Biography of Charlemagne

The leader of the Empire in Europe

2 April 742
28 January 814
Eldest son of Pepin the short and Bertrada of Laon, Charlemagne is the emperor to whom we owe ben forty-six years of domination of Western Europe (from 768 to 814), a period in which it was able to extend the Kingdom to more than twice that of its parent. With a particularity: it was always personally driving all military enterprises, a real example of heroic monarch and driver. Born on 2 April 742, after sharing it for a few years the Kingdom with his brother Carloman in 771 assumed power on all territories that the father had unified under a single domain.
After having repudiated his wife Ermengarde, daughter of Desiderius, King of the Lombards became the champion of the papacy's defense against the expansionist ambitions of the latter. The Alliance with the papacy was important for the consolidation of his power over the Catholic West. The war between the Franks and the Lombards 773 774 began in and ended in with the fall of Pavia and the "confinement" of Desire in a French monastery.
In 776, Charlemagne imposed feudal system in Italy franco with the introduction of the committees and the marches in place of Lombard Duchies. Still stressed by the Papacy, Charles descended into Italy a third time in 780 to reaffirm his power: in the Kingdom of Italy created 781 entrusting it to one of his sons. Had to fight against the Byzantines, the Arabs in Spain, the Saxons, the Avars, Slavs and the Danes thus expanding the boundaries of his Kingdom which became the Holy Roman emperor with the coronation celebrated by Pope Leo III on Christmas Eve in the year 800. Charlemagne organized a structure of State officials (lay and clergy) with the objective to administer the territories that they had kept institutions and different characteristics.
The Government was centralized and was meant to keep the peace, to protect the weak, block any resurgence of violence, spreading education, create schools, develop art and literature. After you have taken steps to ensure the succession crowning Emperor the son Lodovico, retired to Aachen (the city which had been the capital of his empire), dedicating himself to the study and prayer until his death on 28 January 814.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.