Charles The Great
The First Holy Roman Emperor
Charles "Charlemagne" the Great and his Life
King Charles was born about April 2nd, 947 in Aachen, Austrasia (now part of Germany). He was the son of the current king, King Pepin the Short and his soon to be wife: Bertrada. He was considered Illegitimate because they were yet to be married at the time while his brother Carloman was so he was more well liked. Now in 741 Pepin became mayor of the palace and soon in 751 disposed of the last Merovingian king and became the king of the Franks, the powerful Germanic tribe that was settled in the French region. While Charles' childhood is very mysterious we know that in 754 he participated in the Pope's crowning of King Pepin which also gave birth to the historic Papal States. Soon, in October 768 King Pepin died and Charlemagne took power along with his brother Carloman. But, due to Carloman's "better legitimacy" he was given the better portion of the land. (Shown in the slightly more orange portion of the map while Charles got the less wealthy land in the yellow) Due to Carloman's larger and wealthier land the relations between the two brothers turned sour. But in 771 Carloman died mysteriously and left Charlemagne as the sole ruler of the entire kingdom. He soon struck against the Italians to save the Papacy then fought the Muslims in Corboda, next he started many campaigns against the Saxons and the Avars (Huns) in the east which caused the eastern push of Christianity (or Drang nach Osten). Soon, he made the Holy Roman Empire and also he soon dies in 814 and his kingdom was split between his 3 sons: Charles, Pepin, and Louis inheirited the kingdom. But, soon the death of Pepin and Charles had caused turmoil in the kingdom and soon there was trouble. Finally at his death that was in 814 he left alot of money to the churches and a little to his sons.
Split of the kingdom
Yellow: Charles' portion
Orange: Carloman's portion
Charlemagne's expansion
Purple is his kingdom at inheiritence and light blue is his expansion
Map of Charles' empire at his death
This includes some of the his tributary states to his empire (Purple)
Sources
[http://usna.edu/Users/history/abels/hh381/syllabusfall09.htm]
(from N. Hooper and M. Bennett, Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages)
[https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/imladjov/maps/]