Charlemagne
Karolus Magnus
King of the Franks · King of the Lombards · Emperor of the Romans
742 – 814
Biography
The colossus of early medieval Europe. In a forty-six-year reign he conquered the Lombards, the Saxons, the Bavarians, and most of central Europe, founding an empire larger than anything seen in the West since Rome. His coronation as Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day 800 announced the rebirth of imperial authority in Latin Christendom and inaugurated the Carolingian Renaissance — the first systematic recovery of classical learning since antiquity.
Events
On Christmas Day 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans in St. Peter's Basilica. The coronation revived the imperial dignity in the Latin West for the first time since 476 and bound the Frankish royal line to Rome and to the papacy — relationships that would define European politics for the next thousand years.
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