Charlemagne

Charlemagne (Latin Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus, French and English Charlemagne; * probably 2 April 747 or 748; † 28 January 814 in Aachen) was king of the Frankish Empire from 768 to 814 (until 771 together with his brother Karlmann). He became the first Western European ruler since antiquity to attain the imperial dignity, which was renewed with him, on 25 December 800. The grandson of the house emperor Charles Martel was the most important ruler from the dynasty of the Carolingians. The Frankish Empire reached its greatest expansion and development of power under him.

Charles succeeded in securing his power in the Frankish Empire and considerably expanding it outwards in a series of campaigns. The Saxon Wars, which lasted with interruptions from 772 to 804, were particularly costly and bitterly fought. Their goal was the subjugation and forced Christianization of the Saxons. Charles also intervened in Italy and conquered the Lombard Empire in 774. A campaign against the Moors in northern Spain in 778 failed. In the east of his empire he ended the independence of the tribal duchy of Bavaria in 788 and conquered the remnant kingdom of the Avars in the 790s. The borders in the east against the Danes and Slavic tribes and in the southwest against the Moors were secured by the establishment of marques. The Frankish Empire rose to become the new great power alongside Byzantium and the Abbasid Caliphate. It comprised the core part of early medieval Latin Christendom and was the most important state structure in the West since the fall of Western Rome.

Charles ensured effective administration and strove for comprehensive educational reform, which resulted in a cultural revival of the Frankish Empire. The political highlight of his life was his coronation as emperor by Pope Leo III at Christmas in the year 800, which laid the foundation for the western medieval emperorship. In the line of both Roman-German emperors and French kings, he is counted as Charles I. His main residence, Aachen, remained the coronation site of the Roman-German kings until the 16th century.

In 1165 he was canonized by Counter-Pope Paschalis III; the day of commemoration in the Catholic and Protestant Churches is 28 January. Charles is considered one of the most important medieval rulers and one of the most important rulers in European historical consciousness; even during his lifetime he was called Pater Europae ("Father of Europe"). In fiction and art, his life was repeatedly thematized, whereby the respective contemporary historical image formed the starting point.