Charlemagne

Both the French and the Germans claim Charlemagne as their national hero and the founder of their national institutions. But Charles, of course, built on the work of his predecessors. It has, therefore, been found essential to give some consideration, however brief, to the preceding centuries, going as far back as the fifth century, when the Franks, under Clovis, the first Merovingian monarch, were consolidating their power in Roman Gaul with the conquest of the last Roman territory in that province.

But when all possible consideration has been given to the notion of the continuity and integration of ancient civilization, and to the concept that this civilization provided the building blocks for the social and political structure that we call medieval, it must be admitted that after all Frankish civilization as it emerged in the time of Charlemagne was a new one-if only because its geographical boundaries and its racial components were different.

Charlemagne was fortunate enough to have an uncle who preferred the sanctity of a cloister to the cares of a ruler in a violent age, and his own brother died prematurely. Like his father King Pepin, Charles was enabled to inherit after a brief interval an undivided realm instead of the divided estate to which all. but a few Germanic rulers were condemned in the early Middle Ages. Charles was much more fortunate than his grandfather Charles Martel (the Hammer), who was an illegitimate son and not intended by his own father, Pepin of Heristal, to inherit the mayoralty which he himself had held so long and so successfully. He was equally successful. Later in the century Charlemagne was able to conquer part of Spain itself and establish the Spanish March.

It was not until Charlemagne confirmed the Donation of Pepin in a solemn document, after he had extinguished the Lombard kingdom, that all the territories promised to the pontiff at last passed under his control, together with others that had not formed part of the Donation of Pepin. Seven years later Pope Hadrian was complaining to Charlemagne that he could not obtain secure possession of the Sabina, in the southeast corner of the duchy of Rome, because of "the machinations of wicked men."

The division of Pepin was actually one that might well have caused friction between the brothers, since Carloman, the younger brother, received the larger portion of the old Merovingian lands, including the most settled territories of the kingdom. Charlemagne had only the outer provinces along the Atlantic coast from the south of Gaul to the estuary of the Rhine, including the frontier territory of Thuringia. Aquitaine was divided between the brothers.

Charlemagne, of course, was a semibarbarian ruler, coming from a region (Austrasia) which had been only lately Christianized and little influenced by Roman civilization. In inner Germany he ruled over completely barbarian peoples. He was able, according to Einhard, to converse in Latin and he understood Greek; but his native language was German. He could not read or write. When he tried to learn he was too far advanced in years to achieve his goal.

But it may be doubted whether it was his own personal abilities and achievements that influenced posterity to grant to him alone the privilege of having the word "great" incorporated in his name ( Carolus Magnus-Charlemagne). It is true that he towered above the Western world in his day; but it may also be stressed that his contemporary, the caliph Harun al-Rashid of Bagdad, did not consider an embassy from Charlemagne, which figures so prominently in Frankish annals, worth mentioning in his own records.

For twenty-three years of his reign Charlemagne warred against the Saxons. Time after time he would defeat the Saxon armies and compel their leaders to accept his authority and give hostages. They would even accept under duress the activity of Frankish missionaries in their midst.