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I was reading an article today about Petrarch's view of the East (particularly the Islamic and Byzantine worlds). In one of his writings in which he tries to drum up support for another crusade to free the Holy Land, he refers to Charlemagne. It was interesting to hear that there had been serious talk into the fourteenth century about launching another crusade, and even more interesting to hear about the view of Charlemagne in the late medieval period, and into the Renaissance. The belief was that Charlemagne had gone to the Holy Land to free it from Muslim control (this would have been centuries before the first crusade was actually launched), and that Charlemagne would somehow come back at the end of the world. This was something I had never heard before. Anyone else come across discussion of this in other readings?
I don't have any written reference about this but I can show you how important was Charlemagne during the Romanesque period with this detail of the tympanum of Sainte Foy church in Conques (c. 1107) illustrating the Last Judgement with Charlemagne, Saint Peter, the Virgin and Dadonhttp://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/conques/tympanum.middle2.html
The Germans referrred to Charlemagne's empire as the First Reich, brief and shakey as it was by the end of his reign both internally and extenally.
Brief and shaky ? Would you explain pls ?
Simple, his Empire fell apart within 50 years of his death as his son's squabbled. Charlemagne himself was the glue that held his empire together, absent hi it disintegrated.
As Scout said, plus C's cousin Wala ruled in his name the last few years of his life. The empire was divided among Louis three sons in 817. Then Louis' 2nd wife Judith gave birth to the future Charles the Bald and demanded he be given his portion of the empire.Two rebellions 830 and 833 and wars after Louis' death lead to the 843 Treaty of Verdun.
What happened between his descendants doesn't diminish Charlemagne's importance therefore Phid initial post.
But his importance was more symbolic than lasting. The point is that what he accomplished did not last, only the legend did. Don't get me wrong the legend is worth something, it is just not a real accomplishment.
In my opinion, Charlemagne's greatest legacy was the establishment of the Palace Academy under Alcuin and with the help of Irish monks and other men of learning. They brought light to what was thought of as the Dark Ages and began what might have been an earlier renaissance. The select students known as Nutritii, the nourished ones, learned the classic trivium and quadrivium.
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