Charlemagne, Charles I Or Charles The Great

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Charlemagne
Charlemagne, Charles I, or Charles the Great was a Frankish King that ruled over the Frankish Carolingian Empire. He achieved four monarchial titles during his time, which were King of the Franks, King of the Lombards, King of Italy, and the Holy Roman Emperor. He laid the foundations for most of modern-day Western Europe. His sphere of influence ranged from the Spanish Marches, a part of Spain he ruled, to Obotrite territory, now modern-day German regions of Mecklenburg and Holstein. The people he directly ruled over lived in the regions of Neustria, Austrasia, Swabia, Thuringia, Aquitaine, Burgundy, Gascony, Provence, Septimania, Carinthia, Bavaria, Lombardy, Frisia, Saxony, Thuringia, the Breton March, and the Spanish March. …show more content…

Charlemagne's source of power can be found primarily in the way he was born. Charles was born somewhere (possibly Aachen, or Liège) in the Frankish Kingdom, around from 742-748. He was born to Pepin the Short, Mayor of the Palace, and Bertrada of Laon. Pepin's status as Mayor of the Palace gave him more actual power than the current King, Childeric III, the last of the Merovingians, a failing dynasty that had ruled the Frankish Kingdom for a long time. The reason the Mayor had more power than the King was because the last few monarchs had done little to manage the Frankish Kingdom. Soon, the other nobles started to respond to the Mayor, instead of the King. In other words, Childeric and his most recent forefathers were little more than figureheads. Eventually, Childeric …show more content…

His leadership inspired many to join his military, and he encouraged the clergy the build schools so the masses could learn how to read and write. Another thing he encouraged was the copying of Latin Manuscripts, so that old knowledge could be preserved. He also established a school in his palace, reserved for his children, and other nobles' children. But, due to many of his conquests, many people rebelled against him, though none had succeeded. This, in turn, lead to many massacres by the thousands, such as the one in Verden, when 4,500 rebellious Saxons were slaughtered on a single day. And because of his large empire, many other factions, even Abbasid Muslim nobles, pledged allegiance to him. In his time, Charlemagne's status as an Emperor gave him tremendous amounts of influence to almost everyone he ruled over. Overall, he was a feared and respected

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