Charlemagne

(Charles I, Charles the Great)

(742–814)

   One of the most important figures of the medieval world, Charlemagne was king of the Franks and ultimately emperor of the West. Renowned for his military strength, which enabled him to expand his empire from the North Sea to the Pyrenees, Charlemagne’s more important contribution to Western civilization includes the revival of learning and the arts that was encouraged and that flourished under his reign. In addition, the legend of Charlemagne provided material for many popular literary treatments in the centuries that followed.

   Born in 742, the son of King Pepin the Short and Berthe (daughter of Caribert, the count of Laon), Charlemagne became joint ruler of the Frankish Kingdom with his brother Carloman in 768. His early reign was strongly influenced by his virtuous mother (d. 783), even after Charles ruled in his own right following his brother’s death in 771. His first major war occurred in 773, when he invaded Lombardy in response to a threat to the pope. Charlemagne crushed the Lombards, put their king into a monastery, and assumed the crown of Lombardy himself.

   For some 10 years after this, Charlemagne fought the Saxons and finally defeated them, forcing their leader,Wildukind, to be baptized and adding their territory to his growing empire. In 788, Tassilo, the duke of Bavaria and technically one of Charlemagne’s vassals, defied the king and was subsequently defeated. Like the Lombard king before him, Tassilo was pressured into entering a monastery, thus adding Bavaria to Charles’s empire. Shortly thereafter, in 791, Charles became embroiled in a long war with the Avars, who ruled an area along the Danube. Ultimately, in 799, he defeated them as well and expanded his hegemony once again.

   About this time Pope Leo III was under attack again, and he was deposed in 800. Charlemagne once again crossed the Alps and restored the pope to his position, after which, on Christmas Day 800, the pope, seeing Charlemagne as the true protector of the faith, crowned him emperor of the West— the first to be crowned since the sixth century. Charlemagne continued to reign until his death in 814, after which his empire was divided among his sons. He maintained good relations with the eastern, or Byzantine emperor, as well as with the caliph of Baghdad, Haroun-al-Raschid, who not only sent him a white elephant but agreed to protect pilgrims en route to Jerusalem, deep in Muslim territory.

   Charlemagne built a great imperial palace at Aachen, a wonder in its day, and was interested not only in conquest but also in establishing order and promoting learning in his empire. During what became known as the “Carolingian renaissance,” schools were set up across the empire, the arts flourished, and monasteries began building up great libraries, preserving manuscripts and making multiple copies of older texts in their scriptoria, thus preserving many classical texts that might otherwise have been lost.He convinced the great Anglo-Saxon scholar ALCUIN to become priest of the imperial chapel and to help reform education in his realm. Alcuin headed the palace school and standardized the LIBERAL ARTS curriculum, composing textbooks for use in studying grammar, logic, astronomy, and rhetoric. Alcuin also is credited for developing the Carolingian minuscule—a form of cursive script that allowed for clear and rapid transcription. In addition to his influence on learning, Charlemagne himself became the subject of literary texts. EINHARD (a student of Alcuin’s) wrote an early biography of him, Vita Caroli Magni (Life of Charlemagne), published in about 830. Written in imitation of Suetonius, Einhard’s biography contains a good deal of firsthand, personal detail, and has often been admired for its fidelity to truth. A second idealized biography, Gesta Caroli (The deeds of Charles), is believed to have been written by NOTKER BALBULUS in 883–84. Composed for Charlemagne’s great-grandson Charles the Fat, Notker’s biography helped to establish Charlemagne as a legendary hero.

   Many legends developed around Charlemagne, glorifying him as the defender of the faith (which could be said with some truth), particularly against Saracens (which was entirely apocryphal). Charlemagne and his knights became the focus of a cycle of heroic poems known as the geste du roi, a group of some 20 epic poems of the sort known as CHANSONS DE GESTE. Charlemagne is the central figure of these poems, but they general involve the exploits of his “12 Peers,” the chief warrior knights or “paladins” that owe him allegiance. The list varies, but in the earliest and most important poem in the cycle, the Chanson de Roland, or SONG OF ROLAND, the list includes Roland, Oliver, Gérin, Gérier, Bérengier, Otton, Samson, Engelier, Ivon, Ivoire, Anséis, and Girard.

   In the end Charlemagne’s contributions to Western culture are among the most significant in history, but ultimately his legend became popular enough to rival his actual accomplishments.

   Bibliography

   ■ Bullough, Donald. The Age of Charlemagne. 2nd ed. New York: Exeter Books, 1980.

   ■ Halphen, Louis. Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire. 1949. Translated by Giselle de Nie. New York: North Holland, 1977.

   ■ James, Edward. The Franks. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1988.

   ■ Riché, Pierre. Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne. 1978.With expanded footnotes and translated with an introduction by Jo Ann McNamara. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.

   ■ Thorpe, Lewis, trans. Two Lives of Charlemagne. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1969.