Charlemagne

Charles the Great

EQ: Who was Charlemagne and what
was his empire like?
4 Considerar el Imperio Carolingio como un enlace entre el
Imperio Romano y los futuros intentos de integración
europea

4.1 Expresa brevemente los hitos y características de dicho

imperio y lo ubica espacial y cronológicamente
4.2 Valora el Imperio Carolingio como una secuela del Imperio
Romano y la corte de Aquisgrán como un referente cultural
Goal: To write a short story on
Charlemagne
Do now: Note down in three columns
Names Dates Main verbs and unknown vocab
At the end of the Roman Empire,
Visigoths ruled most of Gaul.
Later
Franks
arrived
from
Germany
and took
over!
Clovis was
the son of a
chieftain
and became
the leader of
the Franks,
at age 15!
 Within a few years he had defeated the
Visigoths and other German tribes in Gaul.
According to legend,
Clovis called upon
the Christian God to
help him to defeat
his enemies. And he
won. Immediately he
was baptized and
became the first
Christian King of the
Franks.
When Clovis died,
his 4 sons took over
the kingdom.
This line became
known as the
Merovingian House
or the “Do-Nothing
Kings”.
They let the Mayor
of the Palace
(Maior Domus) take
over running the
kingdom and
fighting any enemies
Charles
Martel
(Charles the
Hammer) was
the most
famous “Mayor
of the Palace”
and was
actually more
powerful than
the King.
 When Charles heard that Muslims from Spain had
invaded Frank territories, he battled against them and
got the victory.
He halted the advance of Muslims at the battle of
Poitiers in 732.
As the mayor of the palace, Pepin the Short
possessed all the powers of the king.
He appealed to the Pope asking whether he or
the do-nothing Merovingian King should have
all the power.
The Pope replied, “the one who wields the
power should be king.”

Pepin the Short

In return for being made king, the Pope wanted
from Pepin protection against the Lombards.
Pepin was made king in 751.
The Merovingian House changed to the
Carolingian House, and would now officially
rule the Franks.
When
Charlemagne’s
father, Pepin,
died…
 …he divided
the kingdom of
the Franks
between his
two sons:
Charles
and
Carloman
 Carloman suddenly died amidst a quarrel with his
brother and thus Charles became king of all the Franks

and hired a secretary

(Einhard) to record his
life.
 The Lombards invade Italy and threaten the Pope.
He asks Charles to bring an army to Italy to stop the Lombards.
Charles helped the Pope by defeating the Lombards in Italy.

LOMBARDS !
Muslims had conquered Arabia, the Middle East,
North Africa, and almost all of Spain by the time
Charles was king of the Franks.
But not all of Spain.
Christians still
controlled the top
part of Spain
 Land of
the
Basques
Pamplona
Sar
ago
ssa

Charles tried to conquer Northern Spain from Muslims

but lost. His friends Roland and Oliver were killed.
Charles created new churches and schools with the help
from Alcuin (a monk from Britain)
He introduced an
education of arithmetic,
grammar and songs of
worship.
Charlemagne once said:
“Good works are better
than knowledge, but
without knowledge good
works are impossible.”
He adopted the best ideas
of that time and -although
some were rude and
crude- raised the standard
of living.
German Saxons and their leader Widdukind worshipped
nature gods at a sacred tree called the Irmunsul.
Charles defeated the Saxons and Widdukind became a Christian.
In 791AD Charles created his capital at
Aachen (modern day Germany)
On Christmas day 800AD, the Pope crowned Charles
"Holy Roman Emperor." Charles became known as
Charlemagne - Charles The Great.
 By being crowned…
…revived the idea of a restored Roman Empire which
would again unite the territories of Western Europe.

A question raised: Whose authority is supreme, the State’s

or the Church’s?

Later, some popes would insist that their authority would

supersede that of the kings, pointing out that a pope
crowned Charlemagne.

They would claim a power not only to appoint kings but to

depose them too.
In 814AD Charlemagne died due to a fever, aged 71, in Aachen
Charlemagne’s only surviving son
Louis I became the new emperor.

Louis I was a very weak king, and

when he died, his 3 sons split the
Carolingian Empire.

In the Treaty of Verdun, they

agreed to divide the empire into 3
separate kingdoms: Charles the
Bald received West Frankland,
Louis the German received East
Frankland, and Lothair ruled land
between his two brothers.

The Modern countries of France,

Germany, and Italy closely
correspond to these divisions.
 Fall of the Carolingian Empire
During 9th and 10th centuries, the Carolingian Empire was besieged by
invaders on all sides.
Muslim raiders came from North Africa and devastated the
Mediterranean coast of Europe.
The Magyars, later known as the Hungarians, came from the East and
ravaged the Eastern borders of the Empire.
The most feared invaders were the Vikings. The Vikings were Germanic
tribes from the northern modern-day countries of Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark.
The empire disintegrated as the nobility replaced the Carolingian kings.
A new political system emerged known as Feudalism or The Feudal
System. This system would rule Europe for almost 400 years.
 Charlemagne

Charles the Great

He changed the course of history
By uniting almost all of Western Europe
By spreading Christianity
By protecting the Holy Roman Church
By turning enemies into friends
By documenting history
By introducing education
By beginning the Carolingian Renaissance of
the Roman Empire
 Do now: Write a short story on
Charlemagne
(thoroughly describe what he changed)