| |
Key Facts |
| Other names |
Carolus Magnus Charles the Great |
| Born |
747 |
| Location |
Paris, Frankish Capital |
| Bloodline |
Carolingian |
| Married |
Yes. |
| Children |
Yes. |
| Position |
King of the Franks (768-814), King of Lombards (774-814), Emperor (800-814) |
| Died |
January 814 (age 67) |
|
|
|
|
| |
Background |
| |
Eldest son of King Pepin (Pippin) the Short and Bertrada of Laon. The name "Charlemagne" being the condensed Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus meaning "Charles the Great" or simply an anagram for "Great Man". His real name was almost certainly Pippin. However, he is numbered as Charles I in the regnal lists of France, Germany and the Holy Roman Catholic Empire. |
| |
As a child in Paris, Charlemagne would have witnessed the devotion to his grandfather's grave at the former family palace, now Gothic Basilica at St. Denis --Charles Martel -- as founder of the Catholic Church and hero of Western Civilization. Like all Pippins he would have been widely trained from a young age in the art of war, the code of chivalry of good christian knights (the Pippins being the archetypes) and the protection of their beloved Roman Catholic Church. He is also the first great ruler to be a natural speaker and writer of Anglaise (English) - the language created by his grandfather to unify the Frankish Empire. |
| |
In 751, Charlamagne could not but have been deeply affected when his father -- upon new of the death of his brother Carloman, the first Catholic Pope as Zacharias -- changed from a noble knight to a bloodthirsty tyrant sworn to destroy every last treacherous Byzantine christian bishop and vassal. Charlemagne was probably still too young acompany his father on his campaign to re-conquer Rome in 755. But upon his return, it is almost certain he accompanied his father in his various battles to eliminate the Saracens from Gaul and into Spain. |
| |
When his father was killed in battle around 768, both Charlamagne and Carloman his brother ruled jointly. Charles ruled the outer parts of the kingdom, bordering on the sea, namely Neustria, western Aquitaine, and the northern parts of Austrasia, while Carloman retained the inner regions: southern Austrasia, Septimania, eastern Aquitaine, Burgundy, Provence and Swabia, lands bordering on Italy. |
| |
Again in an attempt to besmirch the noble chivalric nature of the Pippins, many historians have deliberately created falsehoods in claiming Charlemagne and his brother were at odds. The events surrounding the predictable uprisings of the Dukes of Acquitane in 769 against Frankish rule upon a new coronation was expected. However, the hasty withdrawal of Carloman and part of the army North was almost certainly to deal with the Saxon threat. |
| |
One of the more bizarre myths is the claimed wedding of Charlemagne to a Lombard princess called Desiderata-- a desperate attempt by certain Italian bloodlines to weasel their way into the lineage of Charlemagne. The uprising of the Lombards by King Desiderius in 769 almost certainly had more to do with the opportunity of the death of King Pepin the Short than any mythical wedding. |
| |
This presented a grave threat to the brothers. Defend the Empire but lose the Roman Catholic Church, still less than twenty years old or split their forces and hope to overcome. Given the deliberate misleading stories surrounding Carloman, it is probable he chose to take part of the army to reinforce the young Papal States of their Roman Catholic Church, while Charlemagne defended the Frankish Empire. |
| |
Whatever the circumstances leading up to the event, in 772 both Carloman and his cousin Pope Stephen II were killed near Rome. Charlemagne was no sole ruler. In arguably some of the darkest days of his reign, Charlemagne slaughtered thousands of Saxons -- in many cases by horrific means, ending swiftly all rebellion across the Empire within weeks. |
| |
Charlemagne then petitioned his uncle Winfred (also called Bernard by many historians) to come out of retirment and help him defeat Lombard King Desiderius. Within the same year, Charlemagne and Winfred led a massive army into Italy. The speed of their advance can only attest to bloodthirsty lack of restraint of Charlemagne during this period. |
| |
In a textbook maneuver, Charlemagne and Winfred split the army in a pincer movement against the Lombards forcing them to retreat back to their capital Pavia which they then besieged. The city was captured in 774 and Desiderius and his entire family with any claims to the Lombard throne were summarily executed--punishment for the death of Carloman. The Lombards were finished. |
| |
Adrian, his cousin was restored to the "throne of St. Peter" and in a deliberate act, Charlemagne donated the extended territories of Tuscany, Emilia, Venice, and Corsica to the Papal States representing the living "Donation of Constantine". In a mirror of the act performed by the Pippins in Paris, Pope Adrian crowned patricius Romanorum (Patrician of the Romans). In an extraordinary and never repeated event in history, Charlemagne chose to wear a crown of iron, not gold - presumably in classic Pippin chivalric penance for his mass murder of tens of thousands in the few years prior. |
| |
In 778, Charlemagne came the closest to complete military defeat when he accepted a petition from his Basque vassals to enter their territory and engage an apparently "weak" Saracan Empire in Spain to the south. Charlemagne split his army into two- one through the region of Catalonia, the other west through the Basque country. However, the petition was nothing more than a terrible trap by the Basques at the pass of Roncesvalles. If not for the self-sacrifice of one of his generals and division to die fighting-- allowing the remainder of Charlemagnes army to escape --the Frankish Empire and the Roman Catholic Church might have been lost. |
| |
As punishment Charlemagne ordered the complete levelling of Pamplona, including every wall, every inhabitant and living thing. The death toll of this one single event probably exceeded 30,000. He then ordered that no city in the Basque region be permitted to have defensive walls, causing many to leave and plunging the region into decades of poverty and hate of the French monarchs and their bloodlines. |
| |
By 781, Charlemagne had largely contained rebellion within the borders of his expanded Empire and the protected Papal States of his Roman Catholic Church. He named his eldest son (named Carloman) as King of Italy and his youngest Louis, King of Acquitaine. |
| |
In 782, Charlemagne was once again called to respond to Saxon uprisings, this time in response to his enforcement of a strict new code of laws, including the banning of pagan practices. This is the time it is said that several thousand pagan priests and leaders were horribly tortured and murdered in public witnessed by Charlemagne himself. |
| |
In 792, Charlemagne commissioned the building of a new Palace and court at Aachen in Germany. The site was chosen presumably because it afforded Charlemagne a more central position to the major regions of his Empire. |
| |
In 795, Pope Leo, son of Pope Adrian and cousin of Charlemagne took the "throne of St. Peter" in Rome. A brilliant scholar, Adrian was aware that outside of the Frankish Empire, the yong Roman Catholic Church was viewed as a short term abhoration unlikely to survive the eventual end of the Pippinid dynasty. |
| |
Charlemagne had openly displayed a reluctance to the trapping of title and office, but when he was invited to Rome the story of his coronation on December 25th 800 as Imperator Romanorum ("Emperor of the Romans") probably has some authenticity --excluding Christmas Mass. Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Jesus was a Roman Catholic invention that did not begin until after the death of Charlemagne. |
| |
Thus December 25th 800 marks the beginning of the Holy Roman Catholic Empire and its eventual march to become the dominant religion of the christian sects. |
| |
Charlemagne died in 813 and was interred at his chapel in Aachen-- his final wish that he be buried with a codex of his darkest sins and the history of his family in founding the Roman Catholic Church written on fine vellum in Anglaise (English), Latin and Greek. His final wishes were honored for four centuries until the codex was refound by Frederick II in 1215 and immediately removed. The codex has not been seen since. It is unlikely such a priceless object --even if it represents a grave danger -- would have been destroyed. |
| |
Most Evil Crimes |
| |
|
| |
|
|
Copyright © One-Evil.org 2009. All Rights Reserved |
