Biography Karl the Great

Karl the Great. Miniature Chronicle Saint-Denis. Between - relations between the brothers were far from the ideal, and therefore, when after the death of Carloman in Karl, he united the whole country under his rule, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. According to contemporaries, Karl was simple in communication, and is moderate in habits. He dressed on ordinary days without luxury, drank little wine, ate moderately.

At the meal, he loved to listen to music and reading, especially the story of the heroes of antiquity. Karl was eloquent and expressed his thoughts with the ease of a real rhetoric.

In addition, he mastered several languages, including Latin and Greek, generally loved science and respected scientists. However, his hand was more familiar to the sword than to the pen, so he knew how to write badly. He deeply revered the church and observed all religious rites. Karl began his first war during his brother’s life - in the city of his brother, due to perseverance, Karl won and forced the Duke of Lupa to give the rebel shortly after the death of Carlomanus Karl began the war against the Saxons, the most difficult and long for the reign.

It lasted with breaks of 33 years and cost the francs the largest losses, since the pagans-saksa, like all the peoples of Germany, were out of nature fierce. In the city of Karl, he invaded Saxony for the first time. He destroyed the fortress of Erester and overthrew the pagan idol of Irminsul. Karl went to the war at the Langobard King of Desiderius, having previously divorced with his daughter.

Langobards settled on fortified passes in the Alps, but the Franks crossed the mountains with secret paths. Fearing the encirclement, the desideria retreated to Pavia. Leaving part of the army under the walls of the city, Karl with the remaining forces captured the entire pawnshop and reached Rome, where he was solemnly met by Stefan III. Karl promised to give dad new cities in addition to what his father gave, but subsequently he did not fulfill his promise.

In early June, Karl occupied the royal palace, and the defeated desider was forced to cut his hair in monks. Karl returned to Saxony. Having founded the fortress of Karlsburg on the border, he baptized the Saxons. On the way back in the mountains, Basques attacked him, and killed a detachment covering the convoy. Taking advantage of the absence of Karl, they raised the uprising of the Saxa-Vestfalas led by Vidukind and plundered the lands along the Rhine.

Karl brutally suppressed the uprising, taking many hostages. Karl returned to the Saxon affairs. Having divided the country into several districts and entrusting the management of the columns, he moved the army against the Slavs. But at this time, a rebellious species returned from Denmark. An uprising flashed instantly. Many francs were interrupted, the churches were destroyed, a detachment sent against the sorbes was ambushed and was completely exterminated.

Carl with the next army invaded Saxony, took hostages and executed them immediately. Then the “first Saxon capitulary” was adopted, threatening terrible punishments for any sins against the church and the Frankish administration. The next few years passed in constant skirmishes with Saxons, punitive raids and the destruction of the rebellious. Finally, in the fall, G. Vidukind requested mercy.

He came to Karl in Attanya, was baptized and received rich gifts. After that, the Saxons resistance began to weaken. At the end of G., Karl opposed the Benerant Duke of the Arichise, who tried to subjugate the pawnshop. Quickly defeating the arihis, Karl subjugated all of Italy to the very south. In the same year, he turned the troops against the Bavarian Duke of Tassilon, the old ally of the Langobards.

Tassilon was forced to surrender and go to the monastery. The Bavarian Duchy was abolished, the region went under the control of the count. , With the support of the allies - the Saxons, Frizov, Ododorites and Luzhitshan, crossed the flood bridges through the Elba and conquered the Slavic tribe of Lutich, taking many hostages. Then the war with the Avars began.

In fierce, it was only a little inferior to Saxon. Karl expelled the Avarov from the Vienna forest and pursued them to the mouth of the Rabe River, but because of the beginning of the case of horses, he was forced to retreat to Regensburg. In gg. Karl and his son Karl the young defeated the rebels, taking the hostages. In the summer, his son Pipin resumed the war against the Avars, which ended with the complete extermination of this people.

Meanwhile, Karl with his sons Karl and Louis began another large -scale trip to Saxony. He decided not to leave the country for the winter and set up a camp on the shores of Neser. Having devastated the lands between Veser and Elbo, Karl returned home, taking the prisoners. The last campaign against the Saxons took place in the city of the king himself remained in Paderman. During the Christmas Mass, the pontiff approached Karl and laid the imperial crown on his head.

Karl even pretended to be dissatisfied with the deed of the pope, but it was ostentatious discontent to reassure the indignant Byzantine court. Karl arrived in Saxony and relocated 10 thousand families from there to the internal areas of the Frankish kingdom. He gave the impersonal lands to the encouraging. Gottfried Danish raided Nordalbingia in the north of Saxony.

The emperor sent to reflect the raid of his son Karl.After that, he built several border fortresses, and in the mouths of the rivers - the place of parking of the guard ships. This was the last war of Karl. Over 40 years of reign, he expanded the possession of the Franks almost doubled. Shortly before his death, Karl called to himself Louis, the only surviving son, and in the presence of the nobility appointed him his co -ruler and heir, losing the crown on his head.

At the beginning of the city, the emperor of the "Holy Roman Empire" in - GG. The son of Pipin Koro and Bertrada. Wives: 2 from the city of Desidrata, the daughter of the King of the Langobards Dezideria; 3 from the city of Franca, solemnly collecting a common gathering, approved the kings of both brothers, and set a condition for Karl to restore the northern and western regions of the kingdom, and Carlomanus to the central and southeast to the border with Italy and Bavaria.

The conditions were accepted, and each of the kings received his share. The consent between them remained with the greatest difficulty, for many of the surroundings of Carloman tried to quarrel the brothers and even bring the matter to the war. The subsequent course of events eliminated the danger and revealed the true cause of enmity: after the death of his sons and the most noble of the courtiers in Italy, the widow of his sons in the city of Carlomanus, to seek patronage from the decider, King Langobardy.

Karl, after the death of his brother, with universal consent, was proclaimed the unified king of the Franks. According to biographer Karl Einhard, the king was very simple and moderate in his habits. In ordinary days, his outfit was little different from the clothing of a commoner. He drank wine little at dinner, he drank no more than three cups and hated drunkenness.

His lunch on weekdays consisted of only four dishes, not counting the hot, which the hunters themselves served right on the vertels and which Karl preferred to every other craft. During the meal, he listened to music or reading. He was occupied by the exploits of the ancients, as well as the composition of St. Augustine "On the City of God." After lunch in the summer, he ate several apples and drank another cup; Then, undressing Donaga, rested for two or three hours.

At night, he slept restlessly: he woke up four to five times and even got out of bed. During the morning dressing, Karl received friends, and also, if there was an urgent case that was difficult to solve without him, listened to the craving sides and sentenced the sentence. At the same time, he gave orders to his servants and ministers for the whole day. He was eloquent and with such ease expressed his thoughts that he could go beyond Rhetor.

Not limited to native speech. Karl worked a lot on foreign languages ​​and, by the way, took possession of Latin so much that he could speak on it as in his native language; In Greek, he understood more than he said. Digently engaged in various sciences, he highly appreciated scientists, showing them great respect. He himself studied grammar, rhetoric, dialectics and especially astronomy, due to which he could skillfully calculate church holidays and observe the movement of stars.

He also tried to write and for this purpose constantly kept a tablet for writing under a pillow, in order to teach his hand to bring the letters in his free time, but his work, too late, had little success. For all years, he deeply revered the church and sacredly observed all the rites. Of all the wars that Karl waged, the first was Aquitaine in the city