Charlemagne

From the ashes of the Western Roman Empire, and the Fall of the Merovingian Dynasty came a man who conquered half of europe in a matter of years. Charlemagne a successor of Pepin the Short, along with his brother Carloman owned half of France until Carloman died in 771. After which Charlemagne annexed his brothers lands leaving room for the last big expansion in Europe to come for another thousand years. Charlemagne was, and is still said by some people to be god-like.

The early life of Charlemagne is really very unknown. Charlemagne was born to the King of Franks Pepin the Short, and his wife, and future Queen Bertrada most likely on April 2, 745. It is unknown where Charlemagne was born because of the the lack of written statistics, but it is likely he was born in Aachen in current day Germany because that is where the the Carolingians had come from. Charlemagne's education had also very little known about it. Although most likely because of his ability to read well, and to write a little he was most likely sent to a Catholic Monastery where a priest could give him some education for a year, or so. Since there were no public, or even private schools in the early middle ages the only other options were priests who were the only educated people in Europe at this time.

When Pepin the Short finally died in 768 both heirs Charlemagne, and Carloman would share the inheritance of the Frankish Kingdom, Charles controlled the northern part of the kingdom, and Carloman controlled the southern part. Pepin had hoped that the two brothers would share the throne in peace, but that never happened because the two constantly bickered. Because of the constant bickering the kingdom eventually split. Although in 771 Carloman fell very...

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...me to settle the problem which he did making the Pope realize that charles would keep his promise of being the protector of the Pope. That Christmas Charles attended mass in Rome. During the feast the Pope crowned Charles the emperor of the old Roman Empire. Charles then had to wait until 813 for the Byzantines to recognize his title. During which Charles fought against the Avars driving them back multiple times. Charles was also troubled by the Vikings which drove him to create a fleet, an endeavor that his heirs would completely neglect.

Charlemagne would die in 814 leaving his heir Louis the Pious as emperor. Louis would show that he was not strong enough to control the vast territory, and the empire within one generation would be lost, and split into 4 kingdoms. The empire may have been lost, but the Legacy of Charlemagne would be remembered forever.