Charlemagne

Source

• Born: April 747
• Birthplace: ?
• Died: 28 January 814
• Best Known As: Frankish king and Holy Roman Emperor

Charlemagne was the Frankish king who conquered most of Europe and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in the year 800. Also known as Carolus Magnus and Karl der Grosse, Charlemagne's precise birthplace and date are unknown. Possible places of his birth include Aachen (Aix-La-Chapelle, the location of his court), Gauting in Bavaria (a local legend has it he was born there in a mill) and the outskirts of Liège in Belgium, perhaps Jupille or Herstal. The eldest son of Pepin the Short, Charlemagne and his brother, Carloman, divided the kingdom after Pepin's death in 768; a few years later Carloman died and Charlemagne annexed his portion. During his 43-year reign Charlemagne proved himself a brilliant military strategist and administrator, promoting art and education while waging war from Saxony to the Mediterranean. Among his many campaigns were: The Lombard War (773-775); the Spanish War (778-801); the conquest of Bavaria (787-788); the conquest of the Avars (791-801); the Byzantine War (802-812); and a thirty-year effort to subdue the Saxons and convert them to Christianity. Known for his piety as well as his brutality (he once beheaded more than 4,000 Saxons in one day), Charlemagne united most of Europe and created a period of relative order during the otherwise tumultuous Middle Ages.

Older biographies often list his birthday as 2 April 742. There is no evidence for the actual day of his birth, and very little as to the year. Recent scholars are more inclined to say he was born in 747 or 748, and there is wide agreement that it was sometime in April.

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Charlemagne (742-814), derived from the Latin Carolus Magnus (Charles ‘the Great’), was ruler of the Franks (whose heartland lay between the Seine and the Rhine) from 768 to 814. His family—the Carolingians—had formally replaced the Merovingian dynasty in 751 with the coronation of Charlemagne's father, Pippin. In the 8th century the Carolingians reintegrated the area which had traditionally fallen under Frankish overlordship, with the defeat of rival noble factions and the conquest of peripheral principalities which had splintered off from the Frankish empire. Although he stimulated a notable cultural revival, and initiated reform of church and society, the continuation of military success was the central fact of Charlemagne's reign.

The scope of Charlemagne's activity reflected the size of his empire: he campaigned from the Ebro to the Danube, the Elbe to the Po, against Byzantines and Muslims, Avars and Danes, Saxons and Slavs. Campaigns took place annually, contemporaries recording their surprise in those years when no army was sent forth. Before the 790s, Charlemagne as a rule led in the field in person; thereafter his sons and favoured aristocrats were given responsibility for specific campaigns. He completed the work of his predecessors in establishing direct Carolingian rule in the traditional spheres of Frankish overlordship, notably with the absorption of the Bavarian duchy—in effect an independent principality—through a series of diplomatic initiatives which reached fruition in 788. Beyond this, three new theatres of conquest emerged. First, Italy, where he followed his father's policy of intervention in defence of the papacy, defeating and annexing the Lombard kingdom which dominated the north of the peninsula in a single campaign in 774. Secondly, Saxony, where a tribal polity which had traditionally paid the Franks an annual tribute was growing increasingly assertive, and took over thirty years to conquer. The Saxons' paganism enabled Charlemagne to present his designs on a troublesome neighbour as religiously motivated. Thirdly, the Avar empire, which had dominated central Europe from its heartland in the middle Danube since the 6th century, was destroyed in a series of campaigns between 793 and 796. Here again the paganism of his opponents allowed Charlemagne to pose as the defender of Christianity, although the real motive was the securing of the south-east after the absorption of Bavaria. These conquests left Charlemagne's empire virtually conterminous with western Christendom, a fact acknowledged by the Pope at Rome on Christmas Day, 800, with the revival of the imperial title.

These military successes owed much to Charlemagne's ability as a strategist and a diplomat. The favoured tactic involved the division of Frankish troops into two forces as they entered enemy territory, enabling a pincer movement. The cream of the Frankish army was the heavy cavalry, but it is no longer believed that this élite always and inevitably carried the day due to sheer brute force or technological superiority. The heavy cavalry made up perhaps a tenth of Frankish armies, which probably numbered in tens of thousands. Charlemagne was thus far from dependent on the cavalry charge, and indeed remarkably successful at reducing enemy fortifications. The complex organization, which equipped and supplied the army, and maintaining lines of communication, was the real basis of Carolingian success. In Frankish society, an equestrian, martial lifestyle was the badge of aristocratic status. Charlemagne could thus draw on a substantial number of trained warriors as the basis of his army. He expected aristocrats, bishops, and abbots to take responsibility for the supply and maintenance of such forces; to this end he encouraged free men to enter into relationships of lordship, and granted out royal and ecclesiastical land in life-tenures. It would be a mistake to see Charlemagne as the creator of a fully fledged system of feudal military obligation: although he made extensive use of interpersonal bonds to put armies in the field, these bonds existed within public structures of government, and did not define the obligation to serve. Armies were run by royal officials, and supplies and service were expected from all free men.

After the final defeat of the Saxons in the first years of the 9th century, the constant campaigning ended. What further expansion there was—notably in Catalonia and down the Danube—resulted from the activities of frontier commanders. Charlemagne was no fool and the end of expansion was a conscious strategic decision, not the result of war-weariness or senescence. By 800, the increased scope of Frankish power left Charlemagne facing a whole series of new challenges: securing long frontiers and newly conquered provinces; neutralizing new and potentially dangerous neighbours, notably in Denmark; putting a military machine forged by a century of aggressive expansion onto a more defensive, reactive, footing. Thus the years from 800 until Charlemagne's death in 814 see a long run of royal edicts (capitularies) attempting to regularize and define military obligations; and the creation of marches on exposed frontiers, and naval defences on exposed seaboards. The Carolingian political edifice had been built on military success, which had generated a substantial income through tribute and plunder, and had helped unite the Frankish aristocracy under Carolingian leadership; the shift from expansion to consolidation thus posed political as well as military challenges. It is now increasingly recognized that Charlemagne and his 9th-century successors responded in imaginative and original ways, attempting to move from the politics of the warband to that of the Christian empire.

Bibliography

• Bachrach, Bernard S., Armies and Politics in Early Medieval Europe (Aldershot, 1992).
• Bowlus, Charles R., Franks, Moravians and Magyars: The Struggle for the Middle Danube, 788-907 (Philadelphia, 1995).
• Noble, Thomas (chapter), in Roger Collins and Peter Godman (eds.), Charlemagne's Heir: New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious 814-840 (Oxford, 1989).
• Reuter, Timothy (chapter), in Collins and Godman (eds.), Charlemagne's Heir.
• —— ‘Plunder and Tribute in the Carolingian Empire’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., 35 (1985).
• Verbruggen, J. F., ‘L'Armée et la stratégie de Charlemagne’, in Karl der Grosse, Lebenswerk und Nachleben, ed. W. Braunfels (4 vols., Dusseldorf 1965), vol. 1. Personlichkeit und Geschichte, ed. H. Beumann

— Matthew Innes

Charlemagne (742-814), or Charles the Great, was king of the Franks, 768-814, and emperor of the West, 800-814. He founded the Holy Roman Empire, stimulated European economic and political life, and fostered the cultural revival known as the Carolingian Renaissance.

In contrast to the general decline of western Europe from the 7th century on, the era of Charlemagne marks a significant revival and turning point. Through his use of available resources (such as the Church, Irish missionaries, and manorial and feudal institutions), his alliance with the papacy, and his numerous governmental and ecclesiastical reforms, Charlemagne was able to halt the political and cultural disintegration of the early Middle Ages and lay the foundation for strong central government north of the Alps. Partially as a result of Charlemagne's activity, northern Europe emerged in the high and late Middle Ages as the dominant economic, political, and cultural force in the West.

Early Life

Charlemagne, the son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada, was born in 742. In 741 Pepin had become mayor of the palace, and in 751 he deposed the last Merovingian king and was declared king of the Franks. Little is known about Charlemagne's childhood; in 754, however, he participated in the anointment of Pepin as king by Pope Stephen II. He was educated at the palace school primarily by Fulrad, the abbot of St. Denis.

When Pepin died in October 768, Charlemagne came into his inheritance. According to a general assembly of the Franks, Charlemagne and his brother, Carloman, were both proclaimed king and were to rule the kingdom jointly. In the division of the realm, however, Carloman received a larger and richer portion. Under these circumstances ill feelings between the two brothers were inevitable, and the tension was heightened when Carloman refused to aid Charlemagne in his campaign against an uprising in Aquitaine. Toward the conclusion of the Aquitanian campaign, from which Charlemagne emerged victorious, a fraternal war seemed certain; but Carloman died unexpectedly in 771 and left Charlemagne the ruler of the entire kingdom.

Territorial Expansion

Charlemagne moved aggressively to remove those who threatened his suzerainty and to expand his power, especially in Italy. He immediately attacked and vanquished Desiderius, King of the Lombards; and in 774 Charlemagne was received by Pope Adrian I in Rome. The two renewed the alliance between the Frankish monarchy and the papacy, and shortly thereafter Charlemagne was crowned king of the Lombards at Pavia. The Frankish conquest of Italy - first of Lombardy in the north and later of the southern duchy of Benevento - had a twofold effect: all threats to the independence of the Holy See were removed, and a large portion of Italy was annexed by Charlemagne, thus bringing new wealth and peoples into his kingdom.

During his Italian campaigns Charlemagne also declared war against the Saxons, who had menaced the northeastern frontier of Francia for several generations. Begun in 772, this cruel and bitter war was finally concluded in 804 by the annexation of Saxony by Francia and the enforced Christianization of the Saxon tribes.

In the midst of the continual struggles to subdue the Saxons, Charlemagne carried on several major campaigns that resulted in territorial expansion. Perhaps the most renowned of these was his expedition into Spain. In 778, during the return from this successful campaign, Charlemagne's rear guard, led by Count Roland of the Breton March, was ambushed by traitorous Basques near Roncesvalles. The story of this episode was immortalized in the epic poem The Song of Roland. The historical importance of this campaign was the establishment of a military district called the Spanish March, a territorial buffer zone between Frankish Gaul and Moslem Spain.

On his eastern frontier Charlemagne defeated Tassilo, the Duke of Bavaria, and made the duchy of Bavaria part of his empire. He divided the western portion of the duchy into counties, each administered by a count loyal to the king; the eastern half formed a march, or border zone, called the Ost Mark (Austria), protected by a military duke, or margrave.

Further to the east, the major power and ultimate threat to the Frankish realm was the vast Slavic kingdom of the Avars, or Huns, an Asiatic tribe which had settled along the upper Danube. Between 791 and 795 Charlemagne crushed the power of the Avars and made their kingdom a tributary state. This victory opened the entire Danubian Plain to German colonization and the eastern expansion of Christianity - the beginning of the Drang nach Osten, or push to the East.

Holy Roman Empire

By 800 Charlemagne had succeeded in extending his overlordship from the Elbe River in the northeast to south of the Pyrenees in the southwest and from the North Sea to southern Italy. He ruled all of the Christianized western provinces, except the British Isles, that had once been part of the Roman Empire. As the sworn protector of the Church, Charlemagne was in fact the political master of Rome itself. Thus his authority, which extended over a vast realm and included numerous peoples, rivaled that of the Roman emperors of antiquity.

The papacy, at odds with Byzantium and its empress Irene over the question of iconoclasm (the problem of image worship and the use of images in the Church), looked to Charlemagne for protection and political leadership and regarded him as the true emperor of Latin Christendom and as the divinely appointed ruler of the earthly sphere. Thus the Pope crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman emperor on Christmas Day, 800.

Charlemagne endeavored to create unity and harmony within his vast realm and to promulgate laws and promote learning that would achieve his goals of empire. In his effort to assure his equality of rank with the Byzantine emperor, Charlemagne borrowed much from his eastern counterpart. The Byzantine influence is most clearly seen in the Palace Chapel of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), which was a conscious imitation of the imperial residence at Constantinople. In style, the building is based upon the church of S. Vitale in Ravenna, the former western Byzantine capital. Thus Charlemagne, in contrast to his Merovingian predecessors, who traveled incessantly throughout their realm, attempted to create a fixed capital parallel to that of Byzantium, and he resided at Aachen during most of his later years.

Character and Appearance

The major contemporary record of Charlemagne's personal attributes and achievements is the Vita Caroli Magni, the first medieval biography, written by Einhard between 817 and 836. This biography is largely a firsthand account, since Einhard was a member of the palace school during Charlemagne's reign and was his close associate.

In the Vita is the actual physical description of the man who has since become one of the greatest legendary heroes of the Middle Ages. The most striking feature about Charlemagne was his immense size in comparison to the average man of his day. Einhard believed him to be seven times the length of a foot, but with the opening of his tomb in 1861 scholars discovered that his actual height was 6 feet 3 1/2 inches. He was well built and admirably proportioned, except for his rather short thick neck and a protruding paunch. He took frequent exercise on horseback and enjoyed excellent health for most of his life. Einhard says that "his eyes [were] very large and animated, nose a little long, hair fair, and face laughing and merry."

Toward his friends Charlemagne was jovial, and he particularly enjoyed the company of others. Yet toward his enemies he was a stern and often cruel warrior to be feared for his strength and ability. Although primarily a man of action, he had great admiration for learning and "was such a master of Latin that he could speak it as well as his native tongue." He studied Greek and the liberal arts and thus combined to some extent the personality of a warrior and a scholar.

Charlemagne's Administration

In many respects Charlemagne's government, which proved so successful and which began the ascendancy of northern Europe, differed little in its institutions from the Merovingian era. In keeping with Frankish tradition, the monarchy was considered a matter of family inheritance; the government itself was personal, and its administration was founded on feudal oaths of allegiance between lord and follower. There was no distinction between the king's personal servants and the public officials. Thus the public and private nature of political control were inseparable, as were the secular and the religious aspects of kingship. Much as the Merovingians had done in the past, Charlemagne presided over ecclesiastical synods, depended upon the clergy for advice and counsel, and interfered in matters of Church discipline and property.

What is most striking about Charlemagne's rule of so vast a realm was that he was able to maintain, largely through the strength of his own personality, a centralized state wherein royal authority was primary. Power and political authority descended from the Emperor's imperium to his vassals. In this system the count, a direct vassal of the Crown, was the primary link between central and local government. Each count was in charge of an administrative district or county, which he governed with the help of lesser officials. There was always the danger that a count might become too powerful in his own district, and Charlemagne therefore created a group of special envoys, missi dominici, who inquired into abuses in the kingdom. He also maintained a small group of elite warriors, the vassi dominici, who acted as his personal retinue and helped him enforce imperial authority.

During the course of his reign Charlemagne sent a number of written instructions to his officials. These enactments, known as the Capitularii had the force of law and were implemented directly by the royal agents. They are exceedingly valuable as sources in understanding the social and legal structure of Carolingian France.

In general, the reign of Charlemagne, because of his military and political ability, was a period of internal tranquility and prosperity. He succeeded, through diplomatic negotiations, in having his imperial title recognized by the Byzantine emperor and, through his program of cultural revival and Church reform, in upgrading the level of civilization in the West.

Carolingian Culture

Charlemagne's support of art and letters had several purposes beyond the general improvement of culture and literacy in the empire. One of the major purposes was to provide an educated clergy that could undertake many of the administrative tasks of government. A second purpose, for which an educated clergy was also a necessity, was to ensure the acceptance of orthodox doctrine as well as a uniform liturgy throughout the empire. Such uniformity not only strengthened the Church but facilitated the political task of integrating and centralizing the administration of the empire. The spread of a uniform script known as the Caroline minuscule, the attempts at achieving uniformity of doctrine through the suppression of heresy, and the publication of a uniform Mass book, book of lessons, and monastic rule were sponsored as a means of furthering unity and integration. A third purpose of this cultural revival was to enhance the prestige and authority of Charlemagne himself, who thus appeared as the defender and protector of the Church, of orthodoxy, and of education.

The intellectual traditions and educational institutions supported by Charlemagne greatly influenced the development of Western culture. Grammarians and rhetoricians from northern Italy and English scholars, such as Alcuin, enhanced his court. This mixture of Italian and Anglo-Irish culture provided a broad foundation for the later stages of the Carolingian revival. Charlemagne expanded the number of schools, both monastic and episcopal, and the quality of education was greatly improved through the influence of the scholars who taught at the palace school.

Last Years

In 806, at the age of 64, Charlemagne took measures to provide for the succession of his empire. He divided the realm among his three sons - Charles, Pepin, and Louis. But the death of Charles in April 810 was soon followed by that of Pepin. The remaining son, Louis, later called "the Pious," who was the least warlike and aggressive of the three, was left as the sole heir to the empire, and he was crowned by his father in 813.

The last years of Charlemagne's reign saw difficult times. Civil disobedience increased; pest and famine created hard times; there were troubles on the frontiers. In many respects an era of crisis and decline loomed in the future. In 811 Charlemagne made his final will and gave a sizable portion of his treasures (more than to his own heirs) to various churches of the realm. He died, while fasting, on Jan. 28, 814, and was buried at his palace at Aachen.

Further Reading

Among the studies that focus on Charlemagne's life are Jesse L. Weston, The Romance Cycle of Charlemagne and His Peers (1901). Harold Lamb, Charlemagne: The Legend and the Man (1954); and Richard Winston, Charlemagne: From the Hammer to the Cross (1954). Recommended among the general, recent works are Donald A. Bullough, The Age of Charlemagne (1965), especially distinguished for its illustrations, and E. M. Almedingen, Charlemagne: A Study (1968). The best introduction to Charlemagne and Carolingian institutions is Heinrich Fichtenau, The Carolingian Empire: The Age of Charlemagne (trans. 1964).

The documents for the Carolingian period are abundant, many of them in translation. For a general collection of sources see Stewart C. Easton and Helene Wieruszowski, The Era of Charlemagne: Frankish State and Society (1961). One of the best translations of Einhard is S. Epes Turner, The Life of Charlemagne (1960). Because of the importance of the coronation of Charlemagne, scholars have devoted special attention to the subject. Many of the evaluations have been collected in Richard E. Sullivan, ed., The Coronation of Charlemagne: What Did It Signify? (1959). For the artistic achievement during Charlemagne's reign see Roger Hinks, Carolingian Art: A study of Early Medieval Painting and Sculpture in Western Europe (1935), and Kenneth John Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture, 800-1200 (1959; 2d ed. 1966). One of the most stimulating works on Carolingian culture is M. L. Laistner, Thought and Letters in Western Europe, A.D. 500 to 900 (1931; new ed. 1957).

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Charlemagne (Charles I) (742-814). The son of Pippin (Pépin le Bref), first Arnulfing king of Francia, Charles succeeded to the throne in 768. Initially his reputation rested on the successes of his Frankish armies in Aquitaine, in Italy, against the Avars, and against the Saxons, his only military disaster being the destruction of his rearguard at Rencesvals (Roncesvalles)—the subject of the Chanson de Roland—in 778. Victory guaranteed him a degree of authority over all the dukes and counts of his disparate realms.

Charles inaugurated a thoroughgoing reform of the Frankish Church. He called scholars—Alcuin the Englishman, Theodulf the Goth, Paul the Deacon, a Lombard—to his court, where they revived the study of classical Latin so that patristic literature and early codes of canon law should again be fully comprehensible [see Latinity]. Charles participated in their discussions, promoted them to positions of trust, commanded others to imitate them, encouraged the copying of manuscripts, and patronized a concomitant revival of late antique art forms. In 800 he was summoned by Pope Leo III to Rome, where on Christmas Day he was crowned emperor. The revival of the ancient title (extinct in the West since 476) consolidated Charles's authority and after his death in 814 perpetuated his fame as a Christian hero. In succeeding centuries he was remembered as the ideal French king, and portrayed in chansons de geste as a warrior against the infidel.

[Jean Dunbabin]

King of the Franks

Elder son of Pepin the Short and a grandson of Charles Martel, Charlemagne shared with his brother Carloman in the succession to his father's kingdom. At Carloman's death (771), young Charlemagne annexed his brother's lands, disinheriting Carloman's two young sons, who fled with their mother to the court of Desiderius, king of the Lombards. When Desiderius conquered part of the papal lands and attempted to force Pope Adrian I to recognize Carloman's sons, Charlemagne intervened (773) on the side of the pope and defeated the Lombards. At Rome, Charlemagne was received by Adrian as patrician of the Romans (a title he had received with his father in 754), and he confirmed his father's donation to the Holy See. Shortly afterward he took Pavia, the Lombard capital, and assumed the iron crown of the Lombard kings of Italy.

In 778 he invaded Spain, hoping to take advantage of civil war among the Muslim rulers of that kingdom, but was repulsed at Zaragoza. In later campaigns conducted by local counts, Barcelona was captured (801) and a frontier established beyond the Pyrenees. Charlemagne's struggle with the pagan Saxons, whose greatest leader was Widukind, lasted from 772 until 804. By dint of forced conversions, wholesale massacres, and the transportation of thousands of Saxons to the interior of the Frankish kingdom, Charlemagne made his domination over Saxony complete. In 788 he annexed the semi-independent duchy of Bavaria, after deposing its duke, Tassilo. He also warred successfully against the Avars and the Slavs, establishing a frontier south of the Danube.

Emperor of the West

In 799 the new pope, Leo III, threatened with deposition by the Romans, appealed to Charlemagne. Charlemagne hastened to Rome to support Leo, and on Christmas Day, 800, was crowned emperor by the pope. His coronation legitimized Charlemagne's rule over the former Roman empire in W Europe and finalized the split between the Byzantine and Roman empires. After years of negotiation and war, Charlemagne received recognition from the Byzantine emperor Michael I in 812; in return Charlemagne renounced his claims to Istria, Venice, and Dalmatia, which he had held briefly. The end of Charlemagne's reign was troubled by the raids of Norse and Danes (see Norsemen), so Charlemagne took vigorous measures for the construction of a fleet, which his successors neglected. His land frontiers he had already protected by the creation of marches. In 813, Charlemagne designated his son Louis I as co-emperor and his successor and crowned him at Aachen.

Achievements of His Reign

In his government Charlemagne continued and systematized the administrative machinery of his predecessors. He permitted conquered peoples to retain their own laws, which he codified when possible, and he issued many capitularies (gathered in the Monumenta Germaniae historica). A noteworthy achievement was the creation of a system by which he could supervise his administrators in even the most distant lands; his missi dominici were personal representatives with wide powers who regularly inspected their assigned districts. He strove to educate the clergy and exercised more direct control over the appointment of bishops and he acted as arbiter in theological disputes by summoning councils, notably that at Frankfurt (794), where adoptionism was rejected and some of the decrees of the Second Council of Nicaea (see Nicaea, Second Council of) were condemned. He stimulated foreign trade and entertained friendly relations with England and with Harun al-Rashid. In 813, Charlemagne designated his son Louis I as co-emperor and his successor and crowned him at Aachen.

Charlemagne's court at Aachen was the center of an intellectual renaissance. The palace school, under the leadership of Alcuin, became famous; numerous schools for children of all classes were also established throughout the empire during Charlemagne's reign. The preservation of classical literature was aided by his initiatives. Prominent figures of the Carolingian renaissance included Paul the Deacon and Einhard.

Character and Influence

In his daily life Charlemagne affected the simple manners of his Frankish forebears, wore Frankish clothes, and led a frugal existence. He was beatified after his death and in some churches has been honored as a saint. Surrounded by his legendary 12 paladins, he became the central figure of a cycle of romance. At first, legend pictured him as the champion of Christendom; later he appeared as a vacillating old man, almost a comic figure. His characterization in the Chanson de Roland (see Roland) has impressed itself indelibly on the imagination of the Western world. The vogue of the Charlemagne epic ebbed somewhat after the Renaissance but was revived again in the 19th cent. by Victor Hugo and other members of the Romantic school. Charlemagne's creation (or re-creation) of an empire was the basis of the theory of the Holy Roman Empire; it was his example that Napoleon I had in mind when he tried to assume his succession in 1804.

Bibliography

Einhard wrote a contemporary biography of Charlemagne. See also H. Fichtenau, The Carolingian Empire (1949, tr. 1957); D. Bullough, The Age of Charlemagne (1966); J. Boussard, The Civilization of Charlemagne (tr. 1968). For the literary aspect, see J. L. Weston, The Romance Cycle of Charlemagne and His Peers (1901).

The greatest of the Frankish kings. Charlemagne was the elder son of Pepin the Short and succeeded his father in 768-814 C.E. He was Emperor of the West, 800-814 C.E. He had a close connection with the supernatural according to legend. Very often in the pages of French romance, the emperor was visited by angels who were considered to be the direct messengers of the heavenly power.

These visitations, of course, were meant to symbolize his position as the head of Christendom in the world. He was its upholder, with the Moors on his southern borders and the pagans (Prussians and Saxons) to the north and west. Charles was regarded by the Christians of Europe as the direct representative of heaven, whose mission it was to Christianize Europe and to defend its true faith in every way. Charlemagne and his court were also connected with the realm of fairies. Encounters with the fairy folk by his paladins were not so numerous in the original French romances that deal with his court, but in the hands of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Pulci, the paladins dwelled in an enchanted region where at any moment they might have met with all kinds of supernatural beings.

Both in the early and late romances the powers of magic and enchantment are ever present, chiefly instanced in magical weapons such as the Sword Durandal of Roland, which cannot be shivered; the magic ointments of giants like Ferragus, which when applied provide invulnerablity; and armor that exercises a similar guardianship on the body of its possessor. Heroes like Ogier the Dane penetrated into fairyland itself and wedded its queens. This union with fairyland was the fate of a great many medieval heroes. The analogous cases of Tom-a-Lincolne, Tannhäuser, and Thomas the Rhymer are also relevant. The magic and the marvels are everywhere in use in the romances that deal with Charlemagne.

He died on January 28, 814 C.E. and was buried in Aachen.

Sources:

Cabaniss, Allen. Charlemagne. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1972.

Easton, Steward C. The Era of Charlemagne. New York: Van Nostrand, 1961.

Shepard, Les. The History of Street Literature. Detroit: Singing Tree Press, 1973.

The first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire; his name means “Charles the Great.” Charlemagne was king of France in the late eighth and early ninth centuries and was crowned emperor in 800. He is especially remembered for his encouragement of education.

Quotes:

"To have another language is to possess a second soul."