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Hello, in 800 A.D. on Christmas Day in Rome, Pope Leo III proclaimed Charlemagne Emperor.

According to the Frankish historian Einhardt, Charlemagne would never have set footings on Peter's that day if he'd known that the Pope intended to crown him.

But Charlemagne accepted his coronation with magnanimity, nimity, nimity,

regarded as the first of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne became a touch-dernful legitimacy until the institution was brought to an end by Napoleon in 1806.

A Frankish king who held more territory in Western Europe than any man since the Roman Empire, Charlemagne's lands extended from the Atlantic to Vienna and from northern Germany to Rome.

His reign marked a period of enormous cultural and literary achievement.

But at his foundation lay conquered, lay conquest, plunder, conversion at the point of a sword, and a form of Christianity that was obsessed with sin, discipline and correction.

How did Charlemagne become the most powerful man in Western Europe and how did he finance his conquest?

Why was he able to draw Europe's most impressive scholars to his court?

How successful was he in his quest to reform his church and educate the clergy and can the Carlingon period really be called a Renaissance?

With me to discuss the Carlingon Renaissance, Adulia Smith, Edward's professor of medieval history at Glasgow University, Matthew Innis, professor of history at Berkbeck University of London, and Mary Garrison lecturer in history at the University of York.

Matthew Innis, just tell us who Charlemagne was and how did he become king of what we now know as France?

I mean, Charlemagne's actually the second king of his dynasty, and I think the crucial fact for us to understand is that until 751, the Franks have been ruled by the mayor of engines.

The mayor of engines have been the traditional kings of the Franks in Western Germany, modern France, the lower countries, since the middle of the fifth century, so 300 years.

When Charlemagne's born, his father is actually mayor of the palace for the mayor of engines, he's not born into a royal dynasty.

The kind of Carlingon take over in 751 involves people approval in a quite shadowy process, involves the Pope coming up to Frank here in 754, and bless an anointing not only Charlemagne's father Pippin, but also Charlemagne himself and his brother as a new royal race, new royal dynasty for the Franks.

But I think the crucial fact for us to understand is that there's this issue of a legitimacy deficit.

These people aren't just traditionally established rulers of the Franks, they tremendously have to prove themselves and establish their right to rule, and when Charlemagne comes to the throne in 768, I think this long shadow is still cast over him, and I think that's crucial for understanding that the tremendous energy in terms of political expansion and ideological legitimation that you see going on in his reign.

I think over a dynasty the amount of engines had been there for 300 years. Was that tough? Was that easy? Was Charlemagne's father a brutal warrior person as well as being a mayor?

The actual reigns of power seem to have been slipping over for at least two generations, even the most revisionist of historians would say, since the end of the seventh century power has been slipping towards the mayors.

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