Charlemagne

Charlemagne, a man of remarkable power, executed many impressive reforms in the course of his reign. His military, political, religious, and education contributions birthed a new type of European empire. However, most of these improvements were short-lived. Upon his death came the crumbling of his tightly unified empire as the country split into three different states. All of his political and religious efforts to keep his country organized and united crumbled along with his empire. However, the impact of one of his reforms was able to survive the aftermath.

Charlemagne had made enormous efforts to reform education for the benefit of priests and commoners. According to the textbook, his efforts of educational reform resulted in the opening of schools and acceptance to “all interested children without charging them fees”. This accessibility made the start of literacy development possible for citizens of any social class, efficiently spreading and improving intellect all across the country. By teaching students “grammar, rhetoric and logic” as well as “arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy”, Charlemagne’s reform enhanced the literacy and intellect of the children that went on living even after his empire collapsed. In addition, the creation and development of the Carolingian handwriting by the scholars of Charlemagne’s court provided a standard basis that allowed reading and writing to become easier to understand and do. This form of handwriting later inspired the future development of our own lowercase letters.

Although Charlemagne had spent his life revolutionizing the Western World with different political and religious reforms, those reforms had short-term impacts and discontinued upon the fall of his empire. However, the intellectual reforms he had implemented had lingered in the lives of people after his empire. It is because of the long-term impact of his educational reform that made me believe it was his greatest and most significant