Charlemagne

Charlemagne was a French king born in 747 AD, and is also the one of most famous French kings there is, and with good reason. He was the son of Pepin the Short and grandson of Charles Martel, who are both famous French leaders, but Charlemagne outshines both. Charlemagne’s name is actually a more simple “Charles” but after his exploits in almost the whole of Europe he became known in French, obviously, as “Charles the Great” which, when translated to English, is Charlemagne. He was born into the role of Prince of France, along with his brother Carloman. They both became co-emperors after Pepin the short died, but Carloman died young of what seem to be natural circumstances. Charlemagne, now the sole ruler of France, quickly quelled several uprisings that started after the successive deaths of Pepin and Carloman, most particularly those in Aquitaine, who had been captured by Pepin and now wondered if they could escape and be free. Boy were they wrong. After this he turned to Italy, because the Pope, Adrian the first, was being persecuted by the Germanic Lombard’s, who had taken over Italy and Rome. In two years Charlemagne conquered all of north and mid Italy, but didn’t have the resources to go to the southern tip. He then went south-west to deal with the Muslims that were encroaching on his territory through Spain. He went and conquered a good bit of Spain and drove out the Muslims. He then went north and captured a good of Germany and even the Saxons of Britain. All this means that not only was Charlemagne the most powerful man in Europe, but that his Empire was the largest since the Roman Empire. And in 800 an new Pope came into power and, wanting to get in good with him, crowned Charlemagne as the Holy Roman Emperor, so he is now known as the renewer of the Roman empire. In addition to his military might he also is well known for his emphasis on education for all people in his empire, which wasn’t very common for a ruler, especially one who conquered so much. Unfortunately for him and his descendants the empire splintered into fragments because of the princes. You see, when Charlemagne died Louis the Pious, a good friend of his, became the emperor, but his two sons demanded, and got, their own kingdoms. Then when Louis died his four sons all divided the empire and fought each other for land. This kept happening and the grand empire kept splintering until Charles the Fat reunited the land for the duration of his life, but when he died in 888 the kingdom fell again.