Does Charlemagne Deserve the Title “Great”?

Charlemagne was a very intelligent leader, and he ruled his people well. He learned several languages such as German and Latin and he kept tablets under his pillows to practice his writing. He was interested in many subjects, especially astronomy. He was saddened to learn that the Frankish people were not as well educated as the Britain people, and he made an effort to improve their education. He had several very famous scholars come to his capital city Aachen and create a school in the palace. Also, during his reign, many schools opened all over the empire and educated many people.

Charlemagne also captured much land for his empire. He added all of the Saxon’s land, part of Spain, and most of Italy. He converted all of these people to Christianity, expanding the religion. Since he expanded the empire to much of what Rome had been, and had spread Christianity, the Pope named Charlemagne the emperor of the new Holy Roman Empire.

Thirdly, Charlemagne kept his empire fair with many courts throughout the empire. He set up dozens of courts across his empire and appointed counts to run the courts. Just to make sure that the courts were fair and under control, he sent out inspectors that were called “the lord’s messengers” and make sure that the counts were running the courts properly.

Charlemagne was truly a Great ruler. He brought fairness, new lands, education and Christianity to all of Western Europe. He made the people more educated, united them under one rule and one religion, and he added much land to his empire. Charlemagne definitely does deserve the title Great.