CHARITÉ-SUR-LOIRE
. The priory of Notre-Dame at Charité-sur-Loire (Nièvre) was among the largest Cluniac
foundations. Its first church, built in the second half of the 11th century, was modeled on
Cluny II and featured an apse echelon of three apses to either side of a larger central apse.
Soon after the dedication in 1107, remodeling influenced by Cluny III enlarged the
church. The double-aisled nave was lengthened to eleven bays, and the choir was
extended by an ambulatory with five radiating chapels. An imposing narthex was begun,
but only one tower was constructed in the second half of the 12th century. Although parts
of the church were destroyed, the tower and apse show rich architectural detailing with
cusped arches reflecting Moorish influence.
Karen Gould
Vallery-Radot, Jean. “L’ancienne prieuriale Notre-Dame à La Charité-sur-Loire: l’architecture.”
Congrès archéologique (Nivernais) 125 (1967):43–85.
CHARLEMAGNE
(742–814). The Frankish king and later emperor who gave his name to the Carolingian
empire was born to Pepin III the Short and Bertrada in 742. In accordance with Frankish
custom, on Pepin’s death in 768 his realm was divided between his legitimate male
offspring, Charles and his younger brother, Carloman. Carloman received the central
provinces of the kingdom; Charles’s territories, including Thuringia, Frisia, parts of
Alemannia, Austrasia, and Neustria, encircled those of his brother. The brothers did not
get along, but Carloman died in 771 and Charles took over his lands, setting aside his
brother’s two sons. From then until his own death in 814, Charles was the sole ruler of
the Franks. At its peak, the realm, which with his imperial coronation in 800 came to be
regarded as the Christian-Roman empire in the West, comprised portions of modern East
Europe and most of the western area of the Continent. Charles’s achievements as king
and emperor—his extension of the lands under his rule, his efforts to protect and reform
the church, and his fostering of a cultural and intellectual revival—inspired western
monarchs throughout the rest of the Middle Ages. They justly earned him the name of
Charlemagne (Lat. Carolus Magnus), or Charles the Great.
For thirty years after Carloman’s death, Charlemagne expanded the frontiers of his
realm and strengthened his hold on the conquered regions. In 774, he conquered
Lombardy and took the title king of the Lombards. He subdued Bavaria, though not
decisively, in 787; during the 790s, efforts to protect the Carolingians against Muslim
incursions led to the annexation of the territory along the Pyrénées that became the
Spanish March. Further cam-paigns in the 790s crushed the Avars, while from 772 to 804
Charlemagne strove to conquer the Saxons on the eastern boundaries of his realm. The
long-term struggle against the Saxons provoked the Carolingians to try a variety of
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