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ENGL 1120

Dr. Jared Valdez

27 November 2022

Charlemagne’s Rule and Accomplishments

Charlemagne was a great medieval emperor who ruled almost all parts of Western

Europe from 768-814. He was a great ruler and conqueror. He conquered many

nations in medieval Europe by wars. He also had a great influence on politics and

cultures. During the early medieval period, Charlemagne use a combination of politics

and religion to unite the people in western Europe. I argue that Charlemagne’s

principal achievement was that he propagated Christianity in western Europe

establishing schools and ecclesiastical institutions in many places and combined

politics and religion to bring many people together under one ruler.

It had been three-hundred years since the west Roman Empire perished. During

that time period, it was a chaos between each barbarian state; the Roman Empire’s

cultures, traditions, and laws had decayed. Not only did Charlemagne do a great job

of establishing the new empire but also reinforced the power of judicial system,

Christians, and Frankish culture. This period is of Charlemagne’s empire is called

Carolingian dynasty, and it was very important for the formation of western

civilization. However, Charlemagne’s empire, the kingdom of the Franks, still

retained some of their barbarian traditions. In Frankish tradition, it was the king who

had highest power.

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Charlemagne’s first war was Aquitanian War which was started by his father

Pepin the Short in year 742 and Charlemagne ending up finish it. Besides that, he had

involved in 54 military campaigns including: Lombard War, Spanish Expedition,

Slavic War, Bavarian Campaign, Danish War, etc. However, the war with Saxons was

a hardest war Charlemagne faced in the beginning of his ruling era. He spent

enormous time and effort to conquer them. It took more than thirty years, and finally

in year 804 the Saxons surrendered and blend together with the Franks. While he was

in the war against the Saxons, he also took his largest army on the expedition to Spain

He carried a sword and Bible with him every time when he went out in wars.

There are two main characteristics of the relationships between politics and religion.

He used his power of kingship and armed forces to spread Christianity all around

Europe. He helped fight paganism to make Christianity the only unique religion that

everybody should follow. In every expedition, he brought a group of clerics to force

the local citizens believe in Christianity. If the local citizens refused to get baptized,

they would be put to death. This was true with the Saxons, who lived in the north of

Germany. Charlemagne spent thirty-two years sending punitive expeditions against

the Saxons. But once Charlemagne’s troop retreated, the Saxons changed their minds.

It happened so many times which made Charlemagne very angry at them. And finally

in the year 782, he ordered the execution of 4500 unfaithful Saxons in one day

(Hollister, 93). He also forced the rest of the Saxons to pay taxes, so that the church

would be under the protection of the nation’s law in economics and politics. At the

same time, he established many churches and monasteries in local areas to better
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convince the Saxons. This demonstrates how Charlemagne combined politics and

religion together when ruling an area. That he divided the lands that he conquered

between monasteries indicates that he was trying to convince clergyman be on his

side.

Secondly, the Pope and Charlemagne worked together to govern their nation with

feudalism. Charlemagne followed in his fathers footsteps. Like Pepin the Short,

Charlemagne took power with the help of the Pope. “On Christmas Day 800, his

immense accomplishment was given formal recognition when Pope Leo III placed the

imperial crown on his head and acclaimed him ‘Emperor of the Romans’” (Bennett,

91). After he defeated the Lombards in Italian peninsula, he proudly announced

himself as “king of the Franks and the Lombards” (Hollister, 91). However, there is

debate about whether Charlemagne wanted to take his awarded titles. As is stated in

Einhard’s edition, “Charlemagne really came to Rome to restore the Church ... He

made it clear that he would not have entered the cathedral that day at all ... if he had

known in advance what the Pope was planning to do” (Einhard, 81). The reason that

Charlemagne was crowned was because Pope Leo III felt grateful when Charlemagne

helped him in the coup in Roma as Charlemagne promised before that he shall use

armed forces to protect the church when he needed to, and for the Pope, shall pray to

support me by using armed forces. But different versions of the text confuse the

audience. Therefore to consider the contradiction here, by using logical statement can

avoid the situation (Johnson-Sheehan & Paine). Either to justify on Hollister’s edition

or Einhard’s edition of the the scene. There are justified and reasonable theories on
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both sides, so it is hard to tell what was going on in Charlemagne’s mind. Using ethos

and pathos is not working here because without solid proved sources it can not be

distinguished. The person who might know about it were already died, which makes it

harder because no one can prove the writings or other source information are credible.

The rhetorical pattern used here is comparison and contrast. Even so, Charlemagne

became the leader of the Roman Empire. Although the Roman Empire had perished,

its shadow was still there. The combination of politics and religion emerge in a feudal

regime in the middle ages. A great example of this regime is that Charlemagne sent

out missi dominici, meaning envoys of the lord, in pairs to check on the functioning at

the local level held by count and bishop.

Charlemagne also established religious schools to cultivate clergymen, and to

preserve and propagate Christian culture. “Charlemagne tried to force the cathedrals

and monasteries of his realm to operate schools that would preserve and disseminate

the rudiments of Classical-Christian culture” (Hollister, 97). Not only was he

establishing schools, but he himself, also enjoyed the fun of learning the quadrivium

and trivium. According to his biographer, he had the highest respect for the liberal

arts, and the men who taught them. “when he was learning the rules of grammar by

himself, but for all other subjects he was taught by Alcuin, a man of the Saxon race

who came from Britain and was the most learned man anywhere to be found”

(Einhard, 79). Not only Alcuin, there were also many other scholars that Charlemagne

bought to his court to assist with his educational program and cultural reform. Such as

Paul the Deacon, a Lombard from Italy who teaches grammar, and Theodulf, a
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Visigoth from northern Spain who were correcting the text of the Bible. The purpose

of inviting these scholars to teach classes in schools was because he was developing

obscurantism so that the churches were the only one who taught classes. “The only

hope for educational reform lay with the Church, which had an almost complete

monopoly on literacy” (Hollister, 96). The main purpose of schools were to

propagates Christianity. Because all the texts that were used in classes were

handwritten, there were sometimes mistakes within the texts. “In every episcopal see

and in every monastery, ... , and all books used shall be carefully corrected” (Hollister,

97). There were also listed of punishments if students refused to learn about

Christianity. Alcuin has included in his letter to Charlemagne: “I am made all things

to all men that I may instruct many to the profit of God's Holy Church and to the

lustre of you imperial reign” (Colby, 17). It stated that the purpose of the religious

school basically is to convince more people be religious in Christianity.

After Charlemagne died, his son, Louis the Pious took over his kingdom. Early in

his reign, he held councils at Aachen to spread the Rule of St.Benedict throughout the

Empire. Later in his reign, he was imprisoned by his sons because they were in a

power struggle. Three years after he died, his three sons divided the Frankish Empire

into three kingdoms with Treaty of Verdun. Therefore, in year 843, Louis the German

took the Eastern Kingdom; Charles the Bald took the Western kingdom; and Lothar

took the Middle Kingdom.

By evaluating of the combination of politic and religion during that time period.

We can conclude that it accelerated the fusion of Germanic and Roman, and finally
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prompted the feudal regime under Charlemagne’s ruling period. Furthermore, after the

West Roman Empire perished, all the cultures and cultural relic are gone. But

Christianity helped building the new equal thoughts between Germanic nobles and old

Roman nobles. At the same time, the schools that Charlemagne established saved

many cultures from the past and even lower class people by the time have a chance to

get educated which was a great contribution to the the future era. That not only nobles

and rich man can be educated, common folks can be educated on the basic knowledge

of quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy) and trivium (grammar,

logic, and rhetoric). Charlemagne also brought great scholars and bishops to get folks

influenced on these subjects and propagated with Christianity. The Saxons that were

talked about in previous paragraph that they refuse to profess in Christianity at first,

but after they were influence on it they made huge accomplishment in later times. The

way that Charlemagne using Christianity to bring everyone in West Europe together

was indeed a master piece. That bring him to the positions where he was a great ruler

of all times in medieval Europe.

In this profile, Charlemagne was a great ruler, conqueror, and war hero in the

middle ages. He had many achievements that made him one of the greatest figure in

West Europe in his year 768 to 814. An interesting angle is very important that

captures the dominant impressions of Charlemagne is not only he conquered other

nations to enlarge his territory, it is from how he propagated Christianity over the

western Europe (Johnson-Sheehan & Paine). Overall, there are many things we can

learn from him.

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Work Cited
Bennett, Judith. Medieval Europe: A Short History. 11th edition. New York: McGraw-

Hill, 2011.

Colby, Charles W. Selections from the Sources of English History: Being a

Supplement to Text-Books of English History B.C. 55-A.D. 1832. Longmans,

Green and Co., 91 and 93 Fifth Avenue, London and Bombay, 1899.

Einhard. The Life of Charlemagne. In Two Lives of Charlemagne, trans. Lewis

Thorpe, 51-90. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969.

Hollister, Warren. Medieval Europe: A Short History. 5th edition. University of

California, Santa Barbara, 1982.

Johnson-Sheehan, Richard, and Paine, Charles. Writing Today. 4th ed., Revel,

Pearson, 2019.