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Charlemagne's Reign

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Throughout Charlemagne’s reign, he was continuously expanding his vast empire while also improving it internally. Charlemagne was the Kings of Franks from 771-814 and also the Holy Roman Emperor from 800-814, born in the late 740s (the exact date is unknown/debated) near Liège in modern day Belgium.
Charlemagne was illiterate despite frequently being called “the education emperor” as he strongly supported education and literacy. Charlemagne’s father, Pepin III had the Frankish empire and when he died on September 24, 768, Charlemagne and Carloman (Charlemagne’s brother) each took control of half of the empire. After Carloman’s death on December 4 of 771, Charlemagne immediately took over the other half of the empire that Carloman had ruled. …show more content…

He saw that he had to take over Saxony in order to convert them to Christianity which Charlemagne felt was his duty. They fought for seven years and in 785, it was incorporated into the Kingdom. Charlemagne issued a set of reforms of the church in 789 called the admonito generalis. His army marched against the Lombards (occupied the Italian peninsula) in 773 at the request of Pope Hadrian I and by 774, Charlemagne declared himself king of Lombards and destroyed anything that threatened his authority if the Lombards. In 778, there were several potential threats to Charlemagne’s power. There were potential revolts in Gascony and Aquitaine, regions that had always been rebellious as well as a potential revolt in Italy. The Saxons also invaded neighboring Frankish counties which put Charlemagne in a challenging position as he needed to protect Frankish interests, but he didn't really want to have to deal with this problem and he was "concerned about the internal condition of the Frankish and Lombard Kingdoms" (Speculum Charlemagne, Ganshof). At assembly of Herstal in 779, Charlemagne instituted various measures that would make public institutions more effective and would give people greater security in terms of their communities and property. These ordinances were called "Capularies" and they applied to Italy and Frankish …show more content…

785; “Capitulary for the Saxon Regions”) was intended to force the submission of the Saxons to the Franks and to Christianity, imposing the death penalty for destruction of churches, refusal of baptism, and violating the Lenten fast. The Capitulare Saxonicum (797; “Saxon Capitulary”), although not necessarily abrogating the earlier decree, replaced the harsher measures of the earlier capitulary with conversion through less brutal methods.

Charlemagne was 50 by 792, and there was a Saxon revolt between 792 and 793. This revolt was caused mainly be the terror on their part in 785 caused by the Capitulatio de partibus Saxonic that had been part of securing the Frankish domination and authority of Christian religion. In 792, there was a conspiracy led by Pepin the Hunchback that imperiled the king's life, his sons, and Regnum Francoum too. There had been one in 786 but had ben put down and led to Charlemagne making all of his subjects take an oath of allegiance, but conspiracies continued, This show the feeling of discontent among aristocrats and opposition to royal autocracy and also might have been a sign of weariness caused by unceasing warfare.

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