On a cold Christmas Day in Rome; 800, fifty-eight year old Charlemagne came to Rome in answer to Pope Leo's cries for help against enemies that wanted to overthrow him. Despite the fact that this wasn't his first time being crowned, he didn't expect to be crowned the Emperor of the West, by the pope. That Christmas Day, Charlemagne, son of Pepin the Short, dressed in a garment of gold cloth, with jeweled boots and a golden gridle to his cloak, went to St. Peter's Church. Oblivious to anything, and being the pious and devout Christian, he knelt down in prayer before the altar. Then, out of nowhere, Pope Leo came up to him and placed a gold crown on his head, reciting, "To Charles of Augustus, crowned of God, the greatest and pacific Emperor, long life and victory." The assembled followers of the pope also chanted this while the crowning was taking place, for they must have known what the pope had planned.
English: "Charlemagne and the Pope". The Frankish ...
The Coronation of Charlemagne, by assistants of Ra...
Charlemagne denier Mayence 812 814. Français : De...Charlemagne deserved his crowning for a very long time. He had changed a lot of things before he was crowned. Back in 773, he invaded Lombardy and Pavia surrendered to him in January the next year, making him King of the Lombard's. Then, Charlemagne fought with the Saxons on the north border of the Frankish kingdom for thirty years. In 772, He managed to defeat them and made treaties which were ignored later so he defeated them twice more before they finally kept their promises. Finally, Charlemagne managed to unite the tribes into one kingdom and he became the King of the Franks. Now, he was crowned for the third time. He got rid of his earlier title, "King of Franks" and earned himself his new title, "Emperor of the Romans". Although you would...