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.
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