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The Carolingian Empire

Who Dunnit?

The principal question was that of motive. Who's idea was this coronation: Charles? The Pope? Who stood to benefit? Those who claim it was Leo's idea point out that he needed a permanent protector against his enemies. Moreover, only a friendly Roman emperor could legitimize papal rule over the Papal States, which had belonged to the Byzantine emperor until Pepin had snatched them away.

Others say that Charles arranged the affair. They note that his advisors had wanted the imperial title for Charles. We have writings that refer to the "Christian empire" for the first time in history, and his advisors had repeatedly argued that Charles could treat with the Byzantines only as equals.

Charles himself showed sympathy with these ambitions. But all the evidence is that he was surprised that Christmas day. It seems most likely that he came to Rome expecting to be made emperor, but that he did not at all care for the manner in which the title was conferred. He had expected only the acclamatio; the coronation at the pope's hands angered him, as it implied that he could receive the title only at the pope's hands. Einhard notes in his biography that Charles once declared that, had he known of the coronation, he never would have entered the church that day.

It appears that Leo made the most of the situation as it was handed to him. To be protected from his enemies, he would have to agree to Charles being made emperor. But by crowning the emperor himself, he further insinuated the papacy into the business of making kings -- or, rather, making emperors. From that Christmas day on there would be a tension between pope and emperor, and a tension over how an emperor was created.

We will see this theme return more than once in this course.