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Charlemagne Of France

Male 742 - 814  (71 years)


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  • Name Charlemagne Of France 
    Born 2 Apr 742  Aix-La-Chapelle Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 28 Jan 814  Aachen Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I55  MyTree
    Last Modified 15 Aug 2009 

    Father Pepin III Of France,   b. 715,   d. 24 Sep 768, Seine, St. Denis, France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 53 years) 
    Mother Bertrade II (Bigfoot) Of Laon,   b. 720, Laon, Austrasia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 12 Jul 783  (Age 63 years) 
    Family ID F3945  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Regina Of France 
    Married France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. l'abbe Hugh Of France,   b. Abt 794,   d. 7 Jun 844 Find all individuals with events at this location
    Last Modified 17 Jul 2017 
    Family ID F2144  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Married France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Petronille Of Auxerre,   b. Abt 825,   d. Yes, date unknown
    Last Modified 17 Jul 2017 
    Family ID F2145  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 3 Hildegard Of Linzgau 
    Children 
    +1. Dhuada Of France
     2. Charles Of Aquitaine,   b. 772, Aachen, Rhineland, Prussia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 4 Dec 811  (Age 39 years)
    +3. Pepin I Of Italy,   b. Apr 773, Of Aachen, Rhineland, Prussia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 8 Jul 810, Milan, Italy Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 37 years)
     4. Adelheid Of France,   b. 774, Of Pavie, Italy Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 774  (Age 0 years)
    +5. Rotrude Of France,   b. Abt 775,   d. Yes, date unknown
    +6. Louis I Of France,   b. 777, Chasseneiuil, Lot-en-Garonne, Aquitaine, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 20 Jun 840, Near Ingelheim, lRhinehessen, Hess, Prussia Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 63 years)
     7. Lothaire Of France,   b. Aug 778, Casseneuil, Lot-et-Garonne, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aug 778  (Age ~ 0 years)
    +8. Bertha Of France,   b. 779,   d. 853  (Age 74 years)
     9. Gisele Of France,   b. 781,   d. Yes, date unknown
     10. Hildegard Of France,   b. 782, Of Aachen, Rhineland, Prussia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 9 Jan 783, Brissarthe, Maine-et-Loire, Anjou, France Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 1 years)
    Last Modified 17 Jul 2017 
    Family ID F3934  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • With the consent of the great nobles, Charlemagne, Charles the Great,
      became King of France and Holy Roman Emperor of the West from 771 to
      814, following the death of his brother. He was born April 2, 742,
      probably at Aix-La-Chapelle. When only twelve years old we find him
      commissioned to receive and welcome the pontiff who came to implore
      his father's aid against the barbarians that threatened Rome. He
      probably accompanied his father in his campaigns at an early age, but
      the first time that we really see him in the field, is on the renewal
      of the war with the rebellious Duke of Aquitaine.

      Upon the death of Pepin, in 768, Charlemagne and his younger brother
      Carloman succeeded to equal portions of one of the most powerful of
      European kingdoms, bounded by the Pyrenees, the Alps, Mediterranean,
      and the ocean. But this would hardly enabled the monarchs, even had
      they been united, to resist successfully the incursions of the
      barbarous tribes on the German frontiers of France, which had
      commenced with the first establishment of the Frankish dominion in
      Gaul; and which were kept alive by the constant pouring forth of fresh
      hordes from the overpopulated north. The situation of Charlemagne was
      rendered yet more perilous by the massive enmity of his brother, and
      the rebellion of Hunald, the turbulent Duke of Aquitaine. But
      fortunately Charlemagne had a genius equal to the difficulties of his
      situation; though his brother refused to aid him, he defeated Huald;
      and no less illustrious by his clemency than by his valor and military
      skill, he forgave the vanquished rebel.

      Desiderius, the King of Lombardy, had made large encroachments upon
      the states of the Roman Pontiff, whose cause was taken up by
      Charlemagne. This led to feuds, which Bertha, his mother, endeavored
      to appease by arranging a marriage between her son and the daughter of
      the Lombard. But Charlemagne soon took a disgust to the wife thus
      imposed upon him, and repudiated her, that he might marry Hildegarde,
      the daughter of a noble family in Swabia. Thus he married Hildegarde
      of Swabia (Linzgau), Countess, born in 757/758, died April 30, 782/3.

      In 771 Carloman died, and Charlemagne was elected to the vacant
      throne, to the exclusion of his nephews, whose extreme youth made then
      incapable of wearing the crown in such troubled times. Gilberge, the
      widow of Carloman, immediately fled, and sought refuse with
      Desiderius, the common retreat for all who were hostile to the
      Frankish monarch.

      From that time, sole ruler during a reign of forty-three years, he
      waged incessant wars on all his borders, subduing rebellions,
      extending his domains and at the same time advancing Christianity. In
      772 he began a thirty-year war with the determined Saxons, after the
      successful opening of Charlemagne was called to the assistance of Pope
      Hadrian I. against Desiderius, King of the Lombards. Charlemagne
      marched two armies over the Alps and conquered Lombardy in 774;
      returned and beat the Saxons again and hastened into Spain, in 778, to
      help the Arabian rulers of that country against the Osman Caliph of
      Cordova. It was in this war that Roland, the hero of romance, fell in
      the pass of Roncesvalles.

      In 799 the Romans revolted against Pope Leo III., and were again
      brought into subjection by Charlemagne. In return, while he was
      praying on the steps of St. Peter's Church, he was crowned by Leo with
      the iron crown of the Western Empire, successor of the Roman Caesars,
      unexpectedly to him, as he pretended, on Christmas Day, 800, amidst
      the popular acclamations, "Long life and victory to Charles Augustus,
      crowned by God, great and pacific Emperor of the Romans!"

      The extensive domain of Charlemagne was rendered secure only by
      ceaseless vigilance and warfare. The short intervals of peace which
      ere allowed him, he employed in endeavoring to educate and civilize
      his people. He made a tour through his dominions, causing local and
      general improvement, reforming laws, advancing knowledge, and building
      churches and monasteries. Christianity being one of the chief means to
      which he trusted for the attainment of his grand objects. In this he
      was no less successful than he had before been in war. With exception
      of the Eastern empire, France was now the most cultivated nation in
      Europe, even Rome herself sending thither for skillful workmen, while
      commerce, roads, and mechanics must have been much advanced, as we may
      infer from the facility with which marble columns and immense stone
      crosses were often carried through the whole extent of France upon
      carriages of native construction. Luxury, too, with its attendant arts
      had made considerable strides. Vases of gold and silver richly carved,
      silver tables highly wrought, bracelets, rings, and table cloths of
      fine linen, might be seen in the houses of the nobles. The people must
      have been dexterous in working iron, for their superiority in this
      respect is shown by the severe laws forbidding the exportation of
      arms.

      Charlemagne drove back the Arabs, reduced the Huns, and effectually
      protected his long line of coast from the attempted invasion of the
      Northmen. It is said, that upon one occasion he arrived at a certain
      port just as the pirates were preparing to land; but the moment they
      learned of the presence of the monarch, they immediately fled in great
      terror at the mere mention of his name.

      It was always an object of first importance with Charlemagne to
      support the papal authority, as holding out the only means of
      spreading Christianity, which he justly considered the most effectual
      instrument he could employ to enlighten and civilize the world.

      Charlemagne securely laid the foundations of his empire. He was
      vigilant, judicious, and energetic, both as a ruler and commander. He
      fostered agriculture, trade, arts, and letters with untiring zeal,
      clearing forests, draining swamps, founding monasteries and schools,
      building cities, constructing splendid palaces, as at Aix, Worms, and
      Ingelheim, and drawing to his court scholars and poets from all
      nations, being himself proficient in science, as well as all hardy
      accomplishments.

      Charlemagne was tall and a commanding presence, and could speak and
      write Latin as well as his native German. He fostered all learning and
      the fine arts, studying rhetoric and astronomy. He reigned over
      France, half of Germany, and four-fifths of Italy. The Caliph
      Haroun-al-Rashid sent an embassy to the court of Charlemagne with
      gifts in token of good will.

      Attacked with pleurisy, he died after a short illness, in the
      seventy-second year of age, and the forty-seventh of his reign, on
      January 28, 814. Some years later Charlemagne was canonized by the
      church.