Charles I 'the Great' CHARLEMAGNE, King of the Franks

Male 742 - 814  (72 years)


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  • Name Charles I 'the Great' CHARLEMAGNE  [1
    Suffix King of the Franks 
    Born 2 Apr 742  Aachen, Rhineland, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 28 Jun 814  Aachen, Rhineland, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I5904  adkinshorton
    Last Modified 2 Jan 2013 

    Father Pepin III "the Short", King of France,   b. 714, Jupille-sur-Meuse, Austrasia Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 24 Sep 768  (Age 54 years) 
    Mother Bartrada DE LEON,   b. 720, Laon (Aisne), France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 12 Jul 783  (Age 63 years) 
    Married Abt 740 
    Family ID F25269  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Princess Hildegarde OF SAVOY,   b. 758, Aachen, Rhineland, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 30 Apr 783  (Age 25 years) 
    Married 771  Aachen, Rhineland, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Charles II OF FRANCE, King of Aquitaine,   b. Abt 772, Aachen, Rhineland, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 811  (Age ~ 39 years)
    +2. Pippin IV of Lombardy KING OF ITALY,   b. Apr 773,   d. 8 Jul 810  (Age ~ 37 years)
     3. Adelaide DE FRANCE,   b. Jun 774, Pavia, Lombardia, Italy Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Aug 775, Italy Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 1 years)
     4. Hrotrud DE FRANCE,   b. 775, Aachen, Rhineland, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 8 Jun 810  (Age 35 years)
     5. Lothair DE FRANCE,   b. Abt 777, Casseneuil, Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine, France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 6 Aug 780  (Age ~ 3 years)
    +6. Emperor Louis I "the Pious" OF FRANCE,   b. 16 Apr 777, Casseuil-sur-Garonne (GironDE), France Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 20 Jun 840, Near Ingleheim, Rhein-Hesse, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 63 years)
     7. Hildegarde DE FRANCE,   b. 8 Jun 778, Aachen, Rhineland, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 8 Jun 783  (Age 5 years)
    +8. Bertha DE FRANCE,   b. Abt 779, Aachen, Rhineland, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 829  (Age ~ 50 years)
     9. Gisela DE FRANCE,   b. May 781, Milano, Lombardia, Italy Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 800  (Age ~ 18 years)
    Family ID F25190  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 2 Regina 
    Children 
    +1. Abbot Hugues OF ST. QUENTIN,   b. 794,   d. 7 Jun
     2. Drogo OF METZ,   b. 855,   d. Yes, date unknown
    Family ID F25324  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • Charlemagne, in Latin is Carlous Magnus (Charles the Great), King of the Franks (768-814), and Emperor of the Romans (800-814), who led his Frankish armies to victory over numerous other people and established his rule in most of western and central Europe. He was the best-known and most influential king in Europe in the Middle Ages.

      Charlemagne, Charles the Great. With the consent of the great nobles, Charlemagne, Charles the Great, became King of France and Holy Roman Emperor of the West from 771 to 814, following the death of his brother. He was born April 2, 742, probably at Aix-La-Chapelle. When only twelve years old we find him commissioned to receive and welcome the pontiff who came to implore his father's aid against the barbarians that threatened Rome. He probably accompanied his father in his campaigns at an early age, but the first time that we really see him in the field, is on the renewal of the war with the rebellious Duke of Aquitaine.

      Upon the death of Pepin, in 768, Charlemagne and his younger brother Carloman succeeded to equal portions of one of the most powerful of European kingdoms, bounded by the Pyrenees, the Alps, Mediterranean, and the ocean. But this would hardly enabled the monarchs, even had they been united, to resist successfully the incursions of the barbarous tribes on the German frontiers of France, which had commenced with the first establishment of the Frankish dominion in Gaul; and which were kept alive by the constant pouring forth of fresh hordes from the overpopulated north. The situation of Charlemagne was rendered yet more perilous by the massive enmity of his brother, and the rebellion of Hunald, the turbulent Duke of Aquitaine. But fortunately Charlemagne had a genius equal to the difficulties of his situation; though his brother refused to aid him, he defeated Huald; and no less illustrious by his clemency than by his valor and military skill, he forgave the vanquished rebel.

      Desiderius, the King of Lombardy, had made large encroachments upon the states of the Roman Pontiff, whose cause was taken up by Charlemagne. This led to feuds, which Bertha, his mother, endeavored to appease by arranging a marriage between her son and the daughter of the Lombard. But Charlemagne soon took a disgust to the wife thus imposed upon him, and repudiated her, that he might marry Hildegarde, the daughter of a noble family in Swabia. Thus he married Hildegarde of Swabia (Linzgau), Countess, born in 757/758, died April 30, 782/3.

      In 771 Carloman died, and Charlemagne was elected to the vacant throne, to the exclusion of his nephews, whose extreme youth made then incapable of wearing the crown in such troubled times. Gilberge, the widow of Carloman, immediately fled, and sought refuse with Desiderius, the common retreat for all who were hostile to the Frankish monarch.

      From that time, sole ruler during a reign of forty-three years, he waged incessant wars on all his borders, subduing rebellions, extending his domains and at the same time advancing Christianity. In 772 he began a thirty-year war with the determined Saxons, after the successful opening of Charlemagne was called to the assistance of Pope Hadrian I. against Desiderius, King of the Lombards. Charlemagne marched two armies over the Alps and conquered Lombardy in 774; returned and beat the Saxons again and hastened into Spain, in 778, to help the Arabian rulers of that country against the Osman Caliph of Cordova. It was in this war that Roland, the hero of romance, fell in the pass of Roncesvalles.

      In 799 the Romans revolted against Pope Leo III., and were again brought into subjection by Charlemagne. In return, while he was praying on the steps of St. Peter's Church, he was crowned by Leo with the iron crown of the Western Empire, successor of the Roman Caesars, unexpectedly to him, as he pretended, on Christmas Day, 800, amidst the popular acclamations, "Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific Emperor of the Romans!"

      The extensive domain of Charlemagne was rendered secure only by ceaseless vigilance and warfare. The short intervals of peace which ere allowed him, he employed in endeavoring to educate and civilize his people. He made a tour through his dominions, causing local and general improvement, reforming laws, advancing knowledge, and building churches and monasteries. Christianity being one of the chief means to which he trusted for the attainment of his grand objects. In this he was no less successful than he had before been in war. With exception of the Eastern empire, France was now the most cultivated nation in Europe, even Rome herself sending thither for skillful workmen, while commerce, roads, and mechanics must have been much advanced, as we may infer from the facility with which marble columns and immense stone crosses were often carried through the whole extent of France upon carriages of native construction. Luxury, too, with its attendant arts had made considerable strides. Vases of gold and silver richly carved, silver tables highly wrought, bracelets, rings, and table cloths of fine linen, might be seen in the houses of the nobles. The people must have been dexterous in working iron, for their superiority in this respect is shown by the severe laws forbidding the exportation of arms.

      Charlemagne drove back the Arabs, reduced the Huns, and effectually protected his long line of coast from the attempted invasion of the Northmen. It is said, that upon one occasion he arrived at a certain port just as the pirates were preparing to land; but the moment they learned of the presence of the monarch, they immediately fled in great terror at the mere mention of his name.

      It was always an object of first importance with Charlemagne to support the papal authority, as holding out the only means of spreading Christianity, which he justly considered the most effectual instrument he could employ to enlighten and civilize the world.

      Charlemagne securely laid the foundations of his empire. He was vigilant, judicious, and energetic, both as a ruler and commander. He fostered agriculture, trade, arts, and letters with untiring zeal, clearing forests, draining swamps, founding monasteries and schools, building cities, constructing splendid palaces, as at Aix, Worms, and Ingelheim, and drawing to his court scholars and poets from all nations, being himself proficient in science, as well as all hardy accomplishments.

      Charlemagne was tall and a commanding presence, and could speak and write Latin as well as his native German. He fostered all learning and the fine arts, studying rhetoric and astronomy. He reigned over France, half of Germany, and four-fifths of Italy. The Caliph Haroun-al-Rashid sent an embassy to the court of Charlemagne with gifts in token of good will. Attacked with pleurisy he died after a short illness, in the seventy-second year of age, and the forty-seventh of his reign, on January 28, 814. Some years later Charlemagne was canonized by the church.

  • Sources 
    1. [S18796] The Paternal Ancestry of Homer Beers James, Vol. I.


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