Charlemagne the Great- Truly a "Great" Ruler?

"Charlemagne" is French for "Charles the Great." Unlike other influential individuals who are honored with such monikers only after their death, Charlemagne was uniquely tagged as "the Great" during his lifetime. Why? No doubt due his extensive military conquests, his statesmanship, his furtherance of agriculture, religion, and infrastructure, as well as his efforts to advance the culture and education of the populace.

However, while he was known as "the Great" by both his own contemporaries and by later historians, Charlemagne's life was certainly not exemplary, especially by the standards of Christianity that he endeavored to represent and embody. Great were his exploits and achievements, but they were also paralleled by the greatness in his ruthless ambitions, crimes and cunning schemes.

Charlemagne was born an illegitimate son, in about the year 732 C.E. His father and mother, King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, were persuaded to legalize their marriage only after the birth of their son. Beginning in 768, after the death of his father in the same year, Charlemagne shared the kingdom of the Franks with his brother, Carloman I.

In 771, after the death of his brother, whom Charlemagne had a troublesome relationship with, the rulership of the Franks passed solely into the hands of Charlemagne, who was then crowned as emperor by Pope Leo III in 800 C.E. Charlemagne later died in 814.

Charlemagne's grandfather, Charles Martel, carried the nickname "The Hammer" due to his successful military exploits, most notably, his halting the Turks from conquering Europe in the Battle of Tours. The son of Charles Matel, Charlemagne's father King Pippen, likewise made a name via his military pursuits and shrewd measures. He persuaded the Pope to approve his usurping of the Frankish throne by advocating for a ruler who had the ability, like himself, rather than appointing a ruler who simply had the legal birthright. Accommodatingly, the Catholic dignitary Boniface allocated rulership to Pippin, and Pippin thus became the first European monarch to be appointed "by the grace of God."

Early on in his rulership, Charlemagne forcibly put down a rebellion in a region called Acquitaine, located in what is southwestern France today. It was the first of his military campaigns that eventually reached over fifty. When called on by the Pope to quell a front led by the Lombard ruler, Charlemagne responded, defeated the ruler and declared himself the new king of Lombardy.

Charlemagne's military conquests in Italy, however, were cut short by the insurgency of the Saxons, who were continuing to make sorties on Frankland. Over a period of 35 years, Charlemagne directed eighteen expeditions against the Saxons, before finally subduing them. Note what the New Catholic Encyclopedia had to say regarding these wars. It mentions that these conflicts were "accompanied by extreme brutality and enforced deception. Saxon resistance was nourished by Charles's efforts to compel the Saxons to accept Christianity."

Bavaria was another landholding that Charlemagne was able to add to his empire. Tassilo III, the Duke of Bavaria, had earlier withdrawn from the Frankish campaign in Acquitaine, citing his withdrawal due to sickness. Charlemagne painted him as an independent, rebellious vassal. On the heels of these trumped up charges, Tassilo was ousted, forced to renounce his family hold on Bavaria, and was deposited into a monastery. His Bavarian takeover however put Charlemagne in conflict with the Avars, a greatly feared, predatory group related to the dreaded Huns.

As a result of these military campaigns, Charlemagne was able to extend the dominion of Frankland to include most of what is present day France, West Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, part of Spain and a good chunk of Italy.

It is said that Charlemagne changed Europe, not only by the extensions of his empire, but inwardly as well by his statesmanship. He had current laws refined, and put into position a set of ordinances known as capitularies. He also sent out specialized agents, called the "missi dominici," Latin for "Envoy of the Lord", to check on the men he had put into positions of power in his various domains.

He also concerned himself with the repairing of roads and bridges, encouraged the use of improved farming and irrigation methods, and resettled peoples in the interest of expanding his realm. He established a uniform system of weights and measures, and created a common currency to replace the over 60 different currencies being minted at that time. His system of a 240 "deniers" (coin) to one pence, shilling, or pound was adopted throughout his empire and by the King of England as well.

Charlemagne was noted as a man of insatiable intellectual curiosity, whose interests were many-sided and yet also demanding upon those closely associated with him. Selfish ambition is a term that one could easily apply to him, although his quest for personal astuteness naturally filtered over to those under him. He persuaded various learned men, the Anglo-Saxon Alcuin, for example, to come & reside at his royal estate, so that their knowledge may be added to his own. Charlemagne even developed a style of letters used by most Western countries today, generally known as the "Roman" or "Latin" lettering, as distinguished from the ornamental Gothic or Germanic letters typical to that time.

The religiosity of Charlemagne caused him to fancy himself as having a divine commission to set up God's Kingdom on earth, but as mentioned earlier, he employed cunning, intrigue and "extreme brutality" to that end. Every important campaign of his was invested with religious significance. He destroyed the pagan idols and groves of the Saxons and gave them the "choice" of being baptized or killed. Towards the end of Charlemagne's reign however he was persuaded into the realization that forced baptisms are meaningless; an individual can be forced into the act of baptism but not to change their belief system.

As to his role in being crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in 800, there is a wide difference of opinion among scholars. Many hold that he knew about it beforehand and was in favor of it. Others are of the opinion shared with Charlemagne's personal biographer Einhart, who felt that had Charlemagne knew about this appointment, he never would have entered the cathedral that day.

Few men, indeed, have been bestowed as "the Great," as was Charlemagne. Nevertheless, the title in of itself did not unequivocally mean that all felt this way about him. His ruthlessness in carrying out his ambitions caused more than one plot hatched to take his life, and in one of these, which involved his firstborn son (whom Charlemagne had slighted; calling him a "hunchback"), nearly succeeded.

Charlemagne's successes no doubt were predicated on the maxim that the "ends justify the means." Historians generally consider his beheading 4,500 Saxons in one day to be the foulest blot in his life. Moreover, while he often expressed concern at how he would fare before the eyes of God, there was no record of his expressing remorse at this deed, nor any other immoral act, such as his personal assemblage of mistresses and concubines. Despite these wrongdoings, his efforts toward the enhancement and development of his empire and populace are well documented.