Charlemagne - Father of the Holy Roman Empire Documentary

set an agenda. The legislation that was produced was to be enforced by royal officials and bishops. The legislation looked to the past, as the religious revival movement suggested, to find standards that improved Christian life in the Scriptures and earlier church councils. Charlemagne's reforms focused on clarifying the hierarchy of the Church and its responsibilities, improving the moral and intellectual quality of the clergy, standardizing liturgical practices, increasing pastoral care aimed at improving morals, and eradicating paganism. Over time, the king's religious authority increased, including the right to discipline clerics, control church property, and define religious doctrine. Despite the increase in his own authority over spiritual matters, Charlemagne's religious reforms were well received by the Church, possibly because the king controlled the appointment of bishops, was a major benefactor of the Church, and was the guarantor of the Papal states.

But the focus on strengthening the Church hierarchy and Charlemagne's clear interest in improving morals would have made his reforms attractive to most of the clergy. In addition to religious reform, Charlemagne presided over a cultural revival that was later called the Carolingian Renaissance. This cultural development, which spread throughout Christian Europe, was driven by a circle of men educated at Charlemagne's court (mainly clerics from Italy, Spain, Ireland and England), the most influential of whom was the Anglo-Saxon clergyman Alcuin. In response to the lively interactions between this circle, a growing number of Frankish aristocrats, and the king himself, Charlemagne drew up a royal cultural policy aimed at improving Latin literacy, an important step toward improving the work of administrators. and shepherds.

This policy required an improvement in the Frankish educational system and an increase in book publishing, which further stimulated cultural development. A royal library was built to encourage Latin learning and religious scholarship. A new Carolingian writing system was created to simplify copying and reading. Members of the court produced teaching materials for the study of Latin, composed poetry, wrote stories, and produced theological treatises. Charlemagne's favorite royal residence, Aachen, became what Alcuin called a cultural “New Athens.” It was here that he began a major building programme, which included the impressive Palatine Chapel. Outside the court, bishops revitalized existing ecclesiastical schools, curricula and textbooks were developed, and the number of libraries that were key to protecting ancient texts increased.

The major achievements of the Carolingian Renaissance that Charlemagne fostered included improved proficiency in Latin, an increase in the use of written documents in civil and religious administration, an enriched liturgy, and advances in architecture and the visual arts. Of all the many achievements of the first thirty years of Charlemagne's rule, contemporaries and historians have remembered his coronation as Emperor of the Romans in the year 800 as the supreme and culminating event of his long reign. But Charlemagne's elevation to emperor had not been planned, it was not the goal of his years of campaigning or his fostering of a positive relationship with the papacy.

The coronation was the result of events in Rome and Italy. Pope Leo III was attacked on April 25, 799 and imprisoned in a monastery; partly because of his own unpleasant behavior, he was accused of fornication and perjury, and partly because of the envy of those who had lost privileges with the election of the new Pope. , particularly the two nephews of his predecessor. But Pope Leo escaped and fled with Charlemagne who, although probably aware of Pope Leo's guilt, was persuaded by his close advisor Alcuin that an appointed Pope cannot be tried in a secular court or by a secular leader.

Pope Leo was restored to Rome with the support of Charlemagne. Pope Leo then took a public oath of innocence on December 23, 800, and on Christmas Day crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Romans in ancient St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. The decision to crown Charlemagne emperor was based in part on the opinion of the king's political and religious advisors that a new community, an imperium Christianum, was forming under the king. They saw Charlemagne as the “new Constantine,” a defender of the faith and, as a king anointed by the Pope, the executor of God's will. The title formalized the role Charlemagne had already played as defender of Rome and strengthened the ties between Charlemagne and the Papacy.

The Pope's fragile position increased the impetus for bold action and the new title gave Charlemagne the legal authority to punish those who had conspired against the Pope. Charlemagne's years as emperor have been remembered in two opposite ways. Some historians have seen the period as one of crisis, as the elderly Charlemagne could no longer lead military conquests, so he reduced the loot he could use to reward his followers, and new external enemies also appeared: the Vikings and the Saracens. . There were also problems with the increasing responsibilities of the government and the limited resources allocated. Meanwhile, both secular and ecclesiastical elites were discovering the political, social, and economic power that could be gained from royal land grants, privileges, and immunities.

But other historians have shown that Charlemagne's final years were ones of vitality, as the royal administration strengthened, diplomacy remained active, and religious reform and cultural renewal continued. It is debated how important the title of Emperor was to Charlemagne. He often used his title "King of the Franks and Lombards" along with the more recent "Emperor ruling the Roman Empire." He never adopted the protocols associated with imperial rule and planned to divide his kingdom among his three sons in the traditional Frankish manner, without considering the imperial lands as indivisible. However, Charlemagne devoted military and diplomatic work to obtain recognition of his title by the eastern emperor.

He also attempted to unify the various legal systems within his

empire

and updated the terminology and symbols used by his court. The design of his palace in Aachen was even updated to include imperial motifs. Most importantly, in 813 Charlemagne granted the imperial crown to his only surviving son, Louis the Pious. This coronation suggests that Charlemagne believed the office was valuable and wished to exclude the papacy from the coronation, most likely because he viewed the imperial title as a personal reward for his services to Christendom with which he and his heirs could do as they pleased. . But the title proved to be more of a hindrance than a help to Charlemagne and his successors.

Charlemagne had several wives throughout his life and had many children, including three legitimate sons who survived infancy: Charles the Younger, Pepin, and Louis the Pious. In 806, Charlemagne divided his kingdom among his sons, preparing Charles the Younger for the role of emperor and king of the central lands of Neustria and Austrasia. Pepin was given Lombardy and Louis Aquitaine and the nearby regions of Septimania, Provence and parts of Burgundy. Only Louis lived long enough to inherit the Kingdom and the title of Emperor from his

father

(and was crowned co-emperor with Charlemagne in 813). In January 814, the 72-year-old Charlemagne developed a fever after bathing in the warm thermal waters of Aachen;

He died a week later, on 28 January 814, possibly of lung disease and was buried in the cathedral of Aachen, in his imperial capital. Louis inherited the entire Frankish kingdom and all its possessions, but Pepin's son Bernard retained Italy, the subkingdom that had been ruled by his

father

. Following the death of Louis the Pious in 840, the surviving adult Carolingians fought a bitter civil war that ended with the Treaty of Verdun and the division of the

empire

into three regions, with imperial status and overall kingship granted to Lothair I. Control Carolingian rule over these three regions did not last long and by 888 the majority had been displaced.

In Eastern France, the Carolingian dynasty continued until 911 and in Western France until 987. But the rise of electoral monarchy triumphed over the Carolingians' assertion of their hereditary, God-given right to rule and their strong alliance with the Church. Charlemagne's legacy endured beyond the Carolingian dynasty. Not only was he a direct ancestor of many of the royal houses of Europe, such as the French Capetian dynasty, the Ottoman dynasty, the House of Luxembourg, and the House of Ivrea in Burgundy, but his reign changed the face of Europe. He united western and central Europe for the first time since the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and even united regions that had not been under Roman or Frankish rule.

He provided the ideological basis for a politically unified Europe, an idea that has inspired Europeans with sometimes dire consequences over the centuries, and which is still very much alive in Europe today. He is remembered as Europae pater, the "father of Europe." As a ruler, Charlemagne inspired many great leaders who followed him, becoming a standard of leadership. The way he exercised secular authority to direct religious life became a model for all-powerful kings of the future who presented themselves as divinely ordained and controlled the religious lives of their subjects, even directing the Church inside and sometimes outside. of its borders. .

The influence of Charlemagne's particular reign is highlighted by the development of language: just as the name Caesar inspired the German and Russian words for "king," kaiser, and tsar, so did Charlemagne's name. In Polish, the Charlemagne-derived word for "king" is król, in Ukrainian it is "korol", in Czech and Slovak kráľ, in Hungarian király, in Lithuanian karalius, in Latvian karalis, and in Turkish kral. Charlemagne's work to promote cultural renaissance and religious reform paved the way for both a unified Church throughout Europe and future cultural renaissances. The Carolingian Renaissance provided the essential tools—schools, carefully honed curricula, textbooks, libraries, and teaching techniques—that fueled later cultural renaissances.

The cultural and intellectual activity he fostered at his court and in the Western Church revitalized Western European art, architecture, history, scholarship, the use of Latin, and religious practice. Despite having received only a basic level of education, Charlemagne's appreciation for scholarship, his curiosity, and his willingness to learn from others led him to promote a climate at his court open to cultural and academic development. Charlemagne's religious conviction and his desire to improve both the structure and practices of the Church prompted his religious reforms. He successfully consolidated the Church hierarchy and standardized liturgical practices, and both advances were implemented throughout Europe.

Charlemagne's services to the Roman Catholic Church, both as a religious reformer and protector of the papacy, resulted in his canonization by antipope Paschal III, although this canonization was later deemed invalid and he is still regarded by some of the Catholic Church as beatified, a step on the path to holiness. However, not everything Charlemagne did received praise. Some historians have pointed to the vulnerability of the Frankish kingdom to future Viking raids as a failure in Charlemagne's final years as king. His political apparatus proved fragile after his death, especially with the resumption of the old Frankish tradition of subdividing inheritance.

The conflict between Charlemagne's grandsons over control of Frankish territory resulted in a bloody conflict and ultimately the east-west division that would become the basis of the current border between France and Germany. Charles the Bald became the first king of an independent France, Louis the German the first king of Germany, and Lothair I retained the title of Emperor and the borderlands between the two territories from the Netherlands to Rome, a region that most It was later included in France in 890. The division of the Frankish Empire ensured that no Frankish king would become as powerful as Charlemagne. Charlemagne was undoubtedly an enormous figure.

A warrior king who conquered much of western and central Europe, but who also had the support of the papacy. He had a restless energy and an impressive ability not only to conquer but also to unify his territories. In French history, the Merovingian Clovis I is remembered as the first king of the Franks, the leader who unified the Frankish people into one religion, but it was Charlemagne who unified Europe. What do you think of Charlemagne? Was he worthy of the epithet “the Great” or was he a brutal conqueror who simply happened to be in the right place at the right time to obtain papal blessing and achieve the status of greatness?

Let us know in the comments section and in the meantime, thank you so much for watching.