Charlemagne

I

Introduction

Charlemagne, in Latin, Carolus Magnus (Charles the Great) (748-814), King of the Franks (768-814) and Emperor of the Romans (800-814), who led his Frankish armies to victory over numerous other peoples and established his rule in most of western and central Europe (see Holy Roman Empire). He was the best-known and most influential king in Europe in the Middle Ages.

II

Charlemagne’s Early Life and Accession

Charlemagne was born on April 2, 748, possibly in Herstal (in modern Belgium) or Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). His father, Pepin the Short, was the palace mayor, or principal official, of Childeric III (reigned about 743-751), king of the Franks, although he in fact held real power rather than the king, who was largely ineffectual. In 751, having received the pope’s permission to become king, Pepin deposed Childeric and had himself anointed king with holy oil. This ceremony was repeated by Pope Stephen II (III) in 754 when Charlemagne and his younger brother, Carloman, were also anointed as kings, although they did not take the royal title itself at that time. In the course of the 760s, Charlemagne began to take a role in the Frankish government, including being involved in a campaign against rebels in the province of Aquitaine, in south-western Gaul, and just before his death in 768 Pepin arranged to leave his kingdom jointly divided between him and his brother. In 768, on their father’s death, Charlemagne and Carloman succeeded as joint kings of the Franks, controlling between them a realm which embraced modern France and a large part of modern Germany. On Carloman's death in 771, Charlemagne became sole ruler of the Franks.

III

Sources for the Life of Charlemagne

Much of Charlemagne’s life is not well understood, but by the standards of the period contemporary written sources for his reign are rich, although they are anything but straightforward records. The Royal Frankish Annals provide a year-by-year account, but they are clearly an official record shaped by political priorities, and the Revised Royal Frankish Annals, which amplified them especially with accounts of military and other disasters, are equally problematic to interpret. The capitularies, the nearest thing to royal edicts, provide records of the assemblies that Charlemagne held, but it is clear that it is not a complete collection, and some are little more than heads of discussion.

There is in addition a number of writings emanating from the learned circle that Charlemagne gathered at his palace, including the great Northumbrian scholar, Alcuin, the Spanish Goth, Theodoric, and the Irishman, Cathwulf. These men wrote letters (those of Alcuin survive in some numbers), works on scholarship (for example, Alcuin's On Rhetoric), and also poetry in classical Latin style, much of which survives. But how far this group was projecting the reality of Charlemagne's reign and how far an image of how they wanted it to be is unclear. Two biographies of Charlemagne, one by Einhard, a former member of Charlemagne’s palace, and one by a monk called Notker the Stammerer, were written in the course of the 9th century but, as discussed below, their value as factual sources is doubtful.

IV

Charlemagne’s Military Campaigns

Charlemagne's reign was marked by almost annual military activity, beginning with the completion of Pepin's campaigns to restore Aquitaine to Frankish rule (760-768), continuing with the conquest of Lombardy, in northern Italy, in response to an appeal by Pope Adrian I to protect papal lands from attack by the Lombards, and Charlemagne's subsequent installation as king of the Lombards (773-774), and a protracted and difficult series of campaigns against the pagan Saxons to the east of the River Rhine, which began in 775 but was only brought to a conclusion in 804 with the definitive conquest and Christianization of Saxony as an integral part of Charlemagne's realm (see Christianity). In addition, Charlemagne campaigned against the Moors in Muslim Spain, in order to subject them to Christian rule, in 778; in Benevento, in southern Italy, against its duke, Arichis, and in Bavaria against its duke, Tassilo, in 787; against the pagan Avars, in the area of modern Hungary and Austria, in 791 and 795-796; and against the Moors of south-eastern Spain in the latter years of his reign. This warfare was often, perhaps always, savage. The Royal Frankish Annals record the massacre of 4,500 Saxons in 782, and the deportation of others.

Many campaigns involved considerable distances and complex logistics. The Royal Frankish Annals record, for example, Charlemagne achieving three coordinated invasions of Bavaria, as well as a two-year siege of Barcelona in 800-801. Capitularies from the early 800s prescribe a system of military levying and organization apparently of some sophistication and capable of raising large armies. It is possible, however, that this organization, in so far as it was new, was a response to external threats from both hostile Vikings and Slavs from Eastern Europe, rather than the basis of Charlemagne's conquests. These latter threats may have been overcome with relatively small armies of mounted vassals, driven as much as anything by the quest for booty, such as the vast amounts of treasure that were brought back from the sacking of the great fortress known as the Ring of the Avars.