CHARLEMAGNE AND ALCUIN
CHARLEMAGNE AND ALCUIN. In 768 there came to the throne as king of the
great Frankish nation one of the most distinguished and capable rulers of
all time–a man who would have been a commanding personality in any age or
land. His ancestors had developed a great kingdom, and it was his
grandfather who had defeated the Saracens at Tours (p. 113) and driven
them back over the Pyrenees into Spain. This man Charlemagne easily stands
out as one of the greatest figures of all history. For five hundred years
before and after him there is no ruler who matched him in insight, force,
or executive capacity. He is particularly the dominating figure of
mediaeval times. Born in an age of lawlessness and disorder, he used every
effort to civilize and rule as intelligently as possible the great
Frankish kingdom. Wars he waged to civilize and Christianize the Saxon
tribes of northern Germany, to reduce the Lombards of northern Italy to
order, and to extend the boundaries of the Frankish nation. At his death,
in 814, his kingdom had succeeded to most of the western possessions of
the old Roman Empire, including all of what to-day comprises France,
Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland, large portions of what is now western
Germany and northern Italy, and portions of northern Spain. (See Figure
41.)