PersonAD 814
Charlemagne
Also called: Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus, Karl der Große
King of the Franks (r. 768–814) who united most of Western Europe and was crowned Emperor of the Romans by the pope in 800
The son of Pepin III, he was born in 742, 747 or 748 — the year is disputed. He led some fifty campaigns and fought the Saxons for more than thirty years, forcing Christianity on them. He tried to learn to write only late in life, but he loved learning and gathered scholars such as Alcuin at his court. He exchanged embassies with the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in Baghdad. As Charlemagne in French and Karl der Große in German, he is claimed as a founding father by both nations.