Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) is a city and
a district in Rhenish Prussia, situated in a
fertile hollow watered by the Wurm River, 39 miles southwest of Cologne. The
western boundaries of this district adjoin with Belgium and Holland.
Aachen is known for its excellent mineral
springs and central to a coal and
manufacturing region and rich in historical associations.
Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus), meaning Charles
the Great) was King of the
Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into an Empire
that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he
conquered Italy and was crowned Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in 800 in an
attempted revival of the Roman Empire of the West. Through his foreign conquests
and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define Western Europe. He spent
the
first portion of his reign extending his rule, conquering the Avars, Pannonia,
Britanny, northern Spain, and Bavaria. In 800 the pope crowned Charlemagne Holy
Roman Emperor in the West. Throughout his reign Charlemagne was an advocate
of the papacy, mentor of reformers, friend of monasticism, and a patron of learning.
His palace school at Aachen became a center for training civil administrators and
ecclesiastical reformers. In view of this modern scholars often speak of a
Carolingian renaissance. Several synods held during the reign of Charlemagne
sought to combat heresy and standardize faith and piety
The end of his reign was troubled by raids
by the norsemen. His son, Louis I, was
named co-emperor in 813 and succeeded on his father's death. Charlemagne's
legend soon enhanced and distorted his actual achievements, and he became the
central figure of a medieval romance cycle.
Charlemagne, who was likely born in Aachen,
(777- 786) built a palace within the
city, and made it one of the most important cities in the empire.
German emperors were crowned at Aachen,
from Louis the Pious (813), to
Ferdinand I (1531).
