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Added by cakalley

Charlemagne, 'The Great', King of the Franks, Holy Roman Emperor

742-814
Born: Hesse, Darmstadt, Hessen, Germany
Died: Aachen, , Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

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    <tbody> <tr> <td> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial Black;">DESCENT FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO DAVID ROBERT WOOTEN </span></strong></span></p> <hr style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><img src="http://www.davidwooten.com/Charlemagne.jpg" alt="" width="133" height="216" align="right" border="0">1 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Charles </span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">b. 2 Apr 742 d. 28 Jan 814 m. 770 Himiltrud </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. 770 (Desiderata) <br> m. Oct 783 Fastrada d. 10 Aug 794 <br> m. 786 Hildegard b. 758 d. 30 Apr 783 <br> m. 795 Liutgard d. 4 Jun 800 <br> m. Gerswinda <br> m. Regina <br> m. Adallind</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;OR "CHARLESMAGNE""CARL DER GROSSE""CAROLUS MAGNUS (CHARLES THE GREAT)"; KING OF THE FRANKS 768; EMPEROR OF THE WEST 1/28/800-814 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Hildegard: OF SWABIA; DIED GIVING BIRTH TO HILDEGARDE<br></span></span><em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Gerswinda: </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">MISTRESS, NOT WIFE <br></span></span><em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Regina: </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">MISTRESS, NOT WIFE <br></span></span><em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Adallind: </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">MISTRESS, NOT WIFE </span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">2 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Carloman</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 773 d. 8 Jul 810 <br> NAME "PEPIN" BESTOWED UPON HIM AT BAPTISM (DESPITE EXISTENCE OF OTHER BROTHER) &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">3 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Bernard</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 797 d. 17 Apr 818 m. Cunnigunde d. 835 <br> KING OF ITALY &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">4 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Pepin</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 815/817 d. AFT 840 <br> COUNT OF SENLIS, PERONNE, AND ST. QUENTIN &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">5 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Heribert Vermandois</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 840 d. ABT 902 m. Richilde</span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. Bertha</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">OR "ROBERT"; COUNT OF VERMANDOIS, SEIGNEUR DE SENLIS, PERONNE, ST. QUENTIN; MURDERED </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Bertha: "OF MORVOIS" &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">6 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Herbert</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. <span class="goog_qs-tidbit goog_qs-tidbit-0 goog_qs-tidbit-hilite">880/890 d. 943 m. Liegarde </span></span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span class="goog_qs-tidbit goog_qs-tidbit-0 goog_qs-tidbit-hilite">m. Hildebrante</span></span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span class="goog_qs-tidbit goog_qs-tidbit-0 goog_qs-tidbit-hilite">OR "ROBERT"; COUNT OF VERMANDOIS AND TROYES </span></span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span class="goog_qs-tidbit goog_qs-tidbit-0 goog_qs-tidbit-hilite">Hildebrante: OR "LIEGARDE""ROBERTIN""OF FRANCE"</span> &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">7 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Robert </span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">b. 920 d. 967/968 m. Adelaide COUNT OF VERMANDOIS </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Adelaide: "OF BURGUNDY" OR CHALLONS &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">8 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Adela</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. ABT 950 d. AFT 12 MAR 975 m. Geoffrey d. 21 Jul 987 "DE CHALONS" </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Geoffrey: "GRISE GONELLE"; COUNT OF ANJOU &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">9 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Gerberge</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> m. William d. 6 Apr 1022 OR "REBECCA" </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">William: "TAILLEFER"; COUNT OF ANGOULEME &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">10 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Geoffrey</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. d. 1048 m. Petronella "TAILLEFER"; COUNT OF ANGOULEME </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Petronella: "D'ARCHIES" &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">11 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Fulk</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. d. 1087 m. Condolia "TAILLEFER"; COUNT OF ANGOULEME &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">12 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">William</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. d. 6 Apr 1122 m. Vitapoi Benauges "TAILLEFER"; COUNT OF ANGOULEME &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">13 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Vulgrin</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. d. 16 Nov 1140 m. Pontia Montgomery "TAILLEFER"; COUNT OF ANGOULEME </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Pontia: HEIRESS OF LA MARCHE &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">14 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">William</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. d. 7 Aug 1179 m. Margaret "TAILLEFER"; COUNT OF ANGOULEME </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Margaret: "DE TURENNE" &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">15 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Aymer</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. d. 16 Jun 1202 m. Alice Courtenay b. ABT 1160 d. ABT 14 SEP 1205 "DE VALENCE""TAILLEFER"; COUNT/EARL OF ANGOULEME/ENGOLESME </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Alice: OR "ADELAIDE" &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">16 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Isabella Taillefer</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. ABT 1188 d. 31 May 1246 m. 24 Aug 1200 John b. 24 Dec 1167 d. 28 Oct 1216 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. BEF 22 MAY 1220 Hugh Lusignan</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"OF ANGOULEME" </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">John: KNOWN AS "LACKLAND (SANS TERRA)" ACCEDED 5/27/1199 (CROWNED WESTMINSTER); RULED FROM 1199-1216; ALSO 15TH DUKE OF NORMANDY; EARL OF MORTAIGNE, CORNWALL, GLOCESTER, DEVON, NOTTINGHAM; LORD OF THE HONOUR OF LANCASTER; LORD OF IRELAND; SIGNED MAGNA CARTA 1215; DIED AFTER CONSUMING PEACHES AND BEER</span></span></li> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Hugh: EARL OF THE MARCHES OF ACQUITAINE &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">17 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Henry </span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 1 Oct 1207 d. 16 Nov 1272 m. 14 Jan 1236 Eleanor b. 1222 d. 24 Jun 1291 ACCEDED 10/28/1216 (CROWNED GLOUCESTER); UNDER REGENCY UNTIL 1227; RULED FROM 1216-1272 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Eleanor: "OF PROVENCE" &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">18 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Edward </span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 18 Jun 1239 d. 7 Jul 1307 m. 18 Oct 1254 Eleanor b. ABT 1244 d. 28 Nov 1290 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. 8 Sep 1299 Margaret Capet b. 1279 d. 14 Feb 1317</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;KNOWN AS "LONGSHANKS""HAMMERER OF THE SCOTS"; CREATED EARL OF CHESTER 2/14/1254; LORD OF GASCONY; ACCEDED 11/20/1272 (CROWNED WESTMINSTER); RULED FROM 1272-1307 LEADER OF THE 8TH CRUSADE (1270-1291) ALONG WITH LOUIS IX &amp; CHARLES OF ANJOU </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Eleanor: "OF CASTILE", ALSO LISTED AS "LEONOR" &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">19 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Elizabeth </span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 1 Aug 1282 d. 5 May 1316 m. 8 Jan 1296/98 John b. 1281 d. 10 Nov 1299 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. 14 Nov 1302 Humphrey Bohun b. 1276 d. 16 Mar 1322</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;OR "ISABEL"; DIED SHORTLY AFTER GIVING BIRTH TO ISABEL </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">John: 2ND EARL OF HOLLAND &amp; ZEELAND</span></span></li> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Humphrey: 4TH EARL OF HEREFORD AND ESSEX; LORD HIGH CONSTABLE OF ENGLAND; TOOK A LEADING PART AT THE GREAT TOURNAMENT AT FULHAM 1305, AND ANOTHER AT WALLINGFORD; ONE OF 21 ORDAINERS APPOINTED TO REFORM THE GOVERNMENT AND THE KING'S HOUSEHOLD (ONE PURPOSE BEING TO RID THE KING OF HIS FAVORITE, GAVESTON, WHO WAS EXILED BUT LATER RECALLED - THE EARL OF LANCASTER AND THE CONFEDERATE BARONS, HUMPHREY AMONG THEM, TOOK UP ARMS AGAINST GAVESTON AT SCARBOROUGH, WHO SURRENDERED 5/19/1311 AND WAS BEHEADED AT BLACKLOW HILL); CAPTURED AND LATER EXCHANGED FOR THE WIFE OF ROBERT THE BRUCE; IN 1322 HE ALIGNED HIMSELF WITH THE DUKE OF LANCASTER AGAINST EDWARD II, AND DURING THE BATTLE AT BOROUGHBRIDGE HE WAS SLAIN BY A WELSH PIKEMAN WHO HAD HID HIMSELF UNDER A BRIDGE; BEARER OF THE SWAN BADGE &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">20 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">(Sir) William Bohun</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. ABT 1313 d. 16 Sep 1360 m. 1335/38 Elizabeth Badlesmere b. 1313 d. 8 Jun 1356 TWIN BROTHER OF EDWARD; CREATED EARL OF NORTHAMPTON 1337; LATER ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">21 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">(Sir) Humphrey Bohun</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 25 Mar 1342 d. 16 Jan 1373 m. AFT 9 SEP 1359 Joan Fitz-Alan d. 7 Apr 1419 EARL OF HEREFORD, ESSEX AND NORTHAMPTON; CONSTABLE OF ENGLAND; LORD OF BRECKNOCK </span></span><em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Joan:</span></span></em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> BEARER OF THE SWAN BADGE &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">22 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Eleanor Bohun</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. ABT 1365 d. 3 Oct 1399 m. Thomas &nbsp;b. 7 Jan 1345 d. Nov 1397 ALSO SPELLED "ALIANORE"; BEARER OF THE SWAN BADGE </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Thomas: "OF WOODSTOCK"; DUKE OF GLOUCESTER; BEARER OF THE SWAN BADGE; KG; GUARDIAN OF THE KINGDOM; EARL OF BUCKINGHAM; INHERITED TITLES CONSTABLE OF ENGLAND AND EARL OF ESSEX FROM WIFE; MURDERED BY RIVAL CLAIMANT TO THE THRONE &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">23 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Anne </span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. ABT 1380 d. 16 Oct 1438 m. Thomas Spofford d. 1392 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. Edmund Stafford d. 1403 m. 20 Nov 1405 (Sir) William Bourchier d. 28 May 1420</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">DOWAGER COUNTESS OF STAFFORD; COUNTESS OF BUCKINGHAM, HEREFORD AND NORTHAMPTON </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Thomas: 3RD EARL OF STAFFORD</span></span></li> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Edmund: 5TH EARL OF STAFFORD; KG; KILLED IN BATTLE</span></span></li> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">(Sir) William: CREATED EARL/COUNT OF EU IN NORMANDY, BY HENRY V, 1419; CONSTABLE OF TOWER OF LONDON (FOR LIFE); PARDONED 1405 FOR MARRYING WITHOUT ROYAL LICENSE &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">24 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">(Sir) John Bourchier</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. d. 16 May 1474 m. (Dame) Margery Berners d. 18 Dec 1475 1ST BARON BERNERS (IN RIGHT OF HIS WIFE); CONSTABLE, WINDSOR CASTLE &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">25 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">(Sir) Humphrey Bourchier</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> m. Elizabeth Tylney d. 4 Apr 1497 LORD BERNERS </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Elizabeth: SOLE HEIRESS TO SIR FREDERICK TILNEY &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">26 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">(Sir) John Bourchier</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. ABT 1470 d. 19 Mar 1532/33 m. (Lady) Katherine Howard d. 12 Mar 1535/36 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. Elizabeth Bacon</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, 1516-1527; M.P., 2ND (OR 3RD) BARON BERNERS; DEPUTY OF CALAIS; DIVORCED 1ST WIFE </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Elizabeth: MOST PROBABLY NOT A WIFE BUT A MISTRESS &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">27 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">(Sir) James Bourchier</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> m. Mary Bannester ILLEGITIMATE SON; MAN OF ARMS AT CALAIS; LATER LIEUTENANT OF HAMBLETON </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Mary: SOLE HEIR TO HER BROTHER JOHN &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">28 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">(Sir) Ralph Bourchier</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. d. ABT 1592 m. Elizabeth Hall </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. Christian Shakerley</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;BUILDER OF THE ELIZABETHAN HOUSE AT BENINGBROUGH/BEVENBOROUGH </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Christian: 1ST HUSBAND DIES &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">29 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">(Sir) John Bourchier</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> m. Elizabeth Wentworth d. AFT 1542 KNIGHTED 7/2/1609; EARL OF BATH; "OF HANGING GRIMSTON"; HAD 8 SONS, 1 DAUGHTER MARY &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">30 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">(Lady) Mary Bourchier</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> m. 1616 Jabez Whitaker b. 1596 d. AFT 1628 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Jabez: CAME TO JAMESTOWN, VA, CA. 1619; MEMBER HOUSE OF BURGESSES 1623-1624; MEMBER VIRGINIA COUNCIL 1626-1628; CAPTAIN 1622; CHIEF LIEUTENANT FOR THE VIRGINIA COMPANY OF LONDON; PREPORTED TO HAVE BUILT THE FIRST HOSPITAL ON AMERICAN SOIL &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">31 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">William Whitaker</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 1617 d. 1672 m. Mary Elizabeth Camm </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;BURGESS 1649-1656; COUNCIL 1659; LT. COL. 1655; NOT 100% CERTAIN ABOUT WIFE'S NAME &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">32 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Richard Whitaker</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 1640/43 d. 1696/04 m. Elizabeth Pyland b. 1680 d. 1696 MILITARY OFFICER 1680, CAPTAIN 1862; SHERIFF 1696 &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">33 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">John Whitaker</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 1694 d. 1748/50 m. 1718 Martha Gough &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">34 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Robert Whitaker</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. ABT 1725 d. 1765 m. Sarah Burton &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">35 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">John Whitaker</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 21 May 1745 d. 22 Nov 1823 m. ABT 1765 Elizabeth Hardy </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. 18 Apr 1786 Ferebee Pearson b. 30 Apr 1763</span></span> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. 30 Sep 1819 Elizabeth </span></span></p> </li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;COL. AMERICAN REVOLUTION; NC ASSEMBLY FOR 42 YEARS; 1ST TREASURER WAKE CO, NC; BUILT ECHO MANOR PLANTATION/HOUSE IN WAKE CO, NC &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">36 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Thomas Gales Whitaker</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 7 May 1802 d. 7 Aug 1877 m. 24 Aug 1821 Mary B. Tucker d. 25 Jan 1822 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. 1822 Sally Crowder b. 1802 &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">37 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Thomas Jefferson Whitaker</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 6 Oct 1823 d. 10 Apr 1897 m. 26 Jan 1846 Ann B. Rollins d. 17 Nov 1849 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. Sara Eliza Koonce b. 1829 d. Apr 1899</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">COL. CIVIL WAR FROM WAKE COUNTY, NC &nbsp; </span></span></p> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">38 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Frederick Ann Whitaker</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 17 Nov 1849 d. 2 Nov 1937 m. Caroline Winifred Stanly b. 11 Aug 1849 d. 16 Aug 1891 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">m. Oct 1892 Mary Elizabeth Becton b. 26 Sep 1848 d. 7 Aug 1931 &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">39 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Margaret Ann Whitaker</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 10 Mar 1887 d. 22 Apr 1926 m. 12 Jul 1912 Charles Sloan Broadhurst b. 22 Mar 1886 d. 9 Oct 1928 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Charles: ACCOUNTANT; COMMITTED SUICIDE &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">40 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Nancy Lee Broadhurst</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 22 Sep 1922 d. 17 Aug 1996 m. 7 Jul 1956 Edward Franklin Wooten b. 1 Jan 1922 FATHER DIED WHEN SHE WAS YOUNG, AND SHE WAS SUBSEQUENTLY SENT TO LIVE WITH HER UNCLE (ROMULUS EARL WHITAKER); ATTENDED DUKE UNIVERSITY, AND GRADUATED WITH A DEGREE IN PSYCHOLOGY; MOVED TO WINSTON-SALEM, NC, 1952 </span></span></p> <ul> <li style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Edward: MOTHER DIED WHEN HE WAS YOUNG; ATTENDED ATLANTIC CHRISTIAN COLLEGE FOR 1 YEAR, THEN TRANSFERRED TO NORTH CAROLINA STATE COLLEGE (NCSU), WHERE HE GRADUATED WITH A DEGREE IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING; MEMBER TAU BETA PI FRATERNITY; SERVED IN US NAVY AS LIEUTENANT DURING WWII, ASSIGNED TO DESTROYER TENDER USS PRAIRIE; EMPLOYED BY WESTERN ELECTRIC, ULTIMATELY AS SENIOR ENGINEER IN TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS; MOVED TO WINSTON-SALEM, NC, 1953 &nbsp;</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">41 </span></span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">David Robert Wooten</span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"> b. 9 Aug 1958 </span></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> <div style=": absolute;"> <div style="background-image: 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<div> <div style="background-image: url('data:image/png;base64,ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaabaaaaaqcayaaaaf8%2f9haaaagxrfwhrtb2z0d2fyzqbbzg9izsbjbwfnzvjlywr5ccllpaaaaz1jrefuenokk0tsg1uuhr97z8avoa87dpuodq21q0aglnogkclusbtalnhjoiofpzwqkfvkstsc3babswl5ie2oeaihjeseiigvlod4hzyqckveadoag1i7tr3bm%2fdezqtwedwzpuc%2f538mycemnpupsuxgj087%2f%2fep3eufzdnjitep33yxpybdhwrx1dozkk92lblfl%2bu4v0ehc54hzy7ms9qexg6%2fn7nf3mjxtuwit5ejd86t78ngwytsuqhs3iffz0njtoedisku%2fit%2fzpuxgraxgfdrd0ts5peau4%2fo5mnekkw2w79d5%2bfuhjmwhz985bn9iixuwjqdtey6uhjjncmxoay3qyhgxlzrnj4yailutse9%2bu5kh8clxppzft%2bzw1ob0b6s6ae7uj1fygvyc7s3r9cfbbugxy2qubtxry3xkn2t56ujzayvxmfhnzp9acujqz2yrolczlucodzm%2bp59mjmbmzz0k2tftu2evrym2vvcb%2b61ew%2fxznqytwbi5z%2bvmfnqpzss4%2bzmeu7%2f%2bdbeul%2bo5jdwxlqjqrfbb6ighyoevedc9oxkemrji9pmhhlvjm8ovhhzvkla8tzq1pjojg2zrdafoe8l1pnb5r0s2kejypc2b03%2bzvg0ixri7v4nyat902mgb0myx46vrnleemz5s0uwhttv2pjs8%2bucby0eexoyri2bkcjhlz53juoeartuqbvjqgk26myabn0ibmv76n%2ffyxdidou1un2f9vwqtjzsml58lls0smoinpj7fv6uzuesfecrohbzryn9jtsa5xtocle9ejsfv%2beel19e0wjf2hpymvnyjheonhnz%2fohcyxbxiqmqkvmjfginntslfsye51%2f%2bexcu2q30zcgnjcmqe6revylqavyvddpwimj0qiwlhzgqiouqmv1uvko1ukaogunoi1fw2cjlppka9ipy12dq9tbtn2teqlychogiqhmijedo9meqy%2bcjndcl2oyprjssewcymr3l4cegd5ytfz7hzx0uzyyaesrcxenus1aa%2bvmfjzdxmrnd1kzkxreinsjypkrp%2fksvli7z66vsyp461l7qprzdasmabs%2bp%2faqyayzb7ku1oz2maaaaasuvork5cyii%3d');">&nbsp;</div> <span>Best</span> <span>matches</span> <span>for</span> <span>"Hildebrante <span>Liegarde"</span> <span>OR</span> "Hildebrante * <span>Liegarde"</span> <span>OR</span> "Liegarde, <span>Hildebrante"</span></span></div> <div> <div><span>880/890</span> <span>d.</span> <span>943</span> <span>m.</span> <span>Liegarde.</span> <span>m.</span> <span>Hildebrante.</span> <span>OR</span> "ROBERT"; <span>COUNT</span> <span>OF</span> <span>VERMANDOIS</span> <span>AND</span> <span>TROYES.</span> <em><span>Hildebrante:</span> <span>OR</span> "LIEGARDE</em>""ROBERTIN""OF <span>FRANCE"...</span> <span><span>Jump</span> <span>to</span> <span>text</span> &raquo;</span></div> </div> <div> <div><span>More</span> <span>matches</span> <span>&raquo;</span></div> <div style="display: none;"><span>&laquo;</span> <span>Fewer</span> <span>matches</span></div> </div> <div style="clear: both;">&nbsp;</div> </div> </div> <div style="background-image: url('data:image/png;base64,ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaazaaaaa4cayaaadth677aaaabgdbtueaalgpc%2fxhbqaaaalwsflzaaaowaaadsabatajcqaaabl0rvh0u29mdhdhcmuaugfpbnqutkvuihyzljuuodc7gf0aabsgsurbvhja7r1da1vhsjopo4kl1vrtfcl4%2babqbuwaeghbsg5uahjfffnfqppn%2bih2d5rc29zql%2fbfx9a%2blv6qygstplm6m%2b7d7mfm7jxzzzn3xhjouefsx%2bzs7mzozo6e995l%2ffzxv48zwftbow5xa1motgsalj19fkpdevectwihxf02dswdhc5vaafx2l2krlr7n4evf5%2fdlyoxtc3uct10qf7gtleqpkrhoeg%2fuh7m3wvxgcafaiytsnoped6fvyvv38r%2f9zg%2fyhwmwsomu%2bemxe8azagcbdgfma%2fp5%2bg6kanin3tnpeeu6t%2bzkmsjqzocq%2b55cd8nxhi00sifupektvz8kom5%2benwzewpol3uptxgmqm9qdyqkwwxqwbfcmnj5snjgoo45pq1p12htmxkmec4hbj9dmx9jfuszgxiwbvwwpjfqk0f7wmsapwfwai4b3aeybnyljsrb6h5yunmc04zfnp7nyvdzxmqqwpvlu1pu6j9kvqxteuddzhlsotm4r3jtxqfudowy6fjz1pjkujzcg01efulvzmyqdkos%2fufixufxl655whoouw%2fc%2fcfokyfr9k%2fi0beosjjuauoowkzg5poazxgelz2ea6x4hoz4cranydr8oygbfh%2fi%2faf8y713dyl5y2lz9vdezd6n8sfs2vldyfary59it4cchgllkxbk8cpofwl7fppxtlfgrsv0ppa75wxpsuvlpfbquusppkmfypfldav1e8cfhamuw5kofynll9szdvarvq0syj7f1axzljwsmx1nyujt8l9abieafgiyaxakiubcp0y4c7affj%2fyeq73xohzi%2bbzt6hnsxyhd5t6ry%2fyrnc3lx9qbsxd5r6qe84%2fvffh1pwo9kgpnwcr5w2g8vzuf7s7k9pmyx9weffcd2qbgnhtldgslq%2fs%2fgtr%2bznzph9lom3ayymv4yy%2fynizjxop9easuokqecoy3bldjmydxqb4aralyb7aosadwb6aduq%2fifcdxeewydnj9z%2fmfdthfllnvn3frj4%2bpli99t2uhfipapiqkebtz05%2fknt4ddl%2fqfgkmlpaf9k6bfkw83l7xuntcgacxg9rw8japrxka1stmj1byzxkfyhjvc9hkzcnjj8x8h0epyazfw9lplxuacsou6wlsiwfwksd9qssxhwoymzjsa6ywqf5z2s%2fdhcp4hru4dp4f45xf%2f4am9fhj777%2bx9kh0onqbkclpgp0vhm8op0j6%2fxk75vdr77eh0fxwhel1y5cbok8nvgy4ufpc%2b1%2bpllj9x8axmlfai5zme73n8rhmtlled41foemjrgiovuti0qwcju5%2bhlh%2bcsv0ryvp1lp3g83qb4ymlgbmztkiw%2fjgnzsoimi5xsibpjzba%2fgpjv%2f%2fdxp%2fbg80da32archgqx9%2fcwgo3%2b%2b%2fs3n477wz%2bdxr34hoo7fssll9p3z7ztzb%2f%2fbexdgtrx8of9ure9t7z%2fo5upttgsllo1%2bqtx69fq%2fnficni49fnt92v03bvtmptd%2fqjy4d%2bog%2b60fqo%2byxpxzux%2b39xvhdf2%2fj8nnhvz9vecgzvvbgadlv%2fwdwsolchik4dykwf6krvtyguu5epp5bui1ddqxkc%2fgpz9f9wfa488e%2fly9iy3a7wc%2fb%2b8s4dmkhn79d8iy2xn0%2b9%2buy9fq9vqaoy35gtphyxw9ljf6hefe9z%2fth3%2ft47%2bxtvdl62fsjlzppuadcwvdgiuqiav%2bbgjnkbpfllsf1beawaqghw99svv7yt5chb968ofjrr79ab3%2f%2f%2fxflesr1jklntcozhkb%2b%2bza1ldue7xaeymsyrerk3abqoun98cwvxx%2f0xm28riwyjrpgbv1z87ji6rivqe7g8q1ldf0zp1hv61xv529%2f%2f64tsmhuodqzzylufcfev7up9wi1ta38y%2b2jqunavdkwajxkjljf%2f%2fejkjhnx9cddq91wjlqibo%2bajfld%2bfqrlmikxhjftzagft%2baridtjfjs3homwptfvnblim6lnau07bpvpiezl2mea5txtu0vbf5l8a9js64abzx4d4royumhhqi%2brbo4frg27ja6rhxkdvnzk4mxqpmbl1gbmomjspmsprr0yybrivccvnumt5va51nxmtoanqft1e3nevdmevbikfqx3uz1wqb0%2bwjcaymy%2byjiqjbyuk0wxwen4hujat7ncxmdeu%2by%2flkypudanmcuuau6oyp8ditkxcz7zruxtdb2q%2fijkgzz%2bopidhzg1jkjfcatkgp1ifbf91atq2knsmnmvha3zgw1hvh0qwhfcht3cdyh3xdoqykt7swydq%2bpi%2frfj%2fbcpwzdqukiluvbtulx30gtfcujq5v90x4mmnqlkuvym%2bmb9wn8hb3rf%2fd8w%2bnsthtwyalggw%2fjlvczs7f51w6sezlao9qdty2gdi0ok1cmpmjstnio9ru4ibjhrp%2fxo3iu6gtrumhjatdcgqtkau8mpegnp1imr3obxsixuy%2fzukzyw6xuvhmvzzf5ccfkl7ujotr5e0c31kcjqlbheu7eh7wdzicwyo2zpktfyklpgn7gurywnyfd80oa7vt3ctxvatghalbxxrf1rwjqwvkbeqcntzz96gc8vxy1gljkpcmm0dmultvyujsirvxdwm1gqfbyducmd2f0xhgcrgdeyghmk6hbljgd1wffyjjwmipkalmzrxt96n3yd9el1yrnnkpt9tjqprycrxwkavifqglbmjozwyeapki1gytqfxrgpxkkqlptwg37jsviubjxeaeyvgjbifybykforybazo3csturhe3ukfateemd%2bwllpkqi1rort5yokm%2b2ds%2ftep%2f6l7sliquutr9fvefl%2frlaz9t6mppm%2fudpuxon2ntlnznvfxtohl5int2fe%2fl2ilhbwmfugki6tuoxjdytyzwxlytc4tkgebz78eysoka53satfmkgpvtplg5hgfkgtqcrskzjnqysgwnvhixtiqonjfodjgckkoxhi4l%2bfkftjwcmuankomnvmbkxj%2bfjht8uxjcms44yzdhz9afhcze3owfefahvvh9r4hkzjals6lsrcnvfpzbwrhcqawssca0ls5vsfcsoli%2bvbmla4eywcgp49xsruplvtq3wrnzsxtze7ycj4q%2bduhlk9yklomt0xgfw1hke1wfip0e5jr%2bkaasxcbltubkzm1aa1ncubitr2uevzg7k1oofefevyqc8iqkkdnhvneihe5aliqtmllkunulqghtlroetv2kgril50auudep1lzjzcou142bjfdhus2q0o6hmjnmrltejc0d8jxbt5nbubmm6xbhkiusi7hexviqoeuvhnsdsu0pypu725uifokfvuxmnjsh0xr5cydceld3qflkjn%2bujbctwkpzifrglcxujtp%2fkoc5hmuppd05qcarfcudutqkkvixjyndc4kggbd2xijkh1j%2fotvbogvfa7qstppjy5vhtqykc2pk81phvs4ggt9rp7uw3fvyby0qzxwwpjgas6xsilvutc%2bz%2fxctc6n7qnqxxxklscupoheksqbai%2farfwaabheuenkmevqzpk%2fsvrtjiynljbrdkz3mcvd9lxo2pjmyn23khuw2qewhgks1jufuqolgmrm1fuivbo6slvluf5fw6g1tp36j774kh7amnsvxhuhwmeldldwvopjjqokbs4qjgdykw5hmk4kh1q20uwrtkhbrgabxkv%2bf5e4d8ypoekueiycos2cr9nfwsdehihvqjcquelstzoa0%2foh17gmrxlg0vtpxyovvui2o8txp8lxkca%2f2bldexudrqpqkk%2fnmsm%2bfwruvxebk1mcx%2bjw1vrmumcl1pthnasxhcfw1ebakmcxznalliirz0fzimxkwqfp3xmjmndx3tfcsii3yrcqfsbwccsvgnzblsz0sqxhmxwht2t%2fc9vyhr3eisw9tdf1yeispqruuu4q607xuf17vblqkpyvcqgpvwepcqigj8kuido6yrsma1oz1ud0j0hve0vidrpfqug1kn9wwuma0ynoai0c0l8qllbdxheufpigzano%2b%2fxitrbwkl12em5sx55qizbwxzilixusyuqnkmkfzwbfq5es6hfuy14mycz7hi9sd9fvtxc3dskshgdunm6uwx1vh3xd2mwwf0akwio%2fcwnv3c24k5lhwso7m4ahedvnbc6brubio6%2f6rnt2lxavvx3fk3fnci0dkbhmvykzdgq7qabqnzcmlawfo3jlucueajyfohg%2fdprqqdpixs0dw2ctadmqcqku5oyi1jlqfowb%2bgj5rimskdycdjc4g2erjjqhu4fktuetrombre0brrvij8jtwss7salb0gls66ldjkfxpfp5sfzx1ubokvwy%2fkowuwilfqiz2ou9vfh8fpdnxf3ik94r2o%2f%2fc3sio%2bp%2fws3vho91iac2q7djeyhcjtt5nofkytd0f3zkmcv0prk14etlbgqfwxviuaol%2bkdddb2jdwbni0hlc45ob4%2fg1tmkna8dnzhthm%2fvthtnuhforsjkhkbpfjiy5sko0b9v4hbu2caq6842bwk9duiyyd7vgqqoc79qeq4l0sug07a3ciu1edz5pu%2bvgqnrw%2bfgwpaq8xapjufkxbe6hlmluvljjbkvwmceopxow8e5yjjk5vvrutwv%2fn%2bcsklywvca3u6v0ru9chs0awooq%2bloqnkuiu930qjngihbic1qgq6gboi6seydzancapgf4cpdmjyhuheadr6far5tlmx8us9k6jgjd5snjbku5dk%2fcq1ff%2f6icewz0asgmoxouwfu86oojqxtz8bzavyd7adsat%2f1vwhu2ippfc0nxbmzxygn7q%2bvwsxebx%2bucnlvhcye7sdlcw8i3xnga3fauyad1wlxuefo%2bbtifcargq4dlahcbegbpkapkxalbbbaomm5qsyyridjtjk2kanbucnecvqwjljanqavuom5yauvhdmwur0boapwfuarwg%2babwon%2bdqpeyyysy7uylsjla9%2feumrfshqelbdg7cjrui%2b%2fltq0gc9lj8r4pzdhqatuo244g7riiakza83yacbful8jsg6wb23vbf4b%2b6pff2edtvh2n1fu3vee42zhvh3xaqmbu%2blbgxygvx9wd8g66gsjgxzbr8z5cuq4wama9zhkbglp9ybhr%2fdq85fv%2f%2fixvx7sjjbig5i0hjm74o6r2p05yhmx1kq%2fogo3tv6vne5utw9%2f%2f%2b5g61xvz3rf3uodsiw6wuik40mkbjtfdabslwbw4p8t1dwpe682xn%2fx69ctyvyjj7ztr5rutumu7vyyv4i3qb1t4d06lexxvaxg2%2ftlby8ptr7zfi0rcdenlgbywfih0rezvgi5hkt5jw9reeajgcsadwa%2bmwvtvez9tlo39cyevvow9hhg3ktsdzj%2f9t6asw%2fbvbv67zx7m3cwxjabzv63dbp4ugndvh2vdhch%2b87nf8lrfwdxdp%2bh2hjrr33m4he6d%2bw3tpx%2fw5xcelh90r8mt7sfapfbfhsitkznf39v4y2e3kuhvf4s3wc4rifamp97mxoyzq2vsfc%2fbosahe2xrdnl49z3pmxy2xthr7hxto30ox2h7pjob%2fjcpgvxptswtwp8gonlyrj067b824%2bu7zc3xpchurdg7zbcsy1lxz74dytgoc%2fzln4uxieah%2fqkh5e3sxexct36twpyz4uj8uohjt83v9ryr%2bxxqdebodsuoe5yrb1hdmuxx4gyomgsnvv%2bfq4x0gy5g1qoh%2bdjpcbi%2ffnci%2fwcdysgau9zplz696ln7rtcnlt%2bufkhvfj4%2b%2fly7y2vlwsn5tmvfrk2uukwk7skl6wvuovs%2bl3rvaqnqfwp%2fqlwk4fpsnkkrytsuuroiugn2pij0ysy1jv4meo%2fqgwvyeijuz83shzun6bsn8ew9nd7dad1gnefz1a3zbpdafdhfmhxne1mgoq0uriuocvyc%2f1grpe8ql%2fydmops2n9f4mtj1djhf5zeeuxksc8c5%2fh0rrpc%2fvqcirl56qp1shjnyorhbolpklbulsslppqw269mv1fprmv%2fjne1ab3jh6l7egoqrrts9sjkuol%2frsbhzm8km%2bkvbvit4uy%2byhk8h6utlphwx8lzf8f1awncahvnmd%2f7quaftkdzsppshgwtzcv1eq3ctnxxdxyynynrul3q9bsd8%2fscklsfsqfxy7lnvishys1tq5nahkxxfppq26dnd%2bnp0vrtfeuf%2fdq3rw6c%2ftds9zs%2fq6ip1p8s6ehh1aupguvt3ngga9uorfjtrr7ebv3mn9hmf4x%2fl%2bjsn4fzb%2bxpe6jtpib%2b2hri2cftdmwyal6vzywam%2bwcv2casygkqtwvybno9ygab7grurjpqxki6xfr2ijcuvlpzyttz%2fkfyphujafflt6upum0hbndmn2kftewleu%2fyk6uurm0jptltk%2bzlutlt6funkg6w8ohaljgzn%2bkfwggufw%2f7qr4qbxuazfwm0cyyjzf1ehzoeiqynueucviktejjbbqmksah4tex%2ff7bpbzyymgn8oz0vzxln8l7hi5dizgnh0ndyumt2ypow6uenzapbpty9e91w9mm3rah%2fvuh0uhfl5yu8onotiokhzkjq59vhayrmnpbytpy41yg7xuwwcuuwshgbkvhqejydzqtm%2biet151h2z6iumjzhxhl4sss1rqbrijmbvsljppzkhmehbiboyigvzk3ptrcrp1wwjxcfr%2f89p13u9usu1lbl0qxkk7sjgx%2bxdlx8qp3ikzdll0rz2u3sxk%2fca1xwfrt%2fvb7xxic6xjrpkpmf0nbhstx5loknucafqivjuheyt1xqduvvjqh9pta6syrlepbaxick3lhsufnz6sjv5b6n3fpxxicucp1i5xpl5ubj0cb%2f5qfp9ugunvxsl9rh3paw8qbm2mjhw8rpvqclhgquqbgwgo9u%2fqyyfzx4jjl%2byger74%2flli7%2faalfvowk94isaaaaaelftksuqmcc');">&nbsp;</div> </div>

  • Story: Charlemagne

    <div>Royalty.nu &gt; World Royalty &gt; History &gt; The Franks &gt; Carolingians &gt; Related Books &middot; Videos &amp; DVDsSearch</div>Charlemagne &amp; His EmpireQueen Goosefoot&#39;s Son <p>Charlemagne was born around 742 in Aachen, a city in the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia, located in what is now Germany. His real name was Charles; he wasn&#39;t called Charlemagne (from the Latin &quot;Carolus Magnus,&quot; or Charles the Great) until long after his death.</p><p>His father, Pepin or Pippin III, was elected king of the Frankish Empire when Charlemagne was a child. The king was nicknamed Pepin the Short, while his wife, Charlemagne&#39;s mother Bertrada, was nicknamed Bertha of the Big Foot, or Queen Goosefoot. The inspiration for the name &quot;Mother Goose&quot; may have come from Bertha, although she had nothing to do with the English nursery rhymes now published under that name.</p><p>Charlemagne was probably an illegitimate child, but his parents eventually tied the knot and had two more surviving children, Carloman and Gisela. Pepin ruled the Frankish empire for 15 years or so before dying of dropsy in 768. His kingdom was then divided between Charlemagne and Carloman.</p><p>Charlemagne was about 26 years old when he became king. Carloman was still in his teens. In his Life of Charlemagne, Frankish historian Einhard, who knew Charlemagne personally and presented him in the best possible light, says Carloman treated Charlemagne with &quot;unfriendliness and jealousy,&quot; but Charlemagne endured this &quot;most patiently, and, to the wonder of all, could not be provoked to be angry with him.&quot;</p><p>After just a few years, Carloman died of natural causes and Charlemagne became the ruler of the entire Frankish empire. He went on to conquer much of what remained of Western Europe, making the Carolingian empire one of the greatest empires in world history.</p><p>An affectionate man, Charlemagne got along very well with his sister, Gisela, and their mother, Bertrada, treating both with great respect. Gisela was a nun, so she lived in a convent, but Bertrada lived with Charlemagne. It was Bertrada who arranged for Charlemagne to marry a daughter of King Desiderius of the Lombards (a Germanic tribe whose kingdom was in Italy). But it seems this wife was not to Charlemagne&#39;s liking, because he soon ended the marriage and took a new wife named Hildegarde, with whom he had six children, according to Einhard.</p><p>In 783, Charlemagne was twice bereaved when both Hildegarde and Bertrada died. Before long he found a new wife, Fastrada.</p>Charlemagne&#39;s Children <p>Charlemagne was a devoted father, and he had a large family: three sons and three daughters by Hildegarde, two daughters by Fastrada, and at least seven other children by various women. &quot;The more the merrier&quot; seems to have been his motto toward children -- when one of his sons died young, leaving five daughters, Charlemagne took all five girls into his household and raised them as his own.</p><p>Despite the duties of kingship, he found time to personally supervise his children&#39;s upbringing. He ate all of his meals with his children, and took them with him wherever he traveled. In fact, he was so fond of his daughters that he didn&#39;t marry them off for political purposes, as most royal fathers did, but kept them at his court. It seems they didn&#39;t lack for boyfriends; at least two of the princesses gave birth to illegitimate children. Einhard says Charlemagne pretended not to know about his daughters&#39; love affairs.</p><p>Among the king&#39;s many children was a son called Pepin the Hunchback, whose mother, Himiltrude, was either Charlemagne&#39;s first wife or a concubine. In 792, while Charlemagne was away at war, Pepin conspired with a group of Frankish nobles to kill his father and take the throne. After learning about the plot, Charlemagne sent Pepin to live in a poor monastery.</p><p>According to a 9th century writer known as the Monk of Saint Gall (also called Notker the Stammerer), Charlemagne later discovered another plot against his life. Reluctant to punish the conspirators, he sent messengers to ask Pepin the Hunchback for advice. The messengers found Pepin weeding the monastery garden. Grouchily he told them to go back to his father and tell him what he was doing: &quot;digging up useless weeds&quot; to make room for more valuable plants.</p><p>The messengers weren&#39;t happy with this reply, but Charlemagne understood at once that Pepin had given him good advice. He decided to weed his enemies out of his lands -- by executing them. Then he rewarded Pepin by letting him &quot;choose the manner of life that most pleased him.&quot; Pepin chose to move to &quot;the most noble monastery then in existence.&quot;</p><p>This story probably isn&#39;t true, but it does demonstrate that, decades after his death, Charlemagne was remembered as a forgiving father and a wise king. But why did his nobles -- and even his own son -- plot against him? Einhard blames Charlemagne&#39;s wife Fastrada, saying her cruelty caused the Frankish nobles to turn against Charlemagne.</p><p>After Fastrada died in 794, Charlemagne married his final wife, Luitgard. They had no children together. Luitgard died in 800, and Charlemagne did not remarry.</p>Holy Roman Emperor <p>Charlemagne, reigning over his vast empire in West Europe, was in many ways a successor to the emperors of the Western Roman Empire. When Pope Leo III was violently attacked in 799, he fled to Charlemagne for help. Charlemagne placed the pope under his protection and punished his enemies.</p><p>Meanwhile, the former Eastern Roman empire, which we now call the Byzantine Empire, was ruled by an empress named Irene, who had deposed her son, Constantine VI, and had his eyes put out. The emperors of the Byzantine empire had always considered themselves to be the rightful successors to the emperors of ancient Rome, but the pope believed that Irene could not legally rule under Roman law because she was a woman, so he decided to give Charlemagne the title of emperor.</p><p>At the end of 800, Charlemagne went to Rome, and on Christmas Day he was crowned emperor by the pope. The Holy Roman Empire was born.</p><p>(Some experts consider 10th century German king Otto I to be the first true Holy Roman Emperor. Either way, Charlemagne&#39;s coronation set the precedent; he was first in a line of emperors that continued for the next one thousand years.)</p><p>It is possible that Charlemagne considered marrying Empress Irene to reunite the Eastern and Western empires, but nothing came of this plan. In 802 Irene was overthrown by her own subjects; she died in 803. A later Byzantine ruler, Emperor Michael I, officially recognized Charlemagne as Emperor of the West.</p>The Greatness of Charlemagne <p>Charlemagne was a great -- and sometimes brutal -- military leader who expanded his empire by conquering the Lombards, the Saxons, and others. He was also a great reformer and administrator who governed his sprawling empire very effectively.</p><p>One of his most important achievements was the establishment of a school system so that all boys throughout his empire could be educated. The emperor believed in educating himself, too; as an adult he studied grammar, mathematics, and other subjects. He was particularly interested in astronomy and foreign languages; he spoke Latin fluently and understood Greek. Like so many people at that time, he could not write, but he tried to learn, and even kept writing tablets under his pillow so he could practice when he had time.</p><p>Charlemagne was a tall, strong, active man. He ate simply and preferred to dress in the garb of ordinary Frankish people. According to Einhard, the emperor was deeply religious and very generous to both the church and the poor.</p><p>In later centuries, Charlemagne came to be viewed as the ideal Christian king. Legends arose in which Charlemagne and his paladins were portrayed as romantic figures, like King Arthur and his knights.</p><p>The real Charlemagne ruled for more than 45 years. He died in 814 and was buried in Aachen Cathedral (located in modern Germany), where his tomb can still be seen. The cathedral, which Charlemagne founded, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.</p>The Empire After Charlemagne <p>Near the end of Charlemagne&#39;s life, he had his only living legitimate son, Louis I (Louis the Pious), crowned as his co-emperor. After Charlemagne&#39;s death, pious Louis packed his sisters off to convents and jumped vigorously into the business of governing the empire.</p><p>But, like previous Frankish kings, Louis faced trouble from within his own family. When his nephew Bernard revolted against him, Louis put down the rebellion, had Bernard blinded (inadvertently killing him in the process), and sent Charlemagne&#39;s illegitimate sons Drogo, Hugo, and Theodoric to monasteries so they couldn&#39;t rebel against him too. Later three of the emperor&#39;s own sons from his first marriage -- Lothair, Pippin, and Louis the German -- rose up against him and briefly deposed him.</p><p>Upon Louis I&#39;s death in 840, the empire was divided between Lothair, Louis the German, and their half-brother Charles the Bald. But Lothair, who had been given the title emperor, believed that his brothers should bow to his authority, and their refusal to do so led to a war -- which Lothair lost. Eventually Lothair abdicated and became a monk. His kingdom was divided between his three sons, one of whom had already been crowned Emperor Louis II.</p><p>Louis II died in 875 and was succeeded as emperor by his uncle Charles the Bald (Charles II), who spent his short reign fighting Louis the German&#39;s sons. The bald emperor died in 877, and the imperial title passed to Louis the German&#39;s son Charles III, nicknamed Charles the Fat. This emperor had a chance to reunite the Carolingian empire -- not because he was a great leader, but because his brothers and cousins kept dying and he kept inheriting their kingdoms. Within a few years, almost all of Charlemagne&#39;s empire had fallen into his fat hands.</p><p>But Charles III was not up to ruling an empire, and in 887 he was deposed by his nephew Arnulf, who became king of the East Franks. Burgundy, Italy, and the West Franks elected other kings, and the Carolingian empire fell further into chaos.</p><p>In 891, Italian king Guido II (Guy of Spoleto) forced Pope Stephen V to crown him emperor. Guy&#39;s son Lambert was later crowned co-emperor. But Guy died in 894, and in 896 Arnulf was crowned emperor by Pope Formosus.</p><p>The dynamic Arnulf reminded observers of his ancestor Charlemagne, but any dreams he had of restoring the empire were dashed when, soon after his imperial coronation in Rome, the ailing emperor became paralyzed. He returned to Germany and spent several years dying while his fledgling empire fell apart.</p><p>Emperor Arnulf died in 899. His successor to the imperial title was Emperor Louis III, son of King Boso of Provence and his wife Irmingard, daughter of Emperor Louis II. (Emperor Louis III, later called Louis the Blind, should not be confused with Arnulf&#39;s son Louis the Child, who succeeded his father as king of Germany but not as emperor.) Emperor Louis III engaged in a power struggle with another of Charlemagne&#39;s descendants, King Berengar I of Italy -- a struggle which Berengar won in 905, when he blinded Louis and kicked him out of Italy. Louis III went back to Provence, where he died in 928.</p><p>Berengar claimed the imperial title in 915. By this time, however, Charlemagne&#39;s empire had evaporated, replaced by many separate kingdoms, and the title of emperor brought Berengar little real power. He was murdered in 924.</p><p>There is disagreement about whether Charles the Fat, Arnulf, or Louis the Blind should be called the last Carolingian emperor. In any case, the Frankish empire came to an end less than a century after the death of its founder, Charlemagne.</p>

  • Story: Charlemagne -Crowned Holy Roman Emperor By Pope Leo III

    <p><strong>Charlemagne</strong> (Charles the Great) (742 or 747 &ndash; 28 January 814) was the King of the Franks (768&ndash;814) who conquered Italy and took the Iron Crown of Lombardy in 774 and, on a visit to Rome in 800, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor (&quot;Emperor of the Romans&quot;) by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, presaging the revival of the Roman imperial tradition in the West in the form of the Holy Roman Empire. By his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define Western Europe and the Middle Ages. His rule is also associated with the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of the arts and education in the West. </p><p>The son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, his original name in the Frankish language was never recorded, but early instances of his name in Latin read &quot;Carolos&quot; or &quot;Karol&#39;s&quot;. He succeeded his father and co-ruled with his brother Carloman until the latter&#39;s death in 771. Charlemagne continued the policy of his father towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in Italy, and waging war on the Saracens who menaced his realm from Spain. It was during one of these campaigns that he experienced the worst defeat of his life at Roncesvalles (778). He also campaigned against the peoples to his east, especially the Saxons, and after a protracted war subjected them to his rule. By converting them to Christianity, he integrated them into his realm and thus paved the way for the later Ottonian Dynasty. </p><p>Today regarded as the founding father of both France and Germany and sometimes as the Father of Europe, as he was the first ruler of a united Western Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. </p><span style="margin-bottom: -2px"><span><font size="3">edit</font></span></span><font size="3"> <span>Family</span></font><span><font size="3">Charlemagne had at least twenty children over the course of his life time with three wives and five concubines. He had five wives but no offspring with his second or his last. </font><font size="3">Only 6 of his children had children of their own, producing 26 grandchildren, 56 great-grandchildren, and 60 great-great-grandchildren. In that 5th generation, lines first cross, with </font><font size="3" color="#002bb8">Wipert de Nantes (860-?)</font><font size="3"> who is the first double descendant of Charlemagne, and the brothers </font><font size="3" color="#002bb8">Hildebert I de Limoges (865-916)</font><font size="3"> and </font><font size="3" color="#002bb8">Ranulphe I d&#39;Aubusson (872-926)</font><font size="3"> who are the first double descendants of mixed generation (5 and 6). The number of Charlemagne&#39;s descendants per generation do not grow as fast as one might expect, because of </font><font size="3" color="#002bb8">intermarriage</font><font size="3">, but also because of intense rivalry (including </font><font size="3" color="#002bb8">murder</font><font size="3">). To prevent such rivalry, many descendants were clergy. </font><p>CHILDREN:</p><p><font size="4"><u>WITH HIMITRUDE</u></font></p><font size="4">PIPPIN THE HUNCHBACK 769</font> <p>AMAUDRU</p><font size="3"><u>WITH HILDGARD</u></font> <p>ROTRUDE 770-810</p><p>CHARLES THE YOUNGER 772-811</p><p>ADELAIDE 773-774</p><p>PEPIN KING OF ITALY 773-810</p><p>LOUIS THE PIOUS 778-840</p><p>LOTHAIR 778-779</p><p>BERTHA 779-823</p><p>GISELA 781-808</p><p>HILDEGARDE 782-783</p><p><strong><u>WITH FASTRADA</u></strong></p><p>THEODRADA 784-</p><p>HILTRUDE 787-</p><p><strong><u>WITH GERSUINDA D 794</u></strong></p><p>ADALTRUDE 774</p><p><strong><u>WITH MADELGARD</u></strong></p><p>RUODHAID 775-810</p><p><strong><u>WITH AMALTRUD OF VIENNE</u></strong></p><p>ALPAIDA 794-</p><p><strong><u>WITH REGINA 780-</u></strong></p><p>DROGO OF METZ 801-855</p><p>HUGH 802-844</p><p><strong><u>WITH ETHELIND</u></strong></p><p>RICHBOD 805-844</p><p>THEODORIC 807-819</p><span style="margin-bottom: -2px"><span><font size="3">edit</font></span></span><font size="3"> <span>See also</span></font> <ul><li><font size="3" color="#002bb8">Project Charlemagne</font><font size="3"> </font></li><li><font size="3" color="#ba0000">List of Frankish Kings</font><font size="3"> </font></li><li><font size="3" color="#002bb8">Attila the Hun to Charlemagne</font><font size="3">, hypothetical genealogy </font></li><li><font size="3" color="#002bb8">Charlemagne to the Mughals</font><font size="3">, hypothetical genealogy </font></li><li><font size="3" color="#002bb8">Descendants of Charlemagne</font><font size="3"> </font><ul><li><font size="3" color="#002bb8">Descendants of Charlemagne (couples)</font><font size="3"> </font></li><li><font size="3" color="#002bb8">Descendants of Charlemagne (killers)</font><font size="3"> </font></li></ul></li></ul><span style="margin-bottom: -2px"><span><font size="3">edit</font></span></span><font size="3"> <span>External links</span></font> <div style="margin-: 60px"><font size="3">Wikimedia Commons has media related to: </font><div style="margin-: 10px"><em><strong><font size="3" color="#3366bb">Charlemagne</font></strong></em><font size="3"> </font></div></div><ul><li><font size="3" color="#3366bb">Hull University Royals site</font><font size="3"> - &copy; 1994-2005 Brian Tompsett </font></li><li><font size="3" color="#3366bb">Dutch descendants of Charlemagne</font><font size="3"> </font></li><li><font size="3" color="#3366bb">FFish</font> </li></ul>This page uses <font color="#3366bb">Creative Commons Licensed</font> content from <font color="#3366bb">Wikipedia</font> (<font color="#002bb8">view authors)</font>. </span>

  • Story: Charlemagne To Queen Elizabeth Line

    <span>From Charlemagne to William the Conqueror</span> <ol><li>Charlemagne (747-814) </li><li>Pepin, King of Italy (773-810) </li><li>Bernard, King of Italy (797-818) </li><li>Pepin, Count of Vermandois (c815-?) </li><li>Herbert I, Count of Vermandois (c848-907) </li><li>Herbert II, Count of Vermandois (884-943) </li><li>Robert de Vermandois, Count of Meaux (918-968) </li><li>Adele of Meaux (c950-c980) </li><li>Ermengarde of Anjou (?-?) </li><li>Judith of Brittany (982-1017) </li><li>Robert II, Duke of Normandy (c1000-1035) </li><li>William I, King of England (1027-1087) </li></ol><p>&nbsp;</p><span>[edit]</span> <span>From William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II</span><span>[edit]</span> <span>The most royal line, not the shortest</span><ol><li>William I, King of England (1027-1087) </li><li>Henry I, King of England (1068-1135) </li><li>Matilda of Normandy (1102-1167) </li><li>Henry II, King of England (1133-1189) </li><li>John, King of England (1167-1216) </li><li>Henry III, King of England (1207-1272) </li><li>Edward I, King of England (1239-1307) </li><li>Edward II, King of England (1284-1327) </li><li>Edward III, King of England (1312-1377) </li><li>Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (1338-1368) </li><li>Philippa Plantagenet, 5th Countess of Ulster (1355-1382) </li><li>Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (1374-1398) </li><li>Anne Mortimer (1390-1411) </li><li>Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (1411-1460) </li><li>Edward IV, King of England (1442-1483) </li><li>Elizabeth of York (1465-1503) (wife of Henry VII) </li><li>Margaret Tudor (1489-1541) </li><li>James V, King of Scotland (1512-1542) </li><li>Mary Stewart, Queen of Scotland (1542-1586) </li><li>James I of England (1566-1625) </li><li>Elizabeth Stuart, Electress Palatine (1596-1662) </li><li>Sophia, Electress of Hanover (1630-1714) </li><li>George I of Great Britain (1660-1727) </li><li>George II of Great Britain (1683-1760) </li><li>Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707-1751) </li><li>George III of the United Kingdom (1738-1820) </li><li>Prince Edward Augustus (1767-1820) </li><li>Victoria of the United Kingdom (1819-1901) </li><li>Edward VII of the United Kingdom (1841-1910) </li><li>George V of the United Kingdom (1865-1936) </li><li>George VI of the United Kingdom (1895-1952) </li><li>Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (1926) </li></ol><span>[edit]</span> <span>Shorter line of descent</span><p>(Prefix is latest known &quot;order of Charlemagne&quot;; further work may show a shorter line.) </p><ul><li>12 William I, King of England (1027-1087) </li><li>12 Henry I, King of England (1068-1135) (Henry Beauclerc) </li><li>13 Matilda of Normandy (1102-1167) </li><li>13 Henry II, King of England (1133-1189) (Henry Plantagenet) </li><li>14 Matilda of England (1156-1189) </li><li>15 Wilhelm von Braunschweig-L&uuml;neburg (1184-1213) (William Longsword of Winchester) </li><li>16 Otto von Braunschweig-L&uuml;neburg (c1204-1252) (Otto the Child) </li><li>17 Adelheid von Braunschweig (?-1274) </li><li>17 Otto von Hessen (1272-1328) </li><li>18 Ludwig von Hessen-Grebenstein (1319-1345) </li><li>19 Hermann von Hessen (1341-1413) </li><li>20 Ludwig von Hessen (1402-1458) </li><li>21 Heinrich von Hessen-Marburg (c1440-1483) </li><li>22 Elisabeth von Hessen (1466-1523) - stated (in late July 2009) to have no common ancestors with husband *23 Johann von Nassau-Dillenburg (1455-1516), but our systems take a little time for that sort of information to filter through </li><li>23 Wilhelm von Nassau-Dillenburg (1487-1559) (William the Rich) </li><li>24 Johann VI von Nassau-Dillenburg (1536-1606) </li><li>25 Ernst Casimir van Nassau-Dietz (1573-1632) </li><li>26 Willem Frederik van Nassau-Dietz (1613-1664) - married his second cousin *26 Albertine Agnes van Nassau (1634-1696) </li><li>27 Hendrik Casimir II van Nassau-Dietz (1657-1696) - married his cousin </li><li>28 Johan Willem Friso van Nassau-Dietz (1687-1711) </li><li>29 Willem IV van Oranje-Nassau (1711-1751) - m *32 Anne of England (1709-1759), daughter of George II </li><li>30 Caroline van Oranje-Nassau (1743-1787) </li><li>31 Henrietta von Nassau-Weilburg (1780-1857) </li><li>32 Alexander von W&uuml;rttemberg (1804-1885) </li><li>33 Franz von Teck (1837-1900) </li><li>34 Victoria Mary of Teck (1867-1953) (&quot;Queen Mary&quot;, wife of George V and second cousin to his father) </li><li>35 George VI of the United Kingdom (1895-1952) </li><li>36 Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (1926) </li></ul><p>Elizabeth&#39;s shortest line from Charlemagne bypasses William I and Henry I. </p>

  • Story: Names Of The Holy Roman Empire

    <p>http://www.ghotes.net/tull/nindex.htm#HOLY_ROMAN_EMPIRE</p><p>Holy_roman_emp, Mathalgard (Hathalgard),(co Ncubine (marriage to Charlemagne, Emperor Of (i602)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Adelaide (Adelheid), Princess (i506), b.824-<br>Holy_roman_empir, Adelaide (Adelheid), Princess (marriage to Robert, &quot;Fortis&quot; Duke France (i506), b.824-<br>Holy_roman_empir, Adelaide Princess Of (i527), b.814-<br>Holy_roman_empir, Adelheid (Adelinde), (concubine (marriage to Charlemagne, Emperor Of Ho (i606)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Adelheid, Princess Of (i556), d.AUG<br>Holy_roman_empir, Alpaide (Alpais), Princess (i525), b.810-<br>Holy_roman_empir, Bertha, Princess Of (i558), d.826<br>Holy_roman_empir, Charlemagne, Emperor Of, [KING O (i553), b.742-d.814<br>Holy_roman_empir, Charles, Emperor Of (i555), d.811<br>Holy_roman_empir, Desiderata (Sibilla, Bertha), (marriage to Charlemagne, Emperor Of Holy (i598)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Fastrada, Empress Of (marriage to Charlemagne, Emperor Of Holy_roman_em (i599)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Galiena, (Concubine 7) (marriage to Charlemagne, Emperor Of Holy_roman_ (i605)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Gerswind, (Concubine 2) (marriage to Charlemagne, Emperor Of Holy_roman (i603)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Gisele, Princess Of (i560)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Gisle, Princess Of (i419), b.818-d.876<br>Holy_roman_empir, Hildegard, Empress Of, [COUNTESS (marriage to Charlemagne, Emperor Of H (i554), b.757-d.783<br>Holy_roman_empir, Hildegard, Princess Of (i561), d.783<br>Holy_roman_empir, Hildegarde, Princess Of, [Abbess (i526), b.812-d.841<br>Holy_roman_empir, Himiltrud, Of The (marriage to Charlemagne, Emperor Of Holy_roman_empir (i601)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Judith, Empress Of (marriage to Louis I, &quot;The Holy_roman_empir) (i588)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Lothaire I, Emperor, [KING OF IT (i521), d.855<br>Holy_roman_empir, Lothaire, Prince Of (i559), b.AUG-d.AUG<br>Holy_roman_empir, Louis I, &quot;The (i519), b.AUG-d.840<br>Holy_roman_empir, Louis I, &quot;The (marriage to Ermengarde Princess Of Hesbaye [EMPRESS OF T (i519), b.AUG-d.840<br>Holy_roman_empir, Louis Ii, Emperor, [KING OF ITAL (i532), b.825-d.875<br>Holy_roman_empir, Luitgard, Empress Of (marriage to Charlemagne, Emperor Of Holy_roman_em (i600)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Mrs-Louis I, Concubine (marriage to Louis I, &quot;The Holy_roman_empir) (i589)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Regina (Reginopycrha), (concubine (marriage to Charlemagne, Emperor Of (i604)<br>Holy_roman_empir, Rotrud, Princess Of (i557), b.AUG-d.810<br>Holy_roman_empir, Rotrude, Princess Of (i524), b.808-<br>Holy_roman_empir, Valtrude, Princess Of (i531), b.820-</p>

  • Story: Charlemagne

    <p align="center"><font size="5" color="#0000ff">Charlemagne </font></p><p align="left">Charlemagne (2 April 742 or 747 &ndash; 28 January 814) (also Charles the Great; from Latin, Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus), son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, was the king of the Franks from 768 to 814 and king of the Lombards from 774 to 814. 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 defense, 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. His was the first truly imperial power in the West since the fall of Rome.</p><p align="center">&nbsp;</p><p align="left">Charlemagne was the eldest child of Pippin the Short (714 &ndash; 24 September 768, reigned from 751) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (720 &ndash; 12 July 783), daughter of Caribert of Laon and Bertrada of Cologne. The reliable records name only Carloman and Gisela as his younger siblings. Later accounts, however, indicate that Redburga, wife of King Egbert of Wessex, might have been his sister (or sister-in-law or niece), and the legendary material makes him Roland&#39;s maternal nephew through Lady Bertha.</p><p align="left">On the death of Pippin, the kingdom of the Franks was divided&mdash;following tradition&mdash;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.</p><p align="left">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 Gerperga, 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.</p><p align="left">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&mdash;the Saxon Wars&mdash;he conquered Saxonia and proceeded to convert the conquered to Roman Catholicism, using force where necessary.</p><p align="left">During the first peace of any substantial length (780-782), Charles began to appoint his sons to positions of authority within the realm, in the tradition of the kings and mayors of the past. In 780, he had disinherited his eldest son, Pippin the Hunchback, because the youth had joined a rebellion against him. Pippin had been duped, through flattery, into joining a rebellion of nobles who pretended to despise Charles&#39; treatment of Himiltrude, Pippin&#39;s mother, in 770. Charles baptized his son Carloman as Pippin to keep the name alive in the dynasty. In 781, he made his oldest three sons each kings. The eldest, Charles, received the kingdom of Neustria, containing the regions of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. The second eldest, Pippin, was made king of Italy, taking the Iron Crown which his father had first born in 774. His third eldest son, Louis, became king of Aquitaine. He tried to make his sons a true Neustrian, Italian, and Aquitainian and he gave their regents some control of their subkingdoms, but real power was always in his hands, though he intended each to inherit their realm some day.</p><p align="center">&nbsp;</p><p align="left">The conquest of Italy brought Charlemagne in contact with the Saracens who, at the time, controlled the Mediterranean. Pippin, his son, was much occupied with Saracens in Italy. Charlemagne conquered Corsica and Sardinia at an unknown date and in 799 the Balearic Islands. The islands were often attacked by Saracen pirates, but the counts of Genoa and Tuscany kept them at bay with large fleets until the end of Charlemagne&#39;s reign. Charlemagne even had contact with the caliphal court in Baghdad. In Hispania, the struggle against the Moors continued unabated throughout the latter half of his reign. His son Louis was in charge of the Spanish border. In 785, his men captured Gerona permanently and extended Frankish control into the Catalan littoral for the duration of Charlemagne&#39;s reign (and much longer, it remained nominally Frankish until the Treaty of Corbeil in 1258). The Moslem chiefs in the northeast of Spain were constantly revolting against Cordoban authority and they often turned to the Franks for help. The Frankish border was slowly extended until 795, when Gerona, Cardona, Ausona, and Urgel were united into the new Spanish March, within the old duchy of Septimania.</p><p align="left">Matters of Charlemagne&#39;s reign came to a head in late 800. In 799, Pope Leo III had been mistreated by the Romans, who tried to tear out his tongue and eyes. He was deposed and put in a monastery, but Charlemagne did not recognize this, as his advisor, Alcuin of York, advised. He went down to Rome in November 800 and held a council on December 1. On December 23, Leo swore an oath of innocence. At Mass, on Christmas Day (December 25), the pope crowned Charlemagne Imperator Romanorum (emperor of the Romans) in Saint Peter&#39;s Basilica. Charlemagne thus became the renewer of the Western Roman Empire, which had expired in the 476. To avoid frictions with the Byzantine Emperor, Charles later styled himself, not Imperator Romanorum (a title reserved for the Byzantine emperor), but rather Imperator Romanum gubernans Imperium (emperor ruling the Roman Empire).</p><p align="left">In 813, Charlemagne called Louis, his only surviving legitimate son, to his court. There he crowned him as his heir and sent him back to Aquitaine. He then spent the autumn hunting before returning to Aachen on 1 November. In January, he fell ill. He took to his bed on the 22 January and as Einhard tells it:</p><blockquote><blockquote><p align="left">&quot;He died January twenty-eighth, the seventh day from the time that he took to his bed, at nine o&#39;clock in the morning, after partaking of the holy communion, in the seventy-second year of his age and the forty-seventh of his reign.&quot;</p></blockquote></blockquote><p align="left">When Charlemagne died in 814, he was buried in his own Cathedral at Aachen. He was succeeded by his only son then surviving, Louis the Pious. His empire lasted only another generation in its entirety; its division, according to custom, between Louis&#39;s own sons after their father&#39;s death laid the foundation for the modern states of France and Germany.</p><p align="center">&nbsp;</p><p align="left">A part of Charlemagne&#39;s success as warrior and administrator can be traced to his admiration for learning. His reign and the era it ushered in are often referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance because of the flowering of scholarship, literature, art, and architecture which characterize it. Most of the surviving works of classical Latin were copied and preserved by Carolingian scholars. Indeed, the earliest manuscripts available for many ancient texts are Carolingian and it is almost certain that a text which survived to the Carolingian age, survives still. The pan-European nature of Charlemagne&#39;s influence is indicated by the origins of many of the men who worked for him: Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon from York; Theodulf, a Visigoth, probably from Septimania; Paul the Deacon, a Lombard; and Angilbert and Einhard, Franks.</p><p align="left">Charlemagne took a serious interest in his and others&#39; scholarship and had learned to read in his adulthood, although he never quite learned how to write, he used to keep a slate and stylus underneath his pillow, according to Einhard. His handwriting was bad, from which grew the legend that he could not write. Even learning to read was quite an achievement for kings at this time, of whom most were illiterate. Charlemagne&#39;s mother tongue was the Old High German dialect called Frankish. He also spoke Latin and understood some Greek.</p><p align="left">Charlemagne, being a model knight as one of the Nine Worthies, enjoyed an important afterlife in European culture. One of the great medieval literary cycles, the Charlemagne cycle or the Matter of France, centers around the deeds of Charlemagne and his historical commander of the Breton border, Roland, and the paladins who are analogous to the knights of the Round Table or King Arthur&#39;s court. Their tales constitute the first chansons de geste.</p><p align="left">Charlemagne himself was accorded sainthood inside the Holy Roman Empire after the twelfth century. His canonization by Antipope Paschal III, to gain the favor of Frederick Barbarossa in 1165, was never recognized by the Holy See, which annulled all of Paschal&#39;s ordinances at the the Third Lateran Council in 1179. However, he has been acknowledged as cultus confirmed.</p><p align="center">&nbsp;</p><p align="left">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&#39;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. He is without a doubt an ancestor of every royal family of Europe.</p>

  • Story: Charlemagne The Great

    Charlemagne From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia <div>Jump to: navigation, search</div> <!-- start content --> <div>For other uses, see Charlemagne (disambiguation).</div> Charlemagne <em>rex Francorum (</em>King of the Franks)<em><br> rex Langobardorum (</em>King of the Lombards<em>)<br> imperator Romanorum (</em>Emperor of the Romans<em>)</em> <span></span> <em>A coin of Charlemagne&#39;s with the inscription</em> KAROLVS IMP AVG <em>(&quot;Carolus Imperator Augustus&quot;)</em> Reign 768 &ndash; 814 Coronation 25 December 800 Predecessor Pippin the Short Successor Louis the Pious Father Pippin the Short Mother Bertrada of Laon Born 2 April 742<span style="display: none">(<span>742-04-02</span>)</span><br> Li&egrave;ge Died 28 January 814 (aged&nbsp;71)<br> Aachen Burial <span>Aachen Cathedral</span> <strong>Carolingian dynasty</strong> <strong>Pippinids</strong> <ul><li>Pippin the Elder (c. 580&ndash;640)</li><li>Grimoald (616&ndash;656)</li><li>Childebert the Adopted (d. 662)</li></ul> <strong>Arnulfings</strong> <ul><li>Arnulf of Metz (582&ndash;640)</li><li>Chlodulf of Metz (d. 696 or 697)</li><li>Ansegisel (c.602&ndash;before 679)</li><li>Pippin the Middle (c.635&ndash;714)</li><li>Grimoald II (d. 714)</li><li>Drogo of Champagne (670&ndash;708)</li><li>Theudoald (d. 714)</li></ul> <strong>Carolingians</strong> <ul><li>Charles Martel (686&ndash;741)</li><li>Carloman (d. 754)</li><li>Pepin the Short (714&ndash;768)</li><li>Carloman I (751&ndash;771)</li><li><strong>Charlemagne</strong> (d. 814)</li><li>Louis the Pious (778&ndash;840)</li></ul> <strong>After the Treaty of Verdun (843)</strong> <ul><li>Lothair I, Holy Roman Emperor (795&ndash;855)<br> (Middle Francia)</li><li>Charles the Bald (823&ndash;877)<br> (Western Francia)</li><li>Louis the German (804&ndash;876)<br> (Eastern Francia)</li></ul> <p><strong>Charlemagne</strong> (pronounced <span>/ˈʃɑrlɨmeɪn/</span>; Latin: <span><em>Carolus Magnus</em> or <em>Karolus Magnus</em></span>, meaning <strong>Charles the Great</strong>) (2 April 742 &ndash; 28 January 814) was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned <span><em>Imperator Augustus</em></span> by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800 as a rival of the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople. His rule is also associated with the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture through the medium of the Catholic Church. Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define both Western Europe and the Middle Ages. He is numbered as <strong>Charles I</strong> in the regnal lists of France, Germany, and the Holy Roman Empire.</p> <p>The son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, he succeeded his father and co-ruled with his brother Carloman I. The latter got on badly with Charlemagne, but war was prevented by the sudden death of Carloman in 771. Charlemagne continued the policy of his father towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in Italy, and waging war on the Saracens, who menaced his realm from Spain. It was during one of these campaigns that Charlemagne experienced the worst defeat of his life, at the Battle of Roncesvalles (778) memorialised in the <em>Song of Roland</em>. He also campaigned against the peoples to his east, especially the Saxons, and after a protracted war subjected them to his rule. By forcibly converting them to Christianity, he integrated them into his realm and thus paved the way for the later Ottonian dynasty.</p> <p>Today he is regarded not only as the founding father of both French and German monarchies, but also as <em>the father of Europe</em>: his empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans, and the Carolingian renaissance encouraged the formation of a common European identity.<sup><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></sup></p> <div> Contents <span>[hide]</span></div> <ul><li><span>1</span> <span>Background</span></li><li><span>2</span> <span>Personal traits</span> <ul><li><span>2.1</span> <span>Date and place of birth</span></li><li><span>2.2</span> <span>Language</span></li><li><span>2.3</span> <span>Personal appearance</span></li><li><span>2.4</span> <span>Dress</span></li></ul> </li><li><span>3</span> <span>Rise to power</span> <ul><li><span>3.1</span> <span>Early life</span></li><li><span>3.2</span> <span>Joint rule</span></li></ul> </li><li><span>4</span> <span>Italian campaigns</span> <ul><li><span>4.1</span> <span>Conquest of Lombardy</span></li><li><span>4.2</span> <span>Southern Italy</span></li></ul> </li><li><span>5</span> <span>Charles and his children</span></li><li><span>6</span> <span>Spanish campaigns</span> <ul><li><span>6.1</span> <span>Roncesvalles campaign</span></li><li><span>6.2</span> <span>Wars with the Moors</span></li></ul> </li><li><span>7</span> <span>Eastern campaigns</span> <ul><li><span>7.1</span> <span>Saxon Wars</span></li><li><span>7.2</span> <span>Submission of Bavaria</span></li><li><span>7.3</span> <span>Avar campaigns</span></li><li><span>7.4</span> <span>Slav expeditions</span></li></ul> </li><li><span>8</span> <span>Imperium</span> <ul><li><span>8.1</span> <span>Imperial diplomacy</span></li><li><span>8.2</span> <span>Danish attacks</span></li><li><span>8.3</span> <span>Death</span></li></ul> </li><li><span>9</span> <span>Administration</span> <ul><li><span>9.1</span> <span>Economic and monetary reforms</span></li><li><span>9.2</span> <span>Education reforms</span></li><li><span>9.3</span> <span>Church reforms</span></li><li><span>9.4</span> <span>Writing reforms</span></li><li><span>9.5</span> <span>Political reforms</span> <ul><li><span>9.5.1</span> <span>Organisation</span></li><li><span>9.5.2</span> <span>Imperial coronation</span></li><li><span>9.5.3</span> <span>Divisio regnorum</span></li></ul> </li></ul> </li><li><span>10</span> <span>Cultural significance</span></li><li><span>11</span> <span>Ancestry</span></li><li><span>12</span> <span>Family</span> <ul><li><span>12.1</span> <span>Marriages and heirs</span></li><li><span>12.2</span> <span>Concubinages and illegitimate children</span></li></ul> </li><li><span>13</span> <span>References</span> <ul><li><span>13.1</span> <span>Notes</span></li><li><span>13.2</span> <span>Bibliography</span></li></ul> </li><li><span>14</span> <span>External links</span></li></ul> //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Background</span> <p>By the 6th century, the Franks were Christianised, and Francia ruled by the Merovingians had become the most powerful of the kingdoms which succeeded the Western Roman Empire. But following the Battle of Tertry, the Merovingians declined into a state of powerlessness, for which they have been dubbed do-nothing kings (<em>rois fain&eacute;ants</em>). Almost all government powers of any consequence were exercised by their chief officer, the mayor of the palace or <em>major domus</em>.</p> <p>In 687, Pippin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the strife between various kings and their mayors with his victory at Tertry and became the sole governor of the entire Frankish kingdom. Pippin himself was the grandson of two most important figures of the Austrasian Kingdom, Saint Arnulf of Metz and Pippin of Landen. Pippin the Middle was eventually succeeded by his illegitimate son Charles, later known as Charles Martel (the Hammer). After 737, Charles governed the Franks without a king on the throne but desisted from calling himself &quot;king.&quot; Charles was succeeded by his sons Carloman and Pippin the Short, the father of Charlemagne. To curb separatism in the periphery of the realm, the brothers placed on the throne Childeric III, who was to be the last Merovingian king.</p> <p>After Carloman resigned his office, Pippin had Childeric III deposed with Pope Zachary&#39;s approval. In 751, Pippin was elected and anointed King of the Franks and in 754, Pope Stephen II again anointed him and his young sons, now heirs to the great realm which already covered most of western and central Europe. Thus was the Merovingian dynasty replaced by the Carolingian dynasty, named after Pippin&#39;s father Charles Martel.</p> <p>Under the new dynasty, the Frankish kingdom spread to encompass an area including most of Western Europe. The division of that kingdom formed France and Germany;<sup><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></sup> and the religious, political, and artistic evolutions originating from a centrally-positioned Francia made a defining imprint on the whole of Western Europe.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Personal traits</span> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Date and place of birth</span> <p>Charlemagne is believed to have been born in 742; however, several factors have led to a reconsideration of this date. First, the year 742 was calculated from his age given at death, rather than from attestation in primary sources. Another date is given in the <em>Annales Petaviani</em>, that of 2 April 747.<sup><span>[</span>3<span>]</span></sup>. In that year, April 2 was at Easter. The birth of an emperor at eastertime is a coincidence likely to provoke comment, but there was 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 his birth was one year later, in 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, in Herstal (where his father was born, a town close to Li&egrave;ge in modern day Belgium), the region from where both the Merovingian and Carolingian families originate. He went to live in his father&#39;s villa in Jupille when he was around seven, which caused Jupille to be listed as a possible place of birth in almost every history book. Other cities have been suggested, including, Pr&uuml;m, D&uuml;ren, Gauting and Aachen.</p> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Charlemagne (left) and Pippin the Hunchback. Tenth-century copy of a lost original from about 830.</div> </div> </div> <p>Dubbed <em>Charles le Magne</em> &quot;Charles the Great&quot;, he was named after his grandfather, Charles Martel. The name derives from Germanic *<em>karlaz</em> &quot;free man, commoner&quot;,<sup><span>[</span>4<span>]</span></sup> which gave German <em>Kerl</em> &quot;man, guy&quot; and English <em>churl</em>. His name, however, is first attested in its Latin form, &quot;<em>Carolus</em>&quot; or &quot;<em>Karolus</em>.&quot;</p> <p>In many eastern European languages, the very word for &quot;king&quot; derives from Charles&#39; name. (<em>e.g.</em>, Polish: <span><em>kr&oacute;l</em></span>, Lithuanian: <span><em>karalius</em></span>, Hungarian: <span><em>kir&aacute;ly</em></span>, Serbian: <span>kralj</span>, Russian: <span>король</span>)</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Language</span> <p>Charlemagne&#39;s native language is a matter of controversy. It was probably a Germanic dialect of the Ripuarian Franks, but linguists differ on its identity and chronology. Some linguists go so far as to say that he did not speak Old Frankish as he was born in 742 or 747, by which time Old Frankish had become extinct. Old Frankish is reconstructed from its descendant, Old Low Franconian, and from loanwords in Old French. Linguists know very little about Old Frankish, as it is attested mainly as phrases and words in the law codes of the main Frankish tribes (especially those of the Salian and Ripuarian Franks), which are written in Latin interspersed with Germanic elements.<sup><span>[</span>5<span>]</span></sup></p> <p>The area of Charlemagne&#39;s birth does not make determination of his native language easier. Most historians agree he was born around Li&egrave;ge, like his father, but some say he was born in or around Aachen, some 50&nbsp;km away. At that time, this was an area of great linguistic diversity. If we take Li&egrave;ge (around 750) as the centre, we find:</p> <ul><li>Old East Low Franconian (the forerunner of Limburgish) in the city, north and northwest;</li><li>the closely related Old Ripuarian Franconian (a central Old High German dialect) to the east and in Aachen; and</li><li>Gallo-Romance (the ancestor of the Walloon dialect of Old French) in the south and southwest.</li></ul> <p>The names he gave his children are also good indicators of the language he spoke, as all of his daughters received Old High German names.</p> <p>Apart from his native language he also spoke Latin &quot;as fluently as his own tongue&quot; and understood a bit of Greek: <em>Grecam vero melius intellegere quam pronuntiare poterat</em>, &quot;He understood Greek better than he could pronounce it.&quot;<sup><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></sup></p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Personal appearance</span> <p>Though no description from Charlemagne&#39;s lifetime exists, his personal appearance is known from a good description by Einhard, author of the biographical <em>Vita Karoli Magni</em>. Einhard tells in his twenty-second chapter:<sup><span>[</span>7<span>]</span></sup></p> <blockquote> <p><em>He was heavily built, sturdy, and of considerable stature, although not exceptionally so, given that he stood seven feet tall. He had a round head, large and lively eyes, a slightly larger nose than usual, white but still attractive hair, a bright and cheerful expression, a short and fat neck, and a slightly protruding stomach. His voice was clear, but a little higher than one would have expected for a man of his build. He enjoyed good health, except for the fevers that affected him in the last few years of his life. Toward the end he dragged one leg. Even then, he stubbornly did what he wanted and refused to listen to doctors, indeed he detested them, because they wanted to persuade him to stop eating roast meat, as was his wont, and to be content with boiled meat.</em></p> </blockquote> <p>The physical portrait provided by Einhard is confirmed by contemporary depictions of the emperor, such as coins and his 8-inch bronze statue kept in the Louvre. Charles description of Charlemagne&#39;s height at 7 feet (6 feet 3 inches, or 190.50 centimeters) was not far off. Though it was Herculean stature, particularly in a period in which people were a little shorter than we are today, archaeology has confirmed his tallness: in 1861, Charlemagne&#39;s tomb was opened by scientists who reconstructed his skeleton and found that it indeed measured 74.9 inches (192 centimeters). <sup><span>[</span>8<span>]</span></sup></p> <p>Charles is well known to have been fair-haired, tall, and stately, with a disproportionately thick neck. The Roman tradition of realistic personal portraiture was in complete eclipse in his 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&#39;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 D&uuml;rer portrait) is often portrayed with flowing blond hair, due to a misunderstanding of Einhard, who describes Charlemagne as having <em>canitie pulchra</em>, or &quot;beautiful white hair&quot;, which has been rendered as blonde or fair in many translations.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Dress</span> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Part of the treasure in Aachen</div> </div> </div> <p>Charlemagne wore the traditional, inconspicuous and distinctly non-aristocratic costume of the Frankish people, described by Einhard thus:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>He used to wear the national, that is to say, the Frank dress: next to his skin a linen shirt and linen breeches, and above these a tunic fringed with silk; while hose fastened by bands covered his lower limbs, and shoes his feet, and he protected his shoulders and chest in winter by a close-fitting coat of otter or marten skins</em>.</p> </blockquote> <p>He wore a blue cloak and always carried a sword with him. The typical sword was of a golden or silver hilt. He wore fancy jewelled swords to banquets or ambassadorial receptions. Nevertheless:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>He despised foreign costumes, however handsome, and never allowed himself to be robed in them, except twice in Rome, when he donned the Roman tunic, chlamys, and shoes; the first time at the request of Pope Hadrian, the second to gratify Leo, Hadrian&#39;s success</em>or.</p> </blockquote> <p>He could rise to the occasion when necessary. On great feast days, he wore embroidery and jewels on his clothing and shoes. He had a golden buckle for his cloak on such occasions and would appear with his great diadem, but he despised such apparel, according to Einhard, and usually dressed like the common people.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Rise to power</span> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Early life</span> <p>Charlemagne was the eldest child of Pippin the Short (714 &ndash; 24 September 768, reigned from 751) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (720 &ndash; 12 July 783), daughter of Caribert of Laon and Bertrada of Cologne. Records name only Carloman, Gisela, and a short-lived child named Pippin as his younger siblings. The semi-mythical Redburga, wife of King Egbert of Wessex, is sometimes claimed to be his sister (or sister-in-law or niece), and the legendary material makes him Roland&#39;s maternal uncle through a lady Bertha.</p> <p>Much of what is known of Charlemagne&#39;s life comes from his biographer, Einhard, who wrote a <em>Vita Caroli Magni</em> (or <em>Vita Karoli Magni</em>), the <em>Life of Charlemagne</em>. Einhard says of the early life of Charles:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>It would be folly, I think, to write a word concerning Charles&#39; birth and infancy, or even his boyhood, for nothing has ever been written on the subject, and there is no one alive now who can give information on it. Accordingly, I determined to pass that by as unknown, and to proceed at once to treat of his character, his deed, and such other facts of his life as are worth telling and setting forth, and shall first give an account of his deed at home and abroad, then of his character and pursuits, and lastly of his administration and death, omitting nothing worth knowing or necessary to know</em>.</p> </blockquote> <p>On the death of Pippin, the kingdom of the Franks was divided&mdash;following tradition&mdash;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.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Joint rule</span> <p>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 the bishops, Charlemagne in Noyon and Carloman in Soissons.</p> <p>The first event of the brothers&#39; reign was the rising of the Aquitainians and Gascons, in 769, in that territory split between the two kings. Years before Pippin had suppressed the revolt of Waifer, Duke of Aquitaine. Now, one Hunald (seemingly other than Hunald the duke) led the Aquitainians as far north as Angoul&ecirc;me. Charlemagne met Carloman, but Carloman refused to participate and returned to Burgundy. Charlemagne went to war, 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.</p> <p>The brothers maintained lukewarm relations with the assistance of their mother Bertrada, but in 770 Charlemagne signed a treaty with Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria and married a Lombard Princess (commonly known today as Desiderata), the daughter of King Desiderius, in order to surround Carloman with his own allies. Though Pope Stephen III first opposed the marriage with the Lombard princess, he would soon have little to fear from a Frankish-Lombard alliance.</p> <p>Less than a year after his marriage, Charlemagne repudiated Desiderata, and quickly remarried to a 13-year-old Swabian named Hildegard. The repudiated Desiderata returned to her father&#39;s court at Pavia. The Lombard&#39;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&#39;s wife Gerberga fled to Desiderius&#39; court with her sons for protection.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Italian campaigns</span> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Conquest of Lombardy</span> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> The Frankish king Charlemagne was a devout Catholic who maintained a close relationship with the papacy throughout his life. In 772, when Pope Hadrian I was threatened by invaders, the king rushed to Rome to provide assistance. Shown here, the pope asks Charlemagne for help at a meeting near Rome</div> </div> </div> <p>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&#39; 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&#39;s charges. The embassies both met at Thionville and Charlemagne upheld the pope&#39;s side. Charlemagne promptly demanded what the pope had demanded and Desiderius promptly swore never to comply. 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, who was waging war with Bulgaria.</p> <p>The siege lasted until the spring of 774, when Charlemagne visited the pope in Rome. There he confirmed his father&#39;s grants of land, with some later chronicles claiming&mdash;falsely&mdash;that he also expanded them, granting Tuscany, Emilia, Venice, and Corsica. The pope granted him the title <em>patrician</em>. He then returned to Pavia, where the Lombards were on the verge of surrendering.</p> <p>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 Adelchis 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.</p> <p>There was still instability, however, in Italy. In 776, Dukes Hrodgaud of Friuli and Hildeprand of Spoleto rebelled. Charlemagne rushed 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.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Southern Italy</span> <p>In 787 Charlemagne directed his attention towards Benevento, where Arechis was reigning independently. He besieged Salerno and Arechis submitted to vassalage. However, with his death in 792, Benevento again proclaimed independence under his son Grimoald III. Grimoald was attacked by armies of Charles&#39; or his sons&#39; many times, but Charlemagne himself never returned to the Mezzogiorno and Grimoald never was forced to surrender to Frankish suzerainty.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Charles and his children</span> <p>During the first peace of any substantial length (780&ndash;782), Charles began to appoint his sons to positions of authority within the realm, in the tradition of the kings and mayors of the past. In 781 he made his two younger sons kings, having them crowned by the Pope. The elder of these two, Carloman, was made king of Italy, taking the Iron Crown which his father had first worn in 774, and in the same ceremony was renamed &quot;Pippin.&quot; The younger of the two, Louis, became king of Aquitaine. Charlemagne ordered Pippin and Louis to be raised in the customs of their kingdoms, and he gave their regents some control of their subkingdoms, but real power was always in his hands, though he intended each to inherit their realm some day. Nor did he tolerate insubordination in his sons: in 792, he banished his eldest, though illegitimate, son, Pippin the Hunchback, to the monastery of Pr&uuml;m, because the young man had joined a rebellion against him.</p> <p>The sons fought many wars on behalf of their father when they came of age. Charles was mostly preoccupied with the Bretons, whose border he shared and who insurrected on at least two occasions and were easily put down, but he was also sent against the Saxons on multiple occasions. In 805 and 806, he was sent into the B&ouml;hmerwald (modern Bohemia) to deal with the Slavs living there (Czechs). He subjected them to Frankish authority and devastated the valley of the Elbe, forcing a tribute on them. Pippin had to hold the Avar and Beneventan borders, but also fought the Slavs to his north. He was uniquely poised to fight the Byzantine Empire when finally that conflict arose after Charlemagne&#39;s imperial coronation and a Venetian rebellion. Finally, Louis was in charge of the Spanish March and also went to southern Italy to fight the duke of Benevento on at least one occasion. He took Barcelona in a great siege in the year 797 (see below).</p> <p>Charlemagne&#39;s attitude toward his daughters has been the subject of much discussion. He kept them at home with him, and refused to allow them to contract sacramental marriages &ndash; possibly to prevent the creation of cadet branches of the family to challenge the main line, as had been the case with Tassilo of Bavaria &ndash; yet he tolerated their extramarital relationships, even rewarding their common-law husbands, and treasured the bastard grandchildren they produced for him. He also, apparently, refused to believe stories of their wild behaviour. After his death the surviving daughters were banished from the court by their brother, the pious Louis, to take up residence in the convents they had been bequeathed by their father. At least one of them, Bertha, had a recognised relationship, if not a marriage, with Angilbert, a member of Charlemagne&#39;s court circle.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Spanish campaigns</span> <div>See also: Abbasid-Carolingian alliance</div> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Roncesvalles campaign</span> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne in an illustration taken from a manuscript of a <em>chanson de geste</em></div> </div> </div> <p>According to the Muslim historian Ibn al-Athir, the Diet of Paderborn had received the representatives of the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza, Gerona, Barcelona, and Huesca. Their masters had been cornered in the Iberian peninsula by Abd ar-Rahman I, the Umayyad emir of C&oacute;rdoba. These Moorish or &quot;Saracen&quot; 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.</p> <p>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 Charlemagne received the homage of the Muslim rulers, Sulayman al-Arabi and Kasmin ibn Yusuf, but the city did not fall for him. Indeed, Charlemagne was facing the toughest battle of his career where the Muslims had the upper hand and forced him to retreat. He decided to go home, since he could not trust 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. The Basques fell on his rearguard and baggage train, utterly destroying it. The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, less a battle than a mere skirmish, left many famous dead: among which 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 (<em>La Chanson de Roland</em>).</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Wars with the Moors</span> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Harun al-Rashid receiving a delegation of Charlemagne in Baghdad, by Julius K&ouml;ckert.</div> </div> </div> <p>The conquest of Italy brought Charlemagne in contact with the Saracens who, at the time, controlled the Mediterranean. Pippin, his son, was much occupied with Saracens in Italy. Charlemagne conquered Corsica and Sardinia at an unknown date and in 799 the Balearic Islands. The islands were often attacked by Saracen pirates, but the counts of Genoa and Tuscany (Boniface) kept them at bay with large fleets until the end of Charlemagne&#39;s reign. Charlemagne even had contact with the caliphal court in Baghdad. In 797 (or possibly 801), the caliph of Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, presented Charlemagne with an Asian elephant named Abul-Abbas and a clock.<sup><span>[</span>9<span>]</span></sup></p> <p>In Hispania the struggle against the Moors continued unabated throughout the latter half of his reign. His son Louis was in charge of the Spanish border. In 785, his men captured Gerona permanently and extended Frankish control into the Catalan littoral for the duration of Charlemagne&#39;s reign (and much longer, it remained nominally Frankish until the Treaty of Corbeil in 1258). The Muslim chiefs in the northeast of Islamic Spain were constantly revolting against C&oacute;rdoban authority and they often turned to the Franks for help. The Frankish border was slowly extended until 795, when Gerona, Cardona, Ausona, and Urgel were united into the new Spanish March, within the old duchy of Septimania.</p> <p>In 797 Barcelona, the greatest city of the region, fell to the Franks when Zeid, its governor, rebelled against C&oacute;rdoba and, failing, handed it to them. The Umayyad authority recaptured it in 799. However, Louis of Aquitaine marched the entire army of his kingdom over the Pyrenees and besieged it for two years, wintering there from 800 to 801, when it capitulated. The Franks continued to press forwards against the emir. They took Tarragona in 809 and Tortosa in 811. The last conquest brought them to the mouth of the Ebro and gave them raiding access to Valencia, prompting the Emir al-Hakam I to recognise their conquests in 812.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Eastern campaigns</span> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Saxon Wars</span> <div> <div style="width: 302px"> <div> <div></div> Map showing Charlemagne&#39;s additions (in blue) to the Frankish Kingdom.</div> </div> </div> <p>Charlemagne was engaged in almost constant battle throughout his reign, often at the head of his elite <em>scara</em> bodyguard squadrons, with his legendary sword Joyeuse in hand. After thirty years of war and eighteen battles&mdash;the Saxon Wars&mdash;he conquered Saxonia and proceeded to convert the conquered to Roman Catholicism, using force where necessary.</p> <p>The Saxons 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.</p> <p>In his first campaign, Charlemagne forced the Engrians in 773 to submit and cut down an Irminsul pillar near Paderborn. The campaign was cut short by his first expedition to Italy. He returned in the year 775, marching through Westphalia and conquering the Saxon fort of Sigiburg. He then crossed Engria, where he defeated the Saxons again. Finally, in Eastphalia, he defeated a Saxon force, and its leader Hessi converted to Christianity. He returned through Westphalia, leaving encampments at Sigiburg and Eresburg, which had, up until then, been important Saxon bastions. All Saxony but Nordalbingia was under his control, but Saxon resistance had not ended.</p> <p>Following his campaign in Italy subjugating the dukes of Friuli and Spoleto, Charlemagne returned very rapidly to Saxony in 776, where a rebellion had destroyed his fortress at Eresburg. The Saxons were once again brought to heel, but their main leader, duke Widukind, managed to escape to Denmark, home of his wife. Charlemagne 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.</p> <p>In the summer of 779, he again invaded Saxony and reconquered Eastphalia, Engria, and Westphalia. At a diet near Lippe, he divided the land into missionary districts and himself assisted in several mass baptisms (780). He then returned to Italy and, for the first time, there was no immediate Saxon revolt. In 780 Charlemagne decreed the death penalty for all Saxons who failed to be baptised, who failed to keep Christian festivals, and who cremated their dead. Saxony had peace from 780 to 782.</p> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Charlemagne (742-814) receiving the submission of Witikind at Paderborn in 785, by Ary Scheffer (1795-1858). Versailles.</div> </div> </div> <p>He returned in 782 to Saxony and instituted a code of law and appointed counts, both Saxon and Frank. The laws were draconian on religious issues, and the indigenous forms of Germanic polytheism were gravely threatened by Christianisation. This stirred a renewal of the old conflict. That year, in autumn, Widukind returned and led a new revolt, which resulted in several assaults on the church. In response, at Verden in Lower Saxony, Charlemagne allegedly ordered the beheading of 4,500 Saxons who had been caught practising their native paganism after conversion to Christianity, known as the Massacre of Verden. The massacre triggered three years of renewed bloody warfare (783-785). During this war the Frisians were also finally subdued and a large part of their fleet was burned. The war ended with Widukind accepting baptism.</p> <p>Thereafter, the Saxons maintained the peace for seven years, but in 792 the Westphalians once again rose against their conquerors. The Eastphalians and Nordalbingians joined them in 793, but the insurrection did not catch on and was put down by 794. An Engrian rebellion followed in 796, but Charlemagne&#39;s personal presence and the presence of Christian Saxons and Slavs quickly crushed it. The last insurrection of the independence-minded people occurred in 804, more than thirty years after Charlemagne&#39;s first campaign against them. This time, the most unruly of them, the Nordalbingians, found themselves effectively disempowered from rebellion. According to Einhard:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>The war that had lasted so many years was at length ended by their acceding to the terms offered by the King; which were renunciation of their national religious customs and the worship of devils, acceptance of the sacraments of the Christian faith and religion, and union with the Franks to form one people</em>.</p> </blockquote> <p>Saxon resistance to Charlemagne&#39;s rule was at an end.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Submission of Bavaria</span> <p>In 788, Charlemagne turned his attention to Bavaria. He claimed Tassilo was an unfit ruler on account of his oath-breaking. The charges were trumped up, but Tassilo was deposed anyway and put in the monastery of Jumi&egrave;ges. In 794, he was made to renounce any claim to Bavaria for himself and his family (the Agilolfings) at the synod of Frankfurt. Bavaria was subdivided into Frankish counties, like Saxony.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Avar campaigns</span> <p>In 788, the Avars, a pagan Asian horde which had settled down in what is today Hungary (Einhard called them Huns), invaded Friuli and Bavaria. Charles was preoccupied until 790 with other things, but in that year, he marched down the Danube into their territory and ravaged it to the Raab. Then, a Lombard army under Pippin marched into the Drava valley and ravaged Pannonia. The campaigns would have continued if the Saxons had not revolted again in 792, breaking seven years of peace.</p> <p>For the next two years, Charles was occupied with the Slavs against the Saxons. Pippin and Duke Eric of Friuli continued, however, to assault the Avars&#39; ring-shaped strongholds. The great Ring of the Avars, their capital fortress, was taken twice. The booty was sent to Charlemagne at his capital, Aachen, and redistributed to all his followers and even to foreign rulers, including King Offa of Mercia. Soon the Avar tuduns had thrown in the towel and travelled to Aachen to subject themselves to Charlemagne as vassals and Christians. This Charlemagne accepted and sent one native chief, baptised Abraham, back to Avaria with the ancient title of khagan. Abraham kept his people in line, but in 800 the Bulgarians under Krum swept the Avar state away. In the 10th century, the Magyars settled the Pannonian plain and presented a new threat to Charlemagne&#39;s descendants.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Slav expeditions</span> <p>In 789, in recognition of his new pagan neighbours, the Slavs, Charlemagne marched an Austrasian-Saxon army across the Elbe into Obotrite territory. The Slavs immediately submitted under their leader Witzin. He then accepted the surrender of the Wiltzes under Dragovit and demanded many hostages and the permission to send, unmolested, missionaries into the pagan region. The army marched to the Baltic before turning around and marching to the Rhine with much booty and no harassment. The tributary Slavs became loyal allies. In 795, the peace broken by the Saxons, the Abotrites and Wiltzes rose in arms with their new master against the Saxons. Witzin died in battle and Charlemagne avenged him by harrying the Eastphalians on the Elbe. Thrasuco, his successor, led his men to conquest over the Nordalbingians and handed their leaders over to Charlemagne, who greatly honoured him. The Abotrites remained loyal until Charles&#39; death and fought later against the Danes.</p> <p>Charlemagne also directed his attention to the Slavs to the south of the Avar khaganate: the Carantanians and Carniolans. These people were subdued by the Lombards and Bavarii and made tributaries, but never incorporated into the Frankish state.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Imperium</span> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Imperial diplomacy</span> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Charlemagne&#39;s chapel at Aachen Cathedral.</div> </div> </div> <p>In 799, Pope Leo III had been mistreated by the Romans, who tried to put out his eyes and tear out his tongue. Leo escaped, and fled to Charlemagne at Paderborn, asking him to intervene in Rome and restore him. Charlemagne, advised by Alcuin of York, agreed to travel to Rome, doing so in November 800 and holding a council on December 1. On December 23 Leo swore an oath of innocence. At Mass, on Christmas Day (December 25), when Charlemagne knelt at the altar to pray, the pope crowned him <em>Imperator Romanorum</em> (&quot;Emperor of the Romans&quot;) in Saint Peter&#39;s Basilica. In so doing, the pope was effectively attempting to transfer the office from Constantinople to Charles. Einhard says that Charlemagne was ignorant of the pope&#39;s intent and did not want any such coronation:</p> <blockquote> <p>[<em>H]e at first had such an aversion that he declared that he would not have set foot in the Church the day that they [the imperial titles] were conferred, although it was a great feast-day, if he could have foreseen the design of the Pope</em>.</p> </blockquote> <p>Many modern scholars suggest that Charlemagne was indeed aware of the coronation; certainly he cannot have missed the bejeweled crown waiting on the altar when he came to pray. In any event, he would now use these circumstances to claim that he was the renewer of the Roman Empire, which had apparently fallen into degradation under the Byzantines. In his official charters from 801 onward, Charles preferred the style <em>Karolus serenissimus Augustus a Deo coronatus magnus pacificus imperator Romanum gubernans imperium</em> (&quot;Charles, most serene Augustus crowned by God, the great, peaceful emperor ruling the Roman empire&quot;) to the more direct <em>Imperator Romanorum</em> (&quot;Emperor of the Romans&quot;).<sup><span>[</span>10<span>]</span></sup></p> <p>The Iconoclasm of the Isaurian Dynasty and resulting religious conflicts with the Empress Irene, sitting on the throne in Constantinople in 800, were probably the chief causes of the pope&#39;s desire to formally acclaim Charles as Roman Emperor. He also most certainly desired to increase the influence of the papacy, honour his saviour Charlemagne, and solve the constitutional issues then most troubling to European jurists in an era when Rome was not in the hands of an emperor. Thus, Charlemagne&#39;s assumption of the imperial title was not an usurpation in the eyes of the Franks or Italians. It was, however, in Byzantium, where it was protested by Irene and her successor Nicephorus I&mdash;neither of whom had any great effect in enforcing their protests.</p> <p>The Byzantines, however, still held several territories in Italy: Venice (what was left of the Exarchate of Ravenna), Reggio (in Calabria), Brindisi (in Apulia), and Naples (the <em>Ducatus Neapolitanus</em>). These regions remained outside of Frankish hands until 804, when the Venetians, torn by infighting, transferred their allegiance to the Iron Crown of Pippin, Charles&#39; son. The <em>Pax Nicephori</em> ended. Nicephorus ravaged the coasts with a fleet and the only instance of war between the Byzantines and the Franks, as it was, began. It lasted until 810, when the pro-Byzantine party in Venice gave their city back to the Byzantine Emperor and the two emperors of Europe made peace: Charlemagne received the Istrian peninsula and in 812 the emperor Michael I Rhangabes recognised his status as Emperor,<sup><span>[</span>11<span>]</span></sup> although not necessarily as &quot;Emperor of the Romans&quot;.<sup><span>[</span>12<span>]</span></sup></p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Danish attacks</span> <p>After the conquest of Nordalbingia, the Frankish frontier was brought into contact with Scandinavia. The pagan Danes, &quot;a race almost unknown to his ancestors, but destined to be only too well known to his sons&quot; as Charles Oman described them, inhabiting the Jutland peninsula had heard many stories from Widukind and his allies who had taken refuge with them about the dangers of the Franks and the fury which their Christian king could direct against pagan neighbours.</p> <p>In 808, the king of the Danes, Godfred, built the vast Danevirke across the isthmus of Schleswig. This defence, last employed in the Danish-Prussian War of 1864, was at its beginning a 30&nbsp;km long earthenwork rampart. The Danevirke protected Danish land and gave Godfred the opportunity to harass Frisia and Flanders with pirate raids. He also subdued the Frank-allied Wiltzes and fought the Abotrites.</p> <p>Godfred invaded Frisia and joked of visiting Aachen, but was murdered before he could do any more, either by a Frankish assassin or by one of his own men. Godfred was succeeded by his nephew Hemming, who concluded the Treaty of Heiligen with Charlemagne in late 811.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Death</span> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Persephone sarcophagus of Charlemagne</div> </div> </div> <p>In 813, Charlemagne called Louis the Pious, king of Aquitaine, his only surviving legitimate son, to his court. There he crowned him with his own hands as co-emperor and sent him back to Aquitaine. He then spent the autumn hunting before returning to Aachen on 1 November. In January, he fell ill with pleurisy.<sup><span>[</span>13<span>]</span></sup> He took to his bed on 21 January and as Einhard tells it:</p> <blockquote> <p><em>He died January twenty-eighth, the seventh day from the time that he took to his bed, at nine o&#39;clock in the morning, after partaking of the Holy Communion, in the seventy-second year of his age and the forty-seventh of his reign</em>.</p> </blockquote> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Frederick II&#39;s gold and silver casket for Charlemagne</div> </div> </div> <p>He was buried on the day of his death, in Aachen Cathedral, although the cold weather and the nature of his illness made such a hurried burial unnecessary. The earliest surviving <em>planctus</em>, the <em>Planctus de obitu Karoli</em>, was composed by a monk of Bobbio, which he had patronised.<sup><span>[</span>14<span>]</span></sup> A later story, told by Otho of Lomello, Count of the Palace at Aachen in the time of Otto III, would claim that he and Emperor Otto had discovered Charlemagne&#39;s tomb: the emperor, they claimed, was seated upon a throne, wearing a crown and holding a sceptre, his flesh almost entirely incorrupt. In 1165, Frederick I re-opened the tomb again, and placed the emperor in a sarcophagus beneath the floor of the cathedral.<sup><span>[</span>15<span>]</span></sup> In 1215 Frederick II would re-inter him in a casket made of gold and silver.</p> <p>Charlemagne&#39;s death greatly affected many of his subjects, particularly those of the literary clique who had surrounded him at Aachen. An anonymous monk of Bobbio lamented:</p> &ldquo; From the lands where the sun rises to western shores, People are crying and wailing...the Franks, the Romans, all Christians, are stung with mourning and great worry...the young and old, glorious nobles, all lament the loss of their Caesar...the world laments the death of Charles...O Christ, you who govern the heavenly host, grant a peaceful place to Charles in your kingdom. Alas for miserable me.<sup><span>[</span>16<span>]</span></sup> &rdquo; <p>He was succeeded by his surviving son, Louis, who had been crowned the previous year. His empire lasted only another generation in its entirety; its division, according to custom, between Louis&#39;s own sons after their father&#39;s death laid the foundation for the modern states of France and Germany.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Administration</span> <p>As an administrator, Charlemagne stands out for his many reforms: monetary, governmental, military, cultural and ecclesiastical. He is the main protagonist of the &quot;Carolingian Renaissance.&quot;</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Economic and monetary reforms</span> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Monogram of Charlemagne, from the subscription of a royal diploma: &quot;<span>Signum (monogr.: KAROLVS) Caroli gloriosissimi regis</span>&quot;</div> </div> </div> <p>Charlemagne had an important role in determining the immediate economic future of Europe. Pursuing his father&#39;s reforms, Charlemagne abolished the monetary system based on the gold <span><em>sou</em></span>, and he and the Anglo-Saxon King Offa of Mercia took up the system set in place by Pippin. There were strong pragmatic reasons for this abandonment of a gold standard, notably a shortage of gold itself, a direct consequence of the conclusion of peace with Byzantium and the ceding of Venice and Sicily, and the loss of their trade routes to Africa and to the east. This standardisation also had the effect of economically harmonising and unifying the complex array of currencies in use at the commencement of his reign, thus simplifying trade and commerce.</p> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Charlemagne, denier, Tours, 793-812.</div> </div> </div> <p>He established a new standard, the <span><em>livre carolinienne</em></span> (from the Latin <span><em>libra</em></span>, the modern pound), and based upon a pound of silver &ndash; a unit of both money and weight &ndash; which was worth 20 sous (from the Latin <span><em>solidus</em></span> [which was primarily an accounting device, and never actually minted], the modern shilling) or 240 <span><em>deniers</em></span> (from the Latin <span><em>denarius</em></span>, the modern penny). During this period, the <span><em>livre</em></span> and the <span><em>sou</em></span> were counting units, only the <span><em>denier</em></span> was a coin of the realm.</p> <p>Charlemagne instituted principles for accounting practice by means of the Capitulare de villis of 802, which laid down strict rules for the way in which incomes and expenses were to be recorded.</p> <p>The lending of money for interest was prohibited, strengthened in 814, when Charlemagne introduced the <em>Capitulary for the Jews</em>, a draconian prohibition on Jews engaging in money-lending.</p> <p>In addition to this macro-management of the economy of his empire, Charlemagne also performed a significant number of acts of micro-management, such as direct control of prices and levies on certain goods and commodities.</p> <p>Charlemagne applied the system to much of the European continent, and Offa&#39;s standard was voluntarily adopted by much of England. After Charlemagne&#39;s death, continental coinage degraded and most of Europe resorted to using the continued high quality English coin until about 1100.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Education reforms</span> <p>A part of Charlemagne&#39;s success as warrior and administrator can be traced to his admiration for learning. His reign and the era it ushered in are often referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance because of the flowering of scholarship, literature, art, and architecture which characterise it. Charlemagne, brought into contact with the culture and learning of other countries (especially Visigothic Spain, Anglo-Saxon England and Lombard Italy) due to his vast conquests, greatly increased the provision of monastic schools and scriptoria (centres for book-copying) in Francia. Most of the surviving works of classical Latin were copied and preserved by Carolingian scholars. Indeed, the earliest manuscripts available for many ancient texts are Carolingian. It is almost certain that a text which survived to the Carolingian age survives still. The pan-European nature of Charlemagne&#39;s influence is indicated by the origins of many of the men who worked for him: Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon from York; Theodulf, a Visigoth, probably from Septimania; Paul the Deacon, Lombard; Peter of Pisa and Paulinus of Aquileia, Italians; and Angilbert, Angilramm, Einhard and Waldo of Reichenau, Franks.</p> <p>Charlemagne took a serious interest in scholarship, promoting the liberal arts at the court, ordering that his children and grandchildren be well-educated, and even studying himself (in a time when even leaders who promoted education did not take time to learn themselves )under the tutelage of Paul the Deacon, from whom he learned grammar, Alcuin, with whom he studied rhetoric, dialect and astronomy (he was particularly interested in the movements of the stars), and Einhard, who assisted him in his studies of arithmetic. His great scholarly failure, as Einhard relates, was his inability to write: when in his old age he began attempts to learn &ndash; practicing the formation of letters in his bed during his free time on books and wax tablets he hid under his pillow &ndash; &quot;his effort came too late in life and achieved little success&quot;, and his ability to read &ndash; which Einhard is silent about, and which no contemporary source supports &ndash; has also been called into question.<sup><span>[</span>17<span>]</span></sup></p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Church reforms</span> <div>See also: Charlemagne and church music</div> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Writing reforms</span> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Page from the Lorsch Gospels of Charlemagne&#39;s reign</div> </div> </div> <p>During Charles&#39; reign, the Roman half uncial script and its cursive version, which had given rise to various continental minuscule scripts, were combined with features from the insular scripts that were being used in Irish and English monasteries. Carolingian minuscule was created partly under the patronage of Charlemagne. Alcuin of York, who ran the palace school and scriptorium at Aachen, was probably a chief influence in this. The revolutionary character of the Carolingian reform, however, can be over-emphasised; efforts at taming the crabbed Merovingian and Germanic hands had been underway before Alcuin arrived at Aachen. The new minuscule was disseminated first from Aachen, and later from the influential scriptorium at Tours, where Alcuin retired as an abbot.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Political reforms</span> <p>Charlemagne engaged in many reforms of Frankish governance, but he continued also in many traditional practices, such as the division of the kingdom among sons.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Organisation</span> <div>Main article: Government of the Carolingian Empire</div> <p>The Carolingian king exercised the <em>bannum</em>, the right to rule and command. He had supreme jurisdiction in judicial matters, made legislation, led the army, and protected both the Church and the poor. His administration was an attempt to organise the kingdom, church and nobility around him, however, it was entirely dependent upon the efficiency, loyalty and support of his subjects.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Imperial coronation</span> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Throne of Charlemagne and the subsequent German Kings in Aachen Cathedral</div> </div> </div> <p>Historians have debated for centuries whether Charlemagne was aware of the Pope&#39;s intent to crown him Emperor prior to the coronation (Charlemagne declared that he would not have entered Saint Peter&#39;s had he known), but that debate has often obscured the more significant question of <em>why</em> the Pope granted the title and why Charlemagne chose to accept it once he did.</p> <p>Roger Collins points out<sup><span>[</span>18<span>]</span></sup> &quot;That the motivation behind the acceptance of the imperial title was a romantic and antiquarian interest in reviving the Roman empire is highly unlikely.&quot; For one thing, such romance would not have appealed either to Franks or Roman Catholics at the turn of the ninth century, both of whom viewed the Classical heritage of the Roman Empire with distrust. The Franks took pride in having &quot;fought against and thrown from their shoulders the heavy yoke of the Romans&quot; and &quot;from the knowledge gained in baptism, clothed in gold and precious stones the bodies of the holy martyrs whom the Romans had killed by fire, by the sword and by wild animals&quot;, as Pippin III described it in a law of 763 or 764 (Collins 151). Furthermore, the new title&mdash;carrying with it the risk that the new emperor would &quot;make drastic changes to the traditional styles and procedures of government&quot; or &quot;concentrate his attentions on Italy or on Mediterranean concerns more generally&quot;&mdash;risked alienating the Frankish leadership.<sup><span>[</span>19<span>]</span></sup></p> <p>For both the Pope and Charlemagne, the Roman Empire remained a significant power in European politics at this time, and continued to hold a substantial portion of Italy, with borders not very far south of the city of Rome itself&mdash;this is the empire historiography has labelled the Byzantine Empire, for its capital was Constantinople (ancient Byzantium) and its people and rulers were Greek; it was a thoroughly Hellenic state. Indeed, Charlemagne was usurping the prerogatives of the Roman Emperor in Constantinople simply by sitting in judgement over the Pope in the first place:</p> <blockquote> <div> <p><em>By whom, however, could he [the Pope] be tried? Who, in other words, was qualified to pass judgement on the Vicar of Christ? In normal circumstances the only conceivable answer to that question would have been the Emperor at Constantinople; but the imperial throne was at this moment occupied by Irene. That the Empress was notorious for having blinded and murdered her own son was, in the minds of both Leo and Charles, almost immaterial: it was enough that she was a woman. The female sex was known to be incapable of governing, and by the old Salic tradition was debarred from doing so. As far as Western Europe was concerned, the Throne of the Emperors was vacant: Irene&#39;s claim to it was merely an additional proof, if any were needed, of the degradation into which the so-called Roman Empire had fallen</em>.</p> </div> <div>&mdash;John Julius Norwich,&nbsp;Byzantium: The Early Centuries, pg. 378</div> </blockquote> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> Coronation of an idealised king, depicted in the Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (about 870)</div> </div> </div> <p>For the Pope, then, there was &quot;no living Emperor at the that time&quot; (Norwich 379), though Henri Pirenne (<em>Mohammed and Charlemagne</em>, pg. 234n) disputes this saying that the coronation &quot;was not in any sense explained by the fact that at this moment a woman was reigning in Constantinople.&quot; Nonetheless, the Pope took the extraordinary step of creating one. The papacy had since 727 been in conflict with Irene&#39;s predecessors in Constantinople over a number of issues, chiefly the continued Byzantine adherence to the doctrine of iconoclasm, the destruction of Christian images; while from 750, the secular power of the Byzantine Empire in central Italy had been nullified. By bestowing the Imperial crown upon Charlemagne, the Pope arrogated to himself &quot;the right to appoint ... the Emperor of the Romans, ... establishing the imperial crown as his own personal gift but simultaneously granting himself implicit superiority over the Emperor whom he had created.&quot; And &quot;because the Byzantines had proved so unsatisfactory from every point of view&mdash;political, military and doctrinal&mdash;he would select a westerner: the one man who by his wisdom and statesmanship and the vastness of his dominions ... stood out head and shoulders above his contemporaries.&quot;</p> <p>With Charlemagne&#39;s coronation, therefore, &quot;the Roman Empire remained, so far as either of them [Charlemagne and Leo] were concerned, one and indivisible, with Charles as its Emperor&quot;, though there can have been &quot;little doubt that the coronation, with all that it implied, would be furiously contested in Constantinople.&quot; (Norwich, <em>Byzantium: The Apogee</em>, pg. 3) How realistic either Charlemagne or the Pope felt it to be that the people of Constantinople would ever accept the King of the Franks as their Emperor, we cannot know; Alcuin speaks hopefully in his letters of an <em>Imperium Christianum</em> (&quot;Christian Empire&quot;), wherein, &quot;just as the inhabitants of the [Roman Empire] had been united by a common Roman citizenship&quot;, presumably this new empire would be united by a common Christian faith (Collins 151), certainly this is the view of Pirenne when he says &quot;Charles was the Emperor of the <em>ecclesia</em> as the Pope conceived it, of the Roman Church, regarded as the universal Church&quot; (Pirenne 233).</p> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> 19th century depiction of the imperial coronation of Charlemagne</div> </div> </div> <p>What we <em>do</em> know, from the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes (Collins 153), is that Charlemagne&#39;s reaction to his coronation was to take the initial steps toward securing the Constantinopolitan throne by sending envoys of marriage to Irene, and that Irene reacted somewhat favorably to them. Only when the people of Constantinople reacted to Irene&#39;s failure to immediately rebuff the proposal by deposing her and replacing her with one of her ministers, Nicephorus I, did Charlemagne drop any ambitions toward the Byzantine throne and begin minimising his new Imperial title, and instead return to describing himself primarily as <em>rex Francorum et Langobardum</em>.</p> <p>The title of emperor remained in his family for years to come, however, as brothers fought over who had the supremacy in the Frankish state. The papacy itself never forgot the title nor abandoned the right to bestow it. When the family of Charles ceased to produce worthy heirs, the pope gladly crowned whichever Italian magnate could best protect him from his local enemies. This devolution led, as could have been expected, to the dormancy of the title for almost forty years (924-962). Finally, in 962, in a radically different Europe from Charlemagne&#39;s, a new Roman Emperor was crowned in Rome by a grateful pope. This emperor, Otto the Great, brought the title into the hands the kings of Germany for almost a millennium, for it was to become the Holy Roman Empire, a true imperial successor to Charles, if not Augustus.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Divisio regnorum</span> <p>In 806, Charlemagne first made provision for the traditional division of the empire on his death. For Charles the Younger he designated Austrasia and Neustria, Saxony, Burgundy, and Thuringia. To Pippin he gave Italy, Bavaria, and Swabia. Louis received Aquitaine, the Spanish March, and Provence. There was no mention of the imperial title however, which has led to the suggestion that, at that particular time, Charlemagne regarded the title as an honorary achievement which held no hereditary significance.</p> <p>This division may have worked, but it was never to be tested. Pippin died in 810 and Charles in 811. Charlemagne then reconsidered the matter, and in 813, crowned his youngest son, Louis, co-emperor and co-King of the Franks, granting him a half-share of the empire and the rest upon Charlemagne&#39;s own death. The only part of the Empire which Louis was not promised was Italy, which Charlemagne specifically bestowed upon Pippin&#39;s illegitimate son Bernard.</p> <div> <div style="width: 182px"> <div> <div></div> <em>The Coronation of Charlemagne</em>, by assistants of Raphael , circa 1516-1517</div> </div> </div> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Cultural significance</span> <p>Charlemagne had an immediate afterlife. The author of the <em>Visio Karoli Magni</em> written around 865 uses facts gathered apparently from Einhard and his own observations on the decline of Charlemagne&#39;s family after the dissensions of civil war (840&ndash;43) as the basis for a visionary tale of Charles&#39; meeting with a prophetic spectre in a dream.</p> <p>Charlemagne, being a model knight as one of the Nine Worthies, enjoyed an important afterlife in European culture. One of the great medieval literary cycles, the Charlemagne cycle or the <em>Matter of France</em>, centres on the deeds of Charlemagne&mdash;the King with the Grizzly Beard of <em>Roland</em> fame&mdash;and his historical commander of the border with Brittany, Roland, and the paladins who are analogous to the knights of the Round Table or King Arthur&#39;s court. Their tales constitute the first <em>chansons de geste</em>.</p> <p>Charlemagne himself was accorded sainthood inside the Holy Roman Empire after the twelfth century. His canonisation by Antipope Paschal III, to gain the favour of Frederick Barbarossa in 1165, was never recognised by the Holy See, which annulled all of Paschal&#39;s ordinances at the Third Lateran Council in 1179. However, he has been acknowledged as <em>cultus confirmed</em>. In the Divine Comedy the spirit of Charlemagne appears to Dante in the Heaven of Mars, among the other &quot;warriors of the faith.&quot;</p> <p>Charlemagne is sometimes credited with supporting the insertion of the <em>filioque</em> into the Nicene Creed. The Franks had inherited a Visigothic tradition of referring to the Holy Spirit as deriving from God the Father <em>and Son</em> (<em>Filioque</em>), and under Charlemagne, the Franks challenged the 381 Council of Constantinople proclamation that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father alone. Pope Leo III rejected this notion, and had the Nicene Creed carved into the doors of Old St. Peter&#39;s Basilica without the offending phrase; the Frankish insistence lead to bad relations between Rome and Francia. Later, the Roman Catholic Church would adopt the phrase, leading to dispute between Rome and Constantinople. Some see this as one of many pre-cursors to the East-West Schism centuries later.<sup><span>[</span>20<span>]</span></sup></p> <p>French volunteers in the Wehrmacht and later Waffen-SS during the World War II were organised in a unit called <em>33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French)</em>. A German Waffen-SS unit used &quot;Karl der Gro&szlig;e&quot; for some time in 1943, but then chose the name <em>10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg</em> instead.</p> <p>The city of Aachen has, since 1949, awarded an international prize (called the <em>Karlspreis der Stadt Aachen</em>) in honour of Charlemagne. It is awarded annually to &quot;personages of merit who have promoted the idea of western unity by their political, economic and literary endeavours.&quot;<sup><span>[</span>21<span>]</span></sup> Winners of the prize include Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, the founder of the pan-European movement, Alcide De Gasperi, and Winston Churchill.</p> <p>Charlemagne is memorably quoted by Dr Henry Jones Sr. (played by Sean Connery) in the film, <em>Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade</em>. Immediately after using his umbrella to induce a flock of seagulls to smash through the glass cockpit of a pursuing German fighter plane, Henry Jones remarks &quot;I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne: &#39;Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky&#39;.&quot; Despite the quote&#39;s popularity since the movie, there is no evidence that Charlemagne actually said this.<sup><span>[</span>22<span>]</span></sup></p> <p>The Economist, the weekly news and international affairs newspaper, features a one page article every week entitled &quot;Charlemagne&quot;, focusing on European government.</p> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Ancestry</span> <span>[show]</span> <div style="padding: 0pt; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; font-weight: normal; font-size: xx-small; float: ; text-align: ; width: 6em"><span>v</span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 80%">&bull;</span>&nbsp;<span>d</span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 80%">&bull;</span>&nbsp;<span>e</span></div> <span style="font-size: 110%">Ancestors of Charlemagne</span> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 16. Ansegisel &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 8. Pippin of Herstal <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 17. Begga &nbsp; &nbsp; 4. Charles Martel <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 18. Dodo &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 9. Alpaida <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 2. Pippin the Short <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 20. Warinus &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 10. Leudwinus <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 21. Kunza of Metz &nbsp; &nbsp; 5. Rotrude of Trier <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 22. Chrodobertus II &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 11. d. of Chrodobertus II <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 23. Doda &nbsp; &nbsp; 1. <strong>Charlemagne</strong> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 24. Ansegisel (= 16) &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 12. Martin of Laon <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> 25. Begga (= 17) &nbsp; &nbsp; 6. Caribert of Laon <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 13. Bertrada of Pr&uuml;m &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 3. Bertrada of Laon <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; &nbsp; <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> <div style="width: 0.5em; height: 0.5em"><span style="font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1px; line-height: 1px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">&nbsp;</span></div> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 7. Bertrada, Countess of Laon &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Family</span> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Marriages and heirs</span> <p>Charlemagne had twenty children over the course of his life with eight of his ten known wives or concubines. Nonetheless, he only had four legitimate grandsons, the four sons of his third son Louis, plus a grandson who was born illegitimate, but included in the line of inheritance in any case (Bernard of Italy, only son of Charlemagne&#39;s third son Pepin of Italy), so that the claimants to his inheritance remained few.</p> <ul><li>His first relationship was with Himiltrude. The nature of this relationship is variously described as concubinage, a legal marriage or as a Friedelehe.<sup><span>[</span>23<span>]</span></sup> (Charlemagne put her aside when he married Desiderata.) The union with Himiltrude produced two children: <ul><li>Amaudru, a daughter<sup><span>[</span>24<span>]</span></sup></li><li>Pippin the Hunchback (c. 769-811)</li></ul> </li></ul> <ul><li>After her, his first wife was Desiderata, daughter of Desiderius, king of the Lombards; married in 770, annulled in 771</li><li>His second wife was Hildegard (757 or 758-783), married 771, died 783. By her he had nine children: <ul><li>Charles the Younger (c.772-4 December 811), Duke of Maine, and crowned King of the Franks on 25 December 800</li><li>Carloman, renamed Pippin (April 773-8 July 810), King of Italy</li><li>Adalhaid (774), who was born whilst her parents were on campaign in Italy. She was sent back to Francia, but died before reaching Lyons</li><li>Rotrude (or Hruodrud) (775-6 June 810)</li><li>Louis (778-20 June 840), twin of Lothair, King of Aquitaine since 781, crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 813, senior Emperor from 814</li><li>Lothair (778-6 February 779/780), twin of Louis, he died in infancy<sup><span>[</span>25<span>]</span></sup></li><li>Bertha (779-826)</li><li>Gisela (781-808)</li><li>Hildegarde (782-783)</li></ul> </li><li>His third wife was Fastrada, married 784, died 794. By her he had: <ul><li>Theodrada (b.784), abbess of Argenteuil</li><li>Hiltrude (b.787)</li></ul> </li><li>His fourth wife was Luitgard, married 794, died childless</li></ul> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Concubinages and illegitimate children</span> <ul><li>His first known concubine was Gersuinda. By her he had: <ul><li>Adaltrude (b.774)</li></ul> </li><li>His second known concubine was Madelgard. By her he had: <ul><li>Ruodhaid (775-810), abbess of Faremoutiers</li></ul> </li><li>His third known concubine was Amaltrud of Vienne. By her he had: <ul><li>Alpaida (b.794)</li></ul> </li><li>His fourth known concubine was Regina. By her he had: <ul><li>Drogo (801-855), Bishop of Metz from 823 and abbot of Luxeuil Abbey</li><li>Hugh (802-844), archchancellor of the Empire</li></ul> </li><li>His fifth known concubine was Ethelind. By her he had: <ul><li>Richbod (805-844), Abbott of Saint-Riquier</li><li>Theodoric (b. 807)</li></ul> </li></ul> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>References</span> Wikimedia Commons has media related to: <em><strong>Charlemagne</strong></em> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Notes</span> <div> <ol><li><strong>^</strong> Rich&eacute;, Preface xviii, Pierre Rich&eacute; reflects: &ldquo; . . . he enjoyed an exceptional destiny, and by the length of his reign, by his conquests, legislation and legendary stature, he also profoundly marked the history of western Europe. &rdquo; </li><li><strong>^</strong> Oman, Charles. <em>The Dark Ages 476&ndash;919</em> Rivingtons: London, 1914. Regards Charlemagne&#39;s grandsons as the first kings of France and Germany, which at the time comprised the whole of the Carolingian Empire save Italy.</li><li><strong>^</strong> &quot;The year is given as 747 in <em>Annales Petaviani</em> [&quot;<em>Et ipso anno fuit natus Karolus rex</em>.&quot; <em>Annales Petaviani</em>, s.a. 747, MGH SS 1:11.</li><li><strong>^</strong> Etymology of &quot;Charles/Karl/Karel&quot;</li><li><strong>^</strong> Original text of the Salic law.</li><li><strong>^</strong> Einhard, <em>Life</em>, 25.</li><li><strong>^</strong> <em>Charlemagne</em> By Alessandro Barbero, Allan Cameron <em>P. 116</em></li><li><strong>^</strong> <em>Charlemagne</em> By Alessandro Barbero, Allan Cameron <em>P. 118</em></li><li><strong>^</strong> Gene W. Heck <em>When worlds collide: exploring the ideological and political foundations of the clash of civilizations</em> Rowman &amp; Littlefield, 2007 ISBN 0742558568, p. 172 [1]</li><li><strong>^</strong> Cf. <em>Monumenta Germaniae Historica</em>, Diplomata Karolinorum I, 77ff.</li><li><strong>^</strong> <em>eum imperatorem et basileum appellantes</em>, cf. <em>Royal Frankish Annals</em>, a. 812.</li><li><strong>^</strong> E. Eichmann, <em>Die Kaiserkr&ouml;nung im Abendland</em> I (W&uuml;rzburg: 1942), 33.</li><li><strong>^</strong> Einhard, <em>Life</em>, p. 59</li><li><strong>^</strong> Peter Godman (1985), <em>Latin Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance</em> (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press), 206&ndash;211.</li><li><strong>^</strong> Chamberlin, Russell, <em>The Emperor Charlemagne</em>, pp. 222&ndash;224</li><li><strong>^</strong> Dutton, PE, <em>Carolingian Civilization: A Reader</em></li><li><strong>^</strong> Dutton, Paul Edward, <em>Charlemagne&#39;s Mustache</em></li><li><strong>^</strong> Collins, <em>Charlemagne</em>, p. 147.</li><li><strong>^</strong> Collins, <em>Charlemagne</em>, p. 149.</li><li><strong>^</strong> Riche, Pierre, <em>The Carolingians</em>, p.124</li><li><strong>^</strong> Chamberlin, Russell, <em>The Emperor Charlemagne</em>, p.&nbsp;???</li><li><strong>^</strong> Quid plura? | &quot;Flying birds, excellent birds...&quot;</li><li><strong>^</strong> Charlemagne&#39;s biographer Einhard (Vita Karoli Magni, ch. 20) calls her a &quot;concubine&quot; and Paulus Diaconus speaks of Pippin&#39;s birth &quot;before legal marriage&quot;, whereas a letter by Pope Stephen III refers to Charlemagne and his brother Carloman as being already married (to Himiltrude and Gerberga), and advises them not to dismiss their wives. Historians have interpreted the information in different ways. Some, such as Pierre Rich&eacute; (<em>The Carolingians</em>, p.86.), follow Einhard in describing Himiltrude as a concubine. Others, for example Dieter H&auml;gemann (<em>Karl der Gro&szlig;e. Herrscher des Abendlands</em>, p. 82f.), consider Himiltrude a wife in the full sense. Still others subscribe to the idea that the relationship between the two was &quot;something more than concubinage, less than marriage&quot; and describe it as a Friedelehe, a form of marriage unrecognized by the Church and easily dissolvable. Russell Chamberlin (<em>The Emperor Charlemagne</em>, p. 61.), for instance, compared it with the English system of common-law marriage. This form of relationship is often seen in a conflict between Christian marriage and more flexible Germanic concepts.</li><li><strong>^</strong> Gerd Treffer, <em>Die franz&ouml;sischen K&ouml;niginnen. Von Bertrada bis Marie Antoinette (8.-18. Jahrhundert)</em> p. 30.</li><li><strong>^</strong> &quot;By [Hildigard] Charlemagne had four sons and four daughters, according to Paul the Deacon: one son, the twin of Lewis, called Lothar, died as a baby and is not mentioned by Einhard; two daughters, Hildigard and Adelhaid, died as babies, so that Einhard appears to err in one of his names, unless there were really five daughters.&quot; Thorpe, Lewis, <em>Two Lives of Charlemagne</em>, p.185</li></ol> </div> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>Bibliography</span> <ul><li>Barbero, Alessandro (2004). <em>Charlemagne: Father of a Continent</em>. trans. Allan Cameron. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23943-1.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li><li>Becher, Matthias (2003). <em>Charlemagne</em>. trans. David S. Bachrach. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09796-4.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li><li>Einhard (1960) [1880]. <em>The Life of Charlemagne</em>. trans. Samuel Epes Turner. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-06035-X<span>. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/einhard.html</span>.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li><li>Ganshof, F. L. (1971). <em>The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy: Studies in Carolingian History</em>. trans. Janet Sondheimer. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-0635-8.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li><li>Langston, Aileen Lewers; and J. Orton Buck, Jr (eds.) (1974). <em>Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne&#39;s Descendants</em>. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co..<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li><li>McKitterick, R. (2008). <em>Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity</em>. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li><li>Rich&eacute;, Pierre (1993). <em>The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe</em>. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1342-4</li><li>Oman, Charles (1914). <em>The Dark Ages, 476-918</em> (6th ed. ed.). London: Rivingtons.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li><li>Painter, Sidney (1953). <em>A History of the Middle Ages, 284-1500</em>. New York: Knopf.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li><li>Pirenne, Henri (1939). <em>Mohammed and Charlemagne</em>. trans. Bernard Miall. New York: Norton.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li><li>Santosuosso, Antonio (2004). <em>Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Ways of Medieval Warfare</em>. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-9153-9.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li><li>Scholz, Bernhard Walter; with Barbara Rogers (1970). <em>Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard&#39;s Histories</em>. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08790-8.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span> Comprises the <em>Annales regni Francorum</em> and <em>The History of the Sons of Louis the Pious</em></li><li>Charlemagne: Biographies and general studies, from <em>Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica</em>, full-article, latest edition.</li><li>Sypeck, Jeff (2006). <em>Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and The Empires of A.D. 800</em>. New York: Ecco/HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-079706-1.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li><li>Wilson, Derek (2005). <em>Charlemagne: The Great Adventure</em>. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-179461-7.<span><span style="display: none">&nbsp;</span></span></li></ul> <p></p> <span>[edit]</span> <span>External links</span> Wikimedia Commons has media related to category:<br> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<em><strong>Carolus Magnus</strong></em> Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: <em><strong>Charlemagne</strong></em> <ul><li>Charlemagne&#39;s biography</li><li><em>The Life of Charlemagne</em> by Einhard. At Medieval Sourcebook</li><li><em>Vita Karoli Magni</em> by Einhard. Latin text at The Latin Library</li><li>A reconstructed portrait of Charlemagne, based on historical sources, in a contemporary style.</li><li>The Sword of Charlemagne (myArmoury.com article)</li><li>Charlemagne Picture Gallery</li><li>Charter given by Charlemagne for St. Emmeram&#39;s Abbey showing the Emperor&#39;s seal, 22.2.794 . Taken from the collections of the Lichtbildarchiv &auml;lterer Originalurkunden at Marburg University</li><li>Works by or about Charlemagne in libraries (WorldCat catalog)</li></ul> <div style="border: 1px solid white; margin: 1px; float: "> <strong></strong> Familypedia has a page on Charlemagne_(747-814). </div> <div>Emperor Charles I the Great</div> <div><strong>Carolingian dynasty</strong></div> <span style="margin: 2em; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 90%"><strong>Died:</strong> 28 January 814</span> Regnal titles Preceded&nbsp;by<br> <strong>Pippin the Short</strong> <strong>King of the Franks</strong><br> 768 &ndash; 814<br> <em>with Carloman I</em> <em>(768 &ndash; 771)</em><br> <em>Charles the Younger</em> <em>(800 &ndash; 811)</em> Succeeded&nbsp;by<br> <strong>Louis the Pious</strong> <strong>New title</strong><br> <div style="font-size: 90%">Title granted by<br> Pope Leo III</div> <strong>(Holy) Roman Emperor</strong><br> 800 &ndash; 814<br> <em>with Louis the Pious</em> <em>(813 &ndash; 814)</em> Preceded&nbsp;by<br> <strong>Desiderius</strong> <strong>King of the Lombards</strong><br> 774 &ndash; 814<br> <em>with Pippin of Italy<br> as <strong>King of Italy</strong></em> <em>(781 &ndash; 810)</em> Succeeded&nbsp;by<br> <strong>Bernard of Italy</strong><br> <em><strong>as King of Italy</strong></em> <span>[show]</span> <div style="float: ; width: 6em; text-align: "> <div style="border: medium none ; padding: 0pt; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; font-weight: normal; font-size: xx-small"><span style="border: medium none ">v</span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 80%">&bull;</span>&nbsp;<span style="border: medium none ">d</span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 80%">&bull;</span>&nbsp;<span style="border: medium none ">e</span></div> </div> <span style="font-size: 110%">Carolingian Kings of the Franks</span> &nbsp; <div style="padding: 0em 0.25em"><span style="white-space: nowrap"><strong>Carolingians:</strong> P&eacute;pin <em>(751&ndash;768)</em>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Carloman I <em>(768&ndash;771)</em>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap"><strong>Charles I</strong> <em>(768&ndash;814)</em>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Louis I <em>(814&ndash;840)</em>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Interregnum <em>(840&ndash;843)</em>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Charles II <em>(843&ndash;877)</em>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Louis II <em>(877&ndash;879)</em>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Louis III <em>(879&ndash;882)</em>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Carloman II <em>(879&ndash;884)</em>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Charles the Fat <em>(884&ndash;888)</em></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap"><strong>Robertian:</strong> Eudes <em>(887&ndash;898)</em></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap"><strong>Carolingian:</strong> Charles III <em>(898&ndash;922)</em></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap"><strong>Robertian:</strong> Robert I <em>(922&ndash;923)</em></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap"><strong>Burgundy</strong>: Raoul <em>(923&ndash;936)</em></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap"><strong>Carolingians:</strong> Louis IV <em>(936&ndash;954)</em>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Lothaire <em>(954&ndash;986)</em>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Louis V <em>(986&ndash;987)</em></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap"><strong>Capetian (Robertian):</strong> Hughes <em>(986&ndash;987)</em></span></div> <div></div> <span>[show]</span> <div style="float: ; width: 6em; text-align: "> <div style="border: medium none ; padding: 0pt; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; font-weight: normal; font-size: xx-small"><span style="border: medium none ">v</span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 80%">&bull;</span>&nbsp;<span style="border: medium none ">d</span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 80%">&bull;</span>&nbsp;<span style="border: medium none ">e</span></div> </div> <span style="font-size: 110%">Kings of Italy between 476 and 963</span> &nbsp; Non-dynastic <div style="padding: 0em 0.25em">Odoacer <em>(476&ndash;493)</em></div> <div></div> <div></div> <div></div> &nbsp; Ostrogoths <div style="padding: 0em 0.25em">Theodoric <em>(493&ndash;526)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Athalaric <em>(526&ndash;534)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Theodahad <em>(534&ndash;536)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Witiges <em>(536&ndash;540)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Ildibad <em>(540&ndash;541)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Eraric <em>(541)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Totila <em>(541&ndash;552)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Teia <em>(552&ndash;553)</em></div> &nbsp; Byzantines <div style="padding: 0em 0.25em">Justinian I (as Emperor) <em>(553&ndash;565)</em></div> &nbsp; Lombards <div style="padding: 0em 0.25em">Alboin <em>(565&ndash;572)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Cleph <em>(572&ndash;574)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> <em>Interregnum</em> <em>(574&ndash;584)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Authari <em>(584&ndash;590)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Agilulf <em>(590&ndash;616)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Adaloald <em>(616&ndash;626)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Arioald <em>(626&ndash;636)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Rothari <em>(636-652)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Rodoald <em>(652&ndash;653)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Aripert I <em>(653&ndash;661)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Godepert <em>(661&ndash;662)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Perctarit <em>(661&ndash;662)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Grimoald <em>(662&ndash;671)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Garibald <em>(671)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Perctarit <em>(671&ndash;688)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Cunipert <em>(688&ndash;689)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Alahis <em>(689)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Cunipert <em>(689&ndash;700)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Liutpert <em>(700&ndash;702)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Raginpert <em>(701)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Aripert II <em>(702&ndash;712)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Ansprand <em>(712)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Liutprand <em>(712&ndash;744)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Hildeprand <em>(744)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Ratchis <em>(744&ndash;749)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Aistulf <em>(749&ndash;756)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Desiderius <em>(756&ndash;774)</em></div> &nbsp; Carolingians <div style="padding: 0em 0.25em"><strong>Charles I</strong> <em>(774&ndash;814)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Pepin <em>(781&ndash;810)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Bernard <em>(810&ndash;818)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Lothair I <em>(818&ndash;855)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Louis I <em>(855&ndash;875)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Charles II <em>(875&ndash;877)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Carloman <em>(877&ndash;879)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Charles III <em>(879&ndash;887)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Arnulf <em>(896&ndash;899)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Ratold <em>(896)</em></div> &nbsp; Non-dynastic<br> (title disputed 887&ndash;933) <div style="padding: 0em 0.25em"><strong>Unruochings</strong>: Berengar I <em>(887&ndash;924)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> <strong>Guideschi</strong>: Guy <em>(889&ndash;894)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Lambert <em>(891&ndash;897)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> <strong>Welfs</strong>: Rudolph <em>(922&ndash;933)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> <strong>Bosonids</strong>: Louis II <em>(900&ndash;905)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Hugh <em>(926&ndash;947)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Lothair II <em>(945&ndash;950)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> <strong>Anscarids</strong>: Berengar II <em>(950&ndash;963)</em><span style="font-weight: bold">&nbsp;&middot;</span> Adalbert <em>(950&ndash;963)</em></div> <span>[show]</span> <div style="float: ; width: 6em; text-align: "> <div style="border: medium none ; padding: 0pt; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; font-weight: normal; font-size: xx-small"><span style="border: medium none ">v</span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 80%">&bull;</span>&nbsp;<span style="border: medium none ">d</span>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 80%">&bull;</span>&nbsp;<span style="border: medium none ">e</span></div> </div> <span style="font-size: 110%">Holy Roman Emperors</span> &nbsp; Carolingian Empire <div style="padding: 0em 0.25em"><span style="white-space: nowrap"><strong>Charles I (Charlemagne)</strong>&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Louis I&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Lothair I&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Louis II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Charles II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Charles III&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Guy&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Lambert&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Arnulf &nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Louis III&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Berengar</span></div> &nbsp; Holy Roman Empire <div style="padding: 0em 0.25em">Otto I&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Otto II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Otto III&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Henry II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Conrad II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Henry III&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Henry IV&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Henry V&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Lothair II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Frederick I&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Henry VI&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Otto IV&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Frederick II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Henry VII&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Louis IV&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Charles IV&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Sigismund&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Frederick III&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Maximilian I&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Charles V&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Ferdinand I&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Maximilian II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Rudolph II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Matthias&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Ferdinand II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Ferdinand III&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Leopold I&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Joseph I&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Charles VI&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Charles VII&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Francis I&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Joseph II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Leopold II&nbsp;<strong>&middot;</strong></span> <span style="white-space: nowrap">Francis II</span></div> <p>&nbsp;</p> Persondata NAME Charlemagne ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carolus Magnus SHORT DESCRIPTION King of the Franks DATE OF BIRTH April, 742/747 PLACE OF BIRTH Li&egrave;ge, Belgium DATE OF DEATH January 28, 814 PLACE OF DEATH Aachen, Germany <!-- NewPP limit report Preprocessor node count: 11508/1000000 Post-expand include size: 147994/2048000 bytes Template argument size: 55177/2048000 bytes Expensive parser function count: 4/500 --> <!-- Saved in parser cache with key enwiki:pcache:idhash:5314-0!1!0!default!!en!2 and timestamp 20090514214942 --> <div> Retrieved from &quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne&quot;</div> <div>Categories: <span>740s births</span> | <span>814 deaths</span> | <span>Roman Catholic monarchs</span> | <span>Carolingian dynasty</span> | <span>Frankish kings</span> | <span>Holy Roman Emperors</span> | <span>Kings of Burgundy</span> | <span>Matter of France</span> | <span>Characters in The Song of Roland</span> | <span>Characters in Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso</span> | <span>Christianity of the Middle Ages</span> | <span>Medieval Roman consuls</span> | <span>9th-century Christians</span> | <span>9th-century rulers</span></div>

  • Story: Charlemagne

    <p><strong>Charlemagne</strong> (pronounced <span><font face="Arial Unicode MS">/ˈʃɑrlɨmeɪn/</font></span>; Latin: <span><em>Carolus Magnus</em> or <em>Karolus Magnus</em></span>, meaning <strong>Charles the Great</strong>) (747 &ndash; 28 January 814) was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned <span><em>Imperator Augustus</em></span> by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800 as a rival of the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople. His rule is also associated with the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture through the medium of the Catholic Church. Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define both Western Europe and the Middle Ages. He is numbered as <strong>Charles I</strong> in the regnal lists of France, Germany, and the Holy Roman Empire.</p><p>The son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, he succeeded his father and co-ruled with his brother Carloman I. The latter got on badly with Charlemagne, but war was prevented by the sudden death of Carloman in 771. Charlemagne continued the policy of his father towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in Italy, and waging war on the Saracens, who menaced his realm from Spain. It was during one of these campaigns that Charlemagne experienced the worst defeat of his life, at Roncesvalles (778). He also campaigned against the peoples to his east, especially the Saxons, and after a protracted war subjected them to his rule. By forcibly converting them to Christianity, he integrated them into his realm and thus paved the way for the later Ottonian dynasty.</p><p>Today he is regarded not only as the founding father of both French and German monarchies, but also as <em>the father of Europe</em>: his empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans, and the Carolingian renaissance encouraged the formation of a common European identity.<sup>[1]</sup> Pierre Rich&eacute; reflects:</p>&ldquo;. . . he enjoyed an exceptional destiny, and by the length of his reign, by his conquests, legislation and legendary stature, he also profoundly marked the history of western Europe.

 
 
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