Roman Empire fell under the onslaught of the barbarians, left a great nostalgic aspirations.Splendor and majesty of ancient Rome were such that they even tried to copy the conquerors.In Europe, there were underlying processes wishing to revive the powerful single State, which would extend as previously Rome, from the Atlantic Ocean all the lands of Western Europe.To fulfill the dream of the earth to gather in a single state could only empire of Charlemagne.A brief look at its history, the rise and fall.
After the fall of Rome and the imperial power, one of the leaders of the Germanic tribe of the Franks, Clovis, proclaims itself at the end of the V century king.From his dynasty, which bears the name of the Merovingian.In the VIII century.Pepin the Short, mayor of the palace of the last Merovingian king, deposed in 751, his suzerain.Pepin's son seized the throne - Charles, later called the Great.Being a born soldier and a talented military leader, the new ruler of not only gave the name of the entire royal family, but also managed to expand the boundaries of the Frankish state to unprecedented proportions.As a result of his military campaigns formed the present superstate - the empire of Charlemagne.
He inherited the reins early and was king 46 years (from 768 to 814 years).During this time he participated in the fifty military campaigns.As a result, thanks to the genius of the commander, Charles increased the area of the kingdom doubled.He annexed Bavaria and Italy.In the east, he conquered the Saxons, and every time they brutally suppressed the uprising, and successfully defeated the Turks threatened him with the accident.In the west, Charlemagne's empire was faced with a more powerful enemy - the Saracens, who also led his the conquest, capturing almost the entire Iberian Peninsula.The troops managed to oust the ruler of the river Ebro.
In its heyday, around the year 800, Charlemagne's empire stretched from the Ebro in the west to the Danube and Elbe in the east, to the north she went to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea and to the south - to the Mediterranean.Strategically right to complain to the Pope temporal power over the "Papal States", the founder of the dynasty was able to get the support of the clergy, and at the same time, the pope considered his vassal.In the year 800, on Christmas Day, Leo III, Pope put on the great ruler of the imperial crown and proclaimed it before the whole Christian world, "God, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor."
Empire of Charlemagne maintained diplomatic relations with the Byzantine Empire and the Arab world.In an effort to revive the power of the Roman Empire and the brilliance of antiquity, the ruler founded in his capital, Aachen, a kind of cultural center.There, at the invitation of the king, came and worked John Scott Erigena, Alcuin, Paul Deacon, Hraban Moor and others.By imperial decree in various parts of the country it was founded schools where learning is not only monks but also secular people.This brief flowering of culture was the historians called the "Carolingian Renaissance".
However, the sons of Charles - Louis, Lothar and Charles the Bald - could not agree on inheritance and began to conduct with each other strife.In 843, Treaty of Verdun was signed, according to which the territory was divided between the two brothers.Despite the fact that the royal family still existed, the Carolingian Empire broke apart.The title of Emperor is becoming more ephemeral.In the XI century.in the kingdom of France begins a new, Capetian Dynasty (founder Hugh Capet).
