Charlemagne: Charles The Great

1871 Words8 Pages
No man nor woman “has been as powerful and influential as Charles the Great” (Derek Wilson, 4). Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, born in 742 as the son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada, was the very famous king of the Franks, a Germanic tribe in modern day Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands and western Germany, between 768 and 814. Sometimes also known as the “Father of Europe”, he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire (Anirudh). He founded the Holy Roman Empire from this unified Europe, strengthened its economic and political life, promoted the cultural revival known as the Carolingian Renaissance, and became emperor between 800 and 814. As well as being a skilled military strategist, Charlemagne…show more content…
During his time of reign, Charlemagne sought to unite all of the Germanic peoples into one kingdom, and convert his subjects to Christianity. He moved aggressively to remove those who threatened his power, and spent the majority of his reign engaged in military campaigns (History.com). One of his most important conquests was Italy specifically, as it brought new wealth and people into his kingdom. Charles continued to spread his territory, and by 800 he had succeeded in greatly extending his power to an extent not seen since the Ancient Roman Empire. These conquests brought extended power to the king, who greatly demonstrated he was a strategic and skilled leader. His empire was however not the only factor of his power; Charlemagne possessed good connections with the Church, a highly dominating order during the Middle Ages. At first, the king was the sworn protector of the Church, but in 8000, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans on Christmas day (Encyclopedia.com), as “a way to acknowledge Charlemagne’s power and reinforce his relationship with the Church” (History.com). Additionally to Charlemagne’s impressive amount of control, how Charlemagne kept power of his immense empire is also quite remarkable. He did it through the strength of his own personality, where royal authority came first, and maintained the…show more content…
Charlemagne did not murder Saxons for joy but to assert his authority on them. As a king, power and empire come first, but without any authority, the Saxons would have never stopped attacking Charlemagne, not only threatening his people, but his power as well. Furthermore, for a person such as Hitler, Charlemagne was not the only factor which caused him to murder the number of Jews he killed. Hitler grew up with this hatred for Jews, as he believed that they stole the money of the “true Germans.” He later learned about Charlemagne and interpreted his ideals in his own way, one which unfortunately led to the mass killing of Jews. Furthermore, the King of the Franks was much more than a murderer. Charlemagne understood the value of education and saw its serious decline, so he “sponsored monasteries where ancient books were preserved and copied” (Melissa Snell, 2), and increased the number of schools, preventing the extinction of Latin culture as well. Charlemagne's support of the arts and letters was mainly in the clergy, however, through his program of

More about Charlemagne: Charles The Great

Open Document