Charlemagne believed in fair government for all.

He ruled an empire called Francia that stretched larger than the boundaries of what today are France and Germany. Despite the great distances and difficulty in traveling, Charlemagne (742-814) gathered all his leaders for meetings every year.

At these assemblies, he'd have "all the laws of the land read out and translated so that each man heard his own law," according to the Lorsch Annals, a medieval chronicle. "He ordered that improvements be made wherever necessary and that the improved law be written down to enable the judges to make their decisions on the basis of written law and not accept any gifts. So all the people, rich and poor alike, were to have justice."

Charlemagne backed up the the concept. He had special emissaries travel throughout the domain, as Will Durant wrote in "The History of Civilization," "to check (if there are cases of) bribery, extortion, nepotism and exploitation, to receive complaints and remedy wrongs, to protect the church and poor and wards and widows from malfeasance and tyranny."

The laws that established these emissaries, Durant wrote, were "a Magna Carta for the people four centuries before England's Magna Carta for the aristocracy."

Charlemagne followed up on his emissaries' reports. As Derek Wilson wrote in his biography, "Charlemagne": "Where bishoprics were . . . held by unworthy occupants, he installed men he could trust to carry out his policies" — a strict adherence to church orthodoxies. He even fired a bishop for being too drunk to lead services.

A Real View

Wilson noted that while Charlemagne was "a stickler for law and justice," he was also pragmatic.

His empire was really a loose confederation, and he understood what laws he could enforce. "He refused to trespass on the rights of each section of the empire to live by its own revered ancient customs. . . . Thus most of Charlemagne's subjects lived under their own tribal leaders and their own laws."

He took his leaders into his confidence at those spring meetings, discussing upcoming campaigns, talking with bishops and nobles about the efficacy of new laws. It inspired loyalty from people who rarely had such intimate access to their ruler.

While Charlemagne, called by some the father of modern-day Europe, was a benevolent ruler, he was also a fearsome warrior. He had to be, since he ruled at a particularly savage time. Boundaries were constantly changing, and relationships among neighbors were decided by assassination, war and treachery rather than diplomacy.

He faced conflict with the pagan tribes that surrounded his land. And tension was constant between the Latin or Roman Church and the Greek Church of Byzantium.

When his father, Pepin III, died in 768, his kingdom was divided between Charlemagne and his brother Carloman. Since the siblings didn't get along, this did not bode well for the future. "It seemed only a matter of time before the brothers would engage in a trial of strength," Wilson wrote.

But in 771, Carloman died, altering the history of Europe.

Charlemagne was the right man for the job. He was prepared for leadership from an early age. As soon as he could walk he was put on a horse, and the games he played were all devised around the martial arts.

At age 6, he began military training in earnest. He frequently went on military campaigns, so he soaked in the harshness of camp life.

The training proved crucial. Over the course of his reign, Durant wrote, Charlemagne started 53 campaigns, and he led most of them personally. He conquered Bavaria and Saxony and strengthened Francia's defenses in Spain against the Moors.

Part of the reason for his success was his perseverance. Einhard, his secretary and biographer, wrote that "he never withdrew from an enterprise . . . simply because of the labor involved. . . . He was never prepared to yield to adversity; and in times of prosperity he was never to be swayed by the false blandishments of fortune."

A large measure of Charlemagne's success was due to his zeal. He genuinely believed in his mission that "he was charged with a divine commission to bring pagans within the Christian fold and to assure that everyone within that fold lived up to his profession," Wilson wrote.

Charlemagne also had vast reserves of sheer energy. Edward Gibbons wrote in "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire": "The sedentary reader is amazed by his incessant activity of mind and body; and his subjects and enemies were not less astonished at his sudden presence at the moment when they believed him at the most distant extremity of the empire."

Charlemagne always had clear objectives. He would penetrate deep into enemy territory, baptize those he conquered and withdraw to winter quarters. Of course, everyone would renege once he left the area, so he would re-invade the following spring. He fought 18 campaigns against the Saxons between 772 and 804, and he knew that each year his borders would spread.

"Most years he did not leave the battle zone until he had established well fortified garrisons in the conquered territory, and each castle as well as being a military stronghold was also staffed with clergy whose task was to spearhead religious advance," Wilson wrote.

Charlemagne knew how to improvise. In the fall of 773, he came to the aid of the new pope, Hadrian I, and went after the Lombards led by Desiderius, who fell back to his capital, Pavia, in northern Italy. Desiderius was convinced that his stronghold was impregnable and that the coming winter would force Charlemagne to withdraw.

Instead, Charlemagne settled in for the winter, ultimately defeating Desiderius and taking the title king of the Lombards.

Charlemagne also demonstrated intellectual curiosity that went beyond religious scholarship. Book learning was not a traditional pursuit of the Frankish warrior class, but Charlemagne did learn how to read and understood the importance of written communication while ruling an expanding empire.

Getting The Word Out

He sent messengers to libraries around his empire in search of books he could keep or have scribes copy.

The transcribed books were distributed to monasteries.

"In this way, the works of Virgil and Horace, Pliny, Livy and Seneca . . . were among those reserved for posterity," Wilson wrote.

How important was this? From A.D. 0 to 800, only 1,800 manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts were preserved. Over the next 100 years, 7,000 manuscripts lived on.

Beyond religious texts, he lured some of the best-known teachers in the world to his court, searching for instructors who, Wilson wrote, "could ensure that future leaders of the empire were trained to provide and sustain a secular government that would support the church in all its endeavors."

BY CURT SCHLEIER.