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Charlemagne Or Charles The Great: King Of The Franks

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Charlemagne Or Charles The Great: King Of The Franks
Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great or Charles I, was king of the Franks. In 800 A.D., Charles the Great was consecrated emperor and Augustus by Pope Leo III (750-816). Pope Leo III, along with all other high priests, saw it fit to crown Charles as emperor as not only a sign of respect gained through his supplied protection from Roman rebels but also because he already held places of power in Rome and in cities of Italy, Gaul, and Germany. Also considering the fact the imperial throne remained empty in the east due to the succession of a female, Empress Irene (797-802), there was an even greater need for someone to take the thrown. An analysis of the coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor indicates that this event initially led to the creation of the …show more content…
Due to this fact, Charlemagne was viewed as a ruthless warrior-king. These wars were fought for a plethora of reasons but the main reasons for Charlemagne was to spread Christianity throughout western Europe and to unite all Germanic people into one kingdom. Eighteen battles in total is what it took for Charlemagne to take over and subsequently rule Saxonia and to fully convert all his conquered peoples to Christianity, his ultimate goal as ruler.
It is apparent that Charlemagne already had a firm grasp as a ruler of western Europe prior to his crowning of emperor and Augustus, yet, his official coronation gave him divine legitimacy in the eyes of his contemporaries. Charlemagne was initially reluctant to take the position of emperor early on. His reluctance wasn’t due to his own belief that he wasn’t fit to be emperor but because he felt that he already presently, unofficially ruled over western Europe. As we know, there were multiple reasons as to why he agreed to be crowned emperor but one of those was because his crowning would further sanctify his reign of power and prominence as a
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