Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor Carolingian

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• Reference Number: 8088

Notes:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Carolingian-77

BIOGRAPHY FROM GENEALOGICS.ORG:
Charles was born about 747, the son of Pippin 'the Short', king of the Franks, and his wife Bertrada. He came to be known as Charles The Great or Charlemagne for good reasons. His long reign changed the face of Europe politically and culturally, and he himself would remain in the minds of people in the Middle Ages as the ideal king. Many historians have taken his reign to be the true beginning of the Middle Ages. Yet in terms of territorial expansion and consolidation, of Church reform and entanglement with Rome, Charlemagne's reign merely brought the policies of his father Pippin to their logical conclusions.

Charlemagne became the subject of the first medieval biography of a layman, written by Einhard, one of his courtiers. Using as his literary model, the word portrait by Suetonius of the Emperor Augustus, Einhard described Charlemagne's appearance, his dress, his eating and drinking habits, his religious practices and intellectual interests, giving us a vivid if not perhaps entirely reliable picture of the Frankish monarch. He was strong, tall, and healthy, and ate moderately. He loved exercise: riding and hunting, and perhaps more surprising, swimming. Einhard tells us that he chose Aachen as the site for his palace because of its hot springs, and that he bathed there with his family, friends and courtiers. He spoke and read Latin as well as his native Frankish, and could understand Greek and even speak it a little. He learned grammar, rhetoric, and mathematics from the learned clerics he gathered around him, but although he kept writing-tablets under his pillow for practice (he used to wake up several times in the night) he never mastered the art of writing. He was able to make such a mark upon European history because he was a tireless and remarkably successful general. He concluded Pippin's wars with Aquitaine, and proclaimed his son Louis king in 781; the one serious defeat he suffered was in these wars, at Roncevaux in the Pyrenees, a defeat one day immortalised in 'The Song of Roland' and later 'chansons de geste'.

He added Saxony to his realm after years of vicious campaigning. Towards the end of his reign he moved against the Danes. He destroyed the kingdom of the Avars in Hungary. He subdued the Bretons, the Bavarians, and various Slav people. In the south he began the reconquest of Spain from the Arabs and established the Spanish March in the northeast of the peninsula.

But perhaps his most significant campaigns were south of the Alps, in Italy. Pope Hadrian appealed to Charlemagne for help against Desiderius of the Lombards. The campaign in the winter of 773-4 was short and decisive. Desiderius was exiled, and Charlemagne, 'King of the Franks', added 'and the Lombards' to his title. Later he appointed his son Pepin as King of Italy.

Popes were still not free of all their enemies. In 799 a rival party of Roman aristocrats ambushed Leo III, intending to gouge out his eyes and cut off his tongue. Leo fled to Charlemagne, who was at Paderborn preparing for another war against the Saxons. Charlemagne ordered Leo III to be restored, and in 800 he came to Rome himself. On Christmas Day 800, in St. Peter's, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Romans.

Charlemagne married three times. In 769 he married a daughter of Desiderius, king of The Longobards. They had no progeny and were divorced in early 771. On 30 April that year he married Hildegardis, daughter of Gerold I, count in the Kraichgau and Vintzgau, and his wife Imma/Emma. They had nine children, of whom Pippin I, Louis I, Rotrud and Bertha would have progeny. Hildegardis died in 783, and later that year he married Fastrada, with whom he had two daughters of whom Hiltrud would have progeny. He also had children by several mistresses, including Drogo and Hugo by a mistress Regina, who would both become distinguished churchmen, Drogo becoming archbishop and bishop of Metz, and Hugo becoming abbot of St. Quintin and chancellor to his half-brother Emperor Louis 'the Pious'.

Charlemagne died at Aachen on 28 January 814, and was succeeded by his son Louis.

Family/Spouse: Hildegarde Schwaaben von Vinzagu. Hildegarde was born about 758 in Thionville, Moselle, France; died on 30 Apr 783 in Thionville, Moselle, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Pippin I Carloman King of Italy Carolingian was born in 777 in Framkish Empire; died on 8 Jul 810 in Mediolanum (Milan), Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)map.

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• Name: //
• Name: Pepin the Short
• Reference Number: 8199

Notes:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pippinid-18

BIOGRAPHY from genealogics.org:

Pippin was born in 714, the son of Charles Martel and Chrodtrud. With his wife Bertrada, daughter of Heribert/Caribert, count of Laon, he had two sons Charles and Carloman, of whom Charles would have progeny.

Pippin inherited the joint right with his brother Carloman to rule the kingdom of the Franks. In 747 he became sole ruler when Carloman retired to the monastery of Monte Casino. In 751 he asked Pope Zacharias to end the nominal rule of the Merovingians and give him sole power, together with the title 'King of the Franks'. The pope agreed and King Childeric III was placed in a monastery.

Boniface, Apostle of the Germans (later canonised as St. Boniface) anointed Pippin as King of The Franks at Soissons, possibly in 751. Two years later Pippin saved the next pope, Stephen II, from the Lombards. The pope himself again anointed Pippin at the Abbey of St. Denis, together with his two young sons. Pippin proved a much more able king than the Merovingian 'Rois faineants' (do nothing kings). The Franks descended on Italy to support the pope, and they defeated Astolfo, king of the Lombards. Pippin was made a senator of Rome though he could neither read nor write.

After the pope was attacked again, Pippin again defeated Astolfo and made a gift to the pope of Lombard lands near Rome. This bequest was the beginning of the pope's status as a temporal sovereign. Pippin died at the Abbey of St. Denis in 768. His sons Charles and Carloman divided the Frank domains. Carloman soon died, leaving Charles, as the sole ruler of the kingdom of the Franks, to become the most important ruler ever to have 'the Great' added to his name. Charles The Great, or Carolus Magnus, became better known as Charlemagne.

Pepin married Bertrada 'au grand pied' Laon. Bertrada was born about 720 in Laon, Austrasia; died on 12 Jul 783 in Choisy-Au-Bac, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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• Name: Bertrada of Leon
• Reference Number: 8200

Notes:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Laon-14

BIOGRAPHY FROM GENEALOGICS.ORG:

Bertrada of Laon, also called Bertrada 'au grand pied' and Bertha Broadfoot, was born about 720 in Laon, in today's Aisne, France, the daughter of Heribert/Caribert of Laon. In 740 she married Pippin 'the Short', the son of Charles Martel, the Frankish Mayor of the Palace, although the union was not canonically sanctioned until several years later. Eleven years later, in 751, Pippin and Bertrada became King and Queen of the Franks, following Pippin's successful coup against the Frankish Merovingian monarchs.

Bertrada and Pippin are known to have had four children, three sons and one daughter; of these, Charles (Charlemagne), Carloman and Gisela survived to adulthood, while Pippin died in infancy. Charlemagne and Carloman would inherit the two halves of their father's kingdom when he died, and Gisela became a nun.

Bertrada lived at the court of her elder son Charles, and according to Einhard their relationship was excellent. She recommended that he marry his first wife Desiderata, a daughter of the Lombard king Desiderius, but he soon divorced her. Einhard claims that this was the only episode that ever strained relations between mother and son. Bertrada lived with Charlemagne until her death on 12 June 783. The king buried her with great honours in the Basilica of Saint Denis.

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• Reference Number: 8181

Notes:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pippinid-12

BIOGRAPHY FROM GENEALOGICS.ORG:
Charles Martel ('the Hammer') was born in Herstal (in modern Belgium) on 23 August 688, the son of Pippin II by his mistress Alpais. He was proclaimed Mayor of the Palace and ruled the Franks in the name of a titular king, Clothaire IV. Late in his reign he proclaimed himself duke of the Franks (over the last four years of his reign he did not even bother with the façade of a king) and by any name he was de facto ruler of the Frankish realms. In 739 he was offered an office of Roman consul, which he rejected. He expanded his rule over all three of the Frankish kingdoms: Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy. He was described by Louis Gustave and Charles Strauss, in their book _Muslem and Frank: or Charles Martel and the rescue of Europe,_ as a tall, powerfully built man who was more agile than his size would lead men to believe.

His first battles were with the Saxons, Alemanni and Bavarians. However, his importance was established when he rolled back the Saracens in a desperate battle between Tours and Poitiers in 732. This has traditionally been characterised as an event that halted the Islamic expansion in Europe that had conquered Iberia. Prior to the battle, Abdul Rahman, the Arab governor of Spain, had won a great battle near Bordeaux. This Muslem threat united the Burgundians and the Gauls of Provence, who then acknowledged the sovereignty of Charles Martel, recognising him as their saviour from the Muslem conquests. Charles finished his work by driving the Saracens out of Burgundy and the Languedoc in 737.

In addition to being the leader of the army that prevailed at Tours, Charles Martel was a truly giant figure of the Middle Ages. A brilliant general, he is considered the forefather of western heavy cavalry, chivalry, founder of the Carolingian empire (which was named after him), and a catalyst for the feudal system, which would see Europe through the Middle Ages. Although some recent scholars have suggested he was more of a beneficiary of the feudal system than a knowing agent for social change, others continue to see him as the primary catalyst.

When Charles died on 22 October 741, his sons Carloman and Pippin, still joint mayors of the palace, shared power over the kingdom of the Franks with the Merovingian king, Childeric III of the Franks.

Charles married Chrodtrudis Pippinid Unknown. Chrodtrudis was born about 690 in Austrasia; died about 725. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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• Reference Number: 8182

Notes:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-438140

Birth:
based on spouse's birth date

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• Name: Pepin of Herstal
• Reference Number: 8183

Notes:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pippinid-3

BIOGRAPHY FROM GENEALOGICS.ORG:

Pippin was born about 635, the grandson and namesake of Pippin I 'the Elder' from the marriage of Pippin's daughter Begga and Ansegisel, son of Arnulf, bishop of Metz. That marriage united the two houses of the Pippinids and the Arnulfings which created what would be called the Carolingian dynasty. Pippin II was probably born in Herstal (Héristal), in modern Belgium (where his centre of power lay), whence his epithet (he is sometimes called 'of Heristal').

As _major domus_ (mayor) of Austrasia, Pippin and Martin, duke of Laon, fought the Neustrian mayor Ebroin, who had designs on all Frankland. Ebroin defeated the Austrasians at Lucofao (Bois-du-Fay, near Laon) and came close to uniting all the Franks under his rule; however he was assassinated in 681, the victim of a combined attack by his numerous enemies. Pippin immediately made peace with his successor, Waratton.

However, Waratton's successor Berthar, and the Neustrian king Theuderic III, who since 679 was nominal king of all the Franks, made war on Austrasia. The king and his mayor were decisively defeated at the Battle of Tertry (Textrice) in the Vermandois in 687. Berthar and Theuderic withdrew themselves to Paris, where Pippin followed and eventually forced on them a peace treaty with the condition that Berthar leave his office. Pippin was created mayor in all three Frankish kingdoms (Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy) and began calling himself Duke and Prince of the Franks (_dux et princeps Francorum_). In the ensuing quarrels, Berthar killed his mother-in-law Ansfled and fled. His wife Anstrude married Pippin's eldest son Drogo, duke of Champagne, and Pippin's place in Neustria was secured.

Over the next several years, Pippin subdued the Alemanni, Friesians and Franconians, bringing them within the Frankish sphere of influence. He also began the evangelisation of Germany. In 695 he placed Drogo in the Burgundian mayorship and his other son Grimoald in the Neustrian one.

Around 670 Pippin had married Plektrudis, who had inherited substantial estates in the Moselle region. She was the mother of Drogo of Champagne and Grimoald, both of whom died before their father. However, Pippin also had a mistress named Chalpaida/Alpais who bore him two more sons: Charles and Childebrand. Just before Pippin's death, Plektrudis convinced him to disinherit his bastards in favour of his grandson Theudoald, the son of Grimoald, who was still young (and amenable to Plektrudis' control).

Pippin died suddenly at an old age on 15 November 714, at Jupille near Herstal. His legitimate grandchildren claimed themselves to be Pippin's true successors and, with the help of Plektrudis, tried to maintain the position of Mayor of the Palace after Pippin's death. However, Charles had gained favour among the Austrasians, primarily for his military prowess and ability to keep them well supplied with booty from his conquests. Despite the efforts of Plektrudis to silence her rival's child by imprisoning him, Charles Martel became the sole mayor of the palace and de facto ruler of Francia after a civil war which lasted for more than three years after Pippin's death.

Pepin married Alpais of Herstal Unknown before 690. Alpais was born about 654; died about 714. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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• Reference Number: 9827

Notes:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-190669