Charlemagne Is Crowned Emperor

Pope Leo III had looked to the Frankish king from the start of his pontificate, when he sent him the keys of St Peter’s tomb and the banner of the city of Rome (Royal Frankish Annals, year 796). On 25 April 799 a party led by two officials of the papal court attacked him during a procession, tried to put out his eyes and cut out his tongue, and shut him in a monastery. He escaped to the king in Saxony, who sent him home under escort, while his enemies sent accusations after him (Liber Pontificalis Leo III (ed. Duchesne, vol. 2, pp. 4–6)) (Royal Frankish Annals, year 799).

Charlemagne reached Rome on 24 November 800. According to the Roman account the bishops assembled in St Peter’s declared that they did not dare to judge the apostolic see, which is judged by no one. Leo then swore on the Gospels that he was innocent (Liber Pontificalis Leo III (Duchesne 2, p. 7; partly in English in Thatcher and McNeal, no. 8)) (Royal Frankish Annals, year 800).

At the Christmas mass he crowned the king. Five accounts are set side by side here, and they do not tell the same story.

• The Frankish court annals say that as the king rose from prayer before the tomb of Peter, Leo set a crown on his head and the Roman people acclaimed him as Augustus, crowned by God, emperor of the Romans. The pope then paid him the reverence shown to the emperors of old (Royal Frankish Annals, year 801).
• The Roman Liber Pontificalis says that the pope crowned him “with his own hands”, that the Romans, seeing his love for the Roman church, acclaimed him three times by the will of God and of St Peter, and that “he was made emperor of the Romans by all”. It adds that the pope at once anointed the king’s son Charles, and it does not mention the pope’s act of reverence (Liber Pontificalis Leo III (Duchesne 2, p. 7; partly in English in Thatcher and McNeal, no. 8)).
• The Annals of Lorsch present a decision taken in council. Because the name of emperor was vacant among the Greeks, who were ruled by a woman, the pope, the bishops and the Christian people judged that Charles, who held Rome and the other seats of the Caesars, ought to bear it; and the king was unwilling to refuse their request (Annals of Lorsch, years 800–801 (p. 38)).
• Einhard, who knew the king and wrote after his death, says that Charles so disliked the titles at first that he declared he would not have entered the church that day, great feast though it was, “if he could have foreseen the design of the Pope” (Einhard, Life of Charlemagne 28).
• The Byzantine chronicler Theophanes says that Leo crowned Charles in return for restoring him, and that Charles afterwards sought to marry the empress Irene and so unite East and West (Theophanes, Chronicle AM 6289 (pp. 472–473)) (Theophanes, Chronicle AM 6293–6294 (p. 475)).

Whether the plan was the pope’s, the king’s or that of an assembly cannot be settled from these texts. What followed is clearer. There were again two emperors among Christians, one of them made in a ceremony performed by a pope. Einhard says that the emperors at Constantinople took the title very ill and that Charles answered with embassies and letters in which he called them brothers (Einhard, Life of Charlemagne 28).