Charlemagne

King of the Franks, 768-814, and Holy Roman Emperor of the West, 800-814. The eldest son of Pepin the Short, he inherited Neustria, the northwestern half of the Frankish kingdom, in 768 and annexed the other half upon his brother Carloman's death (771). Responding to threats against Rome and his own sovereignty, he led two armies into Italy and captured the Lombard throne (773). In reprisal to constant Saxon raids, he began a long (772-785) and brutal conquest of Saxony, finally securing it for Christianity and Frankish law. He also deposed the disloyal duke of Bavaria and defeated the Avars of the middel Danube (791-96, 804), adding new lands to his empire. By 811 he had established the Spainish March, a Christian refuge in northern Spain. He was coronated emperor by Pope Leo III (800). A man of great power and enthusiasm, he initiated the intellectual, artistic, and ecclesiastical awakening known as the Carolingian Renaissance. His empire, though lacking sufficient economic and political structure to maintain unity after his death, had combined the Germanic peoples for the first time. He was canonized in 1165.