The Rise of Charlemagne

Charlemagne (Part 1/2)  The Rise

Charlemagne was arguably one of the most outstanding leaders of all times if expansion and change are to be the measures of greatness. Indeed, Charlemagne, or Charles I, is acknowledged and celebrated as Charles the Great, the King and later the emperor who united western Europe in the Roman Empire. Crowned King in 768, within six years, he was celebrating the title of King of Italy. By 800, Pope Leo III declared him Emperor of the Romans. He extended his power and authority and unified Western Europe under his tutelage. The Empire that died three centuries earlier was revived, restored, and adapted to meet the most expansive ambitions of the new dynasty.

Charlemagne was born

Charlemagne was born around 747. His father Pepin the Short and his mother Bertrada of Laon were King, and Queen of the Franks until Pepin died in 768. Pepin divided his legacy between Charlemagne and his brother Carloman who ruled jointly but controlled their areas of influence. Charlemagne inherited the outer part of the kingdom, including West Aquitaine, North Austrasia, and Neustria. At the same time, the younger brother took the inner part, including southern Austrasia, Septimania, eastern Aquitaine, Burgundy, Provence, and Swabia. The expectation was that each would continue to negotiate their responsibilities.

Charlemagne's first Task

However, it all changed with the death of Carloman in 771. A New Beginning While Europe had wallowed in darkness and despair, Charlemagne fixed the new beginning of a religious, educational, and cultural transformation. His first task was military expansion. He spent 30 years from 772 conquering new lands, spreading Christianity, and establishing unity under his protection. Charlemagne led battles taking up his position as leader of the Scara or military elite throughout his campaigns. The first and most significant of Charlemagne’s crusades was the settling of the Lombards. The capture of the lands to the north of Italy bore additional responsibility because of assurances given by his father, Pepin. In 771, the new Pope Adrian I demanded the return of lands only to see King Desiderius of the Lombards retaliate and drive his way through papal cities, ontoPentapolis and Rome.

Adrian appealed

Adrian appealed to Charlemagne to support him and honor his fathers’ commitments. He called a conference at Thionville where Charlemagne threw his weight behind the Pope and demanded that Desiderius comply. The ensuing confrontation saw Charlemagne and Bernard advance across the Alps. Together they drove the Lombards back to Pavia before engaging with them and finally declaring their victory in 774. Charlemagne firmly supported the Papacy, upholding his father’s commitment and accepting the title of patrician in a visit to the Pope. He returned to Pavia in triumph, granting amnesty to those who opposed him and declaring his victory. His campaigning defined his future ambitions for territorial expansion and established his future relationship with the Church of Rome.

Charlemagne’s campaign

The Saxon Wars and Beyond Charlemagne’s campaign of expansion and his religious devotion did not stop with the victory over the Lombards. In 773, he set his sights on conquering the Saxon lands and bringing the true Christian faith to the many Saxons and beyond. He conducted no less than eighteen battles and persevered for over thirty years to achieve this goal. His strength lay in his skills as a military leader and meticulous planner and his investment in the preparation and training of his troops. His Saxon campaigns spanned the Germanic lands. His first victory was against the Nigerians in 773. However, stretching his armies too thinly halted his ambitions in the north for two years while he consolidated his position in Italy. In 775, he regrouped and laid siege to Westphalia at Sigiburg. Charlemagne marched through Engria to the eastern borders with Eastphalia claiming further victory over the Saxons and bringing the leader Hessi to the Christian faith. To establish dominance over the area he set up permanent bases at Sigiburg and Freiburg.

But Charlemagne’s interests in Italy made it difficult for him to consolidate his hold over Saxony. While he was busy crushing the dukes of Friuli and Spoleto, the Saxons were rising in rebellion under the leadership of Widukind. Charlemagne returned not only to suppress the uprising in 776 and set up a new camp in Karlstadt but to drive Widukind away to Denmark and absorb Saxony into the Frankish Kingdom.

New National Assembly 

He set up a new national assembly at Paderborn and began the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity. But Charlemagne’s ambition did not stop there. He pushed forward to Southern Germany, defeated the Avars, and invaded northern Spain, driving the Moors into submission. By 800, he dominated an area over today’s Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and parts of Austria, Hungary, and Spain. He established a new united Europe under the spiritual ascendancy of Christianity. The Coronation of 800 AD The next significant event for Charlemagne was his Coronation as Emperor of the Romans. In 795, Pope Adrian died and was succeeded by Pope Leo III. Leo, whose lack of popularity in Rome forced him to hide behind the protection of Charlemagne, was eager to retain papal authority within the expanding Carolingian empire. It was a shrewd political move. By crowning Charlemagne as Emperor, he set precedence for crowning all emperors and holding onto papal influence.

At the same time, Charlemagne expanded his authority across the newly established Holy Roman Empire. On Christmas day of the year 800, Charlemagne found himself in Rome. The tale goes that he knelt to pray at the altar of St Peter’s Basilica, and Leo placed a crown on his head announcing Imperator Romanorum. In doing so, Pope Leo III declared the reign of Empress Irene of Constantinople to be unfounded and the Byzantine Empire to be without substance. As history specialist James Bryce composes: When Odoacer constrained the abandonment of Romulus  Augustulus, he didn't annul the Western Empire as a different force. Still, he caused it to be reunited with or sink into the Eastern so that from that time there was a solitary unified Roman Empire … [Pope Leo III and Charlemagne],

like their archetypes, held the Roman Empire to be one and unified, and proposed by the crowning celebration of [Charlemagne] not to announce the severance of the East and West. Charlemagne humbly declared himself surprised and unprepared for the accolade bestowed on him.

Byzantine Empire

However, he soon adapted to the magnitude of his new role. His target was to embody the notion of continuous Empire from Augustus to Constantine VI. His ambition was to reunite Europe and was thwarted only by the equally prestigious Byzantine Empire and its Empress Irene. She ruled despite the lack of acknowledgment by the Pope and Charlemagne. The legacy lasted for almost a millennium and alongside the Byzantine empire, which equally claimed rights over the title of Emperor. Charlemagne never claimed sovereign authority over the Byzantine Empire, and Byzantium never acknowledged his sovereignty of the Roman Empire. His coronation established two Empires rather than one unbroken line from the days of Augustus to those of Constantine VI. A united empire was unattainable unless both powerhouses locked swords. Many supporters of Charlemagne argued against the legitimacy of a Byzantine empire led by a woman.

 Constantinople

Byzantium equally felt threatened by Frankish claims to the Roman Empire. East and West were set apart and in conflict. Motivation When the Pope declared Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, there was an enormous shift in the power base of Europe. Now the Pope and the leader of the Franks collaborated and controlled lands as far south as Rome and challenged the right of Byzantium. The Greeks dominated the Byzantine Empire, and their power base lay in Constantinople. 

Traditionally they held the title of Roman Emperor and exercised the only right to judge over the Papacy. Declaring for Charlemagne, the Pope turned his back on the authority of Byzantium and the power of Constantinople. Historian John Julius Norwich writes of their motivation: By whom, however, could he [the Pope] be tried? In ordinary conditions, the solitary possible response to that question would have been the Emperor at Constantinople; however, the majestic seat was right now involved by Irene. The Empress was notorious for having blinded and murdered her own son in the minds of both Leo and Charles, but this fact was almost immaterial: it was enough that she was a woman.

The female sex was thought to be incapable of governing, and by the old Salic tradition was debarred from doing so. All things considered, the Throne of the Emperors was empty: Irene's guarantee to it was just a piece of extra evidence in case any were required, of the corruption into which the alleged Roman Empire had fallen. It may be that the Pope never really expected to achieve harmony with Constantinople. Relationships between the Pope and Byzantium were fractious since early in the century. By 750, the influence of the Byzantines in Rome and Southern Italy was limited. The Papacy opposed the destruction of Christian icons, which was central to the laws of Constantinople. And then, politically, the questionable leadership of Irene led the Pope to declare that there was no living emperor when he anointed Charlemagne. In crowning Charlemagne Emperor, Pope Leo effectively gave the church authority over the Empire and turned away from the Byzantines. 

Norwich further explains that by crowning Charlemagne, the Pope arrogated to himself: “the option to select the Emperor of the Romans, building up the illustrious crown as his gift, however at the same time allowing himself certain predominance over the head whom he had made… " And: " on the grounds that the Byzantines had demonstrated so unsuitable according to each perspective—political, military and doctrinal—he would choose a westerner: the exclusive who by his shrewdness and diplomacy and the limitlessness of his domains stood apart far and away superior to his counterparts.”

Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor Faced with conflict and knowing that it was unlikely that the Byzantines would even accept a Frankish King as their Emperor, Charlemagne declared himself the “renewer” of the Roman Empire. A new unity based on Christian faith would replace the unity of Roman citizenship. Throughout the Middle Ages, the two empires remained opposed. The title of Emperor would pass through the generations of Frankish Kings ordained by the Popes. Over time the Carolingians would lose their supremacy through fights within their own, and their dominance would subside. The Popes would look to other Italian leaders who would happily endorse the power of the Papacy and act as its protector. 

By 924, the title Holy Roman Emperor was lost but revived in 962 by Otto I, who styled himself as the heir to Charlemagne. And the title would remain for a thousand years. To recap: Charlemagne was determined to expand his realm and spread Christianity across Europe. To this end, he embarked on a thirty-year military campaign of conquest. By the year 800, he controlled Western Europe, including present-day France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and parts of Austria and Spain The Coronation in 800 AD extended his authority and he used the circumstances to claim he was the restorer of the Roman Empire, which would continue to exist for nearly a thousand years in the form of the Holy Roman Empire. The Pope's inspiration for delegated Charlemagne was to give the papacy and the church understood authority over the realm, and gain security from the head. Next up we will cover Charlemange’s reforms and the beginning of a Carolingian renaissance. unsuitable according to each perspective.