Carolingian France

The book describes the role and life of Charlemagne about who he was and what he was known for. Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, was king of the Franks from 742 to 814. He was a strong bold leader who unified all of Western Europe through excessive military power and blessings of the Church. He believed in education and thus provided schools to the public and made it available for use. Charlemagne change European history which brought the Frankish people a need for religious, political, and educational reforms.

Charlemagne was born in 742 in a city called Aachen. He was the son of Pepin a.k.a. Pippin for short and was the grandson of Charles Martel. His grandpa Charles had started the process of unifying Europe in the West thinking all people should be Christian or converted into one. His father Pepin continued what his dad had done during the age when he ruled and later passed down his knowledge/belief to his son Charlemagne. Basically all 3 of the family members had the same belief and that was for the church to be reformed and reorganized under the Pope. Because of that reform, their power had risen during the Carolingian Dynasty. They also believed in Political reforms and deemed it was necessary as well.

In 768, Pepin had died which soon led to Charlemagne and his brother, Carloman, to each inherit half of Frankish kingdom. Soon Carloman had died thus leaving Charlemagne to take control of the entire kingdom by himself. He had inherited great wealth and was very prosperous. Besides the wealth he had inherited, he had received an army built by his father Pepin and Grandpa Charles. He took advantage of this army given to him and doubled the size of the Frankish Kingdom.

The world of Charlemagne was a heathen one and because of that, he had wars with many tribes or kingdom. He and his army had won many of those wars defeating tribes from well-known areas such as the Aquitanians, Lombards, Saxons, Bretons, Bavarians, Huns, and the Danes. The longest battle was fighting against the Saxons which the war had lasted for nearly 33 years. With each of these tribes conquered, Charlemagne's power grew, and with great power, came great responsibilities. From all the tribes he had conquered, he removed all the leaders that would not convert themselves over to Christianity. He would replace them and appoint new ones. The new leaders would be from a high position in the Church. Also to keep in mind, those who refused to convert or become baptized in the Church were put to death.

The Church played a very important role in the kingdom ruled by Charlemagne. Because of the Church, it gave a sense of stability to Charlemagne's rule and vice versa meaning Charlemagne himself would provide stability for the Church. The people that were conquered by Charlemagne and were converted to Christianity were taught through daily reading of the Bible which included the difference between what is right and wrong. Usually the clergy within the Church were educated but under Charlemagne's rule, everyone was educated whenever possible. With the desire of spreading territory and conquering lands, Charlemagne had the desire to spread his religion Christianity throughout the kingdom following the word of God.

At the beginning of the Carolingian dynasty, the Church was suffering from many problems. The first dealing with paganistic people meaning people that has a religion other than Christianity. The second was the declining of the use for Latin Language. The third was the decline of the power of the Pope/Papacy. In