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184-434: Little is recorded of Eardwulf's family, though his father, also named Eardwulf, is known to have been a nobleman. Eardwulf was married by the time he became king, though his wife's name is not recorded. It is possible he later wed an illegitimate daughter of Charlemagne . In 798, early in his reign, Eardwulf fought a battle at Billington Moor against a nobleman named Wada, who had been one of those who killed King Æthelred. Wada

368-612: A dux named Wada, who was one of those who had killed King Æthelred, fought with Eardwulf on Billington Moor, near Whalley, Lancashire . Wada was put to flight and may have gone into exile in Mercia. He may have hoped to restore Osbald to the throne. The evidence for Osbald's continued ambition is a letter that Alcuin wrote to him, probably in 798, in which Alcuin attempted to dissuade Osbald from further interventions in Northumbrian affairs. Alcuin's arguments appear to have succeeded, since Osbald

552-484: A bride for his son. Charlemagne refused the arrangement, and the marriage did not take place. Charlemagne and Offa entered into a formal peace in 796, protecting trade and securing the rights of English pilgrims to pass through Francia on their way to Rome. Charlemagne was also the host and protector of several deposed English rulers who were later restored: Eadbehrt of Kent , Ecgberht, King of Wessex , and Eardwulf of Northumbria . Nelson writes that Charlemagne treated

736-652: A campaign of conquest in Western Frisia ( Frisia Citerior ) and defeated the Frisian king Radbod near Dorestad , an important trading centre. All the land between the Scheldt and the Vlie was incorporated into Francia. Then, circa 690, Pepin attacked central Frisia and took Utrecht . In 695 Pepin could even sponsor the foundation of the Archdiocese of Utrecht and the beginning of

920-411: A copy of the agreement between Pepin and Stephen III outlining the papal lands and rights Pepin had agreed to protect and restore. It is unclear which lands and rights the agreement involved, which remained a point of dispute for centuries. Charlemagne placed a copy of the agreement in the chapel above St. Peter's tomb as a symbol of his commitment, and left Rome to continue the siege. Disease struck

1104-477: A distinctly-Frankish context. Charlemagne's coronation led to a centuries-long ideological conflict between his successors and Constantinople known as the problem of two emperors , which could be seen as a rejection or usurpation of the Byzantine emperors' claim to be the universal, preeminent rulers of Christendom. Historian James Muldoon writes that Charlemagne may have had a more limited view of his role, seeing

1288-503: A dynasty. His son Eanred and grandson Æthelred (II) ruled Northumbria for most of its remaining existence as an independent kingdom. Charlemagne This is an accepted version of this page Charlemagne ( / ˈ ʃ ɑːr l ə m eɪ n / SHAR -lə-mayn ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and Emperor of what

1472-489: A famine in Francia. Hildegard gave birth to another daughter, Bertha . Charlemagne returned to Saxony in 780, holding assemblies at which he received hostages from Saxon nobles and oversaw their baptism. He and Hildegard travelled with their four younger children to Rome in the spring of 781, leaving Pepin and Charles at Worms , to make a journey first requested by Adrian in 775. Adrian baptised Carloman and renamed him Pepin,

1656-552: A high-ranking position, second only to the emperor. The meaning of the title in Northumbria is unclear, but it appears that there was only one patricius . While it may be simply an alternative to dux , it might represent a position approximating to that of the Mayor of the Palace in late Merovingian Francia . The church in Northumbria was one of the major landowners, perhaps second only to

1840-565: A hint of the prevailing economic conditions, and the style and size may also throw light on cultural influences when the coins are compared with those of neighbouring kingdoms and with other forms of art. The evidence of Northumbrian coinage is particularly valuable in the ninth century, when contemporary written evidence all but disappears. From the 740s until the end of the Northumbrian kingdom, coins were issued by most kings, although in variable quantities. Until recently no coins from Eardwulf's reign were known, which suggested that it may have been

2024-534: A legitimate marriage, but he had a vested interest in preventing Charlemagne from marrying Desiderius's daughter. Carloman died suddenly on 4 December 771, leaving Charlemagne sole king of the Franks. He moved immediately to secure his hold on his brother's territory, forcing Carloman's widow Gerberga to flee to Desiderius's court in Lombardy with their children. Charlemagne ended his marriage to Desiderius's daughter and married Hildegard , daughter of count Gerold ,

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2208-406: A marriage alliance before returning to Francia with his new bride. Desiderius's daughter is traditionally known as Desiderata , although she may have been named Gerperga. Anxious about the prospect of a Frankish–Lombard alliance, Pope Stephen sent a letter to both Frankish kings decrying the marriage and separately sought closer ties with Carloman. Charlemagne had already had a relationship with

2392-575: A monastery in Rome. He had at least two sons; the elder, Drogo , took his place. Charlemagne's year of birth is uncertain, although it was most likely in 748. An older tradition based on three sources, however, gives a birth year of 742. The ninth-century biographer Einhard reports Charlemagne as being 72 years old at the time of his death; the Royal Frankish Annals imprecisely gives his age at death as about 71, and his original epitaph called him

2576-628: A monastery, and Charlemagne absorbed Bavaria into his kingdom. Charlemagne spent the next few years based in Regensburg , largely focused on consolidating his rule of Bavaria and warring against the Avars. Successful campaigns against them were launched from Bavaria and Italy in 788, and Charlemagne led campaigns in 791 and 792. Charlemagne gave Charles the Younger rule of Maine in Neustria in 789, leaving Pepin

2760-783: A name he shared with his half-brother. Louis and the newly renamed Pepin were then anointed and crowned. Pepin was appointed king of the Lombards, and Louis king of Aquitaine. This act was not nominal, since the young kings were sent to live in their kingdoms under the care of regents and advisers. A delegation from the Byzantine Empire , the remnant of the Roman Empire in the East, met Charlemagne during his stay in Rome; Charlemagne agreed to betroth his daughter Rotrude to Empress Irene 's son, Emperor Constantine VI . Hildegard gave birth to her eighth child, Gisela , during this trip to Italy. After

2944-550: A number of crimes and physically attacked him in April 799, attempting to remove his eyes and tongue. Leo escaped and fled north to seek Charlemagne's help. Charlemagne continued his campaign against the Saxons before breaking off to meet Leo at Paderborn in September. Hearing evidence from the pope and his enemies, he sent Leo back to Rome with royal legates who were instructed to reinstate

3128-564: A period of expansion that led to the conquests of Bavaria , Saxony and northern Spain , as well as other campaigns that led Charlemagne to extend his rule over a large part of Europe. Charlemagne spread Christianity to his new conquests (often by force), as seen at the Massacre of Verden against the Saxons . He also sent envoys and initiated diplomatic contact with the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in

3312-584: A powerful magnate in Carloman's kingdom. This was a reaction to Desiderius's sheltering of Carloman's family and a move to secure Gerold's support. Charlemagne's first campaigning season as sole king of the Franks was spent on the eastern frontier in his first war against the Saxons , who had been engaging in border raids on the Frankish kingdom when Charlemagne responded by destroying the pagan Irminsul at Eresburg and seizing their gold and silver. The success of

3496-500: A septuagenarian. Einhard said that he did not know much about Charlemagne's early life; some modern scholars believe that, not knowing the emperor's true age, he still sought to present an exact date in keeping with the Roman imperial biographies of Suetonius , which he used as a model. All three sources may have been influenced by Psalm 90 : "The days of our years are threescore years and ten". Historian Karl Ferdinand Werner challenged

3680-511: A significant part of what is now western and southern Germany. It was by building upon the basis of these Merovingian deeds that the subsequent Carolingian dynasty— through the nearly continuous campaigns of Pepin of Herstal , his son Charles Martel , grandson Pepin the Short , great-grandson Charlemagne , and great-great-grandson Louis the Pious — secured the greatest expansion of the Frankish empire by

3864-471: A single Frankish kingdom. The Royal Frankish Annals report that Charlemagne ruled Austrasia and Carloman ruled Burgundy , Provence , Aquitaine, and Alamannia , with no mention made of which brother received Neustria. The immediate concern of the brothers was the ongoing uprising in Aquitaine. They marched into Aquitaine together, but Carloman returned to Francia for unknown reasons and Charlemagne completed

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4048-405: A struggle between Offa and Charlemagne, but the disparity in their power was enormous, and Offa and then Coenwulf were clearly minor figures by comparison. Early evidence of friendly relations between Charlemagne and Offa is tempered by signs of strain. Charlemagne sheltered two exiles from England at his court: Odberht of Kent (probably Eadberht Praen ) and Egbert of Wessex . Eadberht Praen ruled

4232-499: A time of instability, or perhaps that the kingdom was impoverished by the payment of tribute to Offa and Coenwulf of Mercia. It is now known that the issue of new coins continued during Eardwulf's reign, as two of his coins were identified in the 1990s. Issues of new currency appear to have been limited under Eardwulf, and significant numbers of Northumbrian coins are not again attested until the reign of Eardwulf's son Eanred . Like many of his predecessors, Eardwulf took to exile when he

4416-425: A young age, was restored to the kingship, resuming the title Æthelred I. Some Anglo-Saxon kings are known to have been killed by their households or in open warfare against rivals, but overall the record is very sparse. The evidence as regards the deposition of kings is equally limited. Only two eighth-century depositions offer any context, those of Æthelwald Moll in Northumbria and Sigeberht of Wessex . In both cases

4600-462: Is correct she must have been illegitimate, as the marriages of all the legitimate daughters are known. Coenwulf, on the other hand, who became king of Mercia shortly after Eardwulf's accession, is recorded as having fought with Eardwulf in 801. Eardwulf was not, so far as is known, connected to any of the factions that had been warring for the throne up to the mid-790s. Nothing is definitely known of his background, though Symeon of Durham 's History of

4784-450: Is debated, with little direct evidence from contemporary sources. He normally had texts read aloud to him and dictated responses and decrees, but this was not unusual even for a literate ruler at the time. Historian Johannes Fried considers it likely that Charlemagne would have been able to read, but the medievalist Paul Dutton writes that "the evidence for his ability to read is circumstantial and inferential at best" and concludes that it

4968-464: Is founding making royal judgements against the interests of his supposed masters, the Arnulfings. When Pepin died in 714, however, the Frankish realm plunged into civil war and the dukes of the outlying provinces became de facto independent. Pepin's appointed successor, Theudoald , under his widow, Plectrude , initially opposed an attempt by the king, Dagobert III , to appoint Ragenfrid as mayor of

5152-576: Is identified by historians with the Saint Hardulph or Hardulf, to whom the Mercian royal church of Saint Mary and Saint Hardulph at Breedon on the Hill is dedicated. The connection, though unproven, has been made by several historians and is uncontroversial. Supporting evidence comes from a twelfth-century list of the burial places of saints compiled at Peterborough . This calls the Saint Hardulph to whom Breedon

5336-403: Is known to have become an abbot by 799 (when his death is recorded), implying that he had given up his ambitions. Two further challenges to Eardwulf are recorded within the next two years, both apparently from among the noble lines that had been fighting for the throne over the previous decades. In 799, a dux named Moll was killed by Eardwulf's "urgent command". Moll's name has suggested that he

5520-426: Is likely that he never properly mastered the skill. Einhard makes no direct mention of Charlemagne reading, and recorded that he only attempted to learn to write later in life. There are only occasional references to Charlemagne in the Frankish annals during his father's lifetime. By 751 or 752, Pepin had deposed Childeric and replaced him as king. Early Carolingian-influenced sources claim that Pepin's seizure of

5704-596: Is now France. His son, Clovis I , succeeded in unifying most of Gaul under his rule in the 6th century by notably conquering Soissons in 486 and Aquitaine in 507 following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, as well as establishing leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on or near the Rhine frontier; thus founding what would come to be known as the Merovingian dynasty. The dynasty subsequently gained control over

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5888-459: Is now known as the Carolingian Empire from 800, holding these titles until his death in 814. He united most of Western and Central Europe , and was the first recognised emperor to rule from the west after the fall of the Western Roman Empire approximately three centuries earlier. Charlemagne's reign was marked by political and social changes that had lasting influence on Europe throughout

6072-458: Is securely dated to 507. One year after this battle, Clovis made Paris his capital, and in the Christmas Day of the same year he converted to Catholicism , and some time later he orchestrated the murders of Frankish kings Sigobert and Ragnachar , uniting all Franks under his rule. The sole source for this early period is Gregory of Tours , who wrote around the year 590. His chronology for

6256-619: The Alemanni ( Battle of Tolbiac in 496) and established Frankish hegemony over them. Clovis defeated the Visigoths ( Battle of Vouillé in 507) and conquered all of their territory north of the Pyrenees save Septimania , and conquered the Bretons (according to Gregory of Tours ) and made them vassals of the Franks. He also incorporated the various Roman military settlements ( laeti ) scattered over Gaul:

6440-473: The Auvergne , and eastern Aquitaine were assigned to the third son, Sigebert I , who also inherited Austrasia with its chief cities of Reims and Metz . The smallest kingdom was that of Soissons, which went to the youngest son, Chilperic I . The kingdom Chilperic ruled at his death (584) became the nucleus of later Neustria . This second fourfold division was quickly ruined by fratricidal wars, waged largely over

6624-507: The Battle of Roncevaux Pass . The Franks, defeated in the battle, withdrew with most of their army intact. Charlemagne returned to Francia to greet his newborn twin sons, Louis and Lothair, who were born while he was in Spain; Lothair died in infancy. Again, Saxons had seized on the king's absence to raid. Charlemagne sent an army to Saxony in 779 while he held assemblies, legislated, and addressed

6808-411: The Battle of Tertry . Pepin was the grandson of two important figures of Austrasia: Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen . The mayors of the palace had gained influence as the Merovingian kings' power waned due to divisions of the kingdom and several succession crises. Pepin was eventually succeeded by his son Charles, later known as Charles Martel. Charles did not support a Merovingian successor upon

6992-518: The Battle of Wogastisburg in 631, made all the far eastern peoples subject to the court of Neustria and not of Austrasia. This, first and foremost, incited the Austrasians to request a king of their own from the royal household. The subkingdom of Aquitaine corresponded to the southern half of the old Roman province of Aquitania and its capital was at Toulouse . The other cities of his kingdom were Cahors , Agen , Périgueux , Bordeaux , and Saintes ;

7176-607: The Capetian dynasty , becoming the Kingdom of France , while East Francia and Lotharingia came under the control of the non-Frankish Ottonian dynasty , becoming the Kingdom of Germany , which would conquer Burgundy and Italy to then form the medieval Holy Roman Empire . Competing French and German nationalisms in later centuries would claim succession from Charlemagne and the original kingdom, but nowadays both have become seen by many as Pan-European symbols. The term "Franks" emerged in

7360-524: The Capitulatio "constituted a program for the forced conversion of the Saxons " and was "aimed ... at suppressing Saxon identity". Charlemagne's focus for the next several years would be on his attempt to complete the subjugation of the Saxons. Concentrating first in Westphalia in 783, he pushed into Thuringia in 784 as his son Charles the Younger continued operations in the west. At each stage of

7544-463: The Dentelin , but they then fell foul of each other and the remainder of their time on the thrones was spent in infighting, often incited by their grandmother Brunhilda, who, angered over her expulsion from Theudebert's court, convinced Theuderic to unseat him and kill him. In 612 he did and the whole realm of his father Childebert was once again ruled by one man. This was short-lived, however, as he died on

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7728-757: The Frankish Kingdom , the Frankish Empire (Latin: Imperium Francorum ) or Francia , was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe . It was ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle Ages . Francia was among the last surviving Germanic kingdoms from the Migration Period era. Originally, the core Frankish territories inside

7912-598: The Franks had been Christianised ; this was due in considerable measure to the conversion of their king, Clovis I , to Catholicism. The Franks had established a kingdom in Gaul in the wake of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire . This kingdom, Francia , grew to encompass nearly all of present-day France and Switzerland, along with parts of modern Germany and the Low Countries under

8096-586: The Gothic War on the side of the Gepids and Lombards against the Ostrogoths , receiving the provinces of Raetia , Noricum , and part of Veneto . His son and successor, Theudebald , was unable to retain them and on his death all of his vast kingdom passed to Chlothar, under whom, with the death of Childebert in 558, the entire Frankish realm was reunited under the rule of one king. In 561 Chlothar died and his realm

8280-518: The Kingdom of Kent for a short time after Offa's death, but was deposed by Coenwulf. Egbert was more successful, taking and holding the throne of Wessex in 802. It is clear that Mercian and Frankish interests could not always be reconciled and Frankish policy then moved towards support for Offa's opponents. To Charlemagne this primarily meant Northumbria: according to Patrick Wormald , "Charlemagne ... saw England as if it were ruled by two kings only: Æthelred ruling Northumbria and Offa ruling everything to

8464-533: The Mercian royal monastery of Breedon on the Hill , which carries a dedication to Saint Mary and Saint Hardulph , with whom Eardwulf is identified by several historians. During the latter half of the eighth century, the Northumbrian succession included a long series of murdered and deposed kings, as several royal lines contended for the throne. The main lines were those of Eadberht , Æthelwald Moll and Alhred . In

8648-622: The Middle Ages . A member of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty , Charlemagne was the eldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon . With his brother, Carloman I , he became king of the Franks in 768 following Pepin's death and became the sole ruler three years later. Charlemagne continued his father's policy of protecting the papacy and became its chief defender, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy in 774. His reign saw

8832-410: The Royal Frankish Annals , Leo prostrated himself before Charlemagne after crowning him (an act of submission standard in Roman coronation rituals from the time of Diocletian ). This account presents Leo not as Charlemagne's superior, but as the agent of the Roman people who acclaimed Charlemagne as emperor. Historian Henry Mayr-Harting claims that the assumption of the imperial title by Charlemagne

9016-559: The Saxon Wars . Charlemagne travelled to Italy in 786, arriving by Christmas. Aiming to extend his influence further into southern Italy, he marched into the Duchy of Benevento. Duke Arechis fled to a fortified position at Salerno before offering Charlemagne his fealty. Charlemagne accepted his submission and hostages, who included Arechis's son Grimoald . In Italy, Charlemagne also met with envoys from Constantinople. Empress Irene had called

9200-603: The Somme river . Though Sidonius Apollinaris relates that Flavius Aetius defeated a wedding party of his people (c. 431), this period marks the beginning of a situation that would endure for many centuries: the Germanic Franks ruled over an increasing number of Gallo-Roman subjects . The Merovingians , believed by some in the latter half of the 6th century to be relatives of Chlodio as reported by Gregory of Tours (although, he himself did not share this belief), arose from within

9384-458: The Thuringii (532), Burgundes (534), and Saxons and Frisians (c. 560) were incorporated into the Frankish kingdom. The outlying trans-Rhenish tribes were loosely attached to Frankish sovereignty, and though they could be forced to contribute to Frankish military efforts, in times of weak kings they were uncontrollable and liable to attempt independence. The Romanised Burgundian kingdom, however,

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9568-660: The ecclesia as the Pope conceived it, of the Roman Church, regarded as the universal Church". The Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire remained a significant contemporary power in European politics for Leo and Charlemagne, especially in Italy. The Byzantines continued to hold a substantial portion of Italy, with their borders not far south of Rome. Empress Irene had seized the throne from her son Constantine VI in 797, deposing and blinding him. Irene,

9752-482: The massacre of Verden . Fried writes, "Although this figure may be exaggerated, the basic truth of the event is not in doubt", and Alessandro Barbero calls it "perhaps the greatest stain on his reputation." Charlemagne issued the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae , probably in the immediate aftermath of (or as a precursor of) the massacre. With a harsh set of laws which included the death penalty for pagan practices,

9936-512: The "Father of Europe" by many historians. He is seen as a founding figure by multiple European states and a number of historical royal houses of Europe trace their lineage back to him. Charlemagne has been the subject of artworks, monuments and literature during and after the medieval period and is venerated by the Catholic Church . Several languages were spoken in Charlemagne's world, and he

10120-595: The 3rd century AD as a term for several Germanic tribes who settled on the northern Rhine frontier of the Roman Empire , including the Bructeri , Ampsivarii , Chamavi , Chattuarii and Salians . While all of them had a tradition of participating in the Roman military, the Salians were allowed to settle within the Roman Empire. In 358, having already been living in the civitas of Batavia for some time, Emperor Julian defeated

10304-415: The 775 Saxon and Friulian campaigns, his daughter Rotrude was born in Francia. Returning north, Charlemagne waged another brief, destructive campaign against the Saxons in 776. This led to the submission of many Saxons, who turned over captives and lands and submitted to baptism . In 777, Charlemagne held an assembly at Paderborn with Frankish and Saxon men; many more Saxons came under his rule, but

10488-419: The 787 Second Council of Nicaea , but did not inform Charlemagne or invite any Frankish bishops. Charlemagne, probably in reaction to the perceived slight of the exclusion, broke the betrothal of his daughter Rotrude and Constantine VI. After Charlemagne left Italy, Arechis sent envoys to Irene to offer an alliance; he suggested that she send a Byzantine army with Adalgis, the exiled son of Desiderus, to remove

10672-643: The 790s, due to their mutual interest in Iberian affairs. In 800, Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III . Although historians debate the coronation's significance, the title represented the height of his prestige and authority. Charlemagne's position as the first emperor in the West in over 300 years brought him into conflict with the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople . Through his assumption of

10856-464: The Alamannian noblewoman Luitgard shortly afterwards. Charlemagne gathered an army after the council of Frankfurt as Saxon resistance continued, beginning a series of annual campaigns which lasted through 799. The campaigns of the 790s were even more destructive than those of earlier decades, with the annal writers frequently noting Charlemagne "burning", "ravaging", "devastating", and "laying waste"

11040-469: The Alemanni were, for the time being, restored to the Frankish fold. However, in southern Gaul, which was not under Arnulfing influence, the regions were pulling away from the royal court under leaders such as Savaric of Auxerre , Antenor of Provence , and Odo of Aquitaine . The reigns of Clovis IV and Childebert III from 691 until 711 have all the hallmarks of those of rois fainéants , though Childebert

11224-497: The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms "like satellite states," establishing direct relations with English bishops. Charlemagne also forged an alliance with Alfonso II of Asturias , although Einhard calls Alfonso his "dependent". Following his sack of Lisbon in 798, Alfonso sent Charlemagne trophies of his victory, including armour, mules and prisoners. After Leo III became pope in 795, he faced political opposition. His enemies accused him of

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11408-515: The Austrasian who had installed Dagobert II , Sigebert III's son, in their kingdom (briefly in opposition to Clovis III ). In 687 he was defeated by Pepin of Herstal , the Arnulfing mayor of Austrasia and the real power in that kingdom, at the Battle of Tertry and was forced to accept Pepin as sole mayor and dux et princeps Francorum : " Duke and Prince of the Franks ", a title which signifies, to

11592-432: The Austrasians demanded a king of their own again and Chlothar installed his younger brother Childeric II . During Chlothar's reign, the Franks had made an attack on northwestern Italy, but were driven off by Grimoald, King of the Lombards , near Rivoli . In 673, Chlothar III died and some Neustrian and Burgundian magnates invited Childeric to become king of the whole realm, but he soon upset some Neustrian magnates and he

11776-500: The Austrasians, who had been seen as a distinct people within the realm since the time of Gregory of Tours, who were to make the most strident moves for independence. The young Sigebert was dominated during his minority by the mayor, Grimoald the Elder , who convinced the childless king to adopt his own Merovingian-named son Childebert as his son and heir. After Dagobert's death in 639, the duke of Thuringia , Radulf , rebelled and tried to make himself king. He defeated Sigebert in what

11960-417: The Avars in the south, which led to the collapse of their kingdom and the eastward expansion of Frankish rule. Charlemagne also worked to expand his influence through diplomatic means during the 790s wars, focusing on the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Britain. Charles the Younger proposed a marriage pact with the daughter of King Offa of Mercia , but Offa insisted that Charlemagne's daughter Bertha also be given as

12144-401: The Bavarian city of Bolzano . Charlemagne gathered his forces to prepare for an invasion of Bavaria in 787. Dividing the army, the Franks launched a three-pronged attack. Quickly realizing his poor position, Tassilo agreed to surrender and recognise Charlemagne as his overlord. The following year, Tassilo was accused of plotting with the Avars to attack Charlemagne. He was deposed and sent to

12328-405: The Byzantines. This formulation (with the continuation of his earlier royal titles) may also represent a view of his role as emperor as being the ruler of the people of the city of Rome, as he was of the Franks and the Lombards. Charlemagne left Italy in the summer of 801 after adjudicating several ecclesiastical disputes in Rome and experiencing an earthquake in Spoleto . He never returned to

12512-436: The Chamavi and Salians, allowing the latter to settle further away from the border, in Toxandria . Some of the early Frankish leaders, such as Flavius Bauto and Arbogast , were committed to the cause of the Romans, but other Frankish rulers, such as Mallobaudes , were active on Roman soil for other reasons. After the fall of Arbogastes, his son Arigius succeeded in establishing a hereditary countship at Trier and after

12696-475: The Christian West, appears to have taken an active interest in Northumbrian affairs. Charlemagne initially ruled Francia and parts of Italy , but by 796 had become master of an empire which stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Hungarian Plain . He was a staunch defender of the Papacy, and in the popes and the church hierarchy he had allies whose influence extended to Northumbria and beyond. Events in southern Britain to 796 have sometimes been portrayed as

12880-568: The East Frankish count Radolf, by the end of the year. In summer 782, Widukind returned from Denmark to attack the Frankish positions in Saxony. He defeated a Frankish army, possibly due to rivalry among the Frankish counts leading it. Charlemagne came to Verden after learning of the defeat, but Widukind fled before his arrival. Charlemagne summoned the Saxon magnates to an assembly and compelled them to turn prisoners over to him, since he regarded their previous acts as treachery. The annals record that Charlemagne had 4,500 Saxon prisoners beheaded in

13064-461: The Frankish borderlands, leading to a Frankish counter-raid in the autumn of 774 and a reprisal campaign the following year. Charlemagne was soon drawn back to Italy as Duke Hrodgaud of Friuli rebelled against him. He quickly crushed the rebellion, distributing Hrodgaud's lands to the Franks to consolidate his rule in Lombardy. Charlemagne wintered in Italy, consolidating his power by issuing charters and legislation and taking Lombard hostages. Amid

13248-462: The Frankish kingdom later came to be known as Austrasia (the "eastern lands"), while the large Romanised Frankish kingdom in the west came to be known as Neustria . Chlodio's successors are obscure figures, but what can be certain is that Childeric I , possibly his grandson, ruled a Salian kingdom from Tournai as a foederatus of the Romans. Childeric is chiefly important to history for bequeathing

13432-481: The Frankish kings. Both brothers sent troops to Rome, each hoping to exert his own influence. The Lombard king Desiderius also had interests in Roman affairs, and Charlemagne attempted to enlist him as an ally. Desiderius already had alliances with Bavaria and Benevento through the marriages of his daughters to their dukes, and an alliance with Charlemagne would add to his influence. Charlemagne's mother, Bertrada, went on his behalf to Lombardy in 770 and brokered

13616-451: The Frankish noblewoman Himiltrude , and they had a son in 769 named Pepin . Paul the Deacon wrote in his 784 Gesta Episcoporum Mettensium that Pepin was born "before legal marriage", but does not say whether Charles and Himiltrude ever married, were joined in a non-canonical marriage ( friedelehe ), or married after Pepin was born. Pope Stephen's letter described the relationship as

13800-432: The Franks from power in Lombardy. Before his plans could be finalised, Aldechis and his elder son Romuald died of illness within weeks of each other. Charlemagne sent Grimoald back to Benevento to serve as duke and return it to Frankish suzerainty. The Byzantine army invaded , but were repulsed by the Frankish and Lombard forces. As affairs were being settled in Italy, Charlemagne turned his attention to Bavaria. Bavaria

13984-423: The Franks to his son Clovis , who began an effort to extend his authority over the other Frankish tribes and to expand their territorium south and west into Gaul . Clovis converted to Christianity and put himself on good terms with the powerful Church and with his Gallo-Roman subjects. In a thirty-year reign (481–511) Clovis defeated the Roman general Syagrius and conquered the Kingdom of Soissons , defeated

14168-569: The Gallo-Roman military, with Childeric and his son Clovis being called "King of the Franks" in the Gallo-Roman military, even before having any Frankish territorial kingdom. Once Clovis defeated his Roman competitor for power in northern Gaul, Syagrius , he turned to the kings of the Franks to the north and east, as well as other post-Roman kingdoms already existing in Gaul: Visigoths , Burgundians , and Alemanni . The original core territory of

14352-541: The Great'). In modern German, he is known as Karl der Große . The Latin epithet magnus ('great') may have been associated with him during his lifetime, but this is not certain. The contemporary Royal Frankish Annals routinely call him Carolus magnus rex ("Charles the great king"). That epithet is attested in the works of the Poeta Saxo around 900, and it had become commonly applied to him by 1000. Charlemagne

14536-513: The Hunchback his only son without lands. His relationship with Himiltrude was now apparently seen as illegitimate at his court, and Pepin was sidelined from the succession. In 792, as his father and brothers were gathered in Regensburg, Pepin conspired with Bavarian nobles to assassinate them and install himself as king. The plot was discovered and revealed to Charlemagne before it could proceed; Pepin

14720-480: The Kings , an early twelfth-century work based on the lost late tenth-century chronicle of Byrhtferth , records that his father's name was also Eardwulf, and both father and son are given the title dux . Historian Barbara Yorke has proposed that he was a descendant of one Eanwine who (according to Symeon of Durham) was killed in 740 on the orders of King Eadberht. This Eanwine may be identified with King Eadwulf 's son of

14904-457: The Lombard king directly, Adrian sent emissaries to Charlemagne to gain his support for recovering papal territory. Charlemagne, in response to this appeal and the dynastic threat of Carloman's sons in the Lombard court, gathered his forces to intervene. He first sought a diplomatic solution, offering gold to Desiderius in exchange for the return of the papal territories and his nephews. This overture

15088-476: The Lombards shortly after his return to Pavia, and they surrendered the city by June 774. Charlemagne deposed Desiderius and took the title of King of the Lombards. The takeover of one kingdom by another was "extraordinary", and the authors of The Carolingian World call it "without parallel". Charlemagne secured the support of the Lombard nobles and Italian urban elites to seize power in a mainly-peaceful annexation. Historian Rosamond McKitterick suggests that

15272-427: The Lombards" instead of the earlier form "Charles, by the grace of God king of the Franks and Lombards and patrician of the Romans." Leo acclaimed Charlemagne as "emperor of the Romans" during the coronation, but Charlemagne never used this title. The avoidance of the specific claim of being a "Roman emperor", as opposed to the more-neutral "emperor governing the Roman empire", may have been to improve relations with

15456-533: The Northumbrians "that treacherous, perverse people...who murder their own lords", and threatened retribution. His ambassadors, who had travelled on to Ireland and were then returning home, were ordered back to Northumbria to recover the presents. Charlemagne in time became a supporter of Eardwulf. Eardwulf is said by the early 12th-century Annals of Lindisfarne and Durham to have married one of Charlemagne's daughters, information not found in other sources. If this

15640-481: The Northumbrians, led an army against Coenwulf, king of Mercians, because he had given asylum to his enemies. He also, collecting an army, obtained very many auxiliaries from other provinces, having made a long expedition among them. At length, with the advice of the bishops and chiefs of the Angles on either side, they made peace through the kindness of the king of the Angles. This settlement ended open warfare, but Eardwulf

15824-655: The Saxon lands. Charlemagne forcibly removed a large number of Saxons to Francia, installing Frankish elites and soldiers in their place. His extended wars in Saxony led to his establishing his court in Aachen , which had easy access to the frontier. He built a large palace there, including a chapel which is now part of the Aachen Cathedral . Einhard joined the court at that time. Pepin of Italy (Carloman) engaged in further wars against

16008-463: The Saxon magnate Widukind fled to Denmark to prepare for a new rebellion. Also at the Paderborn assembly were representatives of dissident factions from al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). They included the son and son-in-law of Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri , the former governor of Córdoba ousted by Caliph Abd al-Rahman in 756, who sought Charlemagne's support for al-Fihri's restoration. Also present

16192-641: The Saxons again, and in 724 he defeated Ragenfrid and the rebellious Neustrians, ending the civil war phase of his rule. In 720, when Chilperic II died, he had appointed Theuderic IV king, but this last was a mere puppet of his. In 724 he forced his choice of Hugbert for the ducal succession upon the Bavarians and forced the Alemanni to assist him in his campaigns in Bavaria (725 and 726), where laws were promulgated in Theuderic's name. In 730 Alemannia had to be subjugated by

16376-663: The Saxons of Bessin , the Britons and the Alans of Armorica and Loire valley or the Taifals of Poitou to name a few prominent ones. By the end of his life, Clovis ruled all of Gaul save the Gothic province of Septimania and the Burgundian kingdom in the southeast. The exact date on which Clovis became "king of all Franks" is not known, but it happened sometime after the Battle of Vouillé , which

16560-467: The Visigoths in 612. On the opposite end of his realm, the Alemanni had defeated Theuderic in a rebellion and the Franks were losing their hold on the trans-Rhenish tribes. In 610 Theudebert had extorted the Duchy of Alsace from Theuderic, beginning a long period of conflict over which kingdom was to have the region of Alsace, Burgundy or Austrasia, which was only terminated in the late seventh century. During

16744-500: The abbey of Saint-Denis , although the extent of Charlemagne's formal education is unknown. He almost certainly was trained in military matters as a youth in Pepin's court, which was itinerant . Charlemagne also asserted his own education in the liberal arts in encouraging their study by his children and others, although it is unknown whether his study was as a child or at court during his later life. The question of Charlemagne's literacy

16928-465: The acceptance of 742 as the Frankish king's birth year, citing an addition to the Annales Petaviani which records Charlemagne's birth in 747. Lorsch Abbey commemorated Charlemagne's date of birth as 2 April from the mid-ninth century, and this date is likely to be genuine. Matthias Becher built on Werner's work and showed that 2 April in the year recorded would have actually been in 748, since

17112-579: The ancient Germanic practice of electing a war-leader at an assembly of the warriors. At the death of Clovis, his kingdom was divided territorially by his four adult sons in such a way that each son was granted a comparable portion of fiscal land , which was probably land once part of the Roman fisc, now seized by the Frankish government. Clovis's sons made their capitals near the Frankish heartland in northeastern Gaul. Theuderic I made his capital at Reims , Chlodomer at Orléans , Childebert I at Paris , and Chlothar I at Soissons . During their reigns,

17296-517: The annalists recorded the start of the year from Easter rather than 1 January. Presently, most scholars accept April 748 for Charlemagne's birth. Charlemagne's place of birth is unknown. The Frankish palaces in Vaires-sur-Marne and Quierzy are among the places suggested by scholars. Pepin the Short held an assembly in Düren in 748, but it cannot be proved that it took place in April or if Bertrada

17480-449: The assassinated Sigebert (575). Together the territory of Guntram and Childebert was well over thrice as large as the small realm of Chilperic's successor, Chlothar II . During this period Francia took on the tripartite character it was to have throughout the rest of its history, being composed of Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy. When Guntram died in 592, Burgundy went to Childebert in its entirety, but he died in 595. His two sons divided

17664-523: The author of the Liber Historiae Francorum , the beginning of Pepin's "reign". Thereafter the Merovingian monarchs showed only sporadically, in our surviving records, any activities of a non-symbolic and self-willed nature. During the period of confusion in the 670s and 680s, attempts had been made to re-assert Frankish suzerainty over the Frisians, but to no avail. In 689, however, Pepin launched

17848-428: The boys were forced into a monastery (a common solution of dynastic issues), or "an act of murder smooth[ed] Charlemagne's ascent to power." Adalgis was not captured by Charlemagne, and fled to Constantinople. Charlemagne left the siege in April 774 to celebrate Easter in Rome. Pope Adrian arranged a formal welcome for the Frankish king, and they swore oaths to each other over the relics of St. Peter. Adrian presented

18032-404: The brief minority of Sigebert II, the office of the Mayor of the Palace , which had for sometime been visible in the kingdoms of the Franks, came to the fore in its internal politics, with a faction of nobles coalescing around the persons of Warnachar II , Rado , and Pepin of Landen , to give the kingdom over to Chlothar in order to remove Brunhilda, the young king's regent, from power. Warnachar

18216-430: The campaign on his own. Charlemagne's capture of Duke Hunald marked the end of ten years of war that had been waged in the attempt to bring Aquitaine into line. Carloman's refusal to participate in the war against Aquitaine led to a rift between the kings. It is uncertain why Carloman abandoned the campaign; the brothers may have disagreed about control of the territory, or Carloman was focused on securing his rule in

18400-414: The campaigns, the Frankish armies seized wealth and carried Saxon captives into slavery. Unusually, Charlemagne campaigned through the winter instead of resting his army. By 785, he had suppressed the Saxon resistance and completely commanded Westphalia. That summer, he met Widukind and persuaded him to end his resistance. Widukind agreed to be baptised with Charlemagne as his godfather, ending this phase of

18584-400: The church if he knew about the pope's plan; modern historians have regarded his report as truthful or rejected it as a literary device demonstrating Charlemagne's humility. Collins says that the actions surrounding the coronation indicate that it was planned by Charlemagne as early as his meeting with Leo in 799, and Fried writes that Charlemagne planned to adopt the title of emperor by 798 "at

18768-502: The church, affected surprise that while the Archbishop Eanbald was travelling he was accompanied by a large retinue, including soldiers, and that he received and protected the king's enemies. Eanbald was presumably in conflict with Eardwulf over property, but it is likely that he also supported rivals for Eardwulf's throne. Although Æthelred had been Eardwulf's enemy, Æthelred's killers proved to be equally hostile to Eardwulf. In 798

18952-408: The city. Continuing trends and a ruling style established in the 790s, Charlemagne's reign from 801 onward is a "distinct phase" characterised by more sedentary rule from Aachen. Although conflict continued until the end of his reign, the relative peace of the imperial period allowed for attention on internal governance. The Franks continued to wage war, though these wars were defending and securing

19136-513: The conversion of the Frisians under Willibrord . However, Eastern Frisia ( Frisia Ulterior ) remained outside of Frankish suzerainty. Having achieved great successes against the Frisians, Pepin turned towards the Alemanni. In 709 he launched a war against Willehari , duke of the Ortenau , probably in an effort to force the succession of the young sons of the deceased Gotfrid on the ducal throne. This outside interference led to another war in 712 and

19320-554: The death of Ceolred in 716 until the disappearance of the Mercian kingdom in the late ninth century. Kings did not rule alone, but rather governed together with the leading churchmen and nobles. While Northumbria lacks the body of charters which shed light on the institutions of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, sufficient evidence survives for historians to reconstruct some aspects of Northumbrian political life. The evidence for Northumbria survives largely in Latin documents, and these use

19504-469: The death of King Theuderic IV in 737, leaving the throne vacant. He made plans to divide the kingdom between his sons, Carloman and Pepin the Short , who succeeded him after his death in 741. The brothers placed the Merovingian Childeric III on the throne in 743. Pepin married Bertrada , a member of an influential Austrasian noble family, in 744. In 747, Carloman abdicated and entered

19688-516: The decision is presented as that of some form of council. This record of disputed succession was by no means unique to Northumbria, and the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex experienced similar troubles during the eighth and ninth centuries. In Wessex, from the death of Centwine in 685 to Egbert 's seizure of power in 802, the relationships between successive kings are far from clear and few kings are known to have been close kinsmen of their predecessors or successors. The same may be true of Mercia from

19872-642: The duchy of Vasconia was also part of his allotment. Charibert campaigned successfully against the Basques, but after his death they revolted again (632). At the same time the Bretons rose up against Frankish suzerainty. In 635 an army sent by Dagobert subdued the Basques, while threats of military action induced the Breton leader Judicael to relent, make peace with the Franks, and pay tribute. Meanwhile, Dagobert had Charibert's infant successor Chilperic assassinated and reunited

20056-459: The early 9th century, which was by this point referred to as the Carolingian Empire . During the reign of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, the Frankish realm was one large polity , generally subdivided into several smaller kingdoms ruled by different members of the ruling dynasties. Whilst these kingdoms coordinated, they also regularly came into conflict with one another. The old Frankish lands, for example, were initially contained within

20240-456: The eight years before Eardwulf's accession, all three of these dynastic lines were involved in the struggle for kingship: on 23 September 788, King Ælfwald I , grandson of Eadberht, was murdered by the patricius Sicga near Hexham, and Ælfwald's cousin Osred became king. Osred, who was of Alhred's line, was deposed after a year, and Æthelred , son of Æthelwald Moll , who had been deposed in 778 at

20424-487: The elective nature of the Lombard monarchy eased Charlemagne's takeover, and Roger Collins attributes the easy conquest to the Lombard elite's "presupposition that rightful authority was in the hands of the one powerful enough to seize it". Charlemagne soon returned to Francia with the Lombard royal treasury and with Desiderius and his family, who would be confined to a monastery for the rest of their lives. The Saxons took advantage of Charlemagne's absence in Italy to raid

20608-419: The emperor. A surviving letter of Leo III to Charlemagne confirms that Eardwulf visited Rome and stayed at Charlemagne's court. The Frankish source is clear that Eardwulf was "returned to his kingdom", but surviving Anglo-Saxon sources have no record of a second reign. Historians disagree as to whether Ælfwald was replaced by Eardwulf, who would thus have reigned a second time from 808 to 811 or 812, or whether

20792-594: The empire's frontiers, and Charlemagne rarely led armies personally. A significant expansion of the Spanish March was achieved with a series of campaigns by Louis against the Emirate of Cordoba, culminating in the 801 capture of Barcelona . The 802 Capitulare missorum generale was an expansive piece of legislation, with provisions governing the conduct of royal officials and requiring that all free men take an oath of loyalty to Charlemagne. The capitulary reformed

20976-417: The entire Frankish realm again (632), though he was forced by the strong Austrasian aristocracy to grant his own son Sigebert III to them as a subking in 633. This act was precipitated largely by the Austrasians' desire to be self-governing at a time when Neustrians dominated at the royal court. Chlothar had been the king at Paris for decades before becoming the king at Metz as well and the Merovingian monarchy

21160-556: The eve of preparing an expedition against Chlothar in 613, leaving a young son named Sigebert II . During their reigns, Theudebert and Theuderic campaigned successfully in Gascony , where they had established the Duchy of Gascony and brought the Basques to submission (602). This original Gascon conquest included lands south of the Pyrenees , namely Biscay and Gipuzkoa , but these were lost to

21344-472: The fact that at this moment a woman was reigning in Constantinople." Leo's main motivations may have been the desire to increase his standing after his political difficulties, placing himself as a power broker and securing Charlemagne as a powerful ally and protector. The Byzantine Empire's lack of ability to influence events in Italy and support the papacy were also important to Leo's position. According to

21528-549: The fall of the usurper Constantine III some Franks supported the usurper Jovinus (411). Jovinus was dead by 413, but the Romans found it increasingly difficult to manage the Franks within their borders. The Frankish king Theudemer was executed by the sword, in c. 422. Around 428, the king Chlodio , whose kingdom may have been in the civitas Tungrorum (with its capital in Tongeren ), launched an attack on Roman territory and extended his realm as far as Camaracum ( Cambrai ) and

21712-454: The first Byzantine empress, faced opposition in Constantinople because of her gender and her means of accession. One of the earliest narrative sources for the coronation, the Annals of Lorsch , presented a female ruler in Constantinople as a vacancy in the imperial title which justified Leo's coronation of Charlemagne. Pirenne disagrees, saying that the coronation "was not in any sense explained by

21896-460: The former Western Roman Empire were located close to the Rhine and Meuse rivers in the north, but Frankish chiefs such as Chlodio would eventually expand their influence within Roman territory as far as the Somme river in the 5th century. Childeric I , a Salian Frankish king, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces of various ethnic affiliations in the northern part of what

22080-505: The gate of the monastery. The brethren carried his body into the church with Gregorian chanting , and placed it out of doors in a tent; after midnight he was found alive in the church. A letter from Alcuin to Eardwulf suggests that this fortunate recovery was seen as being miraculous. Eardwulf's whereabouts after his recovery are not known. In surviving King Æthelred's anger he was more fortunate than Ælfwald's sons, who were drowned on Æthelred's orders in 791. Osred returned from exile but

22264-503: The imperial title, he is considered the forerunner to the line of Holy Roman Emperors , which persisted into the nineteenth century. As king and emperor, Charlemagne engaged in a number of reforms in administration, law, education, military organisation, and religion, which shaped Europe for centuries. The stability of his reign began a period of cultural activity known as the Carolingian Renaissance . Charlemagne died in 814 and

22448-470: The institution of the missi dominici , officials who would now be assigned in pairs (a cleric and a lay aristocrat) to administer justice and oversee governance in defined territories. The emperor also ordered the revision of the Lombard and Frankish legal codes. In addition to the missi , Charlemagne also ruled parts of the empire with his sons as sub-kings. Although Pepin and Louis had some authority as kings in Italy and Aquitaine, Charlemagne had

22632-411: The king back on the condition that he receive his father's positions (718). There were no more active Merovingian kings after that point and Charles and his Carolingian heirs ruled the Franks. After 718 Charles Martel embarked on a series of wars intended to strengthen the Franks' hegemony in western Europe. In 718 he defeated the rebellious Saxons, in 719 he overran Western Frisia, in 723 he suppressed

22816-609: The king. At the head of the Northumbrian church was the Archbishop of York , an office held by Eanbald I to 796, Eanbald II until some time after 808, and then by Wulfsige to around 830. Immediately below the archbishop were three bishops: the bishop of Lindisfarne , the bishop of Hexham and the bishop of Whithorn . The typically long term of office of senior clerics meant that kings often had to work with men appointed by their predecessors, with whom their relations might be difficult. Northumbria's southern neighbour Mercia was, under

23000-513: The kingdom by the joint action of father and son. When Chlothar died in 628, Dagobert, in accordance with his father's wishes, granted a subkingdom to his younger brother Charibert II . This subkingdom, commonly called Aquitaine, was a new creation. Dagobert, in his dealings with the Saxons, Alemans, and Thuringii, as well as the Slavs beyond the borders of Francia, upon whom he tried to force tribute but who instead defeated him under their king Samo at

23184-457: The kingdom of Austrasia , centred on the Rhine and Meuse , roughly corresponding to later Lower Lotharingia . The bulk of the Gallo-Roman territory to its south and west was called Neustria . The exact borders and number of these subkingdoms varied over time, until a basic split between eastern and western domains became persistent. After various treaties and conflicts in the late-9th and early-10th centuries, West Francia came under control of

23368-503: The kingdom, with the elder Theudebert II taking Austrasia plus Childebert's portion of Aquitaine, while his younger brother Theuderic II inherited Burgundy and Guntram's Aquitaine. United, the brothers sought to remove their father's cousin Chlothar II from power and they did succeed in conquering most of his kingdom, reducing him to only a few cities, but they failed to capture him. In 599 they routed his forces at Dormelles and seized

23552-426: The kingdom—not unlike the late Roman Empire —was conceived of as a single realm ruled collectively by several kings and the turn of events could result in the reunification of the whole realm under a single king. The Merovingian kings ruled by divine right and their kingship was symbolised daily by their long hair and initially by their acclamation, which was carried out by raising the king on a shield in accordance with

23736-449: The latest." During the years before the coronation, Charlemagne's courtier Alcuin referred to his realm as an Imperium Christianum ("Christian Empire") in which "just as the inhabitants of the Roman Empire had been united by a common Roman citizenship", the new empire would be united by a common Christian faith. This is the view of Henri Pirenne , who says that "Charles was the Emperor of

23920-453: The murder of Galswintha , the wife of Chilperic, allegedly by his mistress (and second wife) Fredegund . Galswintha's sister, the wife of Sigebert, Brunhilda , incited her husband to war and the conflict between the two queens continued to plague relations until the next century. Guntram sought to keep the peace, though he also attempted twice (585 and 589) to conquer Septimania from the Goths, but

24104-447: The north of Francia. Regardless of the strife between the kings, they maintained a joint rule for practical reasons. Charlemagne and Carloman worked to obtain the support of the clergy and local elites to solidify their positions. Pope Stephen III was elected in 768, but was briefly deposed by Antipope Constantine II before being restored to Rome. Stephen's papacy experienced continuing factional struggles, so he sought support from

24288-457: The palace in all the realms, but soon there was a third candidate for the mayoralty of Austrasia in Pepin's illegitimate adult son, Charles Martel . After the defeat of Plectrude and Theudoald by the king (now Chilperic II ) and Ragenfrid, Charles briefly raised a king of his own, Chlothar IV , in opposition to Chilperic. Finally, at a battle near Soisson , Charles definitively defeated his rivals and forced them into hiding, eventually accepting

24472-504: The pope and conduct a further investigation. In August of the following year, Charlemagne made plans to go to Rome after an extensive tour of his lands in Neustria. Charlemagne met Leo in November near Mentana at the twelfth milestone outside Rome, the traditional location where Roman emperors began their formal entry into the city. Charlemagne presided over an assembly to hear the charges, but believed that no one could sit in judgement of

24656-446: The pope. Leo swore an oath on 23 December, declaring his innocence of all charges. At mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas Day 800, Leo proclaimed Charlemagne "emperor of the Romans" ( Imperator Romanorum ) and crowned him. Charlemagne was the first reigning emperor in the west since the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476. His son, Charles the Younger , was anointed king by Leo at

24840-562: The production of the Libri Carolini , a detailed argument against Nicea's canons. In 794, Charlemagne called another council in Frankfurt . The council confirmed Regensburg's positions on adoptionism and Nicea, recognised the deposition of Tassilo, set grain prices, reformed Frankish coinage, forbade abbesses from blessing men, and endorsed prayer in vernacular languages. Soon after the council, Fastrada fell ill and died; Charlemagne married

25024-407: The reason for his coming, he set out for Rome; and on his return from Rome he was escorted by envoys of the Roman pontiff and of the lord emperor back into his kingdom. At that time Leo III ruled over the Roman church, and his messenger, the deacon Ealdwulf from that same Britain, a Saxon by race, was sent to Britain, and with him two abbots, Hruotfrid the notary and Nantharius of St. Omer , sent by

25208-486: The regional differences between the three kingdoms of Francia and probably granted the nobles more control over judicial appointments. By 623 the Austrasians had begun to clamour for a king of their own, since Chlothar was so often absent from the kingdom and, because of his upbringing and previous rule in the Seine basin, was more or less an outsider there. Chlothar thus granted that his son Dagobert I would be their king and he

25392-533: The reign of Eardwulf's son Eanred began in 808. Recent studies, based on the discovery of a penny of Eanred for which a date no earlier than c. 850 is proposed, suggest a very different dating for ninth-century Northumbrian kings. From this, it is argued that Eardwulf's second reign ended circa 830, rather than in the years soon after 810, and that the reigns of subsequent kings should be re-dated accordingly: Eanred from 830 to 854, Æthelred II from 854 to 862, Rædwulf in 858, and Osberht from 862 to 867. Eardwulf

25576-401: The reigns of the early kings is almost certainly fabricated, often contradicting itself and other sources. Clovis' baptism, traditionally dated to 496, is now believed to have taken place in 508. The Merovingians were a hereditary monarchy . The Frankish kings adhered to the practice of partible inheritance : dividing their lands among their sons. Even when multiple Merovingian kings ruled,

25760-542: The remains of a high status person such as Saint Hardulph, are dated by their similarity to the illustrations in the Book of Cerne to the first third of the ninth century. According to a medieval calendar of saints, the Benedictine monks at Breedon celebrated Hardulph's feast day on 21 August. The death of Eardwulf is not recorded. Although he had faced considerable opposition and had been driven into exile, he succeeded in founding

25944-424: The royal family's return to Francia, she had her final pregnancy and died from its complications on 30 April 783. The child, named after her, died shortly thereafter. Charlemagne commissioned epitaphs for his wife and daughter, and arranged for a Mass to be said daily at Hildegard's tomb. Charlemagne's mother Bertrada died shortly after Hildegard, on 12 July 783. Charlemagne was remarried to Fastrada , daughter of

26128-475: The rule of kings Æthelbald , Offa and Coenwulf, the dominant kingdom in Anglo-Saxon England. Offa, the greatest of the three, ruled Mercia until 796, followed soon after by Coenwulf. Offa's dominance was secured in part by marriage alliances with the other major kingdoms: Beorhtric of Wessex and Æthelred of Northumbria were married to his daughters. Further afield, Charlemagne , the pre-eminent ruler in

26312-525: The rule of the Merovingian dynasty . Francia was often divided under different Merovingian kings, due to the partible inheritance practised by the Franks. The late seventh century saw a period of war and instability following the murder of King Childeric II , which led to factional struggles among the Frankish aristocrats. Pepin of Herstal , mayor of the palace of Austrasia , ended the strife between various kings and their mayors with his 687 victory at

26496-414: The same name. Eardwulf's father may have been one of the two Eardwulfs whose deaths are recorded by Symeon of Durham in 774 and 775. Eardwulf appears to have been an enemy of Æthelred I. He first appears in the historical record circa 790, when Symeon of Durham reports that: Eardulf was taken prisoner, and conveyed to Ripon , and there ordered by the aforesaid king [Æthelred] to be put to death without

26680-620: The same time, sending him and his brother to a monastery. Charlemagne began issuing charters in his own name in 760. The following year, he joined his father's campaign against Aquitaine . Aquitaine, led by Dukes Hunald and Waiofar , was constantly in rebellion during Pepin's reign. Pepin fell ill on campaign there and died on 24 September 768, and Charlemagne and Carloman succeeded their father. They had separate coronations, Charlemagne at Noyon and Carloman at Soissons , on 9 October. The brothers maintained separate palaces and spheres of influence, although they were considered joint rulers of

26864-404: The same time. Historians differ about the intentions of the imperial coronation, the extent to which Charlemagne was aware of it or participated in its planning, and the significance of the events for those present and for Charlemagne's reign. Contemporary Frankish and papal sources differ in their emphasis on, and representation of, events. Einhard writes that Charlemagne would not have entered

27048-434: The south". Frankish support for Northumbria thus appears to have been driven by a desire to counter Mercian influence in southern Britain, an area with long-standing ties to Francia. It has also been suggested that Charlemagne's interest in Northumbria was motivated by a desire for co-operation against Viking raiders, who had first appeared in Northumbria in the early 790s. Alternatively it may be that Charlemagne's conception of

27232-403: The sphere of his authority included Britain, which had once been part of the Roman Empire. Initially, both Charlemagne and Offa appear to have shared a common interest in supporting King Æthelred, Offa's son-in-law. Shortly before Æthelred was murdered in 796, an embassy from Francia delivered gifts for the king and his bishops. When Charlemagne learned of Æthelred's killing he was enraged, called

27416-588: The surviving brothers. Theuderic died in 534, but his adult son Theudebert I was capable of defending his inheritance, which formed the largest of the Frankish subkingdoms and the kernel of the later kingdom of Austrasia . Theudebert was the first Frankish king to formally sever his ties to the Roman Emperor in Constantinople by striking gold coins with his own image on them and calling himself magnus rex (great king) because of his supposed suzerainty over peoples as far away as Pannonia . Theudebert interfered in

27600-569: The sword and its duke, Lantfrid , was killed. In 734 Charles fought against Eastern Frisia and finally subdued it. In the 730s the Umayyad conquerors of Spain , who had also subjugated Septimania , began advancing northwards into central Francia and the Loire valley . It was at this time (circa 736) that Maurontus , the dux of Provence, called in the Umayyads to aid him in resisting the expanding influence of

27784-520: The throne was sanctioned beforehand by Pope Stephen II , but modern historians dispute this. It is possible that papal approval came only when Stephen travelled to Francia in 754 (apparently to request Pepin's aid against the Lombards), and on this trip anointed Pepin as king; this legitimised his rule. Charlemagne was sent to greet and escort the Pope, and he and his younger brother Carloman were anointed with their father. Pepin sidelined Drogo around

27968-402: The title as representing dominion over lands he already ruled. However, the title of emperor gave Charlemagne enhanced prestige and ideological authority. He immediately incorporated his new title into documents he issued, adopting the formula "Charles, most serene augustus , crowned by God, great peaceful emperor governing the Roman empire, and who is by the mercy of God king of the Franks and

28152-579: The ultimate authority and directly intervened. Charles, their elder brother, had been given lands in Neustria in 789 or 790 and made a king in 800. The 806 charter Divisio Regnorum ( Division of the Realm ) set the terms of Charlemagne's succession. Charles, as his eldest son in good favour, was given the largest share of the inheritance: rule of Francia, Saxony, Nordgau , and parts of Alemannia. The two younger sons were confirmed in their kingdoms and gained additional territories; most of Bavaria and Alemmannia

28336-403: The war helped secure Charlemagne's reputation among his brother's former supporters and funded further military action. The campaign was the beginning of over thirty years of nearly-continuous warfare against the Saxons by Charlemagne. Pope Adrian I succeeded Stephen III in 772, and sought the return of papal control of cities that had been captured by Desiderius. Unsuccessful in dealing with

28520-608: The way. Charlemagne left Bernard to maintain the siege at Pavia while he took a force to capture Verona, where Desiderius's son Adalgis had taken Carloman's sons. Charlemagne captured the city; no further record exists of his nephews or of Carloman's wife, and their fate is unknown. Recent biographer, Janet Nelson compares them to the Princes in the Tower in the Wars of the Roses . Fried suggests that

28704-472: The whole of [Italy]", considering this a motivation for the coronation. He notes the "element of political and military risk" inherent in the affair due to the opposition of the Byzantine Empire and potential opposition from the Frankish elite, as the imperial title could draw him further into Mediterranean politics. Collins sees several of Charlemagne's actions as attempts to ensure that his new title had

28888-473: The words dux and patricius to describe the leading noblemen of the kingdom. The word dux is usually translated by the Old English word ealdorman . The historian Alan Thacker estimates that there were about eight men holding the title of dux in late Northumbria. The title patricius is usually translated as patrician , which ultimately means noble, but in the latter days of the Roman Empire represented

29072-491: The written sources for later Northumbria are few and often written down centuries after the events they describe, archaeological evidence from coinage is independent of the surviving annals. Anglo-Saxon coins usually named the king on whose orders they were issued and sometimes named the mint where they were struck—Northumbrian coinage names York as the place of issue—and the moneyer who produced them. Their weight and silver content can be compared with other reigns, providing

29256-438: Was Sulayman al-Arabi , governor of Barcelona and Girona, who wanted to become part of the Frankish kingdom and receive Charlemagne's protection rather than remain under the rule of Córdoba. Charlemagne, seeing an opportunity to strengthen the security of the kingdom's southern frontier and extend his influence, agreed to intervene. Crossing the Pyrenees, his army found little resistance until an ambush by Basque forces in 778 at

29440-399: Was a kinsman of the late King Æthelred, whose father was Æthelwald Moll . The following year, Ealhmund , "the son of King Alhred, as some say", was killed by Eardwulf's men. Ealhmund was remembered at Derby , in the neighbouring kingdom of Mercia , as a saint. King Coenwulf of Mercia may have supported the unfortunate Ealhmund, and Symeon of Durham wrote that in 801: Eardwulf, king of

29624-628: Was a minor for almost the whole of his reign. He was dominated by his mother Nanthild and the mayor of the Neustrian palace, Erchinoald . Erchinoald's successor, Ebroin , dominated the kingdom for the next fifteen years of near-constant civil war. On his death (656), Sigbert's son was shipped off to Ireland, while Grimoald's son Childebert reigned in Austrasia. Ebroin eventually reunited the entire Frankish kingdom for Clovis's successor Chlothar III by killing Grimoald and removing Childebert in 661. However,

29808-627: Was a serious reversal for the ruling dynasty (640). The king lost the support of many magnates while on campaign and the weakness of the monarchic institutions by that time are evident in his inability to effectively make war without the support of the magnates; in fact, he could not even provide his own bodyguard without the loyal aid of Grimoald and Adalgisel . He is often regarded as the first roi fainéant : "do-nothing king", not insofar as he "did nothing", but insofar as he accomplished little. Clovis II , Dagobert's successor in Neustria and Burgundy, which were thereafter attached yet ruled separately,

29992-718: Was an effort to incorporate the Saxons into the Frankish realm, since they did not have a native tradition of kingship. However, Costambeys et al. note in The Carolingian World that "since Saxony had not been in the Roman empire it is hard to see on what basis an emperor would have been any more welcomed." These authors write that the decision to take the title of emperor was aimed at furthering Charlemagne's influence in Italy, as an appeal to traditional authority recognised by Italian elites within and (especially) outside his control. Collins also writes that becoming emperor gave Charlemagne "the right to try to impose his rule over

30176-496: Was assassinated (675). The reign of Theuderic III was to prove the end of the Merovingian dynasty's power. Theuderic III succeeded his brother Chlothar III in Neustria in 673, but Childeric II of Austrasia displaced him soon thereafter—until he died in 675, and Theuderic III retook his throne. When Dagobert II died in 679, Theuderic received Austrasia as well and became king of the whole Frankish realm. Thoroughly Neustrian in outlook, he allied with his mayor Berchar and made war on

30360-487: Was betrayed, and killed by Æthelred's command on 14 September 792. Æthelred himself was assassinated on 18 April 796, perhaps at Corbridge , by conspirators led by the dux Ealdred. Æthelred was followed as king by Osbald , whose antecedents are unknown; he was deposed after twenty-seven days and fled to the land of the Picts with a few supporters. Eardwulf became king on 14 May 796. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that he

30544-453: Was consecrated by Eanbald I , Archbishop of York , and Bishops Æthelberht , Beadwulf and Hygebald , at York Minster on 26 May 796. Eardwulf was evidently married before he became king, as Alcuin reproached him for abandoning his wife for a concubine soon after his coronation. This strained relations with the new archbishop, Eanbald II —Eanbald I had died in the year of Eardwulf's coronation. Alcuin, while condemning secular oppression of

30728-459: Was dedicated " Hardulfus rex "—King Eardwulf—and states that he was buried at Breedon. A panelled stone structure in the church, carved with processions of bearded and robed figures under arches, seems to reproduce details found in the Book of Cerne , a work associated with Bishop Æthelwold of Lichfield (818–830). The panels, which may originally have been the outer part of a sarcophagus built to hold

30912-410: Was defeated and driven into exile. In 801, Eardwulf led an army against Coenwulf of Mercia , perhaps because of Coenwulf's support for other claimants to the Northumbrian throne. Eardwulf was deposed in 806 and according to a Frankish record, returned to his kingdom in 808. No record has survived of his death or the end of his reign: dates from 811 to 830 have been suggested. He was possibly buried at

31096-540: Was defeated both times. All the surviving brothers benefited at the death of Charibert, but Chilperic was also able to extend his authority during the period of war by bringing the Bretons to heel again. After his death, Guntram had to again force the Bretons to submit. In 587, the Treaty of Andelot — the text of which explicitly refers to the entire Frankish realm as Francia — between Brunhilda and Guntram secured his protection of her young son Childebert II , who had succeeded

31280-458: Was deposed in 806, in unknown circumstances. Letters between Charlemagne and Pope Leo III suggest that Coenwulf had a hand in Eardwulf's removal. According to the thirteenth-century chronicler Roger of Wendover , Eardwulf was replaced by King Ælfwald II , about whom nothing else is known from the written sources, although coins issued in his reign have survived. As the case of Ælfwald shows, while

31464-481: Was deposed. Unlike kings with ties to Lindisfarne , who appear to have chosen exile among the Picts, Eardwulf was linked to Ripon and chose a southerly exile. The next reports of Eardwulf are in Frankish sources: Meanwhile the king of the Northumbrians from the island of Britain, Eardwulf by name, being expelled from his kingdom and native land, came to the emperor while he was still at Nijmegen , and after he had made known

31648-518: Was divided, in a replay of the events of fifty years prior, between his four sons, with the chief cities remaining the same. The eldest son, Charibert I , inherited the kingdom with its capital at Paris and ruled all of western Gaul. The second eldest, Guntram , inherited the old kingdom of the Burgundians, augmented by the lands of central France around the old capital of Orléans, which became his chief city, and most of Provence . The rest of Provence,

31832-475: Was duly acclaimed by the Austrasian warriors in the traditional fashion. Nonetheless, though Dagobert exercised true authority in his realm, Chlothar maintained ultimate control over the whole Frankish kingdom. During the joint reign of Chlothar and Dagobert, who have been called "the last ruling Merovingians", the Saxons, who had been loosely attached to Francia since the late 550s, rebelled under Berthoald, Duke of Saxony , and were defeated and reincorporated into

32016-400: Was ever after him to be a Neustrian monarchy first and foremost. Indeed, it is in the 640s that "Neustria" first appears in writing, its late appearance relative to "Austrasia" probably due to the fact that Neustrians (who formed the bulk of the authors of the time) called their region simply "Francia". Burgundia too defined itself in opposition to Neustria at about this time. However, it was

32200-416: Was given to Pepin, and Provence, Septimania, and parts of Burgundy were given to Louis. Charlemagne did not address the inheritance of the imperial title. The Divisio also provided that if any of the brothers predeceased Charlemagne, their sons would inherit their share; peace was urged among his descendants. Francia The Kingdom of the Franks ( Latin : Regnum Francorum ), also known as

32384-569: Was himself already the mayor of the palace of Austrasia, while Rado and Pepin were to find themselves rewarded with mayoral offices after Chlothar's coup succeeded and Brunhilda and the ten-year-old king were killed. Immediately after his victory, Chlothar II promulgated the Edict of Paris (614), which has generally been viewed as a concession to the nobility, though this view has come under recent criticism. The Edict primarily sought to guarantee justice and end corruption in government, but it also entrenched

32568-659: Was known to contemporaries as Karlus in the Old High German he spoke; as Karlo to Early Old French (or Proto-Romance ) speakers; and as Carolus (or Karolus ) in Medieval Latin , the formal language of writing and diplomacy. Charles is the modern English form of these names. The name Charlemagne , as the emperor is normally known in English, comes from the French Charles-le-magne ('Charles

32752-483: Was laid to rest at Aachen Cathedral in Aachen , his imperial capital city. He was succeeded by his only surviving legitimate son, Louis the Pious . After Louis, the Frankish kingdom was divided and eventually coalesced into West and East Francia , which later became France and Germany , respectively. Charlemagne's profound influence on the Middle Ages and influence on the territory he ruled has led him to be called

32936-470: Was named after his grandfather, Charles Martel . That name, and its derivatives, are unattested before their use by Charles Martel and Charlemagne. Karolus was adapted by Slavic languages as their word for "king" ( Russian : korol' , Polish : król and Slovak : král ) through Charlemagne's influence or that of his great-grandson, Charles the Fat . By the sixth century, the western Germanic tribe of

33120-465: Was preserved in its territoriality by the Franks and converted into one of their primary divisions, incorporating the central Gallic heartland of Chlodomer's realm with its capital at Orléans. The fraternal kings showed only intermittent signs of friendship and were often in rivalry. On the early death of Chlodomer, his brother Chlothar had his young sons murdered in order to take a share of his kingdom, which was, in accordance with custom, divided between

33304-458: Was rejected, and Charlemagne's army (commanded by himself and his uncle, Bernard ) crossed the Alps to besiege the Lombard capital of Pavia in late 773. Charlemagne's second son (also named Charles ) was born in 772, and Charlemagne brought the child and his wife to the camp at Pavia. Hildegard was pregnant, and gave birth to a daughter named Adelhaid. The baby was sent back to Francia, but died on

33488-518: Was ruled by Duke Tassilo , Charlemagne's first cousin, who had been installed by Pepin the Short in 748. Tassilo's sons were also grandsons of Desiderius, and a potential threat to Charlemagne's rule in Lombardy. The neighbouring rulers had a growing rivalry throughout their reigns, but had sworn oaths of peace to each other in 781. In 784, Rotpert (Charlemagne's viceroy in Italy) accused Tassilo of conspiring with Widukind in Saxony and unsuccessfully attacked

33672-508: Was sent to a monastery, and many of his co-conspirators were executed. The early 790s saw a marked focus on ecclesiastical affairs by Charlemagne. He summoned a council in Regensburg in 792 to address the theological controversy over the adoptionism doctrine in the Spanish church and formulate a response to the Second Council of Nicea. The council condemned adoptionism as heresy and led to

33856-550: Was with him. Einhard refers to Charlemagne's patrius sermo ("native tongue"). Most scholars have identified this as a form of Old High German , probably a Rhenish Franconian dialect . Due to the prevalence in Francia of " rustic Roman ", he was probably functionally bilingual in Germanic and Romance dialects at an early age. Charlemagne also spoke Latin and, according to Einhard, could understand and (perhaps) speak some Greek. Charlemagne's father Pepin had been educated at

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