<strong></strong><hr><br><br>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.<br>Early Years <br>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.<br>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.<br>Campaigns <br>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 757-774). 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 repudiated 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).<br>Coronation <br>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.<br>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.<br>Administration <br>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.<br>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.<br>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.<br>Evaluation <br>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 Saxon campaigns 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.<br>"Charlemagne," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation.<br><br>All notes of this line;<br>Ancestral Roots of Sixty Colonists by Frederic Lewis Weis<br>Eight lines of descent of John Prescot, founder of Lancaster, Mass<br>by Frederick Lewis Weis<br>Some Magna Carta Barons and Other royal Linages by Dorothy a. Sherman Lainson;B.A.; M.N. <br><br>Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists(7th Ed) by Frederick Lewis Weis, Th.D.; F.A.S.G. (line 50)<br><br>CHARLEMAGNE (742?-814). "By the sword and the cross," Charlemagne (Charles the Great) became master of Western Europe. It was falling into decay when Charlemagne became joint king of the Franks in 768. Except in the monasteries, people had all but forgotten education and the arts. Boldly Charlemagne conquered barbarians and kings alike. By restoring the roots of learning and order, he preserved many political rights and revived culture.<br><br>Charlemagne's grandfather was Charles Martel, the warrior who crushed the Saracens (see Charles Martel). Charlemagne was the elder son of Bertrade ("Bertha Greatfoot") and Pepin the Short, first "mayor of the palace" to become king of the Franks. Although schools had almost disappeared in the 8th century, historians believe that Bertrade gave young Charles some education and that he learned to read. His devotion to the church motivated him throughout life.<br><br>Charlemagne was tall, powerful, and tireless. His secretary, Eginhard, wrote that Charlemagne had fair hair and a "face laughing and merry . . . his appearance was always stately and dignified." He had a ready wit, but could be stern. His tastes were simple and moderate. He delighted in hunting, riding, and swimming. He wore the Frankish dress linen shirt and breeches, a silk-fringed tunic, hose wrapped with bands, and, in winter, a tight coat of otter or marten skins. Over all these garments "he flung a blue cloak, and he always had a sword girt about him."<br><br>Charlemagne's character was contradictory. In an age when the usual penalty for defeat was death, Charlemagne several times spared the lives of his defeated foes; yet in 782 at Verden, after a Saxon uprising, he ordered 4,500 Saxons beheaded. He compelled the clergy and nobles to reform, but he divorced two of his four wives without any cause. He forced kings and princes to kneel at his feet, yet his mother and his two favorite wives often overruled him in his own household.<br><br>Charlemagne Begins His Reign<br><br>In 768, when Charlemagne was 26, he and his brother Carloman inherited the kingdom of the Franks. In 771 Carloman died, and Charlemagne became sole ruler of the kingdom. At that time the northern half of Europe was still pagan and lawless. In the south, the Roman Catholic church was striving to assert its power against the Lombard kingdom in Italy. In Charlemagne's own realm, the Franks were falling back into barbarian ways, neglecting their education and religion.<br><br>Charlemagne was determined to strengthen his realm and to bring order to Europe. In 772 he launched a 30-year campaign that conquered and Christianized the powerful pagan Saxons in the north. He subdued the Avars, a huge Tatar tribe on the Danube. He compelled the rebellious Bavarian dukes to submit to him.<br><br>When possible he preferred to settle matters peacefully, however. For example, Charlemagne offered to pay the Lombard king Desiderius for return of lands to the pope, but, when Desiderius refused, Charlemagne seized his kingdom in 773 to 774 and restored the Papal States.<br><br>The key to Charlemagne's amazing conquests was his ability to organize. During his reign he sent out more than 50 military expeditions. He rode as commander at the head of at least half of them. He moved his armies over wide reaches of country with unbelievable speed, but every move was planned in advance. Before a campaign he told the counts, princes, and bishops throughout his realm how many men they should bring, what arms they were to carry, and even what to load in the supply wagons. These feats of organization and the swift marches later led Napoleon to study his tactics.<br><br>One of Charlemagne's minor campaigns has become the most famous. In 778 he led his army into Spain, where they laid siege to Saragossa. They failed to take the city, and during their retreat a group of Basques ambushed the rear guard at Roncesvalles and killed "Count Roland." Roland became a great hero of medieval songs and romances (see Roland).<br><br>By 800 Charlemagne was the undisputed ruler of Western Europe. His vast realm covered what are now France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. It included half of present-day Italy and Germany, part of Austria, and the Spanish March ("border"). The broad March reached to the Ebro River. By thus establishing a central government over Western Europe, Charlemagne restored much of the unity of the old Roman Empire and paved the way for the development of modern Europe.<br><br>Crowned Emperor<br><br>On Christmas Day in 800, while Charlemagne knelt in prayer in St. Peter's in Rome, Pope Leo III seized a golden crown from the altar and placed it on the bowed head of the king. The throng in the church shouted, "To Charles the August, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, long life and victory!"<br><br>Charlemagne is said to have been surprised by the coronation, declaring that he would not have come into the church had he known the pope's plan. However, some historians say the pope would not have dared to act without Charlemagne's knowledge.<br><br>The coronation was the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire. Though Charlemagne did not use the title, he is considered the first Holy Roman emperor (see Holy Roman Empire).<br><br>Reform and Renaissance<br><br>Charlemagne had deep sympathy for the peasants and believed that government should be for the benefit of the governed. When he came to the throne, various local governors, called "counts," had become lax and oppressive. To reform them, he expanded the work of investigators, called missi dominici. He prescribed their duties in documents called capitularies and sent them out in teams of two a churchman and a noble. They rode to all parts of the realm, inspecting government, administering justice, and reawakening all citizens to their civil and religious duties.<br><br>Twice a year Charlemagne summoned the chief men of the empire to discuss its affairs. In all problems he was the final arbiter, even in church issues, and he largely unified church and state.<br><br>Charlemagne was a tireless reformer who tried to improve his people's lot in many ways. He set up money standards to encourage commerce, tried to build a Rhine-Danube canal, and urged better farming methods. He especially worked to spread education and Christianity in every class of people.<br><br>He revived the Palace School at Aachen, his capital. He set up other schools, opening them to peasant boys as well as nobles.<br><br>Charlemagne never stopped studying. He brought an English monk, Alcuin, and other scholars to his court. He learned to read Latin and some Greek but apparently did not master writing. At meals, instead of having jesters perform, he listened to men reading from learned works.<br><br>To revive church music, Charlemagne had monks sent from Rome to train his Frankish singers. To restore some appreciation of art, he brought valuable pieces from Italy. An impressive monument to his religious devotion is the cathedral at Aachen, which he built and where he was buried (see Aachen).<br><br>At Charlemagne's death in 814 only one of his three sons, Louis, was living. Louis's weak rule brought on the rise of civil wars and revolts. After his death his three quarreling sons split the empire between them by the Partition of Verdun in 843.<br><br>---------------------------------------------------------<br>Excerpted from Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia<br>Copyright © 1993, 1994 Compton’s NewMedia, Inc.<br><br>HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. From Christmas Day in AD 800 until Aug. 6, 1806, there existed in Europe a peculiar political institution called the Holy Roman Empire. The name of the empire as it is known today did not come into general use until 1254. It has truly been said that this political arrangement was not holy, or Roman, or an empire. Any holiness attached to it came from the claims of the popes in their attempts to assert religious control in Europe. It was Roman to the extent that it tried to revive, without success, the political authority of the Roman Empire in the West as a countermeasure to the Byzantine Empire in the East. It was an empire in the loosest sense of the word at no time was it able to consolidate unchallenged political control over the vast territories it pretended to rule. There was no central government, no unity of language, no common system of law, no sense of common loyalty among the many states within it. Over the centuries the empire's boundaries shifted and shrank drastically.<br><br>Origins<br><br>The original Roman Empire ended in Italy and Western Europe in AD 476, when the last emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed. Political power passed to Constantinople (now Istanbul), the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Theoretically Constantinople included all of Europe in its domain. Realistically, however, this proved impossible, as barbarian kingdoms were established throughout Western Europe. The only figure in the West who had any claim to universal authority was the pope in Rome, and he was legally bishop of Rome, confirmed in his position by the Byzantine emperor.<br><br>By the 8th century, Byzantine control of Italy had vanished. The Lombard kingdom of northern Italy had driven out the emperor's representative in Ravenna in 751. There were also strong religious differences between the pope and the church in Constantinople differences that would lead to a complete break in 1054. Confronted with this situation, the Roman popes sought political protection from the only people who would give it the kings of the Franks, the strongest power north of the Alps. In 754 the Frankish king Pepin the Short invaded Italy and conquered the Lombard kingdom. Two years later he assigned the former Byzantine territory around Ravenna to the pope. This was the birth of the Papal States of Italy, which would endure until the unification of Italy in the 19th century.<br><br>This close cooperation between popes and the Frankish kings would have far-reaching consequences. It laid the basis for centuries of conflict between emperors and popes over who had the supreme authority in Europe. According to the popes, the empire was the political arm of the church. The emperors, on the other hand, saw themselves as directly responsible to God, and they relied on conquest and control for their power.<br><br>There is little doubt that the popes hoped to become the successors of emperors in the West. Since this was politically impossible, the next best solution was to assert religious control by means of political institutions. On Dec. 25, 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor during a service at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (see Charlemagne). The act was illegal, because popes never had the right to crown emperors. The crowning did nothing for Charlemagne. He was as before king of the Franks and Lombards and the most powerful monarch in Europe. The main practical outcome of Leo's act was to complete the separation between East and West. It thereby set up a rivalry with Constantinople, a rivalry in which neither side had a real advantage. Most significantly the coronation involved the new emperor and his successors in the political pretensions of the papacy.<br><br>Charlemagne's Empire<br><br>The empire lasted as long as it did because the idea was politically and religiously appealing to the peoples and rulers of Europe. It did not endure unbroken, however. Charlemagne's kingdom did not remain whole very long after his death. His domains were fragmented by his successors. The last of his descendants to hold the title of emperor was Charles III the Fat (881-87). From 888 France, Germany, and Italy were separate states (though not unified nations by any means). A succession of emperors, mostly nominees of the popes, followed Charles. With the death of the last of these in 924, the powerful Roman family of the Crescentii abolished the title of emperor in Italy at least for a time.