![[Media/771_CE,_Europe.svg.png]] In 768, Charles and Carloman each inherited half of the Frankish kingdom, but Carloman died three years later, leaving Charles as sole king. Although he didn't claim the name during his lifetime, he is later known as Charlemagne (*Karolus Magnus* or Charles the Great), so we'll begin using that name. In 774, Charlemagne defeated the Lombards in Italy and was crowned king there. Forcing the people he conquered to become practicing Christians is remembered as an important part of his campaigns. In 782, during his wars in what is now Germany, he ordered the execution of 4,500 Saxons who were both rebels and pagans. In 788, Charlemagne annexed Bavaria, and in the early 790s he had extended his rule into territory along the Danube River near Vienna (Austria) that had been held by the Avar Khaganate, an northeastern Asian empire that extended from north of the Black Sea to the Danube between the middle of the sixth century and the early 800s. (In 791, Charlemagne passed through Linz on the Danube and commissioned the building of St. Martin's Church) Charlemagne also created a buffer with Muslim Iberia by capturing territory including Pamplona and Barcelona in northern Iberia. ![[Media/IMG_3706 1.jpg]] *I visited Linz and the Martinskirche in the summer of 2025* ----- Next: [[10.7 - Holy Roman Emperor]] Back: [[10.5 - Carolingians]]