Charlemagne
Poor(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2002); David
Flood, ed., Poverty in the Middle Ages(Westphalia, Ger-
many: D. Coelde, 1975); Lester K. Little, Religious Poverty
and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe(Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press, 1978); Michel Mollat, The Poor
in the Middle Ages: An Essay in Social History,trans. A.
Goldhammer (New Haven, Conn.; Yale University Press,
1986); Brian S. Pullan, Poverty and Charity: Europe, Italy,
Venice, 1400–1700(Aldershot, England: Variorum, 1994);
Miri Rubin, Charity and Community in Medieval Cam-
bridge(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987);
Brian Tierney, Medieval Poor Law: A Sketch of Canonical
Theory and Its Application in England(Los Angeles: Uni-
versity of California Press, 1959).
Charlemagne (Charles the Great)(742–814) king of
the Franks, emperor of the West
Charles was born between 742 and 747 into a powerful
family of the Frankish aristocracy, who ruled part of the
kingdom of the FRANKSfrom 751. His father, PÉPINIII
THE SHORT(d. 768), linked by his wife, Bertrade, to
the MEROVINGIANaristocracy, took care to have his sons,
Carloman (d.771) and Charles (Charlemagne), conse-
crated as legitimate rulers by the pope in 754 at the same
time he was. On Pépin’s death in 768, Charles and
his brother each inherited part of the kingdom, but at
Carloman’s death in 771 Charles became the sole ruler.
Charlemagne, now king of the Franks, undertook
military operations on the borders of the kingdom. He
eventually exercised control over the SAXONS, the LOM-
BARDS, parts of SPAIN,BAVARIA, and the AVARSby 796.
This vast territorial state underwent an administrative
reorganization as the aristocracy became linked to the
monarch by a network of VASSALAGE, BENEFICES, and
fiscal rights, in exchange for services, primarily military.
All free men came to be tied to the Crown by OATHSof
loyalty and were under the justice of the king or his rep-
resentatives. Marches or military regions able to repulse
outside invasions were established in border regions.
The drive toward restoration of the Roman Empire
and of its legitimacy and power was carried out from the
end of the eighth century. The construction of the palace of
AACHENaround 790 and the activity of scholars such as
ALCUINand PAUL THEDEACONpromoted this idea. The
weakening of the authority of the Eastern emperor and the
appeal of Pope LEOIII, threatened by the Roman aristoc-
racy, made Charlemagne a supreme arbiter of power in the
West, a position symbolized by his coronation as emperor
at Rome in December of 800. Charlemagne thereafter pre-
sented himself as a new Augustus and a new David thus
uniting the secular and the ecclesiastical spheres.
At the risk of conflict with the BYZANTINEEMPIRE, he
legislated in all his domains, intervened in the definition
of dogma, and had the main legal texts of peoples of the
empire set down in writing, all exclusively imperial pre-
rogatives. He maintained diplomatic relations with rulers
in the British Isles, the Asturian princes in Iberia, patri-
arch of CONSTANTINOPLE, and the caliph of BAGHDAD.
After his death on January 28, 814, his son, LOUISI THE
PIOUS, initially peacefully succeeded him.
Throughout the Middle Ages, Charlemagne was
regarded as the personification of the good Christian
prince, a unifier for Christendom, and a symbol of a uni-
versal and imperial idea. He was canonized by the effort
of the emperor FREDERICKI BARBAROSSAin 1165.
See also CAROLINGIAN FAMILY AND DYNASTY;
CAROLINGIANRENAISSANCE;HOLYROMANEMPIRE; MISSI
DOMINICI.
Further reading: Donald Bullough, The Age of
Charlemagne (London: Elek Books, 1965); Allen
Cabaniss, Charlemagne(New York: Twayne Publishers,
1972); Roger Collins, Charlemagne(Toronto: University
of Toronto Press, 1998); Steward C. Easton and Helene
Wieruszowski, eds., The Era of Charlemagne: Frankish
State and Society(New York: Van Nostrand, 1961); H. R.
Loyn and John Percival, The Reign of Charlemagne(Lon-
don: Edward Arnold, 1975).A 19th-century statue of the great medieval French hero
Charlemagne near the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris
(Courtesy Edward English)