Charlemagne

Throughout history, many people have been recognized for their reforms and contributions made during their lifetime. Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, was a pivotal figure to his time. His achievements and reforms affected the lives of many during the Medieval Times and in some aspects today. He ruled the Frankish Kingdom from 772 till 814. He was a very spiritually and intellectually driven man. Most of his forty-two year reign consisted of wars, conquests and reforms. He devoted much of his time trying to blend the Roman past, the German way of life, and Christianity all into one harmonious kingdom.

Religion was an area of particular interest to Charlemagne. He devoted much of his time reestablishing and improving the Church system. The music sang during church he felt was not up to par, therefore he hired Monks from Rome to come train his Frankish singers. He sent money to the poor and insisted on their fair treatment, “When he discovered that there were Christians living in poverty in Syria, Egypt, and Africa, at Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Carthage, he had compassion on their wants, and used to send money over the seas to them..” (207). This illustrates how generious of a person Charlemagne was. He set up churches throughout Europe and encouraged the spread of uniform Christian religious practices. Eventually, in 800, he was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Leo III.

A second aspect of Charlemagne’s reign was the desire he had to promote education. “Charlemagne realized that his great empire could not be effectively governed without a cadre of literate clergy and administrators,” in order to make the clergy and administrators literate he hired the very best teachers (206). He imported scholars from Ireland, Britain, and Italy to educate the society. He tried to spread interest in history, architecture, and literature by making Aachen, the capital, the center of Carolingian learning and art. He established a new style of writing which introduced upper and lower case letters as well as punctuation. This made reading much easier, because previously everything was in all uppercase and had no periods or commas.