The Forgotten Empire That Shaped Modern Europe

I would assume that most people have at least some idea of Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, the Arab Caliphates, the British Empire, or Russia/the Soviet Union and their influence on the course of history. However, I suspect that not many are particularly familiar with the medieval Frankish Empire—let alone its significance for modern Europe.

The story of this realm truly begins in the early 8th century, when the Merovingian kings who ruled the Frankish kingdom began to lose their power to local leaders. One such figure was Charles Martel, whose son Pepin the Short inherited his position.

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Pepin was not satisfied with merely holding actual power; he also wanted formal recognition in the form of a royal crown. Being a clever man, he turned to the Pope and asked: “Who is the true king—the one who has the title or the one who holds the power?” The Pope replied that the one who holds real power is the true king.

After this, Pepin deposed the last Merovingian king—who was sent to a monastery—and had himself crowned King of the Franks in 751. The new Pope Stephen II crowned him again in 754, granting him holy anointing, which made his rule religiously legitimate. At the same time, the idea began to develop that a king’s authority comes from God.

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The coronation strengthened the alliance between the Pope and Pepin, which became concrete when the Lombards in Italy threatened Rome, the center of the Church. The Pope had no army of his own, so he made an agreement with Pepin, who would protect him militarily.

In return, the Holy See committed itself to supporting Pepin’s kingship. Pepin therefore invaded and defeated the Lombards and donated the territories he conquered from them to the Pope. Thus, the Papal States were established in central Italy under papal rule.

Pepin also cooperated closely with the Church in other ways: he supported monasteries, strengthened its position, and reformed religious administration. In addition, he waged wars in Aquitaine (modern southwestern France) against rebellious dukes and against Muslims in Umayyad-held territories, capturing, among other places, Narbonne in 759.

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All of this laid the foundation for the future Carolingian great power, even though Pepin divided the kingdom between his sons Charles and Carloman. After the latter died in 771, Charles became the sole King of the Franks, and the wars of conquest began.

First, Charles—now widely known by the epithet “the Great”or "Charlemagne"—launched a war against the Saxons in 772. This was a long and brutal struggle in what is now Germany, motivated both by Charles’s desire to subjugate the Saxons and to spread Christianity. It also included the infamous Massacre of Verden (782), in which thousands of Saxons were executed.

The Lombard kingdom fell in 774 after Charles invaded northern Italy. He captured the capital, Pavia, and assumed the title King of the Lombards. Thus, his realm extended southward close to Rome.

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Charles also fought Muslims along the Iberian frontier in Spain and in the Pyrenees, where he established a buffer zone against the spread of Islam. This is connected to the famous Battle of Roncevaux Pass (778).

It began when the rear guard of Charles’s army, retreating from Spain, was ambushed in the Pyrenees at Roncevaux Pass. Local Basques attacked and almost completely destroyed it. Among the fallen was Charles’s commander Roland. The event was not militarily decisive, but it later gave rise to the famous epic The Song of Roland, in which the attackers were transformed into Muslims and Roland into a heroic figure.

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Charles also expanded his realm eastward against the Avars, advancing as far as the Danube in present-day Hungary. In doing so, he acquired great wealth and strengthened his position.

As a result, Charlemagne’s empire—or its semi-independent vassal states—extended from the Pyrenees in the southwest to the borders of Denmark in the northeast, and from the Balkans to the English Channel. In other words, a vast empire had once again emerged in Europe.

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All of this was possible because Charles was constantly at war and gave his enemies no time to recover. This, in turn, was made possible by his well-organized army, which was based on a feudal system: Charles determined how many and what kind of soldiers each region had to provide. The wealthiest supplied several warriors, while the poorest provided one.

Heavy cavalry was the most important force in the army. It consisted of nobles or wealthy men equipped with swords, spears, shields, and often chain mail. Their military service was tied to land ownership.

The infantry was composed of ordinary men with lighter equipment. They formed the majority but mainly supported the cavalry and participated in sieges.

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Charles also developed battle tactics: campaigns were usually conducted in the summer, and the army was often divided into several groups that attacked from different directions, making defense difficult. He secured his conquests by building fortifications and supplying his army both from stored provisions and from resources taken from local populations.

Soldiers were motivated both by the fact that Charles often led campaigns personally and by the idea of spreading Christianity. Administration was organized by dividing the realm into counties, whose loyalty was overseen by royal inspectors.

All of this led to—and culminated in—his coronation as Emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III in the year 800.

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A description of Charles survives, written by his courtier Einhard. According to it, he was tall and strongly built, about 190 cm in height, fair-haired, and dignified.

He reportedly ate moderately, favored roasted meat, and avoided excessive drinking. He valued learning, attempted to learn writing, spoke Latin, and understood Greek. He bathed in the Roman manner and often invited friends to join him. As a leader, he was both religious and practical, and he valued order and discipline.

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After Charles, the empire was ruled by his son Louis the Pious, who emphasized Christian morality, repentance, and atonement for sins. He even performed public acts of penance and sought to live as an example. In church policy, he supported monasteries and the Church and worked to unify ecclesiastical discipline and monastic life.

Administratively, Louis followed in his father’s footsteps but was a weaker ruler. He did not carry out major conquests, though he defended the realm against rebellions and external threats. For example, he made an agreement with the Viking leader Harald Klak to secure the coastal regions.

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Louis wished to divide the empire among his four sons. However, this did not suit his older sons—Lothair, Louis the German, and Pepin of Aquitaine—who had a different mother than Charles the Bald. As a result, the empire descended into prolonged civil wars, during which Louis himself was even briefly deposed as emperor.

The decisive battle in this power struggle was fought at Fontenoy in 841. It pitted Lothair, the eldest brother who claimed the entire empire, against Louis and Charles the Bald, who joined forces and later affirmed their alliance with the Oaths of Strasbourg (842), sworn in both a Romance vernacular and Old High German.

Both armies consisted of Frankish nobles and their forces, but neither side had a clear tactical advantage, so the outcome was decided in close combat. The battle became extremely bloody and claimed the lives of a large portion of the Frankish nobility, to the extent that it was regarded as a “tragedy of the nation.”

The result was the victory of Charles and Louis, which ultimately led to the Treaty of Verdun. The empire was divided into three parts, two of which gradually evolved into France (Charles’s share) and Germany (Louis’s share). Lothair received Italy and a central strip stretching to the North Sea, as well as the imperial crown, but his realm was eventually overshadowed by the other two and has no clear successor today.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Are We on the Brink of World War III?
Is French military history repeating itself in Ukraine?
Independence day of Finland now and 83 years ago