Charlemagne: The Great Military Leader
Brittany Hall
May 4, 2009
Professor Drummond
Western Civilization
Charlemagne the Great Military Leader
Charlemagne's reign was consumed with wars in which he was successful. He never had to confront a first-class enemy in battle. Charlemagne inherited a well-trained Frankish Kingdom from his martial father and grandfather. His wars, however, were of high importance for history; especially the conquest of the Saxons and the Lombards which implied the bringing of much of Germany and Italy into the circle of "The Holy Roman Empire," and of medieval civilization. Through a careful reading of Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne and Einhard’s The War of Charlemagne, I will demonstrate that Charlemagne was a great, powerful, and strategic military …show more content…
His military campaigns helped him in his military expeditions. He moved his armies over wide reaches of country with unbelievable speed, but every move was planned in advance. In these campaigns, Charlemagne told the courts, princes, and bishops throughout his kingdom, how many men they should bring, what arms they were to carry, and even what to load in the supply wagons. He extended the Frankish army’s power, guarded it with firm military organization, propped it with religious sanction and ritual. He could lead an army, persuade an assembly, humor the nobility, and dominate the …show more content…
He entered into a diplomatic negotiation with all of them. Posterity overlooks Charlemagne’s slaughters of the Saxons and remembers the victories and the broad movement of government reform and learning that accompanied them, which has been called the Carolingian Renaissance. Although his empire survived him by only one generation, it contributed decisively to the eventual reconstitution, in the mind of a Western Europe disjointed since the end of the Roman Empire, of a common intellectual, religious, and political inheritance on which later centuries could draw. There is no other man who similarly left his mark on European history during the centuries of the Middle
May 4, 2009
Professor Drummond
Western Civilization
Charlemagne the Great Military Leader
Charlemagne's reign was consumed with wars in which he was successful. He never had to confront a first-class enemy in battle. Charlemagne inherited a well-trained Frankish Kingdom from his martial father and grandfather. His wars, however, were of high importance for history; especially the conquest of the Saxons and the Lombards which implied the bringing of much of Germany and Italy into the circle of "The Holy Roman Empire," and of medieval civilization. Through a careful reading of Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne and Einhard’s The War of Charlemagne, I will demonstrate that Charlemagne was a great, powerful, and strategic military …show more content…
His military campaigns helped him in his military expeditions. He moved his armies over wide reaches of country with unbelievable speed, but every move was planned in advance. In these campaigns, Charlemagne told the courts, princes, and bishops throughout his kingdom, how many men they should bring, what arms they were to carry, and even what to load in the supply wagons. He extended the Frankish army’s power, guarded it with firm military organization, propped it with religious sanction and ritual. He could lead an army, persuade an assembly, humor the nobility, and dominate the …show more content…
He entered into a diplomatic negotiation with all of them. Posterity overlooks Charlemagne’s slaughters of the Saxons and remembers the victories and the broad movement of government reform and learning that accompanied them, which has been called the Carolingian Renaissance. Although his empire survived him by only one generation, it contributed decisively to the eventual reconstitution, in the mind of a Western Europe disjointed since the end of the Roman Empire, of a common intellectual, religious, and political inheritance on which later centuries could draw. There is no other man who similarly left his mark on European history during the centuries of the Middle