How Did Charlemagne Contribute To Western Greatness

Charlemagne, the “Father of Europe,” was a Carolingian king renowned for his military conquests, cultural reforms, and expanding his empire to cover most of Europe. The Carolingian dynasty stemmed from the fall of the Merovingian rulers and their laxity during their rule. Charlemagne’s grandfather, Charles Martel, was the Mayor of the Palace, and this form of government only occurred because of the carelessness displayed by the Merovingian “Do Nothing” Kings. After his death, his son, Pepin III, began this Carolingian Dynasty when he became king in 752 AD, ending the Merovingian Dynasty. Charlemagne took over the Frankish throne after Pepin had passed and throughout his reign, he caused many advancements in his empire and throughout Western

Charlemagne did exactly this, achieving incredible feats and setting a precedent for the centuries to follow. Charlemagne, during his reign, sparked a cultural and intellectual renaissance, conquered much of Europe, and maintained his vast empire. During Charlemagne’s reign, books were scarce, and incredibly low literacy rates filled the empire. In order to address this educational deficiency, Charlemagne encouraged his monks to copy manuscripts, ensuring that literature would be easily accessible across the empire. Charlemagne, though he was not literate until his adult years, focused on the education of his people as he established a free school at the palace, pioneering an equal education and giving his people an opportunity to be less reliant upon the church for their education. Charlemagne divided this education into two parts: the quadrivium and the trivium. The quadrivium focused on math, geometry, astronomy, and music, whereas the trivium focused on rhetoric, logic, and grammar. This Carolingian Renaissance Charlemagne sparked also brought forth the Carolingian Minuscule, a script designed for maximum legibility that included many features used in modern-day writings: punctuation, a mixture of uppercase and lower-case letters, and word spacing. Charlemagne, like his predecessors,