Charlemagne

Charlemagne (747/748–814), eldest son of Pepin the Short, was King of the Franks and Lombards and the first emperor recognised in the West since Rome fell. He ruled from 768, alone after his brother Carloman died in 771, and took the Lombard crown in 774. His Saxon Wars of 772–804 subdued and converted the Saxons.

He subdued Bavaria and the Avars and received Pope Leo III after an attack in 799; on Christmas Day 800 the Pope crowned him emperor in Rome. Caliph Harun al-Rashid sent him an elephant, which reached Aachen in 802, where he ruled from 801.

His court saw the Carolingian Renaissance. In 806 he divided the realm among his sons, but by 811 only Louis survived. He died of pleurisy on 28 January 814 and was buried at Aachen; Louis's sons later split the empire at Verdun into West and East Francia.