He was known as Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and from his birth in 742 to his death in 814 he paved the way for the development of modern Europe. As horse-lovers flood into the city of Aachen in Germany this week to enjoy the annual World Equestrian Festival which incorporates the fifth leg of the 2007 Samsung Super League with FEI series, they come to the place that Charlemagne made his home and which developed into an important cultural centre that continues to attract visitors from all around the world.
Charlemagne's motto - "By the sword and the cross" - echoed his life's work as, in the way of his time, he saw no contradiction in using brutal force to impose his Christian beliefs while also bringing about order. His place of birth is unknown but he was the eldest son of Pippin the Short and Bertrade of Laon, also called Bertha with the big feet or Bertha Broadfoot, and was of German origin. Physical strength, courage, pride and a kind of simplicity marked him out as a man. He was relatively uneducated and addressed that in his later life when he tried to conquer the art of writing. He could read and speak old Teutonic and Latin while also understanding Greek, but writing itself proved too difficult to learn in his old age.
In 786 when aged 26, he and his younger brother Carloman inherited the kingdom of the Franks and when Carloman died three years later Charlemagne became sole king. Determined to strengthen his realm and to bring some order to Europe he set about a 30-year military campaign, becoming undisputed ruler of western Europe with a vast realm encompassing modern-day France, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, half of present-day Italy and Germany and parts of Austria and Spain. By establishing a central government he restored much of the unity of the old Roman Empire and laid the foundations for the Europe we know today.
His love affair with Aachen began during a visit to the town renowned for hot springs which earned it the name Aquisgranum during Roman times. In 788 he began construction of his imperial palace in front of which he placed a statue of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius mounted on his horse. It was a copy of the famous statue which is originally believed to have stood in the Roman Forum before being moved to the Capitoline Museum where it is now situated indoors for preservation purposes. The original statue, which celebrates the Emperor's triumph over the Germanic peoples during his reign from 160-180 AD, is understood to have survived only because it was mistaken as an image of the Emperor Constantine. The copy placed outside the palace in Aachen was taken from Ravenna in Italy.
In 790 work began on the Aachen Cathedral with its Classical, Byzantine and Germanic-Franconian elements which would be the venue for the coronation of 30 German kings. The Palatine Chapel at the core of the Cathedral has been described as a masterpiece of Carolingian architecture and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It houses many important relics which attracted swarms of pilgrims during the Middle Ages and when Charlemagne died he was buried in the chapel's choir.
Charlemagne was a ferocious fighter, once ordering the execution of 4,500 Saxon rebels in one day, but it is said that he loved administration more than war and promoted the ideal of public participation in government through regular open-air assemblies at venues such as Worms, Valenciennes, Aachen, Geneva and Paderborn. He legislated on agriculture, industry, finance, education and religion as well as for government and morals and unsuccessfully struggled to protect a free peasantry against the spread of serfdom. Appalled by the illiteracy of his era he recruited scholars from Ireland, Britain and Italy and he studied rhetoric and astronomy and compiled a German grammar while also collecting German poetry.
He definitely had a sense of humour. Ambiguous in his dealings with the church, he once asked the clergy what they meant by professing to renounce the world "when we see some of them labouring day by day, by all sorts of means, to augment their possessions". But at the same time he insisted that the bishops made "gifts" to help meet the expense of his government. And he had an interesting private life with four successive wives, five mistresses and some eighteen children. His relationship with the church however transformed his kingdom into the Holy Roman Empire with all the security and prestige that this could bring and in 1165, when time had washed away all memory of his transgressions, the church he had served so well declared him a saint.
The Samsung Super League with FEI competition is all about the struggle for supremacy between the world's greatest show jumping nations but it is also about the coming together of people who share a passion for equestrian excellence. Despite their differences they communicate through the language of the horse world, and the great King Charlemagne understood well the value of the spoken word - "to have another language is to possess a second soul" he once said. A visit to the Cathedral built by Carolus Magnus, Karl der Gross, Charlemagne is a must for everyone visiting Aachen.
Campus
