bullet CAROLINE ELIZABETH(1) was born on 10 Jun 1713 in Herrenhausen. She died on 28 Dec 1757 in St. James' Palace. Parents: (King) GEORGE II and CAROLINE.

bullet CAROLINE MATILDA(1) was born on 11 Jul 1751 in Leicester House, London, England. She died on 10 May 1775 in Celle. Parents: (Prince) FREDERICK LOUIS (Prince of Wales) and AUGUSTA.

She was married to (King) CHRISTIAN VII (King of Denmark) on 8 Nov 1766 in Christiansborg.

bullet CAROLINE (1) was born on 17 May 1768 in Brunswick. She died on 7 Aug 1821 in Brandenburg Hous, Hammersmith. She was buried in Brunswick.
Brunswick-W-lfenbuttel Parents: CHARLES II and AUGUSTA.

She was married to (King) GEORGE IV on 8 Apr 1795 in Chapel Royal, St. James' Palace. Children were: CHARLOTTE.

bullet CAROLINE (1) was born on 1 Mar 1683 in Ansbach. She died on 1 Dec 1737 in St. James' Palace. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, Westminster, Middlesex, England. Parents: (Margrave) JOHN FREDERICK and ELEONORE ERDMUTHE LOUISE.

She was married to (King) GEORGE II on 22 Aug 1705 in Herrenhausen. Children were: (Prince) FREDERICK LOUIS (Prince of Wales), (Princess) ANNE, AMELIA SOPHIA ELEANOR, CAROLINE ELIZABETH, GEORGE WILLIAM, (Duke) WILLIAM AUGUSTUS (Duke of Cumberla), MARY, LOUISA .

bullet CAROLINE (1) was born in 1762. She died in 1823.
Nassau-Usingen

Children were: William LANDGRAVE , AUGUSTA WILHELMINA LOUISA.

bulletAlice CARPENTER(1).

Children were: Thomas SOUTHWORTH.

bulletBenjamin CARPENTER(1) was born in 1657/58. He died in 1726/27.

Children were: Keziah CARPENTER .

bulletKeziah CARPENTER(1) was born in 1696/97. She died in 1763. Parents: Benjamin CARPENTER and Renew WEEKS.

Children were: Submit HORTON.

bulletMary Rose CARPENTER(1).

bulletSubmit CARPENTER(1).

She was married to Jeremiah PEARCE about 1717 in Swansey, R.I.. Children were: Jonathan PEARCE, Keziah PEARCE, Renew PEARCE, Tabitha PEARCE, Jeremiah PEARCE, George PEARCE, Thomas PEARCE (Revolutionary War Sol R.I.).

bullet Caleb CARR(1)

He was married to Elizabeth PEARCE about 1740 in North Kingston, Rhode Island.

bullet Sarah CARR(1) 5 Children this marriage

She was married to Edward THURSTON about 1712.

bullet William CARRINGSTON(1) has reference number 9NH9-6H.

bulletCandace CASE(1) was born about 1795. She died about 1881.

She was married to John PEARCE about 1817. Children were: Daniel C. PEARCE, Job PEARCE, Laura PEARCE.

bullet Desire CASE(1) was born about 1733 in North Kingston, Rhode Island. She died about 1803. Parents: Joseph CASE.

Children were: John PEARCE, Sarah PEARCE, Lucy PEARCE, Elisha PEARCE, Anna PEARCE, Joseph PEARCE, Giles PEARCE, Susannah PEARCE, Desire PEARCE, Thomas PEARCE.

bulletJoseph CASE(1).

Children were: Desire CASE.

bulletCASEY (1).

He was married to Abigail C. PEARCE about 1830 in Newport, Rhode Island.

bullet William CASEY(1) was born in Easton, New York.

He was married to Betsey PEARCE about 1798.

bullet CATHERINE HENRIETTA(1) was born on 25 Nov 1638 in Vila Vicosa, Portugal. She died on 31 Dec 1705 in Palace of Bempos, Lisbon. She was buried in Belem. Parents: (King) JOHN IV (King of Portugal) and (Queen) Luiza Maria De GUZMAN .

She was married to (King) CHARLES II on 21 May 1662 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

bullet (Empress) CATHERINE II (The Great)(1) was born on 21 Apr 1729.
Christened Sophie Auguste Friedrike, Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst. In preparation for her marriage to Grand Duke Peter Feodorovich (later Emperor Peter III), she was rebaptized into the Orthodox faith and took the name Ekaterina Alekseevna, which became "Catherine." Became Empress thru her marriage. Parents: (Prince) CHRISTIAN AUGUST and JOHANNA (Holstein-Gottrop).

She was married to Sergei SALTYKOV (Presumed Father Paul I). Children were: (Emperor) PAUL I (Emperor of Russia).

She was married to (Emperor) PETER III on 21 Aug 1745 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

bullet CATHERINE LAURA(1) was born on 10 Jan 1675 in St. James' Palace. She died on 3 Oct 1675 in St. James' Palace. Parents: (Duke) JAMES II (Duke of York) and MARY BEATRICE ELEANORA.

bullet (Princess) CATHERINE (Princess of Aragon)(1) was born on 15 Dec 1485 in Alcala de Henare. Katherine of Aragón was born in 1485 in Alcala de Henares, Spain. Died in 1536. Catherine of Aragón (1485-1536), queen consort of England (1509-33), who, as the first wife of King Henry VIII, occupies a prominent place in history because the question of her marriage to Henry was a factor in the Reformation in England. She was the daughter of Ferdinand V and Isabella I, king and queen of Aragón and Castile. Catherine was born in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. Henry's father, King Henry VII, hoped to form a binding alliance with Spain when he negotiated the marriage of Catherine and his son Arthur, prince of Wales (1486-1502). She went to England in 1501 and was married in November, but Arthur died in April 1502. A few months later Henry VII arranged a second marriage for Catherine with his second son Henry, then 12 years old. A papal dispensation enabling Henry to marry the widow of his brother was obtained in 1503. Henry succeeded to the throne in April 1509 and in June he married Catherine.

Although the marriage was, on the whole, fairly successful, the pro-Spanish sympathies of Catherine brought some difficulties during the periods of French alliance. Catherine bore Henry six children, only one of whom, a daughter, later Queen Mary I, survived.

In 1527 Henry tried to annul his marriage to Catherine so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, who he hoped would give him a male heir to the throne. The pope refused to make a decision on the proposed annulment, and in 1533 Henry was married to Anne by the archbishop of Canterbury. In 1534 the pope finally declared that the first marriage was valid, thus bringing about the alienation of Henry VIII from the Roman Catholic church. Catherine did not quit the kingdom, but was thereafter closely guarded. During this time she displayed heroic courage and steadfastly refused to sign away her rights and those of Mary.
She died on 7 Jan 1536 in Kimbolton Castle, Huntingdon. She was buried in Peterborough Castle. of Argon Parents: (King) FERDINAND V (King of Aragon & Castile & Naples) and (Queen) ISABELLA I (Queen of Castile).

She was married to (King) HENRY VIII on 24 Jun 1509 in Grey Friars Church, Greenwich, England. Children were: (Duke) HENRY (Duke of Cornwall), (Queen) Mary I TUDOR.

She was married to (Prince) ARTHUR (Prince of Wales) on 14 Nov 1501 in St. Pauls' Cathedral.

bullet CATHERINE (1) was born on 14 Aug 1479 in Eltham Palace, Kent, England. She died on 15 Nov 1527 in Tiverton, Devon. Parents: (King) EDWARD IV and Elizabeth WOODVILLE.

She was married to (Earl) William COURTENAY (Earl of Devon) before Oct 1495.

bullet CATHERINE (1) was born on 29 Jun 1639 in Whitehall Palace. She died on 29 Jun 1639 in Whitehall Palace. Parents: (King) Charles I STUART and (Queen) HENRIETTA MARIA .

bullet CATHERINE (1) of Lancaster Parents: (Duke) JOHN(GAUNT) (Duke of Lancaster K.G.) and (Queen) Constanza PEREZ.

bulletCATHERINE (1) was born on 27 Oct 1401 in Hotel de St. Pol, Paris. Catherine of Valois (1401-37), queen consort of England (1420-22), wife of Henry V, king of England, and daughter of Charles VI, king of France, born in Paris. When she was 12 years old, Henry V renewed the negotiations begun by his father for a marriage with Catherine. Henry demanded a large dowry and the French regions of Aquitaine and Normandy. The proposition was rejected, and in 1415 Henry invaded France and forced compliance with his terms. When he married Catherine in Troyes, France, in June 1420, he received the provinces claimed, the regency of France during the life of Charles, and the right to succeed to the French throne after Charles's death. In February 1421 Catherine was crowned at Westminster Abbey, and in December she bore a son, later King Henry VI. After the death of Henry V in 1422, Catherine's union with the Welsh squire Owen Tudor produced four children. One of her sons, Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond (1430?-56), married Margaret Beaufort; their son became Henry VII, the first Tudor king of England. She died on 3 Jan 1437 in Bermondsey Abbey, England. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, Westminster, Middlesex, England. of France Parents: (King) CHARLES VI (King of France) and ISABELLE (Bavaria) .

She was married to (King) HENRY V on 2 Jun 1420 in Troyes. Children were: (King) HENRY VI.

Children were: (Earl) Jasper TUDOR, (Earl) Edmund TUDOR.

bulletCATHERINE (1) was born on 25 Nov 1253 in Westminster, London, Middlesex, England. She died between 3 May 1256 and 1258 in Westminster, London, Middlesex, England. She was buried in Westminster, London, Middlesex, England. She was endowed CHILD. She was baptised into the LDS church CHILD. She has reference number 8XJ8-9H. Parents: (King) HENRY III and (Queen) ELEONORE (Countess of Provence) .

bullet Elizabeth CAVENDISH(1) Parents: William CAVENDISH.

Children were: (Lady) Arabella STUART.

bulletWilliam CAVENDISH(1). Sir

Children were: Elizabeth CAVENDISH.

bulletNina Cecilia CAVENDISH-BENTIN(1).

Children were: Elizabeth Angela Marguerite BOWES-LYON (Queen Mother) .

bullet(King) CEAWLIN (CEALWIN) (King of Wessex)(1) was born about 547 in Wessex, England. He died in 591. King of Wessex (560) Parents: (King) CYNRIC (King of Wessex).

Children were: CEDDE, (Prince) CUTHWINE (CUTHA) (Prince of Wessex).

bullet(Abbess) CECILIA(1) died on 30 Jul 1126 in Caen, France. Abbess of Holy Trinity, Caen (founded by her mother) Parents: (King) WILLIAM I (The Conqueror Duke of Normandy) and Matilda De FLANDERS.

bullet CEDDE (1) Parents: (King) CEAWLIN (CEALWIN) (King of Wessex).

Children were: CENBRYTH.

bulletCENBRYTH (1) died in 661. Parents: CEDDE.

bullet CENRED (COENRED)(1) was born about 644 in Wessex, England. Parents: CUTHWULF (CEOLWALD).

Children were: (King) INE, INGILD.

bullet(Prince) Fernando De La CERDA (Prince of Castile)(1) has reference number 8XJG-9B.

He was married to (Princess) BLANCHE on 13 Nov 1269 in Burgos, Burgos, Spain.

bullet (King) CERDIC (King of Wessex)(1) was born about 467 in Saxony. He died in 534 in Wessex, England. King of Wessex 519 Parents: ELESA.

Children were: (King) CYNRIC (King of Wessex), CRIODA (CREODA) .

bulletAnne CHAMBERLAYNE(1).

Children were: Bridget RALEIGH.

bullet(Count) Guy I CHAMPAGNE (Count of Champagne)(1) has reference number HRGR-G4.

He was married to Marguerite De VALOIS after 6 Oct 1310.

bullet Jeanne De CHAMPAGNE(1) has reference number 8XJG-6S.

She was married to (Prince) PIERRE in 1272.

bullet Jane CHAMPE(1) has reference number 9PJX-X3.

bulletPolly CHAMPLIN(1).

bulletSarah CHAMPLIN(1).

She was married to Giles PEARCE about 1799 in Newport, Rhode Island.

bullet CHANDLER (1)

Children were: Licenticia CHANDLER, Samantha CHANDLER.

bulletLicenticia CHANDLER(1). Parents: CHANDLER.

She was married to Payton S. PEARCE (Civil War CSA) on 2 Feb 1868.(27) Children were: L.L. "Lessie" PEARCE, L.M. "Ollie" PEARCE, William Howran PEARCE , L.O. "Lilly" PEARCE, Henry W. PEARCE, L. May "Lula" PEARCE , Myra E. PEARCE, Walter G. PEARCE, Bryant E. PEARCE.

bullet Samantha CHANDLER(1) Parents: CHANDLER.

bulletEudo Al CHAPEL(1) has reference number HRVV-2P.

bulletLucy CHAPMAN(1) has reference number 9PJZ-2Q.

bullet(Count) CHARIBERT (Count of Laon)(1). Parents: BERTRADA I.

Children were: (Countess of Laon) BERTRADA II (Queen of The Franks).

bullet(Emperor) CHARLEMAGNE (King of the Franks)(4) (1) was born on 2 Apr 742 in Ingelheim, Rheinhessen, Hesse-Darmstadt.(4) (28) Charles I; Charlemagne 742-814, emperor of the west (800-814), Carolinian king of the Franks (768-814). The son of Pepin the Short, he consolidated his rule in his own kingdom, invaded Italy in support of the pope, and in 774 was crowned king of the Lombards. He took NE Spain from the Moors (778) and annexed Bavaria (788). After a long struggle (772-804) he subjugated and Christianized the Saxons. In (800) he restored Leo III to the papacy and was crowned emperor by him on Christmas Day, thus laying the basis for the Holy Roman Empire and finalizing the split between the Byzantine and Roman empires.

Charlemagne ruled through a highly efficient administrative system. He codified the law in his various dominions, and his court at Aachen was the center for an intellectual and artistic renaissance. The end of his reign was troubled by raids by the Norseman. His son Louis I, was co-emperor in (813) and succeeded on his father's death.

Charles The Great or Charlemagne died at Aix-la-Chapelle or Aachen buried at Aix-la-Chapelle or Aachen, Reign 768-814 Joint Ruler

Charlemagne, in Latin Carolus Magnus (Charles the Great) (742-814), king of the Franks (768-814) and Emperor of the Romans (800-14), who led his Frankish armies to victory over numerous other peoples and established his rule in most of western and central Europe. He was the best-known and most influential king in Europe in the Middle Ages.
Early Years
Charlemagne was born probably in Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), on April 2, 742, the son of the Frankish king Pepin the Short and the grandson of Charles Martel. In 751 Pepin dethroned the last Merovingian king and assumed the royal title himself. He was crowned by Pope Stephen II in 754. Besides anointing Pepin, Pope Stephen anointed both Charlemagne and his younger brother Carloman.
Within the year Pepin invaded Italy to protect the pope against the Lombards, and in 756 he again had to rush to the pope's aid. From 760 on, Pepin's main military efforts went into the conquest of Aquitaine, the lands south of the Loire River. Charlemagne accompanied his father on most of these expeditions.
Campaigns
When Pepin died in 768, the rule of his realms was to be shared between his two sons. Charlemagne sought an alliance with the Lombards by marrying (770) the daughter of their king, Desiderius (reigned 757-774). In 771 Carloman died suddenly. Charlemagne then seized his territories, but Carloman's heirs took refuge at the court of Desiderius. By that time Charlemagne had repudiated his wife, and Desiderius was no longer friendly. In 772, when Pope Adrian I appealed to Charlemagne for help against Desiderius, the Frankish king invaded Italy, deposed his erstwhile father-in-law (774), and himself assumed the royal title. He then journeyed to Rome and reaffirmed his father's promise to protect papal lands. As early as 772 Charlemagne had fought onslaughts of the heathen Saxons on his lands. Buoyed by his Italian success, he now (775) embarked on a campaign to conquer and Christianize them. That campaign had some initial success but was to drag on for 30 years, in which time he conducted many other campaigns as well. He fought in Spain in 778; on the return trip his rear guard, led by Roland, was ambushed, a story immortalized in The Song of Roland. In 788 he subjected the Bavarians to his rule, and between 791 and 796 Charlemagne's armies conquered the empire of the Avars (corresponding roughly to modern Hungary and Austria).
Coronation
Having thus established Frankish rule over so many other peoples, Charlemagne had in fact built an empire and become an emperor. It remained only for him to add the title. On Christmas Day, in 800, Charlemagne knelt to pray in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. Pope Leo III then placed a crown upon his head, and the people assembled in the church acclaimed him the great, pacific emperor of the Romans.
Charlemagne's biographer, Einhard, reported that the king was surprised by this coronation and that had he known it was going to happen, he would not have gone into the church that day. This report has led to much speculation by historians. Charlemagne probably desired and expected to get the imperial title and he subsequently used it. In 813 he designated his sole surviving son, Louis, as his successor, and personally crowned him.
Administration
Charlemagne established a more permanent royal capital than had any of his predecessors. His favorite residence from 794 on was at Aix-la-Chapelle. He had a church and a palace constructed there, based in part on architectural borrowings from Ravenna and Rome. At his court he gathered scholars from all over Europe, the most famous being the English cleric Alcuin of York, whom he placed in charge of the palace school.
Administration of the empire was entrusted to some 250 royal administrators called counts. Charlemagne issued hundreds of decrees, called capitularies, dealing with a broad range of topics from judicial and military matters to monasteries, education, and the management of royal estates.
The empire did not expand after 800; indeed, already in the 790s the seacoasts and river valleys experienced the first, dreaded visits of the Vikings. Charlemagne ordered a special watch against them in every harbor, but with little effect. He died before their full, destructive force was unleashed on the empire.
Evaluation
Charlemagne is important not only for the number of his victories and the size of his empire, but for the special blend of tradition and innovation that he represented. On the one hand, he was a traditional Germanic warrior, who spent most of his adult life fighting. In the Saxon campaigns he imposed baptism by the sword, and he retaliated against rebels with merciless slaughter. On the other hand, he placed his immense power and prestige at the service of Christian doctrine, the monastic life, the teaching of Latin, the copying of books, and the rule of law. His life, held up as a model to most later kings, thus embodied the fusion of Germanic, Roman, and Christian cultures that became the basis of European civilization.


Catholic Encyclopedia

Charlemagne
(French for Carolus Magnus, or Carlus Magnus ("Charles the Great"); German Karl der Grosse).

The name given by later generations to Charles, King of the Franks, first sovereign of the Christian Empire of the West; born 2 April, 742; died at Aachen, 28 January, 814. Note, however, that the place of his birth (whether Aachen or Liège) has never been fully ascertained, while the traditional date has been set one or more years later by recent writers; if Alcuin is to be interpreted literally the year should be 745. At the time of Charles' birth, his father, Pepin the Short, Mayor of the Palace, of the line of Arnulf, was, theoretically, only the first subject of Childeric III, the last Merovinigian King of the Franks; but this modest title implied that real power, military, civil, and even ecclesiastical, of which Childeric's crown was only the symbol. It is not certain that Bertrada (or Bertha), the mother of Charlemagne, a daughter of Charibert, Count of Laon, was legally married to Pepin until some years later than either 742 or 745.

Charlemagne's career led to his acknowledgment by the Holy See as its chief protector and coadjutor in temporals, by Constantinople as at least Basileus of the West. This reign, which involved to a greater degree than that of any other historical personage the organic development, and still more, the consolidation of Christian Europe, will be sketched in this article in the successive periods into which it naturally divides. The period of Charlemagne was also an epoch of reform for the Church in Gaul, and of foundation for the Church in Germany, marked, moreover, by an efflorescence of learning which fructified in the great Christian schools of the twelfth and later centuries.

To the Fall of Pavia (742-774)

In 752, when Charles was a child of not more than ten years, Pepin the Short had appealed to Pope Zachary to recognize his actual rule with the kingly title and dignity. The practical effect of this appeal to the Holy See was the journey of Stephen III across the Alps two years later, for the purpose of anointing with the oil of kingship not only Pepin, but also his son Charles and a younger son, Carloman. The pope then laid upon the Christian Franks a precept, under the gravest spiritual penalties, never "to choose their kings from any other family". Primogeniture did not hold in the Frankish law of succession; the monarchy was elective, though eligibility was limited to the male members of the one privileged family. Thus, then, at St. Denis on the Seine, in the Kingdom of Neustria, on the 28th of July, 754, the house of Arnulf was, by a solemn act of the supreme pontiff established upon the throne until then nominally occupied by the house of Merowig (Merovingians).

Charles, anointed to the kingly office while yet a mere child, learned the rudiments of war while still many years short of manhood, accompanying his father in several campaigns. This early experience is worth noting chiefly because it developed in the boy those military virtues which, joined with his extraordinary physical strength and intense nationalism, made him a popular hero of the Franks long before he became their rightful ruler. At length, in September, 768, Pepin the Short, foreseeing his end, made a partition of his dominions between his two sons. Not many days later the old king passed away.

To better comprehend the effect of the act of partition under which Charles and Carloman inherited their father's dominions, as well as the whole subsequent history of Charles' reign, it is to be observed that those dominions comprised:

first, Frankland (Frankreich) proper;
secondly, as many as seven more or less self-governing dependencies, peopled by races of various origins and obeying various codes of law.
Of these two divisions, the former extended, roughly speaking, from the boundaries of Thuringia, on the east, to what is now the Belgian and Norman coastline, on the west; it bordered to the north on Saxony, and included both banks of the Rhine from Cologne (the ancient Colonia Agrippina) to the North Sea; its southern neighbours were the Bavarians, the Alemanni, and the Burgundians. The dependent states were: the fundamentally Gaulish Neustria (including within its borders Paris), which was, nevertheless, well leavened with a dominant Frankish element; to the southwest of Neustria, Brittany, formerly Armorica, with a British and Gallo-Roman population; to the south of Neustria the Duchy of Aquitaine, lying, for the most part, between the Loire and the Garonne, with a decidedly Gallo-Roman population; and east of Aquitaine, along the valley of the Rhone, the Burgundians, a people of much the same mixed origin as those of Aquitaine, though with a large infusion of Teutonic blood. These States, with perhaps the exception of Brittany, recognized the Theodosian Code as their law. The German dependencies of the Frankish kingdom were Thuringia, in the valley of the Main, Bavaria, and Alemannia (corresponding to what was later known as Swabia). These last, at the time of Pepin's death, had but recently been won to Christianity, mainly through the preaching of St. Boniface. The share which fell to Charles consisted of all Austrasia (the original Frankland), most of Neustria, and all of Aquitaine except the southeast corner. In this way the possessions of the elder brother surrounded the younger on two sides, but on the other hand the distribution of mm under their respective rules was such as to preclude any risk of discord arising out of the national sentiments of their various subjects.

In spite of this provident arrangement, Carloman contrived to quarrel with his brother. Hunald, formerly Duke of Aquitaine, vanquished by Pepin the Short, broke from the cloister, where he had lived as a monk for twenty years, and stirred up a revolt in the western part of the duchy. By Frankish custom Carloman should have aided Charles; the younger brother himself held part of Aquitaine; but he pretended that, as his dominion were unaffected by this revolt, it was no business of his. Hunald, however, was vanquished by Charles single-handed; he was betrayed by a nephew with whom he had sought refuge, was sent to Rome to answer for the violation of his monastic vows, and at last, after once more breaking cloister, was stoned to death by the Lombards of Pavia. For Charles the true importance of this Aquitanian episode was in its manifestation his brother's unkindly feeling in his regard, and against this danger he lost no time in taking precautions, chiefly by winning over to himself the friends whom he judged likely to be most valuable; first and foremost of these was his mother, Bertha, who had striven both earnestly and prudently to make peace between her sons, but who, when it became necessary to take sides with one or the other could not hesitate in her devotion to the elder. Charles was an affectionate son; it also appears that, in general, he was helped to power by his extraordinary gift of personal attractiveness.

Carloman died soon after this (4 December, 771), and a certain letter from "the Monk Cathwulph", quoted by Bouquet (Recueil. hist., V, 634), in enumerating the special blessings for which the king was in duty bound to be grateful, says,

Third . . . God has preserved you from the wiles of your brother . . . . Fifth, and not the least, that God has removed your brother from this earthly kingdom.

Carloman may not have been quite so malignant as the enthusiastic partisans of Charles made him out, but the division of Pepin's dominions was in itself an impediment to the growth of a strong Frankish realm such as Charles needed for the unification of the Christian Continent. Although Carloman had left two sons by his wife, Gerberga, the Frankish law of inheritance gave no preference to sons as against brother; left to their own choice, the Frankish lieges, whether from love of Charles or for the fear which his name already inspired, gladly accepted him for their king. Gerberga and her children fled to the Lombard court of Pavia. In the mean while complications had arisen in Charles' foreign policy which made his newly established supremacy at home doubly opportune.

From his father Charles had inherited the title "Patricius Romanus" which carried with it a special obligation to protect the temporal rights of the Holy See. The nearest and most menacing neighbour of St. Peter's Patrimony was Desidarius (Didier), King of the Lombards, and it was with this potentate that the dowager Bertha had arranged a matrimonial alliance for her elder son. The pope had solid temporal reasons for objecting to this arrangement. Moreover, Charles was already, in foro conscientiae, if not in Frankish law, wedded to Himiltrude. In defiance of the pope's protest (PL 98:250), Charles married Desiderata, daughter of Desiderius (770), three years later he repudiated her and married Hildegarde, the beautiful Swabian. Naturally, Desiderius was furious at this insult, and the dominions of the Holy See bore the first brunt of his wrath.

But Charles had to defend his own borders against the heathen as well as to protect Rome against the Lombard. To the north of Austrasia lay Frisia, which seems to have been in some equivocal way a dependency, and to the east of Frisia, from the left bank of the Ems (about the present Holland-Westphalia frontier), across the valley of the Weser and Aller, and still eastward to the left bank of the Elbe, extended the country of the Saxons, who in no fashion whatever acknowledged any allegiance to the Frankish kings. In 772 these Saxons were a horde of aggressive pagans offering to Christian missionaries no hope but that of martyrdom; bound together, normally, by no political organization, and constantly engaged in predatory incursions into the lands of the Franks. Their language seems to have been very like that spoken by the Egberts and Ethelreds of Britain, but the work of their Christian cousin, St. Boniface, had not affected them as yet; they worshipped the gods of Walhalla, united in solemn sacrifice -- sometimes human -- to Irminsul (Igdrasail), the sacred tree which stood at Eresburg, and were still slaying Christian missionaries when their kinsmen in Britain were holding church synods and building cathedrals. Charles could brook neither their predatory habits nor their heathenish intolerance; it was impossible, moreover, to make permanent peace with them while they followed the old Teutonic life of free village communities. He made his first expedition into their country in July, 772, took Eresburg by storm, and burned Irminsul. It was in January of this same year that Pope Stephen III died, and Adrian I, an opponent of Desiderius, was elected. The new pope was almost immediately assailed by the Lombard king, who seized three minor cities of the Patrimony of St. Peter, threatened Ravenna itself, and set about organizing a plot within the Curia. Paul Afiarta, the papal chamberlain, detected acting as the Lombard's secret agent, was seized and put to death. The Lombard army advanced against Rome, but quailed before the spiritual weapons of the Church, while Adrian sent a legate into Gaul to claim the aid of of the Patrician.

Thus it was that Charles, resting at Thionville after his Saxon campaign, was urgently reminded of the rough work that awaited his hand south of the Alps. Desiderius' embassy reached him soon after Adrian's. He did not take it for granted that the right was all upon Adrian's side; besides, he may have seen here an opportunity make some amends for his repudiation of the Lombard princess. Before taking up arms for the Holy See, therefore, he sent commissioners into Italy to make enquiries and when Desiderius pretended that the seizure of the papal cities was in effect only the legal foreclosure of a mortgage, Charles promptly offered to redeem them by a money payment. But Desiderius refused the money, and as Charles' commissioners reported in favour of Adrian, the only course left was war.

In the spring of 773 Charles summoned the whole military strength of the Franks for a great invasion of Lombardy. He was slow to strike, but he meant to strike hard. Data for any approximate estimate of his numerical strength are lacking, but it is certain that the army, in order to make the descent more swiftly, crossed the Alps by two passes: Mont Cenis and the Great St. Bernard. Einhard, who accompanied the king over Mont Cenis (the St. Bernard column was led by Duke Bernhard), speaks feelingly of the marvels and perils of the passage. The invaders found Desiderius waiting for them, entrenched at Susa; they turned his flank and put the Lombard army to utter rout. Leaving all the cities of the plains to their fate, Desiderius rallied part of his forces in Pavia, his walled capital, while his son Adalghis, with the rest, occupied Verona. Charles, having been joined by Duke Bernhard, took the forsaken cities on his way and then completely invested Pavia (September, 773), whence Otger, the faithful attendant of Gerberga, could look with trembling upon the array of his countrymen. Soon after Christmas Charles withdrew from the siege a portion of the army which he employed in the capture of Verona. Here he found Gerberga and her children; as to what became of them, history is silent; they probably entered the cloister.

What history does record with vivid eloquence is the first visit of Charles to the Eternal City. There everything was done to give his entry as much as possible the air of a triumph in ancient Rome. The judges met him thirty miles from the city; the militia laid at the feet of their great patrician the banner of Rome and hailed him as their imperator. Charles himself forgot pagan Rome and prostrated himself to kiss the threshold of the Apostles, and then spent seven days in conference with the successor of Peter. It was then that he undoubtedly formed many great designs for the glory of God and the exaltation of Holy Church, which, in spite of human weaknesses and, still more, ignorance, he afterwards did his best to realize. His coronation as the successor of Constantine did not take place until twenty-six years later, but his consecration as first champion of the Catholic Church took place at Easter, 774. Soon after this (June, 774) Pavia fell, Desiderius was banished, Adalghis became a fugitive at the Byzantine court, and Charles, assuming the crown of Lombardy, renewed to Adrian the donation of of territory made by Pepin the Short after his defeat of Aistulph. (This donation is now generally admitted, as well as the original gift of Pepin at Kiersy in 752. The so-called "Privilegium Hadriani pro Carolo" granting him full right to nominate the pope and to invest all bishops is a forgery.)

To the Baptism of Wittekind (774-785)

The next twenty years of Charles' life may be considered as one long warfare. They are filled with an astounding series of rapid marches from end to end of a continent intersected by mountains, morasses, and forests, and scantily provided with roads. It would seem that the key to his long series of victories, won almost as much by moral ascendancy as by physical or mental superiority, is to be found in the inspiration communicated to his Frankish champion by Pope Adrian I. Weiss (Weltgesch., 11, 549) enumerates fifty-three distinct campaigns of Charlemagne; of these it is possible to point to only twelve or fourteen which were not undertaken principally or entirely in execution of his mission as the soldier and protector of the Church. In his eighteen campaigns against the Saxons Charles was more or less actuated by the desire to extinguish what he and his people regarded as a form of devil-worship, no less odious to them than the fetishism of Central Africa is to us.

While he was still in Italy the Saxons, irritated but not subdued by the fate of Eresburg and of Irminsul had risen in arms, harried the country of the Hessian Franks, and burned many churches; that of St. Boniface at Fritzlar, being of stone, had defeated their efforts. Returning to the north, Charles sent a preliminary column of cavalry into the enemy's country while he held a council of the realm at Kiersy (Quercy) in September, 774, at which it was decided that the Saxons (Westfali, Ostfali, and Angrarii) must be presented with the alternative of baptism or death. The northeastern campaigns of the next seven years had for their object a conquest so decisive as to make the execution of this policy feasible. The year 775 saw the first of a series of Frankish military colonies, on the ancient Roman plan established at Sigeburg among the Westfali. Charles next subdued, temporarily at least, the Ostali, whose chieftain, Hessi, having accepted baptism, ended his life in the monastery of Fulda (see BONIFACE, SAINT; FULDA). Then, a Frankish camp at Lübbecke on the Weser having been surprised by the Saxons, and its garrison slaughtered, Charles turned again westward, once more routed the Westfali, and received their oaths of submission.

At this stage (776) the affairs of Lombardy interrupted the Saxon crusade. Areghis of Beneventum, son-in-law of the vanquished Desiderius, had formed a plan with his brother-in-law Adalghis (Adelchis), then an exile at Constantinople, by which the latter was to make a descent upon Italy, backed by the Eastern emperor; Adrian was at the same time involved in a quarrel with the three Lombard dukes, Reginald of Clusium, Rotgaud of Friuli, and Hildebrand of Spoleto. The archbishop of Ravenna, who called himself "primate" and "exarch of Italy", was also attempting to found an independent principality at the expense of the papal state but was finally subdued in 776, and his successor compelled to be content with the title of "Vicar" or representative of the pope. The junction of the aforesaid powers, all inimical to the pope and the Franks, while Charles was occupied in Westphalia, was only prevented by the death of Constantine Copronymus in September, 775 (see BYZANTINE EMPIRE). After winning over Hildebrand and Reginald by diplomacy, Charles descended into Lombardy by the Brenner Pass (spring of 776), defeated Rotgaud, and leaving garrisons and governors, or counts (comites), as they were termed, in the reconquered cities of the Duchy of Friuli, hastened back to Saxony. There the Frankish garrison had been forced to evacuate Eresburg, while the siege of Sigeburg was so unexpectedly broken up as to give occasion later to a legend of angelic intervention in favour of the Christians. As usual, the almost incredible suddenness of the king's reappearance and the moral effect of his presence quieted the ragings of the heathen. Charles then divided the Saxon territory into Missionary districts. At the great spring hosting (champ de Mai) of Paderborn, in 777, many Saxon converts were baptized; Wittekind (Widukind), however, already the leader and afterwards the popular hero of the Saxons, had fled to his brother-in-law, Sigfrid the Dane.

The episode of the invasion of Spain comes next in chronological order. The condition of the venerable Iberian Church, still suffering under Moslem domination, appealed strongly to the king's sympathy. In 777 there came to Paderborn three Moorish emirs, enemies of the Ommeyad Abderrahman, the Moorish King of Cordova. These emirs did homage to Charles and proposed to him an invasion of Northern Spain; one of the, Ibn-el-Arabi, promised to bring to the invaders' assistance a force of Berber auxiliaries from Africa; the other two promised to exert their powerful influence at Barcelona and elsewhere north of the Ebro. Accordingly, in the spring of 778, Charles, with a host of crusaders, speaking many tongues, and which numbered among its constituents even a quota of Lombards, moved towards the Pyrenees. His trusted lieutenant, Duke Bernhard. with one division, entered Spain by the coast. Charles himself marched through the mountain passes straight to Pampelona. But Ibn-el-Arabi, who had prematurely brought on his army of Berbers, was assassinated by the emissary of Abderrahman, and though Pampelona was razed, and Barcelona and other cities fell, Saragossa held out. Apart from the moral effect of this campaign upon the Moslem rulers of Spain, its result was insignificant, though the famous ambuscade in which perished Roland, the great Paladin, at the Pass of Roncesvalles, furnished to the medieval world the material for its most glorious and influential epic, the "Chanson de Roland".

Much more important to posterity were the next succeeding events which continued and decided the long struggle in Saxony. During the Spanish crusade Wittekind had returned from his exile, bringing with him Danish allies, and was now ravaging Hesse; the Rhine valley from Deutz to Andenach was a prey to the Saxon "devil-worshipers"; the Christian missionaries were scattered or in hiding. Charles gathered his hosts at Düren, in June, 779, and stormed Wittekind's entrenched camp at Bocholt, after which campaign he seems to have considered Saxony a fairly subdued country. At any rate, the "Saxon Capitulary" (see CAPITULARIES) of 781 obliged all Saxons not only to accept baptism (and this on the pain of death) but also to pay tithes, as the Franks did for the support of the Church; moreover it confiscated a large amount of property for the benefit of the missions. This was Wittekind's last opportunity to restore the national independence and paganism; his people, exasperated against the Franks and their God, eagerly rushed to arms. At Suntal on the Weser, Charles being absent, they defeated a Frankish army killing two royal legates and five Counts. But Wittekind committed the error of enlisting as allies the non-Teutonic Sorbs from beyond the Saale; race-antagonism soon weakened his forces, and the Saxon hosts melted away. Of the so-called "Massacre of Verdun" (783) it is fair to say that the 4500 Saxons who perished were not prisoners of war; legally, they were ringleaders in a rebellion, selected as such from a number of their fellow rebels. Wittekind himself escaped beyond the Elbe. It was not until after another defeat of the Saxons at Detmold, and again at Osnabrück, on the "Hill of Slaughter", that Wittekind acknowledged the God of Charles the stronger than Odin. In 785 Wittekind received baptism at Attigny, and Charles stood godfather.

Last Steps to the Imperial Throne (785-800)

The summer of 783 began a new period in the life of Charles, in which signs begin to appear of his less amiable traits. It



He died about Feb 814 in Aix-la-Chapelle. He was christened in St Denis, Paris, Seine, France. He was buried in Aix-la-Chapelle. He has reference number 9GCC-89.

Parents: (Mayor)(The Short) PEPIN III (Mayor of The Palace In Austrasia).

Children were: (King) CHARLES (The Younger), (King) PEPIN (King of Italy), ADELHEID, ROTRUD, BERTHA, (Emperor) LOUIS I (The Pious), LOTHAIRE I.

He was married to FASTRADA in 783. Children were: (Abbess) THEODRADA.

Children were: (Abbess) RUOTHILD.

Children were: (Bishop) DROGO, (Abbott) HUGH.

Children were: (Abbot) RICHBOD, (Cleric) THEODORIC.

He was married to DESIDERATA in 770.

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