Coronation of Charlemagne (800): Emperor of the Romans

The coronation of Charlemagne took place in Old St Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Christmas Day, 25 December 800. Pope Leo III placed a crown on the head of the Frankish king, and the Romans present acclaimed him emperor. For the first time since the last western Roman emperor was deposed in 476, a ruler in western Europe held the imperial title, a step that reshaped relations between the papacy, the Franks and the Byzantine Empire for centuries.

Background: the king of the Franks

Charlemagne (Charles the Great) became king of the Franks in 768, sharing power with his brother Carloman until Carloman’s death in 771. By 800 he ruled a vast realm stretching from the Pyrenees to the Elbe and from the North Sea to central Italy. He had conquered the Lombard kingdom of Italy in 774 and, after decades of brutal warfare, the pagan Saxons, an episode marked by the Massacre of Verden in 782.

His family had long been allied with the papacy. In 751 his father Pippin had become king with papal approval, and in 756 he handed central Italian lands to the pope in the Donation of Pepin. Charlemagne confirmed and protected these territories. The popes, in turn, looked to the Franks rather than to distant Constantinople for defence.

Charlemagne’s court at Aachen was also a centre of learning, where scholars such as Alcuin of York promoted the idea of a Christian empire under a ruler chosen by God. Alcuin’s letters from the 790s already describe Charlemagne in terms close to imperial.

The crisis of 799

Leo III was elected pope in 795. He had powerful enemies among the Roman aristocracy, including relatives of his predecessor Hadrian I. On 25 April 799, during a religious procession through Rome, he was attacked by a group led by the papal officials Paschalis and Campulus. They tried to blind him and cut out his tongue, and accused him of crimes including adultery and perjury.

Leo escaped and fled north to Charlemagne, who was then at Paderborn in Saxony. The king received him with honour but also listened to envoys from Leo’s accusers. In the autumn of 799 Leo returned to Rome with a Frankish escort, and Frankish officials investigated the charges.

The East: an empty throne?

The situation in Constantinople mattered too. In 797 Empress Irene had deposed and blinded her own son, Emperor Constantine VI, and ruled alone in her own name. For many in the West a woman could not hold the imperial office, so the throne of the Roman Empire was effectively vacant. The Annals of Lorsch, a Frankish source, give this as one of the reasons for making Charlemagne emperor. More about her reign is in Empress Irene of Athens.

What happened in Rome

Charlemagne set out for Rome in 800. According to the Royal Frankish Annals, Leo met him at Mentana, twelve miles from the city, on 23 November, and the next day received him formally on the steps of St Peter’s. A council of Frankish and Roman clergy met in early December to examine the charges against the pope.

No one was willing to judge the pope, so on 23 December Leo cleared himself by swearing a solemn oath on the Gospels in St Peter’s that he was innocent. On the same day envoys arrived from the Patriarch of Jerusalem bringing the keys of the Holy Sepulchre and a banner, a symbolic gesture of respect to Charlemagne as protector of Christians.

Two days later, at Mass on Christmas Day, Charlemagne rose from prayer before the tomb of St Peter. Leo placed a crown on his head. According to the Royal Frankish Annals, the Romans present cried out, three times, a Latin acclamation hailing Charles as great and peace-bringing emperor of the Romans, crowned by God, and wishing him life and victory. The pope then honoured him with the ritual prostration once given to the old emperors. On the same day Charlemagne’s son Charles was anointed king.

Was Charlemagne surprised?

Einhard, Charlemagne’s biographer, wrote that at first Charlemagne disliked the title so much that he said he would not have entered the church, even on a great feast day, had he known the pope’s plan. This remark has been debated for centuries.

Most modern historians believe the coronation was planned in advance by both sides; it is hard to imagine a crown and a choreographed acclamation being improvised. Charlemagne’s displeasure, if real, may have concerned the order of the ceremony, in which the pope’s act of crowning came before the people’s acclamation. That sequence could suggest that the pope made the emperor. He may also have feared the reaction in Constantinople.

Reaction and consequences

From 801 Charlemagne’s documents used a carefully worded title: most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and peaceful emperor, governing the Roman Empire, and by the mercy of God king of the Franks and the Lombards. The phrasing avoided a direct claim to be emperor of the Romans, the title of the ruler in Constantinople.

The Byzantines regarded the coronation as usurpation. A later Byzantine chronicler, Theophanes, reported that Charlemagne even proposed marriage to Irene, though this is uncertain. Irene was overthrown in 802, and conflict followed over Venice and Dalmatia. In 812 envoys of Emperor Michael I acknowledged Charlemagne as emperor (basileus) at Aachen, in exchange for Frankish concessions on Venice. Constantinople, however, continued to see itself as the only true Roman Empire.

In 813 Charlemagne crowned his son Louis the Pious as co-emperor at Aachen without the pope. Charlemagne died in January 814. The western imperial title passed through his descendants, weakened as the empire was divided at the Treaty of Verdun in 843, and lapsed in 924.

Legacy

In 962 Pope John XII crowned the German king Otto I emperor, reviving the title in a form that lasted until 1806. Later generations called this state the Holy Roman Empire. Its rulers saw themselves as successors of Charlemagne and of ancient Rome.

The coronation also created a lasting argument about the relationship between popes and emperors. Popes later claimed that because Leo had crowned Charlemagne, the papacy had the right to confer the empire. Emperors replied that their power came directly from God. This dispute shaped medieval politics, including the investiture conflicts of the 11th and 12th centuries.

The ceremony became one of the most famous images of medieval history. In the 16th century Raphael’s workshop painted it in the Vatican, giving Leo III the features of Pope Leo X and Charlemagne those of King Francis I of France. Napoleon consciously invoked Charlemagne when he was crowned emperor in 1804.

Myths and facts

Myth: Charlemagne founded the Holy Roman Empire in 800. The phrase Holy Roman Empire was not used until the 13th century. Charlemagne’s empire was a Frankish realm with a Roman imperial title.

Myth: the coronation was a complete surprise. Einhard’s story suggests reluctance, but the preparations in Rome point to careful planning.

Myth: Charlemagne was crowned with the Imperial Crown now in Vienna. The crown kept in the Vienna Treasury dates from the 10th or 11th century, long after Charlemagne’s death.

Key people

Charlemagne (c. 747-814) was the eldest son of Pippin the Short. A tireless campaigner and reformer, he promoted church reform, standard coinage and learning. By 800 he was in his early fifties and had ruled for more than thirty years.

Pope Leo III (pope 795-816) came from a modest Roman background and rose through the papal administration. His dependence on Frankish protection after 799 shaped the coronation. He was later venerated as a saint.

Empress Irene (c. 752-803) ruled the Byzantine Empire first as regent for her son and then, from 797 to 802, as sole ruler. Her position helped Western writers argue that the imperial throne was vacant.

Einhard (c. 775-840) served at Charlemagne’s court and wrote his Life of Charlemagne, probably in the 820s. Modelled on the Roman biographer Suetonius, it is the source of the famous story of Charlemagne’s reluctance.

Alcuin of York (c. 735-804), the leading scholar of Charlemagne’s court, wrote letters in 799 describing Charlemagne as the protector of the Church and of Christendom. His ideas helped prepare the ground for an imperial title.

Timeline

• 768: Charlemagne becomes king of the Franks.
• 774: He conquers the Lombard kingdom of Italy.
• 795, December: Leo III is elected pope.
• 797: Irene deposes Constantine VI and rules alone in Constantinople.
• 799, 25 April: Leo III is attacked in Rome and later flees to Charlemagne at Paderborn.
• 800, 24 November: Charlemagne is formally received at St Peter’s.
• 800, 23 December: Leo swears an oath of innocence.
• 800, 25 December: Leo crowns Charlemagne emperor in St Peter’s.
• 812: Byzantine envoys acknowledge Charlemagne as emperor.
• 814, 28 January: Charlemagne dies at Aachen.

Why it matters

The coronation of Charlemagne revived the idea of a western Roman emperor and tied it to the papacy. It created a lasting rivalry with Byzantium, laid the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire, and defined the shape of power in medieval Europe for a thousand years.