Charlemagne

Charlemagne (Ridpath image)

Charlemagne (742-814) was, according to Lord Clark in his magisterial Civilization, the first great man of action to emerge from the darkness since the collapse of the Roman world. In Rome on Christmas Day 800 Pope Leo III crowned him Holy Roman Emperor the first head of an empire that would last over 1000 years. (Napoleon forced its dissolution in 1806.)

A commanding figure over six feet tall, Charlemagne became the subject of legend. He vastly extended the Frankish Empire into a European empire by adding Germany (Saxony) [in the first successful invasion of Germany], Italy (the Lombard kingdom was annexed in 774), Bohemia (Czech), Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia and some of Spain. He attacked the Spanish Moors (Moslems) in 778 but his rear guard was defeated. Written later, the Song of Roland (c.1100) recounts this campaign.

Charlemagne's empire did not survive him, and in 936 it passed into the German (Saxon) hands of Otto I the Great. The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) would remain a German institution until its end. After Charlemagne, the Renaissance Habsburgs were its most famous rulers.

His teacher and librarian, Alcuin of York, helped Charlemagne collect and copy ancient manuscripts. In fact, almost our entire knowledge of ancient literature is owed to the collecting and copying that began under Charlemagne. Magnificent illuminated manuscripts, which he commissioned, were one of his greatest cultural contributions.

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