Week 6 Essay

          This week I learned some of the early Frankish or today, French kings. In this essay, I will write about the one I found most interesting: the famous Charlemagne. He was the son of Pepin the Short, son of Charles Martel, or Charles the Hammer.

          Charlemagne was king during the Carolingian empire. His name was Carolus, translated to Charles in English. Later he became Charles the Great, or Charlemagne in English. He ruled as co-emperor beginning in 768 and he ruled alongside his brother Carloman, and when he died in 771, Charlemagne became sole ruler of France.

          For his first job as king, he settled a revolt in Aquitaine. To strengthen the kingdom further, he married the Lombard princess. However, this did not last long because the next year he married another woman named Hildegard, and he had nine children with her.

          He later attacked the Lombards and conquered most of them to help Pope Adrian regain his territory. He conquered the Lombard capital Pavia after a two year siege. The people of Pavia crowned him with an iron crown and gave their allegiance to him. He had then become the most powerful man in Europe now that he was king of both France and Italy.

          Charlemagne was very powerful with his army, and he is famous for his magnificent bodyguard forces and his sword, Joyeuse, but no one would have ever guessed what happened next. He was fighting against the Muslims in Spain, and they offered a peace treaty, but instead, they made a surprise attack on Charlemagne’s rearguard. This destroyed his entire rearguard, including Charlemagne’s nephew Roland. There is actually a poem called the Song of Roland, telling about his death.

          Charlemagne turned around to find his rearguard completely wiped out, and, outraged, conquered the Muslims afterwards. Come to find out, this attack was a result of treason by one of Charlemagne’s own men. When they got back to France, the man was punished by death.

          During his reign, Charlemagne conquered the Lombards in Italy, Sardinia, Hispania, Corsica, the Muslims in Spain, the Saxons in England (he fought 18 battles in 30 years against them), the Slavs, and the Avars, whom Charlemagne pretty much wiped out from history; they all disappeared after Charlemagne destroyed them.

          He also made a law code for the court and everyone else to follow and he forced his empire to convert to Christianity. However, he was very forceful and brutal doing this, so to the people who were forced to convert, he was not a very great ruler. Also, when the Saxons tried to revolt, he had 4500 Saxons executed. This is known as the Massacre of Verdun.

          When Pope Leo Ⅱ was threatened in 799, he called on Charlemagne for help. Charlemagne did so and afterwards, the Pope crowned him as emperor of France.

          Charlemagne is also known for his passion in education. He believed that both boys and girls should be properly educated. He also did some studying and learning of his own.

          In 813, the king of Aquitaine, Louis the Pious was crowned as co-emperor of France. The very next year, in 814, after reigning for 47 years, Charlemagne fell ill and died, at the age of 72. Unfortunately, around the end of his life, Charlemagne became depressed by all the plans he did not get to see be completed. After his death, Louis the Pious and Charlemagne’s sons ruled France.

          As you can see, Emperor Charlemagne of France was a very powerful ruler. He was and is very well known to this day for his power and kingdom that he spread. Unfortunately, the empire did not do as well afterwards, but we still have France doing well today.