Charlemagne

He loved battle and spent much of his 46-year reign fighting Muslims in Spain, Saxons in the north, Avars and Slavs in the east, and Lombards in Italy. His conquests reunited much of the old Roman empire.

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The question of whether Charlemagne was Emperor of Rome was raised as soon as he was crowned emperor. Personally, I would say he was not, but others could disagree, and with some reason.

The West Roman Empire was long gone, so clearly he was not emperor of that.

The East Roman Empire still existed at the time he was crowned, under the name Empire of the Roman People. Today we call it the Byzantine Empire. Empress Irene, who was its monarch at the time Charlemagne was crowned, was quite upset that Charlemagne was crowned emperor of a country with the same name as her own, especially because it seemed to imply that he was the rightful ruler of her empire.

Today, we use the term Carolingian Empire for Charlemagne's empire, and the term Byzantine Empire for Irene's, to avoid confusion. Neither term was used at the time.

The Carolingian Empire dissolved, but was reestablished as what we call the Holy Roman Empire, a term used while it existed, though originally, it, too, was called the Roman Empire.

The City of Rome, by the way, was not part of either the Carolingian Empire or the Byzantine Empire, but was part of the Papal States.

Charlemagne was famous for ruling in the first Frank (as in belonging to the French people) Kingdom. In terms of modern day territories, his kingdom was far larger than modern day France and extended well into Germany, Italy, the Low Countries, Switzerland, and Spain.

I think the question you are asking is why Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Roman Empire. Though we do not have a really good record of why this happened, it is probable that the people involved wanted to reestablish the West Roman Empire and saw a chance to do so.

First of all, the West Roman Empire did not suddenly collapse. People did not wake up some morning in 476 and see that everything had changed. For a long time after any date modern historians assign for the fall of Rome, there was the lingering idea in the West that the people who lived there were in the Roman Empire, even thought the government was not working.

The West Roman Empire had decayed badly during the 3rd through 6th centuries. During that time, there were often a number of emperors at the same time, sometimes acknowledging the status of each other, and sometimes not. People got used to the idea that the Roman Empire was not defined by its emperors.

When Germanic kingdoms were set up in the West Roman Empire, they were regarded as parts of the Empire, though not under really good control. Roman law was still in use in many places until well into the 8th century, and there was no general consensus that the Roman Empire was a thing of the past. In fact, the East Roman Empire was still one of the most important countries in Europe at the time of Charlemagne; today we call it the Byzantine Empire.

The Franks had been building up their kingdom for a long time, and it had come to dominate the West even more than the Byzantine Empire dominated the East. Charlemagne had become King of the Franks, but was also, separately King of the Lombards. In fact, his power was arguably as great as that of any of the Roman Emperors of the West.

There were a number of other things going on that argued in favor of reestablishing the West Roman Empire. Christians wanted a strong country to counter the Muslims in Spain. Pope Leo III had good reason to want Charlemagne to have as much power as possible, and in fact owed Charlemagne his life. There were people in the West to believed the empire should not be headed by a woman, and the East Roman Empire was, at that time, headed by Empress Irene; this might have influenced people at the time.

So, Pope Leo III, possibly with the help of Charlemagne, and almost certainly with the help of some of Charlemagne's supporters, crowned him Emperor of the Roman Empire.

Louis and Pouis

It is possible that we will never really know why Aachen was special to Charlemagne, but it clearly was. It has been speculated that he may have been born there. He spent Christmas at Aachen in 768, and may have just come to appreciate the place at that time; it had already been used by Pippin the Younger as a place to stay, and so was well equipped. Charlemagne made Aachen his capital, and built both a palace and a cathedral there. He was buried there when he died.

He created an empire : conquered the Saxons, the Lombards, the Avars. He introduced Christianity among the peoples he ruled over. He was the first Holy Roman emperor. He got his title and the crown from the pope. He encouraged agriculture and trade. As he was a well-educated man himself, he promoted arts and education. He had his splendid palace built in Aachen which became the centre of learning. He invited the best scholars to his court.

The Holy Roman Empire

Charlemagne was crowned King in 768. He became sole ruler of the Franks in 771. He became Holy Roman Emperor in 800.

Charlemagne's greatest accomplishment was the creation of the largest empire in Europe since the Roman Empire. This created the basis for the modern nations of Germany and France and united the majority of continental Europe creating the basis for the European Union and spreading the results of Charlemagne's Carolingian Renaissances.

This question is probably impossible to answer, because nothing is recorded that answers it. We have been told that Charlemagne's coronation as emperor was a surprise to him, but we do not know he opposed it.

Charlemagne was crowned three times. He did not oppose the first two, when he was crowned King of the Franks and King of the Lombards.

Charlemagne was important in many ways, restoring order to western Europe, and many of these were reflected in Rome, as they were in the rest of the area. He reformed the currency, creating stable coinage that was used through much of the West. He united various kingdoms into a new empire, which we call the Carolingian. He was responsible for unifying the Latin language, which had already diverged into several dialects; the unified Latin was used by the Church and in courts and schools for centuries. He founded schools and raised standards of literacy. All these things had their effects on social order.

In Rome specifically, when the Roman nobility took offense at Pope Leo III because the pope was of very humble origin, Charlemagne sent troops into the city and the surrounding territory, to protect the pope and Church officers, and settled a very disturbing situation. It was shortly after this that Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as Emperor of the Romans.

He was the king of the most successful barbarian kingdom, that of the Franks. He led several campigns against the Arabs and the pagan Magyars, Avars, and Saxons. He was considered the defender of Christian Europe, and in exchange he was crowned by the pope in 800. It was the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire (a revival of the former Roman empire in the west).When Charlemagne died, his kingdom included modern France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, western Germany, much of Italy, and part of Spain.

taking peoples land

No one killed Charlemagne. He died of pleurisy, inflammation of the lining of the lung cavity, at the age of 72.

Charlemagne became sole ruler of the Frankish Kingdom in 771.

odoacer

they were both military strategists

The most important relic in Charlemagne's chapel was believed to be the seamless tunic of Christ, also known as the Holy Robe or the Tunic of Argenteuil. This relic was considered to be a symbol of Charlemagne's power and legitimacy as a ruler, as well as a significant object of veneration for Christians in the Middle Ages.

Charlemagne extended the borders of the Kingdom of the Franks to the east and south, gaining great tracts of territory. So doing, he turned the Kingdom of the Franks into a great empire, which became ancestral to both France and the Holy Roman Empire. He also promoted literacy and education, was a defender of the Church, and protected the Pope. He reformed the economy of Western Europe by introducing new standards for coinage and seeing to it that they were strictly maintained. His reign was a decisive turning point in the Early Middle Ages.

Charlemagne's work long outlasted his life and continues to have effects in modern Europe. The Carolingian Renaissance included a real advance in the arts and education that continued through the Middle Ages. Some of the schools Charlemagne founded are still teaching students. His time was regarded in later times as a cultural high point that served as a model. It is hard to imagine that it had not effect on Alfred the Great and his policies, some of which seem almost copies of Charlemagne's work. Certainly, the continuation of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire, which became modern France and Germany, owe to his efforts.

The empire stayed the same, but after the death of his son did the empire split in three

After King Pepin the Short died in 768, his two sons, Charlemagne and Carloman, shared the Frankish (French) kingdom. The kingdom was made up of what is now France, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. After his brother's death in 771, Charlemagne became sole ruler of the Frankish Kingdom (France). Soon he conquered the Lombard kingdom in Italy and Bavaria. He waged his bitterest campaign against the Saxons, a pagan people after 30 years of war. He forced them to accept Christianity. He also conquered part of northern Spain, called the "Spanish March". By 800 his empire extended from central Italy north to Denmark and from eastern Germany west to the Atlantic Ocean. Pope Leo III crowned him Emperor of the West on Christmas Day, 800 in Rome. I hope that this has been a help to you.

Source, Harveymac1336

He versed The Pagan Saxons and Lombards

Yes, Charlemagne was very brutal. He once beheaded 4,000 Saxons in one day!

The custom among the Franks was not that the eldest son became king of all, but that the kingdom was divided among heirs. When Charlemagne became king, he was a co-ruler with his brother Carloman, who died after only a couple years leaving Charlemagne able to rule alone.

The problem with this was that when brothers inherited the throne they nearly always fought over which got what territory. And this was the case with the children of Louis the Pious, who was a son of Charlemagne, and who became emperor, and who was the only legitimate son to survive Charlemagne. There sons of Louis the Pious, named Lothair, Louis, Pepin, and Charles, and they fought a long series of wars with each other, starting long before their father died. Eventually, the empire was divided permanently at the Treaty of Verdun in 843, and became the Kingdom of France, and the empire that came to be known as the Holy Roman Empire.

This is a highly simplistic version of what happened. There is a link below to an article on the Carolingian Empire, which gives more details.