Charlemagne

Date: 778 - 814 AD
Location: France, Germany, Northern Italy, Northern Spain


Charlemagne, the latin word for 'Charles the Great' was a Frankish King in the Dark Ages in Europe. The Franks were a tribe of barbarians that swept in from the east and invaded the Roman Empire starting from the 5th century AD. Charlemagne, born in the Carolingian Dynasty, was the son of Pepin the Short, who agreed to divide his empire amongst his two sons, Charles and Carloman. However, Carloman died in 788, leaving all the kingdom to his brother, and thus keeping it rather stable. Charlemagne first led a campaign against the Saxons, a warring peoples who lived to the south of Denmark, and won several great victories. With Saxony annexed, the king recieved a message from the pope saying that the vile pagan Lombards were threatening to besiege Rome and capture him, and so requested Charlemagne to invade Italy. By the time Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards, he was crowned 'Holy Roman Emperor' as a reviving of the old idea of the Roman Empire. The emperor built several centers for learning and art in Aachen, Paris, and many other cities, although it is believed that he was never able to learn how to read. He later accepted an alliance requested by Harun Al-Rashid, the Caliph of Baghdad, to destroy the Emirate of Cordova in Spain. Charlemagne now began one of his last campaigns, the Spanish March. Having managed to cross the Pyrenees, Charlemagne siezed Catalonia, which held the city of Barcelona, but could go no further. This also aided him with respect to defending his lands in southern France. He was a greatly religious man and always loved to see his people learn; it also said that he was of unusually tall height, with broad shoulders and held himself like a man. Charlemagne died peacefully in 814, giving away his kingdom to three of his successors, who divided the empire among themselves and helped shape the end of the Dark Ages and the dawn of the Middle Ages, with the Kingdom of France formed.