7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7that he was guilty of tyranny and serious personal miscon-
duct for supporting Charlemagne. Leo fled to Charlemagne,
who provided an escort that restored Leo III to the papal
office. In late 800, Charlemagne went to Rome to deter-
mine what further action would be taken. After a series of
deliberations with Frankish and Roman clerical and lay
notables, it was arranged that, in lieu of being judged, the
pope would publicly swear an oath purging himself of the
charges against him. Two days after Leo’s act of purgation,
as Charlemagne attended mass on Christmas Day in the
basilica of St. Peter, the pope placed a crown on his head,
while the Romans assembled for worship proclaimed him
“emperor of the Romans.” In 813 Charlemagne assured
the perpetuation of the imperial title by bestowing the
imperial crown on his son, Louis the Pious. In January 814
Charlemagne fell ill with a fever and died a week later.
Assessment
Although he received only an elementary level of formal
education, Charlemagne possessed considerable native
intelligence, intellectual curiosity, a willingness to learn
from others, and religious sensibility—all attributes which
allowed him to comprehend the forces that were reshap-
ing the world around him.
His renewal of the Roman Empire in the West pro-
vided the ideological foundation for a politically unified
Europe. His rule served as a standard to which many
generations of European rulers looked for guidance in
defining and discharging their royal functions. His reli-
gious reforms solidified the organizational structures and
the liturgical practices that eventually enfolded most of
Europe into a single “church.” His cultural renaissance
provided the basic tools—schools, curricula, textbooks,