Charlemagne was born in 742 into the royal Frankish family. He became the sole ruler of the Franks in 772 after the death of his brother Carloman. Charlemagne then began expanding his empire through military campaigns, conquering much of central Europe. He was crowned emperor by the pope on Christmas Day in 800. Charlemagne reorganized his government and insisted his subjects convert to Christianity. He also promoted education, founding many schools, and involved himself deeply in the Catholic Church. Charlemagne died in 814 while wintering in Aachen after expanding the Frankish empire to be as large as the Western Roman Empire.

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Charlemagne
last edited by Mary Blow 2 years, 4 months ago
Charlemagne's Family
by: Allie Dykeman
Charlemagne was a great military leader, king, and family member. Charlemagne’s
story all started when he was born into royalty in 742. So, let’s go back in time
to the land of Charlemagne. Charlemagne’s grandfather,Charles Martel, was a
ruler of the Franks. When he passed away he gave his rule to his eldest son
which would have been Pepin the Short. Pepin the Short lead the Franks through
tough times. When he passed away in 768 he made an interesting choice at the
time. He wanted both of his two sons to have rule over the Frank’s, Charlemagne
and his brother Carloman. Let me tell you Charlemagne was not delighted with his
father’s choice. He was the
eldest son so he had a theory
that he should have had sole
rule. They came to an
agreement that they would
split the land of the Franks
into two. Each would have half
the land. Charlemagne was not
sold on this plan either. They
ruled this way together for
five years. After the five
years, Carloman died suddenly
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2. in the year of 772.
Charlemagen felt a little guilty
for wanting own rule when
Carloman was still alive but moved on and ruled his land in his dream of soul rule.
All Charlemagne had left of his family was his immediate family. He was very
fond of his two daughters. He was so fond of them that he convinced them not
to marry and live with him in his palace in Athens. He told them many times that
he could not stand to live without them. Charlemagne also had four wives and five
mistresses.
After Carloman
After Carloman died Charlemagne got busy ruling the Franks. Charlemagne then
began military campaigns to expand his kingdom. He started by going to war with
the Saxons, which were to the Northeast. He then conquered much of Europe.
He was crowned emperor on Christmas day of all his land that he conquered. He
was crowned by Pope Leo the third. Many have said that he would not have gone
to mass that day if he had knew. That Christmas he gained much authority over
the people. He let the conquered lands keep their laws and their traditions. He
did make them do one thing and that was to convert to Christians. Being
Christian was very important to him which will be better explained later on.
Goverment
The way Charlemagne ran his government was very simple but effective. When
he first started building his empire he had one dream and that was to have his
empire be as large and as powerful as the Roman Empire. He wanted to
accomplish something within his empire and that was to have all his lands to be
Christian. He fought hard and long for all his land about 30 years. When he took
over a new land he insisted that any non-catholic should join the Catholic Church.
Once he gained all the land that satisfied him he put his very thought a plan into
action. His plan was two divide his land into sections called countries. Each
governed by spiritual matters ran by one of Charlemagne’s best bishops. He
would than held a meeting or an assembly of landowners and the bishops twice or
three times a year. He held these meetings to discuss government and spiritual
matters. When he was first
starting his government he
had a very hard time
protecting his lands from
peasantry or serfdom. He did
not want this, he wanted
everybody to be equal. For
that reason he did not like
the nobles of the past
leaders. He thought that they
had too much power. It
started to frustrate him. At
one point slavery even began
among the nobles.
Charlemagne was not happy
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3. with that either. Then he started to put his foot down and he put a plan into
action were the nobles and also clergy had to pay for the poor people. He wanted
the money to be spread out among his people. Once he developed his government
and became respected many believed his government to be enlightened.
Charlemagne in my opinion made the most interesting medieval law.
Changing Himself
While he was going through the process of changing his government he himself
had to do much changing. The one thing he hated the most was his clothing
change. He was brought up and used to the rags and garb that he used to were
as the king of the Franks. His clothing consisted of linen shirts (not our kind of
linen shirts), and breeches, and with a woolen tunic fringed with silk over it all.
On his feet leather shoes or no shoes at all. He also always had a sword at his
side. To then to wearing embroidered silk robes, with a golden buckle around his
waist, then matched with jeweled shoes, and to top it all of a beautiful crown
containing gold and gems. He also had to get used to visitors insisting on kissing
his foot or knee. He often said that he would have rather had his rags then the
expensive clothing.
Learning
He himself also had to do much learning along with his empire. He tried in his old
age to learn how to write but never really succeeded. He could write but very
little, although he could read. He was known to read very few books but they
were good ones if he spent is time reading them. He did know how to speak many
languages though. He knew old teutonir, he learned literary Latin, and
understood Greek. He also practiced coping manuscripts. That would even be an
accomplishment for me to be able to do that most people can only speak one or
two languages. He also helped others in their studies. He paid for churches and
monasteries to be built all over his land, to help teach religion and other studies.
He also encouraged many people to fulfill there goals including scholars, artists,
and craft workers. He actually even went to the farthest as letting them work on
his palace in Aachen. He was an inspiration to many!
Church
He also was very involved in churches all over his Empire. He gave lots of money
to the church often very generous. He was also made himself the masters of all
the churches. He loved to combine the teachings of religion with government. At
the churches near Athens he was known for his wordy speeches and scriptural
quotes. He liked to look on to his bishops as if they were agents brought to him
strait from god. He did not just helping to his church he helped Christians all
over the world. He sent a lot of money to
Christians struggling with finances in foreign lands.
Charlemagne also talked to all the Muslims that he
knew and talked them into being nice to Christians
and not putting them down in any way. He even
loved to bring his bishops to councils and
assemblies. He was looked on to as the only one
that could have possibly managed to bring the
Catholic Church back into Europe. Imagine it
though one person bringing catholic into a whole
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4. land that is pretty amazing.
Education
Charlemagne was very big on education. When he
got his Empire together he was appalled at all the
lack of literacy. He was very shocked that there was no education any where.
Not even among the low clergy. He wanted the best schools in his empire that
were around. To fulfill this goal he called in foreign scholars to start up schools.
He sent to England for books and let me tell you they were not cheap at the
time. He even was concerned so much that he made a school in his royal palace.
Soon the palace school became the center of all the studies. Many of
Charlemagne’s schools became of the highest power universities in Europe.
Charlemagne was not cheap if he wanted something he was going to do it right
the first time. I think we can all learn a lesson from that.
Death
Know I must finish with the horrible ending of when he dies. Charlemagne died in
Aachen when he was wintering there. During his stay there he came down with a
very high fever. He tried to cure himself by only taking liquids. But after seven
days of fever he died. It was the year of 814. He was buried under the dome of
the cathedral at Aachen dressed in his best robe. After he died he wanted to
following his fathers foot steps and have all three of his sons take rule. But only
one of his sons was alive still and that was Louis. His huge Empire did not last
long after death. It split into three kingdoms. Eventually by 843 there was no
more of his Empire left. Charlemagne will still live down in history though as one
of the greatest leaders.
Comments (2)
Mary Blow said
at 3:04 pm on Apr 2, 2009
Alyssa, I can see that you have put a lot of effort into this. You are one the right track. I understand that your
pictures and hyperlinks are a ways away at this time. We will see about giving you the weekend or even until
Tuesday to finish. You have worked hard and deserve an extension. When you are finished, you may want to have
a peer read it for conventions errors. I have found that when you work on something for so long, it becomes a
blur. You may need a pair of fresh eyes. :-)
efinn said
at 10:32 am on Apr 3, 2009
hey we like your page but we think that you should add some pictures to make it colorful
- Taylor and Emily
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