Skip to content

Charlemagne

Ch. 1 of 8
— CH. 1 · INTRODUCTION —

Contents

Charlemagne

8 sections

  • Charlemagne was the first emperor to rule from the west after the fall of the Western Roman Empire roughly three centuries earlier. On Christmas Day in the year 800, inside St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Leo III placed a crown on his head and proclaimed him emperor of the Romans. No reigning emperor had held that station in the west since the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476. The man being crowned had been King of the Franks since 768 and King of the Lombards since 774. Yet historians still argue over what that crowning meant, whether he wanted it, and whether he even knew it was coming. His biographer Einhard claimed he would never have entered the church had he known the pope's plan. How did a Frankish king united most of Western and Central Europe? Why do multiple modern states still call him a founding figure? And what did he do to the Saxons that one historian called the greatest stain on his reputation? The answers run through a long reign of conquest, reform, and a cultural revival that outlasted him by centuries.

  • Karlo was what Early Old French speakers called him, while the formal Latin of writing and diplomacy named him Carolus or Karolus. The modern English form, Charlemagne, descends from the French Charles-le-magne, meaning Charles the Great. German and Dutch speakers know him as Karl der Große and Karel de Grote. The Latin epithet magnus, meaning great, may have attached to him during his lifetime, though that is uncertain. The contemporary Royal Frankish Annals routinely called him Carolus magnus rex, Charles the great king. That epithet appears in the works of the Poeta Saxo around the year 900, and by 1000 it had become commonly applied to him. He was named after his grandfather, Charles Martel, and that name and its derivatives are unattested before Charles Martel and Charlemagne used them. The reach of the name went further still. Slavic languages adapted Karolus into their word for king, surviving as korol, krol, and kral, drawn either from Charlemagne's own influence or that of his great-grandson, Charles the Fat.

  • Charlemagne's year of birth is uncertain, though most likely 748. The 9th-century biographer Einhard reported him as 72 years old at his death, the Royal Frankish Annals gave his age imprecisely as about 71, and his original epitaph called him a septuagenarian. All three sources may have been shaped by Psalm 90, which reads "The days of our years are threescore years and ten." Some scholars believe Einhard, not knowing the true age, still chose a figure that fit the Roman imperial biographies of Suetonius, which he used as a model. Historian Karl Ferdinand Werner challenged the older tradition of a 742 birth year, pointing to an addition to the Annales Petaviani that recorded a birth in 747. Lorsch Abbey commemorated his date of birth as the 2nd of April from the mid-9th century, a date likely to be genuine. Matthias Becher built on Werner's work and showed that the 2nd of April in the recorded year would actually have fallen in 748, since the annalists began the year from Easter rather than the 1st of January. His place of birth remains unknown. Scholars have proposed the Frankish palaces at Vaires-sur-Marne, Quierzy, and Herstal, but none can be proven.

  • Pepin the Short, Charlemagne's father, had deposed the Merovingian Childeric and taken the throne by 751 or 752. When Pope Stephen II travelled to Francia in 754 to seek aid against the Lombards, he anointed Pepin as king, and the young Charlemagne was sent to greet and escort him. Pepin fell ill on campaign in Aquitaine and died on the 24th of September 768. Charlemagne and his brother Carloman I succeeded their father, with separate coronations on the 9th of October, Charlemagne at Noyon and Carloman at Soissons. They held separate palaces and spheres yet ruled a single Frankish kingdom in name. Their relationship frayed when Carloman returned home and left Charlemagne to finish the Aquitaine campaign alone, ending ten years of war with the capture of Duke Hunald. To navigate Roman affairs and Lombard ambition, Charlemagne's mother Bertrada travelled to Lombardy in 770 and brokered a marriage alliance with a daughter of King Desiderius. The rivalry ended abruptly. Carloman died suddenly on the 4th of December 771, leaving Charlemagne sole king of the Franks, and Carloman's widow Gerberga fled with her children to Desiderius's court in Lombardy.

  • Pope Adrian I, who succeeded Stephen III in 772, sought the return of cities captured by Desiderius and appealed to Charlemagne for help. Charlemagne first offered gold for the return of papal territories and his nephews, and when that overture was rejected, he crossed the Alps to besiege the Lombard capital of Pavia in late 773. He left his uncle Bernard to hold the siege while he captured Verona, where Desiderius's son Adalgis sheltered Carloman's sons. After taking the city, no further record of his nephews survives, and the British historian Janet Nelson compares them to the Princes in the Tower. In April 774 he broke off to celebrate Easter in Rome, where Pope Adrian arranged a formal welcome and the two swore oaths over the relics of St. Peter. Disease then struck the besieged Lombards, who surrendered Pavia by June 774. Charlemagne deposed Desiderius and took the title of King of the Lombards, an act the authors of The Carolingian World call "without parallel." Rosamond McKitterick suggests the elective nature of the Lombard monarchy eased the takeover, and Roger Collins attributes the easy conquest to a Lombard belief that rightful authority belonged to whoever was powerful enough to seize it.

  • The pagan Irminsul at Eresburg was destroyed by Charlemagne in his first war against the Saxons, who had been raiding the Frankish borderlands. That campaign began over 30 years of nearly continuous warfare against the Saxons. At an assembly in Paderborn in 777, many Saxons came under his rule, but the magnate Widukind fled to Denmark to prepare a new rebellion. In summer 782, Widukind returned to attack the Frankish positions and defeated a Frankish army before fleeing again. The annals record that Charlemagne then had 4,500 Saxon prisoners beheaded in the massacre of Verden, an episode Alessandro Barbero calls "perhaps the greatest stain on his reputation." Around that time he issued the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, a harsh set of laws that imposed the death penalty for pagan practices and aimed at suppressing Saxon identity. The campaigns of the 790s grew even more destructive, with annal writers noting Charlemagne "burning," "ravaging," and "laying waste" to Saxon lands. He forcibly removed large numbers of Saxons to Francia and installed Frankish elites in their place. In 785 he met Widukind and persuaded him to end his resistance; Widukind agreed to be baptised with Charlemagne as his godfather. The final campaign came in 804, when Charlemagne seized Saxon territory east of the Elbe and gave the land to his Obotrite allies.

  • The Capitulare missorum generale of 802 required all free men to take an oath of loyalty to Charlemagne. It reformed the missi dominici, officials now assigned in pairs of a cleric and a lay aristocrat to administer justice and oversee governance in defined territories. He also ordered the revision of the Lombard and Frankish legal codes. The 806 charter Divisio Regnorum set the terms of his succession, granting the eldest son Charles the largest share, including Francia and Saxony, while confirming Pepin and Louis in their kingdoms. Diplomacy reached far beyond his borders. He requested an elephant from the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, and Harun provided one named Abul-Abbas, which arrived at Aachen in 802. Harun also gave Charlemagne nominal rule of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Recognition from the east came hard. Several delegations passed between Charlemagne and Empress Irene in 802 and 803, and the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes records that he offered marriage to Irene before she was deposed. Peace finally came when Nikephoros's successor Michael I sent envoys to Aachen in 811 to recognise Charlemagne as emperor, after which he issued the first Frankish coins bearing his imperial title.

  • Scriptoria in monasteries and cathedrals produced an estimated 90,000 manuscripts during the 9th century, copying both new and old works. This was the Carolingian Renaissance, a cultural revival fed by contacts across the Mediterranean, an influx of foreign scholars, and the length and relative stability of his reign. Charlemagne promoted learning as a matter of policy and patronage, aiming to create a more effective clergy, and set out his goals in the Admonitio generalis and the Epistola de litteris colendis. Intellectual life at court drew Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Visigothic, and Italian scholars, including Dungal of Bobbio, Alcuin of York, Theodulf of Orleans, and Peter of Pisa, with Franks such as Einhard contributing as well. The Carolingian minuscule script was developed and popularised in medieval copying, going on to influence Renaissance and modern typefaces. The legacy stretched into politics centuries later. Charlemagne died in 814 and was buried at the Palatine Chapel in Aachen, now part of Aachen Cathedral, and the Ottonians held their German coronations there through the Middle Ages. Since 1949 Aachen has awarded the Karlspreis in his honour, given annually to those who promote European unity, with recipients including Alcide De Gasperi and Winston Churchill.

Up next

Carolingian Empire

Updated

Common questions

Who was Charlemagne and what did he rule?

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and Emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 800. He united most of Western and Central Europe and was the first recognised emperor to rule from the west after the fall of the Western Roman Empire about three centuries earlier.

When was Charlemagne crowned emperor?

Charlemagne was crowned emperor on Christmas Day in the year 800, when Pope Leo III proclaimed him emperor of the Romans and crowned him at mass in St. Peter's Basilica. He was the first reigning emperor in the west since the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476.

When and where was Charlemagne born?

Charlemagne's year of birth is uncertain but most likely 748, and Lorsch Abbey commemorated the 2nd of April as his date of birth. His place of birth is unknown, with scholars suggesting the Frankish palaces at Vaires-sur-Marne, Quierzy, and Herstal.

What was the massacre of Verden under Charlemagne?

The massacre of Verden was an event in which the annals record Charlemagne had 4,500 Saxon prisoners beheaded in 782, after a Frankish army was defeated by the Saxon leader Widukind. The historian Alessandro Barbero calls it perhaps the greatest stain on his reputation.

When did Charlemagne die and where was he buried?

Charlemagne died on the 28th of January 814 after developing pleurisy and being bedridden for seven days. He was buried at the Palatine Chapel in Aachen, now part of Aachen Cathedral, his imperial capital city.

Why is Charlemagne called the father of Europe?

Charlemagne is called the father of Europe because of the influence of his reign and the legacy he left across a large area of the continent. He is seen as a founding figure by multiple European states, and several historical royal houses of Europe trace their lineage back to him.

All sources

88 references cited across the entry

  1. 1Laureates
  2. 2Charlemagne
  3. 3AachenJoseph Lins — Robert Appleton Company — 1907
  4. 4BookMaking the Holy Roman Empire Holy: Frederick Barbarossa, Saint Charlemagne and the sacrum imperiumVedran Sulovsky — Cambridge University Press — 2024
  5. 5Aachen
  6. 6BookMedieval Germany, 500–1300 A Political InterpretationBenjamin Arnold — Palgrave Macmillan — 1997
  7. 7BookCharlemagne: Father of a ContinentAlessandro Barbero — University of California Press — 2004
  8. 8BookCharlemagneMatthias Becher — Yale University Press — 2005
  9. 9BookThose of My Blood: Creating Noble Families in Medieval FranciaConstance Bouchard — University of Pennsylvania Press — 2010
  10. 10BookLegends of CharlemagneThomas Bulfinch — Boston, J. E. Tilton and Co. — 1864
  11. 11BookScorched Earth: A Global History of World War IIPaul Thomas Chamberlin — Basic Books — 2025
  12. 12BookA Short History of the German Language (RLE Linguistics E: Indo-European Linguistics)William Walker Chambers et al. — Routledge — 2014
  13. 13BookCharlemagneRoger Collins — University of Toronto Press — 1998
  14. 14Renaissances before the Renaissance: Cultural Revivals of Late Antiquity and the Middle AgesJohn J. Contreni — Stanford University Press — 1984
  15. 15BookThe New Cambridge Medieval History Volume II: c. 700–900John J. Contreni — Cambridge University Press — 1995
  16. 16BookThe Carolingian WorldMarios Costambeys et al. — Cambridge University Press — 2011
  17. 17BookBeards and Texts: Images of Masculinity in Medieval German LiteratureSebastian Coxon — UCL Press — 2021
  18. 18BookEurope: A HistoryNorman Davies — Oxford University Press — 1996
  19. 19BookCharlemagne's Practice of EmpireJennifer R. Davis — Cambridge University Press — 2015
  20. 20BookCharlemagne's Mustache: And Other Cultural Clusters of a Dark AgePaul Dutton — Palgrave Macmillan — 2016
  21. 21BookEncyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in TransformationMichael Frassetto — ABC-CLIO — 2003
  22. 22Journal"Charles the Great, or Just Plain Charles: Was Charlemagne a Great Medieval Leader?"Elizabeth Freeman — 2017
  23. 23BookCharlemagneJohannes Fried — Harvard University Press — 2016
  24. 24JournalThe Impact of Charlemagne on the Institutions of the Frankish Realm.François L. Ganshof — 1965
  25. 25JournalGermanic Tradition and Royal Ideology in the Ninth Century: The Visio Karoli MagniPatrick J. Geary — 1987
  26. 26JournalPaul the Deacon's 'Gesta Episcoporum Mettensium' and the Early Design of Charlemagne's SuccessionWalter Goffart — 1986
  27. 27BookCarlo Magno: Il signore dell'OccidenteDieter Hägermann — Arnoldo Mondadori Editore — 2011
  28. 28BookThe Legend of Charlemagne in Medieval EnglandPhilipa Hardman et al. — DS Brewer — 2017
  29. 29BookEmpires and Barbarians:The Fall of Rome and the birth of EuropePeter Heather — Oxford University Press — 2009
  30. 30BookOxford Classical DictionarySimon Hornblower — Oxford University Press — 2012
  31. 31BookIus hereditarium Encountered III: Ezzo's Chess MatchDonald C. Jackman — Editions Enlaplage — 2010
  32. 32JournalCaxton's Worthies Series: The Production of Literary CultureWilliam Kuskin — 1999
  33. 33BookLatin: story of a World LanguageJürgen Leonhardt — Harvard — 2016
  34. 34JournalDynastic Structures and Capetian Throne-Right: the Views of Giles of ParisAndrew W. Lewis — 1977
  35. 35BookThe GI Offensive in Europe: The Triumph of American Infantry Divisions, 1941–1945Peter R. Mansoor — University Press of Kansas — 1999
  36. 36JournalCharlemagne, the Saxons, and the Imperial Coronation of 800Henry Mayr-Harting — 1996
  37. 37BookCharlemagne's Survey of the Holy Land: Wealth, Personnel, and Buildings of a Mediterranean Church between Antiquity and the Middle AgesMichael McCormick — Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection — 2011
  38. 38JournalUnity and Diversity in the Carolingian ChurchRosamond McKitterick — 1996
  39. 39BookCharlemagne: The Formation of a European IdentityRosamond McKitterick — Cambridge University Press — 2008
  40. 40BookRoyal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires: A Global PerspectiveRosamond McKitterick — Brill — 2011
  41. 41BookEmpire and Order:Concepts of Empire 800-1800James Muldoon — St. Martin's Press — 1999
  42. 42BookCourts, Elites, and Gendered Power in the Early Middle Ages. Charlemagne and othersJanet L. Nelson — Ashgate — 2007
  43. 43BookKing and Emperor: A New Life of CharlemagneJanet L. Nelson — Allen Lane — 2019
  44. 44BookThe European Campaign: Its Origins and ConductS. J. Newland — U.S. Army (Combined Arms Center/CGSC) — 2010
  45. 45JournalCarolingian ReligionThomas F. X. Noble — 2015
  46. 46BookNomen et FraternitasUlrich Nonn — DeGruyter — 2008
  47. 47BookMohammed and CharlemagneHenri Pirenne — Dover — 2012
  48. 48JournalPlunder and Tribute in the Carolingian EmpireTimothy Reuter — 1985
  49. 49BookThe Carolingians: A Family Who Forged EuropePierre Riché — University of Pennsylvania Press — 1993
  50. 50JournalCharlemagne was very tall, but not robustF.J. Ruhli et al. — 2010
  51. 51BookOrbis Romanus: Byzantium and the Legacy of Rome in the Carolingian WorldLaury Sarti — Oxford University Press — 2024
  52. 52BookThe Shaping of German Identity: Authority and CrisisLen Scales — Cambridge University Press — 2012
  53. 53BookThe Filioque: History of a Doctrinal ControversyAnthony Edward Siecienski — Oxford University Press — 2010
  54. 54JournalThe Silver Shields of Pope Leo III: A Reassessment of the EvidenceAndrea Sterk — 1 October 1988
  55. 55BookFamilies, Friends and Allies: Boulogne and Politics in Northern France and EnglandHeather Tanner — Brill — 2004
  56. 56BookVerbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen SS im Zweitenkrieg 1939-45, Vol. IIIGeorg Tessin — Biblio Verlag — 1974
  57. 57BookRhinelandUS Army CMH — Center of Military History (CMH), United States Army — 2017
  58. 58BookEncyclopedia of European PeoplesCarl Waldman et al. — Facts on File — 2006
  59. 59BookChambers's New Handy Volume American EncyclopædiaJ.D. Williams — Arundel — 1885
  60. 60BookThe Rhetoric of Alcuin and Charlemagne: A Translation, with an Introduction, the Latin Text, and NotesAlcuin — Princeton University Press — 1941
  61. 61BookAlcuin of York, c. AD 732 to 804: His life and lettersAlcuin — Sessions Book Trust — 1974
  62. 62BookLiber Historiae FrancorumCoronodo Press — 1973
  63. 63BookThe Lives of the Eighth-Century PopesLiverpool University Press — 1992
  64. 64BookTwo Lives of CharlemagneEinhard et al. — Penguin — 1969
  65. 65BookCharlemagne's Courtier: The Complete EinhardEinhard — Broadview Press — 1998
  66. 66BookCarolingian Civilization: A ReaderBroadview Press — 2004
  67. 67BookPoetry of the Carolingian RenaissanceUniversity of Oklahoma Press — 1985
  68. 68BookCharlemagne: Translated SourcesP.D. King — 1997
  69. 69BookCodex Epistolaris Carolinus: Letters from the popes to the Frankish rulers, 739–791Liverpool University Press — 2021
  70. 70BookThe Reign of Charlemagne: Documents on Carolingian Government and AdministrationArnold — 1975
  71. 71BookCarolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's HistoriesUniversity of Michigan Press — 1970
  72. 72BookEarly Carolingian Warfare Prelude to EmpireBernard S. Bachrach — University of Pennsylvania Press — 2011
  73. 73BookCivilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded EditionNorman F. Cantor — HarperCollins — 2015
  74. 74BookEarly Medieval Europe, 300–1000Roger Collins — Palgrave Macmillan — 1999
  75. 75BookVisigothic Spain, 409–711Roger Collins — Blackwell Pub. — 2004
  76. 76BookCharlemagne: Empire and SocietyPaul Fouracre — Manchester University Press — 2005
  77. 77BookThe Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy: Studies in Carolingian HistoryF. L. Ganshof — Cornell University Press — 1971
  78. 78BookA History of ByzantiumTimothy E. Gregory — Blackwell Publishing — 2005
  79. 79BookEarly Islamic Spain: The History of Ibn al-Qūṭiyya: a study of the unique Arabic manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, with a translation, notes and commentsDavid James et al. — Routledge — 2009
  80. 80BookPedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's DescendantsGenealogical Pub. Co. — 1974
  81. 81BookThe Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987Rosamond McKitterick — Logman — 1983
  82. 82BookThe New Cambridge Medieval HistoryCambridge University Press — 1995
  83. 83BookCharles The Great – Charlemagne : King, Conqueror, EmperorPauline Palmer — Austin Macauley Publishers — 2023
  84. 84BookDaily Life in the World of CharlemagnePierre Riché — University of Pennsylvania Press — 1978
  85. 85BookBarbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Ways of Medieval WarfareAntonio Santosuosso — Westview Press — 2004
  86. 86JournalFrankish Romanness and Charlemagne's EmpireLaury Sarti — 2016
  87. 87BookThe Legend of Charlemagne : Envisioning Empire in the Middle AgesBrill — 2022
  88. 88BookBecoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and The Empires of A.D. 800Jeff Sypeck — Ecco/HarperCollins — 2006

Report an error

Queue