Did Charlemagne deserve the title "Great"?

An excellent ruler is a various idea for various individuals. It can include terrific ability in fight, or great administration strategy. www.dictionary.com Describes Great as:1. Effective; prominent: one of the terrific countries of the West.

Noteworthy; differentiated: a fantastic leader.

Grand; noble.

Charlemagne was a ruler who ruled over the Frankish Empire in the middle-dark ages. Numerous historians regard him as fantastic, for he did numerous things for the Christian Religion. We do not specifically understand when Charlemagne was called excellent.

Charlemagne was an accomplished conqueror and excellent with allurements. In one sense, Charlemagne did more than simply bring back the empire. He included to it which Roman arms never reached (64, The Times: Illustrated History of Middle Ages Europe, Felipe Fernandez-Armando). From this source, we can inform that Charlemagne was an accomplished conqueror, which could be considered as great. Charlemagne conquered many brand-new lands, and he took over Saxony, a big piece of land, with tough, strong individuals.

This would make Charlemagnes court appreciate him, for the far-reaches of his empire would bring them riches and wealth.

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He might then use this new-found wealth to shower the Catholic Church with money and riches. Einhard wrote: He offered [it] with a terrific number of vessels of gold and silver. It appears (for we do not know for particular when this title was offered) as though the title great was provided by the Catholic Church for they admired Charlemagne as he had actually assisted safeguard and spread Christianity. This would lead the Catholic Church to believe that he was excellent.

Charlemagne tried to revive the old Roman ways of Law, standardization, learning and hygiene. Charlemagne was also the creator of the Carolingian Renaissance. He revitalised learning in the courts, took interest in books and made sure that all the books of earlier generations were kept for the future. This would give the scholars a reason to call Charlemagne great, for he had revived learning from a period of Darkness where learning was forgotten and thrown away. Charlemagnes rule marked the end of the Dark ages, and the middle ages had begun. With this, Charlemagne also standardised currency using silver, while earlier there were many different types making the country run amok in confusion. He could have been called great from historians later on, who would consider this a great feat.

Charlemagne could be a cruel and harsh ruler. He had many Saxons massacred in his campaign for Saxony, and he did not see it as either cruel or harsh. The Catholic Church approved of this, for the massacred Saxons were not Christian, and the Catholic Church had been earlier bribed. This was not a great thing from Charlemagne, in the Saxons eyes, for it was an unnecessary and costly move to massacre them.

In summary, Charlemagne did deserve the title great, for he revived (to an extent) learning, standardization and law. He had also conquered many different lands for the Frankish empire. To many people, Charlemagne was a bad ruler, but even though he had been cruel and harsh, his good achievements overshadow his cruel times. Therefore, Charlemagne deserved the title great.

Bibliography

1. McGrath, F. (n.d.). The Longevity of The Saxon Wars [Adobe PDF]. RetrievedNovember 18, 2008, from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/history/studentlife/e-journal/McGrath.pdfReference Source Armesto, F. F. (Ed.). (n.d.). Illustrated History of Europe. Times Books.
2. great. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved November 17, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/greatFearns, J. (2008, November 17). Year 8 History. Lecture presented at ChineseInternational School, 2406.
3. Economic and Legal Reforms. (2008, November 2). Carolingian Renaissance.
4. Retrieved November 17, 2008, from Wikipedia Web
   site:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_RenaissanceMacMullen, R. (1997). Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to EighthCenturies. Yale University Press. (Original work published 1997)