Crowned on Christmas Day 800: Does Charlemagne Deserve the Title 'Father of Europe'?

Why is Charlemagne called the Father of Europe? Because his reign tied together most of Western and Central Europe for the first time since the fall of Rome, and the institutions, church practices and learning he promoted shaped the continent for centuries. Charlemagne (748–814) was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774 and, from 800, emperor of what we now call the Carolingian Empire, the first recognised emperor in the West in about three hundred years. Many historians call him the "Father of Europe", several modern European states see him as a founding figure, and several royal houses traced their descent to him. The title is not simple praise, though. The same ruler who sponsored schools and copied books also forced the Saxons to convert and ordered a mass execution of prisoners. Understanding both sides is the best way to judge whether the nickname fits.

Who he was: the son of Pepin

Charlemagne was the eldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, from the Frankish family later called the Carolingians. His birth year was long disputed, but most scholars now accept April 748; his birthplace is unknown. His name simply means "Charles the Great". He was called Karolus in Latin, Karl der Große in German, and his name is so tied to power that Slavic words for "king", such as Polish król and Russian korol', come from Karolus.

He grew up speaking a Germanic language, was probably bilingual in Germanic and Romance dialects from an early age, and also spoke Latin. Whether he could read is debated. He usually had texts read aloud and dictated replies, which was normal even for literate rulers, and his biographer Einhard says he tried to learn to write only later in life. It is an odd detail for a man remembered as a patron of learning, and it reminds us that the father of a cultural revival did not need to be a scholar himself.

Decades of war

When Pepin died in 768, Charlemagne shared the kingdom with his brother Carloman and became sole ruler three years later. He continued his father's policy of protecting the papacy, and in 774 he removed the Lombards from power in northern Italy after besieging their capital, Pavia. His armies conquered Bavaria, Saxony and parts of northern Spain. The Spanish campaign of 778 ended with the famous ambush by Basque forces at Roncevaux Pass, an event later turned into legend.

The longest and bloodiest struggle was against the pagan Saxons. In 782, after a Frankish army was defeated, the annals record that Charlemagne had 4,500 Saxon prisoners beheaded at Verden. The historian Johannes Fried says the number may be exaggerated but the basic event is not in doubt, and Alessandro Barbero calls it perhaps the greatest stain on his reputation. A harsh law code followed, including the death penalty for pagan practices; historians describe it as a programme of forced conversion aimed at suppressing Saxon identity. Any honest answer to the "Father of Europe" question has to include this.

Christmas Day 800

In 799 Pope Leo III was attacked in Rome by political enemies and fled north to ask Charlemagne for help. Charlemagne sent him back with officials to restore him and later came to Rome himself. At mass in St Peter's Basilica on Christmas Day 800, Leo proclaimed Charlemagne "emperor of the Romans" and crowned him. He was the first reigning emperor in the West since the last Western Roman emperor was deposed in 476.

Historians still argue about what the coronation meant. Einhard claimed Charlemagne would not have entered the church had he known the pope's plan, which some read as truth and others as a literary way of showing modesty; other historians argue that Charlemagne had planned to take the title by 798 at the latest. The coronation also created a long quarrel with the Byzantine emperors in Constantinople, who saw themselves as the only true Roman emperors, a dispute known as the problem of two emperors. Charlemagne never actually used the title "emperor of the Romans", preferring a more neutral formula, perhaps to keep relations with Byzantium calmer. Through this title he is seen as the forerunner of the Holy Roman Emperors, a line that lasted into the nineteenth century.

Running an empire from Aachen

After 801 Charlemagne rarely led armies in person and ruled mostly from Aachen, his capital. A major law of 802 required all free men to swear loyalty to him and reorganised the missi dominici, officials sent out in pairs, one churchman and one lay noble, to administer justice and check on local government. He also ordered revisions of Frankish and Lombard law. He held 23 church synods, required monasteries across the empire to follow the Rule of St Benedict and promoted a standard liturgy. The historian Thomas Noble argues that the medieval idea of Christendom as one community of Western Christians, rather than a patchwork of local traditions, was a result of Carolingian policy.

He also looked beyond Europe. In the 790s he exchanged envoys with the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, partly because both had interests in Spain.

The Carolingian Renaissance and the letters you are reading

Perhaps the most lasting part of his legacy is cultural. Stability, contacts with the Mediterranean world and scholars invited from Ireland, England, Spain and Italy, such as Alcuin of York, produced a revival of learning known as the Carolingian Renaissance. Charlemagne promoted schools in churches and monasteries where students learned Latin, grammar and arithmetic, and Latin was standardised and spread far beyond the old Roman borders. Scriptoria copied an estimated 90,000 manuscripts in the ninth century.

To copy all those books clearly, scribes used a new, uniform script called Carolingian minuscule. It spread with imperial encouragement, was later revived by Italian Renaissance humanists, and through them became a direct ancestor of most modern Latin typefaces, including Times New Roman. In a very literal sense, the lower-case letters on this page owe something to his court.

Death, division and a disputed memory

Charlemagne died of pleurisy on 28 January 814 and was buried in his chapel at Aachen. His empire did not hold together for long. After his son Louis died, it was split by the Treaty of Verdun into West, East and Middle Francia, roughly foreshadowing France and Germany.

That split explains why his memory has been fought over. From the sixteenth century French and German writers argued about whether he was a French Charlemagne or a German Karl der Große, and the Nazi regime tried to use him as a model for its own expansion. After the Second World War, historians turned instead to the idea of Charlemagne as the "Father of Europe", first put forward in the nineteenth century by the German philosopher Friedrich Schlegel, and he became a symbol of European integration. Since 1949 the city of Aachen has awarded the Charlemagne Prize to people who promote European unity; Winston Churchill is among the winners.

So is the title fair? As a description of influence, yes: his laws, church reforms, schools and script shaped Europe long after him. As a moral compliment, it needs the Saxon wars beside it. The historian Jennifer Davis puts it neatly when she says he "invented medieval rulership".

Learn with Charlemagne: English phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Example
to lay the foundations	to create the base for something later	Charlemagne laid the foundations of medieval Europe.
a double-edged legacy	a legacy with good and bad sides	The Saxon wars make his a double-edged legacy.
to rise to power	to gain control or authority	He rose to power after his father died.
to stand the test of time	to stay useful or valued for a long time	His handwriting reform stood the test of time.
to fall apart	to break into pieces, to stop working	His empire fell apart within two generations.

Try this: Write three English sentences about someone who "laid the foundations" for your town, school or company, and say whether their legacy has "stood the test of time".