The Feast of Charlemagne

It would be hard to overestimate the impact on western history of Charlemagne, whose feast day falls on today (at least by those who recognize it). Considered something of a “founding father” by both the nations of France and Germany, Charlemagne brought a great deal of new “light” to the “Dark Ages” by defeating barbarian raiders, restoring law and order and stable government throughout much of western and central Europe. His reign would also see a restoration of Rome, in a way, as his coronation as “Emperor of the Romans” marks the birth of the Holy Roman Empire. Royals from France, Germany, Austria and Italy have attached themselves to his legacy, the Christendom of the old Roman Empire began to revive under his rule and no less a figure than HH Pope John Paul II referred to him as the “father of Europe”. He was an astute statesman, a fairly tolerant lawgiver and a bold warrior whose accomplishments would not be rivaled for centuries to come. No matter which way one looks at him, Charlemagne was quite a man.

Not much is known about his origins, his birth place being listed as various places, usually western Germany or Belgium. Charles (Charlemagne - Charles the Great - Carolus Magnus -we all know that right?) was a descendant of Charles Martel, “the Hammer” who defeated the Muslim invasion of France at Tours. His son was Pepin, King of the Franks, who was the father of Charlemagne and Carloman. When Pepin died in about 768 he divided his lands between his two sons but after Carloman died in 771 Charlemagne got it all, roughly what is now western Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. From the start, and certainly by the time of his death, no one had ruled more of western Europe since the days of the old Roman Emperors. However, there was no mistaking the fact that Charlemagne was what the Romans would have called a “barbarian” himself, meaning he was of the Germanic rather than the Latin branch of the European tree. His private life was not always exemplary, he was a Christian certainly but not above carrying out forced conversions, he was illiterate yet was not uneducated and was multi-lingual with a knowledge of many of the available scholarly works of his time even if he could not read them himself. In the tumultuous days of the Dark Ages, things like reading and writing were left to scribes and monks as the paramount duty of a king was to be a warrior, defending his land and people.

Right from the start he marched his knights into the eastern lands of Germany, where no Roman legions had ever tread, to take on the pagan Saxons who were still occasionally carrying out human sacrifices and eating each other -not exactly civilized behavior by any definition. Charlemagne and his mostly Frankish army gave the Saxons a sound thrashing, made them promise to be good little boys and girls and then marched off to their next adventure. That came when the Pope in Rome started having trouble with the Lombard kingdom in northern Italy. So, it was Charlemagne to the rescue, wiping out Lombardy and possibly having the Iron Crown placed on his head -that’s not definite but in any event he made himself King of the Lombards by conquest before going on to Rome to accept the thanks of a grateful Pope, see the sights and buy a few postcards for the wives. But, just as he was picking up coliseum t-shirt word came that the Saxons were running wild again and he had to round up his knights and march back to Germany. Once again, he gave them a good drubbing but this time decided that there would be no peace until the Saxons found Jesus. Being a man of action rather than words, Charlemagne had all the Saxons rounded up, pointed a few swords and lances at them and “encouraged” them to become good Catholics.

With that done and dusted, Charlemagne turned his attention to Spain which had been almost completely conquered by the Muslims. Unfortunately, the Muslims proved a much more formidable adversary than the northern barbarians had been and Charlemagne wasn’t exactly at the top of his game. To make a long story short, Charlemagne took a dusting and was forced to give up on the idea of liberating Spain and go back to France. Many mistakes were made and about the only good thing to come out of it was the famous tribute to suicidal bravery in the “Song of Roland”. Charlemagne was pretty bummed after this and devoted himself to more peaceful campaigns to develop his still strengthening Carolingian Empire. Combat was never too far off in those times though and soon, you guessed it, those naughty Saxons were causing problems again in 782.

It seems when everyone was swearing to be good Catholics some of the Saxon big-shots had their fingers crossed and it took a long, grueling war for Charlemagne to subdue them again. There were still armies in the field when Charlemagne and the Saxon king agreed to peace with Charlemagne leaving Saxony to the Saxons so long as the King was baptized. He did, Charlemagne loaded him down with gifts, the Pope sent him a pat on the back and there was much rejoicing. Charles then settled down in the town of Aachen, taking time out occasionally to thrash the Avars and punish heretics and corrupt clergymen. Although he did not take ‘sins of the flesh’ very seriously, at least concerning himself and his own family, Charlemagne was very conscious of being a Christian monarch and was determined to keep Church affairs orderly. He was, in this regard, not unlike the first Christian Emperor Constantine who was not without his personal flaws but who wanted a clearly understood and defined religion everyone could unite behind and he was willing to use his position to ensure that the Church was protected, its message was clear and its clergy upright.

All of this coincided with his efforts to increase defensive measures against the Vikings from the north, the pagans from the east and the Muslims to the south. Finally, the most triumphal moment for Charlemagne came on Christmas of 800 when he was crowned Emperor of the Romans at St Peter’s Basilica by Pope St Leo III. There is still some debate over whether this was planned, if Charlemagne knew it was going to happen or not but in any event it did happen and it was a pivotal moment in the history of western Europe. It marked the start of what would be known as the Holy Roman Empire (later the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation), a revival of the Imperial Roman legacy in the west and, somewhat controversially, a sign that the Pope had more or less ‘given up’ on the Byzantine Empire of the east as the protector of the Latin Church in the west. The Great Schism was still some way off but squabbles and tensions had been going on for some time even at that point and by crowning Charlemagne the Pope was effectively saying that he felt it more prudent to trust the converted former barbarians than the remnant of the Roman Empire ruled from Constantinople.

Charlemagne died not too many years after in 814. His empire was divided up among his sons, none of whom could quite match his achievements and the Holy Roman Empire would have to wait until the reign of Otto the Great to see itself reformed and solidified into a major power again. Nonetheless, European history would certainly not have developed as it did without Charlemagne, King of Franks and Lombards and Emperor of the Romans. He had rescued Europe from the worst period of the Dark Ages and set the stage for the rebuilding of Christian civilization in the west. Much was left to be done but none of it would have happened without the giant historical figure of Charlemagne. In recognition of his great achievements he was locally beatified soon after his death as Blessed Charles the Great, his feast day being January 28 where it is celebrated. Pope Benedict XIV much later confirmed this beatification and though he was formally canonized by the anti-Pope Paschal III in 1166 this step was never taken by the official Church hierarchy. However, his great contributions cannot be denied, his influence is still felt and the Latin West lost its first Holy Roman Emperor 1,198 years ago today.

Christmas Birth of the Holy Roman Empire

This being the day before Christmas, I am reminded of one of the most significant events in western history. It was on Christmas day in the year 800 that the Roman Empire in the west was reborn in the person of an illiterate but still educated and cosmopolitan Frankish king when His Holiness Pope Saint Leo III crowned that champion of western civilization, Charlemagne, Emperor of the Romans or as the title would later be best known, the first Holy Roman Emperor. This date should be burned into the minds of all monarchists certainly, all Christians certainly but all Europeans and all the descendants of western civilization as a whole.

The Holy Roman Empire has been often derided in recent times, everyone knows the phrase about it being neither holy, nor Roman nor an empire, but the fact of the matter is that the Holy Roman Empire was the central core of Christendom and a crucial part of the foundation of western civilization as a link between the glorious roots of ancient Rome and the flowering of Europe throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. Even those nations outside of the Holy Roman Empire which, after the time of Charlemagne, came to be centered largely on Germany (the first Reich or realm) all recognized the Emperor or Kaiser as the first among them even though he had no actual political jurisdiction over them.

Christendom was the tree that branched out around the Holy Roman Empire and gave the world great advances in learning, chivalry, religion and an example of the relationship that existed between religion and monarchy, the temporal and the spiritual, embodied by the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor. These two also balanced each other out because all humans can be corrupted and sometimes the Pope had to deal with a wayward Emperor just as Emperors sometimes had to rescue the Church from disorder when a Pope was less than he should have been. It was also an example of a united Europe on an entirely different order than the sort of European unity we are familiar with today. The European unity such as existed as Christendom was a unity based on shared faith and a royal hierarchy but with power resting largely on the local level with each individual kingdom, principality, duchy or city-state.

In this regard the Holy Roman Empire itself represents something of an ideal for those like myself for whom empire is not an ugly word but which represents a multitude of small states rather than massive, centralized states. The Holy Roman Emperor was seen as the first defender of Christendom, one who was absolute in that no one would even think of not having an emperor but whose power was not arbitrary because every peasant, noble lord and royal had their own rights and responsibilities over what was their own. It was, in a sense, a constitutional monarchy though nothing like the symbolic monarchies we think of today. The rule of law was what was paramount and it was the duty of the monarch to uphold the law and that law, or constitution if you like, was based on Christianity.

Things did always go smoothly, which should only serve as an example that no system is incorruptible but success or failure depends on personal character and not some ideal political formula. However, the Holy Roman Empire, successor state of the Western Roman Empire, was the bulwark of Christendom for most of the last thousand years. It was not dissolved until 1806 when the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II became Emperor Francis I of the Austrian Empire. This successor state of the successor state of ancient Rome lasted until 1918 with the defeat of Austria-Hungary in the First World War and the removal of Blessed Emperor Charles I. Thus for the largest part of Christian history the Holy Roman Empire was the heart and center of the wider Christendom and thus it is only fitting that it all started on Christmas 1,209 years ago this Christmas day.