CROWNED BY THE POPE AS EMPEROR
OF THE WEST
The year A.D. 800 forms the climax of Charlemagne’s reign. The sovereign had gone in splendid state to visit Italy. On Christmas day Charlemagne and his court were attending divine service in the church of St. Peter’s, at Rome. Suddenly, while the monarch was kneeling on the steps of the altar in prayer, the Pope, Leo III., placed a crown upon his head and solemnly saluted him as “Emperor of the West,” with the title of Charles I., Cæsar Augustus.
CHARLEMAGNE’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE
CIVILIZATION OF HIS TIME
The latter years of Charlemagne’s life were spent in labors for the consolidation of his empire and the elevation of his people. He was a great patron of learning and learned men. He was himself a good Latin scholar, and he knew something of Greek. Wherever he was he was usually surrounded by learned churchmen, whom he drew to his court from all quarters, and with whom he delighted to hold conversations on literary and other subjects. The emperor, his family, and all attached to his household formed what was called the “School of the Palace.” Fond of literary pursuits, Charlemagne studied grammar, rhetoric, music, logic, astronomy, and natural history under his learned friends; and even after he was considerably advanced in years he took the pains to acquire the art of writing,—an accomplishment then very unusual except among churchmen.
HIS EFFORTS FOR EDUCATION
OF HIS PEOPLE
Nor was the emperor’s interest in education confined to his own household. Each of the numerous monasteries that he endowed was bound to maintain a school. He had copies of the writings of the ancient Romans made and distributed among the convents, he formed a collection of old German heroic ballads, and under his patronage church music was greatly improved.
CAPITAL AND FAVORITE RESIDENCE
OF CHARLEMAGNE
Charlemagne’s favorite place of residence was at Aix-la-Chapelle (in German, Aachen). He made this the northern capital of his empire, as Rome was the southern, and built a magnificent palace there. When his power was confirmed by his coronation as Emperor of the West, all the world hastened to pay him homage. The Saracen caliph, the famous Haroun-al-Raschid, who ruled the Eastern dominion of the Saracens, at Bagdad, exchanged courtesies with his great brother of the West, sending him, among other presents, an ape, an elephant, and a curious clock which struck the hours.
THE END OF CHARLEMAGNE’S
GREAT EMPIRE
Charlemagne died at the age of seventy-two, at Aix-la-Chapelle, in A.D. 814. The year before, he had caused his only living son, Louis, to assume the imperial crown. But the vast structure that Charlemagne had raised during his lifetime tottered and fell almost immediately after his death. Louis, known as the Gentle (le Debonnaire), was better fitted for the repose of a cloister than for the government of a warlike kingdom. His sons, among whom he divided the empire, turned their arms first against himself and then against one another. Finally, in A.D. 843, a treaty was made at Verdun, by which France, Germany and Italy became separate and independent states; so that, in less than thirty years after the death of Charlemagne, the history of the Franks came to an end, and the history of France and of Germany began.