Charlemagne

748 – 814

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and was crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor in Rome on Christmas Day 800. His decades-long Saxon Wars to forcibly convert the pagan Saxons culminated in the 782 Massacre of Verden, in which he reportedly ordered the beheading of 4,500 captives in a single day. His Carolingian Empire briefly reunited much of Western Europe and laid the foundations for the political and religious geography of the medieval West.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM