All of these developments cast light on the motivations for Charlemagne’s coronation
as emperor of the West by Pope Leo III, on Christmas Day, 800, in St. Peter’s, Rome.
Whether the idea for the move came from the papal or the Carolingian court—a point
debated by scholars—it suited both parties’ interests. Even before 800, Carolingian
writers had been evolving a concept of Charlemagne as the successor to Constantine I
and the leader of a new Christian-Roman empire in the West. For the papacy, on the other
hand, the coronation underscored Charles’s special role as protector of western
Christendom, at a time when papal authority was particularly threatened.
It is uncertain whether Charlemagne initially viewed the imperial title as a personal
honor or one to be passed on to an heir. No arrangement was made concerning it in the
Divisio regnorum of 806, which decreed that after his death the empire be partitioned
among his legitimate sons, Charles the Younger (d. 811), Pepin (d. 810), and Louis (778–
840; later known as “the Pious”); but the inheritance of the imperial crown may have
been something that even then Charlemagne intended to settle later. By 813, Charles the
Younger and Pepin were dead, however, and in September Louis was crowned co-
emperor. He became sole emperor upon his father’s death in January 814.
The reign of Louis the Pious witnessed probably the peak of the Carolingian
renaissance in arts and letters as well as the implementation of important religious and
administrative reforms; but it also saw the political crises emerge that led to the empire’s
dissolution. The political turmoil of the 830s stemmed partly from the disaffection of
aristocratic groups over Louis’s ecclesiastical reforms and partly from problems caused
by his plans for the succession.
The terms of the inheritance were first outlined in the Ordinatio imperii of 817.
Whereas Charlemagne had arranged the imperial succession only a year before his death,
Louis the Pious made this from the start a basic element of his plans. The Ordinatio
stipulated that each of his sons—Lothair I (795–855), Pepin of Aquitaine (800–838), and
Louis (804–876; later known as “the German”)—receive a portion of the empire to
govern, while Italy remained under Louis the Pious’s nephew, Bernard. But the imperial
crown was bestowed immediately on Lothair I alone, who was to rule the empire’s most
important territories, including Aixla-Chapelle and Rome, and to exercise supremacy
over his brothers and Bernard. Although Louis the German and Pepin were too young to
react to these plans, the Ordinatio
The Encyclopedia 331