Charlemagne—the king who unified Western Europe

Charlemagne - the king who unified Western Europe

- the king who unified Western Europe

Charlemagne or Charlemagne (768-814), the king of the Frankish Kingdom King of Lorraine. He built a vast empire that encompassed much of Western Europe. He has made outstanding achievements in administration, justice, military system and economic production, and vigorously developed cultural and educational undertakings. He introduced European civilization and was honored as the "Father of Europe" by later generations.

On Christmas night in 800 AD, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was brightly lit and decorated. Amidst the solemn music, a tall and majestic king began to pray in front of the altar.

Suddenly, the Pope standing aside put a golden crown on his head and took the lead in shouting: "God crowns Emperor Charles and wishes him long life and eternity." Victory!" other priests and people cheered.

Who is this Charlie? Why did the pope crown him and call him emperor?

It turns out that he was King Charles of the Franks who began to dominate Western Europe at that time.

The center of the Frankish Kingdom was in the northeastern part of today's France, and later expanded to all of France and the surrounding areas. From the 6th to the 8th century, the feudal system of the Frankish Kingdom had been relatively consolidated. Charles's father was originally a minister of the Frankish kingdom. With the support of the Pope and the church, he usurped the throne. In order to repay the pope, he marched into Italy and dedicated a large area of ??land near Rome to the pope, forming a "Papal State".

When Charles succeeded his father and ruled the Frankish Kingdom, he even began a large-scale expansion of territory. Charlie is a typical medieval knight, tall and energetic, never tired or sick. He spent most of his life in war, and it is said that he personally participated in 30 expeditions. Ballads circulated in later generations described him as a mythical figure.

In 778 AD, Charles led his army to successfully cross the high Pyrenees Mountains and invade Spain southward. At that time, there was the Kingdom of Cordoba established by a group of Arabs from North Africa.

Córdoba's army suffered heavy losses, and Charles's army also suffered heavy losses. The King of Cordoba proposed peace, and some generals in Charles's army also advocated reconciliation and withdrawal. Charles's nephew, the Marquis Roland, expressed his opposition, and even more disagreed with sending the leader and the sent figure Génelon to conduct peace talks. However, given that the situation was not very favorable, Charles ultimately did not accept Roland's advice and sent Génelon to negotiate peace with the Cordovans. The resentful Guenelon negotiated the terms of peace and also made a conspiracy with the enemy to murder Roland.

When Charles saw that the peace negotiation was successful, he led his army back home, with Roland as the rearguard. After learning of the intelligence sent by Génelon, King Córdoba assembled a powerful force and laid ambush on both sides of the dangerous Ronceval Canyon in the Pyrenees.

As night fell, when Roland's rearguard formed a long column through the pass, the Cordovans took advantage of the cover of night to rush down the valley and surrounded Roland's troops.

Finally, Charlie heard the faint cry for help and led his army back to the canyon. He found that Roland and all his companions had died heroically.

This war was later processed by writers into a famous epic, namely the "Song of Roland", France's earliest national epic. It moved medieval Europeans with its tragic plot.

Twenty-three years later, Charles once again crossed the Pyrenees on an expedition to Spain, finally annexing the vast area south of the mountain and appointing a son as the governor of the area.

The longest war of aggression launched by Charles in his life was the conquest of the northern Saxons. Using the pretext of spreading Christianity, he launched 8 attacks for 33 years starting from 772 AD, and finally conquered the Saxons and made them subjects of the Frankish state.

After decades of conquest, Charles' kingdom had expanded to an area equivalent to today's France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Germany, and most of Italy, becoming an unprecedentedly powerful country in Western Europe at that time. . As his territory expanded, Charles was no longer satisfied with the title of king.

Pope Leo III saw that Charles was powerful and wanted to control Western Europe with Charles ***, so he crowned Charles and called him "Emperor of the Romans."

Charles readily accepted and was officially crowned emperor. From then on, the Frankish Kingdom became "Charlie's Empire" and King Charles became "Charlie the Great". He regarded his empire as a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire.

During the reign of Charles, he ordered churches and monasteries to run schools, established colleges in the palace, and widely recruited monks and scholars to give lectures. He also selected children from middle-class and low-income families to receive education together with the rich and powerful children. They even appointed young priests who came from poor backgrounds and excelled in studies as bishops. Of course, cultural education in this era was still monopolized by the church, and the purpose of education was to serve religious theology.

Charlie was extremely enthusiastic and devout about Christianity. After he made Ahen his capital, he carried out extensive construction projects and built many splendid palaces and churches. All marble columns were brought from distant places such as Rome after dismantling ancient buildings. With the prosperity of architecture, art such as painting and sculpture also developed. The palace chapel in Achen has been preserved to this day.

Charles also sent people to collect and copy many Latin and Greek manuscripts. Although he knew nothing about the contents of the manuscripts, he also preserved the works of many classical writers for future generations.

Because the dynasty ruled by Charlemagne was called the Carolingian dynasty, later historians called the culture of Charles' era "Carolingian culture."

Shortly after Charles's death, the empire was divided. By 843 AD, his three grandsons each became kings, and the empire was divided into three. The following countries in Western Europe gradually developed on this basis: the Kingdom of East Francia became what would become Germany, West Francia became what would become France, and the area between the east and west became what would become Italy. The language of the Franks also differentiated significantly, forming French, German and other national languages ??of Western European countries.