I
Pepin had two sons Charles and Carloman. After the death of their
father they ruled together, but in a few years Carloman died, and
then Charles became sole king.
This Charles was the most famous of the kings of the Franks. He did
so many great and wonderful things that he is called Charlemagne
(_shar-le-main'_) which means Charles the Great.
He was a great soldier. For thirty years he carried on a war against
the Saxons. Finally he conquered them, and their great chief, Wittekind,
submitted to him. The Saxons were a people of Germany, who then
lived near the land of the Franks. They spoke the same language
and were of the same race as the Franks, but had not been civilized
by contact with the Romans.
They were still pagans, just as the Franks had been before Clovis
became a Christian. They actually offered human sacrifices.
After Charlemagne conquered them he made their lands part of his
kingdom. A great number of them, among whom was Wittekind, then
became Christians and were baptized; and soon they had churches
and schools in many parts of their country.
Another of Charlemagne's wars was against the Lombards.
Pepin, as you have read, had defeated the Lombards and given to
the Pope part of the country held by them. The Lombard king now
invaded the Pope's lands and threatened Rome itself; so the Pope
sent to Charlemagne for help.
Charlemagne quickly marched across the Alps and attacked the Lombards.
He drove them out of the Pope's lands and took possession of their
country.
After he had conquered the Lombards he carried on war, in 778,
in Spain. A large portion of Spain was then held by the Moorish
Saracens. But a Mohammedan leader from Damascus had invaded their
country, and the Moors invited Charlemagne to help them. He therefore
led an army across the Pyrenees. He succeeded in putting his Moorish
friends in possession of their lands in Spain and then set out on
his return to his own country.
On the march his army was divided into two parts. The main body
was led by Charlemagne himself. The rear guard was commanded by a
famous warrior named Roland. While marching through the narrow pass
of Roncesvalles (_ron-thes-val'yes_), among the Pyrenees, Roland's
division was attacked by a tribe called the Basques (_basks_), who
lived on the mountain slopes of the neighboring region.
[Illustration: THE BAPTISM OF WITTEKIND]
High cliffs walled in the pass on either side. From the tops of
these cliffs the Basques hurled down rocks and trunks of trees
upon the Franks, and crushed many of them to death. Besides this,
the wild mountaineers descended into the pass and attacked them
with weapons. Roland fought bravely; but at last he was overpowered,
and he and all his men were killed.
Roland had a friend and companion named Oliver, who was as brave
as himself. Many stories and songs have been written telling of
the wonderful adventures they were said to have had and of their
wonderful deeds in war.
The work of Charlemagne in Spain was quickly undone; for Abd-er-Rahman,
the leader of the Mohammedans who had come from Damascus, soon
conquered almost all the territory south of the Pyrenees.
[Illustration: ROLAND IN THE BATTLE OF RONCESVALLES]
For more than forty years Charlemagne was king of the Franks; but
a still greater dignity was to come to him. In the year 800 some
of the people in Rome rebelled against the Pope, and Charlemagne
went with an army to put down the rebellion. He entered the city
with great pomp and soon conquered the rebels. On Christmas day
he went to the church of St. Peter, and as he knelt before the
altar the Pope placed a crown upon his head, saying:
"Long live Charles Augustus, Emperor of the Romans."
The people assembled in the church shouted the same words; and so
Charlemagne was now emperor of the Western Roman Empire, as well
as king of the Franks.[*]
[Footnote: The emperors of Constantinople still called themselves
Roman Emperors, and still claimed Italy, Germany and France as
parts of their empire, though really their authority had not been
respected in these countries for more than 300 years.]
Charlemagne built a splendid palace at Aix-la-Chapelle
(_aks-la-shap-el'_), a town in Germany, where perhaps he was born.
Charlemagne was a tall man, with long, flowing beard, and of noble
appearance. He dressed in very simple style; but when he went into
battle he wore armor, as was the custom for kings and nobles, and
often for ordinary soldiers in his day.
[Illustration: THE POPE CROWNING CHARLEMAGNE]
Armor was made of leather or iron, or both together. There was a
helmet of iron for the head, and a breastplate to cover the breast,
or a coat of mail to cover the body. The coat of mail was made of
small iron or steel rings linked together, or fastened on to a
leather shirt. Coverings for the legs and feet were often attached
to the coat.