Charlemagne c. He embarked on a mission to unite all Germanic peoples into one kingdom, and convert his subjects to Christianity. A skilled military strategist, he spent much of his reign engaged in warfare in order to accomplish his goals.
In this role, he encouraged the Carolingian Renaissance, a cultural and intellectual revival in Europe. Today, Charlemagne is referred to by some as the father of Europe. Charlemagne was born around , the son of Bertrada of Laon d. Once in power, Charlemagne sought to unite all the Germanic peoples into one kingdom, and convert his subjects to Christianity. In order to carry out this mission, he spent the majority of his reign engaged in military campaigns.
Soon after becoming king, he conquered the Lombards in present-day northern Italy , the Avars in modern-day Austria and Hungary and Bavaria, among others. Charlemagne waged a bloody, three-decades-long series of battles against the Saxons, a Germanic tribe of pagan worshippers, and earned a reputation for ruthlessness.
In at the Massacre of Verden, Charlemagne reportedly ordered the slaughter of some 4, Saxons. In his personal life, Charlemagne had multiple wives and mistresses and perhaps as many as 18 children. He allegedly loved his daughters so much that he prohibited them from marrying while he was alive. Einhard c. In his role as a zealous defender of Christianity, Charlemagne gave money and land to the Christian church and protected the popes.
As emperor, Charlemagne proved to be a talented diplomat and able administrator of the vast area he controlled. He promoted education and encouraged the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of renewed emphasis on scholarship and culture. He instituted economic and religious reforms, and was a driving force behind the Carolingian miniscule, a standardized form of writing that later became a basis for modern European printed alphabets. Charlemagne ruled from a number of cities and palaces, but spent significant time in Aachen.
The first step that Charlemagne took in building his empire was to conquer new territories. The first of these conquering campaigns was against the Lombards; Charlemagne came out victorious and won the Lombard lands to the north of Italy. At his succession in , Pope Adrian I demanded the return of certain cities in the former exarchate of Ravenna in accordance with a promise at the succession of Desiderius.
Instead, Desiderius took over certain papal cities and invaded the Pentapolis, heading for Rome. Adrian sent ambassadors to Charlemagne in the autumn, requesting he enforce the policies of his father, Pepin. Charlemagne demanded that Desiderius comply with the pope, but Desiderius promptly swore he never would.
Charlemagne and his uncle Bernard crossed the Alps in and chased the Lombards back to Pavia, which they then besieged. The siege lasted until the spring of , when Charlemagne visited the pope in Rome. Some later chronicles falsely claimed that he also expanded them, granting Tuscany, Emilia, Venice, and Corsica. After the pope granted Charlemagne the title of patrician, he returned to Pavia, where the Lombards were on the verge of surrendering.
In return for their lives, the Lombards conceded and opened the gates in early summer. Charlemagne and Pope Adrian I The Frankish king Charlemagne was a devout Catholic who maintained a close relationship with the papacy throughout his life. In , when Pope Adrian 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. In the Saxon Wars, spanning thirty years and eighteen battles, Charlemagne overthrew Saxony and proceeded to convert the conquered to Christianity.
The Germanic Saxons were divided into four subgroups in four regions. Nearest to Austrasia was Westphalia, and furthest away was Eastphalia. Unlike his father, Pepin, and uncle Carloman, Charlemagne expanded the reform program of the church. The deepening of the spiritual life was later to be seen as central to public policy and royal governance. His authority was now extended over church and state; he could discipline clerics, control ecclesiastical property, and define orthodox doctrine.
Despite the harsh legislation and sudden change, he had grown a well-developed support from the clergy who approved his desire to deepen the piety and morals of his Christian subjects. In , Charlemagne was crowned emperor and adapted his existing royal administration to live up to the expectations of his new title. The political reforms wrought in his capital, Aachen, were to have an immense impact on the political definition of Western Europe for the rest of the Middle Ages.
Legally, Charlemagne exercised the bannum , the right to rule and command, over all of his territories. Also, he had supreme jurisdiction in judicial matters, made legislation, led the army, and protected both the church and the poor. His administration attempted to organize the kingdom, church, and nobility around him; however, its efficacy was directly dependent upon the efficiency, loyalty, and support of his subjects.
Around Charlemagne reformed the local system of administering justice and created the scabini , professional experts on law. Every count had the help of seven of these scabini , who were supposed to know every national law so that all men could be judged according to it. Judges were also banned from taking bribes and were supposed to use sworn inquests to establish facts.
In , all law was written down and amended. The Frankish kingdom was subdivided by Charlemagne into three separate areas to make administration easier. Outside this was the regna , where Frankish administration rested upon the counts, and beyond regna were the marcher areas, ruled by powerful governors.
These marcher lordships were present in Brittany, Spain, and Avaria. Charlemagne also created two sub-kingdoms in Aquitaine and Italy, ruled by his sons Louis and Pepin respectively. Bavaria was also under the command of an autonomous governor, Gerold, until his death in
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