Charlemagne’s adviser and friend Alcuin (ca. 735–804) wrote that “a king should be strong against his enemies, humble to Christians, feared by pagans, loved by the poor and judicious in counsel and maintaining justice.”1 Charlemagne worked to realize those ideals in all their aspects. Through brutal military expeditions that brought wealth — lands, booty, slaves, and tribute — and by peaceful travel, personal appearances, and the sheer force of his personality, Charlemagne sought to awe newly conquered peoples and rebellious domestic enemies.

If an ideal king was “strong against his enemies” and “feared by pagans,” Charlemagne more than met the standard. His reign was characterized by constant warfare. He subdued all of the north of modern France, but his greatest successes were in today’s Germany, where he fought battles he justified as spreading Christianity to pagan peoples. In the course of a bloody thirty-year war against the Saxons, he added most of the northwestern German peoples to the Frankish kingdom. He established bishoprics in areas he had conquered, so church officials and church institutions became important means of imposing Frankish rule.

Charlemagne also achieved spectacular results in the south, incorporating Lombardy into the Frankish kingdom. He ended Bavarian independence and defeated the nomadic Avars, opening eastern Germany for later settlement by Franks. He successfully fought the Byzantine Empire for Venetia, Istria, and Dalmatia and temporarily annexed those areas to his kingdom. By around 805, the Frankish kingdom included all of northwestern Europe except Scandinavia and Britain (Map 8.2).