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THE LIBRARY

OF

Historic Characters

AND

Famous Events

OF ALL NATIONS AND

ALL AGES

A. R. SPOFFORD, Librarian of Congress, Emeritus
FRANK WEITENKAMPF, Astor Library, New York
and PROFESSOR J. P. LAMBERTON

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

ILLUSTRATED with Photogravures from Paintings by Great Artists and from Authentic Portraits

Volume V

BOSTON

J. B. MILLET CO.

1909

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N the long catalogue of French monarchs no name shines out with a splendor equal to that of Charlemagne.

If history is to be believed he possessed every virtue desirable in man and finally achieved canonization as a saint at the hands of Pope Pascal III.

Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, the "most illustrious monarch of the Middle Ages," King of the Franks and Roman Emperor, was born April 2, 742. Aix-la-Chapelle is usually, but not certainly, regarded as his birthplace. His grandfather was Charles Martel (mayor of the palace under the enervated Merovingians), and his father Pepin the Short (the first Carlovingian King of the Franks), whom, on his death in 768, Charlemagne and his brother Carloman jointly succeeded, the Frankish Kingdom having been divided between them. But Carloman dying in 771, and his sons being both excluded from the throne, Charlemagne was proclaimed sole ruler.

His monarchy was a very extensive one; the Frankish territory stretched from the Loire to the Rhine; besides, there were Burgundy and Allemania, while Aquitaine, Brittany, Frisia, Thuringia and Bavaria were more or less closely subjected to him. The young king, who had spent his early life in warfare, and had already won distinction by his talents, handsome bearing and physical strength, soon began to bend all his energies towards the accomplishment of the object which was to form the characteristic feature of his reign; the extension of his dominions, which formed the bulwark of western Christianity. He became the champion of the Church

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against the Pagan, maintaining and extending the influence of Christian culture with unexampled success. His battle against barbarism and heathenism found its chief manifestation in an almost life-long struggle with the Saxons, which, beginning in 772, cost him thirty-two years of fierce warfare. In these Saxons was embodied the last remaining Germanic resistance to the military supremacy of the Franks and the progress of Christianity. Though ferocious and valorous, and having brave and noble leaders such as Wittekind, they were divided by unhappy feuds, so that the difficulty lay less in overcoming their poorly organized forces than in holding so loose a confederation to its agreements. Thus the conflict had to be incessantly renewed.

First, however, Charlemagne was called upon to chastise the Lombards, who were invading the Pope's territory. This invasion was an act of revenge, originating in the following circumstances: Charlemagne had married the daughter of the Lombard King Desiderius, but after a year had disowned her and sent her back to her father and married Hildegarde, daughter of the Swabian Duke Godfrey. Desiderius, failing to turn the newly-elected Pope Hadrian against Charles, sought revenge by invading the papal domain. Charlemagne, after a visit to Rome (774), where he was enthusiastically received, overthrew Desiderius, and himself became "King of the Franks and Lombards."

In 776 Charles quelled a revolt in Italy, aiming at the restoration of the Lombards, and next year, following up advantages gained over the Saxons, he held a diet at Paderborn, in the heart of the enemy's country, and there received the homage of the Saxon chiefs, many of whose warriors were then and there baptized. Meanwhile, an appeal to him had come from another quarter; he was asked to interpose in the wars of the Saracens in Spain, and, hastening across the Pyrenees, he invaded that country as far as the Ebro (778). On his return, the rear-guard was cut off and overthrown by an attack of the Basque mountaineers in the pass of Roncesvalles; this defeat, and the death of the leader Roland, embellished and transformed in all manner of ways, became a famous theme of romance and song.

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