Charlemagne defeated many people between the years of 768 and 769 in order to expand his empire. These people included the Avars of Hungary, the Muslims of Spain, the Saxons of northeastern Germany, and the Frisians of the North Sea coast. He also expelled the Lombards from Italy while seizing their lands.
Charlemagne had a respectful and friendly relationship with Pope Adrian and Pope Leo. Charlemagne expelled the Lombards from Italy freeing the Pope Adrian from their threat. In return Pope Leo crowned Charlemagne as the "Holy Roman Emperor". This coronation was important because it not only increased Charlemagne's power but it also increased the papal power because it implanted the notion that the crown was the gift of the papacy, therefore increasing papal power.
Charlemagne subdued the Frisians and the Saxons by forcing them into a position where they had to choose between conversion or death. Most of the barbarians decided to convert to Christianity. Charlemagne's attempts to rid the world of pagans are very similar to the attempts made by the Nazis in the twentieth century to eliminate all traces of Judaism because both governments based conquest of people upon religious beliefs.
Charlemagne accepted the title of "Holy Roman Emperor" on the basis a woman could not rule in her own name. At the time Empress Irene was ruling under he own name and therefore most people did not accept her rule. When Charlemagne was crowned most people decided that his rule was more valid that Irene's rule. This loophole in the law was later invalidated when an undisputable emperor claimed power. This caused Charlemagne to lose his control over the entire empire and he was eventually granted the title of "imperial brother".
With incentives and rewards from the king the scholars of Charlemagne's empire sought out rare ancient works. These classic works were smuggled out of other empires into Charlemagne's. Once back in Charlemagne's empire these works were studied and transcribed before being passed onto another group of scholars who would then do the same thing. The multiple copies of books created by this process ensured that the works would most likely be preserved. These attempts by Charlemagne's scholars to preserve ancient texts were very similar to the attempts made by the scholars of the Islamic Empire.
Charlemagne gave the Jews legal protection because they were an invaluable resource to his empires wealth. They were an important part of the economy because they were the middlemen between Muslim and Christian merchants who were not on good terms at the time. In order to prevent the interruption of trade, the Jews were used as middlemen. Because they filled this important role, Charlemagne gave them legal protection. Jews were dhimmis in the Muslim empire and had to pay tax because they were not Muslim. Except for a lack of legal protection and paying tax, the Jews were treated the same by Charlemagne and the Muslims.
Charlemagne reformed the economic system by fixing prices on grain and by prohibiting trade at night to prevent unfair trade. In addition he replaced the various local currencies with a standard currency to make trade easier. To keep the economy at a high Charlemagne changed the tax system so that tax was paid in service or goods and soldiers were paid in land instead of money. All of these reforms were similar to the Roman Emperor Diocletian's economic reforms.
When Charlemagne came to the throne he became emperor of a state with dismal education. The illiteracy rate was high and secular education had practically disappeared. To fix the state of education in his empire Charlemagne offered incentive to scholars and teachers within and outside of his empire. Soon royal schools were founded, public schools were founded, and many people had becoming literate and were busy preserving ancient works of literature. The rulers of West Africa educated their people through the introduction of Islam and therefore the creation of intellectual cities such as Timbuktu. The motives of the Kings in west Africa were similar to Charlemagne's for they educated people to strength their economy through trade.
Charlemagne's military exploits led to his empires demise because he left the areas that he had conquered unprotected. Thus, leaving gaping holes into his empire that the Vikings and the Magyars would find an exploit. He unnecessary conquests exposed him to people who were worth fighting but his military had weakened and he was unable to protect his empire.
The Persian Empire used prostration as a sign of reverence towards the ruler. Diocletian was the Roman emperor who adopted this practice from the Persians.
This practice of non discrimination occurred also in the Sultanate of Delhi. Hindus were not discriminated against by the Muslims because of their religion or color. It was not done to homogenize the administration, instead it was this way because there were not enough Muslims. However there was still discrimination against caste. In Han China there was no discrimination against class because people of low classes who scored well on the tests could become government officials and this was done to homogenize the administration.
Charlemagne's empire extended to Rome, the Pyrenees, and to the begging of the North Sea continuing to the Adriatic Sea. The main part of his empire was centered around what is now France.
The Frankish Empire's economy was heavily agrarian because they were highly efficient. Through the use of rediscovered tools such as the heavy plow and the three field system Charlemagne's empire was able to produce so much agriculture that they profited from it. In fact the agriculture was so efficient that Charlemagne was able to eliminate monetary tax because he made more profit from his royal fields than from conquest and gifts combined.
When the Muslims gained control of the Mediterranean Sea they interrupted trade between Europeans and the Egyptians who produced papyrus, an inexpensive type of paper. The Europeans were forced to rely on much more expensive types of paper. To reduce the cost of transcribing books and writing, scholars began to write in miniscule script to save space. However, this script was very non-uniform and sometimes indecipherable. The head of the scholars perfected a type of miniscule script which was also very readable called Carolingian Miniscule. This script became the standard script so that books could be written in a neat and cost effective manner.
The Byzantine Empire affected the Frankish Kingdom culturally in the field of architecture. Carolingian architecture, the architecture of Charlemagne's empire, was based upon Byzantine architecture.
Charlemagne was considered a holy barbarian because of his attempts and success at converting and unifying Europe with Christianity. His determination, loyalty and relationship with the church which were all demonstrated through his conquests gave him holy status. His barbarian status probably came from the fact that he seemed to be obsessed with warfare, preformed unnecessary slaughter, and the fact that Charlemagne could not speak Greek.
The true cause of Charlemagne's death around 72 years of age is unknown. However, historians have suggested several causes of death; famine, depression over the death of his two sons, loss of will after many years of arguing for the title of "Holy Roman Emperor", senility, and suicide caused by fear of invasion. Charlemagne's burial was quite unusual because he was buried sitting upright on a throne.
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