Greek Gods- Rome- Middle Ages- England

Charlemagne

Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, became King of the Franks when his father Pippin died. He was the greatest ruler of his time; and for hundreds of years after his death his influence continued to be felt in Western Europe. If Columbus had never been born, America would have been discovered just the same; and if Luther had never lived there would nevertheless have been a Reformation in the church. But if Charlemagne had never been King of the Franks, and made himself Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire,—as we shall see that he did,—the whole history of the Middle Ages would have been very different from what it actually was.

At first Charlemagne's brother ruled with him as King; but within three years the brother died, and then Charlemagne ruled as sole King of the Franks. He owed the power which he had largely to his father, and to his grandfather, Charles Martel; but Charlemagne used his power wisely and well, and greatly increased it. He put down the rebellions of the peoples who rose against the rule of the Franks; he defended the land against the Mohammedans of Spain and the heathen Germans of the North; he conquered new lands and new peoples. In addition he set up an improved system of government; and he did all that he could to encourage learning an make his people more civilized than they had been before.

When we read of all the things that Charlemagne did, we wonder that he was able to do so much. In the forty-six years that he was King he sent out more than fifty expeditions against different enemies; and in more than half of these he took the command himself. Charlemagne's wars, however, were not simply for plunder, or for more land, as so many of the earlier wars of the Franks had been. They were fought either to keep down the peoples whom the Franks had already conquered; or else to keep out new peoples who were seeking to conquer the Franks. In both these objects Charlemagne was successful. The net result of his wars was that almost all those lands which had formerly been under the Emperors of the West, were now brought under the rule of the King of the Franks; and the peoples who lived in these lands, both the old inhabitants and the German newcomers, were allowed peaceably to live together and work out their own destiny.

The most stubborn enemy that Charlemagne had to fight was the Saxons. A portion of this people had settled in the island of Britain about three hundred years before; but many Saxon tribes still dwelt in the northern part of Germany. In Charlemagne's time they still worshipped Woden and Thor, and lived in much the same way that the Germans had done before the great migrations. It was part of Charlemagne's plan to make himself ruler of all the German nations; besides, there were constant quarrels along the border between the Saxons and the Franks. The result was that war was declared, and Charlemagne started out to conquer, to Christianize, and to civilize these heathen kinsmen. But it was a hard task; and the war lasted many years before it was ended. Again and again the Franks would march into the Saxon lands in summer and conquer the Saxon villages; but as soon as they withdrew for the winter the young warriors of the Saxons would come out from the swamps and forests to which they had retreated, and next year the work would have to be done over again.

After this had occurred several times, Charlemagne determined to make a terrible example. Forty-five hundred of the Saxon warriors who had rebelled and been captured were put to death by his orders, all in one day. This dreadful massacre was the worst thing that Charlemagne ever did; and it did not even succeed in terrifying the Saxons. Instead, it led to the hardest and bloodiest war of all, in which a chief named Widukind led on his countrymen to take vengeance for their murdered relatives and friends.

In the end Charlemagne and his Franks proved too strong for the Saxons. Widukind, at last, was obliged to surrender and be baptized, with all his followers. After that the resistance of the Saxons died away; and Charlemagne's treatment of the land was so wise that it became one of the strongest and most important parts of the kingdom.

Charlemagne also fought a number of times against the Arabs in Spain. He not only prevented them from settling in Southern France, as they had tried to do in the time of Charles Martel; but he won from them a strip of their own country south of the Pyrenees Mountains. In one of these wars, the rearguard of Charlemagne's army was cut off and slain by the mountain tribes in the narrow pass of Roncevalles. The leader of the Franks was Roland, while the leader of the enemy was called Bernardo.

Long after that day strange stories grew up and poets sang of the brave deeds of Roland, and of the mighty blasts which he gave on his hunting-horn, to warn Charlemagne of the danger to his army. Three blasts he blew, each so loud and terrible that the birds fell dead from the trees, and the enemy drew back in alarm. Charlemagne, many miles away, heard the call, and hastened to the rescue; but he came too late. An old song says: