Plato An Early Influential Thinker Essay Research

Plato: An Early Influential Thinker Essay, Research Paper

The Conquests, Coronation, and Rule of Charlemagne

Jamie L. Wood

Western Civilization Paper #2

Tuesday, November 10, 1998

Charlemagne one of the most ambitious, aggressive, and noble kings of medieval

times. He ruled the Franks from 768 to 814 and became Emperor of the Romans from

800-814. During his tenure as Emperor of the Romans Charlemagne created an empire

that would be the envy and model for many ambitious monarchs to follow. The

coronation of Charlemagne as emperor goes beyond the conflict between Church and

state. It is a symbolic event. Charlemagne.s coronation marks the union of the Roman

and the German civilizations, and the union of the Mediterranean and the northern

civilizations.

Charlemagne was born in Northern Europe on April 2, 742. He was born the first

of two sons to the Mayor of the Palace and Frankish King, Pepin the Short, and

Bertrade (.Bertha Greatfoot.). Charlemagne.s father, Pepin the short, was elevated by

decree of the Roman Pope Stephen II, from the rank of Mayor of the Palace to that of

King and ruled alone over the Franks from 752 to 768. On September 24, 768, Pepin

died of dropsy. At that time he was in Paris. It was towards the end of the Aquitanian

War, which he had undertaken with William, Duke of Aquitania, for nine consecutive

years. Following the death of Pepin his two sons, Charlemagne and Carloman

succeeded him, .upon whim, by the grace of God, the succession devolved. (Einhard

par. 3)..

October 9, 786, the Franks appointed Charlemagne and Carloman each as kings.

The kingdom was equally divided between them. Ultimately, Charlemagne ruled the part

that had belonged to their father, Pepin the Short, and Carloman ruled the part which

their uncle, Carloman had governed. However, shortly thereafter and in 771, Carloman

died, and Charlemagne became sole ruler of the entire kingdom.

Charlemagne was reportedly tall, powerful, and tireless. His secretary, Einhard,

wrote that Charlemagne had fair hair and a .face laughing and merry . . . . his

appearance was always stately and dignified (Einhard par. 22).. He had a ready wit ,

but could be stern. He was typical of the Franks in his love for hunting and for feasting,

but Einhard notes that his king drank in moderation– a mere three cups of wine with a

meal. Charlemagne was a ruthless king. However equally notable was his

perseverance, his ability to organize, and his ability to carry through a plan. One more

important attribute of Charlemagne was his physical energy. He was able to work longer

and more arduous hours than his commanders or his secretaries.

Charlemagne.s character was contradictory. .All the rest of his life he was

regarded by everyone with the utmost love and affection, so much that not the least

accusation of unjust rigor was ever made against him (Einhard par. 20).. Notably, in an

age when the usual penalty for defeat was death, Charlemagne was known to spared

the lives of his defeated opponents. Yet in 782 at Verden, after a Saxon uprising, he

ordered about 4,500 Saxons beheaded. He forced kings and princes to kneel at his feet,

yet his mother and two of his favorite wives often overruled him in his own household.

He obliged the clergy and nobles to reform, on the other hand, but he divorced two of his

four wives without any known cause being reported therefore.

During Charlemagne.s reign, he was determined to strengthen his realm and

bring order to Europe. He launched a thirty-year campaign to accomplish this objective.

More than fifty military expeditions were sent out by Charlemagne to increase the Frank

kingdom by almost doubling it during his forty-seven years of reign:

.The authority of the Franks was formerly

confined to that part of Gaul included between the Rhine and

the Loire, the Ocean and the Balearic Sea; to that part of

Germany which is inhabited by the so-called Eastern Franks,

and is bounded by Saxony and the Danube, the Rhine and

the Saale- this stream separates the Thuringians from the

Sorabians. and to the country of the Alemannir and bavarians

. . . . he first made tributary Auitania, Gascony, and the whole

of the region of the Pyrenees as far as the River Ebro, which

rises n the land of the Navarrese, flows through the most

fertile districts of Spain, and empties into the Balearic Sea,

beneath the walls of the city of Tortosa. He next reduced

and made tributary all Italy from Aosta to Lower Calabria,

where the boundary line runs between the Beneventans and

the Greeks, a territory more than a thousand miles long; then

Saxony, which constitutes no small part of Germany . . . . in

addition both Pannonias, Draca beyond the Danube, and

Istria, Liburnia, and Dalmatia . . . . he vanquished and made

tributary all the wild and barbarous tribes dwelling in

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