Charlemagne S Practice Of Empire

A new interpretation of Charlemagne, examining how the Frankish king and his men learned to govern the first European empire.

This book focuses directly on the reign of Charlemagne, bringing together a wide range of perspectives and sources with contributions from fifteen of the top scholars of early medieval Europe. The contributors have taken a number of original approaches to the subject, from the fields of archaeology and numismatics to thoroughly-researched essays on key historical texts. The essays are embedded in the scholarship of recent decades but also offer insights into new areas and new approaches for research. A full bibliography of works in English as well as key reading in European languages is provided, making the volume essential reading for experienced scholars as well as students new to the history of the early middle ages.

Through his foreign conquests & internal reforms, Charlemagne is a defining figure of both Western Europe & the Middle Ages. Crowned king of the Franks in 768, he expanded their kingdoms into an empire that incorporated much of western & central Europe. In this study, Hywel Williams explores every facet of Charlemagne's rule.

Charlemagne, ruler of the vast Frankish kingdom from 768 to his death in 814 and emperor from the year 800, is considered the father of Europe. He founded the first empire in western Europe after the fall of Rome, and his court at Aix-la-Chapelle was a centre of classical learning and a focus of the Carolingian Renaissance. This book is an introduction to Charlemagne's life and legend. Matthias Becher describes Charlemagne's rise to emperor and traces his political and military manoeuvering against the Saxons, the Lombards, and others, as Charlemagne incorporated these lands into his own realm. Becher points out that under Charlemagne, jury courts were introduced, the laws of the Franks revised and written down, new coinage introduced, weights and measures reformed, and a Frankish grammar begun. Charlemagne tried to give his kingdom a spiritual basis by referring to antique traditions, says Becher, and he explores the tensions that existed in Charlemagne's court between modern ideas and traditional thinking. He concludes by discussing Charlemagne's kinship network, the evolving arrangements for his succession, the effects of his reign, and his posthumous fame. information about a remarkable man and his times.