Charlemagne also known as Charles the Great, created a legacy that is greatly honored still to this day. He is seen as one of the greatest conquerors ever because of territories he conquered, the diversity he created, and the building of one of the greatest empires known to mankind. Since the fall of Rome, most of the continent of Europe has not been ruled by someone, until Charlemagne came along. Charlemagne was the founder of the Holy Roman Empire and was the one person to practically lead Europe out of the Dark Ages.
Charlemagne was born between 742 and 748, and died on January 28th 814 at age 71. His father was Pepin the Short who had become King of the Franks in 751. After the death of his father, Charlemagne became King of the Franks himself, with his brother Carloman, splitting the empire in half. The brothers were not fond of having to split the empire in half for three years. The way they would communicate would be through their mother. Carloman mysteriously died one day, and to this day in history, no one knows for sure whether or not Charlemagne was involved with it. Once his brother died, Charlemagne would take over the whole empire in 771 at age 24. He was now the emperor of the largest single kingdom in Europe.
He had a vision of what it meant to be a great king. He followed the history of the kings after Alexander the Great. He believed he had to increase the social, political and intellectual organization of his society. This distinguished himself from any other ruler from the past three hundred years. Charlemagne wanted to recreate what the Roman Empire once was capable of, but even better. As he traveled, he made sure he created a great educational system. He built a chain of schools and provided classes for chil...
... middle of paper ...
...t then and there. But there is no way anyone can say he wasn’t a conquering genius. For a king to put in the effort to create such an empire better than what the Roman Empire once was, created his legacy that is still honored to this day.
I absolutely believe Charlemagne was one of the greatest emperors of all time. No one is perfect, but he really created an empire at least as great as what the Roman Empire once was. I was not fond of killing people if they didn’t follow a religion, but in reality, they had no choice. I believe they were lucky to at least get that much of a chance to live since after all, they were the ones who got conquered by him. I did like how he set the law down and basically showed other territories who is boss and not to mess with. I learned a lot researching about Charlemagne and enjoyed reading about his distinguishing and diverse empire.
Charlemagne is described by Janet Nelson as being a role model for Einhard. Einhard himself writes in the first paragraph of The Life of Charlemagne, “After I decided to write about the life, character and no small part of the accomplishments of my lord and foster father, Charles, that most excellent and deservedly famous king, I determined to do so with as much brevity as I could.” I feel that these are sincere words about the man who cared for Einhard. I feel that Einhard’s purpose for writing The Life of Charlemagne is to praise the works of his “foster-father” and create a historical document that would describe the great deeds of Charlemagne so that he would not be forgotten throughout time as a great leader and man.
“…and [I] shall first give an account of his deeds at home and abroad, then of his character and pursuits, and lastly of his administration and death, omitting nothing worth knowing or necessary to know.”
Overall, I think there is some really great information out there about the lives of Charlemagne, no matter which version of himself you're looking into. What we really need to remember is that we currently have no way of knowing anything more about him than what has already been written down and, for the most part, based off a very personal opinion of Charlemagne. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, although it can make learning about Charlemagne a little tough; we just have to realize that there are some really great resources out there to inform us about his life, as long as you are taking the uncertainty and personal bias into account while doing the research, I think the information can be utilized extremely well.
The two lives of Charlemagne as told by Einhard and Notker are two medieval sources about the accounts of the life Charlemagne. Modern sources by Matthew Innes and Rosamond Mckitterick discuss how history was recorded during the medieval period and how it was suppose to be viewed in the early ages. Observing each of these sources helps get an understanding of how the writing of history is important in recorded history and how it affected how the history of Charlemagne was recorded.
...become great and victorious. There is the concept of how everything that Charlemagne did was for his enemies to be converted to Christianity and nothing else. Through the different interpretations, the argument for religious motives was the strongest. Charlemagne used military tactics in a misguided attempt to further the kingdom of God.
All throughout history, people have been fighting, there have been wars and conflicts ever since man has become ‘civilized’ enough to raise an army. And, many, many if not almost all of these conflicts have involved religion in some way or another (Ben-Meir). The question is why, and how, do people use God as justification for fighting and killing one another. Isn’t killing supposed to be wrong in God’s eyes? Whatever happened to ‘Thou shalt not Kill’? And how is it that hundreds of thousands of people have died by the hands of those who call themselves Christians?
Charlemagne accomplishes many deeds. One includes Charlemagne capturing the Breton’s. He conquers their land in the westernmost part of Gaul since they did not listen to him (25). Charlemagne, in his lifetime, will go through many wars. Many among those are listed in Notker. Notker his second book on Charlemagne goes into more detail about how the wars were brought about. Wars His rule is not limited to wars. Charlemagne sought out to initiate a sort of Renaissance period
Caesar proved he was the most successful. This was due to careful planning and implementation. It seemed everything he put his mind to accomplish he did so with ease. This was truly a great leader and certainly changed lives both for the better and worst, depending on which side, you were either winners or losers. Of course, all the bribing he did along the way definitely greased the skids. This made him some real serious enemies along the way. Caesar always had an eye out for promising recruits and never failed to single those men out and reward them. This earned him many friends along the path to the temporary dictator. There should be no doubt on Caesar’s importance in the history of the empire as he was that guy who never wanted to rest on his achievements, but someone who always had a plan on just how to get things done. He was never defeated as a general. Caesar rarely failed at any task he chose to undertake. He just somehow knew how to get things done and he never really stopped thinking about how to improve the city and it roads. Caesar was the best as dictators go but were never afraid to be brutal and ruthless if the times called for it. He was never one to show mercy unless it was unavoidable. Love him or hate him, he was one of the best leaders of all time. Politicians today can still learn a thing or two from Caesar. Bribery is definitely frowned upon, but it is still happening all over the world. The more things change, they seem to stay the same and it is because it
Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne details some important events of Charlemagne’s life as well as aspects of his character. Charlemagne was one of the most powerful and influential Frankish kings of the Early Middle ages. This was the time between the fall of the Roman Empire and the start of the Renaissance. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the west, there were few structured civilization. People gravitated away from big cities and began living in small local villages.
Charles the Great was known by Charlemagne. According to the video, “Charlemagne lived during the late eighth and ninth centuries.” He was first the King of the Franks, then king of the Lombards, and he was finally crowned Emperor of Rome by Pope Leo III in 800 A.D. Charlemagne is legend, and was very powerful at uniting most of Western Europe and realigning the course of Europe through many methods such as shifting politics from east to west, spreading education, and supporting Christianity. Charlemagne was immensely important and most of European history would be very different without him.
The collection Two Lives of Charlemagne contains two different biographies of Charlemagne who was a king of the Franks and a christian emperor of the West in the 8th century. The first biographical account was written by his courtier Einhard who knew him personally and well. On the other hand, the second account was penned by Notker the Stammerer was born twenty-five years after the king’s death. Even though these two versions indicate the same king’s life, there were many differences between the two. Einhard’s writing focused on the emperor’s official life and his military campaign. However, Notker provided more of a perspective about the king’s legacy and seemed more hyperbolic as well as mythical. This paper will compare and contrast the
Charlemagne AKA “Karl” or “Charles the Great” was an emperor during medieval times who ruled over almost all of western Europe from the age 768 to 814. He was born to Pepin the short and Bertrada (his father and mother in that order). However, his parents were not legally married at the time of his birth, and he was thought to be their illegitimate child, though his parents were married when Charlemagne’s brother Carloman I was Born. In 741 his father had become mayor of the palace and kicked out the last Merovingian and was officially declared king of the franks (the franks were a powerful Germanic tribe that lived in the area of present day France). Little is known about Charlemagne childhood, however we do know that in age 754 he participated
Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, as he was also know, was the fifth ruler of The Carolingian dynasty and often considered the most impactful member of the Frankish royal family. Charlemagne was the only ruler of the Frankish empire from 768 to 814. During his 46 year reign, Charlemagne accumulated a vast number of accomplishments ranging from his wildly successful military campaigns to his advancement of education to his role in spreading and popularizing Christianity.
The Relationship of Political and Religious Societies in the Age of Charlemagne, Based of Einhard's The life of Charlemagne sections 15-33
Julius Caesar, The man famous for the quote, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Well known for being a renowned Roman general as well as a statesman, Julius Caesar went on to be a dictator of the Roman Empire. This one man impacted the course of history of the Roman Empire through alliances, gaining widespread support, and changing policies in the government. Although to comprehend how he impacted the Roman Empire, one must first look upon his rise to power.