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Charlemagne

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Historical figures

   A portrait of Charlemagne by Albrecht Dürer that was painted several
   centuries after Charlemagne's death.
   Enlarge
   A portrait of Charlemagne by Albrecht Dürer that was painted several
   centuries after Charlemagne's death.

   Charlemagne (Charles the Great; from Latin, Carolus Magnus; 742 or 747
   – 28 January 814) was the King of the Franks (768–814) who conquered
   Italy and took the Iron Crown of Lombardy in 774 and, on a visit to
   Rome in 800, was crowned imperator Romanorum ("Emperor of the Romans")
   by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, presaging the revival of the Roman
   imperial tradition in the West in the form of the Holy Roman Empire. By
   his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define
   Western Europe and the Middle Ages. His rule is also associated with
   the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of the arts and education in the
   West.

   The son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, his original
   name in the Frankish language was never recorded, but early instances
   of his name in Latin read "Carolos" or "Karol's". He succeeded his
   father and co-ruled with his brother Carloman until the latter's death
   in 771. Charlemagne continued the policy of his father towards the
   papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in
   Italy, and waging war on the Saracens who menaced his realm from Spain.
   It was during one of these campaigns that he experienced the worst
   defeat of his life at Roncesvalles (778). He also campaigned against
   the peoples to his east, especially the Saxons, and after a protracted
   war subjected them to his rule. By converting them to Christianity, he
   integrated them into his realm and thus paved the way for the later
   Ottonian Dynasty.

   Today regarded as the founding father of both France and Germany and
   sometimes as the Father of Europe, as he was the first ruler of a
   united Western Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire.

Background

   CAPTION: Carolingian dynasty

   Pippinids
     * Pippin the Elder (+ 640)
     * Grimoald (+ 662)
     * Childebert the Adopted (+ 662)

   Arnulfings
     * Arnulf of Metz (+ 640)
     * Chlodulf of Metz (+ 696)
     * Ansegisel (+ before 679)
     * Pippin the Middle (+ 714)
     * Grimoald II (+ 714)
     * Drogo of Champagne (+ 708)
     * Theudoald (+ 714)

   Carolingians
     * Charles Martel (+ 741)
     * Carloman (+ 754)
     * Pippin the Younger (+ 768)
     * Carloman (+ 771)
     * Charlemagne (+ 814)
     * Louis the Pious (+ 840)

   After the Treaty of Verdun (843)
     * Lothair I
       (Middle Francia)
     * Charles the Bald
       (Western Francia)
     * Louis the German
       (Eastern Francia)

   A Frankish king (center), like Charlemagne, depicted in the
   Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (about 870).
   Enlarge
   A Frankish king (centre), like Charlemagne, depicted in the
   Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (about 870).

   The Franks were not originally grouped into one official tribe, but "as
   with the other barbarians, they belonged to much smaller groups that
   would join constantly changing confederations." By the 6th century the
   Franks were Christianized, and the Frankish Empire ruled by the
   Merovingians had become the most powerful of the kingdoms which
   succeeded the Western Roman Empire. But following the Battle of Tertry,
   the Merovingians declined into a state of powerlessness, for which they
   have been dubbed do-nothing kings (French: rois fainéants). Practically
   all government powers of any consequence were exercised by their chief
   officer, the mayor of the palace or major domus.

   In 687, Pippin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the
   strife between various kings and their mayors with his victory at
   Tertry and practically became the sole governor of the entire Frankish
   kingdom. Pippin himself was the grandson of two most important figures
   of the Austrasian Kingdom, Saint Arnulf of Metz and Pippin of Landen.
   Pippin the Middle was eventually succeeded by his illegitimate son
   Charles, later also called Martel (the Hammer). After 737, Charles
   governed the Franks without a king on the throne but desisted from
   calling himself King. Charles was succeeded by his sons Carloman and
   Pippin, the father of Charlemagne. To curb separatism in the periphery
   of the realm, the brothers placed Childeric III on the throne, who was
   to be the last Merovingian king.

   After Carloman resigned his office, Pippin had Childeric III deposed
   with the Pope's approval. In 751, Pippin was elected and anointed King
   of the Franks and in 754, Pope Stephen II again anointed him and his
   young sons. Thus was the Merovingian dynasty replaced by the
   Carolingian dynasty, named after Pippin's father Charles Martel and its
   most famous member, Charlemagne.

   Pippin's sons, Charlemagne and Carloman, immediately became joint heirs
   to the great realm which already covered most of western and central
   Europe. Under the new dynasty, the Frankish kingdom spread to encompass
   an area including most of Western Europe. The division of that kingdom
   formed France and Germany; and the religious, political, and artistic
   evolutions originating from a centrally-positioned Francia made a
   defining imprint on the whole of Western Europe. The foundations of
   Europe—as more than a geographic entity—were laid in the Dark Ages,
   largely out of the Frankish Empire.

Date and place of birth

   Charlemagne's birthday was believed to be April 2, 742; however several
   factors led to reconsideration of this traditional date. First, the
   year 742 was calculated from his age given at death, rather than
   attestation within primary sources. Another date is given in the
   Annales Petarienses, April 1, 747. In that year, April 1 is Easter. The
   birth of an emperor on Easter is a coincidence likely to provoke
   comment, but there is no such comment documented in 747, leading some
   to suspect that the Easter birthday was a pious fiction concocted as a
   way of honoring the Emperor. Other commentators weighing the primary
   records have suggested that the birth was one year later, 748. At
   present, it is impossible to be certain of the date of the birth of
   Charlemagne. The best guesses include April 1, 747, after April 15,
   747, or April 1, 748, in Herstal (where his father was born), a city
   close to Liège, in Belgium, the region from which both the Meroving and
   Caroling families originate. He went to live in his father's villa in
   Jupille when he was around seven, which caused Jupille to be listed as
   possible place of birth in almost every history book. Other cities have
   been suggested, including, Prüm, Düren, or Aachen.

Personal appearance

   Portrait of Charlemagne, whom the Song of Roland names the "King with
   the Grizzly Beard"—Facsimile of an engraving from the end of the
   sixteenth century.
   Enlarge
   Portrait of Charlemagne, whom the Song of Roland names the "King with
   the Grizzly Beard"— Facsimile of an engraving from the end of the
   sixteenth century.

   Charlemagne's personal appearance is not known from any contemporary
   portrait, but it is known rather famously from a good description by
   Einhard, author of the biographical Vita Caroli Magni. He is well known
   to have been tall, stately, and fair-haired, with a disproportionately
   thick neck. His skeleton was measured during the 18th century and his
   height was determined to be 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in ), and as Einhard tells
   it in his twenty-second chapter:

          Charles was large and strong, and of lofty stature, though not
          disproportionately tall (his height is well known to have been
          seven times the length of his foot); the upper part of his head
          was round, his eyes very large and animated, nose a little long,
          hair fair, and face laughing and merry. Thus his appearance was
          always stately and dignified, whether he was standing or
          sitting; although his neck was thick and somewhat short, and his
          belly rather prominent; but the symmetry of the rest of his body
          concealed these defects. His gait was firm, his whole carriage
          manly, and his voice clear, but not so strong as his size led
          one to expect.

   The Roman tradition of realistic personal portraiture was in complete
   eclipse at this time, where individual traits were submerged in iconic
   typecastings. Charlemagne, as an ideal ruler, ought to be portrayed in
   the corresponding fashion, any contemporary would have assumed. The
   images of enthroned Charlemagne, God's representative on Earth, bear
   more connections to the icons of Christ in majesty than to modern (or
   antique) conceptions of portraiture. Charlemagne in later imagery (as
   in the Dürer portrait) is often portrayed with flowing blond hair, due
   to a misunderstanding of Einhard, who describes Charlemagne as having
   canitie pulchra, or "beautiful white hair", which has been rendered as
   blonde or fair in many translations. The Latin word for blond is
   flavus, and rutilo, meaning auburn, is the word Tacitus uses for the
   hair of Germanic peoples.

Dress

   Charlemagne wore the traditional, inconspicuous, and distinctly
   non-aristocratic costume of the Frankish people, described by Einhard
   thus:

          He used to wear the national, that is to say, the Frank dress:
          next to his skin a linen shirt and linen breeches, and above
          these a tunic fringed with silk; while hose fastened by bands
          covered his lower limbs, and shoes his feet, and he protected
          his shoulders and chest in winter by a close-fitting coat of
          otter or marten skins.

   He accessorised too, wearing a blue cloak and always carrying a sword
   with him. The typical sword was of a golden or silver hilt. However, he
   wore fancy jewelled swords to banquets or ambassadorial receptions.
   Nevertheless:

          He despised foreign costumes, however handsome, and never
          allowed himself to be robed in them, except twice in Rome, when
          he donned the Roman tunic, chlamys, and shoes; the first time at
          the request of Pope Hadrian, the second to gratify Leo,
          Hadrian's successor.

   He could rise to the occasion when necessary. On great feast days, he
   wore embroidery and jewels on his clothing and shoes. He had a golden
   buckle for his cloak on such occasions and would appear with his great
   diadem, but he despised such apparel, according to Einhard, and usually
   dressed as the common people.

Language

   Charlemagne's native tongue is a matter of controversy. He spoke the
   Germanic language of the Franks of his day, which should be called Old
   Frankish, but linguists differ on the identity and periodisation of the
   language, some going so far as to say that he did not speak Old
   Frankish, as Charlemagne was born in 742 or 747 and Frankish became
   extinct during the early 7th century, so that it is reconstructed from
   loanwords in its descendant, Old Low Franconian, also called Old Dutch,
   and Old French. Linguists know very little about Old Frankish, as it
   attested mainly as phrases and words in the law codes of the main
   Frankish tribes (especially those of the Salian and Ripuarian Franks),
   which are written in Latin interspersed with barbarisms.

   The area of Charlemagne's birth does not make determination of his
   native language easier. Most historians agree he was born around Liège,
   like his father, but some say he was born in or around Aachen, some
   fifty kilometres away. At that time, this was an area of great
   linguistic diversity. If we take Liège (around 750) as the centre, we
   find Low Franconian in the north and northwest, Gallo-Romance (the
   ancestor of Old French) in the south and southwest and various Old High
   German dialects in the east. If Gallo-Romance is excluded, that means
   he either spoke Old Low Franconian or an Old High German dialect,
   probably with a strong Frankish influence.

   Apart from his native language he also spoke some Latin and understood
   a bit of Greek.

Life

   Much of what is known of Charlemagne's life comes from his biographer,
   Einhard, who wrote a Vita Caroli Magni (or Vita Karoli Magni), the Life
   of Charlemagne.

Early life

   Charlemagne was the eldest child of Pippin the Short (714 – 24
   September 768, reigned from 751) and his wife Bertrada of Laon (720 –
   12 July 783), daughter of Caribert of Laon and Bertrada of Cologne. The
   reliable records name only Carloman and Gisela as his younger siblings.
   Later accounts, however, indicate that Redburga, wife of King Egbert of
   Wessex, might have been his sister (or sister-in-law or niece), and the
   legendary material makes him Roland's maternal uncle through Lady
   Bertha.

   Einhard says of the early life of Charles:

          It would be folly, I think, to write a word concerning Charles'
          birth and infancy, or even his boyhood, for nothing has ever
          been written on the subject, and there is no one alive now who
          can give information on it. Accordingly, I determined to pass
          that by as unknown, and to proceed at once to treat of his
          character, his deed, and such other facts of his life as are
          worth telling and setting forth, and shall first give an account
          of his deed at home and abroad, then of his character and
          pursuits, and lastly of his administration and death, omitting
          nothing worth knowing or necessary to know.

   This article follows that general format.

   On the death of Pippin, the kingdom of the Franks was divided—following
   tradition—between Charlemagne and Carloman. Charles took the outer
   parts of the kingdom, bordering on the sea, namely Neustria, western
   Aquitaine, and the northern parts of Austrasia, while Carloman retained
   the inner parts: southern Austrasia, Septimania, eastern Aquitaine,
   Burgundy, Provence, and Swabia, lands bordering on Italy. Perhaps
   Pippin regarded Charlemagne as the better warrior, but Carloman may
   have regarded himself as the more deserving son, being the son, not of
   a mayor of the palace, but of a king.

Joint rule

   On 9 October, immediately after the funeral of their father, both the
   kings withdrew from Saint Denis to be proclaimed by their nobles and
   consecrated by the bishops, Charlemagne in Noyon and Carloman in
   Soissons.

   The first event of the brothers' reign was the rising of the
   Aquitainians and Gascons, in 769, in that territory split between the
   two kings. Pippin had killed in war Waifer, Duke of Aquitaine. Now, one
   Hunald led the Aquitainians as far north as Angoulême. Charlemagne met
   Carloman, but Carloman refused to participate and returned to Burgundy.
   Charlemagne went to war, leading an army to Bordeaux, where he set up a
   camp at Fronsac. Hunold was forced to flee to the court of Duke Lupus
   II of Gascony. Lupus, fearing Charlemagne, turned Hunold over in
   exchange for peace. He was put in a monastery. Aquitaine was finally
   fully subdued by the Franks.

   The brothers maintained lukewarm relations with the assistance of their
   mother Bertrada, but Charlemagne signed a treaty with Duke Tassilo III
   of Bavaria and married Gerperga, daughter of King Desiderius of the
   Lombards, in order to surround Carloman with his own allies. Though
   Pope Stephen III first opposed the marriage with the Lombard princess,
   he would have little to fear of a Frankish-Lombard alliance in a few
   months.

   Charlemagne repudiated his wife and quickly married another, a
   13-year-old Swabian named Hildegard. The repudiated Gerperga returned
   to her father's court at Pavia. The Lombard's wrath was now aroused and
   he would gladly have allied with Carloman to defeat Charles. But before
   war could break out, Carloman died on 5 December 771. Carloman's wife
   Gerberga (often confused by contemporary historians with Charlemagne's
   former wife, who probably shared her name) fled to Desiderius' court
   with her sons for protection. This action is usually considered either
   a sign of Charlemagne's enmity or Gerberga's confusion.

Conquest of Lombardy

   The Frankish king Charlemagne was a devout Catholic who maintained a
   close relationship with the papacy throughout his life. In 772, when
   Pope Hadrian I was threatened by invaders, the king rushed to Rome to
   provide assistance. Shown here, the pope asks Charlemagne for help at a
   meeting near Rome.
   Enlarge
   The Frankish king Charlemagne was a devout Catholic who maintained a
   close relationship with the papacy throughout his life. In 772, when
   Pope Hadrian I was threatened by invaders, the king rushed to Rome to
   provide assistance. Shown here, the pope asks Charlemagne for help at a
   meeting near Rome.

   At the succession of Pope Hadrian I in 772, he demanded the return of
   certain cities in the former exarchate of Ravenna as in accordance with
   a promise of Desiderius' succession. Desiderius instead took over
   certain papal cities and invaded the Pentapolis, heading for Rome.
   Hadrian sent embassies to Charlemagne in autumn requesting he enforce
   the policies of his father, Pippin. Desiderius sent his own embassies
   denying the pope's charges. The embassies both met at Thionville and
   Charlemagne upheld the pope's side. Charlemagne promptly demanded what
   the pope had demanded and Desiderius promptly swore never to comply.
   The invasion was not short in coming. Charlemagne and his uncle Bernard
   crossed the Alps in 773 and chased the Lombards back to Pavia, which
   they then besieged. Charlemagne temporarily left the siege to deal with
   Adelchis, son of Desiderius, who was raising an army at Verona. The
   young prince was chased to the Adriatic littoral and he fled to
   Constantinople to plead for assistance from Constantine V Copronymus,
   who was waging war with the Bulgars.

   The siege lasted until the spring of 774, when Charlemagne visited the
   pope in Rome. There he confirmed his father's grants of land, with some
   later chronicles claiming—falsely—that he also expanded them, granting
   Tuscany, Emilia, Venice, and Corsica. The pope granted him the title
   patrician. He then returned to Pavia, where the Lombards were on the
   verge of surrendering.

   In return for their lives, the Lombards surrendered and opened the
   gates in early summer. Desiderius was sent to the abbey of Corbie and
   his son Adelchis died in Constantinople a patrician. Charles,
   unusually, had himself crowned with the Iron Crown and made the
   magnates of Lombardy do homage to him at Pavia. Only Duke Arechis II of
   Benevento refused to submit and proclaimed independence. Charlemagne
   was now master of Italy as king of the Lombards. He left Italy with a
   garrison in Pavia and few Frankish counts in place that very year.

   There was still instability, however, in Italy. In 776, Dukes Hrodgaud
   of Friuli and Gisulf of Spoleto rebelled. Charlemagne whisked back from
   Saxony and defeated the duke of Friuli in battle. The duke was slain.
   The duke of Spoleto signed a treaty. Their co-conspirator, Arechis, was
   not subdued and Adelchis, their candidate in Byzantium, never left that
   city. Northern Italy was now faithfully his.

Saxon campaigns

   Charlemagne was engaged in almost constant battle throughout his reign,
   often at the head of his elite scara bodyguard squadrons, with his
   legendary sword Joyeuse in hand. After thirty years of war and eighteen
   battles—the Saxon Wars—he conquered Saxonia and proceeded to convert
   the conquered to Roman Catholicism, using force where necessary.

   The Saxons were divided into four subgroups in four regions. Nearest to
   Austrasia was Westphalia and furthest away was Eastphalia. In between
   these two kingdoms was that of Engria and north of these three, at the
   base of the Jutland peninsula, was Nordalbingia.

   In his first campaign, Charlemagne forced the Engrians in 773 to submit
   and cut down an Irminsul pillar near Paderborn. The campaign was cut
   short by his first expedition to Italy. He returned in the year 775,
   marching through Westphalia and conquering the Saxon fort of Sigiburg.
   He then crossed Engria, where he defeated the Saxons again. Finally, in
   Eastphalia, he defeated a Saxon force, and its leader Hessi converted
   to Christianity. He returned through Westphalia, leaving encampments at
   Sigiburg and Eresburg, which had, up until then, been important Saxon
   bastions. All Saxony but Nordalbingia was under his control, but Saxon
   resistance had not ended.

   Following his campaign in Italy subjugating the dukes of Friuli and
   Spoleto, Charlemagne returned very rapidly to Saxony in 776, where a
   rebellion had destroyed his fortress at Eresburg. The Saxons were once
   again brought to heel, but their main leader, duke Widukind, managed to
   escape to Denmark, home of his wife. Charlemagne built a new camp at
   Karlstadt. In 777, he called a national diet at Paderborn to integrate
   Saxony fully into the Frankish kingdom. Many Saxons were baptised.

   In the summer of 779, he again invaded Saxony and reconquered
   Eastphalia, Engria, and Westphalia. At a diet near Lippe, he divided
   the land into missionary districts and himself assisted in several mass
   baptisms (780). He then returned to Italy and, for the first time,
   there was no immediate Saxon revolt. From 780 to 782, the land had
   peace.

   He returned in 782 to Saxony and instituted a code of law and appointed
   counts, both Saxon and Frank. The laws were draconian on religious
   issues, and the native traditional forms of Germanic paganism was
   gravely threatened. This stirred a renewal of the old conflict. That
   year, in autumn, Widukind returned and led a new revolt, which resulted
   in several assaults on the church. In response, at Verden in Lower
   Saxony, Charlemagne allegedly ordered the beheading of 4,500 Saxons who
   had been caught practising their native paganism after converting to
   Christianity, known as the Bloody Verdict of Verden or Massacre of
   Verden. The massacre, which modern research has not been able to
   confirm, triggered two years of renewed bloody warfare (783-785).
   During this war the Frisians were also finally subdued and a large part
   of their fleet was burned. The war ended with Widukind accepting
   baptism.

   Thereafter, the Saxons maintained the peace for seven years, but in 792
   the Westphalians once again rose against their conquerors. The
   Eastphalians and Nordalbingians joined them in 793, but the
   insurrection did not catch on and was put down by 794. An Engrian
   rebellion followed in 796, but Charlemagne's personal presence and the
   presence of loyal Christian Saxons and Slavs quickly crushed it. The
   last insurrection of the independence-minded people occurred in 804,
   more than thirty years after Charlemagne's first campaign against them.
   This time, the most unruly of them, the Nordalbingians, found
   themselves effectively disempowered from rebellion. According to
   Einhard:

          The war that had lasted so many years was at length ended by
          their acceding to the terms offered by the King; which were
          renunciation of their national religious customs and the worship
          of devils, acceptance of the sacraments of the Christian faith
          and religion, and union with the Franks to form one people.

Spanish campaign

   Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne in an illlustration taken from
   a manuscript of a chanson de geste.
   Enlarge
   Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne in an illlustration taken from
   a manuscript of a chanson de geste.

   To the Diet of Paderborn had come representatives of the Muslim rulers
   of Gerona, Barcelona, and Huesca. Their masters had been cornered in
   the Iberian peninsula by Abd ar-Rahman I, the Umayyad emir of Córdoba.
   The Moorish rulers offered their homage to the great king of the Franks
   in return for military support. Seeing an opportunity to extend
   Christendom and his own power and believing the Saxons to be a fully
   conquered nation, he agreed to go to Spain.

   In 778, he led the Neustrian army across the Western Pyrenees, while
   the Austrasians, Lombards, and Burgundians passed over the Eastern
   Pyrenees. The armies met at Zaragoza and received the homage of Soloman
   ibn al-Arabi and Kasmin ibn Yusuf, the foreign rulers. Zaragoza did not
   fall soon enough for Charles, however. Indeed, Charlemagne was facing
   the toughest battle of his career and, in fear of losing, he decided to
   retreat and head home. He could not trust the Moors, nor the Basques,
   whom he had subdued by conquering Pamplona. He turned to leave Iberia,
   but as he was passing through the Pass of Roncesvalles one of the most
   famous events of his long reign occurred. The Basques fell on his
   rearguard and baggage train, utterly destroying it. The Battle of
   Roncevaux Pass, less a battle than a mere skirmish, left many famous
   dead: among which were the seneschal Eggihard, the count of the palace
   Anselm, and the warden of the Breton March, Roland, inspiring the
   subsequent creation of the Song of Roland (Chanson de Roland). Thus
   ended the Spanish campaign in complete disaster.

Charles and his children

   During the first peace of any substantial length (780–782), Charles
   began to appoint his sons to positions of authority within the realm,
   in the tradition of the kings and mayors of the past. In 780, he had
   disinherited his eldest son, Pippin the Hunchback, because the young
   man had joined a rebellion against him. According to Charlemagne's
   biographer, Einhard, Pippin had been duped, through flattery, into
   joining a rebellion of nobles who pretended to despise Charles'
   treatment of Himiltrude, Pippin's mother, in 770. Charles renamed his
   son Carloman as Pippin to keep the name alive in the dynasty. In 781,
   he made his oldest three sons kings. The eldest, Charles, received the
   kingdom of Neustria, containing the regions of Anjou, Maine, and
   Touraine. The second eldest, Pippin, was made king of Italy, taking the
   Iron Crown which his father had first worn in 774. His third eldest
   son, Louis, became king of Aquitaine. He tried to make his sons a true
   Neustrian, Italian, and Aquitainian and he gave their regents some
   control of their subkingdoms, but real power was always in his hands,
   though he intended each to inherit their realm some day.

   The sons fought many wars on behalf of their father when they came of
   age. Charles was mostly preoccupied with the Bretons, whose border he
   shared and who insurrected on at least two occasions and were easily
   put down, but he was also sent against the Saxons on multiple
   occasions. In 805 and 806, he was sent into the Böhmerwald (modern
   Bohemia) to deal with the Slavs living there ( Czechs). He subjected
   them to Frankish authority and devastated the valley of the Elbe,
   forcing a tribute on them. Pippin had to hold the Avar and Beneventan
   borders, but also fought the Slavs to his north. He was uniquely poised
   to fight the Byzantine Empire when finally that conflict arose after
   Charlemagne's imperial coronation and a Venetian rebellion. Finally,
   Louis was in charge of the Spanish March and also went to southern
   Italy to fight the duke of Benevento on at least one occasion. He took
   Barcelona in a great siege in the year 797 (see below).
   Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen Cathedral.
   Enlarge
   Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen Cathedral.

   It is difficult to understand Charlemagne's attitude toward his
   daughters. None of them contracted a sacramental marriage. This may
   have been an attempt to control the number of potential alliances.
   Charlemagne certainly refused to believe the stories (mostly true) of
   their wild behaviour. After his death the surviving daughters entered
   or were forced to enter nunneries by their own brother, the pious
   Louis. At least one of them, Bertha, had a recognised relationship, if
   not a marriage, with Angilbert, a member of Charlemagne's court circle.

During the Saxon peace

   In 787, Charlemagne directed his attention towards Benevento, where
   Arechis was reigning independently. He besieged Salerno and Arechis
   submitted to vassalage. However, with his death in 792, Benevento again
   proclaimed independence under his son Grimoald III. Grimoald was
   attacked by armies of Charles' or his sons' many times, but Charlemagne
   himself never returned to the Mezzogiorno and Grimoald never was forced
   to surrender to Frankish suzerainty.

   In 788, Charlemagne turned his attention to Bavaria. He claimed Tassilo
   was an unfit ruler on account of his oath-breaking. The charges were
   trumped up, but Tassilo was deposed anyway and put in the monastery of
   Jumièges. In 794, he was made to renounce any claim to Bavaria for
   himself and his family (the Agilolfings) at the synod of Frankfurt.
   Bavaria was subdivided into Frankish counties, like Saxony.

   In 789, in recognition of his new pagan neighbours, the Slavs,
   Charlemagne marched an Austrasian-Saxon army across the Elbe into
   Abotrite territory. The Slavs immediately submitted under their leader
   Witzin. He then accepted the surrender of the Wiltzes under Dragovit
   and demanded many hostages and the permission to send, unmolested,
   missionaries into the pagan region. The army marched to the Baltic
   before turning around and marching to the Rhine with much booty and no
   harassment. The tributary Slavs became loyal allies. In 795, the peace
   broken by the Saxons, the Abotrites and Wiltzes rose in arms with their
   new master against the Saxons. Witzin died in battle and Charlemagne
   avenged him by harrying the Eastphalians on the Elbe. Thrasuco, his
   successor, led his men to conquest over the Nordalbingians and handed
   their leaders over to Charlemagne, who greatly honoured him. The
   Abotrites remained loyal until Charles' death and fought later against
   the Danes.

Avar campaigns

   In 788, the Avars, a pagan Asian horde which had settled down in what
   is today Hungary (Einhard called them Huns), invaded Friuli and
   Bavaria. Charles was preoccupied until 790 with other things, but in
   that year, he marched down the Danube into their territory and ravaged
   it to the Raab. Then, a Lombard army under Pippin marched into the
   Drava valley and ravaged Pannonia. The campaigns would have continued
   if the Saxons had not revolted again in 792, breaking seven years of
   peace.

   For the next two years, Charles was occupied with the Slavs against the
   Saxons. Pippin and Duke Eric of Friuli continued, however, to assault
   the Avars' ring-shaped strongholds. The great Ring of the Avars, their
   capital fortress, was taken twice. The booty was sent to Charlemagne at
   his capital, Aachen, and redistributed to all his followers and even to
   foreign rulers, including King Offa of Mercia. Soon the Avar tuduns had
   thrown in the towel and travelled to Aachen to subject themselves to
   Charlemagne as vassals and Christians. This Charlemagne accepted and
   sent one native chief, baptised Abraham, back to Avaria with the
   ancient title of khagan. Abraham kept his people in line, but in 800
   the Bulgarians under Krum had swept the Avar state away. In the 10th
   century, the Magyars settled the Pannonian plain and presented a new
   threat to Charlemagne's descendants.

   Charlemagne also directed his attention to the Slavs to the south of
   the Avar khaganate: the Carantanians and Slovenes. These people were
   subdued by the Lombards and Bavarii and made tributaries, but never
   incorporated into the Frankish state.

Saracens and Spain

   The conquest of Italy brought Charlemagne in contact with the Saracens
   who, at the time, controlled the Mediterranean. Pippin, his son, was
   much occupied with Saracens in Italy. Charlemagne conquered Corsica and
   Sardinia at an unknown date and in 799 the Balearic Islands. The
   islands were often attacked by Saracen pirates, but the counts of Genoa
   and Tuscany ( Boniface) kept them at bay with large fleets until the
   end of Charlemagne's reign. Charlemagne even had contact with the
   caliphal court in Baghdad. In 797 (or possibly 801), the caliph of
   Baghdad, Harun al-Rashid, presented Charlemagne with an Asian elephant
   named Abul-Abbas and a mechanical clock, out of which came a mechanical
   bird to announce the hours.

   In Hispania, the struggle against the Moors continued unabated
   throughout the latter half of his reign. His son Louis was in charge of
   the Spanish border. In 785, his men captured Gerona permanently and
   extended Frankish control into the Catalan littoral for the duration of
   Charlemagne's reign (and much longer, it remained nominally Frankish
   until the Treaty of Corbeil in 1258). The Muslim chiefs in the
   northeast of Spain were constantly revolting against Cordoban authority
   and they often turned to the Franks for help. The Frankish border was
   slowly extended until 795, when Gerona, Cardona, Ausona, and Urgel were
   united into the new Spanish March, within the old duchy of Septimania.

   In 797, Barcelona, the greatest city of the region, fell to the Franks
   when Zeid, its governor, rebelled against Córdoba and, failing, handed
   it to them. The Umayyad authority recaptured it in 799. However, Louis
   of Aquitaine marched the entire army of his kingdom over the Pyrenees
   and besieged it for two years, wintering there from 800 to 801, when it
   capitulated. The Franks continued to press forwards against the emir.
   They took Tarragona in 809 and Tortosa in 811. The last conquest
   brought them to the mouth of the Ebro and gave them raiding access to
   Valencia, prompting the Emir al-Hakam I to recognise their conquests in
   812.

Imperator

   Matters of Charlemagne's reign came to a head in late 800. In 799, Pope
   Leo III had been mistreated by the Romans, who tried to put out his
   eyes and tear out his tongue. He was deposed and put in a monastery.
   Charlemagne, advised by Alcuin of York, refused to recognise the
   deposition. He travelled to Rome in November 800 and held a council on
   December 1. On December 23, Leo swore an oath of innocence. At Mass, on
   Christmas Day ( December 25), the pope crowned Charlemagne Imperator
   Romanorum (Emperor of the Romans) in Saint Peter's Basilica. Einhard
   says that Charlemagne was ignorant of the pope's intent and did not
   want any such coronation:

          he at first had such an aversion that he declared that he would
          not have set foot in the Church the day that they [the imperial
          titles] were conferred, although it was a great feast-day, if he
          could have foreseen the design of the Pope.

   Charlemagne thus became the renewer of the Western Roman Empire, which
   had expired in 476. To avoid frictions with the Byzantine Emperor,
   Charles later styled himself, not Imperator Romanorum (a title reserved
   for the Byzantine emperor), but rather Imperator Romanum gubernans
   Imperium (emperor ruling the Roman Empire).
   The Coronation of Charlemagne from the Grandes Chroniques de France,
   illustrated by Jean Fouquet.
   Enlarge
   The Coronation of Charlemagne from the Grandes Chroniques de France,
   illustrated by Jean Fouquet.

   The iconoclasm of the Isaurian Dynasty and resulting religious
   conflicts with the Empress Irene, sitting on the throne in
   Constantinople in 800, were probably the chief causes of the pope's
   desire to formally resurrect the Roman imperial title in the West. He
   also most certainly desired to increase the influence of the papacy,
   honour his saviour Charlemagne, and solve the constitutional issues
   then most troubling to European jurists in an era when Rome was not in
   the hands of an emperor. Thus, Charlemagne's assumption of the title of
   Augustus, Constantine I, and Justinian I was not an usurpation in the
   eyes of the Franks or Italians. It was though in Byzantium, where it
   was protested by Irene and the usurper Nicephorus I — neither of whom
   had any great effect in enforcing their protests.

   The Byzantines, however, still held several territories in Italy:
   Venice (what was left of the Exarchate of Ravenna), Reggio ( Calabria,
   the toe), Brindisi ( Apulia, the heel), and Naples (the Ducatus
   Neapolitanus). These regions remained outside of Frankish hands until
   804, when the Venetians, torn by infighting, transferred their
   allegiance to the Iron Crown of Pippin, Charles' son. The Pax Nicephori
   ended. Nicephorus ravaged the coasts with a fleet and the only instance
   of war between Constantinople and Aachen, as it was, began. It lasted
   until 810, when the pro-Byzantine party in Venice gave their city back
   to the emperor in Byzantium and the two emperors of Europe made peace.
   Charlemagne received the Istrian peninsula and in 812 Emperor Michael I
   Rhangabes recognised his title.

Danish attacks

   After the conquest of Nordalbingia, the Frankish frontier was brought
   into contact with Scandinavia. The pagan Danes, "a race almost unknown
   to his ancestors, but destined to be only too well known to his sons"
   as Charles Oman eloquently described them, inhabiting the Jutland
   peninsula had heard many stories from Widukind and his allies who had
   taken refuge with them about the dangers of the Franks and the fury
   which their Christian king could direct against pagan neighbours. In
   808, the king of the Danes, Godfred, built the vast Danevirke across
   the isthmus of Schleswig. This defence, last employed in the
   Danish-Prussian War of 1864, was at its beginning a 30 km long
   earthenwork rampart. The Danevirke protected Danish land and gave
   Godfred the opportunity to harass Frisia and Flanders with pirate
   raids. He also subdued the Frank-allied Wiltzes and fought the
   Abotrites. He invaded Frisia and joked of visiting Aachen, but was
   murdered before he could do any more, either by a Frankish assassin or
   by one of his own men. Godfred was succeeded by his nephew Hemming, and
   he concluded a peace with Charlemagne in late 811.

Death

   "Europe at the death of Charles the Great, 814."—The Public Schools
   Historical Atlas ed. by C. Colbeck.
   Enlarge
   "Europe at the death of Charles the Great, 814."—The Public Schools
   Historical Atlas ed. by C. Colbeck.

   In 813, Charlemagne called Louis the Pious, king of Aquitaine, his only
   surviving legitimate son, to his court. There he crowned him as his
   heir and sent him back to Aquitaine. He then spent the autumn hunting
   before returning to Aachen on 1 November. In January, he fell ill. He
   took to his bed on 22 January and as Einhard tells it:

          He died January twenty-eighth, the seventh day from the time
          that he took to his bed, at nine o'clock in the morning, after
          partaking of the Holy Communion, in the seventy-second year of
          his age and the forty-seventh of his reign.

   When Charlemagne died in 814, he was buried in his own Cathedral at
   Aachen. He was succeeded by his surviving son, Louis, who had been
   crowned the previous year. His empire lasted only another generation in
   its entirety; its division, according to custom, between Louis's own
   sons after their father's death laid the foundation for the modern
   states of France and Germany.

Administration

   As an administrator, Charlemagne stands out for his many reforms:
   monetary, governmental, military, and ecclesiastical.

Monetary reforms

   Monogram of Charlemagne, from the subscription of a royal diploma:
   "Signum (monogr.: KAROLVS) Caroli gloriosissimi regis".
   Enlarge
   Monogram of Charlemagne, from the subscription of a royal diploma:
   "Signum (monogr.: KAROLVS) Caroli gloriosissimi regis".

   Pursuing his father's reforms, Charlemagne did away with the monetary
   system based on the gold sou. Both he and the Anglo-Saxon King Offa of
   Mercia took up the system set in place by Pippin. He set up a new
   standard, the livre (from the Latin libra, the modern pound)—a unit of
   both money and weight—which was worth 20 sous (from the Latin solidus,
   the modern shilling) or 240 deniers (from the Latin denarius, the
   modern penny). During this period, the livre and the sou were counting
   units, only the denier was a coin of the realm.

   Charlemagne applied the system to much of the European continent, and
   Offa's standard was voluntarily adopted by much of England. After
   Charlemagne's death, continental coinage degraded and most of Europe
   resorted to using the continued high quality English coin until about
   1100.

Education reforms

   A part of Charlemagne's success as warrior and administrator can be
   traced to his admiration for learning. His reign and the era it ushered
   in are often referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance because of the
   flowering of scholarship, literature, art, and architecture which
   characterise it. Charlemagne, brought into contact with the culture and
   learning of other countries (especially Visigothic Spain, Anglo-Saxon
   England and Lombard Italy) due to his vast conquests, greatly increased
   the provision of monastic schools and scriptoria (centres for
   book-copying) in Francia. Most of the surviving works of classical
   Latin were copied and preserved by Carolingian scholars. Indeed, the
   earliest manuscripts available for many ancient texts are Carolingian.
   It is almost certain that a text which survived to the Carolingian age
   survives still. The pan-European nature of Charlemagne's influence is
   indicated by the origins of many of the men who worked for him: Alcuin,
   an Anglo-Saxon from York; Theodulf, a Visigoth, probably from
   Septimania; Paul the Deacon, Peter of Pisa and Paulinus of Aquileia,
   Lombards; and Angilbert, Angilramm, Einhard and Waldo of Reichenau,
   Franks.

   Charlemagne took a serious interest in his and others' scholarship and
   had learned to read in his adulthood, although he never quite learned
   how to write, he used to keep a slate and stylus underneath his pillow,
   according to Einhard. His handwriting was bad, from which grew the
   legend that he could not write. Even learning to read was quite an
   achievement for kings at this time, most of whom were illiterate.

Writing reforms

   Page from the Lorsch Gospels of Charlemagne's reign.
   Enlarge
   Page from the Lorsch Gospels of Charlemagne's reign.

   During Charles' reign, the Roman half uncial script and its cursive
   version, which had given rise to various continental minuscule scripts,
   combined with features from the insular scripts that were being used in
   Irish and English monasteries. Carolingian minuscule was created partly
   under the patronage of Charlemagne. Alcuin of York, who ran the palace
   school and scriptorium at Aachen, was probably a chief influence in
   this. The revolutionary character of the Carolingian reform, however,
   can be over-emphasised; efforts at taming the crabbed Merovingian and
   Germanic hands had been underway before Alcuin arrived at Aachen. The
   new minuscule was disseminated first from Aachen, and later from the
   influential scriptorium at Tours, where Alcuin retired as an abbot.

Political reforms

   Charlemagne engaged in many reforms of Frankish governance, but he
   continued also in many traditional practices, such as the division of
   the kingdom among sons, to name but the most obvious one.

Organisation

   In the first year of his reign, Charlemagne went to Aachen (in French,
   Aix-la-Chapelle) for the first time. He began to build a palace twenty
   years later (788). The palace chapel, constructed in 796, later became
   Aachen Cathedral. Charlemagne spent most winters between 800 and his
   death (814) at Aachen, which he made the joint capital with Rome, in
   order to enjoy the hot springs. Charlemagne organised his empire into
   350 counties, each led by an appointed count. Counts served as judges,
   administrators, and enforcers of capitularies. To enforce loyalty, he
   set up the system of missi dominici, meaning "envoys of the lord". In
   this system, one representative of the church and one representative of
   the emperor would head to the different counties every year and report
   back to Charlemagne on their status.

Imperial coronation

   Historians have debated for centuries whether Charlemagne was aware of
   the Pope's intent to crown him Emperor prior to the coronation itself
   (Charlemagne declared that he would not have entered Saint Peter's had
   he known), but that debate has often obscured the more significant
   question of why the Pope granted the title and why Charlemagne chose to
   accept it once he did.

   Roger Collins points out (Charlemagne, pg. 147) "that the motivation
   behind the acceptance of the imperial title was a romantic and
   antiquarian interest in reviving the Roman empire is highly unlikely."
   For one thing, such romance would not have appealed either to Franks or
   Roman Catholics at the turn of the ninth century, both of whom viewed
   the Classical heritage of the Roman Empire with distrust. The Franks
   took pride in having "fought against and thrown from their shoulders
   the heavy yoke of the Romans" and "from the knowledge gained in
   baptism, clothed in gold and precious stones the bodies of the holy
   martyrs whom the Romans had killed by fire, by the sword and by wild
   animals", as Pippin III described it in a law of 763 or 764 (Collins
   151). Furthermore, the new title — carrying with it the risk that the
   new emperor would "make drastic changes to the traditional styles and
   procedures of government" or "concentrate his attentions on Italy or on
   Mediterranean concerns more generally" (Collins 149) — risked
   alienating the Frankish leadership.

   For both the Pope and Charlemagne, the Roman Empire remained a
   significant power in European politics at this time, and continued to
   hold a substantial portion of Italy, with borders not very far south of
   the city of Rome itself — this is the empire historiography has
   labelled the Byzantine Empire, for its capital was Constantinople
   (ancient Byzantium) and its people and rulers were Greek; it was a
   thoroughly Hellenic state. Indeed, Charlemagne was usurping the
   prerogatives of the Roman Emperor in Constantinople simply by sitting
   in judgement over the Pope in the first place:

          By whom, however, could he [the Pope] be tried? Who, in other
          words, was qualified to pass judgement on the Vicar of Christ?
          In normal circumstances the only conceivable answer to that
          question would have been the Emperor at Constantinople; but the
          imperial throne was at this moment occupied by Irene. That the
          Empress was notorious for having blinded and murdered her own
          son was, in the minds of both Leo and Charles, almost
          immaterial: it was enough that she was a woman. The female sex
          was known to be incapable of governing, and by the old Salic
          tradition was debarred from doing so. As far as Western Europe
          was concerned, the Throne of the Emperors was vacant: Irene's
          claim to it was merely an additional proof, if any were needed,
          of the degradation into which the so-called Roman Empire had
          fallen. ( John Julius Norwich, Byzantium: The Early Centuries,
          pg. 378)

   For the Pope, then, there was "no living Emperor at the that time"
   (Norwich 379), though Henri Pirenne (Mohammed and Charlemagne, pg.
   234n) disputes this saying that the coronation "was not in any sense
   explained by the fact that at this moment a woman was reigning in
   Constantinople." Nonetheless, the Pope took the extraordinary step of
   creating one. The papacy had for some years been in conflict with
   Irene's predecessors in Constantinople over a number of issues, chiefly
   the continued Byzantine adherence to the doctrine of iconoclasm, the
   destruction of Christian images. By bestowing the Imperial crown upon
   Charlemagne, the Pope arrogated to himself "the right to appoint ...
   the Emperor of the Romans, ... establishing the imperial crown as his
   own personal gift but simultaneously granting himself implicit
   superiority over the Emperor whom he had created." And "because the
   Byzantines had proved so unsatisfactory from every point of
   view—political, military and doctrinal—he would select a westerner: the
   one man who by his wisdom and statesmanship and the vastness of his
   dominions ... stood out head and shoulders above his contemporaries."
   The imperial coronation of Charlemagne, an act of utmost importance in
   European history.
   Enlarge
   The imperial coronation of Charlemagne, an act of utmost importance in
   European history.

   With Charlemagne's coronation, therefore, "the Roman Empire remained,
   so far as either of them [Charlemagne and Leo] were concerned, one and
   indivisible, with Charles as its Emperor", though there can have been
   "little doubt that the coronation, with all that it implied, would be
   furiously contested in Constantinople." (Norwich, Byzantium: The
   Apogee, pg. 3) How realistic either Charlemagne or the Pope felt it to
   be that the people of Constantinople would ever accept the King of the
   Franks as their Emperor, we cannot know; Alcuin speaks hopefully in his
   letters of an Imperium Christianum ("Christian Empire"), wherein, "just
   as the inhabitants of the [Roman Empire] had been united by a common
   Roman citizenship", presumably this new empire would be united by a
   common Christian faith (Collins 151), certainly this is the view of
   Pirenne when he says "Charles was the Emperor of the ecclesia as the
   Pope conceived it, of the Roman Church, regarded as the universal
   Church" (Pirenne 233).

   What we do know, from the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes (Collins
   153), is that Charlemagne's reaction to his coronation was to take the
   initial steps toward securing the Constantinopolitan throne by sending
   envoys of marriage to Irene, and that Irene reacted somewhat favorably
   to them. Only when the people of Constantinople reacted to Irene's
   failure to immediately rebuff the proposal by deposing her and
   replacing her with one of her ministers, Nicephorus I, did Charlemagne
   drop any ambitions toward the Byzantine throne and begin minimising his
   new Imperial title, and instead return to describing himself primarily
   as rex Francorum et Langobardum.

   The title of emperor remained in his family for years to come, however,
   as brothers fought over who had the supremacy in the Frankish state.
   The papacy itself never forgot the title nor abandoned the right to
   bestow it. When the family of Charles ceased to produce worthy heirs,
   the pope gladly crowned whichever Italian magnate could best protect
   him from his local enemies. This devolution led, as could have been
   expected, to the dormancy of the title for almost forty years
   (924-962). Finally, in 962, in a radically different Europe from
   Charlemagne's, a new Roman Emperor was crowned in Rome by a grateful
   pope. This emperor, Otto the Great, brought the title into the hands
   the kings of Germany for almost a millennium, for it was to become the
   Holy Roman Empire, a true imperial successor to Charles, if not
   Augustus.

Divisio regnorum

   In 806, Charlemagne first made provision for the traditional division
   of the empire on his death. For Charles the Younger he designated the
   imperial title, Austrasia and Neustria, Saxony, Burgundy, and
   Thuringia. To Pippin he gave Italy, Bavaria, and Swabia. Louis received
   Aquitaine, the Spanish March, and Provence. This division may have
   worked, but it was never to be tested. Pippin died in 810 and Charles
   in 811. Charlemagne redrew the map of Europe by giving all to Louis,
   save the Iron Crown, which went to Pippin's (illegitimate) son Bernard.
   There was no mention of the imperial title however, which has led to
   the suggestion that Charlemagne regarded the title as an honorary
   achievement which held no hereditary significance.

Cultural significance

   The Coronation of Charlemagne, by assistants of Raphael.
   Enlarge
   The Coronation of Charlemagne, by assistants of Raphael.

   Charlemagne, being a model knight as one of the Nine Worthies, enjoyed
   an important afterlife in European culture. One of the great medieval
   literary cycles, the Charlemagne cycle or the Matter of France, centres
   on the deeds of Charlemagne and his historical commander of the border
   with Brittany, Roland, and the paladins who are analogous to the
   knights of the Round Table or King Arthur's court. Their tales
   constitute the first chansons de geste.

   Charlemagne himself was accorded sainthood inside the Holy Roman Empire
   after the twelfth century. His canonisation by Antipope Paschal III, to
   gain the favour of Frederick Barbarossa in 1165, was never recognised
   by the Holy See, which annulled all of Paschal's ordinances at the
   Third Lateran Council in 1179. However, he has been acknowledged as
   cultus confirmed.

   In the Divine Comedy the spirit of Charlemagne appears to Dante in the
   Heaven of Mars, among the other "warriors of the faith".

   It is frequently claimed by genealogists that all people with European
   ancestry alive today are probably descended from Charlemagne. However,
   only a small percentage can actually prove descent from him.
   Charlemagne's marriage and relationship politics and ethics did,
   however, result in a fairly large number of descendants, all of whom
   had far better life expectancies than is usually the case for children
   in that time period. They were married into houses of nobility and as a
   result of intermarriages many people of noble descent can indeed trace
   their ancestry back to Charlemagne.

   Charlemagne is memorably quoted by Henry Jones (played by Sean Connery)
   in the film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Immediately after
   using his umbrella to induce a flock of pigeons to smash through the
   glass cockpit of a pursuing German fighter plane, Henry Jones remarks
   "I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne: 'Let my armies be the rocks and
   the trees and the birds in the sky'."

Family

   Charlemagne and Pippin the Hunchback. Tenth century copy of a lost
   original from about 830.
   Enlarge
   Charlemagne and Pippin the Hunchback. Tenth century copy of a lost
   original from about 830.

Marriages and heirs

     * His first wife was Himiltrude, married in 766. The marriage was
       never formally annulled. By her he had:
          + Pippin the Hunchback (767-813)

     * His second wife was Gerperga (often erroneously called Desiderata
       or Desideria), daughter of Desiderius, king of the Lombards,
       married in 768, annulled in 771.

     * His third wife was Hildegard (757 or 758-783 or 784), married 771,
       died 784. By her he had:
          + Charles the Younger (772 or 773-811), King of the Franks
            administering Neustria
          + Adelaide (773 or 774-774)
          + Carloman, renamed Pippin (773 or 777-810), king of Italy
          + Rotrude (or Hruodrud) (777-810)
          + Louis (778-840), twin of Lothair, King of the Franks since
            781, administering Aquitaine during his father's lifetime,
            since 814 sole king and emperor Holy Roman Emperor
          + Lothair (778-779 or 780), twin of Louis
          + Bertha (779-823)
          + Gisela (781-808)
          + Hildegarde (782-783)

     * His fourth wife was Fastrada, married 784, died 794. By her he had:
          + Theodrada (b.784), abbess of Argenteuil
          + Hiltrude (b.787)

     * His fifth and favorite wife was Luitgard, married 794, died 800
       childless.

Concubinages and illegitimate children

     * His first known concubine was Gersuinda. By her he had:
          + Adaltrude (b.774)

     * His second known concubine was Madelgard. By her he had:
          + Ruodhaid (775-810), abbess of Faremoutiers

     * His third known concubine was Amaltrud of Vienne. By her he had:
          + Alpaida (b.794)

     * His fourth known concubine was Regina. By her he had:
          + Drogo (801-855), bishop of Metz from 823
          + Hugh (802-844), archchancellor of the Empire

     * His fifth known concubine was Ethelind. By her he had:
          + Theodoric (b.807)

                           Carolingian dynasty
   Born: 742; Died: 814
      Preceded by:
   Pippin the Younger King of the Franks
                      768–814
                      (until 771 jointly with Carloman)  Succeeded by:
                                                        Louis the Pious
      Preceded by:
   Desiderius         King of the Lombards
                      774–814                           Succeeded by:
                                                        Pippin
                                                        as King of Italy
       New Title      Holy Roman Emperor
                      800–814                           Succeeded by:
                                                        Louis the Pious
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
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