Charlemagne

Rise of Charlemagne

• Also known as Charles the Great• Lived to be 72, twice the average

life span at the time• King of the Franks from 768-814• Covered modern day France,

Germany and parts of Spain and Italy

A Christian King

• Conquered land, tried to convert people to Christianity

• Formed an alliance with Pope Leo III

• Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor

Why Was the Crowning of Charlemagne Important?

• Gave the Romans their first emperor since 476

• Gave Charlemagne the blessing of the Pope

• Established the principle that the Pope had the power to crown an emperor

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Schools and Learning

• Charlemagne brought in Alcuin in 782 to set-up a school

• Created “Charter of Modern Thought”• This was given to church officials and

demanded better grammar in documents

• Priests were told to set-up free schools

• Books were produced by Monks and they would handwrite copies of the Bible

• Charlemagne led a revival in Greek and Roman texts

• All this despite the fact that Charlemagne could not write

Decline of Charlemagne’s Empire

• Charlemagne passed away in 814• In 843, his 3 grandsons signed the

Treaty of Verdun• This made the empire weak and

vulnerable to attack

• Muslims attack in late 800’s and occupy northern Italy

• Magyars invade in 896 and take parts of France

• Vikings attacked northern Europe in the 900’s