Charlemagne

Emperor Charlemagne (Charles Karling, Latin: Karolus Magnus Imperator Romanorum), also known as Charles the Great, was Holy Roman Emperor from his coronation by the Pope in 777 onwards, ending a stormy rise to power that began 9 years earlier with his inheriting the throne of the Kingdom of the West Franks. After the suspiciously timely death of his brother Carloman from a nosebleed, Charles became King of all the Franks, and in a campaign to chase down his brother's fled wife conquered Lombardy, after which he campaigned against the Pagan Saxons to win the favour of the Pope. The Pope crowned him Holy Roman Emperor (Imperator Romanorum) in 777.

Charlemagne is often credited with the rise of feudalism in Western Europe. As able a politician as he was a general, the Emperor is known for parcelling out lands from his conquests to able individuals, regardless of social rank, creating the Frankish aristocracy. His reign is further seen as a renaissance of arts and culture in dark age Europe, during which the Germanic identity of the Franks gave way to nascent identities such as the French, German and Dutch cultures. At his death in 806 of the stress of ruling, his realm passed to his sons, Louis and Eustache.

Early life
Charlemagne was born the son of Pepin of Herstal, the Frankish Mayor of the Palace who deposed, with the aid of the Pope, the last Merovingian King of the Franks and sent his heir Theoderic to a monastery. When his father died, as was the Frankish custom of gavelkind succession, Charles and his brother Carloman were both given equal shares of the inheritance. His mother, Betrada of Laon, favoured Charles throughout his youth, and would be one of his biggest supporters in later life.

Rise to power as King of the Franks
When King Pepin died, his sons became co-kings of the Frankish Kingdom. This greatly aggrieved the queen mother, Bertrada, who now saw her two sons, including her favourite, Charles, at odds with eachother. It is believed that she indicated to Charles that she supported him over his brother at some point after his marriage to Desiderata of Lombardy. This marriage was concluded in 770, shortly after Charles's accession to the West Frankish throne. However, the Lombard Queen was never popular with the Frankish nobility and her husband had the marriage annulled a few years after on the grounds of non-consummation. Her father, King Desiderius of Lombardy, was furious, and would become an inimitable enemy of Charles later.

In ___, Carloman, who had never had a great constitution, died of what is presumed to have been a heavy nosebleed. Shortly before this, he had a heavy fight with Queen Mother Bertrada, who also served as Charles's spymaster. The death of Carloman is considered at least timely by historians, but everything pointed to natural causes. His contemporaries, however, including his wife, presumed the complicity of Charles and his mother, and his wife fled to Charles's inimitable enemy, King Desiderius of Lombardy.

The Lombard War
The inheritance by Charles of the throne of all the Franks was assumed by many to be the catalyst for what is the development of early feudalism. Using money confiscated from the Jewish population, Charles created a number of shires for which he appointed a duke among his vassals, so that none of the counts of the Franks would serve him directly, but rather as part of a feudal contract matching that between Charles and his dukes. With the levies bolstered by this new reform, Charles set his sight on revenging himself on Desiderius for the slight that he perceived in his accusation of murder of his brother, and pressed a claim on the Lombard Kingdom with the help of the Pope, promising him a return of all the lands the Papacy had held in Middle Italy.

Charles and his highly organised armies made quick work of the Lombards, as he methodically besieged the Kingdom's heartlands surrounding Pavia and managed to capture King Desiderius after a decisive battle, forcing him to abdicate his throne to him and demanding the return of Carloman's infant daughter to her family.

The First Saxon War
Meanwhile, the Saxon pagans had raided into Charles's northern territories in Frisia, and burned the churches in the city of Deventer in retaliation for offenses against Irminsul poles by Catholic missionaries. When word of this reached Charles in Italy, he immediately declared war on the Saxons and marched his armies north to the Saxon border, with the goal of conquering and christianising the Saxons and burning their Holy Tree Irminsul near modern-day Paderborn to the ground in retaliation. In the time it took the Frankish King to march his armies north to the Saxon marches, the Saxons laid siege to his holdings in Kleve. Diverting from his path, Charlemagne marched his armies to meet the Saxon host directly, shattering it with the force of the Frankish feudal knights. He then marched into Saxon territory via its Western border. His military brilliance made him keen to avoid the mistakes made by the Roman armies which had crossed the Rhine into German territory centuries ago, and he built a large network of supply lines as he marched his armies on Irminsul.

In the meantime, the Saxons laid siege to holdings in the north of East Francia. Charles diverted some of his armies to meet the Saxon host and won the battle handily. The war ended with the symbolic burning of Irminsul, damaging the morale of the Saxon pagans, who grudgingly threw down their swords at Charles's feet. Now Charles demanded they embrace Christianity or be put to the sword. Since they stubbornly refused, the King of the Franks ordered them all killed and revoked all their tribal titles from them, forming new shires which he bestowed upon Frankish noblemen with the charge of converting the area to Christianity. In the meantime, he married his betrothed, Princess Anthousa of the Byzantine Empire, who would bear him a number of daughters and two sons.

Holy Roman Emperor
After his victory in Saxony, Charles Karling was now the most powerful ruler in Western Christendom and arguably (with the trouble in the Byzantine Empire) in all Christendom. The Pope recognised this, and also recognised that he still had not got his lands back. He invited Charles to Rome for what was ostensibly a mass of Thanksgiving for the defeat of the Pagans. However, when Charles came to Rome, the Pope crowned him Roman Emperor, bestowing upon him the imperium of the ancient Roman Empire and thereby deligitimizing the troubled Byzantine Empire further. Medieval historians say that Charlemagne never desired the title (arguing that he felt obligated to his Byzantine wife) and did not know of his coronation, but modern historians dispute this. Others also note that the Pope made this unusual move in an attempt to coax Charlemagne into giving him back his lands in Umbria. The fact that Charles stubbornly refused this might explain why he was excommunicated shortly after his coronation, the first of many such quarrels between the Holy Roman Emperors and the Papacy. Charles, who could not use this stain on his reputation, immediately relented (though his chroniclers record that he was furious with the Pope) and, with reference to the donation of his father Pepin, gave the Pope his land back. The Pope duly lifted the excommunication.

The celebrations for the coronation of Charlemagne (as he was now called by his contemporaries) were the start of what is called the Carolingian Renaissance, which saw a rapid revival of Latin culture throughout the West. The Emperor led his people in a rapid embrace of romance culture, which saw the birth of what we now call the French language and culture, as well as the Dutch culture in the Frisian lands and early German in East Francia. Charles used this opportunity to force the submission of the King of Bavaria to his rule, ushering in a new period of unity in Western Christendom. However, the prosperity of the realm was rudely disturbed by a Saxon warlord known as Widukind (a reference to Pagan legends) who rose up to resist the Christianization of his people. Charlemagne, who was still in Bavaria at the time, quickly marched his armies north and crushed the rebellion, upon which Widukind fled north. This gave the Emperor occasion for a new purge of the pagan nobility and the bequeathing of new land to his Frankish vassals. Widukind returned shortly after and asked to be baptised, which Charlemagne consented to. Recognising that Widukind would be of great help to him in leading the mass conversion of his people, the Emperor made preparations to grant him land in Saxony and they planned together to finally baptise the Saxons, but Widukind died shortly after, slowing the conversion of the Saxons greatly.

The Iberian reconquests
Meanwhile, according to the Frankish chronicles, the beleaguered King Veremondo of Asturias asked for the Emperor's help against his Islamic foes. Historians believe this is an exaggeration, noting that the Emperor's grand strategy to retake his lands South of the Pyrenees would be greatly furthered by weakening the Umayyad Sultan, and that of the many qualities of the later Saint King of Asturias, resolve to war was not one of them. In 793, Charlemagne rallied his troops to march to the Southern border, prompting Veremondo in the reconquest of Portucale from the muslim infidels. The two-part epic chanson de geste the Song of Roland was written about this campaign (although historians note that the death of Roland the Brave in the poem was ahistorical). While Veremondo marched his armies in the Portucale with Charlemagne's support, the Holy Roman Emperor diverted his troops to defend Asturias from Muslim strikes, winning a perilous victory with the timely arrival of his main force that sealed the war and saw the successful reconquest of Portucale for Asturias. Inspired by this and realising that the child sultan of the Umayyads was weak, Charlemagne immediately started planning his own reconquest of the Duchy of Barcelona, which he launched and handily won a few years later, bequeathing the title to one of his great commanders.

Consolidation and late reign
Back home in his new capital of Bruges in the rich lands of Flanders, the crown of the Imperial demesne, Charlemagne noticed that a number of his vassals were planning to oust him much like his father had ousted the last Merovingian. Realising that he needed to prevent this at all cost to preserve the inheritance of his sons Louis and Eustache, the Emperor made a new innovation to feudalism in the form of giving his most powerful noblemen some say over the laws of the Empire, including the nominal right to elect the next candidate for the Pope to crown. This prevented some of the worst excesses of factional skullduggery by forcing them to remain publicly loyal to the crown, and Charles could continue to restructure his Empire unhindered, creating separate crowns for his sons to inherit. He associated with the Benedictine Order and set about the conversion of the Saxons with their aid. While Charles was fighting in Spain, the Duke of Northern Britanny claimed part of the Imperial lands. Charlemagne was merciful and let him get away with a white peace.

In 801 AD, the King of Wessex got betrothed to Charlemagne's granddaughter, but immediately got into a gavelkind revolt. Charlemagne sent some of his retinue over the English Channel to help crush the revolt. Around this time, the Duke of Aquitaine died from poisoned wine, dividing his lands between his daughters. A co-conspirator revealed Charlemagne's conspiracy, which shocked the Empire greatly. It also infuriated the Pope, who promptly excommunicated the Emperor. The Emperor went barefoot to Rome in 803 to repent of his sins, and was received back into communion.

The ageing Emperor Charlemagne travelled a lot and contributed to the arts and sciences in his lands, many suspect in the hopes of finding a connection between himself and Alexander the Great. He suffered from bouts of depression and severe stress towards the end of his reign, and restlessly travelled, attending the coronation of Queen Carmen I of Asturias and making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He also funded a great project in building churches and castles in Saxony and was recognised as a perfect Christian knight in many tales. The Emperor died in Bruges of severe stress as his heart gave out, dividing his land between his two sons.

Full titulary

 * Karl, King of the West Franks (Karolus Rex Francorum Occidentum)
 * Karl, King of the Franks and the Lombards (Karolus Francorum et Longobardorum Rex)
 * From 777: the Most Serene Augustus crowned by God, Charles, the great, peaceful Emperor ruling the Roman Empire, by the Grace of God King of the Franks, the Lombards, the Frisians, the Burgundians, the Saxons, the Bavarians and the Aquitainians (Karolus serenissimus Augustus a Deo coronatus magnus pacificus imperator Romanum gubernans imperium, Dei gratia Francorum et Longobardorum et Frisiorum et Burgundionum et Saxonum et Baiuvariorum et Aquitanorum Rex)
 * Note: in official charters, Charlemagne eschewed the use of the full titulary and preferred the more direct "Emperor of the Romans" (Imperator Romanorum)