagne's reign and the consequent shrinking of booty available for distribution to loyal followers. The infrastructure undergirding the central administration was too primitive to reach out across a vast and diverse realm to explain and enforce measures aimed at creating order and providing justice. As a consequence of these limitations, political power began to escape royal control into private hands, as it had done earlier during the Merovingian chapter in the history of the Frankish kingdom. Without dubbing him a political failure, it can perhaps be said that in the context of his age Charlemagne simply tried to do too much by way of establishing effective government on a permanent basis.
Charlemagne's Religious Reform Efforts. Despite the magnitude of the problems facing him in the political realm and of the effort made to solve those challenges, Charlemagne found the time and energy to leave his mark on other facets of his world. He won widespread praise in his age as a religious reformer. His efforts in this realm represented a continuation of the reforming effort begun in the 740s by his father, Pepin III, and his uncle, Carloman. Charlemagne expanded and intensified their reforming program and placed the full power of the state behind its realization. His concern for religious reform was motivated in part by his personal piety. But he was keenly aware of the importance of the ecclesiastical establishment to his political program. And he became increasingly convinced that he as ruler had a duty imposed by God to see to it that his subjects gained eternal salvation. The result was a series of councils that enacted reforming measures given the force of public law in royal capitularies, the most important of which were the Capilulare generalis of 789 and the Capitulare missorum speciale of 802. Responsibility for enforcing this legislation was given to all public officials, but bishops were the chief agents in realizing meaningful reform. But in the final analysis it was the ruler's responsibility to purify the religious life of his subjects. Consequently, Charlemagne's reform effort served to place the direction of the Christian community into the hands of the secular ruler.
The reforming legislation promulgated by Charlemagne was traditional in its spirit and its content. It was inspired by an awareness of defects in contemporary religious life that needed correction in accordance with norms laid down by earlier church councils and encoded in collections of canon law. A few major concerns dominated Charlemagne's reform program: instituting a hierarchal church organization involving metropolitan archbishoprics, bishoprics, and parishes; defining the authority and responsibilities of the archbishops, bishops, and priests serving this hierarchy, especially bishops; improving the moral and intellectual quality of the clergy; protecting church property and income; regularizing and standardizing liturgical practices; providing physical facilities required for the proper conduct of religious life; intensifying pastoral care in order to deepen understanding of the faith and to root out all traces of paganism; improving moral behavior among all Christians in a variety of areas, such as criminal activity, marriage practices, treatment of the powerless, and property transactions. As the reform movement gained momentum, its scope began to broaden. Charlemagne and his chief religious advisers began to assume responsibility for defining and guaranteeing orthodox doctrine. That dimension of reform was evident in the famous libri carolini, compiled by theodulf at Charlemagne's command to correct the decisions on icons enacted by the Council of nicaea in 787, and in the pronouncements of the Council of Frankfurt in 794 and the subsequent writings of alcuin condemning adoptionism. These facets of Charlemagne's religious policy suggest that the Frankish king was charting a course that would give the West its own version of caesaropapism, not unlike that exemplified by Roman emperors from constantine the great to emperors ruling in Constantinople in Charlemagne's own day.
Charlemagne's aggressive domination of religious life in his realm proceeded without alienating the Frankish episcopacy which generally gave its full support to the ruler's program. Perhaps that support owed much to the fact that Charlemagne controlled episcopal appointments and had the resources to extend valuable favors to supportive clerics. However, the record seems to indicate clearly that the king filled episcopal offices with men who took their religious responsibilities seriously, who believed in the royal reform program, and who possessed the skills to give substance to that program. Neither did two popes who held office during his reign, adrian i (773–795) and leo iii (795–816), resist the caesaropapist course followed by Charlemagne. Although by the end of the 8th century the papacy was extended recognition as the titular head of Christendom, both Adrian I and Leo III were fully aware of the extent to which the survival of the Papal States and of the pope's authority over those who inhabited the Papal States depended on the protection of the Frankish ruler; thus, neither was inclined to challenge his religious policy. In fact, Adrian I repeatedly proclaimed his approval of Charlemagne's efforts to purify religious life and to lead in the spread of Christendom among the pagans. The king in turn was moved by the deepest respect for the spiritual head of Christendom. He was especially bound to Adrian I by personal ties, and, as we shall see, took major steps to rescue Leo III from his enemies. On numerous occasions he sought papal advice and sanction for his religious program. On two different occasions he reaffirmed the friendship pact that Pepin III had established with Pope Stephen II. And he extended the territorial boundaries of the Papal States by restoring to the pope lands that were part of his kingdom of Italy.
The Carolingian Renaissance. Charlemagne's efforts to improve the royal government and the religious establishment posed the need for better-educated secular and religious officials. The response to that need was a cultural renewal, known as the "carolingian renaissance," which in its beginning owed much to Charlemagne's initiative and which constituted one of his most enduring achievements. Charlemagne's renaissance was given its original impetus by a circle of educated men from outside Francia whom Charlemagne gathered at his court in the 780s and 790s. Included were the Italians paul the deacon, paulinus of aquileia, and peter of pisa, the Visigoth Theodulf, the Irishman dungal, and above all the Anglo-Saxon Alcuin of York, all products of an intellectual revival that had occurred in their lands during the 7th and 8th centuries. It was not long after they joined the royal court that their ranks began to be complemented by natives of Francia who were the disciples of these outsiders. The interactions of the members of the court circle with each other and with the king eventually found expression in royal commands, which together spelled out the fundamental features of the Carolingian cultural renewal; especially exemplary were a capitulary entitled Admonitio generalis of 789 and a royal letter entitled Epistola de letteris colendis ("Letter Concerning the Cultivation of Letters") circulated sometime during the 790s. These texts provided for the establishment of schools equipped to improve Latin literacy; the production of accurate copies of books basic to understanding Christian teachings; the assemblage of libraries that would allow studies beyond the elementary level; measures to assure the proper performance of the liturgy; and steps aimed at deepening among all Christians a knowledge of the basic tenets of the faith. Members of the court circle began to produce textbooks required to improve literacy, to convey the basic tenets of the faith, and to perform the liturgy properly. They collected copies of books that would make possible the deeper exploration of the Christian religion, including the writings of the Latin church fathers and selected classical authors. As a consequence an important royal library was created. A royal copy center, called a scriptorium, developed where books were copied and sometimes decorated with painted miniatures which set their creators in search of models for the art of book decorating. The royal scriptorium played an important role in propagating a new style of writing, the Carolingian minuscule, which made copying and reading much easier. The combination of royal commands on educational matters and the example set by the court scholars soon began to have an influence across the entire kingdom. Existing episcopal and monastic schools were revived and new ones founded; some of these schools produced masters who were able to expand the curriculum to the point where they could provide a broad education based on the traditional liberal arts. The number of Scriptoria and libraries increased, especially in monastic centers, where some libraries featured a wide range of books, including many classical writings, the only surviving copies of which came from these libraries. The fruit of Charlemagne's effort to renew culture was soon evidenced in the increased use of writing in the conduct of royal government and ecclesiastical administration, the improved competence in Latin, an enriched level of discourse reflected in the literary production of the era, especially in poetry, history writing, biblical commentaries, and letter writing, and in church building and decoration. Perhaps there was some truth to a boast that a "new Athens" was in the making, especially at Aachen after it became the favorite royal residence and the center of a building program that embodied many of the major features of the Carolingian revival in architecture and art. In fact, the full fruits of the Carolingian cultural renewal did not emerge until after Charlemagne's reign, but his patronage had given cultural renewal a form and a purpose that would leave a long-lasting mark on the cultural face of western Europe.
Charlemagne Is Crowned Emperor. The impressive list of accomplishments associated with the first 30 years of Charlemagne's reign provided the background for the culminating event of his regime: his coronation as emperor. As his reign progressed there were increasing signs that in the minds of many, perhaps including Charlemagne himself, his feats as warrior, governor, religious reformer, and cultural patron elevated him to a status inadequately conveyed by his traditional titles, king of the Franks and the Lombards and patricius Romanorum. He was a universal leader, uniquely endowed to safeguard the spiritual and material well-being of the community of true believers, a community increasingly conceived as an imperium Christianorum whose members included those who adhered to the true faith of Rome and whose leader needed a title befitting his role in creating, directing, and sustaining such an entity. The increasing knowledge of classical history in the court circle emerging from the Carolingian Renaissance suggested comparisons with great Roman emperors. The situation in Constantinople, where a succession of emperors had fostered the heresy of iconoclasm and where after 797 a women, irene, held the imperial office, pointed up the unfitness of the Greek emperors to lead the imperium Christianorum.
A development in Rome provided the occasion for giving substance to this line of thinking, which at its essence had to do with locating responsibility for the direction of orthodox Christian society. In 799 a crisis developed in Rome that raised serious doubts about the ability of the pope to guide the imperiium christianorum and posed a major challenge for Charlemagne. A faction of Roman aristocrats rebelled against Leo III (795–816) and sought by force to render him unfit for office by blinding him; the rebels charged Leo III with tyranny and with serious personal misconduct. Leo III escaped with his life by fleeing to Charlemagne's court, placing Charlemagne in a position of deciding how he would proceed in a situation that involved judging the vicar of St. Peter and restoring order within the Papal States where the pope was ruler. The Frankish ruler acted decisively. He took steps to restore the pope to his office and then, after wide consultation, made a journey to Rome in late 800 to settle matters. After extensive discussions during December of 800, Charlemagne arranged an assembly of dignitaries on December 23 at which Leo III was allowed to clear himself of the charges brought against him by swearing under oath that he was innocent. Two days later on Christmas day as Charlemagne prepared to celebrate Mass in the basilica of St. Peter, Pope Leo III placed a crown on his head while the assembled crowd acclaimed him emperor and then the pope performed the ritual act of obeisance due an emperor.
Charlemagne's coronation as emperor posed two problems, the answers to which eluded not only his contemporaries but also many later historians. The first involved assigning responsibility for this momentous step. Although einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, wrote later that the king would never have gone near St. Peter's on that fateful day had he known what was going to happen, the evidence makes it more likely that the coronation was jointly planned by Leo III and Charlemagne as a means of serving ends useful to each party; given the pope's tenuous position at the moment, one suspects that Charlemagne played the leading role in charting the course of events in December of 800. In his moment of need Leo III was undoubtedly pleased to play a role in proceedings that would strengthen his ties to his protector by allowing him to sanction an important new title for the Carolingians just as his predecessors had done a half-century earlier in approving the assumption of the Frankish kingship by Pepin III. The pope's role in the bestowing the imperial crown on Charlemagne implied that papal participation was in some way a requisite to authentic election to the imperial office. Given the long connection of the papacy with the protocol of the imperial court in Constantinople, it is likely that Leo III played the decisive role in arranging the ritual proceedings that occurred on Christmas Day, 800. Charlemagne very likely welcomed a clarification of his legal position in passing judgment on those who had attacked the pope, a power he soon used to condemn the conspirators. He could as emperor claim equality with his counterpart in Constantinople. Above all else, he was granted recognition for his accomplishments in carrying out God's will more successfully than anyone else. Such recognition pleased his advisers and gave them fresh ammunition with which to flesh out their concept of ministerial kingship.
The Final Years of Charlemagne's Reign. A second, more intractable problem centered around what the imperial title meant to Charlemagne and what effect it had on his actions as ruler. The answer to that question must be sought in his actions during the last years of his reign. Some evidence suggests that the imperial title meant little to him. He continued to call himself "king of the Franks and the Lombards," to which was joined the enigmatic designation "emperor governing the Roman empire." In 806 he provided for the future division of his realm among his three sons without any consideration of the unity implicit in the idea of empire or any mention of the imperial title. In his lifestyle he continued to dress, eat, and play in the fashion of a typical Frankish noble with little concern for modes of conduct or protocols associated with the imperial dignity. Some evidence suggests that in the last years of his life he increasingly turned away from the clerical advisers who played a role in securing his imperial coronation in order to give a larger share in wielding power to the powerful noble families that had played a part in establishing the royal power of the Carolingian dynasty and who had little interest in promoting the imperial ideal. But other pieces of evidence suggest that Charlemagne took the imperial title seriously. He undertook a long military and diplomatic effort aimed at winning recognition of his title from the emperor in Constantinople, an end he finally realized in 812. He sought to reenergize his reform program in the years after 800 in a context that suggested he felt that his new title mandated renewed concern for the spiritual welfare of his subjects. The terminology used to convey imperial orders, the protocol adopted for the conduct of court life, the symbols used on royal coinage, and the motifs employed in creating and decorating the main structures of his new residence in Aachen all suggest that a "new Rome" was being built and reflected an awareness that the imperial office was a source of ideological elements which strengthened Charlemagne's authority. In 813 Charlemagne with his own hands bestowed the imperial crown on his only surviving son, Louis the Pious. That act suggested that he believed that the imperial title had some value to a successor faced with holding together the vast empire that he and his Carolingian predecessors had put together. And it also indicated that he wished to exclude the papacy from any role in providing legitimacy for the imperial title. Taken together, this evidence points to the conclusion that Charlemagne saw the imperial crown as a unique award extended to him in recognition of his personal accomplishments, an award to be used as he pleased but not to be set aside lightly lest its potential for enhancing his authority as a ruler and his and his family's status among other rulers in his world be wasted.
When Charlemagne died in 814, one author wrote that "Rivers of tears now flow unceasing, / for the world bewails the death of Charlemagne," while another writing somewhat later remembered with longing that when his life ended he "left all Europe filled with every goodness." However much deserved on the basis of his many accomplishments, these sentiments do not speak to his personal qualities which must not be overlooked in assessing his career. His powerful personality was a vital force in a setting in which institutional structures were fragile and personal relationships played a fundamental role in maintaining order. Although he gained the admiration of an elite circle of nobles and clergymen for his interest in learning, his new political concepts, and his progressive religious ideas, to most of his subjects Charlemagne was preeminently an ideal warrior chief, companion, and family man. He was a giant man blessed with extraordinary energy and vitality. He loved the active life—military campaigning, hunting, and swimming. He was no less at home at the banquet table, where quantities of food and drink, storytelling, and spirited verbal thrusts created an atmosphere of joviality among his numerous companions. He was naturally gregarious, loquacious, and intellectually inquisitive, allowing him to be the dominant person in his court circle. But he could be brutal on occasion; for instance, after a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Saxons in 782, he ordered the slaughter of 4,500 Saxon prisoners of war in an effort to terrorize that truculent people into submission. Never far from his mind were the interests of his large family. In the course of his reign he was married five times; after his last wife died in 800, he remained unmarried but shared his life with several concubines. These liaisons produced at least eighteen children. The royal sons counted as legitimate began early to learn the arts of being king, Pepin as king of Italy, Louis as king of Aquitaine, and Charles at his father's court. Charlemagne refused to allow his daughters to marry, keeping them with him to adorn his court and perhaps to dote on their loving father. Two of them bore illegitimate children fathered by court officials. One of the tragic episodes in Charlemagne's life was marked by the death of four of his children in a two-year span from 810 to 812, including Pepin and Charles, both destined to succeed their father. Despite behavior that those living by different moral standards might hold in disdain, Charlemagne was a model of piety in the eyes of his subjects. He attended Mass daily, prayed frequently, gave generously to the support of the Church, and acted frequently in the interests of the poor and oppressed. These qualities and traits made him a figure capable of commanding the respect, loyalty, and affection of his subjects; on these feelings rested much of his authority.
Charlemagne's reign represented an important chapter in western European history. His empire did not long survive him, but the ideal of a politically unified Europe inspired some western Europeans until the present, sometimes with unhappy consequences. Charlemagne served as the model prince during most of the Middle Ages. The goals he pursued—orderly government, religious reform, cultural renewal, Christian expansion—influenced the programs of many later medieval kings. What he actually achieved during his reign laid a firm basis upon which an orderly, civilized society was later built in western Europe. For these accomplishments, he justly deserved to be called "the Great" and Europae pater.
See Also: 'abbĀ sids; byzantine empire; carolingian reform; states of the church; umayyads.
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[r. e. sullivan]
New Catholic Encyclopedia SULLIVAN, R. E.
