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The expanded Frankish state he founded is called the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne is considered to be the greatest ruler of the Carolingian Dynasty because of the achievements he made during what seemed like the very middle of the Dark Ages. Charlemagne was the oldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon.
The immense territories which Charlemagne controlled became known as the Carolingian empire. Charlemagne introduced administrative reforms throughout the lands he controlled, establishing key representatives in each region and holding a general assembly each year at his court at Aachen.
In 771, Charlemagne became king of the Franks, a Germanic tribe in present-day Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and western Germany. A skilled military strategist, he spent much of his reign engaged in warfare in order to accomplish his goals. In 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor.
Concerned with defending southern Gaul from Muslim attacks and beguiled by promises of help from local Muslim leaders in northern Spain who sought to escape the authority of the Umayyad ruler of Cordoba, Charlemagne invaded Spain in 778.
The government, administration, and organization of the Carolingian Empire were forged in the court of Charlemagne in the decades around the year 800. In this year, Charlemagne was crowned emperor and adapted his existing royal administration to live up to the expectations of his new title.
Charlemagne was very interested in education. Though he himself was not literate, he took steps to make sure his people were educated. He built schools in his palaces to ensure the children of his government officials were being taught math, science, history, rhetoric, etc.
The Carolingian Renaissance occurred mostly during the reigns of Carolingian rulers Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. It was supported by the scholars of the Carolingian court, notably Alcuin of York.
The Carolingian Empire weakened after the death of Charlemagne. The empire was divided into three parts, ruled by Charlemagne's grandsons. The middle of the three kingdoms was weak and was absorbed by the eastern and western kingdoms. These two kingdoms would emerge as the modern countries of France and Germany.
The modern nations which were part of Charlemagne's empire were Belgium, West Germany, France, Luxembourg and Netherlands.
The Carolingian Empire is a historiographical term used to refer to the Frankish kingdom that dominated the Carolingian dynasty from the 8th century to the 9th century in Western Europe . This period of European history derives from the policy of the Frankish kings, Pippin the Brief and Charlemagne, which was an attempt to recover classical culture in the political, cultural and religious spheres of medieval times. The coronation of Charlemagne as emperor in Rome was an important and important fact as a symbol of the de facto restoration of the Western Roman Empire, which actually served to legitimize the power of the Germanic ethnic group that had invaded the territory that formerly belonged to the Romans. After its partition by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, it would be replaced a century later by the Kingdom of France in its western part, and by the Holy Germanic Roman Empire in the east.
The best-preserved surviving example of a Carolingian westwork is the Abbey Church at Corvey.
Irish monasteries were important centers of learning and the arts.
The remains of Charlemagne’s Empire gradually evolved into the Holy Roman Empire based in Vienna and ultimately the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whereas France evolved into a separate country. However the legacy of Charlemagne is vast.
In practice all of modern France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg are incorporated.
Pepin was declared king of the Franks (essentially an area West of the Rhine that occupied most of modern France) in 751 to recognise his de facto power. The Pope travelled to France to do this, and Pepin was probably the first king to be anointed directly by the Pope. Following his father’s death in 768, Charlemagne and his brother inherited his ...
Many kings and emperors used religion to give them legitimacy for their conquests. However Charlemagne also saw the need to improve the organisation and scholarship of the Church in his domains, and important scholars from Ireland and Britain where the Celtic Church had maintained a higher level of knowledge than in central Europe, were invited to his court. They helped design a unified script for writing and this brief period of culture when many books were written is often described as the Carolingian Renaissance. Effectively it lifted Western Europe from a somewhat barbaric culture to one where literature (at that time largely the domain of the Church) and learning were valued. This allowed Western Europe to rival Byzantium which for some centuries was the competing empire were most scholars resided.
An important result of his campaigns was the Christianisation of pagan lands . He was supported by the Pope this way in that missionaries and other priests forced conversion as a form of subservience to Charlemagne. Prior to Charlemagne’s reign, Western Christianity was under severe pressure, with many competing religions, by the end of his reign it had become the dominant religion in central Europe, which it would remain.
He was supported by the Pope this way in that missionaries and other priests forced conversion as a form of subservience to Charlemagne.
Probably the defining moment of Charlemagne’s reign was his coronation as Emperor by the Pope on Christmas day in 800 in Rome. There is controversy about whether he knew this would happen or not. However this demonstrated in practice that he had restored a major unified Western Christian empire to Europe. No longer was Byzantium (the centre of the rival Eastern Empire and church) the only source of Imperial power. Charlemagne was regarded as the successor of the Western Roman Emperors, competing for legitimacy with the East.
The modern nations which were part of Charlemagne's empire were Belgium, West Germany, France, Luxembourg and Netherlands.
The Carolingian Empire is a historiographical term used to refer to the Frankish kingdom that dominated the Carolingian dynasty from the 8th century to the 9th century in Western Europe . This period of European history derives from the policy of the Frankish kings, Pippin the Brief and Charlemagne, which was an attempt to recover classical culture in the political, cultural and religious spheres of medieval times. The coronation of Charlemagne as emperor in Rome was an important and important fact as a symbol of the de facto restoration of the Western Roman Empire, which actually served to legitimize the power of the Germanic ethnic group that had invaded the territory that formerly belonged to the Romans. After its partition by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, it would be replaced a century later by the Kingdom of France in its western part, and by the Holy Germanic Roman Empire in the east.