Charlemagne In Jeff Sypeck's Becoming Charlemagne

Charlemagne was also known as Charles the Great. He was king of the Franks and he united the majority of Western Europe during the early Middle Ages. On top of that, he laid the foundations for modern France and Germany. He attempted to unite all Germanic peoples into one kingdom and convert his subjects to Christianity. Being a skilled military strategist, he spent much of his reign in warfare so that he could manage to accomplish his goals. Because of his position, he encouraged the Carolingian Renaissance.

With the fall of the Carolingian Empire, Europe was left in a frantic and militaristic state marked by violence amongst fluctuating kingdoms and territorial leaders. In the early 12th century, however, France was beginning to experience a positive change in the monarchy when Louis the VI became king in 1108. Also known as Louis the Fat (due to his massive weight towards the end of his life), Louis was able to assert his force as king by giving just, and often violent, punishments to criminals and enemies. Once a confidant to the king and eventually the abbot of St. Denis, Suger writes about Louis’ various acts in The Deeds of Louis the Fat. These deeds helped to shape France’s monarchy into a powerful, centralized unit that would continue for

"The Murder of Charles the Good." Readings in Medieval History. 4th ed. Toronto: Published by University of Toronto Press, 2010. 382-93. Print.

Einhard gives several reasons for his writing of Charlemagne. He writes to pay respect to his friend and writes as a way to remember him through history. Through this writing, Einhard expresses himself humbly and possibly inferior in social status. Einhard writes to pay respect to Charlemagne, partly because he believes he is indebted to Charlemagne. Einhard mentions the "foster care bestowed on [him]" as a reason for his writing.

“Charles the Great” The most important part of being emperor isn’t how many people are under one’s rule or how much land is conquered, but creating opportunities within the empire. During the Middle Ages, people were more focused on simple survival and work than learning skills like reading, writing, or officially practicing religion. Charlemagne valued education and worked to spread this throughout the empire. He had great success in many battles, and built a strong military.

In order to populate Rome, Romulus tricks women from outside the city into entering Rome and then allows his men to claim them as their own. He then ‘reassures’ the ravaged women by promising them the “fortunes of Rome” and urges them to “forget their wrath and give their hearts to those whom chance had given their bodies” (Livy, 18). This explicitly spells out a relinquishment of the women’s hearts and bodies, and ultimately their entire selves, to the control of men. Romulus’s attempts to justify his actions by the future success of Rome he believes the women will bring about mean nothing (Livy, 18). He expects the women, subjected to the possession of men and stolen violently from their families, to enjoy the fruits of Rome, even with their own wellbeing as the price to pay for those fruits.

Charlemagne, Charles the great, was a large man. He was named the “Emperor of the Romans.” It was a revival of the old Roman Empire. He was highly influential and his influence was felt in every area of human endeavors. Expansion was important to him so he engaged in over fifty campaigns.

The imperial family was composed of the Emperor, his children, and his consorts. Consorts are defined as women who have had sexual relationships with the emperor. The consorts were ranked by grade, and during the Song, it is said that 23 other titles than Empress could be awarded hierarchically. The court was in theory strictly divided between the inner court, hosting the Imperial Family quarters, and the outer court, political men realm. The inner court was on average home of more than 1000 women, composing the Emperor

Since the fall of the western Roman empire, there has never been another emperor of the west until Charlemagne came along, in christmas day year 800 Pope Leo the third at rome’s st. peter’s basilica crowned karl as emperor of the holy roman empire, karl stated that he did not know why he was being summoned to rome, but it is unlikely that he wasn't aware of what was going on. His coronation was met with cheers and applause, with pomp and circumstance, as the people rejoiced their new god appointed emperor of the romans who was himself a german. The coronation itself was major turning point in history, many historian agree that that reason why charlemagne accepted his ascension into emperorship was so that he could justify his occupation of

Following the Golden Age of many great civilizations, came the Post-Classical Era. And so came the fall of Rome’s political power, and as it fell to shambles, it seemed implausible that the Franks would find themselves in possession of any influence in European Politics. However, with the help of a powerful political leader by the name of King Clovis I, they manage to find sway in European Affairs. In Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past, in “The Postclassical Era”, “The Franks and the Temporary Revival of Empire”, it says “By the time of his death, Clovis had thoroughly transformed the Franks. No longer were they just one among many Germanic peoples inhabiting a crumbling Roman Empire.

As an official in the palace and one of the king’s friends, Einhard had one of the best possible views of Charlemagne and his rule. In this “public history of this most distinguished and deservedly most famous king” (Einhard 51), Einhard writes to Charlemagne’s descendants and the rest of posterity about the fame of the Frankish Empire and to preserve the memory of its mightiest ruler. Einhard is an extremely biased author, however. Once upon a time, Charlemagne offered shelter and kindness to Einhard in his court, and in return Einhard ignored the more shocking facts about Charlemagne, like his true motives in practicing Catholicism and his dysfunctional family, specifically his daughters and grandchildren, even after Charlemagne’s death in

Charlemagne was the one of the great rulers of early European history. He was the King of the Franks in the 8th century and facilitated great expansion of his empire through conquest and diplomacy. Einhard was a monk who lived under Charlemagne’s rule, and, in a glowing light, he wrote a biography of Charlemagne. Einhard describes many of Charlemagne’s achievements, and he also writes about Charlemagne’s character. Einhard believed Charlemagne was a great leader because of his military success, his beautification of the kingdom, and his exceptional character qualities.

In her chapter on the historiography of Roman exemplarity, Christina Shuttleworth Kraus examines this loss of power through the transition of exempla as the res gestae populi Romani to the res gestae divi Augusti (Kraus, 2). In early Roman history, exemplarity rested in the hands of popular consciousness; the citizens of Rome had the sole power of deciding which events or people to raise up to the status of exempla. This system of exemplarity that is explained in detail by Matthew Roller’s four stage model of the creation of exempla by public discourse (Roller, 216-217). However, Roller’s framework begins to collapse when Augustus intentionally influences exemplary power through his coercive Res Gestae. Rather than looking to the past for the great deeds of common people like the Sabine women or Lucretia, Roman citizens of the Augustan period had their attention directed towards the persona of one man, an exemplar in the form of an emperor.

Primary Source Paper 2 The Life of Charlemagne was written by Einhard a little after Charlemagne death in 814. Einhard wrote the biography to make sure that Charlemagne’s legacy would not be forgotten. He would list many points in this biography, but I’ve decided to only point out three of them. These three chapters are his deeds, his family life, and his life with the Christian religion.

The Roman empress is to be an ideal of femininity, which in turn mirrors the ideal of the emperor, her male reflection. Besides, the very fact that this type of female statues was less reproduced than the Pudicitia type well conveys of its originality