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The Carolingian Empire

Significance of the Coronation

The coronation of Charlemagne as emperor goes beyond the conflict between Church and state. It is a symbolic event, a convenient point to gather some separate threads.

It marks the arrival of a new inheritor of Rome and a competitor to the Byzantines. This inheritor would come to be called the Holy Roman Empire, and its existence meant that the West as well as the East would inherit the classical tradition. It also marks the union of the Roman and the German, of the Mediterranean civilization and the northern. Until now, these two civilizations had been separate, though intertwined. Increasingly, the dividing line would be between east and west, and the lands west of the Elbe and the Adriatic would be regarded by others as a single society.

It marks the emergence of Western Christian society: that society with its religious capital at Rome and its military center north of the Alps. It was still in its rough infancy under Charlemagne, this new society, but it proved strong enough to withstand some terrible trials in its immediate future. It was a society clearly distinct from both Byzantium and Islam; it was truly a civilization.

In this sense, the coronation of Charlemagne marks the beginning of "European history" in the strict sense, for only now do we begin to have something like a Europe. The people of the Middle Ages called it Christendom, a term that could include or exclude the East depending on the usage. But it is the immediate ancestor to Europe.