One of the most important figures of the medieval
world, Charlemagne was king of the Franks and ultimately emperor of the West. Renowned for his
military strength, which enabled him to expand his
empire from the North Sea to the Pyrenees, Charlemagne’s more important contribution to Western
civilization includes the revival of learning and the
arts that was encouraged and that flourished under
his reign. In addition, the legend of Charlemagne
provided material for many popular literary treatments in the centuries that followed.
Born in 742, the son of King Pepin the Short
and Berthe (daughter of Caribert, the count of
Laon), Charlemagne became joint ruler of the
Frankish Kingdom with his brother Carloman in
768. His early reign was strongly influenced by his
virtuous mother (d. 783), even after Charles ruled
in his own right following his brother’s death in
771. His first major war occurred in 773, when he
invaded Lombardy in response to a threat to the
pope. Charlemagne crushed the Lombards, put
their king into a monastery, and assumed the
crown of Lombardy himself.
For some 10 years after this, Charlemagne fought
the Saxons and finally defeated them, forcing their
leader, Wildukind, to be baptized and adding their
territory to his growing empire. In 788, Tassilo, the
duke of Bavaria and technically one of Charlemagne’s vassals, defied the king and was subsequently defeated. Like the Lombard king before him,
Tassilo was pressured into entering a monastery,
thus adding Bavaria to Charles’s empire. Shortly
thereafter, in 791, Charles became embroiled in a
long war with the Avars, who ruled an area along the
Danube. Ultimately, in 799, he defeated them as well
and expanded his hegemony once again.
About this time Pope Leo III was under attack
again, and he was deposed in 800. Charlemagne
once again crossed the Alps and restored the pope
to his position, after which, on Christmas Day 800,
the pope, seeing Charlemagne as the true protector
of the faith, crowned him emperor of the West—
the first to be crowned since the sixth century.
Charlemagne continued to reign until his death
in 814, after which his empire was divided among
his sons. He maintained good relations with the
eastern, or Byzantine emperor, as well as with the
caliph of Baghdad, Haroun-al-Raschid, who not
only sent him a white elephant but agreed to protect pilgrims en route to Jerusalem, deep in Muslim territory.
Charlemagne built a great imperial palace at
Aachen, a wonder in its day, and was interested not
only in conquest but also in establishing order and
promoting learning in his empire. During what became known as the “Carolingian renaissance,”
schools were set up across the empire, the arts flourished, and monasteries began building up great libraries, preserving manuscripts and making
multiple copies of older texts in their scriptoria, thus
preserving many classical texts that might otherwise
have been lost. He convinced the great Anglo-Saxon
scholar ALCUIN to become priest of the imperial
chapel and to help reform education in his realm.
Alcuin headed the palace school and standardized
the LIBERAL ARTS curriculum, composing textbooks
for use in studying grammar, logic, astronomy, and
rhetoric. Alcuin also is credited for developing the
Carolingian minuscule—a form of cursive script
that allowed for clear and rapid transcription.
In addition to his influence on learning, Charlemagne himself became the subject of literary texts.
EINHARD (a student of Alcuin’s) wrote an early biography of him, Vita Caroli Magni (Life of Charlemagne), published in about 830. Written in
imitation of Suetonius, Einhard’s biography contains a good deal of firsthand, personal detail, and
has often been admired for its fidelity to truth. A
second idealized biography, Gesta Caroli (The
deeds of Charles), is believed to have been written
by NOTKER BALBULUS in 883–84. Composed for
Charlemagne’s great-grandson Charles the Fat,
Notker’s biography helped to establish Charlemagne as a legendary hero.
Many legends developed around Charlemagne,
glorifying him as the defender of the faith (which
could be said with some truth), particularly against
Saracens (which was entirely apocryphal). Charlemagne and his knights became the focus of a cycle
of heroic poems known as the geste du roi, a group
of some 20 epic poems of the sort known as CHANSONS DE GESTE. Charlemagne is the central figure
of these poems, but they general involve the exploits of his “12 Peers,” the chief warrior knights or
“paladins” that owe him allegiance. The list varies,
but in the earliest and most important poem in the
cycle, the Chanson de Roland, or SONG OF ROLAND,
the list includes Roland, Oliver, Gérin, Gérier,
Bérengier, Otton, Samson, Engelier, Ivon, Ivoire,
Anséis, and Girard.
In the end Charlemagne’s contributions to
Western culture are among the most significant in
history, but ultimately his legend became popular
enough to rival his actual accomplishments.
Bibliography
Bullough, Donald. The Age of Charlemagne. 2nd ed.
New York: Exeter Books, 1980.
Halphen, Louis. Charlemagne and the Carolingian
Empire. 1949. Translated by Giselle de Nie. New
York: North Holland, 1977.
James, Edward. The Franks. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1988.
Riché, Pierre. Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne.
1978. With expanded footnotes and translated with
an introduction by Jo Ann McNamara. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.
Thorpe, Lewis, trans. Two Lives of Charlemagne. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1969.